Legends of Labyrinth Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Game Overview
• Game Components
  • Influence Cards
  • Hero Cards
  • Retinue Cards
• Game Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Player Turn
  • Drawing Cards
  • Using Abilities of RETINUES
  • Using Abilities of LEGENDARY HEROES
  • Taking 1 ACTION
  • Playing INFLUENCE CARDS
  • Gathering RETINUES
  • Discarding played INFLUENCE CARDS
  • Discarding unplayed INFLUENCE CARDS

Goal of the Game

The game ends when any LORD gathers - in other words gains - 3 RETINUES OF HEROES. There can be only 1 winner and after 1 player manages to gather the last (third) RETINUE, the game ends immediately - other players do not have a chance to play their turns.

Game Overview

A RETINUE can be gathered after a player recruits 4 identical common HEROES or any 4 LEGENDARY HEROES (the ones that feature abilities). Each RETINUE gathered by a player provides this player with a unique special ability depending on the type of HERO a given RETINUE contains.

All HEROES are recruited - or summoned - for your kingdom (they are placed in front of the recruiting player on the table) by playing proper INFLUENCE CARDS.

Game Components

The box contains the following components:

• 55 Influence Cards (with an orange back and a gear icon) - these cards are used to perform different activities during the game.
• 46 Hero Cards (with a blue back and a Golem head icon) - these cards are used to gather retinues.
• 9 Retinue Cards (with a green back and a key icon) - these cards are used as a game board and feature abilities of different retinues.
• Player Markers - these markers are used to indicate which retinues have been gathered by players.

All players use 2 decks during the game - the INFLUENCE deck and the HEROES deck.

Influence Cards

These cards form the INFLUENCE DECK. Each player draws cards from this deck and keeps them in his hand without revealing them to other players. They represent different activities that a player may perform during his turn. Basically, a player can take 1 ACTION during his turn (unless he plays certain cards that increase a number of ACTIONS). Playing 1 INFLUENCE CARD costs 1 ACTION.

There are 2 exceptions to the aforementioned rule: SABOTAGE! and TREASON! cards. These cards may be used at any moment of the game for free in order to counter certain activities of another player during his turn. After such player places a card on the table, but before he starts resolving it, he should be informed that a counteraction is played.

IMPORTANT: SABOTAGE! or TREASON! cards can also be countered by another copy of Sabotage! or Treason! cards. In such situation only the game text of the last card played should be resolved!

When a player plays an INFLUENCE CARD, he should place it in front of himself on the table. At the end of each turn all INFLUENCE cards played during it should be placed face-up besides the INFLUENCE deck. They form the INFLUENCE DISCARD PILE. Once the Influence Deck runs out of cards, the INFLUENCE DISCARD PILE should be shuffled and placed face-down - it forms a new INFLUENCE DECK.

IMPORTANT: THE INFLUENCE DISCARD PILE SHOULD BE SHUFFLED ONLY WHEN A PLAYER IS ABOUT TO DRAW AN INFLUENCE CARD, BUT THERE ARE NO CARDS IN THE INFLUENCE DECK AVAILABLE FOR DRAWING.

Hero Cards

These cards form the HEROES DECK. A player may recruit (draw and place in front of himself on the table under his control) HEROES from this deck if he plays a proper INFLUENCE CARD and / or uses certain abilities of RETINUES or LEGENDARY HEROES.

Alternatively, if a player passes (i.e. resigns from taking any ACTIONS), he automatically recruits 1 HERO.

IMPORTANT: When recruiting, a player should draw a HERO CARD from top of the HEROES DECK and place it face-up in front of himself on the table, grouping cards according to a hero type (as shown in the illustration below).

There are 2 kinds of heroes in the game: common HEROES and LEGENDARY HEROES. Common heroes - unlike the LEGENDARY ones - have no special abilities.

IMPORTANT: If a certain INFLUENCE card affects any HERO, it can affect both a common HERO and a LEGENDARY HERO!

If a HERO is discarded from the game for any reason, its HERO card should be immediately shuffled into the HEROES DECK. This way a given hero is available for recruitment much more quickly. Additionally, there is no discard pile for HERO cards.

Retinue Cards

RETINUE cards are used to mark on them (using player markers), which RETINUES have already been gathered by players. These cards should be placed on the table so that they are visible and within easy reach of all players. It is best to form them in three rows one above another, so that a kind of a game board is formed. The RETINUE cards have special symbols in order to simplify their setup.

Each RETINUE features a unique ability. If a player has a given RETINUE, he may (but is not forced to) use the RETINUE's ability once per his turn. He should do it before he starts playing influence cards. If a player has 2 identical RETINUES, he may use the same ability 2 times per his turn.

The nine Retinue cards, as printed on the cards (rows left to right, top to bottom as laid out in the setup illustration):

• Retinue of Sorceresses - At the beginning of your turn draw 1 additional INFLUENCE card from Influence Deck.
• Retinue of Swordmasters - At the beginning of your turn gain 1 additional ACTION.
• Retinue of Illusionists - At the beginning of your turn recruit 2 HEROES from Heroes Deck.
• Retinue of Head Hunters - At the beginning of your turn you may choose 1 LORD. Discard 1 LEGENDARY HERO controlled by this LORD.
• Legendary Retinue - You need 4 LEGENDARY HEROES to gather the RETINUE. You can have only 1 LEGENDARY RETINUE. At the beginning of your turn you may discard 1 HERO controlled by you to use the ability of 1 chosen NON-LEGENDARY RETINUE.
• Retinue of Archeresses - At the beginning of your turn you may choose 1 LORD. Discard 1 NON-LEGENDARY HERO controlled by this LORD.
• Retinue of Architects - At the beginning of your turn you may discard 1 HERO controlled by you to look at the hand of 1 LORD and exchange with this LORD 1 INFLUENCE card of your choice.
• Retinue of Sisters of War - At the beginning of your turn you may discard 1 HERO controlled by you to draw 1 INFLUENCE card from Influence Deck and gain 1 additional ACTION.
• Retinue of Archpriestesses - At the beginning of your turn you may discard 1 HERO controlled by you and exchange with 1 LORD 1 chosen HERO.

Game Setup

When setting up the game, resolve the steps described below in the following order:

1. Separate cards into Retinue Cards, Influence Cards and Hero Cards (according to illustrations on card backs).
2. If you wish to speed up the game or prefer to play without very competitive actions, remove GOLEM card from the HEROES DECK and cards DEADLY PLAGUE and BEGUILEMENT! form the INFLUENCE DECK. You might try adding them once you learn the game well and master the use of cards such as TREASON! and SABOTAGE!.
3. Place the RETINUE Cards on the table based on their numbers (as shown in the illustration above).
4. Give each player his player markers (in 1 color as chosen by players) - they will be used to indicate gathered retinues.
5. Shuffle all INFLUENCE CARDS and form them into 1 INFLUENCE DECK placed face-down on the table.
6. Shuffle all HERO CARDS and form them into 1 HEROES DECK placed face-down on the table.
7. Each player draws 2 INFLUENCE CARDS.
8. Randomly choose the first player.

The game is played starting from the first player and going clockwise (to the left) around the table. After 1 player finishes resolving his turn, the next player resolves his turn - and so on until the end of the game.

Playing the Game

Player Turn

The player resolving his turn performs a number of activities in the following order:

1. Draws 1 or more INFLUENCE cards.
2. Uses abilities of RETINUES (if the player has any).
3. Uses abilities of LEGENDARY HEROES (if the player has any).
4. May take 1 ACTION (each player has 1 free ACTION per his turn).
5. Must discard all INFLUENCE CARDS played during this turn on the INFLUENCE DISCARD PILE.
6. Must discard INFLUENCE cards down to 7 (if the player has more in his hand).

After performing all the activities, the next player starts his turn and so the game continues until the end (i.e. until 1 player gathers his third RETINUE).

Below you can find a detailed description of all activities.

Drawing Cards

At the beginning of his turn, the player:

• Draws 1 INFLUENCE CARD from top of the INFLUENCE DECK if the player has at least 1 INFLUENCE CARD in his hand.

or

• Draws 2 INFLUENCE CARDS from top of the INFLUENCE DECK if the player has no INFLUENCE CARDS in his hand.

Using Abilities of RETINUES

After drawing INFLUENCE card(s):

• If the player has no RETINUE, he proceeds to the next activity of the turn.
• If the player has 1 RETINUE, he may use its ability now.
• If the player has 2 RETINUES, he may use any of their abilities in the order of his choosing. The player may choose not to use 1 or more abilities.

Using an ability of a RETINUE means resolving any instructions described in the game text of a RETINUE CARD gathered by the player. If the player forgets about using an ability of his RETINUE and proceeds to using abilities of his LEGENDARY HEROES, he cannot return to using abilities of RETINUES - his chance to use them during this turn is lost.

Using Abilities of LEGENDARY HEROES

The player checks if he has any LEGENDARY HEROES under his control. The Golem Mistress, the Paladin and the Mentalmancer have abilities that are permanently active. The remaining LEGENDARY HEROES have abilities that may be used before the player starts taking actions during his turn. These LEGENDARY HEROES are as follows: the Warlock, the Reaper, the Golem, the Thief and the Assassin.

The player may use their abilities in the order of his choosing. In order to do this he resolves any instructions described in the game text of each LEGENDARY HERO card he has under his control.

Taking 1 ACTION

The player may take 1 ACTION to perform exactly 1 of the following 2 activities:

• Play 1 INFLUENCE CARD from his hand.

or

• Gather 1 RETINUE - if he controls proper heroes required to do so.

IMPORTANT: Playing an INFLUENCE CARD may result in providing the player with additional ACTIONS. This way during his turn the player may be able to play even more INFLUENCE CARDS or gather more than 1 RETINUE!

Alternatively, the player may resign from performing any of the activities described above. In such case he should say "I pass". Then he may recruit 1 HERO from the Heroes Deck and end his turn.

Playing INFLUENCE CARDS

When the player plays an INFLUENCE CARD during his turn, he resolves the following steps:

1. Chooses a card from his hand and places it face-up on the table.
2. Reads the game text of the chosen card aloud.
3. Asks each player in the clockwise order if anyone wishes to counter the card (by playing a Sabotage! or a Treason! influence card).
4. If the card has not been negated, the player resolves the instructions from the card. If the card has been negated and the player still has any ACTIONS available, he may take them as normal.

Gathering RETINUES

The player who has proper heroes under his control may take 1 ACTION to gather 1 RETINUE. The player may gather the following retinues:

• A common RETINUE: The player must have under his control 4 identical common HEROES, ex. 4 Archeresses, in order to gather a retinue formed of given heroes (in this case, a Retinue of Archeresses). If the player has the Mentalmancer, he may use his ability to replace any 1 common hero required to gather a complete retinue. If the player has 2 Mentalmancers, he may replace 2 needed heroes, etc.
• A legendary RETINUE: The player must have under his control any 4 LEGENDARY HEROES (more than 1 copy of an identical legendary hero is allowed). Any Mentalmancers may be used as normal to gather such retinue. However, the GOLEM cannot be a part of any retinue.

IMPORTANT: Each player can only gather 1 legendary retinue during the game.

After the player uses proper HEROES to gather a RETINUE, he performs the following steps:

• Places 1 of his PLAYER MARKERS on the proper RETINUE CARD.
• Takes all HERO cards he used to gather this RETINUE from the table and shuffles them into the HEROES DECK.

Discarding played INFLUENCE CARDS

After the player is done taking ACTIONS to play INFLUENCE CARDS and after he resolves all of them, then and only then the player takes all the cards he played from the table and places them face-up on the INFLUENCE DISCARD PILE!

Discarding unplayed INFLUENCE CARDS

The player keeps in his hand all INFLUENCE cards drawn. These cards may be used during any future turns of the player (or - in case of Treason! and Sabotage! - during any player's turn).

There is 1 exception to this rule. If, after taking all his ACTIONS for the turn, the player has more than 7 INFLUENCE CARDS in his hand, he must discard any excess cards so that he has no more than 7 cards. All cards discarded this way should be placed on the Influence Discard Pile as normal.

Discarding influence cards in circumstances other than the ones described above is forbidden unless some INFLUENCE CARD or an ability of a RETINUE or a LEGENDARY HERO states otherwise.