Madcala Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Set Up
• Gameplay
  • Play Area
  • Shards
  • Cards Overview
• On Your Turn
  • Move Shards Action - Mandatory
  • Space Effects
  • Plus-One Action - Optional
  • Draw Commoner Action - Optional
  • Commoner Action - Optional
• Game End
• Round Example
• Icon Glossary
• Glossary

Components

• 1 Playmat
• 6 Guest Cards
• 15 Guest Tokens
• 6 Guest Player Guide Cards
• Madcala Token
• 18 Plus-One Cards (3 for each Guest)
• 1 Madness Die
• 35 Commoner Cards
• 2 Health Dials
• 32 Normal Shards (16 pink / 16 black)
• 2 Doubler Shards (pink/black)

Set Up

1. Place the Playmat between the players with each player sitting at a short end of the Playmat.
2. Each player chooses a color and acquires all Shards of that color to a personal reserve on their side of the Playmat. Each player places their Doubler Shard onto their Home Space (in this edition the Home Space is the plate with the envelope). Each player also places 2 Shards from their reserve onto each of the other 5 Spaces on their side of the Playmat.
3. Each player takes a Health Dial and sets it to 25.
4. Shuffle all Commoner cards into a deck, and place it facedown within reach of both players.
5. One player flips the Madcala token calling Hatter or Cheshire Cat while the coin is in the air. If the coin matches the call then that player is the first player, otherwise they are the second player.
6. The player going second chooses one Guest card and places it in the far left card slot on their side of the playmat. The first player then chooses a Guest to place on their side of the table. Alternatively, players may simply choose the Guests using any method they prefer.
7. Each player acquires the Plus-One and Player Guide cards matching their Guest.
   • Place the 3 Plus-One cards in the 3 slots to the right of the Guest in any order. Set the Player Guide to the side of the Playmat next to the Guest.
8. Each player must:
   • Place Shards on their Corrupted Plus-One cards. Corrupted Plus-One cards have a darker background than Refreshable Plus-One cards and a cracked frame with circular slots that hold Shards.
   • Inspect their Guest, Guide, and Plus-One cards for any additional start of game set-up steps.

Gameplay

Beginning with the first player, you will alternate taking turns with your opponent until the game ends. During your turn you must move Shards around the Spaces on the Playmat to perform various effects, and optionally use your Plus-Ones and Commoners to swing the game in your favor. You win the game if your opponent's health ever reaches 0.

Play Area

In this edition of Madcala, a circular table represents the play area on the Playmat. Each ability Space is a plate and each player has 5 standard plates and 1 Home Space plate on their side of the Playmat. Home Space plates are marked with an envelope.

Shards

Each player has many small-sized normal Shards and one large Doubler Shard. Whenever an Action affects a Shard, it may affect either the normal or the Doubler Shard unless otherwise noted. Actions that remove Shards from the Playmat cannot affect Doubler Shards (the Doubler Shards can never be removed from the Playmat).

Cards Overview

Guest Card

• A. Guest's Name
• B. Starting Health
• C. Attributes - Special instructions and abilities. Clarifications are on the Guest's Player Guide card.

Plus-One card

• A. Guest Token Icon
• B. Shard Cost
• C. Plus-One Name
• D. Effects - Clarifications are on the Guest's Player Aid card.

Commoner Card

• A. Name
• B. Effects

On Your Turn

During your turn you may perform any number of actions, in any order you prefer. The only action you must perform each turn is the Move Shards Action. Plus-One and Commoner card actions are always optional. The starting player cannot activate a Plus-One on the first turn of the game.

At the end of your turn you must discard Commoner cards until you have a maximum of two in your hand. Then, your opponent takes their turn.

Move Shards Action - Mandatory

Take all Shards from one Space on your side of the Playmat (this includes any Doublers or opponent's Shards).

Starting from the Space one position clockwise from the Space you picked up Shards, place one Shard on each Space clockwise until you place all Shards in hand. Additional placement rules:

• If you have collected both player's Shards, you choose which player's Shard to place on each Space.
• If you have a Doubler among the collected Shards, you must place the Doubler on the last Space as the final Shard. If you have collected both player's Doublers, then they must be the final two Spaces placed and you choose which Doubler lands on the final Space.
• If while placing Shards onto Spaces you cross over to your opponent's side of the Playmat, skip their Home Space, and instead place on the Space clockwise from their Home Space. However, if you are placing enough Shards to cross back over to your side of the Playmat, do not skip your own Home Space (in fact your Home Space has the most powerful action!).
• There is no limit to the number of Shards a Space can hold.

Perform the action on the final Space you placed a Shard. If the action has multiple effects, perform them in any order. If the action has a "/" then choose only one of the effects. If the final Shard was a Doubler, then perform the entire action a second time (you may choose a different option on "/" effects when resolving the second action).

In the rare circumstance you cannot perform a Move Shards Action (because you have 0 Shards on your side of the Playmat or an effect prevents access to your available Shards), you instead add 1 Shard to your Home Space and 1 Shard to the two Spaces clockwise from the Home Space.

Space Effects

• Add Shard: Take one Shard from your reserve and place it onto your Home Space. Ignore this effect if you do not have a Shard in your reserve.
• Heal: Increase your health by one. You cannot exceed the maximum health indicated on your Guest card.
• Draw Commoner: Draw the top Commoner card from the deck into your hand. If the Commoner deck is depleted, shuffle the discard pile first to form a new deck and then draw a card.
• Damage: Lower your opponent's health by one.
• Refresh Plus-One: Choose one of your face-down Plus-One cards and flip it face-up. Corrupted cards cannot be refreshed.
• Home Space: Choose any Space on your side of the Playmat and perform its Action. The Doubler Shard does not duplicate this effect, instead the Doubler grants an additional turn after you complete the current turn. A normal Shard does not grant an additional turn.

Plus-One Action - Optional

Choose one of your face-up Plus-One cards to perform its Action. Sometimes Plus-One cards break the normal rules, and in those cases the card's Action supersedes the normal rules.

Plus-One Action Overview:

Refreshable Plus-One Actions

Refreshable Plus-One cards have a cost in normal Shards. To pay the cost, remove the specified number of your normal Shards from anywhere on the Playmat and place them in your reserves. Remember you cannot use your Doubler to pay this cost! After resolving the Action, flip the card over to its face-down side. Note that some Refreshable Plus-One cards also have tokens that stay with the Action all game. These behave the same as other Refreshable Plus-One cards in every way.

Corrupted Plus-One Actions

Corrupted Plus-One cards have Shards placed on them during game set-up. When you want to use the Action, you will remove a Shard from the card and follow the instructions on the Action for where to place the Shard. If you remove the final Shard from a Corrupted Plus-One, then flip it over to its face-down side. You will not use that card's Action again this game.

Some Corrupted Plus-One cards use tokens as a cost instead of Shards. These cards behave the same as Shard cost Corrupted cards, except that the tokens are returned to the box after used.

Draw Commoner Action - Optional

Spend 3 Shards to draw a single Commoner Card.

Commoner Action - Optional

Choose one Commoner card from your hand and optionally perform each of its effects in any order. End this action by placing the card faceup onto a discard pile.

Commoner Effects

• Gather Shards: Take your Shards (normal or Doubler) from anywhere on the Playmat and place them on your Home Space.
• Extra Turn: Take another turn immediately after your current turn ends.
• Strike Shard: Take one normal Shard from any Space on the Playmat and place it in that player's reserves.
• Strike Plus-One: Flip one of your opponent's face-up Refreshable Plus-One cards face-down.
• Damage: Lower your opponent's health by one.
• Refresh Plus-One: Flip one of your face-down Refreshable Plus-One cards face-up.
• Health: Increase your health by one. You cannot exceed the maximum health indicated on your Guest card.

Game End

You win the game immediately if your opponent has zero health. Some effects might make both players lose health to the point that both players have zero health at the end of a turn. In those cases, both players win and both players lose.

Round Example

Take any of these actions in any order you choose.

Move Shards Action (Mandatory)

Take all Shards from one Space on your side of the Playmat and distribute them one at a time starting with the first Space clockwise from where you picked up the Shards. Activate the Action on the Space where you place the final Shard.

Plus-One Action (Optional)

Choose one of your available Plus-One cards to activate the Action (paying all costs). You may use as many Plus-One cards as you can afford in a turn!

Commoner Action (Optional)

Choose a Commoner card from your hand to play and resolve its Action, placing the card in the Commoner Discard pile. You can play as many Commoner cards as you want in a turn!

When you are finished performing Actions, let your opponent know you pass and it is their turn.

Icon Glossary

• Add Shard: Take one Shard from your reserve and place it onto your Home Space. Ignore this effect if you do not have a Shard in your reserve.
• Extra Turn: Take another turn immediately after your current turn ends.
• Strike Shard: Take one normal Shard from any Space on the Playmat and place it in that player's reserves.
• Strike Plus-One: Flip one of your opponent's face-up Refreshable Plus-One cards face-down.
• Gather Shards: Take your Shards (normal or Doubler) from anywhere on the Playmat and place them on your Home Space.
• Damage: Lower your opponent's health by one.
• Draw Commoner: Draw a Commoner card.
• Refresh Plus-One: Flip one of your face-down Plus-One cards face-up.
• Health: Increase your health by one. You cannot exceed the maximum health indicated on your Guest card.
• Home Space: Choose any Space on your side of the Playmat and perform its action. The Doubler Shard does not duplicate this effect, instead the Doubler grants an additional turn after you complete the current turn. A normal Shard does not grant an additional turn.

Glossary

• Home Space - Each player has a Home Space on their side of the Playmat. The Gather Shards and Add Shards Actions place Shards to your Home Space. When taking a Move Shards Action, you always skip your opponent's Home Space, but not your own.
• Normal Shards - Each player has 16 normal Shards total. Normal Shards are smaller than the Doubler Shard. Normal Shards are used in Move Shards Actions, to pay the costs on Plus-One cards, and can be added, removed, or moved as part of other Actions.
• Doubler Shard - Each player has one Doubler Shard that is larger than Normal Shards. The Doubler can never be removed from the Playmat. If included in a Move Shards Action, it must be the final Shard placed and it grants the benefit of duplicating its Space's Action.
• Guest Card - This is the main character card.
• Commoner Cards - Each Commoner card is a character that provides an Action. In this edition of Madcala, all Commoners are Wonderlandians. Each player has a maximum hand limit of 2 Commoner cards.
• Plus-One Cards - Each Guest has a set of Plus-One Cards (usually 3). In this edition of Madcala, Plus-One cards are the Guest's accomplices at the Tea Party. They bring unique Actions that often break the normal rules and sometimes use extra game components.
• Refreshable Plus-One Card - Cards that must be turned facedown after use and then refreshed later to use again.
• Corrupted Plus-One Card - Some Plus-One cards have a specific number of uses per game, using Shards or tokens as activations until they run out. Once all activations have been used the card flips over and stays face-down for the remainder of the game.