Mezo: Souls for Xibalba Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• New Components
• Solo Mode
  • Solo Setup
  • Solo Special Rules
  • Start of Age
  • Tribe Step
  • God Step
  • Conflict Step
  • Blessed Region
  • End of Age Step
  • End of Game
• Modules
  • Cities
  • Rituals
  • Prophecies
  • Sacred Cenote
  • Tribe Powers

New Components

• 15 God cards (5 per God)
• 3 God ability cards (1 per God)
• 3 God miniatures
• 2 God reminder tokens
• 8 Altar tokens
• 6 Wrathful god tiles

Prophecy module:

• 12 Prophecy cards
• 5 Prophecy tokens
• 1 Monument card

Ritual module:

• 12 Ritual cards

Tribe Power module:

• 5 Tribe Power tokens

Sacred Cenote module:

• 1 Sacred Cenote tile

City module:

• 5 City tokens

Solo mode:

• 12 Vengeful god ability cards
• 6 Vengeful god cards
• 3 Vengeful god markers
• 1 Vengeful Calendar card
• 1 Vengeful Codex card
• 2 double-sided Task cards
• 6 Task tokens

The three Gods of this expansion, as named on the component art, are Uayeb, Xolotl and Zotz. The text of the God and Vengeful god cards is printed on the cards themselves and is not part of this rulebook.

Solo Mode

In the solo version you play one of the lesser Gods, who together with his followers tries to win the acceptance of one of the greatest Gods of the Mesoamerican pantheon. The Vengeful gods, together with their followers, try to prevent this and will hinder the player in every Age. Will you defeat the Vengeful gods and take your deserved place in the heavens?

Solo Setup

Game preparation

1. Place the Age marker on its space on the board so that it points to Age 1.
2. Shuffle the 6 Conflict tiles and place them face down in their places on the board.
3. On each Region (except the Abandoned Region) place a random Altar token.
4. Draw 1 Wrathful god tile from each Age (using the number of circles on the back of the tiles) and place them face down in their places on the board.

Player preparation

5. Choose your Tribe color, take your Tribe board and all the components matching that color from the box.
6. Choose your God, take his miniature and the matching set of God cards from the box.
7. Place 1 Warrior and 1 Shaman in Xibalba. Place your Devotion marker on space "0" of the Devotion track. Place your VP marker on space 5 of the VP track.
8. Randomly choose one of the double-sided Task cards and place it face up beside your Tribe board, choosing one of its sides. Return the other card to the box. Place the Task tokens beside the chosen card.

Vengeful god preparation

9. Place the Vengeful Calendar and the Vengeful Codex beside the main board so that they touch the Immortal Calendar and the Heroic Codex.
10. Remove from the Vengeful god ability deck the ability card of the God chosen by the player. Place the Vengeful god ability deck and the Vengeful god deck beside the main board.
11. Choose 2 colors to represent the army of the Vengeful gods and place all the Shamans and Warriors of these colors beside the board.
12. Place 1 Shaman and 1 Warrior from the Vengeful god army in Xibalba.
13. Place a VP marker in the color of one of the Vengeful gods on space 4 of the VP track.

The printed rulebook shows an example of the solo setup on page 4.

Solo Special Rules

Devotion: Your Devotion follows exactly the same rules as in the base game of Mezo. The Vengeful gods do not gain or lose Devotion. Instead, they gain or lose VP in exactly the amount they would have gained Devotion.

Tasks: Each solo game uses one Task card. Each Task card carries the player's goal (in its upper part) and the Vengeful gods' goal (in its lower part). Each time the conditions printed on the Task card are met, place a Task token on it, always starting from the first free circle on the left. In the same way, when the conditions met by the Vengeful gods are fulfilled, place tokens on the lower part of the card.

At the end of the game you receive VP equal to the value shown by the hidden space furthest to the right on the upper part of the card. The Vengeful gods receive VP equal to the value shown by the hidden space furthest to the right on the lower part of the card.

Start of Age

Shuffle the Vengeful god ability deck, draw 1 card from it and place it face up beside the main board. Reveal the first Conflict tile from the stack and place the figure of the God matching the card you drew earlier on any vertex that allows presence in the Region shown by the revealed Conflict tile. Shuffle the revealed tile back into the stack.

Reveal the Wrathful god tile matching the current Age and place it face up in its place on the main board. Choose 1 of the 3 abilities on your Tribe board for the current Age. The chosen ability provides a powerful effect during this Age and the following Ages.

Tribe Step

1. Resolve any Tribe abilities that must be resolved at the start of your Tribe Step.
2. DEPLOY your Champion in any Region.
3. DEPLOY 3 units (in any combination) in each Region that does not contain your Champion.
4. Choose a Region not containing your Champion to become the Blessed Region. Cover the Altar token there with the Blessed Region token.
5. Place 1 Shaman and 1 Warrior from the Vengeful god Reserves in each Region.

God Step

During Age 1, place your God on a chosen empty vertex on the board and resolve the CALL from his ability card. Apart from the initial placement in Age 1, moving the God's figure and resolving the CALL from his ability card may be done in any order.

Conflict Step

Vengeful abilities are always resolved at the start of the current Conflict (including in the Blessed Region). VENGEFUL abilities are resolved only when that God is present in the current Conflict.

Reveal the top Conflict tile to determine the Region with the Conflict. If any of the Vengeful gods is present in the Region with the Conflict, resolve their VENGEFUL abilities from the God ability cards.

Conflicts in the solo game are resolved very similarly to a standard game of Mezo. Except in the Blessed Region, all Conflicts in the solo game follow the rules below.

From the 3 top God cards of your deck, choose 1 and place the rest on top of the deck. Place the chosen card face up in front of you and choose one of the three options printed on it.

After making this choice, reveal the top card of the Vengeful god deck and perform the action from the same row in which the action you chose earlier was located.

After the first Vengeful god action is performed, choose a second action from your card, bearing in mind that the Vengeful god will again apply the action from the same row on its card. If you DESTROY one of your Glyphs to enable a third action, the Vengeful god also applies a third action in the same row.

Resolve Vengeful god actions always to the extent possible. If any part of an action cannot be resolved, ignore it.

As in a standard game of Mezo, instead of taking one of the actions on your cards you may also pass. In that case choose one of the options: RECOVER 1 unit or gain 1 Devotion. After passing you still cover one of the abilities on your God card with your marker. The Vengeful gods then resolve the ability in the same row as the one covered by your pass action.

When you and the Vengeful god have finished resolving your actions, it is time to resolve the Conflict. The Altar bonus is awarded to the player who has the most Strength in the Region with the Conflict. Then the advantages on the Immortal Calendar and the Heroic Codex are determined exactly as in a standard game. However, if the Vengeful god has the most Shamans, 1 Shaman is added to the Vengeful Calendar and the Vengeful Calendar ability is resolved. If the Vengeful god has the most Warriors, 1 Warrior is added to the Vengeful Codex and the Vengeful Codex ability is resolved. The Vengeful gods always fill their Calendar and Codex from left to right, each time choosing the first free space.

When comparing Strength and majorities on the Immortal Calendar and the Heroic Codex in the Regions with Conflicts, all ties are won by the Vengeful gods, except in the Region where your Champion is located.

At the end of resolving the Conflict, move all your units and your Champion (if present) from that Region to your Reserves, and move all units located on the Wrathful god to Xibalba.

The Conflict is over. Reveal the next Conflict tile to start a Conflict in the indicated Region. If no Conflict tiles remain to be revealed, proceed to the End of Age step.

Blessed Region

When resolving a Conflict in the Blessed Region:

1. Resolve the VENGEFUL ability for the Vengeful gods present in this Region.
2. You may sacrifice any number of units from your Reserves to gain 1 Devotion and 1 Strength for each unit sacrificed in this way. Place all sacrificed units on your God ability card as a reminder of how many have been sacrificed.
3. Reveal the top card of the Vengeful god deck and sacrifice a number of units from the Reserves equal to the number shown in the upper corner of the revealed card. Always sacrifice 1 Shaman first, then 1 Warrior, until you have sacrificed the number of units indicated by the card. If there are not enough units of a given type, sacrifice the remaining units. Each unit sacrificed in this way adds 1 Strength to the total Strength of the Vengeful gods in the Blessed Region. The Vengeful gods also gain 1 VP for each unit sacrificed in this way (because they cannot gain Devotion).
4. Award 8 VP to the player with the greater total Strength in the Blessed Region. In the case of a tie, the Vengeful gods win (following the rule that a player wins ties only in the Region in which they have their Champion). All units from this Region are returned to their corresponding Reserves, and all sacrificed units are moved to Xibalba.

End of Age Step

After resolving all Conflicts, end the Age by following these points:

1. For each unit placed on the Immortal Calendar and the Heroic Codex you receive 2 VP. The Vengeful gods receive 2 VP for each unit placed on the Vengeful Calendar and the Vengeful Codex. Move all units from the Calendars and Codices to their corresponding Reserves.
2. Both you and the Vengeful gods receive VP equal to the number of the current Age for each Region in which you have at least 1 element of a Pyramid.
3. Shuffle your God deck and place it beside your God ability card. Shuffle the Vengeful god deck and place it face down beside the board.
4. Move the Age marker so that it points to the next Age.
5. Shuffle the face-down Conflict tiles and place them in their designated places on the board.
6. Shuffle the face-down Conflict tiles and place them in their designated places on the board. If this is the end of Age 3, proceed to the End of Game and final scoring. Otherwise start the next Age from the Start of Age step.

Note: the printed rulebook repeats the Conflict tile sentence in step 5 (it appears twice there) and step 6 carries the same sentence followed by the end-of-game condition. Both are transcribed as printed.

End of Game

You receive VP equal to the value of the space on which your Devotion marker stands on the Devotion track, plus VP awarded for any abilities of the Tribes from Age 3 that have not yet been scored.

You receive VP equal to the value of the first occupied space from the right on the upper part of the Task card. The Vengeful gods receive VP equal to the value of the first occupied space from the right on the lower part of the Task card.

If you have more VP than the Vengeful gods, you win and take your due place in the pantheon, as the most powerful God in Mesoamerica. If you lose, you and your followers fall into the darkest abyss of oblivion, where you will spend all eternity!

If you are looking for a greater challenge, try increasing the starting VP of the Vengeful gods by 10 in your next game. By adding or subtracting from the starting VP of the Vengeful gods you can adjust the difficulty of the solo game of Mezo to your own liking.

Modules

The following part of the rules describes all the optional modules that can be added to Mezo. Each of them was designed to add components to the base game without changing its rules. You may add any number of modules to any game. The modules were not designed for solo play.

Cities

After setup, starting with the player with the most VP and continuing in turn order, each player may place their City tile on a Region that does not contain another City tile.

During the Start of Age step, each player may DEPLOY 1 unit in the Region containing their City tile, at the same time as the Tribe ability is resolved. This unit ignores the "no more than 3 units" rule during the Tribe Step. Additionally, the player may decide to DEPLOY their Champion in the Region to which they added a unit for their City.

When a player wins a Conflict in a Region where another player's City is located, the City is destroyed. The winning player removes the defeated player's City token from the board and gains 1 VP for it.

Each player whose City was destroyed loses the option to DEPLOY an additional unit in that Region. Each player whose City is on the board at the end of the game receives 3 VP.

Rituals

During setup, draw 3 Ritual cards and form them into a face-down deck, which is placed beside the board next to the Wrathful god tiles. Return the remaining Ritual cards to the box.

During the Start of Age step, immediately after revealing the Wrathful god tile, reveal the top Ritual card and place it face up on top of the deck. Each Ritual card applies only to the current Age and to the Step shown on the card.

Immediately after awarding points for the Pyramid elements of the players during the End of Age step, return the revealed Ritual card to the box. If the Ritual applies to the End of Age step, resolve it just before returning the card.

Some Rituals have a one-time effect, for example forcing each player to move 1 Warrior from their Reserves to Xibalba. Effects of this type are resolved starting with the player with the most VP and continuing in descending order, until all players have applied the effect of the Ritual card.

Prophecies

When all players have chosen their Gods at the start of the game, shuffle the deck of Prophecy cards and draw 3 cards from it. Place these face up in a column beside the board (as shown in the picture on the page). Place the Monument card at the top of the column, above the third card.

Prophecy cards represent a divine prophecy in which all the tribes believe. Each card shows one of the steps required to fulfil the prophecy, and the Monument card symbolizes a monument that grants immortality to the Tribe that fulfils the prophecy.

The tasks on the Prophecy cards must be completed in the designated order, starting from the card at the bottom of the column and moving up to the highest of them. When a player fulfils the conditions shown on the current Prophecy card, they place a Prophecy token on that card and immediately receive 3 VP. The first player who fulfils the task on the third Prophecy card takes the Monument card and immediately receives 6 VP. When one of the players receives the Monument card, the prophecy is fulfilled and no other player may fulfil the conditions of the Prophecy cards any longer. The Prophecy cards are then returned to the box.

Sacred Cenote

At the start of each Age, the player with the most VP places the Sacred Cenote in any Region under an Altar token. The player who wins the Conflict in that Region receives (apart from the reward from the Altar token) an additional 3 Devotion.

Tribe Powers

Each Tribe has a one-time power that it may use during one of the Conflicts. After all players have had the opportunity to take an action in exchange for destroying a Glyph, they may decide to use one of the 2 powers of their Tribe. After use, return the Tribe Power token to the box. A player may use a Tribe Power token only in a Region where their God is present, or when their Champion is present in the Region with the Conflict.

The five Tribe Power tokens read as follows:

• BUILD 1 Glyph in this Conflict. / EXILE 1 unit from this Conflict.
• AWAKEN 1 unit to this Conflict. / Gain 1 Strength in this Conflict.
• SMITE 1 unit in this Conflict. / DEMOLISH 1 Glyph in this Conflict.
• MOVE 1 of your units from this Conflict to any Region. / RECOVER 2 units.
• DEPLOY 1 unit to this Conflict. / Gain 2 faith.