Monster Slayers of Slawia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Objective
• Game Overview
• Setup
• Game Turn
  • 1. Play a Slayer (or, in rare cases, a Monster)
  • Available Spaces
  • 2. Play a Second Slayer (or, in rare cases, a Monster)
  • 3. Play a Monster
  • Golden Rule: One Card Per Location
  • Finishing Your Turn
• The Hunt
• Example of a Hunt
• Game End and Victory
• Special Abilities
  • Slayer Special Abilities
  • Monster Special Abilities
  • Location Special Abilities

Game Components

• 30 Slayer cards
• 54 Monster cards
• 5 Player Aid cards
• 30 Location cards
• 21 Tokens
• Border Kingdoms Game Board

Objective

The goal of the game is to gain the most glory by protecting the kingdom and slaying monsters. Use your Monster Slayers to defeat monsters and dominate other players. When the Time Marker reaches the last space of the board ("24"), the player with the most Glory Points wins!

Game Overview

The game area consists of a certain number of face-up Location cards. Players play Slayer cards and Monster cards into those locations. When the number of monsters at a location reaches the Hunt Threshold, the hunt begins.

Players compare total Slayer Strength with total Monster Strength. If the Slayer Strength is equal to or higher than the Monster Strength, the hunt is considered a success. Now, the most important thing happens: players share the glory of the hunt! The player whose Slayers contributed the most strength receives the most points, the player with the second highest strength receives points for 2nd place and so on.

A new location comes into play and the Time Marker moves a number of spaces forward on the Border Kingdoms board. When the marker reaches the last space on the board, the game ends. The player with the most points wins!

Setup

1. Prepare the board: Place the Border Kingdoms board on the table. Place the Time Marker on space "0".
2. Create the Monster deck and Lair: Shuffle the Monster cards and place them face-down on the left side to the board. This is the Monster Deck. Next, reveal 3 cards from the top of this deck and place them in a row next to the deck. This is the Monster Lair.
3. Prepare initial Locations: Shuffle the Location Deck and reveal a certain number of locations. The number of Location cards placed depends on the number of players. With 2 players, reveal 3 locations, with 3-4 players reveal 4 locations and with 5 players reveal 5 locations. Place those locations on the table, one beneath the other.
4. Spawn initial Monsters: Reveal 1 Monster card per location. Reveal the cards one at a time and place them next to each location. If you've drawn a Special Monster card, put it aside and reveal another card. Proceed, until there's 1 monster per location. Then, shuffle the put aside cards back into the deck.
5. Prepare player components: Each player selects a Monster Slayer House and takes all the basic cards of that House (6 cards with strength values ranging from 1 to 6) and 3 corresponding tokens. Players place 1 of their tokens on the "0" space on the Border Kingdoms board. This token will be used to track the players glory points.

Basic Slayer Houses are identical and vary only in appearance.

Game Turn

Monster Slayers plays in a series of rounds. Each round consists of each player's turn and during each turn a player will play 3 cards. The player who saw a monster last begins.

During your turn, you must always play 3 cards, each one to a different location. Play your cards in the following order:

1. Play a Slayer (or, in rare cases, a Monster)

Pick a Slayer card from your hand and play it into one of the face-up locations. Place the card to the right of the location. You may play your card only, if there is available space at the desired location (See: Available Spaces below). If there are any Slayers already at that location, place your card on top of the last Slayer card, so that only the Strength, Class and Special Abilities are visible (see diagram below).

Exception: If you don't have any cards in your hand or there are no available spaces on the table, you must play a Monster card (See: 3. Play a Monster below).

The card diagram labels a Slayer card as follows: CLASS (the house colour), NAME, PORTRAIT, STRENGTH, and SPECIAL ABILITY.

Available Spaces

Each location has a number of spaces for Slayers (Slayer icon) and Monsters (Monster icon). Each Slayer and Monster take up 1 space. If all Slayer spaces are taken, you cannot play a Slayer there. If the number of Monsters at a location reaches its limit (called the Hunt Threshold), a hunt immediately begins at that location.

Some locations may have a varying number of Slayer and Monster spaces. If the location shows a "+" Slayer symbol, it means there's an additional space there BY DAY. If the location shows a "+" Monster symbol, it means there's an additional space there BY NIGHT.

In rare cases, as the Time Marker advances from day to night, some Slayers (those taking the additional space) may "drop out" from a location. Conversely, when the Time Marker advances from night to day, it may automatically initiate a hunt (by lowering the Hunt Threshold).

2. Play a Second Slayer (or, in rare cases, a Monster)

Pick a Slayer card from your hand and play it into one of the face-up locations, other than the location you played your first Slayer (or Monster) to. This is a very important (see: Golden Rule)! Place the card to the right of the location. You may play your card only, if there is available space at the desired location (See: Available Spaces below). If there are any Slayers already at that location, place your card on top of the last Slayer card, so that only the Strength, Class and Special Abilities are visible (see diagram below).

Exception: If you don't have any cards in your hand or there are no available spaces on the table, you must play a Monster (See: 3. Play a Monster below).

The location card diagram labels: NAME, PASSAGE OF TIME, SLAYER NUMBER, MONSTER NUMBER (Hunt Threshold), SPECIAL ABILITY, and POINTS FOR 1ST/2ND/3RD PLACE.

3. Play a Monster

Pick a Monster card from the 3 face-up Monster cards in the Lair or a face-down Monster card from the top of the deck and play them into one of the face-up locations, other than the location you played your first 2 cards to. This is a very important (see: Golden Rule)! Place the card to the left of the location. There are always available spaces for Monsters, because as soon as their number in a location reaches the Hunt Threshold, the hunt begins (See: Available Spaces below) and a new location will be revealed. If there are any Monsters already at that location, play your card onto the last Monster card, so that only the Strength, Class and Special Abilities are visible.

Important! If you choose to play a face-down card from the top of the deck, you cannot change your mind – you must play that monster!

The Monster card diagram labels: NAME, TYPE/CLASS, STRENGTH, SPECIAL ABILITY, and PORTRAIT.

Golden Rule: One Card Per Location

When you play a card, remember: during a turn you may only play one card per location (Slayer or Monster)!

Note: Locations that came into play during your turn are considered new locations.

Finishing Your Turn

After you play your 3 cards, you must finish your turn by:

a) Repopulating the Lair: reveal new monsters, so that there are exactly 3 monsters in the Lair.

b) Populating new Locations: Place 1 monster from the top of the deck next to each Location card that doesn't have any Monster cards.

If at any moment the Monster Deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile into a new deck.

The Hunt

Playing a Monster card may result in a Hunt.

The Hunt begins immediately after the number of monsters at a Location reaches the Hunt Threshold. This interrupts the normal flow of a player's turn. The player will resume their normal turn as soon as the Hunt is over.

Rarely, resolving one hunt may trigger another hunt. In that case, resolve that second hunt before resuming your turn. The player resumes their turn only when all pending hunts are resolved.

The Hunt is resolved by performing the following steps:

1. Calculate total strength: Sum up the total Monster Strength and the total Slayer Strength in that Location, taking into account all applicable special abilities and bonuses.

2. Compare totals: Compare the total Monster Strength with the total Slayer Strength. If the Slayer Strength is equal to or higher than the Monster Strength, the hunt is a success (see 3B). Otherwise, the hunt is a failure (see 3A).

3. Resolve the hunt:

   3A. Resolution (failure): The Slayers lost and return to their strongholds empty handed. Perform the following steps:

   • A) Place all the Monsters from that Location in the face-down Monster discard pile.
   • B) Move the Time Marker forward by X spaces on the Border Kingdoms board, where X is the Sun Value of the Location.

   Moving the Time Marker may trigger a new Hunt, force a player to remove a Slayer from the table or even trigger the Ending of the game.

   • C) Place that Location in the Location discard pile.
   • D) Return the participating Slayer cards to their owners' hands.
   • E) Players reveal a new Location from the top of the Location deck and place it on the table.

   3B. Resolution (success): The Slayers hunted down the monsters and return to their strongholds to bask in the glory of a job well done!

   • A) Each player sums up their total House Strength at that Location, taking into account all applicable special abilities and bonuses. This is when the Rogue's ability triggers.

After resolving all pending Hunts, the active player resumes their turn.

Example of a Hunt

House Owl player placed a Striga, reaching the Hunt Threshold in the location and starting a hunt.

First, the players add the total Monster Strength. The Owl Exterminator reduced the Basilisk's strength to 0, so the total is 3+1+0=4. The total Slayer Strength is 5+6+1=11. The Slayers' total is higher than the Monsters' total, so the hunt is a success.

The players proceed to step 3B, the successful resolution. House Boar Strength is 5. House Bear would have 6 strength, but there's an Owl Rogue token on their card. This means that during a successful resolution the affected card's strength drops to 0. Poor Bear. House Owl Strength is 1+4=5. House Boar and House Owl have the same total strength, but House Boar has a card closer to the Location (farther to the left), so they win the tie. This means House Boar gains 3 points, House Owl gains 2 points and House Bear only 1 point. Players move their tokens on the board by their respective values.

Next, players turn the Monster cards face down, shuffle them and give 1 card to each participating player. Maybe one of them will be lucky and get a treasure!

The Boar Player moves the Time Marker 3 spaces forward (the Sun Value) and takes the Location card.

Finally, the players return their participating Slayer cards to their hands and reveal a new Location card from the top of the Location deck.

Game End and Victory

When the Time Marker reaches the last space of the board, it triggers the last turn of the game. The player finishes their turn and then the players move to final scoring.

Each player reveals their Trophies and adds 1 point for each treasure symbol (X) they have. The player with the most points wins! In case of a tie, the player with the most Location Trophies wins. If there's still a tie, the player with the most overall (Location and Monster) Trophies wins. If there's still a tie, the players share a victory.

Special Abilities

Some Slayers, Monsters and Locations have special abilities.

Some special abilities are Instant (I) and are resolved when the Slayer or Monster is placed in a Location. Mostly, they either add a card, discard a card or place a token.

Other abilities are Permanent (P). They are mostly passive abilities that affect the game from the moment the card is placed on the table to the moment it is removed from the table.

Changing card order does not count as 'placing or playing a card'.

The effects of instant abilities 'break off' from their sources and are treated separately from the card that triggered them. Example: When an Exterminator puts down a token on a Monster and then later leaves the Location, the token and its effect stay in place.

A third type of ability is called a resolution ability (resolution symbol). This ability triggers only during the resolution (3) step of a Hunt.

Slayer Special Abilities

• ROGUE (I, resolution): When you play a Rogue into a Location, place their token on the adjacent Slayer. During the successful resolution step of the Hunt, that Slayer's Strength counts as 0.
• MAGE (P): Gain +2 Strength for each Warrior in your Location.
• MAGE (I): When you play a Mage into a Location, you may freely change the order of the Slayer cards at that Location (tokens move with the cards they were placed on).
• RANGER (I): When you play a Ranger into a Location, you may swap them with another one of your Slayer cards at that Location.
  • Note: You must obey the Golden Rule.
  • Note: By swapping a Slayer, you may place the Ranger in a Location that was otherwise full (had no available spaces).
• EXTERMINATOR (I): When you play an Exterminator into a Location, place their token on one of the Monster cards at that Location. From now on, that Monster's Strength counts as 0.

Note: Each player has 2 tokens they may use freely. When a player would like to place another token with those 2 already on the table, they must first remove one of those tokens.

Monster Special Abilities

• MIMIC (P): When you play a Mimic into a Location, if there is available Slayer space, you must place him on the Slayer side of that Location. The Mimic then counts as a neutral Slayer with Strength 0.
  • Note: The Mimic counts as a Slayer, so he is subject to abilities that target Slayers (not Monsters).
• LIKHO (P): All warriors at this Location have their Strength reduced to 2.
• BIES (IMP) (I): When you play a Bies into a Location, place a Monster token on the Slayer with the highest Strength at that Location. From this point on, that Slayer's Strength counts as 0.
• VODNIK (I): When you play a Vodnik into a Location, return the last Slayer card from that Location to their owner's hand.
• VILA (P): Nullifies all Slayer abilities at this Location.
• STOLEM (P): All other normal Monsters at this Location have their Strength doubled.

Location Special Abilities

• AN UNKNOWN REGION: When you place a Monster card at this Location, you must play it from the top of the Monster Deck (never from the Lair).
• IMPENDING DANGER: If able, play your first Slayer card here.
• DUSK/DAWN (T): If the Time Marker is on the Day side of the board, this Location has one more Slayer space. If the Time Marker is on the Night side of the board, this Location has one more Monster space.