My Little Pony: Adventures in Equestria Deck-Building Game – Familiar Faces Expansion
My Little Pony: Adventures in Equestria Deck-Building Game – Familiar Faces Expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
New Additions to the Supply
These new materials are used just like the ones in the core set, with a few exceptions, as outlined on pages 3-5.
- 72 Standard Cards (60 Adventure Deck, 4 Starter, 8 Situation)
- 17 Deluxe Oversized Cards (9 Hurdles, 4 Final Challenges, 4 Characters)
- 5 Location Cards
- 4 Plastic Standee Bases
- 4 Character Standees
All-New Starting Characters
Each player needs to choose a Starting Character. With this Familiar Faces expansion, you can now play as Discord, Trixie, Spike, or Starlight Glimmer. Of course, you can still choose one of the original Starting Characters from the core set: Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, or Twilight Sparkle.
The new Pony Characters use these unique cards to complete their starting decks of 10 cards:
- Discord: HISS-terical
- Spike: Friendship Ambassador
- Starlight Glimmer: Ready to Learn
- Trixie: Wink
Take the matching Character Card for your Pony and place it in front of you with the Starting Side face up. Insert the matching standee in the plastic base and place it next to Ponyville: Town Square.
New Situations, Hurdles, and Challenges
A standard game of My Little Pony: Adventures in Equestria will pit your team against three Hurdles and one Final Challenge. In this expansion, there are 9 new Hurdles and 4 new Final Challengers to add to the available pool of possibilities. Set up the Hurdles and Final Challenge as described in the core set rule book.
To further increase the difficulty, try adding an additional Hurdle or two to the Active Hurdle stack at the start of the game. This will give the Clouds more time to accumulate on the Final Challenge and you might also see the Adventure Deck run low, which could cause the game to end if it finally runs out!
Starlight Glimmer's Gameplay Tip: A good way to start your Adventure is a Level 1 Hurdle, then you can progress from there. We don't recommend starting against a Level 2 or Level 3 Hurdle right away, as that's really, really difficult!
New Locations
Familiar Faces adds 5 new Locations to your available Location options. You can now visit Everfree Forest, Winsome Falls, Sire's Hollow, Canterlot Archives, and Discord's Place to perform all-new Tasks that can guide your team to victory.
Place Ponyville: Town Square in an open area near the Adventure Row. Then shuffle all other Location cards together to form a Location deck of 10 cards. Finally, draw the top 3 cards and arrange them around Ponyville: Town Square as in the core game.
Preparing the Adventure Deck
Familiar Faces features a ton of new Allies, Actions, and Artifacts for you to buy. Be warned - there are also new Situation cards that want to make their debut as you try to make it through the game to your Final Challenge.
To prepare the Adventure Deck with all these new cards, this is the recommended setup process:
- Shuffle all of the available Ally cards, then create a stack of 30 Ally cards.
- Shuffle all of the available Action cards, then create a stack of 24 Action cards.
- Shuffle all of the available Artifact cards, then create a stack of 6 Artifact cards.
- Shuffle all of these stacks together into an Adventure Deck of 60 cards, then draw the top 6 cards and place them out in the initial Adventure Row.
If this is your first few times playing with this expansion and you've yet to win a game, leave the Situations out of this game until you win a game. When you're ready to add them, shuffle all of the Situation cards into a stack, then draw the top 4 or 8 cards of the stack (according to desired difficulty level) and shuffle them into the Adventure Deck after placing the initial 6 cards into the Adventure Row.
If you're really feeling "Pinkie Keen", use only one copy of each Ally and Action card from the Core Game and this expansion when creating stacks of these cards to shuffle into the Adventure Deck. Now you'll have a 60-card Adventure Deck where no one can buy the same card from the Adventure Row! However, the same should apply to the dastardly Situations! Insert 0, 4, or 8 unique Situations into the Adventure Deck once you formed the initial Adventure Row.
Place all other unused cards back into the box, unseen. Now you're ready to take on the game!
Pinkie Pie's Gameplay Tip: I heard my name, so I guess I'll need to help out here! After the game is over, it is recommended to keep these stacks separated from their duplicate copies if you want to be Pinkie Keen all the time!
See Build the Adventure Deck and Row in the core rulebook for more information if you need a refresher on how to get your Adventure Deck and Row ready.
New Mechanics
"Discovering" a Trait or Keyword
Ally cards in the core game and this expansion have a combination of Traits (Star, Moon, Mountain), and Keywords. The core set has the Keywords Pet and Crusader, and this expansion introduces two new Keywords: Leader and Wonderbolt. You may also encounter new cards that ask you to Discover a certain Trait or Keyword on cards.
To "Discover," you simply need to look for and count the named Traits or Keywords on any number of cards in your hand, cards under your control, in the hands of the other players, and cards under their control... all during your current turn. Seeing a Keyword or Trait on cards in the Adventure Row, discard piles, etc. does not count toward your "Discovered" total.
Spike's Gameplay Tip: Make sure you can see all of your teammates' cards in their entirety because you'll want to Discover to the best of your abilities! If you don't have space for this, you can always ask your teammates to check for Traits and Keywords.
Example: Spike plays Spitfire on his turn, which names Wonderbolt as a Keyword that the player needs to Discover in order to unlock the card's full potential. Well, it turns out that Starlight Glimmer has Soarin' in her hand, Trixie has Blaze in her hand, and Discord has Rainbow Dash, Newbie Wonderbolt in his hand, so all players can flip their Characters back to their Starting Side!
The example names four Ally cards. Their printed card text, as shown in the manual's artwork, is:
- Spitfire (Ally): Leader, Wonderbolt – If you have Discovered another Wonderbolt, each player with Wonderbolt card(s) may flip their Character card to their Starting Side.
- Soarin' (Ally): Wonderbolt – If you have Discovered another Wonderbolt, each player with Wonderbolt card(s) may draw 1 card.
- Rainbow Dash, Newbie Wonderbolt (Ally): Wonderbolt – If you have Discovered another Wonderbolt, remove 1 Cloud from the Active Hurdle or Final Challenge.
- Blaze (Ally): Wonderbolt – If you have Discovered another Wonderbolt, each player with Wonderbolt card(s) may move to another Location.
"Adventure Row" Call-Out
Some new cards will have the text "Adventure Row:" before their effects. If these cards are in the Adventure Row, their effect is active. Once they are removed from the Adventure Row (e.g., by buying, gaining, or discarding), they no longer have this effect, including when players play them on their turn.
Discord's Gameplay Tip: If you see these cards in the Adventure Row, try to purchase them right away, because you may get a small discount or you may produce a cool effect on your turn!
Solo Play Changes
With the new mechanic Discover, when playing as a Solo Player, you may Discover Keywords and Traits on available cards on the Adventure Row. However, cards in discard piles still do not count towards your Discovered total.
Trixie's Gameplay Tip: Try playing your cards that utilize Discover earlier in your turn before buying cards because you'll need all the added Traits and Keywords from the Adventure Row!