Nightfall: Martial Law
Nightfall: Martial Law Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What's New?
For those of you who bought the original release of Nightfall, here's what's new in Martial Law:
- The draft rules have been adjusted to reflect the larger base of cards (see "Alternate Drafts").
- Feed, a new mechanic, has been added (see "Feed").
- There is a new wound effect in your deck of wound cards—you can use the new deck, the old deck, or shuffle them together!
One City under Night: Us
by Kenneth Hite
Lance Patroccio walked east down North Avenue, toward the rosy glow in the sky. It wasn't sunrise—there hadn't been a sunrise for months. No, the glow came from whatever was left in downtown Atlanta that could burn. Up ahead, the road got worse, concrete cracked asunder where whole trench lines of Confederate dead had climbed out. And craters where the Georgia National Guard had dropped the last of its artillery shells on them.
He'd been with the Guard then, though not here. He'd been humping an M28 anti-materiel rifle out in the boonies, trying to kill monsters.
He had walked away from his M28 three months ago. It was way too heavy to drag around for sentimental value, and without any ammunition left, that's all the value it had. He didn't need it as a memento, either: he still remembered his old squad mates. He still remembered that last ambush, Captain Lucas' head torn off by that flying thing, how the blood had spattered across his night-vision goggles. He hadn't been able to see anything for nearly a whole minute; it was pure luck that he wasn't dead… or worse.
It was more than luck that kept him alive now. He checked the magazine in his .220 rifle, made sure it was the one capped with silver duct tape. Silver duct tape for silver bullets, bullets he'd cast himself just to be sure.
Bodies hung from the power poles, with signs around their necks: "RENFIELD" and "BELLA" and "TRAITOR." Someone didn't cotton to collaborators here. The bodies swung, even though Patroccio felt no wind. Maybe it was that that made him turn to his right, to look across the big empty lot. Neglected even before Nightfall, it now grew wild with purplish grass. And the grass moved. Then it split wide open, and two girls came running out, covered in blood.
Not their blood. Not yet. The blood belonged to the werewolf following them, bleeding from cuts that must have been made with silver. But even a silver knife has to penetrate a lot of fur and muscle to kill a werewolf, and the most the girls had done—Patroccio saw the knife glint in the brunette's hand—was to hack up one arm pretty well.
By the time he saw this much, he'd raised the rifle to his shoulder. The next thing he saw was through the Savage 112's iron sights: the werewolf's head. Patroccio fired, worked the action, lowered the gun a hair, fired again. The werewolf went down, hard, on top of the brunette. The blonde whipped around and saw him, just in time to shout "Look out!"
An even bigger werewolf leaped at him from behind; his last shot went wild as he rolled with the blow. He scrambled to his feet, fumbling for another clip, and the brunette charged in. She'd lost her knife somehow, but there she was, putting her whole weight behind kick after kick to the thing's hind leg, breaking and rebreaking the bone as it healed not-quite-instantly enough. Then there was a roar—the first of the night—but it was a motorcycle, driving right into the beast at top speed, the blonde yanking its handlebars as though she could throw it at the thing.
Werewolves aren't invulnerable to momentum. This one slid forty yards down North Avenue as the blonde braked her cycle up short. It got up, shook itself off, and raised its muzzle to howl in anger. That's when Patroccio shot it in the gut. He'd reloaded with—check the tape—the red clip this time. As Patroccio leveled the Savage, the thing turned and ran. Patroccio let out the breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Two to a pack, now," the blonde said, over the idling of her steed, which Patroccio could now identify as a $15,000 Ducati. "You okay, Ten? I gotta go report this." Getting some kind of confirmation, she didn't wait for thanks from Patroccio, but wheeled around and buzzed off to the west.
The brunette broke the silence first. "One dead, one run. Not bad for three hunters."
"Nope, two dead."
"He sure don't know it. He ran out on two feet fast enough."
"You're right. He doesn't know it. Because he doesn't know I shot him with a hollow point bullet, a round I cored out and filled with mercury salts and silver nitrate. He'll heal the entry wound, but that junk will stay inside him. Mirrors, salt, and silver stop almost everything we don't like. And if you still have a heartbeat, like that fuzzy does–"
"Mad Jake."
"Excuse me?"
"Mad Jake. We call that one Mad Jake. We name them, like naturalists name lions or bears in the wild."
"All right. Mad Jake is dead. Because he has a heartbeat and circulates blood. Which means he's circulating poison through his system right now. So unless he can get to a major hospital facility for a full heavy-metal chelation, which doesn't sound likely for an eight-foot-tall mass murderer covered in orange fur…"
"Mad Jake is dead."
"Bingo."
With that, she switched her knife—a kukri—to her left hand and wiped most of the sweat and dirt off her face with her right. She suddenly looked young, if not really young anymore. She stuck out her right hand. "I'm Tango Ten. Thanks for the assist, stranger."
"I'm PFC, I mean Corporal, I mean Lance P—"
"Shh." Her whisper was stark, intense. If she still hadn't been holding a knife, Patroccio thought, she might have actually put her fingers over his mouth.
"We don't use names. Not us. Not hunters. An Eddie or a George finds out your name, you'll never stop having to stake your relatives, your ex-girlfriends … everyone you ever friended on Facebook gets bumped up to Happy Meal status. We use handles. Let's start again. I'm Tango Ten. And you are?"
"I'm, uh, Kestrel. Kestrel Two." He hadn't used that call sign since he ditched the old M28 but it still felt right. Like the handle of a werewolf hunter. "So werewolves have names, but we don't. Got it."
"Let's change the subject." Her smirk took the sting out of it, and she sheathed the kukri as they started walking, back west.
"You don't sound local. Or don't you use home towns, either?"
"Naw, I'm not from around here. I'm from New Orleans originally, moved out after Katrina and wound up here. And I'll be damned if I let the cast of Twilight chase me out of my second hometown. I'm fighting this time."
She gestured, jabbing in all directions with her free hand. "English Avenue here, Vine City to the south, Bankhead to the west, Mozley Hills to the southwest. They're all part of it. We're talking to the colleges in the AUC. Now that we've cleared out Westview Cemetery, we've got some breathing room. Room to grow."
Patroccio didn't have to pretend to look interested. He was interested; this Tango Ten person had the first sign of a plan he'd seen since the Captain bought it and the company came apart. "Room to grow?"
"That's right. Grow. Before too long we hope to have everything west of Marietta staked out and patrolled. No more of this amateur hour. We've already got most of the churches and one of the street gangs on our side. We're going to have food distribution centers, and a working cell tower, and armored buses."
"Where are you gonna get all these things? Where did you get that Ducati?"
"We take 'em. Salvage 'em when we can, confiscate 'em when he have to. We take what the War needs, and if someone bitches, we write 'em a receipt. If they have a record of supporting the War effort, they get rations, ammo, cigarettes, whatever kind of thing in exchange."
"You know what they call that? What you're talking about? They call that warlords. They call that martial law."
She just looked at him, almost thoughtfully. Then she put her hand out and slowly turned a complete 360. Past her fingers, he could see the city unreel: the fires still burning, a shell of a building still standing against the moon, the hanging bodies, the broken slabs of road now splattered with blood and shell casings.
"Martial law." Patroccio repeated the words more to hear his own voice than for any other reason.
It didn't sound as steady this time, and Tango Ten heard it, too. She dropped her hand, rested it on her kukri. "You see any other kind of law out there?"
Welcome to Nightfall!
"Look, it's just this simple. You go outside, outside the lights, I mean, and you have two choices. You are a soldier, or you are lunch. There is no vegetarian option."
—"Indigo Six," posted on www.hunting-by-night.com
You and your opponents control terrifying forces—creatures long thought to be mere folklore—each seeking to destroy the others. Your minions and actions seek to wound your rivals so that you can seize your rightful place as ruler of a ruthless, darkness-choked world. The one who proves himself the strongest when the ashes finally settle is the victor!
Game Components
- 228 Order Cards (60 starting minions, 84 additional minions and 84 actions)
- 60 Wound Cards
- 24 Draft Cards
- 31 Card Dividers (to help organize the cards)
- 3 Extra Card Dividers (for promotional cards)
- This Rulebook
Setup
Unpacking the Game
Separate the wound, draft, and order cards into separate piles. The wound cards have a type (bite, burn, or bleed) as well as bullet holes and blood. Draft cards have "DRAFT" watermarked across the artwork.
Next, separate the order cards by name. You should have 30 piles of order cards: 18 of minions and 12 of actions.
Locate the 6 starting minion piles. Each of these piles should have 10 cards. The cards' names are printed in yellow, and they have a cost of 0. The starting minions are: "Bad Smoke", Charlotte Reyes, Enraged Wight, "Genesis One", J.J. McTeague, and Yuri Koroviev.
Use these to create five 12-card starting decks, each containing 2 copies of each of the six starting minions.
Place the wound, draft, minion (12), action (12) and starter deck (5) piles into the box, using the included card dividers to sort them however you like.
Now that you've unpacked, the world of Nightfall awaits you!
Example wound card: WOUND — Burn. "Your Combat: discard this card. Increase the strength of target minion by 1. Feed: Discard 1 wound. Limit 1 wound effect per turn."
Preparing to Play
Shuffle all the wound cards and place them face down in a stack near the middle of the table. Count off cards from the top of the stack equal to ten times the number of players (i.e., 30 cards for a three-player game) and turn them face up, leaving them on top of the wound stack.
Give each player one starting deck, which must have 2 copies of each of the six different starter minions. The rest of the starting cards will not be used in the game.
Shuffle all the draft cards together and deal 4 draft cards face down to each player. Set the remaining draft cards aside, face down.
Each player chooses one of his four draft cards and places it face down in front of him. This card determines each player's first private archive. Players pass their remaining 3 draft cards to the player on their left.
Each player chooses a second draft card from the 3 that were just passed, placing it face down next to the first card. This determines each player's second private archive. Players pass their remaining 2 draft cards to the left.
Each player takes one of these 2 passed cards and places it face down in the center of the table, forming the commons. Place the final draft card in each player's hand back in the "DRAFT CARDS" section of the game box.
Take the deck of draft cards set aside earlier and deal additional draft cards into the commons until there are 8 cards total in the commons. Place the rest back in the "DRAFT CARDS" section of the box.
Turn all draft cards in the commons and private archives face up. Replace each of those draft cards with the corresponding pile of seven order cards to create the archives. The draft cards are not used during play; they are simply used to help set up the game. Return them to the box at this time. Keep the order cards in separate stacks, sorted by name, making sure to keep private archives separate from the commons. Players will be able to add these cards to their decks over the course of the game.
Each player shuffles his starting deck and draws five cards to form his hand.
Determine a first player by any mutually agreeable method. You are now ready for Nightfall!
Alternate Drafts
For 2-player games, we recommend you draft as follows:
- 1st: Removed / 2nd & 3rd: Private archive / 4th: Commons
If you are mixing two sets, we suggest dealing 5 cards to each player, with the last card being discarded.
Quick Start
If you want to skip drafting, give each player one of these sets for their archives:
- Koi Jiang + "Brynna & Taylor"
- Irresistible Call + Roland LeFontaine
- Chan Jiang + "Queen's Bishop"
- Relentless Grinder + Forlorn Hope
- Hysteria + All-Out Lunge
Setup Diagram
A diagram illustrates what the setup for a two-player game might look like after a couple of turns. Each player has a Deck & Discard to one side, two Private Archives, and Minions in Play in front of him; Your Chain is built in the middle of the table, with The Commons — eight archives — laid out alongside it.
How to Play
"They say hunger is the best spice. I find sheer terror gives a more robust sensation, myself. The hungry ones tend to taste rather chalky."
— Roland LeFontaine
Nightfall is a game of the near future, a game of resolute humans and fierce creatures of horror struggling to seize control of a perpetually darkened world.
Overview
Each player has his own personal deck of cards that he uses during the game. Your deck begins with a dozen weak cards. You strengthen and improve your deck by "claiming" orders from your private archives—cards that you will select—and the commons. All players can claim cards from the commons, but only you have access to your private archives.
Players take turns, with play always passing clockwise (to the left). On your turn your minions attack your opponents. Then you may create a "chain" of orders from your hand. However, your opponents may add their own cards to your chain when you are done. The cards in the chain then resolve in the opposite order that they were played.
Your minions and actions inflict wounds on your opponents. The player with the fewest wounds at the end of the game has proven he is the strongest, and wins the game!
The Bottom Line: Minions come and go. Orders are disposable. Stay focused on the key: Wound your opponents. At the end of the game, that's all that matters.
The Basics of Nightfall
There are several key concepts that are fundamental to Nightfall:
Decks, Discard Piles, and Archives
You have your own deck of cards. You can only draw cards from your own deck. You also have your own discard pile. You may look through your discard pile at any time, but not your deck. You may not look through any other player's discard pile or deck unless a card allows you to do so.
If at any time you need to draw cards and there are not enough cards left in your deck, draw as many cards as you can, shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck, and then finish drawing cards as needed. If you empty your deck but do not need to draw any more cards, leave your deck empty. Do not shuffle your discard pile until you need to draw another card.
As your cards are discarded or destroyed, place them face up on top of your discard pile. Any new cards you claim are also added to your discard pile.
Archives are stacks of order cards that are not owned by any player. You can acquire these cards during the claim phase of your turn. Archives are always kept face up and visible to all players. There are two types of archives. The eight archives in the center of the table are called the commons, and they are available to all players. You also have two archives in front of you, called your private archives. Only you can claim cards from these archives.
Exiled cards are removed from the game and do not return to any discard pile, deck, or archive. This includes wounds that are exiled.
Friendly & Opposing
Your private archives, the minions you control, the orders you play, and any game text on those cards are all considered friendly to you. Private archives, minions, orders, and game text belonging to the other players are all considered opposing.
Archives in the commons are neither friendly nor opposing. Individual cards stacked in any archive (whether it is a private archive or an opposing archive) do not belong to anybody and are considered neither friendly nor opposing.
The Order Cards
Your deck is composed of order cards. There are two varieties of orders: minions and actions. Actions are cards that have a quick, immediate effect and then leave play. They're one-and-done. Minions remain in play to attack your foes—if they can survive long enough.
Anatomy of the Cards
Action card. It has a steely frame, and no red number in the upper right-hand corner. Once it resolves in the chain, it gets discarded immediately. Its parts are: Card Color, Link Color(s), Cost to Claim, Card Name, Text Area, Kicker Color, Kicker Area.
Minion card. It has a black leathery frame, a red strength number in the upper right-hand corner, and red bars representing its health. Once it resolves in the chain, it is put into play, where it can defend you and attack your opponents. Its parts are: Card Color, Strength, Health, Link Color(s), Cost to Claim, Card Name, Text Area, Keyword Line, Kicker Color, Kicker Area.
All order cards have a color, which is indicated by the moon icon in the top left corner of the card. Beneath the card's color icon are one or two smaller moons. These icons indicate the link colors for that card. See Chaining Cards for an explanation of how link colors are used.
On the right edge of the order card, next to the card's name, is a large number in yellow. This is the influence cost that you must pay in order to claim that card during your turn (see The Claim Phase).
Every card in Nightfall has some game text that explains the effects of the card when played. If the text on a card seems to contradict these rules, the card's text always takes priority over the rules.
Game text that starts with "Chain:" is called chain text, and appears on both minions and actions. This text takes effect when that card is resolved as part of a chain. Game text that starts with "Your Chain:" only takes effect if you started the chain. Game text that starts with "In Play:" appears only on minions. This text takes effect after the card is resolved and the minion is in play.
More About Minions
Minion cards represent followers that you control. Unlike action cards, every minion has a strength value in the upper right corner. This is the amount of damage that the minion inflicts when it attacks (see The Combat Phase). Each minion also has a keyword that describes which species it is: vampire, lycanthrope, ghoul (undead), or hunter (human). Finally, each minion has health, which is the amount of damage it can sustain before it is destroyed. Health is indicated by a number of red slashes on the sides of the card. Minions come into play upright, with their highest health value showing at the top. For each point of damage inflicted on a minion, rotate its card 90° clockwise. This reduces the minion's health (shown on what is now the top edge of the card) by one.
Many minions have In Play text. Some of these are always active, while others have an effect that takes place at a specific time (e.g., "When this minion attacks..."). When several in-play effects trigger at the same time, the active player controls the order they resolve.
Starting Minions
Each player begins the game with twelve starting minion cards in his deck. These minions can be identified by the yellow color of their card title. Starting minions also have a claim cost of 0.
All starting minions have the in-play text "Exile when destroyed or discarded," or "Exile when destroyed." Exiled cards are removed from play and do not go to your discard pile or deck. Thus, barring card effects, a starting minion can only be put into play once; when it gets destroyed or discarded, remove it from the game.
Target
Some order cards require you to choose which specific player, minion, archive, wound, or order in the chain is affected. The game text on these cards always uses the word "target." However, you never target cards in your hand or your deck.
Cards that require no choice (e.g., "damage all opposing minions") do not target individual minions or players. Any card effects that alter or prevent targeting do not affect these cards.
Simultaneous Events
Nothing in Nightfall happens simultaneously, though sometimes actions may appear to occur at the same time. If multiple events happen at once, the player whose card triggered the event chooses the order in which events resolve. For example, if a player's card inflicts damage to every player, that player chooses the order in which the players take that damage.
Taking a Turn
"Did you shoot him with conventional rounds?"
—Transmission, Headquarters to "Legion Ten"
Players take turns in clockwise order. On your turn you must play through four phases. Each phase must be completed before the next phase begins. All phases must be played in order as follows:
Combat Phase
All your minions in play must attack other players. After attacks are resolved, discard your minions from play.
Chain Phase
You may create a chain of orders by playing a card, and possibly linking additional cards. Once you are finished, your opponents may extend your chain by adding their own cards.
Claim Phase
You may acquire cards from the commons or your private archives by spending influence.
Cleanup Phase
You must draw cards, and you may resolve one wound effect. All card effects end.
Once you have completed all four phases, your turn ends. The player to your left now begins his turn.
The Combat Phase
"Lieutenant, I shot him with the whole damn convention center, and he still ain't dead."
—Last transmission of "Legion Ten"
If you have any minions in play at the start of your turn, you must use them to attack other players. Each minion attacks one of your opponents. You can send multiple minions against the same opponent, or divide your minions among opponents as you see fit.
You must send all your attackers at once. Once all your attackers are assigned, resolve each combat in the order you choose.
Example: It's Scott's turn and he has three minions: Koi Jiang, "Legion Ten", and "Lone Hound". He decides to send Koi Jiang and "Legion Ten" to attack Brad, and "Big Ghost" to attack Janet.
If the defender has minions in play, he can assign one or more of them to block attacking minions. A blocking minion can only block a single attacking minion. However, multiple minions may gang up to block the same attacking minion.
Note: Defending minions do not inflict any damage on the attackers. They only absorb damage.
Example: Brad also controls three minions. He assigns his "Queen's Bishop" and his Roland LeFontaine to block "Legion Ten", and his Grotesque Revenant to block Koi Jiang. Janet has no minions in play, so "Lone Hound" is not blocked.
Each attacking minion now inflicts damage equal to its strength. If the attacking minion was blocked, the damage is first inflicted on the blocking minion (see Damaging Minions for details). If there are multiple blocking minions, the defender chooses the order in which the blocking minions take damage. One minion must absorb as much damage as possible (i.e., until all the damage is absorbed or the minion is destroyed) before the next blocking minion takes any damage.
The defending player receives one wound for each point of damage that is not absorbed by blocking minions.
Example: Brad gets to decide the order in which his minions block the attacking "Legion Ten" (who has 4 strength). He wants to save Roland LeFontaine to attack with later, so he chooses "Queen's Bishop" to absorb damage first. "Queen's Bishop" has 2 health, so he absorbs 2 damage and gets destroyed (he goes to Brad's discard pile). The remaining 2 damage from "Legion Ten" is applied to Roland LeFontaine. Brad rotates Roland LeFontaine 180°, reducing his health to 1.
Meanwhile, Koi Jiang has a strength of 3. The Grotesque Revenant, which blocked it, was damaged in a previous turn and only has 2 health left, so the Grotesque Revenant is destroyed and the 1 remaining damage is inflicted directly on Brad.
Damaging Minions
The current health of a minion is shown by the red slashes on the top edge of the card. Each point of damage reduces the health of the minion by one. When a minion takes damage, rotate the card clockwise 90° for each health lost. This reduces the number of red slashes on the top edge of the card by one. If your minion rotates clockwise off its last point of health (away from the side with only one red slash), it is destroyed and placed in your discard pile.
Some card text restores health; rotate the card counter-clockwise to restore health to a minion.
Damaging Players
Players do not have health. Instead, wound cards represent the damage a player suffers during the game.
When damage is inflicted upon you, you receive one wound card from the top of the wound stack for each point of damage you take. Always place wound cards on top of your discard pile.
Example: Scott's "Lone Hound" attacked Janet without being blocked, so all of its damage is inflicted directly on the unfortunate player: Janet takes 5 wound cards from the top of the wound stack and puts them in her discard pile!
Blocking Direct Damage
A small number of minions, such as "Bad Smoke", have an in-play ability that allows them to block damage inflicted directly on the player who controls them. This includes damage from chain effects and damage that gets past blocking minions after resolving attacks. These minions have in play text that says: "This card blocks damage inflicted on you." If you have one of these minions in play when a card inflicts damage on you, the minion must block it just like it was blocking an attacking minion.
These minions do not help you when you "receive wounds" as a card effect.
Discarding Minions
After all damage is resolved by all your attacking minions, you must discard all of your minions in play. Your combat phase is now complete.
Note: Some minions, such as Grotesque Revenant, are not discarded at the end of your combat phase. These minions have the in-play text: "This card stays in play until destroyed."
The Chain Phase
Once all your attacks have been resolved, you may play orders from your hand for various effects. You can bring minions into play, inflict damage on opposing players or minions, or help your cause in a variety of other ways.
Chaining Cards
Order cards are played from players' hands to form a chain. A chain is one or more cards played in a sequence.
At the beginning of your chain phase, you can play any one card from your hand for free, without restriction. This is called "starting a chain."
You can add more cards to the chain, but each card you play must link to the latest card played in the chain. Each card has a large moon icon in the top left corner. This signifies the card's color. Beneath the color icon are two smaller moon icons. They show the link colors for that order. You can only link a card to a chain if the color of your card matches a link color on the last card played in the chain.
Play Tip: Play cards in a chain at a 45° angle to show that they have not yet resolved. You can overlap your cards that are linked together in the chain. Straighten each order to vertical as it resolves. This makes it easy to tell which cards have resolved, which minions are in play, and which order was played last.
Example: This "Lone Hound" is a gold card. It can only be linked to a card with a gold link color symbol. Only white and green cards can be linked to the "Lone Hound" card in a chain. Janet starts her chain by playing the "Lone Hound" card for free—she doesn't have to link the card to anything. Next she adds a Jerome Carceri card to the chain. She can add the Jerome Carceri because it is a white card, and her "Lone Hound" card links to either white or green.
You can only link a card to the most recently played card in the chain. You cannot "jump" over other cards to link to a card played earlier.
When you are done adding cards to your chain, each of your opponents has a chance to link one or more cards from his hand, as long as he has a card that can link to the last card in the chain. Start with the player to your left and proceed around the table. All cards added to the chain must link to the last card played (even if that card was played by another player).
Example: Scott begins his chain with a Sweep and Clear card. Since that's his only card, he can add nothing else to his chain. Brad links a Maya Westermann to Scott's chain (he can link because the Maya Westermann is green, which matches one of the link colors on Sweep and Clear). Now Janet can link her "Lone Hound" (gold) to Brad's Maya Westermann, and link a Chan Jiang card to her own "Lone Hound".
Each player has only one opportunity to link cards to a chain. Each opponent may link as many cards as they like, following the requirements for linking a card to the chain. After each player has had a chance to play cards, the chain is complete.
If you do not play any cards during the chain phase of your turn, there is no chain, and no one else can play cards.
Play Tip: Since you can see the card colors of the next player's private archives, try to leave him link colors that are hard for him to chain.
Resolving the Chain
Once all players have either linked cards to the chain or passed on the opportunity to do so, all cards played in the chain are resolved, starting with the last card played and ending with the first card.
Remember: Last in, first out. (A long chain played from left to right gets resolved from right to left.)
Start with the very last card linked to the chain, regardless of which player added it to the chain. Follow the chain text on the card fully (the text that begins with "Chain:" or "Your Chain:"). Remember that "Your Chain" effects only happen if the card was played by the person who started the chain.
When an action is resolved, place it on top of its owner's discard pile.
When a minion is resolved, place that minion into play in front of its owner.
Minions in a chain are not "in play" until after the card resolves. This means that any card that affects a minion cannot target a minion card that is still part of the chain.
After the last card played has been resolved, move on to the next card in the chain. Continue resolving cards in the reverse order that they were played (going back around the table counter-clockwise), until each player has finished resolving each of the cards they played. Resolve all orders played by a player before moving to the next player's cards.
Example: The last card played on the chain was Janet's Chan Jiang card, so it resolves first. Then her "Lone Hound", followed by Brad's Maya Westermann. Finally Scott resolves his Sweep and Clear card and the chain is finished.
If you cannot resolve all effects of the chain text (for example, if you must discard a card from your hand, but your hand is empty), obey as much of the text as you can. That card still resolves, and you continue with the rest of the chain.
You must resolve all chain text on a card even if you don't want to! It is possible that an earlier card in the chain changed the situation in such a way that the chain text on your card has become a disadvantage to you!
Often, the game text on a card will tell you to inflict damage on a player or minion. This damage is resolved the same as damage inflicted during the combat phase. Note, however, that excess damage that targets a minion cannot spill over to the player.
Kickers
Most orders have kicker text at the bottom, with a color shown to the left of the kicker text. If you link an order directly from a card of the color shown next to the kicker text, you must also resolve the kicker when the card resolves (even though the card you linked to has not yet resolved).
Example: Jerome Carceri has a gold icon next to its kicker text. Since Janet linked her Jerome Carceri to a gold "Lone Hound" card, she must use this kicker when Jerome Carceri resolves. The only minion in play is Brad's Maya Westermann, so she heals Maya Westermann from 3 health to 4 (which is Maya's full health).
Feed
Some chain or kicker text has "Feed:" followed by an action. Feed allows you to repeat that chain or kicker text by paying the price (performing the action) listed after the word Feed. You can do this as often as you like, so long as you can (or are willing to) keep paying the price.
Example: Janet's Jerome Carceri has a feed effect in his kicker text. If she gets the kicker, she resolves it once. Per the feed effect, she can then discard 1 card to resolve it again if she wishes. If she does not get the kicker, she cannot feed the kicker, either.
An Example Chain
It's Janet's turn and she starts her chain:
- First she plays an Jerome Carceri. Jerome Carceri has red and purple link colors.
- Then she plays Nian Jiang. Nian Jiang is a red card, so it can be linked to the Jerome Carceri. Nian Jiang has blue and gold link colors.
- Janet decides not to add any more cards to her chain.
- Scott (sitting to Janet's left) adds a Tactical Prep card to Janet's chain. It's a blue card, so he can link it to the Nian Jiang. Scott decides not to play any more cards.
- Brad plays Hysteria. That's his only card, so the chain ends.
Now that the chain is complete, the cards are resolved in reverse order:
- Brad's Hysteria resolves first. He must choose a minion to damage itself and its controller. He would love to target Janet's Jerome Carceri, but it hasn't entered play yet. He targets Brad's Charlotte Reyes instead. Brad discards Hysteria.
- Scott's Tactical Prep resolves next. He inspects his deck and draws a card.
- Janet's Nian Jiang card resolves next. It has no chain text to resolve, but since Nian Jiang was linked to a white order (Jerome Carceri), Janet gets to use Nian Jiang's kicker effect: Janet immediately takes control of Brad's "Bad Smoke" minion.
- Janet has resolved all of Nian Jiang's text, so that minion comes into play. Janet places the Nian Jiang card upright on the table in front of her.
- Jerome Carceri finally resolves. It has no chain text, so it comes into play. Since this card started the chain, it cannot get a kicker. Janet places Jerome Carceri upright on the table in front of her.
The Claim Phase
"THIS VEHICLE HAS BEEN REQUISITIONED BY THE UWA PROVISIONAL WAR COMMITTEE. APPLY FOR ITS RETURN IN THE MORNING. IF THERE IS ONE."
— flyer left in a parking garage in Seattle, Washington
In this phase of your turn, you may claim cards from your private archives and the commons. You cannot claim exiled cards or cards from opposing private archives.
In order to claim a card, you must spend influence. You start each of your turns with two points of influence. You can earn additional influence from some card effects. You can also discard cards from your hand during your claim phase; each card you discard gives you one point of influence. Note that discarding a starting minion in this manner does not exile the card, because it was never in play.
You can discard cards even if you do not intend to spend the influence earned. This is a method of discarding unwanted cards from your hand.
The influence you must spend to claim a card is shown to the right of the card's name.
Play Tip: Pay attention to the link colors being passed your way, and draft some cards to transition from those colors to colors that you want to play.
Example: This Roland LeFontaine has an influence cost of 3. Brad needs 3 influence to add this card to his deck. Since he starts his turn with 2 influence, he only needs to discard 1 card from his hand to get all the influence he needs to claim Roland LeFontaine. Since this uses all of his influence, he will have to discard more cards to claim anything else this turn.
You may claim as many cards as you like, including multiple copies of the same card, as long as you have enough influence to pay for all of them. All cards that you claim are taken from the top of each archive and placed face up on top of your discard pile.
You cannot claim cards during other player's turns without a card effect.
Any unused influence is lost at the end of your turn.
Remember: Influence = 2 automatic + influence from card effects + 1 per discard.
The Cleanup Phase
The last thing you do on your turn is draw cards. If you have fewer than 5 cards in your hand, you must draw cards from your deck until you have 5 cards in your hand.
After drawing cards, check your hand for wound cards. You may use one effect printed on one wound card in your hand once per turn. You may not use effects on any other wound cards you have in your hand, or on wound cards that you draw as a result of using the first wound effect. If you used a wound effect earlier in the turn, you cannot use another one now.
Nightfall: Martial Law has two types of wounds, only one of which can be used in the Cleanup Phase. Expect other types of wounds to be released in future expansions.
Example: Brad draws 2 wound cards during his cleanup phase. He discards both of them and draws 4 more cards. One of these is another wound card, but since he already replaced wound cards once, he can do nothing more this turn.
Finally, all card effects end at the completion of each turn.
The End of the Game
When the last face-up wound card is taken from the wound stack and given to a player, the game ends. Finish resolving cards in the chain or damage from attacking minions, depending on which phase it is. Keep track of any additional wounds received by using the face-down cards in the wound stack (and previously exiled wounds if necessary).
Example: Brad linked a Death Grip card to Scott's chain. When that card resolves, he inflicts 3 damage on a player of his choice. He chooses to have Janet suffer the damage. She receives the last 2 face-up wounds from the wound stack (the game will therefore end after the chain is finished). Janet still receives the third wound from Death Grip, so she grabs a face-down wound. The players then continue to resolve Scott's chain.
Each player totals the number of wound cards he has in his deck, hand, and discard pile. The player with the fewest wound cards wins the game!
If there is a tie for the least number of wounds, count the number of bite, bleed, and burn keywords each person has on their wounds. Each player compares their highest count; the player with the lowest high count wins. If still tied, compare the second highest total.
If there is still a tie, the person closest to the right of the first player wins.
Example: Brad and Janet are tied at 7 wounds each. Brad has 3 bites, 3 burns, and 1 bleed. Janet has 1 bite, 4 burns, and 2 bleeds. Since Janet has 4 of her most frequent wound and Brad has only 3, Brad wins the tiebreaker.
Reference
"The tongue that drinks from my cattle does not discuss how I herd them."
—Koi Jiang
Variants
- Upstream Draft: Pass your draft cards to the right, instead of the left. Perhaps you can get the player to your right to draft cards that will feed your chain.
- Secret Archives: Do not replace the draft cards in your private archive with stacks of order cards. Instead, leave them face down until you want to claim one of those order cards. When you do, replace the draft card with the stack of matching cards.
- Open Archives: Instead of filling the commons after drafting, fill the commons first with eight draft cards, face up. Then deal three draft cards to the players. This gives the players more knowledge when they draft their private archives.
- Common Ground: Players do not have private archives. Instead, the first two cards they draft are placed in the commons. Draft cards not chosen are removed from the game.
- End-of-the-World Series: Play a series of games, keeping track of each player's wound score at the end of the game. When the first person reaches 100 total wounds, the player with the lowest total score wins.
The Lexicon of Nightfall
Here you can find definitions for the terms used in Nightfall. You will find these terms used in the rules and in the game text of the cards. Refer to them as needed.
Action: A subtype of order that has an instant effect when played in a chain.
Attack: To send your minions to damage another player during your combat phase.
Archive: Multiple copies of a single card type organized into a stack. Each archive starts with 7 identical cards.
Block: To defend against another player's attacking minions with your own minions.
Chain: A series of linked cards in the process of being played.
Chain Text: Game text on a card that begins with "Chain." Chain text takes effect when the card is resolved as part of a chain. See also Your Chain.
Claim: To buy a card from an archive by spending influence.
Color: Each order has a color, represented by the moon icon in the top left corner of the card.
Commons, The: The 8 central archives from which anyone can claim cards.
Deck: Your personal deck of cards that you will expand and modify during the game.
Destroyed: When a card is removed from play by taking excessive damage or by a card effect that uses the word destroy. When a card is destroyed, place it on its owner's discard pile.
Discard: To place a card on top of your discard pile, face up.
Double Kicker: Much like a double cheeseburger. Look for it in an upcoming release.
Draft Cards: Placeholders used to facilitate setup. Not used during the game.
Draw: To take the top card from your deck and add it to your hand.
Exile: To permanently remove a card from the game.
Feed: An effect that allows you to repeat chain or kicker text by paying a price.
Friendly: A card under your control, including minions you have in play, orders you add to a chain, and your private archives.
Game Text: The effect that a card has on the game when played. There are two types: "chain" text and "in play" text.
Hand: The cards you are physically holding.
Health: How durable a minion is, represented by red slash marks around the sides of the minion's card.
Inflict: How damage gets from your fist to his face.
Influence: A resource spent for claiming cards.
In Play Text: Game text on a card that begins with "In Play," found only on minions. In Play Text takes effect the moment the minion enters play (by being resolved as part of a chain), and remains in effect until the minion leaves play (such as by being destroyed or discarded).
Junk Food: Urban humans, generally considered by most supernatural creatures to be loaded with preservatives and polyunsaturated fats.
Keyword: Special text on minion cards that tells which race the minion is.
Kicker: Additional chain text that is only triggered if you link an order to the proper color.
Link: To add a card to a chain by matching the card's color to another card's link color.
Link Color: The color(s) of cards that can be linked to an order. Most orders have two link colors.
Minion: A subtype of order that represents a follower you can bring into play and control.
Opposing: Cards under your opponents' control, including their minions, orders, and private archives.
Order: The cards that are linked to make a chain. There are two subtypes: minions and actions.
Private Archives: The 2 archives from which only you can claim cards.
Receive: How you get wounds from damage. When you receive a wound, transfer one wound card from the top of the wound stack to your discard pile.
Starting Deck: A 12-card deck that holds 2 each of the six starting minions. Each player starts with this same deck at the beginning of the game.
Starting Minion: One of the 6 types of starting minion cards that begin in each player's deck. All starting minions have only one link color and have a purchase cost of zero.
Target: The chosen victim of a card's effect, or the act of choosing such a victim.
Text: The writing on a card. Could refer to in-play text, chain text, or kicker text, depending on the context.
Wound: Cards that signify damage you have endured that get shuffled into your deck.
Wound Effect: An action you can take using wound cards in your hand at the end of the turn.
Wound Stack: The stack of wound cards, which are acquired as players take damage. The wound stack contains 10 face-up cards per player, the rest being face down.
Your Chain: Chain text that only takes effect if it is your turn.
FAQ
- Bait and Switch: Per the rules, cards are drafted from the top of this new archive.
- Chan Jiang: Yes, this lets you grab a card outside of your Claim Phase.
- Charlotte Reyes: If you discard this card from your hand for influence or due to a card effect, it is not exiled because it was never in play.
- Enraged Wight: If you discard this card from your hand for influence or due to a card effect, it is not exiled because it was never in play.
- Forlorn Hope: The kicker refers to the order you exiled. If someone tries to rules lawyer this any other way, they receive 1 wound.
- "Genesis One": If you discard this card from your hand for influence or due to a card effect, it is not exiled because it was never in play.
- "Indigo Six" (from Nightfall): His effect allows you to claim cards from opposing archives during your Claim Phase. You don't claim them immediately, nor are they free of cost.
- J. J. McTeague: If you discard this card from your hand for influence or due to a card effect, it is not exiled because it was never in play.
- Koi Jiang: Yes, this stacks. It can get quite nasty.
- Nian Jiang: If someone uses their Nian to grab your Nian, they do not get any creatures your Nian took control of.
- "Pale Fury" (Martial Law promo): Can destroy itself.
- "Queen's Bishop": This damage happens before blockers are chosen.
- "Shadow Seven" (Nightfall promo): Only protects you, not your minions.
- Tactical Prep: If you get the kicker, you must of course reveal the card you drew.
- Yuri Koroviev: If you discard this card from your hand for influence or due to a card effect, it is not exiled because it was never in play.
Credits
- Design: David Gregg
- Development: Edward Bolme, Brent Keith, Todd Rowland, Mark Wootton, John Zinser
- World Development: Kenneth Hite, jim pinto, Todd Rowland, John Zinser
- Art Direction: Todd Rowland
- Graphic Design: Thomas Deeny, Ronnie Dyer, Hal Mangold, jim pinto, Mark Quire, Paul Timm
- Writing: Kenneth Hite
- Editing: Edward Bolme, Ryan Metzler
- Typesetting: Edward Bolme, Todd Rowland
- Brand Management: Todd Rowland
- Production: David Lepore
- Covert Art: Jake Murray
- Art: Conceptopolis (All-Out Lunge, Bleak Resurrection, Grotesque Revenant, Jerome Carceri, "Lone Hound", "Queen's Bishop", Relentless Grinder, Shining Cross, Silver Stake), Pierre Bertin (Desperate Measures*, Sweep and Clear), Emile Denis (Tactical Prep, "Brynna & Taylor"), Alastair Fell (Maya Westermann), Andrew Hepworth (Bait and Switch, Chan Jiang, "Genesis One", Headshot, Irresistible Call, Koi Jiang, "Legion Ten", Nian Jiang, Roland LeFontaine), Aurelien Hubert (Ahmad Hassan*, Yuri Koroviev), Aaron Miller ("Pale Fury"*), Jake Murray (Hysteria, Forlorn Hope), Matthew Starbuck ("Mad Jake"), Florian Stitz ("Bad Smoke", Enraged Wight), Daniel Vendrell Oduber (Charlotte Reyes). * promo cards: look for them soon!
- Playtesting: Daniel Baker, Nicholas Basey, David Bennett, Wilbur Bennett, Nicolas Bongiu, Zachary Boyd, Stu Clark, Arnold Daly, Chris D'Andrea, Sébastien Duthu, Ruthanne Edward, Jonathan Emmett, Jonathan Grabert, Awna Gregg, Sarah Gregg, Danielle K.L. Gregoire, Benjamin Higgins, Keith Korcz, Franck Lopez, Rob Mackie, Jeff Marx, Dave Matney, Jeremy Monts, Jessica Presnell, Jeff Plummer, Rusty Priske, Aaron Randall, Jason Riedinger, Benoit Sigal, Emilie Sigal-Falgayras, David Snoddy, Zach Sprague, Kevin Stone, Rick Villamil, Steve Wallace, Clay Weill.
- Special Thanks: To the gamers at BoardGameGeek.com who helped develop David's Chainmaster mechanic, upon which Nightfall is based.
Copyright © Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc. Nightfall, Alderac Entertainment Group, and all related marks and images are TM and © Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in China.
Visit www.nightfallthegame.com and www.alderac.com/forum. Questions? Email [email protected]
"JJ. JJ. Dammit, it's Marcus, man. Tell me you ain't left yet. Seriously, you do not want to go anywhere near the state of Georgia. They was already trigger-happy pistol-swinging psychos before Nightfall; you think they've gotten easier to jack since? I am serious as a guillotine, my friend. And now you want to mess with the Jiangs, too? I don't have to go down there; I'll be able to see your funeral pyre from Cleveland."
—voicemail message left on Marcus Toth's cell phone
One City under Night: Them
by Kenneth Hite
Until the ghouls smashed through all the glass in the front windows, Franz Orlok hadn't thought this night—well, this arbitrary stretch of it, anyway—could get any worse. Being Sir John Travail's chief scout, he found himself spending a lot more time dealing with werewolves than he liked.
Some werewolves weren't so bad, but their pack instincts meant that every discussion had to be a dominance game. You couldn't just talk things out; you had to prove you were alpha enough to speak. Which meant lots of pointless shouting, and staredowns, and throwing things, when what really needed to happen was planning, and looking at maps, and finding out just what the hell happened in Westview Cemetery.
The alpha wasn't happy because only one of his pack had come back from a sniff trip west of Marietta, and that one had promptly vomited all over the floor. Franz Orlok wasn't happy because he was trapped in a Hyatt Regency with a pack of werewolves, all of them baying for revenge and blood and none of them willing to listen to Sir John Travail's plan. And something about the smell of that vomit was making him feel dizzy.
The smell of the ghouls, strangely enough, was almost an improvement. They smashed through the front wall in a giant wave, lined up in a serpentine row, pushing and receding like someone somewhere was cracking a whip. They hit the werewolves hard, pouring into the lobby, separating the pack into individual islands in a sea of corpses. Orlok leaped for the atrium, trying to get height, but a big revenant reached up and yanked him back down.
Orlok hated fighting ghouls. None of the instincts worked: you couldn't slash them with your talons, you couldn't tear their throat out with your fangs. No blood, no recoil, just rotting filth in your mouth. They, on the other hand, could definitely smash you up. Four or five of them were even a match for a werewolf: Orlok saw a big gray ghoul pull the leg off of one and stab him to death with his own shattered femur while the others held the frenzied beast down by sheer mass.
But this was the werewolves' kind of fight: brawn against brawn. Slowly, werewolf reflexes and ferocity and sheer hatred began to tell. Zombie after zombie got broken apart, paws like pile drivers smashing through the skull to finish them forever. Orlok couldn't match that power, but he could twist a ghoul's head until it popped off. It took a while—and some duck-and-rolling, because one or two zombies had smashed enough furniture to start hoisting stakes—but Orlok cleared his zone. He even managed to get some height, retreating up to the third floor mezzanine where he clung and dangled from his foot talons.
Then things got worse. Again. A lean figure, all corded muscle, strode through the door. Kicking glass and sofas out of his way, he stalked to the alpha and—Orlok couldn't believe his eyes—slapped him. The alpha screamed and leapt, and the stranger not only didn't crumple, he stiff-armed the were right back into the registration desk. Then the stranger jumped, struck again with the heel of his hand, and tore the wolf's chest open with his teeth. In the spray of lurid vermillion blood, Orlok saw a sort of strange tattoo glowing on the stranger's chest.
The beta growled: his turn, now. But he stayed low and crouched, not willing to make the first leap. Circling around, gathering his muscles, fur bunching at his spine, he waited.
The tattooed vampire stepped forward, almost delicately, like a ballet dancer picking a spot on the stage. The beta inched back. The vampire stepped forward again, just off to the left. The werewolf threw his arms wide and dived to the right, tearing at the vampire's flesh with his claws on the way past. The stranger spun into the attack, and aimed a fist at the were's leg; there was a sharp clopping noise and when the beta landed, that leg gave under him. Now the beta scrambled faster, always moving back and right, just as the vampire stepped and struck, always striking just left. Sometimes one connected, sometimes the other.
The were regenerated faster, but the tattooed man seemed to ignore his injuries, like he was carved out of amber-white marble. They seemed evenly matched until the beta once more swung out to the right and this time the vampire was there to meet the blow. Claws tore through the vampire's ribs, but those horrible hands came up to the beta's snout and jaws, driving upward to smash them. The tattoo glowed as though drinking the blood not only of the werewolf but of its own host; the stranger's hand speared into the beta's gullet and disappeared up to the shoulder. There was a kind of squelching rip, and the beta collapsed. The tattooed man stood up, pulled his arm out of the werewolf's gullet, and threw something on the floor where it left a scarlet smear.
Then the tattooed man looked up, looked right at Orlok, right into his eyes. Orlok got ready for the leap, ready to dodge and strike in turn.
But then Sir John Travail's familiar voice cut through the air like a dagger made of ice: "Koi Jiang, Orlok is mine." But it was coated in honey and poison, in almost unctuous respect, a tone Orlok had seldom heard in it.
Orlok dropped to the floor of the lobby. Sir John was standing in the ruined doorway, holding a piece of paper against his chest. Just out of arm's reach, a woman—Orlok thought she looked Chinese, maybe—glared at him. She had a tattoo, too, which maybe explained the unctuous respect.
"You dare much, Travail. Your werewolves are destroyed or fled, thanks to Chan." She nodded fiercely at the tattooed man, now idly licking his right hand clean.
"And you, my dear—or should I say your other sister Nian—are out of ghouls. But not to worry. I know of a place just full of dead bodies."
The tattooed killer stepped toward Travail. Orlok recognized that step, what it meant. But before he could warn Travail—or use the distraction to fly straight up through the skylight and out of this miserable place—Travail twitched the paper on his chest.
"No, I don't think so, Chan Jiang. I don't think you or your sister want to see what's drawn on this paper. It even gave me quite a headache, and I'm not even of your blood. Did you know that Atlanta has—well, it used to have—quite an extensive Chinatown? And some of the older residents could be… persuaded, shall I say… to share their unusual knowledge?"
The woman, Koi Jiang, looked at her brother. Then they both looked at Travail.
"So on the topic of sharing." Travail walked—slowly and carefully, Orlok noticed—into the ruined lobby of the hotel. He righted a table with one hand, tipping the werewolf corpse off it. From underneath a broken ghoul, he pulled the map of Atlanta that Orlok had brought for this doomed planning session.
He spun the map into position, beckoned Koi Jiang over, and pointed. "Westview Cemetery. Perhaps a hundred thousand bodies, still mostly undisturbed. The previous owners never really dug in, you know … allowed their title to lapse, I'm afraid. But you won't be so careless, I'm sure. Plenty of room for the three of you. Plenty of room to grow."
Quick Reference
Combat Phase — All your minions in play must attack other players. After attacks are resolved, discard your minions in play.
Chain Phase — You may create a chain of orders by playing a card, and possibly linking additional cards. Once you are finished, your opponents may extend your chain by adding their own cards.
Claim Phase — You may acquire cards from the commons or your private archives by spending influence.
Cleanup Phase — You must draw cards, and you may resolve one wound effect. All card effects end.
Cards in this Set
Starting Minions
- "Bad Smoke"
- Charlotte Reyes
- Enraged Wight
- "Genesis One"
- J.J. McTeague
- Yuri Koroviev
Draft Minions
- "Brynna & Taylor"
- Chan Jiang
- Grotesque Revenant
- Jerome Carceri
- Koi Jiang
- "Legion Ten"
- "Lone Hound"
- "Mad Jake"
- Maya Westermann
- Nian Jiang
- "Queen's Bishop"
- Roland LeFontaine
Draft Actions
- All-Out Lunge
- Bait and Switch
- Bleak Resurrection
- Forlorn Hope
- Headshot
- Hysteria
- Irresistible Call
- Relentless Grinder
- Shining Cross
- Silver Stake
- Sweep and Clear
- Tactical Prep
Promos
Get your Nightfall promos: visit nightfallthegame.com for full details!