Nightlight Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Game Concepts
• Game Setup
• Playing the Game
• Card Reference

Objective

Defend against the encroaching forces of the Nightmare by taking control of a stuffed animal in the Child's collection to protect the Nightlight. If at least one stuffed animal is still alive at the end of the third round, the sun has risen and all players win the game!

Game Concepts

• Rolling Dice – While attacking or defending, characters roll a number of dice equal to their attack or defense (whichever is appropriate). A die showing a five or a six counts as one success. A die not showing a five or a six is considered a failure.

• Resolving Attacks – Roll attack dice for the attacker, and defense dice for the defender. If the attacker rolled more successes than the defender, deal damage to the defender equal to the difference (for example, if the attacker rolled four successes and the defender rolled only two, then two damage is dealt to the defender). Place that many wound tokens on that character.

• Exhausted and Ready – When a card is exhausted, turn it sideways. It cannot exhaust again until it is ready, and turned back to its normal orientation.

• Unstuffed and Banished – Anytime a stuffed animal card has on it as many wound tokens as it has health, that stuffed animal is unstuffed, and its controller must do the following:

  • Turn the stuffed animal card face down.
  • Shuffle all ready enemies engaged with that stuffed animal and deal them, one at a time, to the other remaining stuffed animals.

  Anytime an enemy card has on it as many wound tokens as it has health, that enemy is banished. Place it face up in a discard pile next to the Nightmare deck.

Game Setup

1. Choose Stuffed Animals – Each player decides which stuffed animal to play as. Place each stuffed animal's skill cards next to them (identified by the stuffed animal icon in the lower right of each skill card). These cards are not used until instructed by special cards in the toy chest deck.
2. Prepare the Toy Chest Deck – Shuffle the Toy Chest deck and set it in the center of the play area.
3. Choose a Dream Deck – Choose one of the three Dream decks to play with this game. The easiest deck has the Spidipede symbol, and the hardest deck has the Zordo symbol. Shuffle the chosen Dream deck and place it next to the Toy Chest deck. For added challenge, add the Ultimate Nightmare Boss cards for the chosen Dream deck to the game and follow the rules on their additional cards. Note: Nyx has no Dream deck or symbol, and follows special rules regarding the construction of the Dream and Nightmare decks.
4. Construct the Nightmare Deck – The Nightmare deck is composed of two sets of nightmare cards: those with a symbol matching that on the cards in the Dream deck, and those with no symbol at all. Shuffle the resulting deck and set it next to the Toy Chest deck. Enemies in this deck are referred to as "denizens". Note: Ultimate Nightmare Mode cards are not denizens.
5. Choose a first player – Choose which player will start the game.

Playing the Game

Rounds in Nightlight are divided into two phases. Note: Actions always start with the first player and move clockwise to the next player.

• Phase One – Preparation:
  1. The Dreamscape Changes – Flip the top card of the Dream deck and place it in the center of the play area! If there was already a Dream card face up, place the new Dream card on top of the old one.
  2. Raid the Toy Chest – Draw four cards from the Toy Chest deck. Each stuffed animal chooses one card to add to its stash! Repeat this phase a second time during the first round.
  3. The Nightmare Creeps – Deal two cards from the Nightmare deck to each stuffed animal! Deal one additional Nightmare card to each stuffed animal during the first round. Note: All Nightmare cards in front of a stuffed animal are considered "engaged" with that stuffed animal.
• Phase Two – Encounters:
  1. The stuffed animals take turns fighting the nightmare denizens. One at a time, complete these steps:
     • Defend – The highest-tier denizen engaged with the stuffed animal attacks! The defending stuffed animal may choose which denizen attacks in the case of a tie. Then, exhaust the enemy that attacked.
     • Attack – The stuffed animal may use one toy chest item or skill in its stash! Add the attack bonus on the card being used to the attack value of the stuffed animal using it. If a stuffed animal has no ready skills or toy chest items, it may not attack. Note: Some cards say "this is a free action". These may be used at any time.
     • If there are no more ready enemies in play at the start of a stuffed animal's turn, ready all cards in play, and move on to the next round! At the end of the third round, if at least one stuffed animal is still alive, the stuffed animals win!

Card Reference

The second page of the Rules of Play is a card anatomy diagram. Its labels are transcribed below.

• Stuffed Animals and Skills – Stuffed animal cards carry an Attack value, a Defense value and a Health value. Skill cards are marked with a Skill Level (a star rating) and show the stuffed animal icon in the lower right.
• Toy Chest Deck – The deck from which stuffed animals raid for Weapon and Skill cards.
• Nightmare Deck (Denizens and Ultimate Nightmare Bosses) – Enemy cards show Attack, Defense and Health values, a Tier (shown in Roman numerals) and a Dream Symbol.
• Dreams – Dream cards are placed face up in the center of the play area. Dream cards carry a Dream Symbol and rule text (for example, "Each 6 rolled provides an additional success").
• Toy Chest Item (Attack Bonus) – Item cards show an Attack Bonus (for example, +1). The card's text reads "Exhaust this item to attack an enemy engaged with this stuffed animal." Below the text are icons of the stuffed animals that may use the ability shown below those symbols. "When this item exhausts, deal two wounds to the defending enemy."