Path of Light and Shadow: Solstice – Kickstarter Version Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
  • Immediately before step 11 of setup
  • Instead of resolving step 11.b.
  • After step 11
• Gameplay
  • The Hinterlands Realm
  • Relic Cards
  • New Faction
    • The Viratis
  • Player Mat Extensions

Setup

In addition to the standard setup for Path of Light and Shadow, do the following:

Immediately before step 11 of setup

1. Place The Hinterlands mini-board next to the main board.
2. Set the 50 Influence tokens near the board. When a player reaches 50 Influence, they place one of these next to their player mat instead of placing a cube on the 50 of the score track.
3. Shuffle the 24 megalith tokens facedown and place 12 on each province on The Hinterlands mini-board in the defense spaces.
4. Add the new upgrade deck cards for Commonfolk, Halax Guildlords, Hordes of Zurd, Numerai, and Sigilborne to their corresponding faceup faction decks next to the matching tabs on the game board. Place the Viratis upgrade deck cards next to the matching tab on The Hinterlands mini-board. Then shuffle the new cards labeled Upgrade Deck: Numerai with the others into a facedown deck next to their tab on the main game board.
5. Shuffle the new realm cards for the existing realm decks into their corresponding facedown realm decks. Shuffle The Hinterlands realm deck and place it next to The Hinterlands tab on The Hinterlands mini-board.
6. Shuffle the relic cards and place them as a facedown deck next to the relic tab on The Hinterlands mini-board.
7. Place the 4 player mat extensions within reach of all players.

Instead of resolving step 11.b.

8. Add the cards labeled Starter: Advisor to the other Advisor cards. Shuffle those cards and deal two to each player. Each player chooses one to shuffle into their starter deck and returns the rest of the cards to the box.

After step 11

9. If playing with the title cards module, deal each player two random title cards in secret. Players simultaneously choose one to keep, determining if they would like to start on the Cruel or Merciful side of the card, and return the other card to the box. If a player chooses the Cruel side of their title card, they start with 1 Cruelty (unless otherwise stated). If a player chooses the Merciful side of their title card, they start with 1 Mercy (unless otherwise stated). Players then place their title card on its chosen side next to their player mat and gain all listed benefits on the card.

TIP: It is recommended when playing with this expansion to ignore step 9 of the base game setup regarding ally cards. Players that want a longer, more complex experience can include ally cards as normal.

Gameplay

This expansion adds a number of new elements to the existing rules of Path of Light and Shadow. The following sections detail each of those new elements.

The Hinterlands Realm

This new realm is unique in two ways. There are only two provinces in the realm, meaning a player has to Conquer both provinces in order to control the realm. Further, the provinces in The Hinterlands are megaliths, a new type of province.

Instead of defense tower pieces, the provinces in The Hinterlands have megalith tokens. Each token represents one value of defense for the province and scores exactly like defense tower pieces during End of Year Scoring. However, when a player would inflict any amount of ruin on a province with megalith tokens, they reveal that many megalith tokens from that province. If there are fewer megalith tokens than the ruin inflicted, reveal as many as possible. If no megalith tokens are left in a province, none are revealed. For each megalith token with the Relic symbol, that player draws that many relics (see Relics, page 6) from the relic deck, keeps one, and places the others on the bottom of the relic deck. The relic card is placed facedown next to their player mat. A player may look at any relic cards they have collected in this way at any time. All megalith tokens revealed in this way, be they relic or rubble, are placed facedown next to the game board.

If a player ever adds defense to a province in the Hinterlands, they should shuffle all facedown megalith tokens beside the game board and place that many megalith tokens randomly facedown on the bottom of the stack of megalith tokens at the defense space in that province. A megalith province cannot have more than the listed defense on the province (12). Players may not add megalith tokens to provinces that are not megalith.

NOTE: Megalith provinces also count toward any abilities, effects, or scoring that generally refer to types of provinces.

NOTE: Players may travel by port to the province of Vol-Kadar in The Hinterlands as normal.

Example: On her turn, Michele attempts to Conquer Vol-Kadar, which is currently controlled by Jana and has 4 megalith tokens. During the attack, Michele inflicts 3 ruin, which reduces Vol-Kadar's defense from 4 to 1.

Michele reveals 3 megalith tokens, 1 showing nothing (the Rubble symbol) and the other 2 showing relic symbols. Michele draws 2 cards from the relic deck, keeps 1, and places the other at the bottom of the relic deck.

During Jana's turn, she adds 1 defense to Vol-Kadar. She shuffles the 11 megalith tokens that have been removed previously from Vol-Kadar, and places 1 randomly facedown at the bottom of the megalith token stack in Vol-Kadar's defense space.

Relic Cards

Relic cards are powerful one-use items. Each relic states during which phase or through which specific action it can be used. When a player uses a relic card, they reveal it, resolve the text ability, and then place the card on the bottom of the relic deck.

Each player can have any number of relic cards at any time. Players may also have more than one copy of a specific relic. Relic cards are not worth any Influence at the end of the game.

NOTE: Cards that begin with an action in bold such as Conquer: or Build: must be played when you play cards from your hand to take that action.

For example, the Gauntlet of Anthyzum relic says,

"Conquer/Defend: Roll an additional die. You gain +1 Strength for each blank you roll."

The Gauntlet of Anthyzum relic says, You may not roll your dice and then play this card. You must play it when cards are revealed.

New Faction

Solstice introduces a brand new faction to the game:

The Viratis

The Viratis are unique in a number of ways.

Firstly, the Viratis introduce the new mechanism doubt. When a player suffers any amount of doubt, they reduce their current level on the Morality track by that many steps. If you are Merciful, suffer 3 doubt becomes gain 3 Cruelty. If you are Cruel, the opposite is true, suffer 3 doubt becomes gain 3 Mercy. Therefore, if a player is currently on the second space of the Merciful path on the Morality track, they would move their cube to the first on the Cruel path. As such, it is possible for a player that was Cruel to suddenly become Merciful or vice versa. This is what it means to change sides on the Morality track.

Example: Jana has 1 Mercy. During her turn, she Promotes the Forgotten One, which allows her to suffer 2 doubt to add the new Promoted card to her hand. Since she is Merciful, suffering 2 doubt means gaining 2 Cruelty. Therefore, she changes sides on the Morality track.

She has also built the Viratis structure Immortal Effigy, which allows her to gain 3 Influence the first time she changes sides on the Morality track on each of her turns. So, because she started at 1 Mercy and now has 2 Cruelty, she gains 3 Influence.

The Viratis also Promote differently than other factions. Like the Numerai, players may use any combination of Labor and Strength to Promote them. However, they are divided into two tribes: Njorv and Anthyzum. When you Promote a Viratis card from a realm deck, you will have the option of choosing one of two cards to Promote it into, i.e. Njorv Druid can Promote into either Njorv Protector or Njorv Sage. This allows for more availability and versatility than the other factions. It is important to note that there is only one upgraded card at the top of each tribe, i.e. Njorv Protector and Njorv Sage both Promote into Njorv Ancient. This is the same with cards of the Anthyzum tribe.

Example: Michele has a Njorv Warrior which she can either Promote into a Njorv Sage or a Njorv Protector. She chooses a Njorv Protector, which can then be Promoted into a Njorv Ancient. If she had picked a Njorv Sage, that card would also Promote into a Njorv Ancient.

When Michele Promotes her Njorv Protector into a Njorv Ancient, Jana will never be able to Promote the Njorv Sage she has in her deck, because only 1 Njorv Ancient card exists in the game.

Player Mat Extensions

These player mat extensions contain structures for the Viratis and the Numerai. As soon as a player would Build a Numerai or Viratis structure for the first time, they choose one of the available player mat extensions of their choice and place it next to their player mat. Each player mat extension offers a slightly variable set of Viratis structures.

Players must still use at least one Viratis card when Building Viratis structures. The same is true for Numerai structures.

Players Build the Viratis structures in the same order as the other factions, from the top down. However, they may Build the Numerai structures in any order, placing one of their cubes on each structure they Build.

Example: Jana has a Viratis card in her hand, which she uses to Build her first Viratis structure. She has 4 player mat extensions to choose from, because Michele has not built a Viratis or Numerai structure yet. She wants to Build a Stone Grove, and so picks 1 of the 2 player boards that has that structure first.

Now, when she wants to Build a structure in these 2 factions, she uses this player mat extension. When she decides to Build a Numerai structure, she can Build any of the 3 available structures; she does not have to start with the first 1.