Purrballs: Catventure Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
  • Preparing the Dungeon
  • Preparing the Parties
  • Priority Order
• Objective of the Game
  • Final Scoring
• The Quest Begins!
• Dungeon Phase
  • Monster Limit
• Selection Phase
• Action Phase
  • Battle Abilities
• Loot Phase
• Battle Phase
  • 1. Challenge
  • 2. Roll
  • 3. Match
• Exhaust Phase
  • Exhausting & Refreshing
• The Tavern
  • Level-Up!
• Tavern & Modes
  • Veteran Mode
  • Expert Mode
• Abilities FAQ
  • Rotate Abilities
  • X Speed Abilities
  • Nobles
  • Wanderers
  • Traders
  • Fighters
  • Spellcasters
  • Monster Rewards
• Scoring Sheet

Components

Starting Parties (55 cards)

• 25 x Rank 1 Catventurers
• 20 x Buff cards
• 5 x Reference cards
• 5 x Camp cards

Misty Woods Dungeon (81 cards)

• 60 x Loot cards
• 21 x Monster cards

Catventurer Deck (24 cards)

• 24 x Rank 2 Catventurers

Other Components

• 30 Light Blue Crystals (1 Mana)
• 20 Dark Blue Crystals (3 Mana)
• 4 Monster Dice
• 1 Crown Token
• 1 Rulebook

Note: Before your first game, affix the Crown token stickers onto the token.

Game Setup

Preparing the Dungeon

1. Take all cards for the Dungeon and separate them into different decks based on the card backs. (For now, use the Misty Woods. More Dungeons will be available in the future.)
2. For each of the decks, return to the box all cards that won't be used based on the number of players.

Example: In a 4 player game, the 3+ and 4+ cards are used. The 5+ cards are returned to the box.

3. The middle of the play area is the Pool. Place the Level 1 Loot and Monster decks beside the Pool. The remaining decks are placed to the side.
4. Place the Mana crystals supply and Monster dice within easy reach of all players.

Preparing the Parties

1. Deal each player a starting hand, consisting of the following cards:
   • A Prince, Rogue, Mage, Soldier and Merchant
   • 4 Buff cards (0, +1, +3, +5)
   • 1 Reference card
2. The segment of playing area in front of each player is their Stash. Each player takes 3 Mana from the supply and places them in their Stash.
3. The player who most recently played with a cat becomes the Cat King (or Cat Queen, their choice!). That player takes the Crown token, chooses a side to face up and places it in their Stash, visible to all players.

Note: The player setup steps shown here are ideal for players new to the Catventure card game. If players feel ready for more, turn to page 17 for Veteran or Expert modes.

Priority Order

The Crown token denotes the Cat King, and is used to determine priority order. Whenever there is a tie during the game, it's broken in favor of the player higher in the priority order.

Priority order goes either clockwise or anticlockwise, as shown on the Crown token. The Cat King is always first in the order.

Whenever a player gains the Crown token, that player must immediately choose which side of the token to place face-up.

Objective of the Game

Each player starts with a party of 5 eager Catventurers. Every round, players send one of their Catventurers into the Dungeon to bring back a valuable Loot card for their Stash. The game ends when there are no more Loot cards left in the Dungeon.

Final Scoring

When the game ends, players count Experience Points (XP) scored by every Catventurer in their party. Each Class scores XP differently, as noted on the bottom of each Catventurer card.

The player with the most XP wins the game! In the event of a tie, the player higher in the priority order wins.

• Nobles score XP from collecting the most Royal Emblems. The players with the most, second most, and third most Emblems gain 15, 10, and 5 XP respectively. Ties go to the player higher in the priority order.
• Spellcasters score XP from Mana crystals in your Stash at the end of the game. Every 3 Mana worth of crystals scores 1 XP.
• Traders score XP from collecting sets of unique Resource cards. For each set, 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 unique Resource types score 1/2/4/7/11/16/22 XP.
• Fighters score XP from Monsters they defeat. For every Monster in your Stash matching the listed types, gain XP as shown.
  • Example 1 (top): Gain 2 XP for every Monster.
  • Example 2 (bottom): Gain 3 XP for every Savage-type Monster, and 4 XP for every Chaos-type Monster.
• Wanderers score XP from collecting sets of Treasure cards. For every set of the listed Treasure types in your Stash, gain XP as shown.
  • Example 1 (top): Gain 10 XP for every set of the 4 types shown, and 1 XP for each other card.
  • Example 2 (bottom): Gain 8 XP for every set of the 3 types shown.

Note: A Scoring sheet can be found on the last page of the manual. It is recommended that you make copies of the scoring page. You can also download it from the official website.

The Quest Begins!

The game is played over 3 levels of a Dungeon, each level taking several rounds to complete. Each round is played over 6 phases:

1. Dungeon
2. Selection
3. Action
4. Loot
5. Battle
6. Exhaust

Each phase must be fully resolved before moving onto the next.

When there are no more cards left in the current level's Loot deck, the level ends and players proceed to the Tavern round (pg 15).

Dungeon Phase

The Cat King draws the current level's Loot cards into a row in the Pool. There should be as many Loot cards drawn as there are players in the game.

Then the Cat King checks the drawn Loot cards for Monster icons (circled in red). For each Monster icon, a Monster card is drawn and placed above the Loot cards, on the furthest available space on the right.

Monster Limit

After drawing Monster cards, if there are ever more Monster cards in the Pool than there are Loot cards, remove Monster cards from the Pool starting from the right until there is an equal number of Monster and Loot cards. Return any removed cards to the game box.

Example: In a 4-Player game, if a 5th Monster card is drawn, remove the Monster card furthest to the right.

Selection Phase

Now that the Dungeon is ready, players dispatch their eager Catventurers to bring back loot! All players secretly select one Catventurer and one Buff card from their hand, placing them face-down in front of their Stashes.

The Buff adds a bonus to the selected Catventurer's Speed, to be paid for in Mana crystals shortly. Speed will determine how fast they enter the Dungeon, and thus will determine their turn in the speed order to come.

Action Phase

All players reveal their selected cards.

Then, taking turns starting from the Cat King and following priority order, each player performs the ability of their played Catventurer.

For clarifications on abilities, refer to page 17.

Example 1: On her turn, Mochi performs her Mage's ability to gain 2 Mana for 2 non-Spellcaster Catventurers. She takes 2 Mana from the supply and places it in her Stash.

After performing their Catventurer's ability, the player then pays for their played Buff, moving the indicated amount of Mana from their Stash to the supply. If the player chose the +0 Buff, they instead GAIN 1 Mana from the supply.

If the player is unable to pay for their Buff card, they must replace their played Buff card with the +0 Buff card, but WITHOUT gaining 1 Mana.

After resolving their played Buff, the player's turn ends. Let all players complete their turns.

Example 2: Mochi pays for her +3 Buff, spending 2 Mana from her Stash. Had she not chosen her Mage, she would have had 0 Mana, wasting her +3 Buff card!

Battle Abilities

These abilities are used later in the Battle phase, so in the Action phase only the Buff card needs to be resolved.

Loot Phase

On to the good stuff! In the Loot phase, players try to grab the best Loot cards from the Pool. This time, players take turns according to speed order.

Each player adds their Catventurer's Speed and Buff's bonus to get their Total Speed. Speed order goes from highest Total Speed to lowest, breaking any ties using priority order.

Example 3: Mochi adds her Mage's Speed (0) and her Buff's bonus (+3) for a total Speed of 3. She is tied with Kumo, but as she is lower in priority order, she will go last.

The speediest player now chooses a Loot card from the Pool to add to their Stash. Then the next speediest player chooses a card, and so on, until all players have taken a Loot card.

Battle Phase

Any Catventurers with Battle abilities now get to fight Monsters in the Pool, and be rewarded if victorious!

Other players don't participate, but may cheer or jeer their rivals while waiting for Battles to finish. If no players have Battle abilities, skip this phase.

Players take turns according to speed order. On a player's turn, they follow these steps to resolve their battle:

1. Challenge

The player chooses a Monster from the Pool to fight. If there are no Monsters, or the player chooses not to fight, their turn ends.

Example 4: Hako's total Speed is higher than Kumo's, so she goes first. As she has a powerful Storm Bow, she decides to challenge the Dire Wolf...

2. Roll

You never really know what you might face! If the Monster has any question-mark icons on its Defences, roll a Monster die for each question-mark icon. The result is an added Defence for that Monster. A blank result means no added Defence. If the Monster has no question-mark icons, skip this step.

Example 5 (bottom left): Hako rolls 2 dice for the 2 question-mark icons on the Dire Wolf, getting 2 Icons. The Dire Wolf's Defence is thus the Icon shown on its card plus the 2 Icons rolled...

(Transcriber's note: the Icons in this example are pictograms in the printed manual; they are described generically here.)

3. Match

The player must now match their Gear cards against the Monster's Defences. One Attack icon from any Gear card can match with one identical Defense icon. The player may exhaust as many Gear cards as needed to meet all the Monster's Defences.

Example 6 (bottom right): Hako can exhaust the Storm Bow for two Icons, but she does not have another Gear card with a matching Icon. As she is unable to match all icons, Hako fails the battle.

If the player successfully matches all Defence icons on the Monster card, the Monster is defeated! The player resolves the reward on the Monster card, and keeps the card in their Stash. All used Gear cards used are exhausted.

If the player fails to match all Defence icons on the Monster card, the player flees from battle! There are no penalties for failing. The Monster is free to be challenged by other players on their turn.

Armored Defence Icon: This icon represents a special Defence type called Armored. To match it, a player must exhaust two Attack icons of any type so long as they are both the same.

Exhaust Phase

After a long, exciting day, a tired Catventurer needs a good cat nap! All played Catventurers are exhausted and placed in their respective Stashes. Players return their played Buff cards to their hand.

If there are any Loot cards left in the current level's Loot deck, another round begins! If not, the level ends, and players proceed to the Tavern!

Exhausting & Refreshing

To exhaust a card, turn it 90 degrees sideways. Turn a card back upright to refresh it. Catventurers are returned to their owner's hands when refreshed.

The Tavern

Our Catventurers, laden with precious loot, hit the tavern for some rest and refreshment! All players refresh every card in their Stash.

If there are no more levels left in the Dungeon, the game is over! Proceed to final scoring (pg 5). If not, players may now perform a Level-up!

Level-Up!

The Cat King shuffles the Catventurer deck, dealing two cards to each player. Each player selects one of these Rank-2 Catventurers to join their party, and removes a Rank-1 Catventurer of their choice. There are no restrictions here; any Rank-2 can replace any Rank-1 Catventurer.

(Note: Nobles have no rank!)

Once decided, players discard face-down the Rank-2 Catventurer they didn't select AND the Rank-1 Catventurer being replaced, forming a discard pile beside the Catventurer deck. A player who chooses not to Level-up discards face-down both Rank-2 Catventurers instead.

Once all Level-ups are complete, players are ready to return to the Dungeon! The Cat King shuffles and places the Loot and Monster decks for the next level beside the Pool. Begin a new round, starting with the Dungeon phase.

Example 7: Hako receives a Knight and a Ninja. Sore from the memory of losing her battle, she decides to add the Knight to her party. She replaces her Trader, discarding it and the Ninja to the discard pile.

Tavern & Modes

Once you've completed your first game, try these variants to enhance your Catventures.

Veteran Mode

This mode is intended for players familiar with the game's basic rules, and would like to delve into deeper game strategy.

After setting up the game, and before starting the first Level of the dungeon, players may perform a Level-up. Follow the same rules as detailed on the Tavern (pg 15). If the Catventurer deck ever runs out, remove (and put away) all Rank-1 Catventurers from the discard pile, then shuffle the pile to create a new deck.

Expert Mode

This mode is intended for players who'd like a more focused game, and prefer to plan early.

After setting up the game, and before starting the first Level of the dungeon, The Cat King deals each player 4 cards from the Catventurer deck and a Camp card. Players will now perform a draft to form their Camps.

Each player looks at their given cards, and selects one to place under their Camp card. Once all players have added a card to their Camp, they pass the remaining cards to the next player in the direction shown on the Crown token. Each player receives their new hand of cards, and repeats this process until all players have 4 cards in their Camp.

The Camp is each player's personal source of Rank-2 Catventurers. For the rest of the game, any Level-ups performed by players use only the cards in their Camps. Discard replaced Rank-1 Catventurers as usual, but do not discard any Rank-2 Catventurers.

Lastly, before starting the first Level of the dungeon, players may perform a Level-up.

Abilities FAQ

Rotate Abilities

All Wanderer class Catventurers have abilities that change their Speed after rotating the card 180 degrees.

X Speed Abilities

These abilities set the Catventurer's Speed according to specific conditions. When performed, you may use your reference card to mark the final value of X.

Nobles

• Prince: You can only perform this ability if you have the highest Total Speed (resolving ties using priority order). The new priority order takes effect after the current Action phase.

Wanderers

• Archer: This ability lets you grab Loot during the Action phase. Once the card is rotated, do not take part in the Loot phase.
• Assassin: This ability lets you fight a Monster during the Action phase. Perform your battle following normal rules, then resume the Action phase.
• Trickster: Place a Resource card face-down under a Treasure card to count it as a duplicate of the same Treasure. Multiple Resource cards may be placed under one Treasure card. If the Treasure card is taken away, revert all Resource cards under it to their normal state, face-up.

Traders

• Profiteer & Engineer: These abilities take the highest value Buff card played by one of your neighbouring rivals.
• Blacksmith: This ability checks Speed, not Total Speed. Do not add Buffs.
• Gambler: If you have no Mana to give, give rivals Mana from the supply instead.

Fighters

• Barbarian: Dice rolled for the Barbarian's ability must be returned to the Pool at the end of your turn.
• Pirate & Beastmaster: To battle 2 Monsters, perform a Battle as normal to completion, then perform another Battle immediately after. You may choose to battle the same Monster twice.

Spellcasters

• Sorcerer, Wizard & Priest: These abilities check Speed, not Total Speed. Do not add Buffs.
• Nekomancer: Perform the ability of the Catventurer that replaces the Nekomancer, as if you played it normally.
• Cleric: Place a Mana crystal from the supply onto the card you choose as a reminder. Return it to the supply when the card is taken.

Monster Rewards

• Dire Wolf & Orc Warrior/Archer/Magi: You cannot refresh the Catventurer used to defeat this Monster, as it has not been exhausted yet.
• Wyvern: During scoring, decide whether to count this card as a Beast-type Monster, or a Treasure of any type you choose.
• Fiend: This grants a temporary 6th Catventurer in your party. Discard this Catventurer at the end of the current level.

Scoring Sheet

The last page of the manual is a blank scoring sheet with the following categories: Fighters, Wanderers, Traders, Spellcasters, Nobles, and Total XP.