Runebound: Blade Dancer Character Deck Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Expansion Overview
• Components
• The Cards
  • Feat Cards
  • Spell Cards
  • Location Cards
  • Challenge Cards
  • Talent Cards
• Card Anatomy
  • Symbols
• Setup
• Turn Sequence
  • Purchase a Talent
  • Refill Hand
• Playing Class Cards
  • How to Play Class Cards: Spending Menace Counters
  • When to Play Class Cards: The Timing Icons
  • Menace Cost of Spells and Feats
  • Epic Cards
  • Resolved Class Cards
• Changes to the Battle Sequence
  • Multiple Challenges
  • Taking Menace from a Challenge
  • Playing Cards with the Adventure Icon
  • Escape Test Penalty
  • Player Versus Player Battles
  • Example of Play
• Other Rules
  • The Golden Rule
  • Menace Cost of Adventure Cards
  • Being Knocked Out
  • Phrases in Card Text
  • Miscellaneous
• Advanced Rules
  • Deck Building
  • Customized Deck Draft Variant

Expansion Overview

The RUNEBOUND character decks add diversity and excitement to your RUNEBOUND game. The cards in this expansion pack give your Hero new skills and abilities, and they also allow you to thwart your opponents with devious spells and deadly challenges. However, you must utilize your newfound knowledge wisely, because every action has a cost!

Playing with character decks greatly increases the level of player interaction in RUNEBOUND. Your character deck contains enemy cards that you play during another player's turn to weaken his Hero or make the Challenge he is facing more dangerous.

Character decks also allow you greater control over your Hero's development. The character decks contain friendly cards that you may play on your Hero to give him or her a temporary benefit, while your Talent cards give your Hero new special abilities. As you gain more experience and purchase higher-level Talents, your Hero becomes increasingly more powerful!

Finally, once you have learned the basic rules of the RUNEBOUND character decks, you can create your own unique decks by mixing cards from multiple decks. You can customize your deck to focus on certain strengths or to exploit your opponents' weaknesses. For example, if you have the Battlemage deck, and want to focus more on melee attacks instead of Spells, you might add some of the Blade Dancer's Feats into your deck. The rules for building a deck are simple, but it takes skill to put together a strong deck.

Components

Use all of the components from your main RUNEBOUND game, including the market deck and the adventure decks, as well as the following new components included in this expansion:

• 25 Class Cards (Feats, Spells, Locations, and Challenges)
• 5 Talent Cards
• 10 Menace Counters
• 1 Rules Booklet

To play with this expansion, each player must have his or her own character deck and menace tokens.

Two green adventure counters are also included, for use with either the character decks expansion or the base RUNEBOUND game.

The Cards

There are 5 types of cards in this expansion. Your class deck consists of Feat, Spell, Location, and Challenge cards, while your talent deck consists of Talent cards.

Feat Cards

Friendly Feats grant your Hero temporary abilities and bonuses. Enemy Feats can be played during another player's turn, making that Hero suffer a penalty or granting the Challenge he is facing a powerful advantage in combat.

Spell Cards

Spells are similar to Feats but usually require different proficiencies (see page 7) to play.

Location Cards

Location cards may be played on Heroes who are on a certain type of terrain. Friendly Locations give your Hero temporary advantages, while Enemy Locations can be played during another player's turn, often foiling his well-laid plans. Some Locations stay in play for several turns, affecting all Heroes.

Challenge Cards

Challenge cards from your class deck are similar to Challenge cards from adventure decks. The only difference is that you need to spend menace (see later) to play Challenge cards from your class deck on other Heroes.

Talent Cards

Talent cards represent new abilities that your Hero can purchase with experience points or experience counters. Talents also give your Hero proficiencies, which make it easier to play Spells and Feats.

Card Anatomy

(See the Card Anatomy diagram on page 6 of the booklet.)

1. Title: The name of the card.
2. Epic symbol: A card with the Epic icon (dragon) next to its title is Epic. Only one Epic card may be played during a player's turn.
3. Card Text: This text describes the effects and special rules of the card. Italicized text is for flavor only; it has no game effect. 4a. and 4b. Menace Cost: On cards (and hereafter in these rules), menace is denoted with the menace symbol. All class cards have a menace cost. Enemy cards have a blue symbol (4a) showing their menace cost, and friendly cards have a red symbol (4b) showing their menace cost.
4. Timing Icons: These icons, the boot, the bat and the book, indicate when a class card may be played.
5. Talent Level (Talents only): The level of the Talent.
6. Proficiencies (Talents only): There are 5 different proficiencies: Wizardry, Divinity, Fighting, Survival, and Subterfuge (see diagram). Proficiencies represent the areas of training your Hero focuses on. The Wizardry proficiency, for example, makes it easier for your Hero to cast Spells.
7. Talent Prerequisite (Talents only): When you purchase a new Talent, the prerequisite of the new Talent must match a proficiency icon from your current Talent.
8. Proficiency Requirements (Spells and Feats only): If the proficiency icons in this area do not match the proficiency icons on your Hero's current Talent, then the Spell or Feat is more expensive for you to play (see page 15).
9. Terrain Restrictions (Locations only): When you play a Location card on a Hero, that Hero must be on a space that matches one of the Location's terrain restrictions.

Symbols

The booklet's symbol key shows the following:

• Wizardry
• Divinity
• Fighting
• Survival
• Subterfuge
• Menace
• Epic
• Timing Icons

Setup

1. Each player shuffles his class cards together and places them facedown next to his Hero card.
2. Each player places his or her 5 Talent cards together facedown in a pile near his class deck.
3. All players draw 6 cards from the top of their class decks. This forms their initial hand of cards.
4. Instead of starting the game with 3 gold, each player may instead start with a level 1 Talent. If a player chooses this option, he takes any level 1 Talent from his talent deck and places it faceup near his Hero card.
5. Each player places 10 menace counters near his Hero card. This forms each player's pool of menace counters.

Turn Sequence

Players follow a slightly different turn sequence from the one used in the base RUNEBOUND game, as follows:

1. Refresh: Perform this step as normal.
2. Movement: At the end of this step, all players have the opportunity to play class cards with the movement icon (boot) (see page 13).
3. Adventure: At the beginning of Challenges and player-versus-player battles, players have the opportunity to play class cards with the adventure icon (bat) (see page 14). This expansion also introduces several changes to how Challenges are resolved, which are detailed on pages 16-17.
4. Market: Perform this step as normal.
5. Experience: In addition to all the normal actions that a player may take during an Experience step, he or she may also purchase one Talent and refill his or her hand.

Purchase a Talent

You may spend experience points to purchase one Talent. The experience point cost of Talents varies with the number of players:

No. of Players	Talent Cost
1-2	5
3-4	4
5-6	3

Instead of paying with experience points, you may trade in one experience counter to purchase a Talent.

You may only purchase Talents that are equal to, lower than, or one level higher than your current Talent, and the prerequisite of the new Talent must match a proficiency from your current Talent. Level 1 Talents have no prerequisite, so a player may purchase any level 1 Talent.

Example: Jake's Hero's current Talent is the level 1 Talent "Sense Danger," which gives him proficiencies in Fighting, Survival, and Subterfuge. He wants to purchase "Pathfinder," which is a level 2 Talent with the Survival prerequisite. Since this new Talent is only one level higher than his current Talent, and because he meets the Talent's prerequisite, Jake may purchase "Pathfinder." He would not have been able to purchase a level 3 or higher Talent, nor would he have been able to purchase a Talent that has Wizardry or Divinity as a prerequisite.

When you purchase a new Talent, place your existing Talent card back in your talent deck and place your new Talent card faceup beside your Hero card. You may only have one Talent at a time.

Refill Hand

Players normally have a hand size of 6 cards. At the end of your Experience step, you may refill your hand to your hand size by drawing cards from your class deck.

Example: Scott has 4 cards remaining in his hand. When he refills his hand, he draws 2 cards from his class deck, so that the number of cards in his hand is equal to his hand size.

If you already have a number of cards in your hand that is greater than your hand size, you keep the additional cards.

If you did not play any class cards during your turn, you may discard one card from your hand before refilling your hand.

If you do not have enough cards in your class deck to refill your hand, you may skip your next turn, then shuffle your discard pile and place the cards facedown to form a new class deck.

Playing Class Cards

Class cards provide players with many opportunities to help their own Heroes or hinder their opponents' Heroes. During each player's turn, all players (not just the player whose turn it is) have the opportunity to play class cards. However, class cards are always played on the Hero (or sometimes the Allies) belonging to the player who is currently taking his or her turn. This player is referred to as the "active player," and all other players are "enemy players."

How to Play Class Cards: Spending Menace Counters

Players use menace counters to play cards. Each player has exactly 10 menace counters. Each class card's menace cost is listed in the red or blue menace symbol on every class card.

You may only play friendly (red symbol) cards during your turn (or if you are involved in a battle). When you play a friendly card, you remove the menace cost of the card from your menace pool and place it on your Hero card.

Example: Rachel has "Bestow Blessing" in her hand, a friendly Spell card with a menace cost of 6. To play the card, Rachel must take 6 menace from her menace pool and place it on her Hero card. She may not play the card if she has less than 6 menace in her menace pool.

You may only play enemy cards (blue symbol) on other players' Heroes during their turns. To do so, you take the menace cost of the card from their Hero card and place it back in their menace pool.

Example: Scott has "Frost Giants" in his hand, an enemy Challenge card with a menace cost of 8. To play this card on Rachel, Scott must discard 8 menace from Rachel's Hero card and place it in her menace pool. He may not play the card if Rachel has less than 8 menace on her Hero card.

Some enemy cards state that they may be played on your own Hero as well as other players' Heroes. If you play such an enemy card on your own Hero, you must play the card on your turn and discard menace from your Hero card.

When to Play Class Cards: The Timing Icons

The timing icons in the upper left of each class card indicate when during a player's turn the card may be played.

Cards with the movement icon (boot) are played at the end of the active player's Movement step.

Starting with the player to the left of the active player and proceeding clockwise, enemy players may play one or more cards with the movement icon on the active Hero. After a player has played any cards he wishes, he must pass. Once a player passes, the next player may play cards, until every enemy player has had a chance to play cards. After all enemy players have passed, the active player may then play cards with the movement icon on his Hero.

Important: Challenges may not be played on a Hero in a town space. Also, remember that in order to play a Location, one of the card's terrain restrictions must match the space that the active Hero is on.

Each Location is resolved immediately after it has been played, while Challenges are not resolved until every player has had a chance to play cards with the movement icon.

Cards with the adventure icon (bat) are played at the beginning of Challenges, before any "Before Combat" actions are taken.

Starting with the player to the left of the active player and proceeding clockwise, each player may play one or more cards with the adventure icon on the active Hero. After a player has played any cards he wishes, he must pass. Once a player passes, the next player may play cards, until every enemy player has had a chance to play cards.

After all enemy players have passed, the active player may then play cards with the adventure icon on his Hero.

Each card with the adventure icon is resolved immediately after it has been played.

Cards with the book icon state when they should be played in their card text.

If more than one player wishes to play a card with the book icon at the same time, the player closest to the left of the active player plays his card first, followed by each player in clockwise order and ending with the active player.

Each card with the book icon is resolved immediately after it has been played.

Menace Cost of Spells and Feats

When you play a Feat or Spell, you must check to make sure you match the card's proficiency requirements with your Talent's proficiency icons. Each icon on a Feat or Spell that does not match your Talent's proficiencies increases the Feat or Spell's menace cost by +2.

Example: Rachel wants to play the Spell "Polymorph," which has a menace cost of 2, but also has Survival and Wizardry as proficiency requirements. Her Hero's current Talent is "Scribe Spell," which gives her proficiencies in Wizardry and Divinity. Since Rachel's Talent does not match the Survival requirement, she has to spend an additional 2 menace to play "Polymorph."

Epic Cards

Only one Epic card (with the Epic icon) may be played on a player's turn. If one enemy player plays an Epic card, then neither the active player nor the other enemy players may play another Epic card for the rest of the active player's turn.

Resolved Class Cards

Resolved class cards go into their owner's discard pile. Undefeated Challenges that came from a player's class deck are discarded instead of being placed on the undefeated challenge track.

Changes to the Battle Sequence

When resolving a Challenge or a player-versus-player battle, use all the rules from the base RUNEBOUND game, with the following additions and changes.

Multiple Challenges

If an enemy player plays a Challenge on the active Hero, the active player must resolve that Challenge first. If the Hero defeats the Challenge, then he may attempt an adventure counter or undefeated challenge counter on his space.

Taking Menace from a Challenge

If a Hero attempts a green, yellow, blue, or red Challenge, he immediately takes an amount of menace based on the color of the Challenge (see below). The player attempting the Challenge takes the menace from his pool and places it on his Hero card. If there is not enough menace in his pool, the Hero may take as much menace as possible and attempt the Challenge anyway.

• Green = 1 menace
• Yellow = 2 menace
• Blue = 3 menace
• Red = 4 menace

Playing Cards with the Adventure Icon

Class cards with the adventure icon (bat) are played at the beginning of battle, after a Hero has taken menace from a Challenge (as just described) but before any "Before Combat" actions are taken.

Escape Test Penalty

In the escape phase, enemy Spells and Feats played on your Hero during the current Challenge (not Challenges previously attempted in the same turn) give your Hero a penalty to escape tests equal to the total printed menace cost. Remember not to discard enemy Spells and Feats until the end of the combat, so that you can see the total menace cost.

Player Versus Player Battles

Friendly cards may be played at the beginning of a PvP battle, but enemy cards may not. The attacker plays his friendly Spells and Feats first, followed by the defender.

Example of Play

In a 3-player game, it is the beginning of Corey's turn. Brian is sitting on Corey's left and Scott is on Corey's right. Corey has 2 menace on his Hero card and 8 menace in his pool. Corey rolls his movement dice and ends his movement on a forest space with a green adventure counter. Now players may play cards with a movement icon, starting with Brian and proceeding clockwise.

Brian plays a 0-cost enemy Location card called "Desecrated Graveyard," which has "forest" as a restriction. It is resolved immediately: Corey fails the Location's search test, so following the card's text he takes 2 menace from his pool and places it on his Hero card. Brian does not wish to play any more cards with a movement icon, so he passes.

Scott plays an enemy Challenge called "Rock Hound." The cost of the Challenge is 3, so Scott discards 3 menace from Corey's Hero card and returns it to Corey's pool. The Challenge will not be resolved until all players have had a chance to play movement cards. "Rock Hound" has an Epic icon, so no one may play another Epic card for the rest of Corey's turn. Scott then passes.

Now that each enemy player has passed, Corey may play cards with a movement icon. Corey plays a friendly Feat called "Spiked Pit Trap," which costs 2 menace. Corey takes 2 menace and places them on his Hero card, then he passes.

Now that all players have passed, Corey begins his Adventure step. Since a Challenge was played on his Hero, Corey must attempt this Challenge before he attempts the green adventure counter.

Since this is the beginning of a battle, players may play cards with the adventure icon, starting with Brian and proceeding clockwise. Brian passes. Scott decides to play an enemy Feat called "Mark of the Hydra," which increases the Challenge's Life value to 6. Since the Feat has a menace cost of 2, Scott discards 2 menace from Corey's Hero card, leaving him with 1 menace remaining on his Hero card. Scott also plays "Hurl Boulder," a 1-cost enemy Feat. The Feat is resolved immediately: Corey fails the card's Jump test and takes 1 wound. Then Scott passes. Corey does not want to play any cards with an adventure icon, so he passes.

Now that each player has passed, Corey starts the battle, first resolving any "Before Combat" actions. Corey's "Spiked Pit Trap" Feat inflicts 1 wound on the Rock Hound.

Now Corey could try to escape, but he would take a –3 penalty to his escape roll, because enemy Feat and Spells with a total menace cost of 3 were played during this Challenge. If Corey successfully escaped, his turn would then end.

Instead of escaping, Corey decides to continue the battle. First, he plays "True Shot," a 1-cost Feat card with a book icon that states "Play before your Hero makes a ranged attack." Corey's ranged attack roll is successful, inflicting 2 wounds from his Hero's damage value and 1 wound from his "True Shot" Feat.

Corey successfully defends in the melee phase, then uses his "Runesmith Shan" Ally to attack in the magic phase. Runesmith Shan succeeds and inflicts 3 wounds. Corey defeats the Rock Hound, earning a 2 gold reward.

Corey then chooses to attempt the green adventure counter on his space and draws "Ghost Stag." Ghost Stag is a green Challenge, so Corey takes 1 menace. He now has a total of 2 menace on his Hero card.

Since this is the beginning of a battle, players once again have the opportunity to play cards with an adventure icon. All players pass. Now "Before Combat" actions are resolved. Because the card text on "Spiked Pit Trap" states "until the end of your Adventure step," it is still in effect for this second Challenge, and it inflicts 1 wound on the Ghost Stag.

Corey then proceeds to the escape phase. Since no enemy Spells or Feats were played during this Challenge, Corey would not suffer a penalty to his escape test roll if he chose to make one.

Instead of escaping, Corey successfully attacks in the ranged phase. His Hero inflicts 2 wounds, which defeats the Ghost Stag. He receives 1 gold as a reward and as well as the green adventure jewel.

Corey's Adventure step is now complete, and he proceeds to his Experience step. If Corey has 4 experience points or an experience counter, he may purchase a new Talent. Corey finishes his turn by refilling his hand to 6 cards.

Other Rules

In addition to the standard RUNEBOUND rules, the following expanded rules address the new game elements introduced by the character decks.

The Golden Rule

If card text contradicts another card, the most recently played card takes precedence.

Menace Cost of Adventure Cards

Challenge cards from the adventure decks have a menace cost of zero.

Being Knocked Out

If your Hero is knocked out, discard all menace on your Hero back to your menace pool.

Phrases in Card Text

When a card instructs you to "take menace," take the menace from your menace pool and place it on your Hero card. When a card instructs you to "discard menace," take the menace off your Hero card and place it in your menace pool.

When a card refers to "this Challenge," it is referring to the Challenge card that the active Hero is attempting.

Some enemy class cards have text in bold type above a horizontal line. This bold text applies to the player who plays the card, and the text under the line applies to the player that the card is played on.

Example: Scott has the enemy Spell card "Soul Drain" in his hand. The bold text on the card states "Play immediately after a Hero or Ally fails a magic combat roll." This text tells Scott when he can play the card. On Rachel's turn, she fails a magic combat roll during a Challenge, and Scott plays "Soul Drain." The text beneath the horizontal line states "Discard 1 wound from this Challenge for each wound that it inflicts during this magic phase." This text tells Rachel what game effect "Soul Drain" has.

When a card refers to other cards with a specific word in their text, this includes instances in which the specified word is part of a longer word. For example, if a card refers to "a card with the word 'Dragon' in the title," this includes a card such as "Dragonlord Khorgard."

"Your first combat roll" means your first combat roll in each battle.

Miscellaneous

If an undefeated challenge counter is on the same space as an adventure counter, and the undefeated Challenge is a different color than the adventure counter, you must attempt the undefeated challenge counter first.

If adventure counters of more than one color are on a space, you choose which adventure counter to attempt.

If a card is discarded, also discard any tokens, markers, counters, or cards that have been placed on or underneath it.

Advanced Rules

These rules are recommended for players familiar with both the base RUNEBOUND game and this expansion. They allow players to customize their character decks for a unique game experience.

Deck Building

If you want to customize your character deck, use the following restrictions:

1. You may have up to 30 cards in your class deck.
2. All cards in your class deck must be different.
3. Your class deck must contain at least 12 enemy class cards (Spells, Feats, Locations, and/or Challenges).
4. You may have up to 5 Talent cards in your talent deck.
5. You may have Talents with the same level. (For example, you may have two level 3 Talents.)

Customized Deck Draft Variant

This variant is only recommended for players who have customized their decks specifically for this variant. At the beginning of the game, each player chooses 10 enemy class cards from his class deck and, from these 10, selects 5 to pass to the player to his left and 5 to pass to the player to his right. Then each player takes the 10 new cards dealt to him and shuffles them into his class deck. Players may want to write down the cards they pass in order to keep track of who owns each card.