Samurai Jack: Back to the Past Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Components
• Set-Up
• Rules
  • 1. Jack Advances
  • 2. Players Advance
  • 3. Aku Advances
  • 4. Resolve Character and Location Effects
  • Character Home Locations
  • Movement Cards
  • Support Cards
• Villain Cards
• End of a Round
• Winning the Game
• Losing the Game
• Encounter Tokens
• Special Rules for Two Players

Object of the Game

As one of Jack's beloved companions, strive to gain the most Honor by gathering the necessary Allies, Weapons, and Traits to defeat Aku and send Jack back to the past.

Components

• Game board
• 40 Movement cards
• 15 Location tiles
• 5 Character cards
• 7 painted vinyl figures: Jack, Aku, Ashi, The Scotsman, Monkey Man, Sir Rothchild, and Max
• 9 Villain/Aku cards
• 48 Support cards
• 4 Encounter tokens
• 71 Honor Point tokens
• 1 Jack token

Set-Up

1. Place the game board between players, with room to lay out the path of hexagonal Location tiles nearby. Shuffle and place Support and Movement cards as indicated below:
   • Place shuffled Support cards in the Support space on the game board.
   • Place shuffled Jack/Aku Movement cards in the Movement space on the game board.
   • Deal out face-up Support cards to each of the five location spaces according to number of players:
     • 2 or 3 players: 2 Support cards per location
     • 4 players: 3 Support cards per location
     • 5 players: 4 Support cards per location
   • Jack's token is placed based on number of players:
     • 2 or 3 players: 1st space
     • 4 players: 2nd space
     • 5 players: 3rd space
2. Lay out a path of Location tiles by first separating them into three sets (as indicated by the backs of the tiles). Take one of the three sets and lay out the five tiles to start the path. Repeat this process with each of the remaining two stacks to finish a path of fifteen total location tiles. The three sets of five tiles are separated according to Jack's design on the back of the tile.
3. Separate the three Aku cards from the Villain card set. Then, choose a Villain card at random, placing it face-up at one end of the path.
4. Finally, each player chooses a character by taking the Character card, mover and set of five Movement cards for their character. Randomly determine an order for the characters to start the game, lining up their movers at the end of the path opposite the Villain, along with Jack and Aku movers.

Order of movement is determined by order of characters from back to front.

Set-up diagram captions: "Choose your character" (Monkey Man, Max, Sir Rothchild, Ashi, Scotsman); "Gather your character's card and Movement card set"; "Aku and Jack move on their own"; "Finish" (the Villain end of the path).

When playing with two players, see "Special Rules for Two Players" below.

Rules

The game is played over three rounds, with each round consisting of a number of turns. Each turn is comprised of the following four phases:

1. Jack advances along the path.
2. Players advance along the path.
3. Aku advances along the path.
4. Resolve character / location effects.

1. Jack Advances

First, draw and reveal a Movement card for Jack from the Jack/Aku Movement deck. Move Jack to the first available space on the path that matches the location/color of the revealed Movement card, which can then be discarded.

Note: If Jack is moved to a location occupied by a player, move Jack's Sanity token back one space.

Move Jack to first available space on revealed location. In all cases, characters are moved to the foremost available space in their revealed location.

2. Players Advance

All players choose a Movement card from their hand, placing it face-down in front of them. After choosing, players take turns revealing their card, starting with the player farthest back on the path, and progressing forward, until all players have advanced their character. After moving, players set aside their revealed Movement card face-up beside their Character card.

Order of movement is determined by order of characters from back to front.

Should a character go to a location that has all three spaces occupied, that character advances to the foremost space in the next adjacent location on the path.

Monkey Man reveals first, and moves to the first available space on his revealed location.

The "City" location is full, so Max advances to the first available space on the next location.

Scotsman collects his card first.

3. Aku Advances

After all players have moved, draw and reveal a Movement card for Aku from the Jack/Aku Movement deck. Move Aku to the first available space on the path that matches the location/color of the revealed Movement card, which can then be discarded.

Move Aku to first available space on closest revealed location.

4. Resolve Character and Location Effects

After Jack, all players, and Aku have advanced along the path, resolve actions for locations occupied by characters (including Jack and Aku), starting with the character farthest ahead on the path:

A. Players collect one Support card for the location they occupy, from the available face-up cards on that location section of the game board, and put it in front of their Character card.

Note: If there are no more cards available to collect for the location, that player does not take any action (unless they are on the same location tile as Jack. See "B.")

B. Special rules for Jack: Players in a location with Jack collect one Honor point, and may choose to draw the top Support card from the deck to place in front of them instead of collecting one of the face-up cards available.

Sir Rothchild and Monkey Man each receive an Honor point and draw or choose a Support card.

Scotsman can choose any card from the "Jungle" location and place it in front of their Character card.

Special rules for Aku: Players in a location with Aku cannot collect any Support cards or Honor points, and will have their Movement card determined randomly for the next turn, as they are flung through a portal by Aku!

Note: If Jack is in the same location as Aku, advance Jack's Sanity token one space forward, as Aku continues to torment Jack.

Note: If NO players are in the same location as Jack, advance Jack's sanity counter one space forward. If the token reaches the end of the sanity track, ALL players lose the game, as Jack is driven irrevocably insane by his inner demons!

After resolving actions for all characters starting with the character farthest along on the path (including Jack and Aku), begin a new round of moving characters and resolving actions.

Character Home Locations

Each player's character has a "home" location type, as indicated on their Character card. Whenever a player advances their character to their "home" location, they may immediately return to hand all of their played Movement cards.

Ashi's home card features the blue Ruins. When playing the "Ruins" Movement card, Ashi can pick up all of her Movement cards.

Movement Cards

Each player has a set of five Movement cards, one for each of the five location types (City, Field, Desert, Jungle, Ruins). Once a player uses a card, they set it aside next to their Character card, and it cannot be used again by that player until they have used all five of their Movement cards, returning them all to their hand.

The deck of 15 Movement cards for Jack and Aku have three cards for each of the five locations. When the deck is exhausted, re-shuffle it to form a new deck. Additionally, when a player's character is on the same location as Aku, instead of choosing a Movement card from their hand, they reveal a card from the Jack/Aku deck for their movement for the turn.

Max does not collect cards, and on his next turn draws a Movement card from the Jack/Aku deck.

Support Cards

Players will collect Support cards based on their character's location each turn. These cards are kept face up in front of a player's Character card. There are three types of Support cards, as indicated by their symbols: Allies, Traits, and Weapons. Each Villain that the characters will face off against at the end of the path has sets of Support card symbols listed on it, indicating sets of cards players will try to collect to turn in and help defeat the Villain, earning them Honor points. See below for Villains and Support cards.

Ally, Trait and Weapon symbols are shown on the Support cards (for example, the Ravers Ally, the Restraint Trait, and Jack's Katana Weapon).

When moving to a space on a Villain, that player discards Support cards matching the Honor point space and collects the indicated Honor points. Note: if a player discards a Support card with their character on it, they earn an extra two Honor points per card discarded.

Villain Cards

As characters approach the end of the location path, they will come to encounter and battle the Villain. To advance to the Villain, a player must simply choose to reveal any Movement card for a location not still ahead of them on the path, thereby advancing their character to the Villain. When advancing to a Villain, a player may move their character to any of the open Honor point spaces indicated on the Villain card, as long as they have Support cards with the matching symbols indicated. Jack and Aku advance to the Villain in the same manner as players, as dictated by their revealed Movement cards (see below).

When Aku is advanced to the Villain, he occupies the lowest-scoring Honor point space still available, blocking players from claiming that space, bolstering the Villain.

Jack is set aside until all players have arrived to help in the battle.

Darkened spaces are only used if the number of players matches the number indicated below.

Max turns in two Weapons and an Ally for a total of 5 Honor points, as indicated on the Villain card. Because he turned in his Ally (Robots), he receives an additional 2 Honor points for a total of 7 Honor points.

If a player advances to the Villain and does not have Support cards to match any open spaces, they place their character beside the Villain but cannot claim an Honor point space, turn in cards, nor collect points.

End of a Round

When Jack and ALL players have advanced to the Villain, the round ends, and the next leg of the journey begins. Discard any Support cards still on location spaces on the game board. Players keep any Support cards they have collected from the round that they did not use to help defeat the Villain. Players collect all their played Movement cards to start the next round. Set up a new path by collecting the location tiles and laying out the path (with the three sets of five tiles) in the same manner as at the start of the game. Deal out new Support cards for the locations on the game board, and reveal a new Villain for the second round. Order players' characters from highest to lowest scoring from the previous round to start the next leg of the journey.

For the third and final round, repeat the same process as above, but instead of a Villain, reveal a random incarnation of Aku for the final battle! Resolve the final battle with Aku in the same manner as the Villains from the first two rounds, noting that more Support cards are required to earn Honor points and defeat Aku!

Winning the Game

At the end of the third round, players may discard any unused Support cards for one Honor point each. Then, tally up Honor points and the player with the most points wins! In case of a tie, the player that claimed the highest scoring Honor point space against Aku wins.

Losing the Game

Remember, with each turn that:

• A. No player's character advances to be in the same location as Jack, or
• B. Jack and Aku are in the same location.

Jack's Sanity tracker advances. If the token reaches the end of the meter, ALL players lose the game as Jack has succumbed to Aku's torment and is driven insane!

Encounter Tokens

Included for optional game play are four Encounter tokens (two depicting the Wolf and two depicting Aku). After laying out each of the three sets of location tiles to form the path, reveal a Jack/Aku movement card, choose three Encounter tokens at random and place face-down on a space in the specified location. These tokens occupy one of the three available spaces for the location, blocking characters from using the space.

The first time a player moves their character to that location, reveal the token. Then, each time a player resolves actions for a location with an Encounter token (including the player that reveals it), they also take the following action:

• Aku: Players on a location tile with Aku must discard a Support card at random from the cards they have collected. This is in addition to collecting a Support card from the location space, and happens first.
• Wolf: Players on a location tile with the Wolf may draw the top card of the Support card deck. This is in addition to collecting a Support card from the location space, and happens first.

Special Rules for Two Players

When playing with two players, add in a third character at random. Reveal for this character on their turn from the Jack/Aku Movement deck. This neutral character collects the bottom-most Support card from their occupied location when it is their turn to collect. The neutral character can protect Jack, but does not collect Honor points. When they reach the Villain, the character fills the highest space they are capable of completing and turns in the appropriate Support cards to the Discard pile.

Transcriber's note: the Honor point values printed on the Villain and Aku cards (the numbers in the Honor point spaces and their symbol sets) are not transcribed here, because they were not legible enough on the instruction sheet to copy reliably. The Villain rules above are complete; consult the printed Villain cards for the values.