Summoner's Isle Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Components
  • The Isle
  • Components
  • Creatures
• Set Up
• Phases
• Summoning Phase
• Actions Phase
  • Move Action
  • Attack Action
  • Removing a Creature
• Energy and Reset Phase
  • Energy
  • Reset Creatures
  • Order of Play
  • End of Round
• Game End
• Quick Reference Sheet
  • Phases per Round
  • Creature Reference
  • Ways to Acquire Energy

Objective

Players will compete across a series of rounds to have the greatest reserve of spirit energy. The player with the most energy at the end of the final round, or the first player to reach 36 energy, wins.

Components

The Isle

The Summoner's Isle boards have the following layout:

1. Energy track
2. Starting energy
3. Energy track modifiers
4. Turn Order track
5. Round track
6. A territory
7. A territory Energy Bonus
8. A summoning location

Components

• Energy counter – x4
• Journey Rune – x1
• Turn Order counter – x4
• Six-sided dice – x4

Creatures

The creature tokens come in four colour sets: Water Creatures, Earth Creatures, Metal Creatures and Forest Creatures. The component sheet shows token counts of x1, x3 and x9 for each set. Each player's set is 1 Wyrm, 3 Trolls and 9 Sprites (see Set Up).

Transcriber's note: the source sheet shows the x1 / x3 / x9 counts beside the creature sets but does not label each count with its creature type. The per-player makeup above is taken from the Set Up section.

Set Up

1. Choose either the 2 player or 3-4 player board.
2. Each player picks a coloured set of tokens comprising of 1 Wyrm, 3 Trolls, 9 Sprites, 1 Energy counter, 1 Turn Order counter and 1 die.
3. Each player places their Energy counter at '5' on the Energy track.
4. Each player places their Turn Order counter on the Turn Order track, arranged in any order you choose or chosen at random.
5. Place the Journey Rune at '1' on the Round track.

The Turn Order track determines the play order for each round. During the Energy and Reset phase, Turn Order counters are rearranged to reflect players' current Energy levels, meaning turn order could change each round.

Phases

Each round has three phases:

1. Summoning, during which you will spend energy bringing creatures to the board.
2. Actions, during which you will use your creatures to move and attack.
3. Energy and Reset, in which you will accumulate more energy for the following round, reset your creatures, and re-determine play order.

Summoning Phase

In the Summoning phase, players take turns summoning some combination of Wyrms, Trolls, and Sprites.

1. Wyrm. In turn order, each player may summon their Wyrm. To summon their Wyrm, a player:

   • Moves their Energy counter down five spaces on the Energy track.
   • Places their Wyrm token face-up on any vacant Summoning location.

   If a player doesn't have an available Wyrm token or the required energy, they may not summon a Wyrm this round.

2. Trolls. In turn order, each player may summon one or more of their Trolls. To summon a Troll, a player:

   • Moves their Energy counter down three spaces on the Energy track.
   • Places a Troll token face-up on any vacant Summoning location.

   If a player summons two or more Trolls, they do not have to be placed in adjacent locations. If a player does not have any available Troll tokens or the required energy to summon, they may not summon Trolls this round.

3. Sprites. In turn order, each player may summon one or more of their Sprites. To summon a Sprite, a player:

   • Moves their Energy counter down one space on the Energy track.
   • Places a Sprite token face-up on any vacant Summoning location.

   If a player summons two or more Sprites, they do not have to be placed in adjacent locations. If a player does not have any available Sprite tokens or the required energy to summon, they may not summon Sprites this round.

Actions Phase

In the Action phase, players must activate their creatures in the following order:

1. In turn order, each player may take up to two Actions with their Wyrm.
2. In turn order, each player may take up to three Actions with each of their Trolls. A player must finish activating one Troll and flip it face down before activating another Troll.
3. In turn order, each player may take one Action with each of their Sprites. A player must finish activating one Sprite and flip it face down before activating another Sprite.

The number of Actions a creature may take can be found on the top left section of its face-up token.

Each Action can either be used to move or to attack. A creature may make any combination of move or attack actions up to its Action limit. Once a creature has completed all required actions, flip its token face-down to its inactive side. Inactive creatures cannot take any further actions this round, but can still be attacked as normal.

Move Action

Summoning locations on the board are connected via marked paths. Any creature can spend an action to move to an empty adjacent Summoning location.

Alternatively, a creature can move through locations occupied by creatures controlled by the same player. In this case, the move must end in an empty location, and the creature must spend one action per location moved. If the creature does not have enough actions to complete the move, it cannot be performed.

A creature can never move through another player's creatures.

Wyrms. Wyrms may make a special type of movement. You may spend one energy to have your Wyrm trade locations with another of your creatures that is in an adjacent location without spending an action. You may do this any number of times during the Wyrm's activation, spending one energy each time you trade locations.

Attack Action

Any creature can spend an action to attack another player's creature in an adjacent location. To perform an attack, do the following:

1. Roll a six-sided die (d6) and add it to the creature's Attack Bonus.
2. If the total matches or exceeds the defending creature's Defence value, the defending creature is removed from the board, and the attacking creature moves into the vacated location.
3. If the total is lower than the defending creature's Defence value, the attack fails, and both creatures remain in their locations.

A creature's Attack Bonus value is shown in the bottom left corner of its token. A creature's Defence value is shown in the bottom right corner of its token.

Sprite Defence. Unlike Wyrms and Trolls, Sprites do not have a fixed Defence value. When a Sprite is attacked, the defending player determines the Sprite's Defence value by rolling a d6 and adding 1 for each additional Sprite within the same territory.

Example: John uses his Troll's first action to attack Sarah's Sprite. He rolls the d6 and gets a 4. He then adds his +2 Attack bonus for a total of 6. As the attacked creature is a Sprite, Sarah now also must roll a d6. Doing so, she also gets a 4. She has three other Sprites in the same territory as the attacked Sprite, so she adds 3 to her roll for a total of 7. John's attack fails this time as he did not match or beat the Sprite's Defence, but as he has two actions remaining, he can choose to attack again.

Removing a Creature

When you remove an opponent's creature from the board, you immediately move your Energy counter up a number of spaces on the Energy track:

• Three energy for a removed Wyrm
• Two energy for a removed Troll
• One energy for a removed Sprite

Creatures removed from the board are returned to their player, and can be used again from the beginning of the next round.

Energy and Reset Phase

In the Energy and Reset Phase, players will consolidate Energy, reset their creatures, and establish the turn order for the next round.

Energy

Energy Modifier. In turn order, each player adjusts their Energy total based on the energy modifier as shown on the Energy track:

• A player with 9 or less energy gains five energy.
• A player between 10 and 18 energy gains three energy.
• A player between 24 and 29 energy loses three energy.
• A player between 30 and 35 energy loses five energy.

Transcriber's note: the printed modifiers do not state a value for a player on 19 to 23 energy. The source gives no modifier for that range, so none is listed here.

Sprite Special Ability. In turn order, each player gains one Energy for each of their Sprites in a territory that contains no creatures other than their own.

Domination Bonus. In turn order, each player whose creatures occupy every location within a territory may gain Energy equal to the Energy Bonus shown on the board for that territory. Energy Bonuses vary between 1 and 3.

Reset Creatures

Flip all creatures on the board so that they are face-up.

The source shows a face-down creature token and a face-up creature token as the reference images for this step.

Order of Play

Rearrange the Turn Order counters so that the player with the lowest energy total is first in the turn order, second lowest is second, and so forth.

If there is a tie for any position, the player who was further back in the turn order in the current round takes the earlier position.

Example: John and Sarah are tied for the first position in the next round. John was second in the current round and Sarah was fourth. So Sarah is awarded first position for the next round, and John will be second.

End of Round

Move the Journey Rune to the next space on the Round track and start the next round.

Game End

Summoner's Isle ends either when:

1. A player reaches or exceeds 36 Energy, in which case they are immediately awarded Summoner status and win the game. Note that this happens immediately, so even if another player would reach or surpass 36 Energy later in the round, it is the first player to do so that wins.
2. The final round ends*. At this point the player with the most energy wins the game, but is not granted Summoner status. If two or more players are tied for most Energy, the winner is the tied player whose Turn Order Counter was later in the Turn Order during the final Round.

Example: John and Sarah are tied on 27 Energy. In the final round, John went second, and Sarah went third. So Sarah wins the game.

* There are Six Rounds in a standard game. An optional Seventh Round is available for Three to Four player games, but must be agreed upon before the First Round starts.

Quick Reference Sheet

Phases per Round

• Summoning phase – Spend energy to summon creatures to the isle. First Wyrms, then Trolls, then Sprites.
• Action phase – Creatures move and attack. First Wyrms, then Trolls, then Sprites.
• Energy and Reset phase – Accumulate energy, reset your creatures and re-determine Turn Order.

Creature Reference

Wyrm

• Summoning cost: 5 energy
• Actions available: 2
• Attack: +4
• Defence: 8
• Energy gained by opponent when defeated: 3
• Special ability: When activated you may spend 1 energy to have your Wyrm trade places with adjacent creatures you also control. You may do so any number of times at the cost of 1 energy per trade.

Troll

• Summoning cost: 3 energy
• Actions available: 3
• Attack: +2
• Defence: 7
• Energy gained by opponent when defeated: 2

Sprite

• Summoning cost: 1 energy
• Actions available: 1
• Attack: +1
• Defence: 1d6, +1 for each additional Sprite you control within that territory.
• Energy gained by opponent when defeated: 1
• Special ability: Gain 1 energy for each Sprite within uncontested territory during the Energy and Reset Phase.

Ways to Acquire Energy

• Low position on Energy Track
• Uncontested Sprites
• Dominating Terrain
• Removing rival creatures from the Isle