The Hills Rise Wild! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Components
• Assembly
  • The Characters & Hats
  • The Mystery Cards
  • The Faction Sheets
• About the Components
  • The Board Tiles
    • Doors & Windows
    • Trees & Bushes
    • Fences
    • Tombstones
    • Furniture, Flowers, Skulls, Sinister Green Globules, and Other Elements
  • The Mystery Cards
  • Nitpicky Rules
  • The Faction Sheets
  • The Characters & Corpses
  • The Die
  • The Tape Measure
• Getting Ready to Play
  • Who Goes First?
  • Choose a Faction
  • Dealing the Game Tiles
  • Placing the Game Tiles
  • Preparing the Mystery Cards
  • Quick Notes
  • Dealing the Mystery Cards
  • The Characters
  • That's It!
• Order of Play
• Movement Phase
  • Restrictions on Movement
  • Moving Characters
  • Obstacles
  • Narrow Spaces
  • Board Edges
  • Perspective
  • Melee Range
  • Breaking Melee
  • Abilities
  • Mystery Cards
  • Dropping Item Cards
  • Picking Up Item Cards
• Combat Phase
  • Facing
  • Combat Modifiers Summary
    • Hat Modifiers
    • Facing Modifiers
    • Ranged Weapon Modifiers
    • Firearm Modifiers
  • Line of Sight
  • Ranged Attacks
    • Notes on Ranged Attacks
  • Melee Attacks
    • Ranged Weapons in Melee
• Winning the Game
  • Step One: Find a Seal
  • Step Two: Open Thuh Mansion
  • Step Three: Find the Necronomicon
  • Step Four: Get Home
  • Step Five: Summon Your God
• Optional Rules
  • Dealing Mystery Cards
  • Sentry
  • Firing Into Melee
  • Movement Modifiers on Combat
  • Fudging
• Variants
  • Capture the Flag
  • Last Team Standing
  • Mix & Match
  • Wrong Side of the Tracks
• Planned Board Layouts (PBLs)
• Designers' Notes
• Damage Table
• Brutal Damage Table
• Movement Modifiers
• Combat Modifiers

Object of the Game

The premise is so simple it's almost ignorant: Old Wizard Whateley has died and left behind his fabled copy of the Necronomicon, an ancient tome of powerful magic. Each player controls a faction of six characters, each of whom has unique abilities and all of whom want the book. Players send their factions to battle against each other while exploring the game board in search of useful items contained on Mystery Cards. In particular, players seek the Whateley Seal, a magic item that can open the doors to Thuh Mansion--where the Necronomicon is hidden. Whoever gets the Necronomicon races to get it back to home base, from which the characters may use the book to summon their monstrous god and win the game. Of course, rival factions try to wrest away the seal or the book, or else simply attempt to destroy all the other factions and be the last ones alive. Either way, somebody's going to spill some blood!

Components

Your game should contain the following items:

• 18 Game Tiles
• 1 deck of 40 Mystery Cards (including 8 reference cards)
• 1 folded cardstock sheet containing 24 Characters, 24 Dead Characters, 24 Stun Hats, 24 Slam Hats, 24 Unk Hats, 6 Jam Hats, 4 Flag Hats, and 15 Item Hats (several blank Hats are included for your use as well)
• 1 Pocket Tape Measure
• 1 Twenty-Sided Die (D20)
• Rulebook, including 3 11"x17" Faction Sheets

Assembly

The Characters & Hats

Using scissors or a paper cutter, carefully cut along the solid lines to remove the characters, the dead characters, and the Hats. For the characters and hats, use the dull side of a knife to score along the dashed lines so that they'll fold better. Each character should be folded into an "A" shape according to the above diagram. Tape a penny to the bottom so the character won't be blown around the board by sudden motion, and also to give the character bases a size (3/4"), consistent with the measurements used in these rules. (If you're in another country and don't have 24 American pennies lying around the house, use local coinage or bits of cardboard about 3/4" in diameter. Alternately, use smaller coinage and just push the sides of the figure out beyond the edge of the coin until it's 3/4" across, then apply tape.)

The twenty-four characters are divided into four factions: The Marsh Clan, the DeGhoule Clan, the Whateley Clan, and the Cult of Ezekiel. The characters are color-coded by faction, so you can sort them easily.

The dead characters are not folded. They are placed flat on the board during play to mark where a character died.

Hats are folded in half and placed over the top of a character when the appropriate condition--Stunned (Stun), Slammed (Slam), Unconscious (Unk), or Fumbled (Jam)--is in effect. (Item Hats are folded in half and placed on the board to mark the location of dropped items.) The non-Item Hats are color-coded and initialed by faction, and the player who inflicted the Hat result places his or her color hat on the enemy character.

The Mystery Cards

Unwrap the deck and look for the 8 reference cards. (The fronts of these cards have a white background and show things like modifiers and charts.) Set these aside, since they aren't used directly in the game--they're just for the players to refer to in the course of play. You should use a rubber band to wrap around the card deck for storage when you're not playing.

The Faction Sheets

In the middle of this rulebook are three double-sided 11"x17" faction sheets. Pry open the staples with a dull knife or other flat object, remove the faction sheets, and close the staples back down again. Cut the sheets apart along the folds so that you end up with 6 sheets of paper, containing 3 copies of 4 factions. You'll be marking up the faction sheets during play, so make photocopies of them or download more for free from our website (www.tccorp.com). Alternatively, you can use small counters to mark the sheets and keep them clean, or take them to a copy shop and have them laminated for use with erasable markers.

About the Components

Before we get into the rules of the game, let's look at the components so the rules make more sense as you read them.

The Board Tiles

There are 18 board tiles in the game, from which you will create a 4 tile by 4 tile grid that makes up the game board. On the tiles are buildings, fences, trees & bushes, and other elements. You'll place your characters on the board and move them around the terrain. Here are the important features of the tiles:

Doors & Windows

Notice that the doors and windows are marked with color-coded bars over them: red for doors, light blue for windows. These are to help you spot them on the board. You can only enter a building through its doors and/or windows. However, windows are harder to move through than doors are; they are referred to as partial obstacles.

Trees & Bushes

You cannot move through these elements; they are called total obstacles.

Fences

Like windows, fences are partial obstacles that you can move through slowly.

Tombstones

Also partial obstacles--faster to go around them than through them.

Furniture, Flowers, Skulls, Sinister Green Globules, and Other Elements

These are just fun to look at. As far as gameplay is concerned, they do not exist in any way.

The Mystery Cards

Not including the reference cards, there are 32 Mystery Cards in the game. There are four kinds of Mystery Cards: Shack Event, Shack Item, Mansion Event, and Mansion Item. In addition to being labeled at the very top of each card face, they're color-coded for ease of reference: Shack cards have a gray background, and Mansion cards have a red background; Items have a green border, and Events have a purple border. All cards have the same backs, however.

Event cards have two further categories: Mandatory and Elective. If you draw a Mandatory Event card, you must do what the card says. If you draw an Elective Event card, you may choose to ignore what the card says. Item cards are assumed to be Elective--you can pick them up or leave them where they are--although there are exceptions.

Nitpicky Rules

Although The Hills Rise Wild! is designed for fast and easy play, you may find that this rulebook is kind of nitpicky. Don't sweat it. Just read it over, try a game, and fudge what you don't know--this isn't meant to be rocket science or wargaming. We tried to make the rulebook nitpicky so that if you really want a consistent answer to some rules question, you can find it somewhere in these rules. But really, we don't even use all this stuff all the time. It's just a framework to have fun with, and if you want to sweat the details, they're here for you to sweat. Otherwise, just play with the rules you remember best and don't concern yourself with trifles.

The Faction Sheets

The faction sheets contain the 6 characters that make up your group. Each character has a name, a space for a Mystery Card, and several scores that represent his or her abilities, as described below:

• Life: This shows you how many Life points you have. The more circles, the more Life, and therefore the harder your character is to kill. Mark off each Life point when damage is dealt.
• Ammo: This shows you how many times you may use a weapon before it is out of ammunition and becomes useless. Mark these circles off as you use them. Some cards and characters allow you to reload some kinds of weapons. Not all characters have ammo-using weapons and thus will have no ammo circles.
• Movement: This is how many inches the character may move during the Movement Phase. Your Movement is also spent on actions such as picking up and dropping items.
• Defense Modifier: This number modifies another player's die roll when he or she is attacking your character. Numbers with a - are good; numbers with a + are bad. The Defense score represents both the character's skill at dodging and any protections such as thick skin, body armor, being made of extra-dimensional tissue, or cussed stubbornness.
• Melee Weapon: This is the kind of weapon the character uses in hand-to-hand combat.
• Melee Attacks: This is the number of melee attacks the character may take during his or her Combat Phase. Few characters have more than 1.
• Melee Modifier: This number modifies your die roll when making melee attacks. Numbers with a + are good; numbers with a - are bad. The Attack score represents both any weapon in use and the character's skill at fighting.
• Melee Damage: This number modifies your die roll when rolling on the Damage Table and/or Brutal Damage Table after a successful attack. Numbers with a + are good; numbers with a - are bad. The Damage score represents both any weapon in use and the character's strength.

Example character block (Captain Obed Marsh, Marsh Clan): Movement 5; Defense Modifier -3. Melee Attack: Weapon Claws, Attacks 1, Modifier +4, Damage +1. Ranged Attack: Weapon .38 Revolver, Range 18, Attacks 1, Modifier +3, Damage +0. Ability: During his Combat Phase, any other Marsh characters within 6 inches gain a +1 bonus to Melee and Ranged Attacks. Special Ability: At any time, Captain Marsh can treat a Brutal Damage result scored against him as a miss. This may be used after the Brutal result has been rolled, but must be used before another roll occurs.

The Characters & Corpses

Each character figure lists the character's Movement, Defense Modifier, and name. Character pieces are color-coded by faction. Each character has a front and a back, the facing of which affects combat. When a character dies, you take the piece off the board and place the corresponding dead character piece in his or her place.

The Die

The die you roll in the game is numbered from 1 to 20. We refer to it in the rules as a D20.

The Tape Measure

The tape measure is for determining where your characters can move or attack. You may make measurements at any time, whether or not you have declared what actions you are taking, or even if it isn't your turn. To measure the distance from a character to another character or to a location, use the folded edge at the top of the figure as the relevant point. You may measure by any point along that folded edge, not just the exact center.

Getting Ready to Play

Who Goes First?

• Each player rolls the D20 die.
• The player with the highest result goes first. Re-roll ties.
• Once the first player is determined, play proceeds clockwise around the table.

Choose a Faction

• Each player should choose which faction he or she wants to play for this game.
• You can either agree among yourselves who plays each faction, or you can choose starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, or you can place the faction sheets face-down on the table and choose randomly.
• Each player should take the appropriate faction sheet, the six faction characters, the six faction dead characters, and the faction's color-coded faction Hats, and the faction's home tile. (The home tiles are labeled with the faction's name in the lower right-hand corner.)
• If there are fewer than four players, any unused faction sheets, characters, dead characters, Hats, and home tiles should be set aside and will not be used in play.

Dealing the Game Tiles

With the appropriate home tiles distributed, you may need to remove tiles from the rest according to how many players are in this game:

• 2 Players: Use all remaining non-home tiles.
• 3 Players: Remove the tile titled Black Goat Field.
• 4 Players: Remove the tile titled Black Goat Field and Witch Grove.

Including the home tiles you already have, you'll have 16 tiles left to play with. Now the first player will deal the remaining tiles to the players:

• Turn the non-home tiles face down and shuffle them.

• Deal 1 tile to each player beginning with the first player and proceeding clockwise around the table.

• Continue dealing until all the tiles are dealt. (If there are three players, the first player will start with one more tile than the other two players.)

• Do not show the tiles you are dealt to the other players. You may look at your own tiles.

Placing the Game Tiles

• The 16 game tiles are placed in a 4 tile x 4 tile grid.
• All tiles must be oriented the same direction--that is, the text at the bottom of each tile should be facing the same way.
• To start, home tiles are placed in the corners nearest the respective players. Or, you may choose corners beginning with the first player and continuing clockwise. Put the home tiles in place before continuing.
• The first player chooses 1 tile from his or her hand and places it on the table face-up, anywhere within the grid. Continue clockwise around the table until all tiles have been dealt and the 4 tile x 4 tile grid is completed.
• You may move or replace a tile you have just placed, but only if the next player has not placed a tile yet. Tiles you have placed in previous turns may not be moved or replaced except by mutual agreement of all players.
• The Mansion: Whoever has The Mansion tile must place it before he or she places any other tile, and it must be placed within certain locations depending on how many players are in the game. See the diagrams below to place this tile correctly when it comes up.

Grid diagrams (rows listed top to bottom, columns left to right; "Home" = home tile, "Mansion OK" = a location where the Thuh Mansion tile may be placed):

• 2-Player Grid: Row 1: Home Tile, -, -, Mansion OK. Row 2: -, -, Mansion OK, -. Row 3: -, Mansion OK, -, -. Row 4: Mansion OK, -, -, Home Tile.
• 3 or 4-Player Grid: Row 1: Home Tile, -, -, Home Tile. Row 2: -, Mansion OK, Mansion OK, -. Row 3: -, Mansion OK, Mansion OK, -. Row 4: Home Tile, -, -, Home Tile.

Preparing the Mystery Cards

First you prepare the Shack Deck. The Shack Deck consists of 12 random cards, 1 of which has to be the Shack Item card called Thuh Great Whateley Seal. (There's also a Shack Item card called Thuh Secret Whateley Seal. Just treat it like any other card; only Thuh Great Whateley Seal is important right now.) Here's the procedure:

• Remove all the Mansion Cards from the deck.
• Find Thuh Great Whateley Seal and remove it from the deck.
• Shuffle the remaining Mystery Cards and then deal 11 cards face-down into a single stack. This is the Shack Deck. Do not look at the card faces.
• Put the undealt cards aside; you will not use them in this game.
• Put Thuh Great Whateley Seal card anywhere in the Shack Deck, which will now have 12 cards.
• Shuffle the Shack Deck again.

Now you will prepare the Mansion Deck. The Mansion Deck consists of 4 random cards, 1 of which has to be the Mansion Item card called Ah Found Thuh Necronomicon. Here's the procedure:

• Take the Mansion Cards that you set aside earlier.
• Find the card titled Ah Found Thuh Necronomicon and remove it from the deck.
• Shuffle the remaining Mystery Cards and then deal 3 cards face-down into a single stack. This is the Mansion Deck. Do not look at the card faces.
• Put the undealt cards aside; you will not use them in this game.
• Put the Ah Found Thuh Necronomicon card anywhere in the Mansion Deck, which will now have 4 cards.
• Shuffle the Mansion Deck again.

Quick Notes

Here are a few minor things you should know before playing:

• Turns & Rounds: When play passes to you, it is your turn. When every player has taken a turn, that is a round.
• No Secrets: Everyone may look at everyone else's faction sheets. You may ask other players for details of their characters, including current Life points, ammo, items carried, etc., and they must tell you.
• Discarding: If a card instructs you to discard it, that means to remove the card from play--don't set it back down on the game board.
• Elevation: The game tiles are considered to be flat and all play occurs at the same elevation. No location is higher or lower than any other. You cannot climb on top of buildings or other objects on the game tiles. In effect, this is a two-dimensional game, not a three-dimensional game.
• Sequential Action: All actions in the game are sequential, not simultaneous, and are considered to be resolved as soon as they are complete. For example, if you make an attack then the results of that attack occur and are applied before the next attack occurs. If one of your characters wounds an enemy, and then another of your characters attacks that enemy, the enemy is already wounded at the start of your second character's attack. If you kill an enemy that you had planned to next attack with another character, that character may attack someone else instead or make no attacks at all. Everything is resolved step by step.

Dealing the Mystery Cards

First, you will deal Shack Deck cards onto the shacks. These are the small square buildings on the game tiles. Deal them as follows:

• Place 1 card face down on each shack. You may place the cards onto the shacks in any order.
• If a tile has 2 shacks on it, make sure to deal 1 card to each shack.
• Do not place any cards on the home tiles, or on tiles with no shacks. Continue until every shack has 1 card on it. When this is done you should have no cards left from the Shack Deck.
• Make sure the cards do not obscure any doors or windows on the shacks.

Second, you will deal the Mansion Deck cards onto the rooms of Thuh Mansion game tile. Deal them as follows:

• Place 1 card face down on each of the four corner rooms. When this is done you should have no cards left from the Mansion Deck. No card goes on the narrow hallway.

The Characters

Now each player will position his or her 6 characters on the table.

• The first player puts his or her characters down first.
• All characters must begin on your faction's home tile.
• They may be placed anywhere within your home tile--inside buildings, outside buildings, at the very edge of the tile, wherever.
• When the first player is done, continue clockwise around the table until all players have placed their characters.

That's It!

You are ready to begin playing The Hills Rise Wild! God help you.

Order of Play

During your turn, you have a Movement Phase and a Combat Phase. During the Movement Phase, you move some, all, or none of your characters and take Movement-related actions, such as picking up and dropping items or activating abilities or items that work during the Movement Phase. Once you have dealt with your characters' Movement Phase, you then start the Combat Phase in which some, all, or none of your characters take Combat-related actions, such as attacking and activating abilities or items that work during the Combat Phase. When the Combat Phase is completed, play passes clockwise to the next player.

Movement Phase

During the Movement Phase, you move your characters as you see fit, up to the maximum of each character's Movement score--or not at all, if you wish. You may do other things as well, and all of these possible options are referred to as movement actions. They include:

• Actually moving the character.
• Revealing Mystery Cards.
• Picking up, dropping, or transferring items.
• Using abilities or items that can be used, or can only be used, during your Movement Phase.

Restrictions on Movement

Some movement actions cost part of your movement score. Simple movement, for example, costs 1" of your movement for each 1" you move the character. Other movement actions cost specific amounts. If you do not have enough movement points left for a given action, you cannot take that action. Unused Movement is ignored.

Other movement actions do not cost movement points, but they are restricted to use during the Movement Phase. If a character's Movement Phase ends--for example, a card might do something and then tell you that "movement ends"--that character may not take any more movement actions this turn.

Moving Characters

• You do not have to declare all of your movement actions at the start of the phase; in fact, you don't have to declare anything until you're ready to do it.
• All movement actions, such as revealing Mystery Cards or using abilities, must be resolved for a character before you can move another character.
• Characters may move in straight lines, turns, curves, or whatever you like. To determine where your character can move to, use the tape measure.
• You may rotate your character in any direction you like, at any point during your character's Movement Phase, as many times as you wish. The character's final facing is your choice. Rotating the character piece does not change how much movement you have left. Yes, this means you could move your full distance and then spin around at the last moment at no penalty. You may only rotate during your Movement Phase; if your character does not have a Movement Phase this turn for some reason--such as being Stunned or Slammed--the character may not rotate.
• You may move your characters in any order.
• Keep in mind that there are some abilities and special abilities that require your character to not move. Make sure you use any such actions before you move your character around.

Obstacles

Obstacles are elements on the game tiles. You may move through some of them, but not others; the former are Partial Obstacles and the latter are Total Obstacles:

• Partial Obstacles, which you can move through: Windows, Fences, Tombstones.
• Total Obstacles, which you cannot move through: Walls, Bushes, Trees, Characters, and the doors to Thuh Mansion if they have not been opened with the Whateley Seal item.
• Moving through a partial obstacle costs your character an extra 2" of his or her total movement for that round.
• For purposes of play, furniture in buildings does not exist; such items are present simply to decorate the game tiles.
• Unconscious or dead characters are not obstacles and offer no movement penalty or benefit. Stunned or slammed characters are total obstacles, just as normal characters are.

Narrow Spaces

For a character to move, there must be enough width for the character figure to move through. If there is not enough physical space available, the character cannot move through that point. The width of the character figure is defined by his or her base, which is the diameter of a penny: about 3/4".

Exception: When a tile is placed at the edge of the game board, there might not be enough width on its outside edge(s) for a character to move through. Ignore this and just assume there's sufficient space. As long as there is some ground showing at the edge of the board, characters can move along that edge.

(Page diagram: illustrates Normal Movement with no penalty around obstacles; Illegal Move through a Total Obstacle; +2" Movement for a Partial Obstacle.)

Board Edges

No movement can occur beyond the edges of the game board. If a character is instructed to move beyond an edge of the board--because of a knockback result on the Brutal Damage Table, for example--then movement simply stops at the edge of the board as it would against any total obstacle.

Perspective

The overhead perspective used to depict the elements on the board tiles means there is dead space between, for example, the edge of a building's floor and the outer edge of the adjacent wall. This may lead to confusion as to where the characters can move. Use these guidelines:

• Characters inside a structure can move to the edge of the floor.
• Characters outside a structure can move to the outer edge of the wall.
• You may fudge this slightly (especially at the edges of the board) as long as all players understand which characters are inside and which are outside.

Melee Range

To make a melee attack, you must be within melee range of your target. Moving within melee range of an enemy character, even accidentally or as part of a longer movement action, puts the characters in melee.

(Page diagram: a character with a Partial Obstacle between it and an enemy is In Melee, obstacle ignored; with a Total Obstacle between, Not in Melee. Two paths that both enter melee must Break Melee to continue.)

• Melee range is one inch or less, measured as usual between the top folded edges of the characters.
• If there is a total obstacle between the two of you, you are not in melee range and may not attack.
• If there is a partial obstacle between the two of you, you are in melee range and may attack.

Breaking Melee

If you are in melee with another character, you may not take any movement actions without breaking melee. This means that although you can take your action, the enemy character you are in melee with may get an instant attack on you at a bonus. As noted earlier, movement actions include moving, picking up and dropping items, and abilities used during your Movement phase. Breaking melee is resolved with the following procedure:

• Roll the D20.
• If you roll a 12 or higher, you may take your movement action at no penalty.
• If you fail the roll, you still get to take your movement action but the enemy gets an immediate counterattack, which is resolved before your action occurs; some results (such as Stun, Slam, or Unk) may void your movement action after all. This does not negate the enemy's normal attack during his or her next turn.
• The free attack is made with a +4 bonus.
• Ignore facing modifiers for this free attack.

There are some melee situations in which you can break melee at no penalty:

• If the target has his or her back towards you.
• If the target is Slammed or Unconscious.
• If there is a partial obstacle between you and the target.

Abilities

Some characters have abilities that say they can or must be used during their Movement Phase:

• If you want to use such an ability, you must do so while moving that character.
• If you are not moving the character this turn, just use the ability and that is considered the character's move.
• If you have finished moving the character and have started moving another, it's too late to use the character's ability.

Mystery Cards

Mystery Cards are placed face-down on the shacks and in the rooms of Thuh Mansion tile. During the Movement Phase, characters can reveal the cards:

• To reveal a card, the character must fully enter the shack or room; no part of the figure's base can be outside the location. Revealing a card costs no additional movement.
• Revealed cards are flipped over for everyone to see and remain face-up; this costs no movement.
• Exception: Some characters have abilities that can reveal cards without entering their location; in these cases, the player simply looks at the card briefly and then puts it back face-down without showing it to anyone else. The card does not activate and may not be used until it is actually revealed by a character in the location. You're just getting a sneak peek at the card.
• Right after revealing the card, read what it says.
• If the card is an Event, it usually occurs immediately. Some events are Elective: you may choose whether or not to activate it. Other events are Mandatory: you must do what the card says.
• After revealing an Elective Event card or encountering an already-revealed Elective Event card, you may choose to take other movement actions before activating the card, if you activate it at all.
• If the card is an Item, the character may pick it up if he or she is not already carrying an item and has sufficient Movement score remaining to do so.
• If multiple cards are to be encountered at once by the same character, resolve Items before resolving Events, and resolve Mandatory Events before Elective ones.

Dropping Item Cards

• Dropping an item card costs 2" of your character's total movement for this round. Move the card next to your faction sheet ready to hand to the next player who takes it, and place the matching item Hat on the board anywhere within melee range of your character.
• When a character with an item is dead, place the matching item Hat on the board anywhere on top of the dead character figure.

Picking Up Item Cards

• Unless otherwise stated, each character can only carry one item card. If your character is already carrying an item, you cannot pick another one up without dropping the currently carried item.
• Picking up an item card costs 2" of your character's total movement for this round. If you don't have enough movement, you cannot pick up the item.
• To pick up an item, your character must be standing within melee range of the item Hat--unless it is a Mystery Card you have just turned face-up, in which case simply revealing the card enables you to pick it up. (However, using a character's ability to reveal a card remotely does not entitle you to pick it up.)
• You may take an item card from an unconscious character for the usual 2" cost, but you must be in melee range. Unconscious characters suffer no movement penalty for transferring the card to you--you're just taking it off their body while they're knocked out.
• You may not take an item from a character who is not dead or unconscious unless it is a voluntary transfer, described below.

Transferring Item Cards

Two characters may transfer an item between them if they are in melee range:

• Each character must spend 2" of his or her total movement for this round.
• If a character does not have enough movement remaining, or gets no Movement Phase this round for some reason, the transfer cannot occur.
• If the characters are on different factions but voluntarily agree to a transfer, the player who is not currently moving must apply the movement penalty to that character at the start of his or her next turn.

Unusual Movement

Some cards and abilities allow unusual movement, such as teleporting across the board. If the description states that your movement ends immediately afterwards, it means your character's Movement Phase is now over and you cannot take any more movement actions.

Movement Modifiers Summary

You apply the following modifiers to your Movement score during your turn, as noted. These modifiers are repeated on the reference tables later in this rulebook and on the reference cards, though without these additional explanations.

• Movement through clear terrain: no modifier (this is simple movement)
• Movement through partial obstacle: -2" movement (this is movement through windows, fences, and tombstones)
• Picking up an item: -2" movement (if you don't have the movement to spend, or can't spend it, you can't pick up the item)
• Dropping an item: -2" movement (if you don't have the movement to spend, or can't spend it, you can't drop the item)

Combat Phase

During the Combat Phase, you may make attacks in any order. Each character's attack(s) must be resolved before starting another one. A single character may only make one attack, either Ranged or Melee, unless the character has the option of making multiple attacks of a single type.

Facing

To attack a target, your character must be facing the target. Depending on your respective positions, the facing of the figures may entitle you to a side or back attack, which offer positive modifiers for your attack. (Unconscious characters have no facing, and offer no side or back attack modifiers. They are presumed to be lying prone, and there is a separate modifier for unconscious characters.) To determine facing, consult the diagram at the top of the next page. If your character straddles two facing zones, he or she is considered to be in the zone where the center of the character is located.

(Diagram: the area around a character is divided into four zones by diagonal lines--FRONT, left SIDE, right SIDE, and BACK.)

Combat Modifiers Summary

You apply the following modifiers to your Attack roll as noted. These modifiers are repeated on the reference tables later in this rulebook and on the reference cards.

Hat Modifiers

• Defender Stunned: +1 (Stunned characters have no Movement Phase)
• Defender Slammed: +3 (Slammed characters have no Movement or Combat Phases)
• Defender Unconscious: +7 (Unconscious characters have no facing, and there is no facing bonus to attack them)

Facing Modifiers

• Attacking from the side: +2
• Attacking from the rear: +4

Ranged Weapon Modifiers

• Any partial obstacle(s) in line of sight: -3 (this penalty is not cumulative for multiple partial obstacles; either it doesn't apply or it's at -3)

Firearm Modifiers

• Target distant more than half the weapon's range: -2 (this only applies to firearms, not other ranged attacks)

Line of Sight

To make an attack on a target, your character must have line of sight: a straight line between the two characters that is within the range of your attack method.

(Diagram: No Attack when a total obstacle blocks the line; Normal Attack in the open; Partial Obstacle Penalty when a window, fence, or tombstone lies in the line.)

• Line of sight is stopped by total obstacles, which include other characters, walls, bushes, trees, and the doors to Thuh Mansion if they have not been opened.
• Line of sight is not stopped by partial obstacles, which include windows, fences, and tombstones. However, partial obstacles may apply a penalty modifier to the attack.
• Some attacks may ignore line of sight, and therefore are not affected by either partial or total obstacles. Some attacks may make turns to determine line of sight, allowing the line to be traced around obstacles as needed or desired. All such attacks explain this in their descriptions.

Ranged Attacks

Characters with ranged weapons may make ranged attacks. These usually consist of a firearm, a spell, a magic item, or a psychic ability:

• Declare which character is attacking and who the target is. Some ranged weapons affect multiple targets at once, or allow for multiple attacks; all attacks by a single character must be declared before continuing.
• The target must be within your weapon's range, as listed on the faction sheet. Range between figures is measured in the usual way, from top folded edge to top folded edge.
• Your character must have line of sight to your target. That is, there must be a straight line between the two figures without any total obstacles in the way. Line of sight has no width--any straight line between the figures, no matter how narrow, is okay.
• Compute modifiers. These include your character's Ranged Attack Modifier, the target's Defense Modifier, and anything applicable from the Combat Modifiers Table. Total all of these together to produce a final modifier.
• Roll the D20 and apply the final modifier to the number you rolled.
• If your modified roll is a 12 or higher, you hit. Make a roll on the Damage Table and apply the results to the target.
• If your unmodified roll is a 20, or your modified roll is a 20 or higher, this is a Critical Success (Crit). You hit and get to make a roll on the Brutal Damage Table instead of the regular one.
• If your unmodified roll is a 1, or your modified roll is a 1 or lower, this is a Fumble. You miss and you lose the point of ammo, if there was one.

Notes on Ranged Attacks

• If there is a partial obstacle in line of sight, there is a -3 penalty to the attack as per the Combat Modifiers Table. This is not cumulative--whether there is one partial obstacle or three in line of sight, the penalty is still just -3.
• Partial Obstacle Exception: If the attacker is in melee range of the partial obstacle, such as when standing next to a window or fence, that obstacle does not count as a penalty.
• Mark off one circle on your ranged weapon's Ammo, if it uses Ammo. If you had no Ammo left before the attack, you may not attack.
• Do not apply the modifier to the target number of 12 (so that you are instead rolling against a 7 or a 15 or whatever). You must apply the modifier to your die result instead, so that Crits and Fumbles can be recognized properly.

Melee Attacks

Characters in melee range of a target may make melee attacks. Some characters can make melee attacks against targets who are not actually in melee range; these are resolved normally, except that the characters are not considered to be in melee range for purposes of Fumbles and breaking melee.

• Declare which character is attacking and who the target is. Some characters can attack multiple targets or have multiple attacks; all attacks by a single character must be declared before continuing.
• You must have line of sight between the two figures, as per Ranged Attacks.
• If there is a partial obstacle between your character and the target, there is no penalty to the melee attack. However, there is also no breaking melee penalty for either combatant.
• Compute modifiers. These include your character's Melee Attack Modifier, the target's Defense Modifier, and anything applicable from the Combat Modifiers Table. Total all of these together to produce a final modifier.
• Roll the D20 and apply the final modifier to the number you rolled.
• If your modified roll is a 12 or higher, you hit. Make a roll on the Damage Table and apply the results to the target.
• If your unmodified roll is a 20, or your modified roll is a 20 or higher, this is a Crit. You hit and get to make a roll on the Brutal Damage Table instead of the regular one.
• If your unmodified roll is a 1, or your modified roll is a 1 or lower, this is a Fumble. You miss. Your target gets an immediate counterattack against you, which is resolved right away. This does not negate the target's normal attack during his or her next turn. Exception: If you were attacking from outside melee range because your weapon allowed you to do so, or if you were attacking the target's back, there is no counterattack; you just miss.

Ranged Weapons in Melee

• You may use a ranged weapon for an attack against an enemy in melee with you, including fumble or breaking-melee counterattacks.
• This is resolved normally, and you are still considered to be in melee.
• If you wish, you may ignore the enemy you're in melee with and fire your ranged weapon at another target in line of sight. This does not break melee.

Placing Hats

When you inflict a damage result that causes a character to be Stunned, Slammed, or Unconscious, take one of your faction's color-coded Hats (Stun, Slam, or Unk) and place it on the target figure. Hats are placed by the player who inflicted the Hat result; if you inflicted the Hat result on your own character, perhaps because of a Fumble, use one of your own faction's Hats. These Hats have different effects on the victim:

• Stunned characters get no Movement phase at all. They may not take any movement actions. This does not affect their Combat phase.
• Slammed characters get no Movement or Combat phases at all. They may not take any movement actions or combat actions.
• Unconscious characters are the same as Slammed, except they are now prone on the ground and do not count as obstacles for purposes of movement or line of sight. They have no facing and anyone attacking them does not receive facing bonuses. Unlike Stunned or Slammed characters, however, other characters may freely take an item card from the Unconscious character's body.

Hats you place remain until the end of your next turn. You cannot place a Hat on a character who already has a Hat if the new Hat is lesser than the existing Hat:

• Unconscious characters cannot become Slammed or Stunned.
• Slammed characters cannot become Stunned.
• If a damage result calls for one of the above to occur, ignore that part of the result.

You can place a Hat on a character who already has a Hat if the new Hat is equal to or greater than the existing Hat. If this occurs, remove the current Hat and place the new Hat on the figure instead; this new Hat belongs to the faction that made the attack and expires at the end of the current attacker's next turn as per usual. In this manner, a Hat result may end up persisting on the same character for several turns.

• Stunned characters may become Stunned, Slammed, or Unconscious.
• Slammed characters may become Slammed or Unconscious.
• Unconscious characters may become Unconscious.

Multiple Attacks

If a character has more than one attack, you must resolve each attack and inflict any damage before you make the next attack.

Removing Hats

At the end of your Combat Phase, check the figures on the board:

• If any of them are wearing a Stun, Slam, or Unk Hat from that faction that you did not place during your current turn, remove them.
• Hats you applied during your current turn remain until the end of your next turn.

Winning the Game

To win the game, you must complete several steps. Different players might complete different steps; only the last one determines victory.

Step One: Find a Seal

Explore the shacks to reveal Mystery Cards. There will always be one Whateley Seal card in play; depending on the shuffle that created the Shack Deck, there might be a second one as well. Someone needs to find a Seal to complete this step.

Step Two: Open Thuh Mansion

Until Thuh Mansion is opened, no one may enter it. To open Thuh Mansion, a character with the Whateley Seal must move within melee range of a Mansion door and drop the item; dropping it opens both doors simultaneously, and the Seal is removed from play. (Thuh Secret Whateley Seal card has slightly different rules for opening Thuh Mansion; see card for details.) If there is another Seal in play, it no longer has any effect on Thuh Mansion.

Step Three: Find the Necronomicon

One of the rooms in Thuh Mansion will contain the Necronomicon Mystery Card. Characters move through the Mansion, revealing the cards, until the Necronomicon is discovered and picked up.

Step Four: Get Home

A character must take the Necronomicon to the Summoning Circle on his or her home tile. This is the disc in the middle of the tile. The figure's base must be fully within the innermost ring of the Circle to qualify.

Step Five: Summon Your God

A character who has the Necronomicon and is standing within his or her Summoning Circle may attempt to summon the faction's dark god to win the game. To do so, the character has no Movement Phase or Combat Phase on the turn he or she summons. Also, the character cannot be Stunned, Slammed, or Unconscious at any point during the turn; if this happens, the character may not make the summoning attempt this turn.

If these conditions are met, then at the end of your turn you may make a D20 roll. Some characters have modifiers to the summoning roll; apply these if appropriate. In addition, some characters have abilities that let them affect die rolls; these may be used as well if allowed by the ability description. (For purposes of other characters modifying the roll, assume the summoning attempt occurs during the Movement Phase.)

• Your initial target number is a 16 or higher.
• If you roll an unmodified 1, or a modified 1 or lower, you have Fumbled. Your attempt fails, and your angry dark god immediately kills the character who made the summoning attempt. There is no way to avoid this death. The Necronomicon may now be picked up by another character.
• If you fail without a Fumble, you may try again on your next turn. The same conditions apply to the attempt, but now you need a 15 or higher. Each failure by the same character drops the target number further by 1 each turn: 14, 13, etc., to an eventual minimum of 2.
• If a different character takes the Necronomicon, even if he or she is on the same faction as the character who failed, the target number resets to 16.
• If you succeed, you summon your dark god and win the game!

Optional Rules

Our main guideline in designing this game has been fun: if a rule doesn't add fun, it doesn't go in the game. Still, this led us to remove some interesting rules, and of course our sense of fun may not be quite in sync with yours. Here are some optional rules that we didn't think belonged in the main game, but that your group might want to use. Just make sure that all the players understand any optional rules you're using before the game begins.

Dealing Mystery Cards

If you want a consistent method of dealing Mystery Cards, use the following procedure.

Shack Deck:

• Starting with the leftmost tile of the row farthest away from your home tile and proceeding across that row, deal 1 card from the Shack Deck face-down onto each shack.
• When you have dealt onto all the shacks of the farthest row, start with the leftmost tile of the next farthest row.

Mansion Deck:

• Starting with the room in the upper-left corner of the Mansion tile, deal 1 card face-down onto the room.
• Continue clockwise until every room has 1 card on it.

Sentry

Want to dig into a position and shoot at the first enemy that comes near? (Other games refer to this as "overwatch" or "opportunity fire.") Here's how:

• You can designate that a character is on Sentry by spending 2" of his or her Movement during your Movement Phase and announcing the Sentry status.
• From then until the start of your next turn, that character gets one automatic attack on an opponent target who moves into the Sentry character's line of sight--in other words, you get an attack during the opponent's turn, sort of like when breaking melee.
• The Sentry character only gets one such attack in a round. Any further targets who move into line of sight are not attacked in this manner.
• You may choose whether or not to attack a given target. If you ignore targets and make no Sentry attack until your next turn, you do not save up that attack for use next turn. Use it or lose it.
• It is your responsibility to spot the opportunity to attack; if you do not declare your Sentry attack before your opponent begins moving his or her next character, you lose the opportunity. (Obvious jerk tactics like moving your character really fast and then grabbing the next figure before the Sentry player can get a word in edgewise are, well, obvious jerk tactics and you're a jerk for doing so. The point is that the Sentry player needs to be paying attention, not that your reflexes are faster than his or her vocal cords.)

Firing Into Melee

If you using a firearm against a character who is in melee range of other characters (besides yourself), regardless of their factions, there is a chance your attack will strike someone else by mistake.

• Make your attack as normal. If you hit, all is well.
• If you miss, there is a chance for someone else to be struck by your attack. Ignoring your original target, count the number of characters who are in melee range of your target.
• Each of those characters has a 2 in 20 chance of being struck instead. Assign each potential target a range of two numbers on the die and roll; if one of their numbers comes up, that character is struck.
• Example: Four characters are in melee, and your ranged attack against one of them misses. You roll the die and if you get a 1-2, the first character is hit; 3-4, the second character is hit; 5-6, the third character is struck; 7-20, the attack hits no one.
• Note: This complicates the use of weapons such as the Gatlin' Gun, which already targets characters in melee range of your target. It does not, however, affect area-of-effect weapons such as Tee Enn Tee.

Movement Modifiers on Combat

It's harder to run and fight than it is to stand and fight. Here's a set of modifiers that take this into account, though it tends to demand more concentration and more play time.

• Attacker did not move: 0
• Defender did not move on his or her last turn: 0
• Attacker moved less than half his or her movement: -1
• Attacker moved half or more of his or her movement: -2
• Defender moved half or more of his or her movement on the last turn: -2

Fudging

In your turn, you may choose to fudge the movement of two of your characters:

• A fudged character may move an additional half-inch this turn.
• You may only fudge a character's movement if the character is already using his or her full movement, and only if doing so enables you to take an action you could not otherwise accomplish: revealing a Mystery Card, picking up an item, entering melee range, avoiding melee range, entering the range of your ranged weapon, entering your summoning circle, getting behind an obstacle, etc.
• Simple movement in which the fudge produces no immediate result other than moving farther cannot be fudged.
• You must declare a fudge for a character before you have begun moving another character.

Variants

Although The Hills Rise Wild! comes with a built-in way to play--find the Necronomicon, summon your god--we designed the rules and components to suit most any scenario. That's why, for example, all the Mystery Cards have the same back--so you can mix up the Shack and Mansion cards if you want. In other words, once you've spent some time playing the main scenario, we really want to encourage you to use The Hills Rise Wild! as a toolkit for designing your own scenarios. Here are some variant scenarios for you to try, as well as a discussion of planned board layouts. Please try these out, and then go make up your own! You can submit your variants and planned board layouts to our website (www.tccorp.com) for other gamers to try out.

Capture the Flag

Use the four Flag Hats included in the game for this variant. Each faction starts with its flag on its home tile, in the Summoning Circle. To win, you must capture any opponent's flag and get it to your Summoning Circle; you must have both the enemy flag and your own flag there to win, and they can be on the ground, carried by characters, or both. The moment both flags are in your Circle, you win. You cannot pick up or move your own flag except to bring it back home after recapturing it elsewhere, in which case you must proceed back to your home tile to drop your flag in the Circle as fast and directly as possible. (No hiding or running around in circles, in other words.) You may pick up and carry any other faction's flag and do whatever you want with it. Picking up a flag fills your character's Item Card slot, so if you already have an item you may not take the flag; likewise, you may only carry one flag at a time. Go!

Last Team Standing

Deal tiles and cards as normal, but do not include the Necronomicon in the Mansion Deck; it is not used in this variant. Fight until only one faction has one or more living characters on the board. That team is the winner. Alternative: Do not use Thuh Mansion tile or the Whateley Seal cards, and mix the Mansion cards into the Shack deck.

Mix & Match

Instead of using the factions as given, cut the characters on the faction sheets apart with scissors. Then build your own armies from a common pool by taking the character sheets and figures you want to use.

Wrong Side of the Tracks

Each faction begins on an opponent's home tile. So in addition to retrieving the Necronomicon, they also have to trek all the way across the board to get home.

Planned Board Layouts (PBLs)

Instead of dealing out the tiles at random and placing them in turns, you can simply set up the board however you like. Perhaps you want to encourage or discourage particular strategies, or you just want the board to look a certain way. You can even try grids that aren't 4x4! We've got four sample layouts for you to try. Our standard format for describing board layouts is to start at the top left corner of the grid and work our way across, then down a row and across, and so on; for convenience's sake, we suggest you use this same format for sharing your own planned board layouts with your friends or on the internet. (Note that using PBLs may result in fewer than 12 shacks on the board, which means you'll have to construct your Shack Deck accordingly.)

Name: The Dark Heart of Town Grid: 4x4 Players: 2-4 Description: This PBL is for visual fun; it makes a sort of Main Street strip, while placing the slower Marsh Clan nearer to the Mansion.

• Row 1: DeGhoule Clan Home Tile, Marsh End, Storm Hollow, Marsh Clan Home Tile
• Row 2: Witch Grove, Old Oak Road, Lonesome Road, Judgement Field
• Row 3: Mason Lane, Devil Hill, Thuh Mansion, Old Bishop Place
• Row 4: Whateley Clan Home Tile, Jacob's Rest, The Strange Old Shack, Cult of Ezekiel Home Tile

Name: Three Doors Down Grid: 4x4 Players: 2-4 Description: This PBL puts three shacks adjacent to each of the four home tiles, for fast & furious Mystery Card grabbing.

• Row 1: Whateley Clan Home Tile, Mason Lane, The Strange Old Shack, DeGhoule Clan Home Tile
• Row 2: Witch Grove, Lonesome Road, Thuh Mansion, Old Oak Road
• Row 3: Marsh End, Jacob's Rest, Storm Hollow, The Old Bishop Place
• Row 4: Cult of Ezekiel Home Tile, Devil Hill, The Crossroads, Marsh Clan Home Tile

Name: Face Off Grid: 3x5 Players: 2 Description: Use this PBL in conjunction with the Wrong Side of the Tracks variant, ensuring that there will be a big, cluttered alley battle in the middle of the board.

• Row 1: Witch Grove, Marsh End, Lonesome Road, Mason Lane, Judgement Field
• Row 2: Home Tile, Devil Hill, Thuh Mansion, The Old Bishop Place, Home Tile
• Row 3: The Crossroads, Strange Old Shack, Old Oak Road, Jacob's Rest, Black Goat Field

Name: House in the Woods Grid: 3x5 Players: 2 Description: Use this PBL in conjunction with the Wrong Side of the Tracks variant. Unlike Face Off, the shacks are set next to the home tiles with lots of open space around the Mansion for a bloodbath.

• Row 1: Marsh End, Devil Hill, The Crossroads, Mason Lane, Lonesome Road
• Row 2: Home Tile, Judgement Field, Thuh Mansion, Black Goat Field, Home Tile
• Row 3: Old Oak Road, Jacob's Rest, Witch Grove, The Old Bishop Place, The Strange Old Shack

Designers' Notes

The Hills Rise Wild! is an exceptions-based game. This means that although the game has a consistent set of rules that are generally in effect, most elements of the game--such as characters and cards--give you exceptions to the rules. In other words, they break the rules in some way. For example, the rules state that your characters cannot walk through walls, but there is a character whose description allows him to do just that; he can violate a rule that no other character can. If instead this was a rules-based game, such as Checkers, that sort of rule-breaking would not be possible. Exceptions-based games can be a lot of fun, even though they are more complex; examples of popular exceptions-based games include Cosmic Encounter and Magic: The Gathering.

(The remainder of the Designers' Notes--development history of the game--is omitted here.)

Damage Table

D20	Result
1-2	Stunned (may not move, but may attack, +1 to hit)
3-4	Slammed (may not move or attack, +3 to hit)
5-6	Unconscious (may not move or attack, +7 to hit)
7-12	1 Life Point damage
13-18	2 Life Points damage
19-20	Roll on the Brutal Damage table, using the same damage modifiers, if any.

Brutal Damage Table

D20	Result
1	Whomped! 2 Life Points damage, Stunned.
2	Clobbered! 2 Life Points damage, Slammed.
3	Seein' Stars! 2 Life Points damage, Unconscious.
4	Ummph! 3 Life Points damage, Stunned.
5	No more banjo playin' for you! 3 Life Points damage, Slammed.
6	Say goodnight! 3 Life Points damage, Unconscious.
7	Back off! 3 Life Points damage and target is knocked 2 inches directly away from attacker. If any object is struck, stop movement and make an unmodified roll on the normal Damage Table. If another character is struck, stop movement and make an unmodified roll on the normal Damage Table for it as well.
8	Sit Down! 3 Life Points damage and target is knocked 5 inches directly away from attacker. If any object is struck, stop movement and make an unmodified roll on the normal Damage Table. If another character is struck, stop movement and make an unmodified roll on the normal Damage Table for it as well.
9	Have a heapin' helpin' o' hurt! 3 Life Points damage and target takes a -1 Melee Attack penalty for the rest of the game.

Movement Modifiers

• Movement through clear terrain: no modifier
• Movement through partial obstacle: -2" movement
• Picking up an item: -2" movement
• Dropping an item: -2" movement

Combat Modifiers

Hat Modifiers

• Defender Stunned: +1
• Defender Slammed: +3
• Defender Unconscious: +7

Facing Modifiers

• Attacking from the side: +2
• Attacking from the rear: +4

Ranged Weapon Modifiers

• Any partial obstacle(s) in line of sight: -3

Firearm Modifiers

• Target distant more than half the weapon's range: -2