Witless Wizards Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Components and Card Anatomy
• Setup
• Gameplay
• Turn Sequence
  • Draft Phase
  • Battle Phase
• End of the Game
• Source Notes

Contents

• 4 Character boards
• 5 Equipment Card decks, each consisting of 8 unique cards
• 6 Standard Equipment cards
• 4 Stamina Counters
• 30 Concentration Cubes
• Battle Die

Components and Card Anatomy

Each Character Board has a Stamina track (numbered 1 to 20) and a Concentration Pool. Each Character Board also has three equipment slots at the bottom: the Offensive Equipment slot (left), the Defensive Equipment slot (middle) and the Special Equipment slot (right).

The card anatomy diagram on the rules page labels these parts of an Equipment card:

• This symbol indicates which deck the card is from.
• Card Name.
• Art.
• Card Type and Value (if any).
• Concentration Cube income (if any).
• Special effect (if any). (The example card shows "Cannot attack".)

Symbol key, as printed on the rules page:

• Offensive equipment – red hexagonal icon with a sword, shown with a number badge (2 in the key).
• Offensive value – sword icon.
• Defensive Equipment – blue hexagonal icon with a shield, shown with a number badge (2 in the key).
• Defensive value – shield icon.
• Special Equipment – purple hexagonal icon with a ring.
• Concentration Cube – green cube icon.
• Battle die – die icon.

Setup

1. Each player chooses or is given at random a Character Board and a Stamina Marker, which is placed on the "20" space of the Character Board's Stamina Track.

2. The player who looks more like a wizard plays first. That player places a "Magical Crook of Standing" Standard Equipment card on the Offensive Equipment slot of their Character Board and a Concentration Cube on the Concentration Pool space. In clockwise seating order, the other players receive:

   • 2nd player: a "Magical Armor of Resting" Standard Equipment card, placed on the Defensive Equipment slot of his Character Board, and one Concentration Cube.
   • 3rd player: Both a "Magical Crook of Standing" and a "Magical Armor of Resting" Standard Equipment cards and one Concentration Cube.
   • 4th player: Both a "Magical Crook of Standing" and a "Magical Armor of Resting" Standard Equipment cards and two Concentration Cubes.

   Return any unused Standard Equipment cards to the box.

3. Choose or select at random three Equipment Card decks and shuffle their cards together. Place the deck face down on the table, within reach of all players. Leave space next to the deck for a discard pile.

Gameplay

In "Witless Wizards", players aim to be the last wizard standing by reducing their opponents' Stamina to 0. The game is played in turns, each turn consisting of two phases: the Draft Phase and the Battle Phase. In the Draft Phase, the player draws from the common equipment deck, keeping one card for himself but also giving another card to one of his opponents. Equipment cards can increase attack or defense power and may grant various abilities. In the Battle Phase, the player attacks one of his opponents, dealing Hits to them and reducing their Stamina. If, at the end of a turn, only one player remains in the game, that player wins!

Turn Sequence

Draft Phase

In the Draft Phase, the player draws cards from the common equipment deck to strengthen themselves, but they also have to give a card to one of their opponents. The Draft Phase consists of these steps:

1. Draw the top card of the common equipment deck. If at any point there are no cards left in the deck, shuffle the discard pile to make a new deck.
2. Optional: return a Concentration Cube from your Pool to the reserve in order to draw another card, then discard a card (even the one you just drew).
3. Choose whether to keep the card for yourself or give it to one of your opponents. Note: When there are 4 players in the game, you can only give a card to an opponent sitting directly to your left or your right!
4. The player who receives the card places it on the corresponding slot at the bottom of his Character Board (left for the red Offensive Equipment Cards marked with a sword, middle for the blue Defensive Equipment Cards marked with a shield, and right for the purple Special Equipment cards marked with a ring).

If there is already an Equipment card in that slot, that card is discarded and the newly received card takes its place.

Then, repeat steps 1-4 one more time.

If you have already kept a card in this phase, you must now give the card in your hand to one of your opponents. Likewise, if you have already given a card to one of your opponents in this phase, you must now keep the card in your hand for yourself.

After you have kept a card and given a card to one of your opponents, play proceeds to the Battle Phase.

Battle Phase

Note: The first player skips this phase on his first turn in the game.

In the Battle Phase, you get to attack one of your opponents, dealing Hits and reducing their Stamina in hopes of taking them out of the game. The Battle Phase consists of these steps:

1. Choose which one of your opponents you wish to attack. Note: when there are 4 players in the game, you can only attack an opponent sitting directly to your left or your right!

2. Roll the Battle die and add its result to the Attack value of your Offensive Equipment card. This number is your Total Attack Value.

   Note: you can attack even if you don't have an Offensive Equipment card. The wizard is just using their fists to fight.

3. Subtract the Defense value of your opponent's Defensive Equipment card from your Total Attack Value. The result is the Hits dealt to your opponent. If the result is less than 0, it is considered to be 0 instead.

   Note: Card abilities may modify the Attack/Defense values or add effects to the Battle Phase. In all cases, card abilities take precedence over these rules. Refer to the FAQ at the end of the rulebook for more details on specific card abilities.

4. Your opponent moves their Stamina counter backwards on their Stamina track one space for each Hit dealt. If their Stamina is reduced to 0 or less, they are out of the game and any Equipment cards on their Character board are discarded in any order they wish.

5. If you are Weakened (your Stamina is 5 or less), you may return any number of Concentration Cubes from your Pool to the reserve in order to move your Stamina counter 1 space forward on the Stamina track per Concentration Cube returned. Your Stamina may not become higher than 20.

6. Receive a number of Concentration Cubes from the reserve equal to the total number of Concentration Cube icons printed on all your Equipment cards on your Character Board. You may have any number of Concentration Cubes in your Pool. If the reserve runs out, use any convenient substitute.

Your turn is now over and the player sitting to your left takes his turn, starting with the Draft Phase.

End of the Game

If, at the end of a turn, there is only one player left in the game, that player wins the game and is awarded the title of the most powerful wizard in the universe! Or, at least for as long as they can remember it.

In the unlikely event that there are no players left in the game at the end of a turn, the winner is the player who was still in the game at the beginning of the turn and whose Stamina is closest to 0 compared to all other players that were still in the game at the beginning of the turn. If you are still unable to determine a winner, then the tied players must reluctantly share their victory...as soon as they wake up from their nap.

Source Notes

• The supplied PDF is the official English "Witless Wizards – The Rulebook" (Drawlab Entertainment). It is 7 pages and has no text layer; every page is a full-page image, which was read and transcribed in order.
• The sourcer recorded that this PDF's size (4,143,027 bytes) does not match the BGG file listing "Witless Wizards rulebook.pdf" (779,902 bytes, file id 222633), which is browser-gated. This is most likely a different export of the same document; the title and publisher match.
• The rules refer to an "FAQ at the end of the rulebook" for specific card abilities. No FAQ appears in this 7-page PDF, so it is not transcribed here.
• The card anatomy diagram and symbol key on the rules page were transcribed as labels only; the exact symbol artwork is not reproduced.