How To Play

**Setting Up The Game**

To play this game you must construct a number of decks.

Deck: This is a 40 card deck that contains items, spells and accomplices.

World Deck: This is a 60 card deck that contains conditions, accomplices, spells, items and hostiles. This deck must contain 1 hostile from each different power value but you can have as many of these as you want. This deck must contain at least 20 quest cards.

Treasure Deck: This can be a deck of any number of cards that contains a number of treasure cards. This may contain up to 4 ‘Priceless’ cards.

You also need to choose a character who is played on the field at the start of the game and is outside of every deck.

You may not use more than one copy of any named card.

**Card Types:**

Hostiles: These are enemies that you will encounter while questing and need to defeat. Some of these can be recruited once defeated.

Accomplices: These are friendly characters that may help you quest, attack and defend. These may be encountered and subsequently recruited while questing or begin the game in your deck.

Items: These are things characters may use to give them extra abilities and more power.

Conditions: These are events that transpire while you are questing and can resolve their effects in different ways.

Spell: These are cards that are cast by characters. These have a variety of different effects. Only mages can use spells.

Quests: These are actions that you must perform and once complete, you will be rewarded with a number of cards from your treasure deck.

Priceless: A priceless is a treasure card that can only start the game in the treasure deck. You can have a maximum of 4 of these items. They are usually powerful weapons and artifacts to help you in battle.

Treasure: These are cards that have no effect but contain 1 value. These will help you win at the end of the game.

**Taking Turns:**

At the start of the game, determine who goes first.

Both players draw 4 cards from their deck to become their hands.

At the start of your turn, draw a new card from the top of your deck.

Then, you may resolve any of the following things in any order:

* Conduct A Quest: (See Questing)
* Conduct an Attack: (See Attacking)
* Activate effects and abilities of cards you control.
* Field and move characters. (See Fielding and Moving)
* Give spell or item cards to any of your fielded characters.

**Once you've finished doing any of these things, you move to the end of your turn. Effects and abilities that occur here resolve and then it becomes your opponent’s turn.**

During your turn you may group together any group of fielded accomplices and send them on a quest. When you do, turn over a number of cards from your quest deck equal to the number of questing characters. These cards may be hostiles, accomplices items, conditions etcetera. Any effects that those cards have that activate when they enter the field are resolved as soon as they are turned over. Once they are all turned over, you may recruit any accomplice revealed (see recruiting), defeat a hostile (see hostiles in questing), or pick up an item. You can only do 1 of each of these things per turn but you can do them at any point in that turn. At the end of your turn, any remaining turned over cards are shuffled back into the quest deck except quest cards which remain on your field until completed.

**Recruiting:**

To recruit an accomplice turned over during a quest or one that is on your field you simply need to approach it with a number of questing characters whose combined power modifiers are equal to or higher than that characters. Then, add it to that questing group and, at the end of that turn, add it to your hand.

**Hostiles In Questing:**

When you turn over a hostile card during a quest you may attempt to defeat it. To do this, compare the questing group’s total power against the power value of that hostile. If your power value is higher, the hostile is defeated and discard it. If your value is lower, you are defeated. (See Defeated by Hostiles). When you do declare combat on an enemy, you must fight all enemies on your field. But, when you declare that attack, roll a d6. On 5 or 6, you might fight them individually.

**Fielding And Moving:**

Once per turn you may field 1 accomplice from your hand and one from your bench. This means playing that character from those zones to your main field. You may also move 1 character from your bench (that has not been placed there this turn) and from your field to your bench.

**Attacking:**

You may declare an attack on an opposing player. You cannot attack a player before they have conducted their second turn. To do this, group together any number of your characters that have not quested this turn and choose the player to attack. If your combined characters power modifiers are higher than the target's then you win. (The target should view the defending section). At the conclusion of this comparison see the Defeated by Players section.

**Defending:**

When another player declares an attack on you you may group together any characters that you have fielded that are not questing and any characters that you have on the bench to defend with. The value of their power is compared against the value of the attacking group's power and if the defending player's is higher, they defeat their opponent.

**The Bench:**

The bench is an area for accomplices that are in play but cannot quest or attack. You can play 1 character per turn from your hand to your bench and once per turn move 1 character from your bench into your field.

**Accomplice rules:**

You may only control 1 copy of any accomplice.

You may only control 1 'King' accomplice.

**Winning The Game**

You may win or lose the game in a number of ways:

Condition 1: If your morale reaches 0 you lose.

Condition 2: If there are 0 cards left in your quest deck or you have completed all 20 of your quests, you win.

Condition 3: If you are playing a timed game, once the allotted time has expired, the player with the most treasures at the end of the round wins. If this is a tie, the player who has the most quest cards completed wins. If this is a tie, the player with the most defeated hostiles wins. If this is a tie, the player with the fewest cards in their quest deck wins.

Condition 4: If, while questing, you have encountered an ‘Alternative Plot’ quest card and fulfill that card’s conditions, you win the game.

Condition 5: This is known as the ‘Victory Trail’. Once per game, apart from on your first turn, you may declare a victory lunge. Shuffle all cards on your field and hand apart from your character into your deck and then declare 1 card name. Then, draw 1 card. If that card is that declared card, you win the game. You cannot activate any effects or abilities in the middle of performing a victory lunge. Your opponent must shuffle your deck before the card is drawn.

Even if one of these conditions is fulfilled, the current turn continues and the current round is completed before the game ends. If this condition would then no longer be fulfilled at the end of the round, the game continues. If a condition applies for both players, or condition 3 is a tie, then it is a draw.

A player may also surrender at any time. They lose the game immediately.

If your deck becomes 0 cards, the game continues but you no longer have a deck to draw from.

**The Role Of Reality**

In a number of instances, some card effects will refer to terms such as ‘amphibians’. This means the characters whose type is categorized that way in real life such as turtles/tortoises.

**Terminology:**

Complete A Quest: Refers to completing the conditions of a quest card turned over during a quest.

Event: The term ‘event’ refers to a quest, an attack or a defence.

Ignore: Some effects and abilities might refer to ‘ignoring’ another card. This essentially means that that card is not part of the current event. Any of its effects are ignored for this event. However, it is still treated as taking part in that event.

Moving: Moving is a term used within the game that refers to characters changing the zone they are currently in whether it be from the bench to the field or vice versa, the field to the quest zone etcetera.

Universal: This is a type of effect that is active whenever that card is on the field in any zone and may affect characters anywhere on the board.