20 Strong: Etherfields

20 Strong: Etherfields Rulebook

Table of Contents

Etherfields contains 5 hero cards, 5 boss cards, 27 enemy cards, 21 influence cards, 10 map cards, 12 item cards, a play reference, and this rulebook. Due to some cards changing their type when flipped, this component list is referring to the "A" sides of all the cards. To play, you also need the core 20 Strong dice, chip, and chip holder.

What is 20 Strong?

20 Strong is a game system that presents players with 20 dice and poses a unique challenge in each thematic deck. The same core components affect and influence these engaging worlds, but every deck introduces new twists.

Many rules are shared across most 20 Strong decks. If you are familiar with general 20 Strong rules, you can ignore highlighted sections like this.

The Etherfields folded play reference labels the elements of each card type and recommends a convenient table layout for play. The play reference is a separate component and is not part of this rulebook.

Game Overview

Etherfields is a solo adventure in a surreal dreamscape of epic and disturbing proportions. As influence becomes action and creatures shapeshift into items, forking paths abound. Will you become lucid, or fall further into slumber? By navigating the Dreamworld and learning to shape its reality, you will inevitably face the ultimate test against your final foe.

Winning and Losing

To win Etherfields, you must defeat your game's boss and survive to the end of that round. You cannot face the boss until you meet its endgame condition.

If your Health ♥ is ever reduced below 1, you lose.

An Ever-Changing Deck, a Persistent Dream

Etherfields has a deck that is both ever-changing and persistent from game to game. Cards that flip during play remain that way for future sessions. When setting up and putting away this 20 Strong deck, it is important to retain each card's current facing.

When you store the deck, put the cards beneath the rulebook with their current sides face-up to help you remember your deck's current state.

For your first game, or if you ever want to reset the deck, set each hero card to its non-lucid side and all other cards to their "A" sides.

Behind the Veil

While playing, you can look at the back of any card in your hand, your inventory, or the active area. You cannot look at the backs of other cards unless specifically instructed.

Setup

Dized. The first time you play, consider the Dized tutorial! It walks you through Etherfields' setup and rules while you play. Scan the code on p. 2.
Create the dice pool. Set the 17 unit dice in the dice pool.
Prepare the decks. Separate the hero, boss, enemy, map, item, and influence cards from each other.
Choose a boss. Select a face-up boss to face and return the rest to the box. Some bosses cannot be faced until certain items and enemies are in play. You may look through the decks before choosing a boss. We recommend "Something Wicked" as the boss for your first game.
Choose your hero. Select your hero. You must choose the side of a hero that is currently face-up. Then, return the rest of the heroes to the box. Place the three stat dice beside your hero, set to the hero's starting stat values.
Set the ether. The 20 Strong dial tracks the current ether. Set it to yellow.
Shuffle the decks. Find the map card with the Dream Entrance at the center. Place it in the active area. Shuffle the enemy cards, map cards, item cards, and influence cards into separate decks and place them as shown in the play reference.
Prepare for the dream. Place the Health die on the Dream Entrance space. This is your starting location.

Heroes and Stats

You play as a hero. Your hero defines your starting stats and grants a unique ability.

Three of the 20 Strong dice are gray stat dice. They track your stats' values as they increase and decrease throughout play.

Health ♥ tracks how much damage you can take before you lose.
Strategy (stat icon) indicates…
- how many items you can have in your inventory.
- how many times you can go through the Strategy phase each round.
Recovery (stat icon) indicates how many exhausted dice you can get back each round.

Each hero has a non-lucid side and a lucid side. Some effects let you flip your hero to its lucid side. Because of the ever-changing yet persistent nature of Etherfields, a flipped hero remains that way for future games.

On the map, your hero is represented by the Health ♥ die.

Unit Dice

The 17 unit dice come in red, purple, blue, green, and yellow. Each color has a mix of hit sides (basic hits and crits) and misses (except red, which has no misses).

A basic hit deals 1 damage. A crit deals 2 damage (though it is still considered to be one hit). One hit side on each die is a crit.

The number of pips on each icon's ring shows how many hit sides that die has.

Color	Yellow	Green	Blue	Purple	Red
Hits	2	3	4	5	6
Power	Weaker				Stronger

Stat Dice

Stat dice are never rolled. They cannot go below 1 (except Health, which results in game loss) or above 6.

The Health die tracks your current Health as normal, as well as your current position on the map. See p. 35 for more details.

Enemies

Enemies are your primary antagonists in 20 Strong. They have Health to defeat and Damage to avoid. Many provide rewards when you defeat them.

Each enemy that activates may cause additional enemies to activate (see p. 26). Some have enemy effects to consider in the Strategy and Resolve phases (see p. 28-32).

In Etherfields, some map spaces activate enemies when you enter them. You may face numerous enemies in an Engagement because of this.

Bosses

To win Etherfields, you must defeat the game's boss. Each boss in Etherfields has an endgame condition. This condition must be met for the boss to be activated (see p. 34).

Bosses are enemies in 20 Strong, which means they can be affected by other enemy effects and items.

A boss's activation effect resolves at the end of every Activation throughout the entire game. The standard enemy effects on a boss card do not apply until the endgame.

Round Overview

20 Strong is played in rounds. Each round has two parts: Activation and Engagement. Each part has a series of phases or steps.

Actions can be taken at any time in a round.

Activation

Influence
- Discard at least one influence card. Then, draw back up to five.
Opposition
- Activate an enemy.
- Resolve the boss's Activation effect.

Engagement

Strategy Phase (repeat as your Strategy allows)
- Commit Dice
- Roll Dice
- Apply Dice
Resolve Phase
- Suffer Damage
- After Effects
- Exhaust Dice
- Recover Dice (including one additional die matching the current ether)
- Cleanup (do not discard map cards or undefeated enemies)

Activation

Influence

Discard at least one influence card from your hand, if possible. You may choose to discard more.

Then, draw until your hand has five influence cards.

If an effect ever instructs you to draw or discard cards, it is referring to influence cards unless otherwise stated.

You can have more than five influence cards in your hand if an effect instructs you to draw more cards outside of the start of round.

Actions

You may take actions at any time during the round, as long as you have the resources you need. However, it often makes the most sense to take actions in Activation.

There are three kinds of actions:

Standard actions allow you to move around the map and attack enemies.
Influence actions have a variety of effects that are described on influence cards.
Map actions allow you to reveal new map cards and use the unique actions on map cards already in play.

There are three resources used to take actions:

awareness
cunning
wrath

Taking Actions

You take most actions by discarding influence or item cards or by exhausting ready dice. You may take as many actions as you wish or are able to.

To take an action, you must first spend resources. To spend a resource, you may…

discard an influence card with the desired resource from your hand.
discard an influence or item card with the desired resource from your inventory.
exhaust a ready die: green for 1 Awareness, yellow for 1 Cunning, or red for 1 Wrath.

You can discard any number of cards and exhaust any number of dice at once to spend the resources you need, but you cannot split a collection of resources spent at the same time across several actions. Extra resources not needed for the current action are lost.

Standard Actions

Movement. Spend any amount of Cunning to move one space for each Cunning spent.

You cannot cross walls. See p. 35 for more information about the map.

If you enter a space with an activate-enemy icon (a skull with a plus), immediately activate an enemy (see p. 26 for more information about activating enemies). If any new enemies have their own activate-enemy icons, activate additional enemies for those icons as well. Then, you may continue moving.

Assault. Spend any amount of Wrath to deal 1 damage for each Wrath spent to a non-boss enemy in the active area. To take this action, the enemy must be defeated by this damage.

Influence Actions

Influence cards have card actions. Influence card actions are either Instant or Ongoing.

Instant: Discard an influence card to immediately resolve its effect. If the action requires spending any resources, those resources cannot come from the card you are using for the action. Some cards have specific timing for when you can play them.
Ongoing: After spending the required resources, place the card in your inventory. Once placed, the card is considered an Ongoing item. (See p. 38 for more information on items.)

Map Actions

Most map spaces have one or more map actions. To use a map action, you must be in that space and not currently resolving movement.

Explore. To explore, spend the Awareness cost shown. Then, draw the top card of the Map Deck and place it orthogonally adjacent to your current card in the direction the arrow points. If a map card is already there, you cannot explore from that space.

Unique. All other map actions are unique. Their resource costs and effects are listed in their spaces. Pay for and resolve them as described.

You cannot resolve the same unique action more than once in the same round.

If a unique action lists different costs separated by a slash, you must choose one of them.

Certain bosses require you to resolve certain map actions, like those that advance the ether, before you can face them (see p. 34).

Opposition

After you finish drawing influence cards, activate an enemy.

To activate an enemy, take one enemy card from the top of the Enemy Deck and place it in the active area. If the activated enemy has an additional enemies icon (a skull with a plus), repeat this process, activating one enemy at a time. Any During and Special effects apply immediately (see p. 27). If any of the additional enemies also have activate-enemy icons, those must be resolved as well.

Finally, resolve the boss's Activation effect.

Don't forget! Since you can take actions at any time, you are able to take actions in-between the Influence and Opposition steps.

Enemy Effects

During effects have an ongoing impact that applies from the time the enemy becomes active until it is defeated.
After effects trigger in the Resolve phase. They trigger even if the enemy is defeated.
Special effects have unique timing and length of impact, as specified in the effect's text. They trigger even if the enemy is defeated.
- In Etherfields, if a Special effect does not have specific timing, it is active the entire time the enemy is in the active area.

Engagement

Engagement consists of two phases: the Strategy phase, where you commit, roll, and apply dice to active enemies; and the Resolve phase, where you suffer damage and negative effects, exhaust and recover dice, and clean up before the next round.

Strategy Phase

The Strategy phase has three steps:

Commit Dice Step. Select any number and combination of dice from the dice pool, and place them in the active area. All dice in the active area, applied or not, are considered to be committed.

Roll Dice Step. Roll all of the dice in the active area at once. Items cannot be used in this step.

Apply Dice Step. Apply hits to active enemies to deal damage to them.

Apply hits one at a time, in any order, by placing the die on the enemy.
Each time you apply a die, check to see if that enemy is defeated, which happens when the hits assigned to it meet or exceed its Health. Any During effects on an enemy end immediately when it is defeated.
When an enemy is defeated, rotate it 90° to track its state.
Instant rewards on an enemy are gained immediately when it is defeated. Gaining the reward is optional.
You may continue to apply hits to enemies after they have been defeated if you wish.
You are not required to apply all rolled hits.
Misses cannot be applied.

After the Apply Dice step, you may repeat the Strategy phase. The total number of times you may go through the phase (including the first) cannot exceed your Strategy. When you repeat the Strategy phase, you may commit additional dice from the dice pool, adding them to any unapplied dice still in your active area. Then, roll all unapplied dice and apply any hit results you wish.

Keep in mind that all committed dice, applied or not, will be exhausted in the Resolve phase.

Resolve Phase

The Resolve phase has five steps in Etherfields. (There is no Gain Item Rewards step.)

Suffer Damage Step. Add the Damage of all undefeated enemies in your active area and reduce your Health by the total.

After Effects Step. All After effects in the active area (including those on defeated enemies) are resolved one at a time, in the order of your choice.

Exhaust Dice Step. Move all committed dice, applied or not, to your exhausted area.

Recover Dice Step. Choose a number of exhausted dice up to your current Recovery. Move them from your exhausted area to your dice pool.

You may recover one additional die that matches the current ether.

Cleanup Step. Discard all defeated enemies. Undefeated enemies remain in the active area.

After the Resolve phase, begin another round with Activation.

Endgame

To begin the endgame, you must find the map card with the unique action that allows you to activate the boss, and then do so while the boss's endgame condition is met.

In the endgame, rounds continue as before until one of the following happens:

You win if you defeat the boss and survive until the end of that round. After winning, flip the boss card.
You lose if your Health ♥ falls below 1.

Veteran 20 Strong players, note that Activations continue throughout the endgame, including resolving the boss's Activation effect.

The following pages feature rules that are important but exist outside the normal flow of gameplay.

Dice States

Ready: Dice in the dice pool available to be used.
Exhausted: Dice removed from the dice pool or active area. These can be recovered.
Banished: Dice removed by an in-game effect. These cannot be recovered.
Committed: Dice in the active area, whether applied or not.
Applied: Dice placed on cards in the active area.
Returned: Dice moved from the active area to the dice pool.
Recovered: Dice moved from the exhausted area to the dice pool.

The Map

Map cards are arranged in a grid in the active area to create the map.

Spaces on the map are separated by borders (semi-transparent double lines) and walls (bold thorny lines). Borders can be moved across, but walls cannot. Unless the edge of a map card shows a wall, the boundary between two adjacent map cards is also a border.

If your Health die is on a map card when that card is flipped or discarded, return the die to the Dream Entrance. If the Dream Entrance is not part of the map at that moment, you lose the game.

The Ether

The ether represents the current energy of the Dreamworld and is tracked with the 20 Strong chip.

Etherfields begins with the ether set to yellow. Some unique map actions let you change the ether.

Other effects of the ether include the following:

You may recover an additional die matching the current ether in the Recover Dice step.
Some effects work differently depending on the ether.
Certain bosses require a particular ether to activate them.

Deck Maintenance

Reshuffling

If you ever need to draw from an empty deck, shuffle its discard and make a new deck before drawing. Remember not to flip the deck or any of its cards while shuffling.

Whenever you reshuffle the Influence Deck this way, you must also either suffer –2 Health or banish two random cards from that deck.

Discarding Flipped Cards

Some cards change types when they flip. For example, an enemy might flip to become an influence card.

Always discard a card to the pile that matches its type after the flip occurs.

Banishing

When banished, dice and cards are removed from the game and can no longer be used, unless returned to the game by specific effects. Unless stated otherwise, banished dice can be taken from any area.

Items

In 20 Strong, items are used either for one-time effects or as ongoing abilities. Your current Strategy indicates how many items you can have in your inventory at one time.

Single-use items can be used once and are then discarded.
Ongoing items have a persistent effect that lasts until the end of the game or until the item is discarded.

Unless they specify timing, items can be used at any time except in the Roll Dice step. You may discard items at any time.

Items are gained one at a time. You cannot gain an item if you do not have room in your inventory. However, you may use or discard items you already have at this time to make room in your inventory. You cannot use items you have yet to gain.

Applied Dice

Applied dice are exhausted when the cards they are applied to are discarded, banished, or otherwise removed.

Effects that change the damage a die deals also impact dice already applied. Defeated enemies remain defeated regardless of changing damage effects.

Universal Heroes

Heroes marked with the universal hero icon are universal heroes and can be used in any 20 Strong deck for a new gameplay experience.

The gameplay of 20 Strong varies significantly from deck to deck, so universal heroes may not always be finely tuned to a different deck's play style. Have fun with them and discover the toughest or most rewarding pairings across the line!

When using universal heroes from Etherfields in other 20 Strong decks, use their current side — lucid or non-lucid.

When adding universal heroes to Etherfields, if an effect instructs you to flip your hero, only do so if using a double-sided hero. Otherwise, ignore the effect.

Difficulty Rankings

As you play Etherfields, the game's difficulty increases naturally. You can also test yourself further with these difficulty rankings:

Rank 1: Default difficulty. No changes.
Rank 2: Banish one random influence card in setup. Draw from the bottom of the Influence Deck rather than the top.
Rank 3: Banish two influence cards. Draw from the bottoms of both the Influence and Item Decks.
Rank 4: Banish three influence cards. Draw from the bottoms of the Influence, Item, and Enemy Decks.
Rank 5: Banish four influence cards. Draw from the bottoms of all decks.

Round Overview (Quick Reference)

Take Actions: Take as many actions as you wish throughout the entire round.

Activation

Influence: Discard one or more influence cards. Then, draw to five.
Opposition: Activate an enemy. Then, resolve the boss's Activation effect.

Engagement

Strategy Phase (repeat as your Strategy allows): Commit, roll, and apply dice.
Resolve Phase: Suffer damage, resolve After effects, exhaust dice, and recover dice (including one additional die matching the ether). Then, resolve Cleanup.