Almighty
Almighty Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Gods, Free Will, and Game Modes
- Components
- Setup
- Game Overview
- On Your Turn
- Playing Acts
- Mortals
- Huts & the Capital
- Prophecies
- The Feast Table
- Festivals
- Offerings
- New Age Preparation
- Game End & Final Scoring
- Free Will Automa
- God of the Sun
- God of Storms
- God of Love
- God of the Dead
- Playable Free Will
Gods, Free Will, and Game Modes
This box contains four unique playable gods - Sun, Storms, the Dead and Love - plus a fifth entity called Mortal Free Will. Free Will can be played by a human or used as an automa (an automated opponent).
Almighty supports competitive, cooperative, and solo play. Cooperative and solo modes pit the players against Free Will as an automa.
This rulebook covers the core game rules (pages 3-15) and the automa rules (pages 16-18). Each god also comes with a folded sheet covering their specific rules; Free Will's rules sheet covers playing it as a human player.
Components
- 1 Scroll Board
- 8 Huts
- 1 Capital Banner
- 12 Offering tokens
- 5 Favored Offering tiles
- 20 Power tokens
- 1 First Player marker
- 1 Flagon (round marker)
- 24 Belief tokens
- 16 Blessing tokens
- 16 Curse tokens
- 50 Mortal cards
- 20 Prophecy cards
- Player boards (4 gods, 1 Free Will)
- God figures (4 gods, 1 Free Will)
- Glory markers (4 gods, 1 Free Will)
- Basic Act cards (10 per god)
- Merciful Mighty Act cards (5 per god)
- Wrathful Mighty Act cards (5 per god)
- 1 Sun piece (God of the Sun)
- 3 Hearts (God of Love)
- 4 Thunderclouds (God of Storms)
- 1 Graveyard token (God of the Dead)
- 1 Carnival marker (Free Will)
- 2 difficulty tokens (Free Will)
- 1 Prophecy Reminder tile (Free Will)
- 15 Basic Act cards (Free Will)
- 7 Invention cards (Free Will)
Setup
Common Area
- Unfurl the board lengthwise across the middle of the play area.
- Shuffle the deck of Mortal cards and place it face down on the designated space on the board. Reveal the top two cards and place them face up on the empty slots. This creates the Mortal display.
- Reveal four Mortal cards from the deck and place one face up in each of the four lands on the board (Islands, Forests, Mountains and Deserts).
- Place one Hut in the Mountains. Place one Hut and the Capital Banner in the Forests.
- Flip all the Offering tokens Glory-side down and randomly create four stacks of three Offerings. Avoid looking at the order of Offerings in the stacks. Place these stacks on the board on the designated spaces, one in each land.
- Put the remaining Huts, Blessing and Curse tokens, Belief tokens, and Power tokens into separate supplies nearby.
- Place the Flagon piece on the Age I space of the Feast Table.
- 2-player competitive or solo game: Place two unused god figures on the 2nd (2-star) and 3rd (1-star) Seats on the Feast Table. 3-player game: Place one unused god figure on the 2nd (2-star) Seat. These spaces are blocked during the game.
- Shuffle and place the Prophecy deck face down nearby.
- Give the most merciful player the First Player marker.
Scroll care: The board is 100% cotton! To smooth out any wrinkles, use a clothes iron on a low heat setting with a cloth or towel between the iron and the board.
Player Area
- Each player selects a god (or Free Will). Collect that god's components:
- Player Board
- Basic Act deck (white-bordered cards)
- Mighty Act/Invention deck (non-bordered cards)
- Glory marker
- God figure
- God-specific special pieces and rules sheet
- Shuffle your Basic Act deck. Set it face down to the left of your player board, creating your draw pile.
- Separate your Mighty Acts by Merciful and Wrathful. Shuffle each pile separately and place them face down nearby.
- Follow any god-specific setup steps as detailed in your god's rules sheet. If playing as Free Will (competitive games only), see the Playable Free Will rules sheet.
- Place your god figure on your player board, and your Glory marker near the Glory track on the scroll board.
- Draw a random Favored Offering tile and place it face up on or near your player board. Return any remaining Favored Offering tiles to the box.
- Draw 5 Basic Act cards into hand. Competitive play: draw 1 Prophecy card into hand.
- If playing with the Free Will automa (required for solo or cooperative play), see page 16 for the final setup steps.
Game Overview
Almighty is played over 3 Ages (rounds). At the end, the player with the most Glory (victory points) is the winner.
Glory value
Each of the four lands on the board has a Glory value, which is the total number of yellow stars on Mortals, Huts, and other objects there, minus any red stars. At the end of each Age, the player who wins each land's Festival scores its Glory value.
Yellow stars minus red stars equals Glory value.
Festivals and Belief
You win a Festival by having the most Belief in that land at the end of an Age. Belief is found on your Act cards. Acts increase your Belief where played, and their effects also add, move, or remove Mortals and Huts, thereby altering the Glory value in each land.
Prophecies
Your Prophecy is a private objective card that compares the Glory values of two specific lands. When resolving your Prophecy, you'll earn bonus Glory if its condition is true, or bonus Belief if false.
When your hand of Act cards is empty, you resolve your Prophecy and are out for the Age. When all players are out, the Age ends. Each land holds a Festival, and a new Age begins with powerful new Mighty Acts added to each player's hand.
On Your Turn
Play proceeds in clockwise order, beginning with the starting player. Your turn follows these steps:
-
Activate "start of turn" effects. Some components have effects that must be triggered at the start of a player's turn. Resolve these effects before playing any Act cards or taking other actions. If you have more than one to resolve, you may decide the order. You might not have any start of turn effects.
-
Play 1 or 2 Act cards (page 6). The majority of play time will be spent playing and resolving the effects of 1 or 2 Act cards. Do not draw new Act cards after playing.
If you are the only player remaining with Act cards in hand, you must now play them all out as one single turn.
-
If no Act cards left: Reveal and resolve your Prophecy (page 12) and take a Seat (page 13). If you still have Act cards in hand, skip this step. After you have played your last Act card, the round is over for you. If other players still have Act cards, they continue playing.
-
Refill the Mortal display. At the end of your turn, if there are gaps in the Mortal display, refill them according to the arrows on the display.
Playing Acts
Act Card Anatomy
Basic Act (example: "Radiant Command") shows a Belief value, a Name, a Land requirement, and an Instant effect box.
Mighty Act (example: "Worship the Dawn!") shows a Belief value, a Name, a Power cost, and an Ongoing effect box.
Each player starts the game with 10 Basic Acts (white-bordered), 5 in hand. Basic Acts are fairly similar between gods. Mighty Acts have unique effects specific to each god's system. There are two types of Mighty Acts: Merciful and Wrathful. You will gain Mighty Acts at the start of Ages II and III.
On your turn, play 1 or 2 Acts, either face up or face down. You must fully resolve the effects of your first played Act before playing another.
You may play an Act to any one of the four lands on the board: Islands, Forests, Mountains or Deserts. When playing to a land, place your Act card under the land (not on the board itself) on your side of the board.
If you and another player are seated on the same side of the board, keep your played Act cards in separate columns. Stack your Acts such that the Belief values remain clearly visible. There is no limit to the number of Act cards that can be played to a land.
Playing an Act will trigger an effect. Act effects impact the land where you play the Act, unless a card or effect specifies otherwise.
IMPORTANT!
To legally play an Act, you MUST be able to perform its FULL effect. Unless preceded by "you may," Act effects are NOT optional. Mortals only believe in godly acts that have a visible impact!
Playing Acts face up
Some Acts have a land requirement. If an Act has a scroll icon, you must play it to a land that has that component in it.
Some Acts have a Power cost. If an Act has a Power cost icon, you must first pay that number of Power tokens from your supply to the general supply before playing it or activating its effect.
Playing Acts face down
Any Act card, Basic or Mighty, may be played face down in order to trigger one face down action. Each god has multiple face down actions on the bottom left of their player board.
You cannot play a face down Act with no effect; it must trigger a face down action.
All face down Acts have 1 Belief.
Card effects
The majority of Act effects impact the pieces on the board itself: Mortals, Huts, and the Capital Banner. These are shared components which can be freely impacted by any player. There is no limit to the number of components that can be in a land.
THE RULE OF EPIC TALES: If during play there is doubt regarding exact effect wording or specific edge case interactions, generally do what is most narratively satisfying or results in the coolest moment, and just keep playing! Precise wording can be found on this and the following two pages if you really really need it.
"Here" refers to the land where the card is located when its effect is activated. Card effects are always activated "here" unless otherwise specified.
"All" means "as many as possible and at least 1."
"In play": Only components on or at one of the lands on the board are considered "in play." Components in the Mortal display, Graveyard, player areas or elsewhere are not "in play."
Adjacency: By default there is no adjacency requirement when moving components between lands. In cases where adjacency is specified, the Deserts and the Islands are considered adjacent (the world is round, after all).
"Yellow stars" and "red stars": When used in effect text, these terms refer specifically to the icons physically printed on components such as Mortals, Huts, the Capital Banner, Blessing and Curse tokens, the Love god's Hearts, etc. "Yellow stars" and "red stars" as terms do not refer to the total Glory value of a land.
Effect icon glossary
| Icon | Name | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| + | Create | Add a new Mortal or Hut (as specified by the effect) to this land. Mortal: Choose from either of the face up Mortals in the display, or draw the top card from the Mortal deck. If you Create the leftmost Mortal in the display, immediately gain 1 Glory, as indicated by the icon below the leftmost slot. Remember: The Mortal display refills at the end of your turn! Hut: Add a Hut from the supply to this land. If the supply is empty, instead take a Hut from any other land of your choice. Creating a Hut may cause the Capital Banner to move (page 11). |
| hand | Poke | Activate the effect of a Pokeable Mortal in this land. |
| curved arrow in | Tempt | Move a Mortal from any other land into this land. |
| curved arrow out | Banish | Move a Mortal in this land to any other land. |
| arrow | Move | Effects which say "move" or "when moved" refer to any kind of movement (including Tempting and Banishing) between two lands on the board. It does apply to Mortals being Created from the display or Smited to the Graveyard. |
Mortals
Mortal cards represent specific individuals on the mortal plane which have caught your godly attention for one reason or another. Even if a land doesn't have any physical Mortal cards on it, that land can still be said to have inhabitants, down there out of sight somewhere.
Shrewdly manipulating Mortals to your advantage is key to success in Almighty.
Mortal Card Anatomy
Each Mortal card shows a Name (e.g. "Shepherd"), a Worth (Worthy or Unworthy), an Effect type, and an effect box (Ongoing effects have a darker effect box; Pokeable effects have a lighter effect box).
There are two types of Mortal effects:
| Icon | Name | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| hand | Poke | This effect activates when this Mortal is Poked. |
| hourglass | Ongoing | This effect is always active, or will activate in a special way. These Mortals cannot be Poked. |
Usually, Mortals must be able to complete their full effect when impacted, or you cannot impact them. However:
- On Mortals specifically, treat Curse and Bless effects as though they are followed by "if possible." Mortals will attempt to Curse or Bless their target, but if another game effect prevents Cursing or Blessing they will still follow through with the rest of their effect.
- "All" means "as many as possible and at least 1."
- If an effect is preceded by "may," then that part of the effect is optional.
Mortal and Act effects can chain together. The active player may decide the order in which effects activate. If a chain of identical effects would or could cycle back and repeat more than once, resolve the chain once and then stop.
Mortal Worth
A Mortal's worth is their contribution to the Glory value of the land they are in. A Mortal with one or more yellow stars is Worthy. A Mortal with one or more red stars is Unworthy. A Mortal can never be both Worthy and Unworthy.
Mortal worthiness can be altered by Blessing or Cursing them. Blessing increases a Mortal's worth, while Cursing decreases it. Mark this change by either adding or removing Blessing or Curse tokens on the Mortal card. A Mortal can never have both Blessing and Curse tokens at the same time; their worth is always either fully positive or fully negative. Mortals cannot be worth 0.
When adding Blessings or Curses, choose any from the supply. The text on these tokens has no gameplay effect. If either supply is empty, take a Blessing or Curse token from elsewhere in play. There is no limit to the number of Blessing or Curse tokens that can be on a single Mortal.
Ensure that these tokens are kept separate such that the Mortal's total value is always clearly visible.
Mortal Worth Example #1: The Shepherd had already been Blessed earlier in the game, so they have a total Glory value of +2 (their default "Worthy" icon, plus the Blessing token). You decide to Curse them, reducing their value by 1. Because they have a Blessing token, you do not add a Curse token - you discard the Blessing token instead. (Glory value: +2 -> +1)
Mortal Worth Example #2: The Shepherd has further displeased you, so you decide to Curse them again, again reducing their value by 1. However, they no longer have any Blessing tokens, only the generic "Worthy" icon that is printed on the card. Now you do add a Curse token! Because a Mortal cannot be both Worthy and Unworthy, you cover up the printed Worthy icon with the Curse token. Note that this swings the Mortal's Glory value by 2 points from +1 to -1. Mortals cannot be worth 0. (Glory value: +1 -> -1)
Mortal Worth Example #3: In your infinite wisdom you decide to Curse this poor Shepherd again. Because they are already Unworthy, you simply add another Curse token to them. This reduces their value further from -1 to -2. If you were to now Bless them, you would discard the "Cruel" Curse token. (Glory value: -1 -> -2)
Huts & the Capital
Huts represent mortal prosperity in a land. The more Huts present, the happier, healthier, and more developed the residents of that land are. The Capital Banner marks the Capital, the most prosperous land of all. The Capital is important for certain Prophecies and card effects.
The Capital Banner always goes where there are the most Huts.
If at any point another land has more Huts than the land the Capital Banner is currently on, immediately move the Banner there. The Capital Banner only moves when another land has strictly more Huts, not an equal number. If the Capital Banner needs to move but multiple lands are tied for most Huts, the active player decides where to move the Banner.
Capital Movement Example #1: The Capital is in the Forests. You Create a Hut in the Islands. Both lands now have 2 Huts, so the Capital Banner does not move.
Capital Movement Example #2: The Capital is in the Forests. You Create a Hut in the Islands. The Islands now has 3 Huts and the Forests has 2, so the Capital Banner immediately moves to the Islands, where there are more.
Capital Movement Example #3: The Capital is in the Islands, and there are 2 Huts each in the Islands, the Forests and the Mountains. You Smite a Hut out of the Islands. The Islands now only has 1 Hut, so the Capital moves. Both the Forests and Mountains have more Huts, but each has the same number, so you may choose either one.
If the Hut supply is empty (i.e., all Huts are in play) when Creating a Hut in a land, take a Hut from a different land. If all Huts are in a single land, then you cannot Create a Hut there.
The Capital Banner can never be removed from play. If the last Hut is removed from the board, the Capital Banner stays where it is.
Prophecies
Prophecy cards depict two different lands, requiring one to have a higher Glory value than another. Note that this does not mean that Prophecies require a land to have the highest or lowest value of all the lands, only higher or lower relative to each other.
Prophecy Card Anatomy
Each Prophecy card's front shows a Belief value if false, a Condition (comparing two lands), an Age (I, II or III), and a Glory reward if true. The back is a plain face-down design.
Example: a Prophecy requires the Islands to be worth more than the land containing the Capital banner when you are out of the round.
When you are out of Act cards to play, immediately reveal and resolve your Prophecy. Your Prophecy is true if at that point its condition is met (do not wait until the end of the Age!). Otherwise, your Prophecy is false.
- If your Prophecy is true: Gain the Glory indicated on the Prophecy card (3 Glory in Age I, 4 Glory in Age II and 5 Glory in Age III). Then, discard the Prophecy from play.
- If your Prophecy is false: Flip it over. Your keen insight has earned you some additional Belief! You may place the Prophecy face down on top of any of your Acts currently in play, gaining you +2 Belief there. A false Prophecy is not an Act, so it cannot be used to take face down actions. You cannot add Belief tokens to a face down Prophecy.
If the two lands depicted on your Prophecy have exactly equal value, then it is false. If your Prophecy features the Capital and a land, and the Capital is on that same land, then it is false.
Prophecy Example: Our Prophecy requires the Islands to be worth more than the Capital. The Islands has 3 yellow stars and no red stars. Its Glory value is 3. The Capital (in the Forests) has 3 yellow stars and 2 red stars. Its Glory value is 1. Our Prophecy is true. (Glory value: Islands +3, Capital land +1)
The Feast Table
The great celestial Feast Table is where the gods gather at the end of an Age to enjoy a hearty banquet and regale each other with tales of mortal foibles.
The Feast Table has a 1st Seat, 2nd Seat, 3rd Seat and 4th Seat, a Flagon (Age tracker) that moves along the Age track (Age I -> Age II -> Age III), and a Tiebreaker icon at the 1st Seat.
After you have revealed and resolved your Prophecy, place your god figure on an unoccupied Feast Table Seat and immediately gain the Glory indicated there. If there aren't any unoccupied Seats available, skip this step.
The order of Feast Seats is also the tiebreaker priority for Belief at Festival scoring and endgame Glory.
You are now out for the Age! If other players still have Act cards in hand, they continue playing.
If you are the only player remaining, even if you still have more than 2 Act cards in hand, you must now play them all out. This counts as a single final turn (do not trigger Start of Turn effects multiple times or refill the Mortal display during this final turn).
Festivals
Once all players have taken seats at the Feast Table, the inhabitants of each land will throw a great Festival. In each land (in any order), first determine a winner, then award them the land's Glory value and the land's top Offering.
Determine a winner
The player with the most total Belief on their Act cards in a land wins the Festival there, provided they have at least 1 Belief in that land. Resolve ties in order of Feast Seat positioning (the earlier Seat wins).
Award Glory and Offering
If you are the winner, you gain Glory equal to the Glory value of the land. Move your marker up the Glory track this number of spaces. Two Glory markers may share the same space. If the Glory value of the land is negative, you gain 0 Glory. You cannot lose Glory at Festivals.
Then, take the Offering token from the top of the stack in that land into your player area. Keep its Glory-side down and hidden until the end of the game.
If a land has no Act cards in it, or no player has at least 1 Belief there, no Festival takes place and its Glory is not awarded. Discard that land's top Offering to the box.
2nd place Glory
In a 4-player game only, the player with the 2nd most Belief scores half the land's Glory, rounded down. They do not get an Offering.
Festival Scoring Example: The Storm god (blue) wins the Forests Festival with 6 total Belief to the Love god (pink)'s 3. There are 4 yellow stars and 2 red stars in the land, so Storms earns 2 Glory and takes the Offering on the top of the stack. In a 4-player game, Love would win 2nd place and earn 1 Glory (but no Offering).
Offerings
Offerings are each worth either 1 or 2 Glory at the end of the game. There are 4 types of Offerings (Gems, Nectar, Skulls, and Incense). You may not peek at Offering values during the game, including ones you have collected.
There are 5 Favored Offering tiles. Each player receives one at setup. They include a title (for narrative flavor), as well as bonus Glory at the end of the game for collecting specific Offerings. Keep Favored Offering tiles face-up in your player area; they are not hidden from other players.
Example ("Drunken"/"Pungent" type tiles): These four Favored Offering tiles award 2 bonus endgame Glory for each of one specific type of Offering collected.
Example ("Greedy"): This Favored Offering tile awards 1 bonus endgame Glory for each different type of Offering you have collected. For example, the four Offerings pictured represent 3 different types = 3 Glory.
New Age Preparation
After Festival scoring, it is time to begin a new Age.
-
Clear Act cards from play. Played Basic Acts go into your discard pile. Return Belief tokens on them to the supply. Remove Mighty Acts from play; they do not enter your discard pile, nor return to their deck. Remove false Prophecies from play. Power tokens gained in the previous Age remain in your supply.
-
Clear the Feast Table Seats and advance the Flagon. Return your god figure to your player board. Then, move the Flagon on the Feast Table to the next Age space.
-
Draw Mighty Acts (Merciful or Wrathful). As indicated by the reminder icons on the Feast Table, when advancing from Age I to Age II, all players draw 1 Mighty Act from their god's Mighty Act deck and add it to their hand. When advancing to Age III, draw 2 Mighty Acts.
There are two types of Mighty Acts: Merciful and Wrathful. To determine which you draw, check your current score on the Glory track:
- If you are currently 5 or more spaces behind the lead player, take a Wrathful Mighty Act. You are NOT happy with those Mortals, and you're going to let them know...
- Otherwise, take a Merciful Mighty Act.
-
Draw 5 Basic Acts and a new Prophecy. If you ever need to draw an Act card but your draw pile is empty, shuffle your discard pile to create a new draw pile.
-
Pass the First Player marker clockwise and begin again.
Game End & Final Scoring
After Age III Festivals have been resolved, the game is over. Gain any bonus Glory awarded by your Favored Offering tile, then flip all your Offerings and gain the Glory on their back sides. The Glory track is continuous; if you pass 40 Glory, flip your marker over to the "+40" side and continue.
The player with the most Glory wins! Break ties using the Feast Table.
Free Will Automa
You can play Almighty cooperatively, solo, or competitively against the Free Will automa, an artificial player representing the Mortals themselves acting according to their own unpredictable and infuriating whims.
The Free Will automa plays Acts to lands, impacts Mortals, and competes for Festivals like a player. It doesn't have a Prophecy, but it will often work directly against yours. In addition to Festivals and Offerings, Free Will also gains Glory by holding Carnivals, secular parties where it scores the value of the land during the Age. Between Ages II and III, Free Will gains Inventions with powerful ongoing effects.
In cooperative play, you win if all players have more Glory than Free Will at the end of the game.
Setup
- Place the Free Will board gears-side up.
- Separately shuffle Free Will's decks of 15 Basic Acts and 7 Invention cards. Then create a single 17-card deck, arranged like so: 5 Basic Acts / 1 Invention / 5 Basic Acts / 2 Inventions / 5 Basic Acts, all face down. Place this on the deck area of Free Will's board. Return unused Inventions to the box.
- Place the Carnival marker on the Forests space of the Carnival rondel.
- Depending on the level of challenge you'd like, add Difficulty modifier tokens to empty slots on the Carnival rondel. (Difficulty settings, easiest to hardest: Casual, Normal, Hard, Godlike.)
- Place the Free Will figure on the indicated space of Free Will's board and the Free Will Glory marker near the Glory track.
- Cooperative and solo game only:
- Draw a single Prophecy card and place it face up where it is visible to everyone. In cooperative play, you do not have your own Prophecy card; all players share one. Put the Prophecy Reminder tile on top of it, covering up the +2 Belief reminder.
- Give Free Will 3 starting Glory for each human player (i.e., 3 Glory in a solo game, 12 Glory in a game with 4 humans plus the automa).
- Give Free Will a Favored Offering tile and the First Player marker.
Free Will Act Anatomy
The front of a Free Will Act card shows the Act type (top left), an image, a 1st effect, and an Otherwise effect. The back (as seen on the deck) shows the Target land icons, a Land tiebreaker, a Mortal tiebreaker, and a 2nd effect.
Free Will Example: Free Will draws "Begone, Try-Hard!" This is a Foolish Act, so it will play it to the land you have "up" on your Prophecy. There, it will use the land tiebreaker to decide where to Banish a Worthy Mortal. If there are no Worthy Mortals in the land, it will take the Otherwise effect, Creating a Mortal and Cursing them. If there are multiple Worthy Mortals to Banish, it will use the Mortal tiebreaker to choose the one first in alphabetical order. Finally, it will gain 1 Belief on the Act it just played.
Free Will's Turn
On Free Will's turn, reveal the top card of its deck. Then, look at the card that is now on top of the deck on its board. This card has all the information you need to play the Act you revealed and resolve its effects.
Where to play the Act
First, find the Act type icon on the top left of the card: either Foolish or Inspired. Then, find the matching icon on the Free Will board. Below the icon, printed on the top card of the deck, is the target land icon. Play the Act card to the target land.
Target Land Icons:
| Icon | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| up arrow | Your Prophecy: Up | Play this Act to the land you have "up" (i.e., that you want to be more valuable) on your Prophecy. |
| down arrow | Your Prophecy: Down | Play this Act to the land you have "down" (i.e., that you want to be less valuable) on your Prophecy. |
| offering jar | Your Favored Offering | Play this Act to a land that has a player's Favored Offering on top of the Offering stack. |
| banner | The Carnival Land | Play this Act to the land currently marked by the Carnival marker on Free Will's rondel. |
If Free Will ever needs to choose between multiple valid lands, or if no land is valid, then use the land tiebreaker. First, try to play in the indicated land. If that land is not valid, try the next land in the direction of the arrow and keep going until you find a land that is valid. The Islands and the Deserts are considered adjacent.
Resolving the 1st effect
Free Will Act effects have two parts. The first is on the Act card itself. If it is not possible to resolve this effect in the land, then resolve as much of the "Otherwise" effect as you can. If an effect requires deciding between more than one valid Mortal, use the Mortal tiebreaker: if "A," choose the Mortal whose printed name is first in alphabetical order; if "Z," choose the Mortal last in alphabetical order.
- Free Will always Creates the leftmost Mortal in the display (and scores 1 Glory).
- Free Will always tries to resolve as much of an effect as possible. For example, if an effect would impact "any number of Mortals here", it will choose all valid ones.
- When it would impact a played Act in a column, Free Will chooses the topmost (recently played) one.
- If it needs to choose between players, it chooses the player next in turn order.
- If Free Will cannot perform an Act's main effect or its Otherwise effect, it plays the Act card there with no effect.
- In any rare remaining edge case, you decide for Free Will. Try to avoid making it act against its own interest. Free Will prefers negatively impacting you, if it can.
Free Will is not a god! If a game effect refers to a "god," it does not apply to Free Will.
Resolving the 2nd effect
The second effect is on the card at the top of the deck.
2nd Effect Icons:
| Icon | Name | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| +1 | Gain +1 Belief | Add a +1 Belief token to the Act that Free Will just played. |
| + | Play a second Act | Flip and resolve a second Act card. Free Will can only play a maximum of 2 cards per turn; if Free Will has already played 2 cards this turn, ignore this effect. |
| carnival icon | Hold a Carnival | See: Carnivals (below). |
| feast icon | Take a Feast Seat and end its round | Place the Free Will figure on the highest available Feast Table Seat (award it any Glory there). It has now finished playing for the Age. |
Carnivals
When Free Will holds a Carnival, it immediately scores Glory equal to the value of the land marked on its Carnival rondel (even if it does not have the most Belief there!). Then, advance the Carnival marker one space clockwise.
Free Will cannot lose Glory at a Carnival if the land has negative Glory value. Free Will does not gain Offerings at Carnivals. If the Carnival marker is currently on a blank space on the rondel, no land is scored.
Prophecies and Festivals
When you are out of cards, if the Prophecy is true, score its Glory but leave it in play. If the Prophecy remains true when the next player is out, they also score its Glory. If the Prophecy is false, you do not score Glory, but you may not flip it over for +2 Belief. Additionally, if the Prophecy is false at the point at which you are out of the round, Free Will immediately holds a Carnival. The tile on your Prophecy serves as a reminder of this.
Free Will does win Glory and Offerings at Festivals if it has the most Belief. However, in 4-player games (the automa counts as a player), if it has the 2nd most Belief in a land, Free Will takes 2nd place but does not gain any Glory.
New Age and Inventions
During cleanup, discard Free Will's basic Acts into its discard pile next to its board. Discard your Prophecy and draw a new one face up on the table, placing the reminder tile on top.
Free Will never passes the First Player marker; it is always the first player in every Age. However, at the start of a new Age in a multiplayer game, pass the Free Will figure to the next player in clockwise order. During the next Age, Free Will takes their turn before this player. Thus player order shifts each Age, even while Free Will always goes first.
Free Will's first Acts in Ages II and III will be Inventions, its version of Mighty Acts. At the start of Age II, flip the Invention face up and play it to the tiebreaker land. At the start of Age III, flip and play both Inventions, one directly after the other; play the second Invention to a different land than the first (following the land tiebreaker). After playing its Inventions, Free Will's turn is over. It does not resolve the 2nd effect on the back of the deck.
At the end of each Age, discard any Inventions from play along with Free Will's Basic Acts.
Playing with the Free Will automa in a competitive game
You can use the Free Will automa as an additional opponent in competitive play, following these adjustments:
- The automa does not start with any Glory.
- Do not use the Free Will Prophecy reminder tile. Your individual Prophecies work as they would in a regular competitive game.
- During Free Will's turn, ignore the Act type icons (Foolish and Inspired) entirely. Instead, only use the land tiebreaker icon to decide where Free Will plays and resolves its Acts.
God of the Sun
The Sun: the god with the original day job.
Special Component
1 Sun piece.
Setup
- Place the Sun piece, sunny side up, in the leftmost land (either the Deserts or the Islands, depending on which side of the board you are seated).
- Begin the game with 2 Power.
Overview
At the start of your turn, you must move the Sun piece, a token that travels across the lands and grants you bonus Belief as Mortals witness your great Acts. Eventually the Sun flips to Night, when you rest and gain Power.
Acts and actions with this icon must be played to the land with the Sun piece.
Special Rules
At the start of your turn, you must advance the Sun piece into the next land. The Sun always moves from left to right, relative to where you are seated.
When the Sun piece would advance off the rightmost land, it becomes Night. Flip the piece to its Night side, bring it into your player area, and immediately gain 3 Power.
At the start of your turn, if the Sun is on the Night side, flip it back to the Day side and move it into the leftmost land.
The Path of the Sun
The Sun moves left to right across the four lands, then to Night, then back to the leftmost land.
Sunshine Bonus
When you (and only you) play a face up Act to the land with the Sun piece, immediately add +1 Belief to that Act.
Face-Down Actions
Play an Act face down in a land to take one of the following actions there:
- Create a Mortal here.
- Push the Sun: Move the Sun from here into the next land. Note that you can Push the Sun into Night, but you cannot take this action if it is currently Night.
Tips & Tricks
The Sun is a good god to give to new or less experienced players.
By always playing under the Sun, you can generate a lot of Belief quite widely, but doing this risks spreading yourself thin and forgoing highly contested Festivals.
Your only source of Power is the Sun flipping to Night. You depend on its cycle and must budget Power wisely and plan ahead. Don't be afraid to Push the Sun if you need a Power recharge or a Belief boon in a specific place.
Your weakness is the Sun's directionality. Your opponents can play into the lands the Sun just left, safe in the knowledge that it won't be back any time soon.
God of Storms
Storms: when it rains, it pours.
Special Components
4 Clouds.
Setup
- Place all Clouds on the board, one in each land.
Overview
Unlike the other gods, Storms does not need to generate or spend Power tokens. Instead, you source your Power directly from your Cloud pieces blowing all over the map. As such, you will always have Power available, but it may not always be in the right place.
Acts with this icon must be played to a land with at least one Cloud.
If a game effect costs or awards Power, you instead spend or gather Clouds, respectively.
Special Rules
You do not gain or spend Power in the same way as the other gods. Storm Acts do not have a Power cost; instead, most have a Cloud cost.
When paying this cost, you must move the indicated number of Clouds from this land into any other lands of your choice.
Multiple spent Clouds may move together to the same land or be split across different ones. There is no adjacency or directional restriction for moving Clouds.
Clouds are never removed from the board during play.
Example: Cloud Movement
You play Fertile Shower to the Mountains. This card costs 2 Clouds, and there are currently 3 available there. You move one to the Forests and the other to the Islands.
Face-Down Actions
Play an Act face down in a land to take one of the following actions there:
- Create a Mortal here.
- Gather Clouds: Bring 1 or 2 Clouds from any other lands into this land.
Tips & Tricks
Storms is a deceptively challenging god to play well. The Cloud puzzle takes time to master.
Don't be tempted to map out your turns far in advance; the board state will change too quickly. Instead, position your clouds to stay flexible based on your Prophecy and where you see Glory value accruing.
Gather Clouds is worth the face-down cost. It provides a fast pivot, it can start a powerful one-two punch combo, and it also lets you hide your intentions from opponents. Their only insight into your plans are the location and concentration of your Clouds on the map.
Luckily for you, your opponents can't directly interfere with your Clouds.
God of Love
Love: love maker, heart breaker.
Special Components
3 Hearts.
Setup
- Add 1 more Mortal from the deck to either the Deserts or the Islands (whichever land is physically nearest to you).
- Pair up the 2 Mortals in this land with the 1-Glory Heart.
- Place the remaining 2 Heart tokens on the heart-shaped spaces on your player board.
- Begin the game with 1 Power.
Overview
Love is the deity with the most intimate interest in Mortals. You gain Power by pairing up Mortals with Hearts, but must also break those Hearts to refuel your Power supply.
Acts with this icon must be played to a land with a Heart in it.
Special Rules
Whenever a Heart token leaves your player board, immediately gain 1 Power.
Unless a card specifies otherwise, Hearts can only be placed on a single pair of Mortals that do not already have a Heart.
When pairing up Mortals, position them together such that the Heart physically connects them (along any edge).
If at any point during the game a paired Mortal is Smited or Moved, thereby separated from their companion, their Heart token immediately returns to your player board, to any open slot (you do not gain Power when Hearts return to your board, only when they leave).
If both Mortals in a pair move at the same time to the same land, their Heart token remains with them, unbroken.
Each of the three Hearts has a different Glory value (representing the quality of the relationship these paired Mortals are in). Stars on Hearts do count toward the total Glory value of the land they are in for all players.
Pairing up Mortals with a Heart does not count as Blessing or Cursing them.
Face-Down Actions
Play an Act face down in a land to take one of the following actions there:
- Create a Mortal here.
- Spread Love: First, place any 1 Heart from your player board onto an unmatched pair of Mortals in this land. Then, you may continue to place any remaining Hearts from your board onto unmatched pairs of Mortals on any land.
Example: Spread Love
You play a face down Act to the Islands to Spread Love. You first add a Heart to the two Mortals there, and then keep going, adding another to the pair in the Forests. However, you cannot also add your final Heart as there are no more unmatched pairs of Mortals in play. You gain 2 Power.
Tips & Tricks
Your Hearts are fragile, pretty things. They can be moved or broken by other players, yet can also swing the value of lands quite dramatically. This makes them attractive, and therefore useful for misdirection.
Try to be efficient when Spreading Love. The more Hearts you can put out with a single face down card, the better. You benefit from having couplets of Mortals in each land, so odd-numbered populations are less valuable. Pay close attention to who you pair up with your Hearts; Mortals that tend to move around will likely have their Hearts broken sooner.
Don't be afraid to split Mortals up - you need your Heart tokens back to gain more Power in the future.
God of the Dead
The Dead: kill 'em all and let me sort 'em out.
Special Components
1 Graveyard reminder token.
Setup
- Place the Graveyard reminder token on the Graveyard area of the scroll board.
- Draw 1 Mortal from the deck and place them face up just above the Deserts slot of your player board.
Overview
The god of the Dead takes over the game's Graveyard. You benefit when Mortals are Smited, whether by your doing or other players. Not only do you gain Power and Glory from the recently expired, but you can manipulate and even resurrect Mortals from your underworld.
Special Rules
When the god of the Dead is in play, the row above their player board is the Graveyard. Any game effects that refer to the Graveyard refer there instead. Ignore the Graveyard space on the main board.
Your Graveyard is made up of four Grave slots, each corresponding to one of the four lands. Each slot can hold one dead Mortal, a maximum of 4 dead Mortals in the Graveyard at a time.
If a Mortal is Smited at any time during play, they immediately go to you. Even if it is not currently your turn, find the Grave slot matching the land the Mortal was Smited in:
- If the Grave is unoccupied, place the newly dead Mortal directly above it such that the Judgment icon is still visible. Any Curse or Blessing tokens on that Mortal remain in place.
- If the Grave is already occupied with a dead Mortal, choose one of the two Mortals to be immediately discarded to Final Rest (i.e., back in the box). If you choose to keep the newly dead Mortal, place it above the Grave.
When a Mortal is discarded to Final Rest, return any tokens on them to the supply. Mortals in Final Rest cannot be interacted with any further.
The Graveyard is not a land. Placement into and resurrection out of the Graveyard does not count as movement. Likewise you cannot use move effects like Tempt or Banish to move dead Mortals into or out of the Graveyard.
Some of your cards let you Poke dead Mortals in the Graveyard. This represents the ghosts of those Mortals returning briefly to the world to take action. Play these Acts to a land like normal, and then activate the Poke effect of any pokeable dead Mortal (their Grave icon does not need to match the land). Resolve their Poke effect exactly as though that Mortal was physically present in the land, even if that Mortal would "move."
Judge the Dead: at the start of your turn, you must Judge all un-judged Mortals in the Graveyard (an un-judged Mortal is sitting just above its Graveyard slot, with the Judgment icon still visible). To Judge a Mortal, slide their card down to cover up the Judgment icon. Then, for each Mortal Judged, immediately gain either 1 Power (you judge them unfavorably) or 1 Glory (you judge them favorably).
Example: Death & Judgment
The Shepherd is Smited from the Deserts. The Deserts Grave is unoccupied, so they are placed just above it. Then, the Martyr is Smited from the Islands. The Islands slot is already occupied with the Nudist, who was Judged on a previous turn and is covering up the Judgment icon. You decide to discard the Nudist to Final Rest and keep the Martyr, placing them just above the Islands Grave. You will Judge both the Shepherd and the Martyr at the start of your next turn.
Face-Down Actions
Play an Act face down in a land to take one of the following actions there:
- Smite a Mortal here.
- Resurrect: place a Mortal from any Grave slot into this land. This does not count as Creating that Mortal, nor does this count as movement. It does count as entering that land.
Tips & Tricks
Dead's Graveyard offers a unique dynamic with Mortals. But you must be clever about it, which makes this god a good choice for advanced players.
The key lies in maintaining an active tableau of useful dead Mortals. You have powerful Pokes to bring back ghostly Mortal effects that other players cannot share. Resurrect highly Blessed (or Cursed!) Mortals to swing land values in your favor - or leverage their Ongoing effects. However you can't easily Create new Mortals or Huts, and you'll always be hungry for fresh Mortals to keep the Power flowing. But don't wipe the map clean! You do still need to win Festivals populated by the worthy living if you want to succeed.
Playable Free Will
Free Will: you're not the boss of us.
Special Component
1 Carnival marker.
Setup
- Flip the Free Will board to the human-player side. Place the Carnival marker on the Forests spot of the Carnival rondel.
- Shuffle the Free Will Basic Acts and Invention decks separately. Place the Basic Act deck face down to the left of your player board. Place the Invention deck face down in the same area as the Mighty Act decks.
- Do not draw a Prophecy.
Overview
As Free Will, you are not burdened by cosmic obligations; you don't gain Prophecies, Mighty Acts, or Power. However, you will be able to score secular Carnivals to earn points during the round, and you will gain powerful Inventions in Ages II and III.
Special Rules
When playing as Free Will:
- Ignore all information on the back side of your cards.
- Ignore the Act type icons (Foolish/Inspired) on the front of your cards. You may play Acts into any valid land.
- When playing an Act, if the primary action is not possible, resolve the Otherwise action instead. If neither is possible, you cannot play the Act.
- Free Will is not a god! If an effect refers specifically to "gods," it does not apply to you.
- In a 4-player game, if you have the 2nd most Belief, you take 2nd place but do not gain any Glory.
Carnival Time
Instead of a face down action, you have a Discard action: Carnival Time.
Rather than playing a card to a land, you may instead choose to discard it directly to your discard pile to hold a Carnival:
- Immediately score the Glory value of the land marked on your Carnival rondel (even if you don't have the most Belief there).
- Advance the Carnival marker one space clockwise.
You do not lose Glory at Carnivals, even if the land has a negative Glory value. You do not gain the land's Offering when holding a Carnival there.
Inventions
In place of Mighty Acts, you have Inventions; one in Age II and two in Age III. On your very first turn of Age II, the first Act played must be your Invention. You may then play a second Act. At the start of Age III, you must first play both Inventions (to different lands) as your turn.
Tips & Tricks
As Free Will, focus on timing your Carnivals to capture Glory while it's available in a land. Those points can easily make up for the fact that you can't score Prophecies. But be careful - your opponents can see your Carnival schedule and collaborate to devalue upcoming lands if you're not quick.
You don't have face down actions, but you can trigger the Otherwise actions on your Acts by intentionally playing into lands where the main action will fail. This affords you flexibility and the element of surprise.