Anthem
Anthem Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Goal
The players try to free the land from the evil dragon, who has held its people in the grip of its cruel claws since time immemorial. To do so, the players lay out cards that tell the stations of their adventure. Whoever completes their adventure successfully first wins; their story becomes a legend.
Components
44 playing cards: 4 card sets, each consisting of 10 cards with the values 0 to 9, plus 1 card "Dead".
General Card Layout
The value of each card and its name are shown at the top of the card. In the game only the card value is needed. The card name and the illustration serve to add flavour to the adventure story that the players tell through their laid-out cards.
The card "Dead" has no numerical value. This card represents the unhappy outcome of the adventure: the hero is defeated by the dragon.
Setup
One card set is needed per player. With fewer than 4 players, the card sets that are not needed are returned to the box.
Each player takes the cards "0. Start" and "9. End" and places them face up in front of themselves as shown in the illustration, so that there is room for 6 more cards between "0. Start" and "9. End":
- Start | placeholder | placeholder | placeholder | placeholder | placeholder | placeholder | 9. End
The cards "0. Start" and "9. End" mark the beginning and the end of the story. During play, the players lay out cards into the placeholders between these two cards, which are still empty at the start of the game, in order to complete their adventure.
The "Dead" cards are set aside first. The remaining cards are shuffled thoroughly, and each player receives 8 of them, plus 1 card "Dead". Each player shuffles these together with the 8 other cards and then takes them into hand.
A starting player is determined at random. Then the game begins.
Gameplay
The game proceeds clockwise, beginning with the starting player.
On their turn, the player first draws a random card from the hand of the player to their right and looks at it. The player then either lays the drawn card out or takes it into their hand. After that, the next player takes their turn.
If, after this, a player has a complete layout of 8 cards and no card "Dead" in hand, that player wins.
Give the brave hero the honour that is due, and continue telling the story of the fight against the dragon!
Playing a Card
When laying out cards, the following rules must be observed:
- The values of the cards in the layout must rise from left to right, and no value may occur twice.
- There must be a free place for the card. If two neighbouring places are occupied and the card just drawn fits in value between those two cards, then it may not be laid out. Cards that have been laid out may never be moved to another place in the layout later in the game. For example, if the card "5. Sword" lies directly to the right of the card "3. Mission", then the card "4. Rescue" can no longer be laid out later in the game.
Taking a Card into Hand
In the following cases the drawn card may not be laid out and must be taken into hand:
- The drawn card is the card "Dead".
- The value of the drawn card is already present in the layout.
- There is no free place in the layout for the drawn card.
In addition, the player may choose to take the drawn card into hand even though they could lay it out.
Additional Win Condition: The Dragon Wins!
In addition to the successful completion of the adventure, the players may agree that the dragon can also win. If a player holds all of the "Dead" cards that are in play in their hand, that player wins.