Arcanya: Magic Academy Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Development of the Trial
  • Components
  • Before Starting
  • Objective of the Trial
  • End of the Trial
• The Trial
  • Defending Against the Sphere
  • Courtesy
  • Taking a Hit
  • Guards
• Advanced Courses
  • Before Starting
  • New Maneuver: Attune
  • Elemental School
  • Resonance
• Optional Rules

Development of the Trial

The participants stand in a circle and greet one another respectfully. Each participant then raises their Magic Shields. At that moment the coliseum creates a magic Sphere and hurls it at the youngest Student. From then on, the Students must defend against the Sphere in turns, while also trying to eliminate their rivals.

Components

The final trial of Arcanya uses the following components:

• One rulebook.
• A Power Source (draw deck) made up of:
  • 54 Magic Power cards, numbered 2 to 10.
  • 42 Maneuver cards.
• 12 Student cards.
• 1 Direction of Rotation card.
• 6 School cards.
• 12 Magic Weakness cards.
• 30 Magic Shield cards (one side shows the number of Victory Points they grant and the other side shows the number of cards that must be held in hand).
• 8 reference cards.

Before Starting

The Students must make a series of preparations before beginning the trial:

• Remove the Attune cards (they are only included in Advanced Courses, see page 9) and form the Power Source of the trial (the draw deck) with the remaining Maneuver and Magic Power cards.
• Place the Power Source in the centre of the table, within reach of all Students.
• Place the Direction of Rotation card somewhere visible to all Students. It must show clockwise rotation.
• Deal one Student card to each player.

Note: The Group 1 characters are recommended for the first games or for less experienced players.

The group is shown on the text box, on the right. (Figure caption.)

• Each Student takes 3 Shield cards, one of each level, and arranges them from lowest to highest so that the first one is the one marked with the Roman numeral "III".
• Deal 5 cards from the Power Source to each Student.

Objective of the Trial

The Student who obtains the most Victory Points at the end of the trial is named the winner.

Each time a Student eliminates a Shield belonging to another, they receive that Shield card and the Victory Points associated with it.

End of the Trial

The trial ends when a Student obtains Shields from other participants worth 8 or more Victory Points, or when a student is eliminated by losing their last Shield.

At the end, each Student adds up the Victory Points they obtained and those granted by the Shields they still keep.

The Student with the most Victory Points is the winner. In case of a tie, the tied players add up the value of the Magic Power cards in their hand; the one with the higher total is the winner.

The Trial

Once the coliseum has generated the first magic Sphere of Power 1, it is directed at the youngest Student. This Student must defend against it using their cards, after which the Sphere passes to the next student, according to the Direction of Rotation.

When a Sphere is directed at a Student, that Student may use a card from their hand or the ability of their character to defend against it.

When a Student cannot defend against the magic Sphere, they lose a Shield (the one of highest value), which must be handed to the participant who sent them the Sphere.

The Sphere always has a Power indicated by a numerical value and a direction of rotation (represented by the Direction of Rotation card, placed in the centre of the table), which indicates which is the next Student to defend against the Sphere.

Defending Against the Sphere

When the magic Sphere approaches a Student, that Student must quickly think about how to defend against it: they concentrate their magic energy and manipulate the Sphere to keep it from hitting them. To do so, they have their cards and the ability of their Student card.

A Student must defend against the Sphere using a card from their hand, a Power card or a Maneuver card, or the ability of their Student card.

Power cards reflect the ability to manipulate the energy of the Sphere. The Student shows and discards a Power card; its value must be equal to or higher than the Sphere's current Power. After this, the Sphere continues its course to the next Student according to the Direction of Rotation, but with a Power equal to the value of the discarded card.

Resonance! If the Power of the discarded card is equal to the Power of the Sphere, the Student may choose as target any other Student in the circle.

Maneuver cards are special techniques learned by magicians to modify the trajectory or the nature of the Sphere, thus allowing them to escape from it.

The available Maneuvers are:

• Dodge: Avoids the trajectory of the Sphere without modifying it; the next Student, according to the Direction of Rotation, must defend against it.
• Deflect: Manipulates the trajectory of the Sphere. You choose another Student (except the one who acted before you), who must defend against the Sphere.
• Reflect: Returns the Sphere to the previous Student and reverses the Direction of Rotation.
• Alter: Modifies the Power of the Sphere by 1 point, which you may add or subtract. The next Student, according to the Direction of Rotation, must defend.
• Dispel: Dissipates the energies accumulated in the Sphere. The Power of the Sphere becomes 1 and the next Student, according to the Direction of Rotation, must defend against it.

Note: Any effect - Maneuvers such as Alter, Student abilities, Elemental School cards, etc. - that reduces the Power of the Sphere below 1 has the same effect as Dispel.

Whenever a player plays, draws or discards a card for any reason, the Student must refill their hand until they have the number of cards indicated by their highest-value Shield. To do so they must draw or discard as the case may be. Students must at all times have as many cards as their highest-value Shield card indicates: 5 at the start, 4 if they have lost any Shield during the game.

If at any point there are not enough cards left to draw, the discard pile is shuffled to form a new deck.

The character abilities represent special capabilities that each Student may use during the trial. To use them, the Student card must be turned and the instructions on it followed. While the Student card is turned, the ability cannot be used again. If a Student card indicates "before taking your Action", it means that after turning the Student and resolving their ability, they must still defend against the Sphere.

Student cards are not turned upright again until a participant is hit and loses a Shield, at which point all of them are turned upright and their abilities become available again.

Courtesy

One of the principles of the Arcanya Academy is courtesy. During the trial, it must prevail: therefore each participant who successfully defends must indicate, clearly and aloud, the Power of the Sphere to the next participant.

Taking a Hit

If at any point a Student cannot defend against the magic Sphere, they lose a Shield card. That Student takes their highest-value Shield card and hands it face-down (showing its Victory Points side) to the player who played immediately before them, who keeps that card until the end of the game as a reminder of the Victory Points obtained.

When a Student loses a Shield, the trial is halted and it is checked whether the trial has ended. If it has not, the Student who lost a Shield may discard any cards in their hand they do not want. Then they draw cards from the Power Source until they have as many as the hand size indicated on their highest-value remaining Shield card. Immediately afterwards, the coliseum generates a new Sphere of Power 1 and launches it at the next Student in the rotation order.

Figure caption: Number of cards the Student must hold in hand during the game.

Guards

Some characters and Elemental Schools (which we will see later) allow the use of Guards (Guardas) during the game. To put a Guard into play, discard a card from your hand and place it face-down next to your Shields. This is done when using the ability of the Student card or when attuning the Sphere with an elemental affinity.

To use a Guard in play, you must play a Power card from your hand and then discard a Guard. The effects vary depending on the type of Guard.

• Earth Guard: Reduces the Power of the Sphere received by 3.
• Fire Guard: Increases the value of the Power card played by 2.
• Metal Guard: Reduces the Power of the Sphere received by 2, or increases the value of the Power card played by 1, at the player's choice.

Once the Guard has been played, the value of the Power card is compared with the Power of the Sphere in the usual way. If it is insufficient to defend, the Student takes a hit.

When any player loses a Shield, all Guards in play are discarded.

Advanced Courses

Students who have completed several courses, and who have therefore faced the trial several times, may find it interesting to add some additional elements.

In these cases, the Students must follow the same victory conditions and rules, but new cards are added that modify the trial.

Before Starting

Prepare the trial following the same steps explained previously (on page 4), changing the following points.

The Power Source Add the 8 Attune cards to the Power Source.

The Characters… Separate the Students into 2 groups so that no Elemental School is repeated within each group. Shuffle and deal first from either of the groups and, when that pile runs out, deal the remaining participants (if any) cards from the second group.

…and their Weakness Magic of the elements carries certain risks; one of them is the Elemental Weakness that accompanies it. During the trial, as many Elemental Weakness cards are selected as there are Students, taking special care that for each elemental affinity on the Student cards on the table, there is an Elemental Weakness of the same type. Then all the Weaknesses are shuffled and dealt among the students.

Randomly, one of these cards is given to each Student. If a Student receives during the deal a Weakness card equal to the affinity of their Student card, that card goes back to the bottom of the deck and the next card from the Weakness deck is given to them.

Note: If, when this happens, there are no more cards left to deal, the Student will exchange their Weakness card with that of the first participant to their right that allows both of them to have a compatible combination of Weakness card and affinity (Student card).

New Maneuver: Attune

Expert apprentices are able to perform more complex Maneuvers, although they operate under the same rules as the rest of the Maneuvers.

Attune: The Student redefines the nature of the magic Sphere to make it compatible with their Elemental School. The student puts into play the card of their Elemental School or activates it if it is already in play.

Elemental School

School cards indicate with what type of energy the Sphere has been attuned.

These cards remain set aside until a Student attunes the Sphere with their School: they are not added to any deck and players do not hold them in hand.

Once a School card enters play, it remains until:

• A different School card is played.
• The Sphere is Dispelled (see Defending Against the Sphere on page 6).
• A Student loses a Shield.
• A Student uses Resonance to discard the School card (see Resonance on page 13).

In any of these cases the School card is discarded, returning to the pile of School cards out of play.

When an Attune card is played, a School card of the type indicated by the affinity of the Student card is put into play. Then the hand is refilled and, if the Student wishes, they may activate the ability of the Elemental School card.

Example:

A player with Yaiza (Earth affinity) plays the Attune Maneuver. The player takes the Elemental School card: Earth and puts it into play in the centre of the table.

As always when a card is played, the hand must be refilled to its corresponding size.

Next, they resolve the effects indicated on the Elemental School card and adjust their hand back to its corresponding size if necessary.

(The card illustrations shown in the example are not reproduced here.)

While an Elemental School card is in play, all players with a Weakness card towards that School may not use the Reflect or Deflect Maneuvers.

Resonance

When a Power card of exactly the same value as the Sphere's current Power is put into play, a Resonance occurs, and the Student may choose one of the following effects:

• Select the next Student to defend against the Sphere.
• Discard the School (affinity) card in play (if there is one).
• Activate the ability of the School (affinity) card in play (if there is one), provided the Student card has that affinity.

Optional Rules

The following rules are optional and compatible with both modes of play.

You may use them in basic mode, in advanced mode, or not use them at all. That said, for the first games we recommend using only the basic rules.

If you want your games to be more spectacular When the Alter Maneuver card is played, the player may discard a Power card they have in hand and add or subtract the value of the discarded card to or from the Power of the Sphere, instead of modifying it by 1 point.

This use is optional; Alter may be used in the usual way.

If you want a bit more dynamism When Dispel is played:

• If the Power of the Sphere is 10 or less, the Sphere is dispelled.
• If the Power of the Sphere is greater than 10, it becomes 5.

In this way Dispel will not completely break the rhythm of the game, although it will slow it down, giving a breather.

If it's your first games and you want to take it easy In the first games, or when the youngest members of the house play, it may be worth simplifying the rules even further. Remove the Student cards and play only with the cards in your hand. When you feel comfortable with the game you can start using the Student cards of Group 1.