Dark Dealings
Dark Dealings Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Card Anatomy
Hero Card
Armor Value — The value your total strike needs to equal or exceed.
Vulnerabilities — The types of defenses you can defeat the hero with: traps, spells, minions.
Challenge Value — The higher this value, the better defenses you'll get from the Dark Masters.
Combat Ability — Special abilities the heroes use against you.
Defense Card
Strikes — Vulnerability icons indicate the type of strike. The numbers indicate how devastating the strike is. Each time you strike, rotate the card clockwise. When the trash can icon is on the current strike, discard the card after striking.
Rank — The relative strength of a card. Also used during solo play.
Game Overview
In Dark Dealings, each player controls an evil overlord, desperately trying to fend off attacking heroes.
The players first use illusion and trickery to determine which heroes will attack each of them. They then brag to the Dark Masters about the heroes coming to attack, earning defenses in exchange. Finally, they fight off the invading heroes using these defenses, striving to last as long as possible.
Victory
When heroes have evicted all other overlords, the overlord left standing is the winner, the sole master of evil in the land.
If more than one overlord survives all the attacking heroes, or if all remaining overlords are evicted in the same combat round, the winner is the overlord with more Defense Cards remaining. If still tied, the winner is the player whose last hero had the highest challenge value.
Set-Up
- Shuffle the Hero Cards and Defense Cards separately, placing each deck facedown within reach of all players.
- Deal nine Hero Cards to each player.
- Randomly determine a first player, giving them the dark tower first player marker.
You're ready to play!
Sequence of the Game
The game is played in three phases: the Hero Phase, the Defense Phase, and the Combat Phase.
Hero Phase
During the Hero Phase, the overlords use illusions to send some heroes to their neighbors, while luring others to their own door. They can either strive to draw in weak heroes who are easily defeated, or they can take a risk with stronger heroes to impress the Dark Masters.
Each player takes their nine Hero Cards in-hand. Players simultaneously choose two heroes, placing these cards in a facedown pile in front of them. They then simultaneously pass the remaining Hero Cards to the player on their left.
Repeat this process until each player is down to three Hero Cards left in-hand. They again choose two cards to place in their pile. The final remaining card is discarded to a face-up discard pile beside the deck of hero cards.
Players may look through their facedown pile of Hero Cards as much as they like during the Hero Phase.
Defense Phase
During the Defense Phase, the overlords contact the Dark Masters. These frightening beings have a collection of powerful defenses perfect to fend off invading heroes. But they are only impressed by strength and fearlessness; overlords who lured weak heroes will earn weak defenses in return.
The players take the eight Hero Cards from their pile in-hand.
The first player draws a number of Defense Cards from the deck equal to twice the number of players in the game, laying them face-up.
Each player chooses two of their Hero Cards and places both facedown in front of them. When all players are ready, they simultaneously flip their two cards face-up.
The player who played the revealed Hero with the highest Challenge Value selects one of the available Defense Cards and places it in front of them face-up. Then the player who has the hero with the second highest Challenge Value selects a Defense Card.
Players continue taking Defense Cards in descending hero Challenge Value order until all have been taken.
In a 2-player example with Ken and Jenny: Jenny's hero's Challenge Value (54) is the highest, so she will pick a defense first. Ken's Challenge Values (30 and 24) are the next two highest, so he will pick second and third. Jenny will get the last card.
As Hero Cards are used to pick Defense Cards, those heroes are placed in a facedown pile in front of the player, the most recently used Hero Card going on top of previously played cards.
This pile may NOT be looked through.
When all of the Defense Cards have been taken, another set of Defense Cards equal to twice the number of players is drawn, and the process is repeated. This continues until players have played all of their heroes, and have earned eight Defense Cards.
A note about expansions: Expansions add new Hero Cards, some sharing Challenge Values. If two or more Hero Cards are played with identical Challenge Values, the tied players look at their OTHER heroes played that turn. The player who chose the hero with the higher challenge value goes first.
Combat Phase
When all players are ready, the first player flips up the topmost Hero Card from their pile. They must attempt to defeat this hero.
Heroes are vulnerable to one, two, or three defense types, as indicated on the left of their card. Possible defense types are Spell, Minion, or Trap. A Defense Card's type is defined as the type indicated on its current side.
Players may strike with one or more Defense Cards whose current type matches one of the hero's vulnerabilities. The total Attack Value of striking Defense Cards must equal or exceed the Armor Value of the Hero Card. If a player achieves this, the Hero Card is defeated and placed in a face-up discard pile beside the deck.
For example, a hero to defeat is a Halflings card vulnerable to minions and traps, with a defense of 1. Halflings are tricky because they must be defeated twice! Struck for 2 with a type of minion, and struck for 1 with a type of trap, defeats the hero — this hero isn't vulnerable to spells, so a defense of that type cannot be used. Each Minion defense that strikes is turned to its second side; if the trash can icon comes up, that defense is discarded.
Each striking Defense Card is rotated one turn clockwise. If this would turn it to a side that does not have any icons, the Defense Card is instead trashed and placed in a discard pile near the defense deck.
Each Defense Card may only strike ONCE against a given hero (unless it is a Knight — see Knights).
Players may strike with as many Defense Cards as they like, as long as each defense type matches a vulnerability of the hero. It may be useful to strike with an additional Defense Card in order to rotate that defense to a more advantageous side.
If a player is unable to defeat their current hero, they are evicted from their castle. Evicted players are skipped during the remaining combat rounds.
When each player has faced one hero, that combat round is completed. Begin a new round, again starting with the first player.
These steps are repeated until all overlords are evicted, only one overlord is not evicted, or all remaining overlords have defeated their eight heroes.
Victory (Reminder)
When heroes have evicted all other overlords, the overlord left standing is the winner, the sole master of evil in the land.
If more than one overlord survives all the attacking heroes, or if all remaining overlords are evicted in the same combat round, the winner is the overlord with more Defense Cards remaining. If still tied, the winner is the player whose last hero had the highest challenge value.
Solo Play
Hero Phase
Flip three Hero Cards. Keep two and discard one. Do this four times.
Defense Phase
Flip five Defense Cards in a single row. These will be the available defenses to be bid upon. Choose your two heroes. Draw and flip three Hero Cards from the top of the deck. These represent other overlords competing for Defense Cards.
When one of these random heroes has the highest Challenge Value, discard both that Hero and the Defense Card with the highest rank (number in the bottom-right corner).
In the case of Defense Cards with tied rank, the random Hero discards the LEFTMOST tied Defense Card.
Continue until all eight of your heroes have been played, and eight Defenses have been earned.
Resolve the Combat Phase as normal. If you are able to defeat all eight heroes, you win!
Ability Clarifications
Hero Cards
Thief — Cannot be defeated by strikes whose Attack Value total exceeds their Armor Value. The total Attack Value must equal their Armor exactly.
Halflings — Must be defeated twice. Each Defense Card may still only strike once, so players will need at least two Defense Cards to defeat them.
Wizard — When flipped, trash one of your Defense Cards BEFORE striking, placing it on the discard pile.
Berserker — After defeating this hero, trash every striking Defense Card, placing it on the discard pile, even if that card has strikes left.
Knight — When striking this hero, individual Defense Cards can strike more than once, using some or all of their sides.
Ranger — No special ability, but higher than average armor.
Defense Cards
Heavy Hitter — Before this defense strikes, the player must rotate a DIFFERENT defense. The other defense is not considered to be striking, so it may still strike. (FYI: A Berserker would not cause you to destroy a Defense Card that's rotated for this reason.)
Detour — Place a flipped Hero Card on the bottom of your Hero Pile and flip a new Hero Card. This occurs before Hero abilities are activated (i.e. Wizard or Dragon Warrior).
Booster — This card gains a +1 Attack Value bonus per OTHER Defense Card of the same current type you control, including cards with multiple types.
Quick Reference
Hero Phase
Each player receives 9 Hero Cards. Pick two to keep and pass the rest to your left. Continue until all players have 8 heroes. Discard the last one.
Defense Phase
A number of Defense Cards equal to twice the number of players is revealed. Players choose two of their heroes and reveal simultaneously. Players choose defenses according to their chosen heroes' Challenge Value (highest to lowest). As heroes are used, they are placed facedown to form a pile.
Combat Phase
Starting with the First Player, each player reveals their topmost Hero Card, which they must now defeat using the defenses in their tableau. If a player can't defeat their hero, they are evicted.
Game End
When only one Overlord (player) remains, or when all have been evicted, the game ends.