DC Forever Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Overview
• How to Win
• Player Decks
• Golden Rules
• Character Cards
• Affiliated Cards
• Scheme Cards
• Location Cards
• Unaligned Character Cards
• Key Concepts
  • Character Damage
  • Character Abilities
  • Resolving Effects
  • Resource Pool
  • Citizens
  • Location Deck
  • Unaligned Character Deck
• Setup for Your First Game
• Playing the Game
• Plotting Stage
  • Rogue Action Phase
    • Recruit a Rogue
    • Buy Affiliated Card
    • Play a Card
    • Use a Card
    • Use a Rogue Character Ability
  • Rogue Draw Phase
• Planning Stage
  • Hero Action Phase
    • Recruit a Hero
    • Buy Affiliated Card
    • Play a Card
    • Use a Card
    • Empower a Hero
    • Use a Hero Character Ability
• Confrontation Stage
  • Rogue Provoke Phase
    • Activate
    • Threaten
    • Attack
  • Hero Oppose Phase
    • Activate
    • Rescue
    • Attack
  • Resolution Phase
    • Complete Schemes
    • Check for Win Conditions
    • Prepare for Further Confrontations
• Maintenance Stage
  • Ready Phase
  • Draw Phase
  • End of Round Phase
• 2-Player Standard Setup
  • Sample 2-Player Setup
• Multiplayer Rules
  • How to Win (Multiplayer)
  • Multiplayer Setup
• Multiplayer Game
  • Plotting Stage
  • Planning Stage
  • Confrontation Stage
  • Checking Win Conditions
  • Maintenance Stage: Draw Phase
• Hero Tactics
  • Aquaman, Orin The Renegade
  • Batman, Bruce Wayne
  • Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes
  • Cyborg, Victor Stone
  • The Flash, Barry Allen
  • Green Lantern, Jo Mullein
  • Superman, Man of Steel
  • Wonder Woman, Princess Diana of Themyscira
  • Zatanna, Mistress of Magic
• Rogue Tactics
  • Black Manta, The Fisher King
  • Cheetah, Barbara Ann Minerva
  • The Joker, Clown Prince of Crime
  • Klarion Bleak, The Witch Boy
  • Lex Luthor, Mastermind
  • Punchline, Alexis Kaye
  • Reverse-Flash, Eobard Thawne
  • Silver Banshee, Siobhan McDougal
  • Sinestro, The Yellow Lantern
• Glossary
• Overview of a Round

Components

• 9 Hero Character Cards
• 9 Rogue Character Cards
• 8 Unaligned Character Cards
• 72 Hero-Affiliated Cards (8 per Hero)
• 90 Rogue-Affiliated Cards (10 per Rogue)
• 12 Location Cards
• 6 Hero Resource Cards
• 2 Two-Player Reference Cards
• 4 Multiplayer Reference Cards
• 27 Citizen Tokens
• 36 Damage Tokens
• 6 Activated Tokens
• 18 Standees + Plastic Clips

Overview

This rule book introduces key game terms in bold. Additional information about them can be found in the Glossary. The main body of the rules explain the 2-player head-to-head version of DC Forever. We recommend learning to play this version before playing the multiplayer version. The rules for games with more than two players are in the Multiplayer Rules section.

How to Win

In DC Forever, the Rogues and Heroes have differing goals. The Rogues attempt to achieve their Master Plan by Threatening citizens to advance their Schemes. Conversely, the Heroes must foil the Rogues' Master Plan by Rescuing those citizens, irreparably disrupting the Rogues' ability to scheme. Of course, defeating all of an opponent's characters leaves one player unopposed and therefore victorious!

The Hero player wins if they achieve either of the following victory conditions:

• Place 30 citizens in Sanctuary.
• Capture all Rogues in play by doing damage equal to or exceeding each Rogue's Health value.

The Rogue player wins if they achieve either of the following victory conditions:

• Achieve their Master Plan by completing 5 schemes.
• Knock Out (KO) all Heroes in play by doing damage equal to or exceeding each Hero's Health value.

Player Decks

During setup, players choose either 2 Rogue or 2 Hero characters along with their associated starter cards to form their starting deck. Because each player has immediate access to their starting characters' signature cards, this choice shapes the battle from the very start. Proceed with both daring and caution, DC Forever players!

After starting characters are chosen, the Hero player adds 4 basic starting resource cards (2 Renown, 1 Prestige, and 1 Fame) to their deck so that each player begins with a 12-card deck. Whenever a player's deck is empty, they immediately shuffle their discard pile and form a new deck. If this was due to drawing cards, continue drawing cards as dictated by the rule or effect. If this was caused by discarding cards from the deck, no additional cards are discarded.

Golden Rules

• Where card text directly contradicts a rule, card text always takes precedence, altering or replacing the rule as the card dictates.
• When a game effect requires a player to round something, it is always rounded up.
• Unless otherwise noted, game effects can target only cards that are in play.

Character Cards

Character cards represent the Heroes and Rogues of DC Comics. Players begin the game with 2 characters in their play area. Other characters begin in each player's reserve area and are eligible for recruitment. Characters are the main driving force of the game, moving to Locations to do battle with opposing characters and interact with citizens.

Card parts: Affiliation Symbol, Name/Subtitle/Trait, Rescue Value, Threaten Value, Attack Value, Health Value, Constant Ability, Limited Ability, Recruitment Cost.

• Affiliation Symbol: This symbol matches a character's affiliated cards, identifying which cards can be played by each character.
• Name, Subtitle, Trait: Each character's name includes a subtitle, allowing for alternate versions of that character in the future! Each character also has one or more italicized traits. Traits have no intrinsic effect but may be referenced and affected by other cards.
• Health Value: When a character suffers damage, they receive damage tokens. When the amount of damage they have received equals or exceeds their Health value, they are knocked out (if they are Heroes) or captured (if they are Rogues).
• Attack Value: The amount of damage a character inflicts when they attack another character.
• Threaten Value: The number of citizens a Rogue claims for their Scheme when they Threaten at a Location with a Scheme.
• Rescue Value: The number of citizens a Hero claims for Sanctuary when they Rescue at a Location with a Scheme.
• Constant Ability: Constant abilities have no Infamy or Renown cost and can be activated multiple times in a round or provide a continuous benefit.
• Limited Ability: Limited abilities have an Infamy or Renown cost that must be paid by discarding cards attached to or empowering that character, and can be activated only once per round.
• Recruitment Cost: The number of resources (Renown for Heroes and Infamy for Rogues) that must be spent to recruit this character. Characters recruited in this way are placed into play and can be used immediately.

Affiliated Cards

Cards that bear a character's affiliation symbol constitute that character's affiliated cards and form the majority of each player's deck. These cards can be played and used only by the character with a matching affiliation symbol on their character card, and represent that character's abilities, allies, powers, and resources.

Card parts: Affiliation Symbol, Card Type, Traits, Ability Box, Buy Cost, Infamy Resource, Fame Resource, Starting Card Symbol.

• Affiliation Symbol: This symbol matches a character card, indicating which character can use this card.
• Card Type: The 5 types of affiliated card are Assets, Attachments, Events, Minions, and Schemes.
• Trait: Traits have no inherent function but may be referenced by other cards.
• Ability Box: The ability box details how and when the card can be played or used. If an ability box is divided into two blocks of text separated by a horizontal line, a player must choose which of the two effects to use.
• Fame Resource: Hero players use these resource symbols to buy cards, recruit Heroes, empower Heroes, and pay costs on cards in play.
• Infamy Resource: Rogue players use these resource symbols to buy cards, recruit Rogues, and pay costs on cards in play.
• Starting Card Symbol: After a player chooses their starting characters, the affiliated cards marked with this symbol are shuffled into that player's starting deck. The remaining affiliated cards are placed into that player's reserve area.
• Buy Cost: The number of resources (Renown for Heroes and Infamy for Rogues) that must be spent to buy this card if it is in a player's reserve area. Cards purchased in this way are put into the player's discard pile.

Scheme Cards

Scheme cards are a type of affiliated card that are put into play by the Rogue player, facedown, at a Location. The Rogue player can Threaten citizens at that location to move them onto the Scheme.

Card parts: Affiliation Symbol, Name, Completion Threshold, Card Draw Value, Ability Box, Buy Cost, Starting Card Symbol, Infamy Resource.

• Completion Threshold: When a Rogue player has placed a number of citizen tokens on a Scheme card equal to or greater than this number, that Scheme can be completed, revealed, and added to their Master Plan.
• Card Draw Value: When a Scheme card is complete, the Rogue player draws this number of cards from their deck.
• Ability Box: Game effects on Scheme cards are quite diverse. Some resolve when the Scheme is completed, while others remain available to the Rogue until they decide to use them or provide a constant ability that is always in effect.

Location Cards

Location cards are where Rogues and Heroes exert their influence. They are drawn from a communal Location deck and are placed between the players in the middle of the play area. While there is a Scheme card at a Location, Rogues can Threaten citizens to advance their plans, Heroes can Rescue citizens from villainy, and both sides can attack one another.

• Citizen Value: When a Location card is played, place a number of citizen tokens on that card equal to this value.
• Location Ability: Many Locations have special abilities that affect characters while they are at those Locations.

Unaligned Character Cards

Unaligned character cards represent characters that are neither entirely heroic nor completely roguish. They are drawn from a communal Unaligned character deck and are played onto Locations. Each Unaligned character has their own method of claiming citizens at their location, collecting those citizens to unlock new abilities that change the dynamics of the game.

Card parts: Name/Subtitle/Trait, Health Value, Constant Ability, Claim Value, Attack Value, Threshold, Citizen Value.

• Health Value: When the amount of damage an Unaligned character has received equals or exceeds their Health value, they are defeated. If a Hero defeats an Unaligned character, move that character's claimed citizens to Sanctuary and remove the Unaligned character from the game. If a Rogue defeats an Unaligned character, they are swayed to the Rogue's side. The Unaligned character remains at their location but their game effects no longer apply to the Rogue player.
• Attack Value: The amount of damage the Unaligned character inflicts when they attack a Hero or Rogue.
• Claim Value: The number of citizens the Unaligned character moves to their character card when they claim at their Location.
• Threshold Symbol: When an Unaligned character card has citizen tokens on it equal to or greater than the citizen value in front of the threshold symbol, it gains the game effect listed after that symbol.

Key Concepts

Character Damage

Whenever a character suffers damage during play due to an Attack action or a card effect, add a damage token to the character card for each point of damage suffered. When the damage on a character equals or exceeds their Health value, they are removed from play. When a Rogue is removed from play in this way they are captured, while a Hero removed in this way is knocked out. Captured and knocked out characters cannot be used, and their affiliated cards can be used only for resources or to empower other characters.

Character Abilities

Constant abilities have no Renown or Infamy cost and provide a continual benefit or can be activated multiple times in a round.

Limited abilities have a Renown or Infamy cost and can be activated only once per round. This resource cost must be paid by discarding cards whose total provided resources is equal to or greater than the limited ability cost. Hero players must discard these cards from the attachments and empowering cards on that Hero while Rogue players must discard those cards from their hand. Place an activated token on the ability to show it has been used.

NOTE: A character ability can be used only during its controlling player's turn unless it is a REACTION. REACTIONS list the conditions that must be met to activate the ability. REACTIONS with no activation cost are constant abilities and can be used whenever a condition is met. REACTIONS with an activation cost are limited abilities and can be used only once per round.

Resolving Effects

When a card provides a choice of what or who is to be affected, that choice is given to the player of the card, unless otherwise specified. For example, Silver Banshee's affiliated card "Curse of the Crone" reads, in part, "After Silver Banshee Threatens, 1 Hero player must choose 1 Hero..." The Silver Banshee's player chooses which Hero player and that Hero Player chooses which Hero.

When it is impossible to resolve all of a card's text, resolve as much as possible but be aware of these qualifiers:

• When an effect uses the phrasing "Do A to do B" it is specifying a cost. "A" must be successfully completed in order for "B" to occur.
• When an effect uses the phrasing "Do A, then do B" the "B" effect cannot be resolved until you have resolved as much of the "A" effect as possible.

Resource Pool

In order to recruit characters or buy cards from their reserve, players must create a resource pool from which to spend resources. Hero characters' affiliated cards produce Renown resources while Rogue characters' affiliated cards produce Infamy resources. To add resources to their resource pool, a player places one or more affiliated cards from their hand onto the table, adding a number of resources to the pool equal to the resource icons shown on the left-hand edge of those cards. These cards are not in play and cannot be used for anything other than resources.

To recruit a character from their reserve or buy a card that is affiliated with one of their recruited characters, a player must spend a number of resources equal to the cost on the lower right of that card. Recruited characters are added to the play area, while affiliated cards are put into the player's discard pile.

Players may find themselves overcommitting Renown or Infamy for a single purchase, but don't worry! Resources remain in the resource pool for the remainder of the current phase, and cards are not discarded from the pool when spent. Simply keep track of the resources spent during the phase. At the end of the phase, the cards in the resource pool are discarded and any unspent resources are lost.

Citizens

Citizens are the prize in the battle between the Rogues and the Heroes. The Rogues Threaten them to advance their Schemes, while Heroes Rescue them from the Rogues' evil machinations, moving them to Sanctuary.

Location Deck

The Location deck contains the Location cards upon which the Rogues and Heroes exert their influence. During Setup and throughout the game, Locations are revealed and placed in a row between the players.

Whenever a Location is revealed, make sure the Hero side of the Location is facing the Hero player. The text on the Hero side of the Location is active for the Hero and the text on the Rogue side is active for the Rogue. Then, place a number of citizen tokens on that location equal to its citizen value.

During the Confrontation Stage, when all citizen tokens have been removed from a Location card, a new card is drawn from the Location deck.

Unaligned Character Deck

The Unaligned character deck contains special character cards that are neither entirely heroic nor completely roguish. Like Heroes and Rogues, Unaligned characters can claim citizen tokens, placing these tokens on their character card to unlock the game effects listed after the Threshold symbols on their card.

When an Unaligned character card has citizen tokens on it equal to or greater than the citizen value in front of a threshold symbol, it gains the game effect listed after that symbol. Players must resolve these abilities when the appropriate circumstances are met. If an Unaligned Character ability causes them to Attack, the damage inflicted is determined by their Attack value.

Unaligned characters can be attacked by both Heroes and Rogues. After an Attack, if the damage on an Unaligned Character equals or exceeds that character's Health value, it is either captured by the Hero player or swayed to the Rogue player's side, depending on which player dealt the final blow (see "Attack"). The player that defeated the Unaligned character then draws a new Unaligned character and places it at a Location of their choosing.

Setup for Your First Game

It is suggested that you use the below setup for your first game to learn the ins and outs of DC Forever. Once you are comfortable with how the game plays and are ready for more customization, follow the Standard 2-Player Setup rules.

1. Choose Sides: Players choose sides. One player will play the Rogues and the other the Heroes.
2. Establish Your Team: Each player takes the character cards that make up their team, places their affiliated cards beneath them, and puts these stacks to their lower right of the play area, as indicated in the diagram.
   • Hero Player: Batman, Superman, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman
   • Rogue Player: Cheetah, The Joker, Punchline, and Black Manta.
3. Choose Starting Characters: Each player places their starting characters faceup on the table in front of them.
   • Hero Player: Batman and Superman
   • Rogue Player: Cheetah and The Joker
4. Create Decks:
   • Hero Player: Create a deck of 12 cards by taking the Batman and Superman starting cards (marked with the gold star at the bottom) along with a set of 4 resource cards (2 Renown, 1 Prestige, and 1 Fame) and shuffling them together.
   • Rogue Player: Create a deck of 12 cards by taking the Cheetah and The Joker starting cards (marked with the gold star at the bottom) and shuffling them together.
5. Prepare Locations:
   • Gather the Valhalla Cemetery, The Daily Planet, and Arkham Asylum Location cards and place them as shown in the diagram, with the Hero and Rogue sides facing the matching player. The Hero side is blue and the Rogue side is red.
   • Place a number of citizen tokens on each location equal to its citizen value.

Diagram layout: the Rogue reserve, Rogue discard, Rogue deck and example Rogue hand sit on the Rogue side; Cheetah and The Joker are in front of the Rogue player; the Location deck, then Valhalla Cemetery, The Daily Planet, Arkham Asylum, Harley Quinn and the Unaligned character deck form the row of Locations in the middle; Batman and Superman are in front of the Hero player, with the Hero deck, Hero discard, Hero reserve and example Hero hand on the Hero side.

Playing the Game

DC Forever is played over a variable number of rounds. Each round is composed of three stages taken in order. Rounds are repeated until one side satisfies at least one of their win conditions at the conclusion of the Confrontation Stage.

1. The Plotting Stage: The Rogue player is active.
2. The Planning Stage: The Hero player is active.
3. The Confrontation Stage: Both players take turns activating characters as the Rogues and Heroes confront each other.

Plotting Stage

This stage is composed of two phases, the Rogue Action Phase and the Rogue Draw Phase.

Rogue Action Phase

During this phase, the Rogue player can take any of the following actions in any order and as often as they choose:

• Recruit a Rogue: Bring a new Rogue into play.
• Use Rogue Character Ability: Use an ability on a recruited Rogue.
• Buy an Affiliated Rogue Card: Buy a card affiliated with an active Rogue.
• Play a Card: Play a card from your hand.
• Use a Card: Select a card in play and activate its ability.

After the Rogue player has performed all the actions they wish to perform, all cards in the resource pool are put into their discard pile and play proceeds to the Rogue Draw Phase.

EXAMPLE: (A) The Rogue player adds the On the Hunt, Throwing Card, and Scent the Prey cards to the resource pool, generating 8 Infamy. (B) They spend 4 Infamy to recruit Punchline and a further 3 Infamy to buy her Get It!? card. (C) At the end of the Rogue Action Phase, the cards in the resource pool are discarded and the remaining 1 Infamy is lost.

Recruit a Rogue

Rogues in a player's reserve can be recruited by deducting the recruitment cost of the Rogue from the resource pool. Once recruited, that Rogue moves from that player's reserve to that player's play area and their affiliated cards can now be bought.

Buy Affiliated Card

The Rogue player can buy any card in their reserve that is affiliated with one of the recruited characters in their play area. The player deducts Infamy from the Resource Pool equal to the Buy Cost of the card. The purchased card is placed in the player's discard pile.

Play a Card

Select a card in your hand that matches the affiliation of one of your Rogues in play and place it on the table. There are a variety of Rogue cards that differ in effect, use, and impact. If a card shows 2 abilities separated by a line, the player chooses which one to use by paying its associated cost.

Attachments are played onto character cards and typically enhance that character. Attachments remain in play and attached to a character until they are discarded to pay a cost or are removed by a card effect. If the character leaves play for any reason, the attachment is discarded.

Minions are played into the play area alongside the Rogue characters. Minions give additional abilities or benefits to Rogue characters and remain in play until discarded to pay a cost or by a card effect.

Events are played from your hand, resolved, and then immediately discarded. Some events, like modifiers and REACTIONS, cannot be played during the Plotting Stage; this will be noted on the event card itself.

Schemes are put into play facedown at a Location of the Rogue player's choice that does not already have a Scheme. Their effects are typically triggered only after the conditions on the scheme have been met. When a Scheme is complete, add it to the Master Plan, otherwise Schemes remain in play until discarded by a card effect. Rogue players can look at Schemes at any time.

REMINDER: If the number of Schemes in the Rogue player's Master Plan is equal to or greater than 5 during the Resolution step of the Confrontation Stage, the Rogue player wins. Schemes that have met their citizen requirement are not required to be completed. However, the Rogue player cannot win the game or draw cards as a reward until they choose to complete the Scheme.

Use a Card

Select a card you control in play and use 1 of its abilities.

• If an ability has a cost associated with it, the cost must be paid in order to activate the ability.
• If a card shows 2 abilities separated by a line, the player chooses which one to use by paying its associated cost.
• Unless otherwise noted, game effects can target only cards that are in play. Effects that target a card in an out-of-play area (such as a player's reserve, hand, or discard pile) will explicitly state it.
• Some REACTION cards can be played on another player's turn. Beware of Heroes reacting to your moves!

Use a Rogue Character Ability

Abilities on any recruited Rogues can be used, including Rogues that were recruited during this phase. Remember that Rogue limited abilities have an Infamy cost that must be paid by discarding cards from your hand, and can be activated only once per round.

Rogue Draw Phase

The Rogue player draws 3 cards and then, if necessary, discards down to their maximum hand size of 10 cards. If the last card is drawn, immediately shuffle the discard pile to form a new Rogue deck. Then, play proceeds to the Planning Stage.

Planning Stage

The Planning Stage is made up of a single phase, the Hero Action Phase.

Hero Action Phase

During this phase, the Hero player can take the following actions in any order and as often as they choose:

• Recruit a Hero: Bring a new Hero into play.
• Use Hero Character Ability: Use an ability on a recruited Hero.
• Buy an Affiliated Hero Card: Buy a card affiliated with an active Hero.
• Play a Card: Play a card from your hand.
• Empower a Hero Card: Place a card from your hand under a recruited Hero.
• Use a Card: Select a card in play and activate its ability.

After the Hero player has performed all the actions they wish to perform, all cards in the Resource Pool are put into their discard pile and play proceeds to the Confrontation Stage.

Recruit a Hero

Heroes in a player's reserve can be recruited by deducting the recruitment cost of the Hero from the resource pool. Once recruited, that Hero moves from that player's reserve to that player's play area and their affiliated cards can now be bought.

Buy Affiliated Card

The Hero player can buy any card in their reserve that is affiliated with one of their recruited characters in the play area. The player deducts Renown from the Resource Pool equal to the buy cost of the card. The purchased card is placed in the player's discard pile.

Play a Card

Select a card in your hand that matches the affiliation of one of your Heroes in play and place it on the table. There are a variety of Hero cards that differ in effect, use, and impact. If a card shows 2 abilities separated by a line, the player chooses which one to use by paying its associated cost.

Attachments are played onto character cards and typically enhance that character. Attachments remain in play and attached to a character until they are discarded to pay a cost or are removed by a card effect. If the character leaves play for any reason, the attachment is discarded.

Assets are played into the play area alongside the Hero characters. Assets give additional abilities or benefits to Hero characters. Assets remain in play until discarded to pay a cost or by a card effect.

Events are played from your hand, resolved, and then immediately discarded. Some events, like modifiers and REACTIONS, cannot be played during the Planning Stage; this will be noted on the event card itself.

EXAMPLE: The Hero player plays Green Lantern's event card, Crime Scene Re-Creation, to look at the facedown Scheme at 344 Clinton Street and move 1 of the citizens on that Scheme to Sanctuary. Then, the Hero player discards the event card.

Use a Card

Select a card you control in play and use one of its abilities.

• If an ability has a cost associated with it, the cost must be paid in order to activate the ability.
• If a card shows 2 abilities separated by a line, the player chooses which one to use by paying its associated cost.
• Cards can, by default, only target cards that are in play. Any effect that would target a card in an out-of-play area (such as a player's reserve, hand, or discard pile) will explicitly state it.
• Some REACTION cards can be played on another player's turn. Beware of Rogues reacting to your moves!

EXAMPLE: The Hero player plays X-Ray Vision on Superman, placing it beneath Superman's character card with its text visible. Then, the Hero player uses X-Ray Vision, choosing the ability on the bottom half of the card and paying its cost, discarding X-Ray Vision to draw 3 cards.

Empower a Hero

Hero cards may also be used to empower Hero characters. To empower a character, the Hero player takes any Hero card from their hand, regardless of affiliation, and slides it under the character card they wish to empower in such a way that the Renown symbols of the card are visible.

Later, the Hero player may discard empowered cards to activate a Hero's triggered ability or to satisfy card effects targeting that Hero that would require you to discard cards from them, rather than discarding Attachment cards. The Renown that is gained from discarding empowering cards from a Hero does not enter the Resource Pool; instead, it fuels the Hero.

TIP: Empowering a Hero is a good way to thin your deck. Because you can empower a Hero with cards of any affiliation, it is a good way to remove cards affiliated with characters that have been knocked out.

EXAMPLE: The Hero player discards a card worth 3 Renown to activate The Flash's Super Speed, looking at the top 3 cards of their deck, adding the 2 cards with the Flash affiliation symbol to their hand and discarding the rest.

Use a Hero Character Ability

Abilities on any recruited Heroes can be used. Remember that limited abilities have an Infamy or Renown cost that must be paid by discarding cards attached to or empowering that character, and can be activated only once per round.

Confrontation Stage

The Confrontation Stage is made up of a cycle of repeating Confrontations consisting of the following phases: the Rogue Provoke Phase, the Hero Oppose Phase, and the Resolution Phase.

Rogue Provoke Phase

During the first Rogue Provoke Phase of the game, the Rogue player must activate one of their ready (non-exhausted) characters. In future cycles, the Rogue player may choose to either activate one of their ready characters or pass their turn.

EXAMPLE: (A) The Rogue player activates Punchline, rotating her 90° to show that she is exhausted and moving her standee to Arkham Asylum. The Rogue player then declares that Punchline will Threaten, triggering her Nihilist character ability. (B) The Rogue player randomly discards Enhanced Strength from their hand. It has two Infamy symbols, so Punchline's Threaten value is 2 for this activation. (C) Then, the Rogue player plays Get Serious from their hand, adding +4 the number of citizens claimed by this Threaten. (D) Finally, the Location bonus at Arkham Asylum means that Rogues who Threaten at Arkham Asylum claim an additional +2 citizens. Punchline claims an incredible total of 8 citizens, moving them from Arkham Asylum to the facedown Scheme at that location.

Activate

To activate a Rogue, the player must:

• Exhaust that character by turning the card 90°.
• Choose a Location and move that character's standee to that Location.

An activated Rogue can, in any order, play or use any number of affiliated non-Attack/non-Threaten Event cards, trigger any available abilities, and choose to either Rescue or Threaten at their Location. (Transcriber's note: printed as "Rescue or Threaten" in the source; the Attack option is described in the next subsection.)

Threaten

This choice can only be made if there is a scheme at the character's location. After the Rogue player declares that they will Threaten, they can choose to play any number of Threaten Modifiers. They then Advance the Scheme by claiming citizens equal to the character's base Claim value plus any Threaten Modifiers. The Claimed citizens are moved from the Location to the Scheme. If there are fewer citizens at the Location than the total claimed, move all remaining citizens.

The Rogue player then resolves any additional effects from the Threaten Modifiers in the order of their choosing.

If the last citizen has been claimed from the location, no additional citizens can be claimed from this Threaten action.

Attack

This choice can only be made if there is a Hero or Unaligned character at the Rogue's Location. The Rogue player chooses a Hero or Unaligned character at their location to attack. Any number of Attack Modifiers can be played at this time. The Rogue then does damage equal to their base Attack value plus any Attack Modifiers to the chosen character. Then, if the total damage on that character equals or exceeds its Health value:

• If the target is a Hero, they are KO'd. Place the KO'd character next to the Master Plan and place all attachments and empowering cards attached to that character in their owner's discard pile. Heroes that have been KO'd cannot be recruited or have additional cards played on them until they are brought back into play or into the reserve through a card effect.
• If the target is an Unaligned character, they have been swayed to the Rogue's side. Remove all damage from that character and keep them at the Location, but move them to the side closest to the Rogue player, then reveal a new Unaligned character and place it at the Location of your choice that does not already have an Unaligned character. While a Scheme is present at the swayed character's Location, that character's abilities related to claiming citizens are now used exclusively towards the advancement of that Scheme instead of being placed on their card. If no Scheme is present, they claim citizens for themselves as normal. Any abilities on swayed characters ignore Rogues and Rogue players.

Any damage that did not KO or Sway a character remains on the character.

The Rogue player then resolves any additional effects from the Attack Modifiers in the order of their choosing.

It is important to remember that a character's ability or affiliated cards can only be used or played during the Confrontation while that character is activated unless the ability or affiliated card is a REACTION.

EXAMPLE: (A) The Rogue player activates Cheetah, rotating her 90° to show that she is exhausted and moving her standee to The Daily Planet. The Rogue player then declares that Cheetah will Attack Batman at that location. (B) The Rogue player plays the Enhanced Strength Attack Modifier to add +3 to the damage of Cheetah's attack. Combined with her Attack value of 3, this would normally cause Batman to suffer 6 damage and be knocked out, but Batman's Master Tactician ability states that he suffers 2 less damage from 1 modifier, reducing Enhanced Strength's extra damage to 1. (C) Batman suffers 4 damage and survives to fight another day!

Hero Oppose Phase

During the first Hero Oppose Phase of the game, the Hero player must choose to activate one of their characters. This choice can be made only if there is a Rogue or Unaligned character at the Hero's Location. In future cycles, the Hero player may choose to activate a character or pass their turn.

If both players pass consecutively, the Confrontation Stage immediately ends and play proceeds to the Maintenance Stage. This can even result in nothing happening during the Confrontation Stage!

Activate

To activate a Hero, the player must:

• Exhaust that character by turning the card 90°.
• Choose a Location and move that character's standee to that Location.

An activated Hero can, in any order, play or use any number of affiliated non-Attack/non-Rescue Event cards, trigger any available abilities, and choose to either Rescue or Attack at their Location.

Rescue

This choice can only be made if there is a Scheme or Unaligned character at the Hero's Location. The Hero can choose to play any number of Rescue Modifiers. The Hero then claims citizens equal to the character's base Rescue value plus any Rescue Modifiers and moves the Rescued citizens to the Sanctuary. If there are fewer citizens at the Location than the total claim, move all remaining citizens.

The Hero player resolves any additional effects from the Rescue Modifiers in the order of their choosing.

If the last citizen has been claimed, no additional citizens can be claimed from the Rescue action this turn.

Attack

The Hero player chooses a Rogue or Unaligned character at their location to attack. Any number of cards with Attack Modifiers can be played at this time. The Hero does damage equal to their base Attack value plus any Attack Modifiers to the chosen character. If the damage is equal to or greater than the target's current Health:

• If the target is a Rogue, they are captured. Place the captured character next to the Sanctuary.
• If the target is an Unaligned character, remove it from the game, then reveal a new Unaligned character and place it at the Location of your choice without an Unaligned character. If the Unaligned character had not been swayed to the Rogue's side, any civilians claimed by that Unaligned Character are moved to Sanctuary, otherwise those citizens are returned to the supply.

The Hero player then resolves any additional effects from the Attack Modifiers in the order of their choosing.

Resolution Phase

After both players have had an opportunity to activate a character, the Resolution Phase begins. The Resolution Phase consists of three steps which are completed in order:

1. Complete Schemes
2. Check for Win Conditions
3. Prepare for Further Confrontations

Complete Schemes

To complete a Scheme, the Rogue player reveals a Scheme that has citizens equal to or greater than the Scheme's completion threshold and adds it to the Master Plan. During this step, the Rogue player can complete any number of schemes, one at a time, whose completion threshold has been met.

• If a Scheme has a "When completed" effect, it resolves immediately, before completing any other scheme. It is then added facedown to the Master Plan.
• If a Scheme has a single-use effect, it is added faceup to the Master plan. Once the effect has been used, it is turned facedown.
• If a Scheme has an ongoing effect, it remains face up in the Master Plan.

All Schemes (faceup and facedown) in the Master Plan count when checking for win conditions.

EXAMPLE: (1) During the Reveal Completed Schemes step of the Resolution Phase, the Rogue player reveals the Joker's "Dose the City" Scheme. (2) There are 8 Citizens on the Scheme, so the Joker player chooses an exhausted Hero, Batman, to suffer a total of 4 damage. (3) Finally, the Rogue player moves Dose the City to their Master plan, flipping it facedown. There are now 3 completed Schemes in the Rogue's Master Plan—just two away from victory!

Check for Win Conditions

Because it is possible for multiple win conditions to be satisfied during a Confrontation, the order below matters when checking to see which side is victorious. The first win condition to be satisfied determines the winner:

1. Rogue Victory by Scheme: Five or more Schemes have been completed.
2. Hero Victory by Rescue: There are 30 or more citizens in Sanctuary.
3. Rogue Victory by Knock Out: All Heroes in play are KO'd.
4. Hero Victory by Capture: All Rogues in play are captured.

NOTE: The Heroes can win if they save enough citizens, even if they get KO'd in the process. Similarly, the Rogues can win even if they are all captured if they also complete their Master Plan.

If no win condition has been satisfied, go to the Prepare for Further Confrontations step.

EXAMPLE: (1) Aquaman attacks Black Manta at the Atlantean Royal Palace, doing enough damage to capture him! Black Manta was the final Rogue in play, so the Hero player gets ready to celebrate! (2) However, in the Resolution Phase the Rogue player reveals that they have completed their fifth and final scheme, Humble Atlantis! Because the Rogue Victory by Scheme win condition resolves before the Hero Victory by Capture win condition, the Rogue player is victorious.

Prepare for Further Confrontations

Perform the following in order:

1. Discard each Location with no citizens on it, draw a new Location from the Location deck, and place it in the same position. Any Schemes or characters remain in that position. They are considered to have changed locations to continue the fight.
2. If 1 or more players exhausted a character and took an action in the previous Confrontation cycle, a new Confrontation cycle begins. This allows players who previously passed to act if they so desire.
3. If all players passed during the previous Confrontation cycle, there are no additional Confrontation cycles. Proceed to the Maintenance Stage.

Maintenance Stage

During the Maintenance Stage players prepare for the beginning of a new round. There are three phases within this stage, the Ready Phase, the Draw Phase, and the End of Round Phase.

Ready Phase

Resolve the following steps in order:

1. Ready all exhausted cards (all cards are considered to ready simultaneously).
2. Return all characters at Locations to their controller's play area.
3. Any effects that trigger on a card readying can be resolved now.

Draw Phase

Resolve the following steps in order:

1. The Hero player may discard any number of cards from their hand to their discard pile.
2. Rogue and Hero players draw.
   • The Rogue player draws 3 cards and then discards down to their maximum hand size of 10 cards, if necessary.
   • The Hero player draws cards until they reach their maximum hand size of 6.

REMINDER: Whenever a player draws the last card from their deck, they immediately shuffle their discard pile to form a new deck.

End of Round Phase

Any effects that trigger at the end of the round resolve now. Any effects that end at the end of the round cease to have effect on the game. Remove activation tokens from cards and begin the next round by returning to the Plotting Stage.

2-Player Standard Setup

1. Choose Sides: Players choose sides. One player will play the Rogues and the other the Heroes.

2. Establish Your Team: Players select a total of 4 characters for use in the game. Each player selects characters for their personal reserve in the following order:

   • Rogue player selects 1 character
   • Hero player selects 2 characters
   • Rogue player selects 2 characters
   • Hero player selects 2 characters
   • Rogue player selects 1 character

   Each player places these selected characters with all of their affiliated cards beneath them to form their personal reserve. Characters not chosen and their affiliated cards, are returned to the box.

3. Choose Starting Characters: Each player takes their four chosen characters into their hand and selects 2 of them with a total recruitment cost of 16 or less to be their starting characters and places them facedown on the table. Once each player has made their selections, they reveal their starting characters and return the other 2 to their personal reserve.

4. Create Decks:

   • Rogue Player: Create the deck of 12 cards by taking the chosen characters' starting cards (marked with the gold star at the bottom) and shuffle them together.
   • Hero Player: Create the deck of 12 cards by taking the chosen characters' starting cards (marked with the gold star at the bottom) along with the set of four Hero Starting Cards (2 Renown, 1 Prestige, and 1 Fame) and shuffle them together.

Sample 2-Player Setup

Diagram: the Rogue reserve, hand, discard and deck are on the Rogue side, with Sinestro and Klarion Bleak as starting Rogues. The Location deck is followed by a row of Locations (Downtown Central City, ACE Chemical Plant, House of Mystery) with Peacemaker (Unaligned) at one Location, and the Unaligned character deck opposite the Location deck. Green Lantern and Wonder Woman are the starting Heroes, with the Hero deck, discard, hand and reserve on the Hero side.

Multiplayer Rules

When played with more than 2 players, a team of Rogue players faces off against a team of Hero players. The differences to game setup and play follow.

As in the 2-player game, each player creates their own personal reserve. During the game, players can recruit characters or buy their character's affiliated cards only from their own reserve. Similarly, each player forms and uses their own resource pool. Resources cannot be shared between players.

How to Win (Multiplayer)

Rogues share a Master Plan and Heroes share the Sanctuary. Each player on the same side works together toward meeting the team's win conditions.

The Hero players win if they achieve any of the following victory conditions:

• Place 30 citizens in Sanctuary.
• Capture all Rogues in play by doing damage equal to or exceeding each Rogue's Health value.
• Capture a total of 4 Rogues.

The Rogue players win if they achieve any of the following victory conditions:

• Achieve their Master Plan by completing 5 schemes.
• Knock Out (KO) all Heroes in play by doing damage equal to or exceeding each Hero's Health value.
• Knock out (KO) a total of 4 Heroes.

Multiplayer Setup

1. Choose Sides: Players choose their preferred sides, dividing themselves evenly between Heroes and Rogues for 4-player games. In a 3-player game, there is inevitably going to be an imbalance. It does not matter which side has 2 players. However, to compensate there are a number of changes made to setup, the draw phase, and the KO/capture win condition.

2. Establish Your Team:

   • Three Players: Each team chooses 6 characters. Randomly determine which player from the 2-person team plays first in the first round (Team Player 1). Then, players select characters in the following order:
     • Team Player 1 chooses 1 character
     • Team Player 2 chooses 2 characters
     • Team Player 1 chooses 2 characters
     • Team Player 2 chooses 1 character
     • Solo player chooses 6 characters
   • Four Players: Each team chooses 6 characters. Each team randomly determines who goes first for their side in the first round (Rogue Player 1, Hero Player 1). Players select characters in the following order:
     • Rogue players each choose 1 character
     • Hero players each choose 2 characters
     • Rogue players each choose 2 characters
     • Hero players each choose 1 character.

   Players place their selected characters and their affiliated cards in their personal reserve. Return the remaining characters, along with their affiliated cards, back to the box.

Multiplayer Game

When playing games with two players on a side, those players determine which player will play first each round. That order remains the same until the beginning of the next round when they will once again decide which player will play first. Example, if there are two Rogue players the player who acts first in the Plotting Stage is also the first Rogue player to activate a character in the Confrontation Stage.

Plotting Stage

If there are two Rogue players they will take their turns for each phase of the Plotting Stage back to back. The first Rogue player completes their entire Action Phase, then the second Rogue player completes their Action Phase. Finally, the first Rogue player completes their Draw Phase and then the second Rogue player completes their Draw Phase.

During the Draw Phase, if there is a single Rogue player against two Hero players, the Rogue player draws 4 cards and then discards down to their maximum hand size of 12 cards.

Planning Stage

If there are two Hero players they will take their turns for the Action Phase of the Planning Stage back to back. The first Hero player completes their entire Action Phase and then the second Hero player completes their Action Phase.

Confrontation Stage

During the Confrontation Stage a full cycle is:

1. Rogue Provoke
2. Hero Oppose
3. Rogue Provoke
4. Hero Oppose
5. The Resolution

With the solo player taking both opportunities and the 2-player side trading turns, with the designated first player taking the first Provoke/Oppose phase in the cycle.

Checking Win Conditions

The win conditions in multiplayer games are slightly different than in 2-player games. The first win condition to be satisfied determines which team is the winner.

1. Rogue Victory by Scheme: Five or more Schemes have been completed.
2. Hero Victory by Rescue: There are 30 or more citizens in Sanctuary.
3. Rogue Victory by Knock Out:
   • 3-Player Game, 2 Rogues versus 1 Hero: All Heroes in play are KO'd.
   • 3-Player Game, 1 Rogue versus 2 Heroes: All Heroes in play or a total of 4 Heroes are KO'd.
   • 4-Player Game: All Heroes in play are KO'd.
4. Hero Victory by Capture:
   • 3-Player Game, 2 Heroes versus 1 Rogue: All Rogues in play are Captured
   • 3-Player Game, 1 Hero versus 2 Rogues: All Rogues in play or a total of 4 Rogues are Captured.
   • 4-Player Game: All Rogues in play are Captured.

Maintenance Stage: Draw Phase

• If there is a single Rogue player against 2 Hero players, the Rogue player draws 4 cards and then discards down to their maximum hand size of 12 cards.
• If there is a single Hero player against two Rogue players, the Hero player draws cards until they reach their maximum hand size of 8 cards.

Hero Tactics

Aquaman, Orin The Renegade

Aquaman was born the son of the Atlantean queen Atlanna and the Amnesty Bay lighthouse keeper Tom Curry, inheriting superhuman strength, telepathic control over marine life, and the ability to survive both in water and on land.

Complexity: Medium

Aquaman is a well-balanced Hero capable of consistently strong Attacks or Rescues round after round. With his Trident of Neptune, he is also one of the few Heroes able to directly slow down the Rogues ability to complete their Schemes.

Batman, Bruce Wayne

Bruce Wayne dedicated his life to fighting crime after his parents were murdered before his eyes. With the considerable wealth and resources left to him, Bruce forged himself into the ultimate vigilante: The Batman.

Complexity: Low

As a master tactician and detective, Batman is especially skilled at reducing damage, ignoring effects that would harm him, and unraveling the Rogues Schemes. With the Batcave, Batman always has access to one more trick, one more strategy, to tip the odds in his favor.

Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes

Life changed for Jaime Reyes when he discovered an alien artifact disguised as a blue stone scarab. When it fused to his spine, he went from typical teenager to a superhero bonded to one of the most powerful weapons in the universe.

Complexity: Medium

Blue Beetle's Tactical Analysis and Neural Scrambler allow him to dish out damage to multiple opponents, while his Forcefield keeps him standing long after other Heroes would be KO'd.

Cyborg, Victor Stone

Victor Stone was a high school football star who was nearly killed in a horrific accident in his father's laboratory. Silas used the advanced technology at his disposal to save his son's life, transforming him into Cyborg.

Complexity: Medium

Cyborg is an incredibly versatile Hero. He is capable of delivering sustained damage or large Rescues with Man or Machine, and his Technomorph ability allows him to change strategies on the fly. Cyborg also can supercharge his actions: White Noise Cannon allows you to discard a card to increase the damage Cyborg does in an Attack and Boom Tube allows you to undertake a truly massive Rescue.

The Flash, Barry Allen

Barry Allen became a forensic pathologist to prove his father innocent of murder. While working late in the lab, he was struck by lightning and doused in chemicals, inadvertently becoming the fastest man alive. Now, he uses his access to the Speed Force to chase the truth and bring criminals to justice.

Complexity: High

The Flash is a tricky Hero. With his Lightning Reflexes he can act before his turn and Rescue citizens a Rogue has threatened. With his ability to wrap his opponents in a Vortex and his Speed Scouting providing valuable intel, The Flash can stack his opponent's deck and manipulate their hand, giving him an advantage in any altercation.

Green Lantern, Jo Mullein

After witnessing the 9/11 attacks in her youth, Sojourner "Jo" Mullein was inspired to make a difference in the world, eventually joining the NYPD, but her police career ended abruptly after she was fired for being tagged in a Black Lives Matter Facebook post. While drowning her sorrows, she met a Guardian of the Universe who issued her a unique Power Ring and a challenge: "One year to make a difference."

Complexity: Medium

Green Lantern's entire set of affiliated cards are events, making it difficult to predict what she'll do next. Her versatile Power Ring lets her envision Crime Scene Re-creations that can move citizens from Schemes to Sanctuary. Grasping Hands can modify her Attack or Rescue and her Natural Recharge allows her to retrieve a card from her discard pile when she needs it most.

Superman, Man of Steel

One of the few survivors of the doomed planet Krypton, Superman's alien physiology grants him godlike powers and near-invulnerability. Crash landing on earth as a baby, he was raised by a human family in the quiet town of Smallville, Kansas, who instilled him with an ironclad sense of justice and morality. Now, he uses his might on behalf of all humanity.

Complexity: Low

Superman is a straightforward, powerful Hero, capable of immediately leaping to the aid of Citizens with his Rescue value of 2 and his Flight card. Once his Fortress of Solitude headquarters is in play, rescued Citizens can begin to give his team a significant card advantage. Thanks to his Kryptonian Physiology, Superman can survive numerous attacks, allowing him to Rescue round after round.

Wonder Woman, Princess Diana of Themyscira

Born to the Amazon queen Hippolyta, Princess Diana received the education and training befitting a warrior princess. Named the Champion of Themyscira, Diana left her land on a mission, knowing it meant she could never return. Wielding the powers of the Greek gods themselves, she became one of the world's greatest heroes.

Complexity: Medium

Wonder Woman's strength comes from her fighting prowess. With her Gifts from the Gods she can reliably use the Gift of Demeter to heal damage she has taken or the Gift of Artemis to dish it out round after round. Even getting the damage on her is no sure thing with the Bracelets of Submission and Shield of Alcippe.

Zatanna, Mistress of Magic

The Homo Magi Zatanna Zatara was born to a long line of mages, prognosticators, inventors, alchemists, and stage magicians. Her knowledge of the higher and common magics is immeasurable, and she has mastered the stage arts of sleight of hand, mesmerism, and escapology.

Complexity: High

Zatanna is a utilitarian support character that is capable of impactful deck manipulation thanks to the Zatara Shuffle and Reading the Cards, fetching you the cards you need and burying your opponent's most powerful cards. If she finds herself in danger, she can use Escape Artist to retreat to the Reserve.

Rogue Tactics

Black Manta, The Fisher King

David Hyde was a treasure hunter and mercenary before the death of his father at the hands of Aquaman. Donning hi-tech armor and swearing revenge, Black Manta was born.

Complexity: Medium

Black Manta is a powerful attacker with his two Twin Swords and Attack value of 2, and with Blood in the Water he is also capable of sizable Threatens against citizens. Black Manta can also use Scavenge to turn other players' cards into resources and Battle on Many Fronts to exhaust a Hero who hasn't yet been activated.

Cheetah, Barbara Ann Minerva

Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva was a well-regarded archaeologist whose passion for mythology became an obsession with divine magic, and she was tricked into undergoing a ritual that transformed her into Cheetah and filled her with bloodlust.

Complexity: Medium

Cheetah's Primal Drive and Attack value of 3 make her an immediate threat to all Heroes. As an Apex Predator who is Dedicated to the Hunt, she has the ability to advance Schemes in an unconventional manner.

The Joker, Clown Prince of Crime

The Joker is a homicidal maniac and the arch-nemesis of Batman. He applies his warped intelligence to lethal "pranks," psychologically tormenting the denizens of Gotham City.

Complexity: Medium

As befitting a psychotic prankster, many of The Joker's cards give the Hero a choice. The Joker's Acid Flower and Throwing Cards force the Heroes to suffer damage or lose card advantage, and The Joker is immensely difficult to KO while he has cards to discard and citizens at his location.

Klarion Bleak, The Witch Boy

Complexity: High

Klarion Bleak is a descendant of the Puritan survivors of the lost colony of Roanoke who live under New York's subway tunnels in a community called Limbo-Town. He is manipulative, judgmental, and power-hungry, a magic-wielding teenager with no moral compass.

Witch's Road allows Klarion to clog up a Hero player's deck and hand with cards that have minimal utility. When those cards are used or discarded, they go to Klarion's discard pile, but if those cards are revealed in a Hero player's hand or deck, they go directly to Klarion's hand. Since Rogue cards have a distinct back, Klarion can intuit when to use Divination, Twist of Luck, or Chaos Magic for maximum advantage.

Lex Luthor, Mastermind

Born into poverty and abused as a young child, Alexander "Lex" Luthor escaped Metropolis' Suicide Slum through insurance fraud and patricide. Luthor now runs his own company, LexCorp, and is extremely wealthy and politically powerful. The tragedy of Luthor is that if not for his amoral nature he could have succeeded at anything he put his mind to, but his viscious nature propelled him down the path of villainy.

Complexity: Medium

Lex Luthor is a strong support character. Through his Profiteering, status as LexCorp CEO, and achievement of the Highest Office, Lex can supercharge a deck or team, saving time and resources.

Punchline, Alexis Kaye

Traumatized by The Joker as a high school student, Alexis Kaye developed an obsession with him. At Gotham's Snyder College she launched a killing spree to gain The Joker's attention, transforming into the villain Punchline.

Complexity: Medium

Punchline is a wild card, capable of extremely powerful Threaten and Attack actions due to her Nihilist nature. Manipulating your hand to get the best advantage from this ability requires effort but is often worth the investment and her expert use of Toxic Gas and Modified Joker Venom ramp up the harm she is capable of.

Reverse-Flash, Eobard Thawne

Eobard Thawne grew up obsessed with the Flash. After finding a time capsule containing the speedster's costume, he used traces of the Speed Force in it to turn himself into a version of the Flash. In an unhinged effort to be seen as a hero, Thawne created his own threats to thwart, becoming the sinister Reverse-Flash after his schemes were exposed.

Complexity: Low

Reverse Flash is a straightforward character, using Super Speed to outthink his opponents and Rapid Thought and Speed Scouting to give him the solution to any problem he faces. He also represents a direct threat to the Heroes because his Phase Attack damage cannot be ignored or reduced.

Silver Banshee, Siobhan McDougal

Siobhan McDougal was the first-born child of an old Gaelic clan in which first-born children must undergo a ritual to prove themselves worthy to lead the clan. The ritual was interrupted by her jealous brother and she was dragged into an infernal netherworld. There, an entity called the Crone granted her supernatural powers and the ability to return to Earth as the Silver Banshee to exact revenge on those who wronged her.

Complexity: Medium

Much like Cheetah, Silver Banshee's Death Spirit and Threaten value of 3 make her an immediate danger to all citizens. Despite only being able to Threaten, Silver Banshee has one of the best ways of directly damaging Heroes if she can learn their True Name, converting her Threatening of citizens to damage on that specific Hero.

Sinestro, The Yellow Lantern

Thaal Sinestro, originally from the planet Korugar, is the arch-nemesis of the Green Lantern Corps. Once considered one of its greatest members, he was corrupted by power and ultimately exiled. He now seeks to impose his own order on the universe, employing a yellow power ring to combat the Corps he despises.

Complexity: High

Sinestro's Impose Order gives him the rare ability to take both the Attack and Threaten actions during the same activation, and with Sinestro's Might and Energy Blast, he has the ability to modify either action. Sinestro can also sacrifice cards to thin your deck and gain a benefit from them, none greater than his ability to recover himself, escaping after being captured by way of a Hard Light Duplicate.

Glossary

ACTIVATE: During the Confrontation, players activate characters to engage in battle with the opposing side.

ADVANCING A SCHEME: Any time a Scheme gains 1 or more citizens, this is considered advancing the Scheme. This usually occurs during the Confrontation when a Rogue is activated to Threaten, but some card effects will allow for other ways to advance a Scheme without Threatening.

AFFILIATED CARDS: Affiliated cards are cards that belong to a specific character and are marked as such. These cards can only be bought when their character has been recruited and can only be played if their character is in play.

If an effect uses the phrase "matches its affiliation" this means the affiliated card works for a character in play exactly as if they were the affiliated character. Any reference to a name is treated as if it were that affiliated character, all other rules and requirements for the card's effect remain unchanged.

AFTER: The use of the word "After" on REACTION effects signifies the effect immediately follows the resolution of the step of a phase or a card effect that it reacts to. "After" on Attack, Rescue, and Threaten modifiers signify that the following effect resolves after the damage or claim portion of the action has been resolved. Once all "After" effects have been resolved, other effects can be triggered.

ANY CHARACTER CAN PLAY/USE THIS EFFECT: A card effect with either version of this phrase can be played by any player or used by any character, regardless of its affiliation.

If an effect uses the phrase "matches its affiliation" this means the affiliated card works for a character in play exactly as if they were the affiliated character. Any reference to a name is treated as if it were that affiliated character, all other rules and requirements for the card's effect remain unchanged.

ASSET CARD: Assets are a type of card that is played during a Hero player's main action phase and put into play. Assets whose affiliated Hero is no longer in play cannot be exhausted or discarded for effect and cannot normally be played or put into play. Asset effects that don't require exhausting or discarding the card or activating their affiliated Hero can still function as long as they remain in play.

ATTACHMENT CARD: Attachments are a type of card that is played during a player's main action phase and put on a character. While an attachment may benefit the attached character, the control of the attachment is retained by the player who played the card even if the card is attached to another player's character.

Any decisions are made by the controller of the attachment card unless otherwise stated. If the card that the Attachment is attached to leaves play in any way the attachment is placed in its owner's discard pile.

ATTACK VALUE: The Attack value is the base number a character does in damage when they attack. This number can be modified or replaced.

BLANK: Treating a card as if it were blank means ignoring all text in its ability box. A player cannot trigger abilities, use or reference keywords, or otherwise resolve any effects contained within the ability box.

CANNOT: Where the word "cannot" is used it is treated as an absolute prohibition. Players cannot attempt to do the thing and any effect resolution that violates the prohibition does not resolve on whatever card is protected by 'cannot'.

CAPTURED: When a Rogue has damage equal to or exceeding their Health, they are Captured. Immediately remove them from play, return all damage on them to the supply, and place the character near the Sanctuary.

CLAIM: A Rescue or Threaten action results in citizens being claimed and removed from a Location to either Sanctuary or a Scheme.

COST: Recruiting characters, buying cards, or triggering certain effects require a cost to be paid. Costs are paid by a player using their own resources, cards, and tokens unless otherwise specified.

The cost for recruiting a character or buying a card can be found on the bottom right of the card. In triggered card effects, the cost precedes the effect and the two are separated by either a colon or the word "to."

Example Costs:

• RENOWN / INFAMY: This cost must be paid by discarding cards attached to or empowering that character if it is a Hero or discarding cards from hand if a Rogue that equal or exceed the stated cost, and can be activated only once per round.
• DISCARD: The card itself must be discarded to trigger this effect.
• Activate: The character using the effect must activate during the Confrontation Stage to trigger this effect.

DAMAGE: When a character suffers damage, add a damage counter to the character for each point they suffered. Damage can be ignored or reduced.

If damage is ignored, no damage counters are added. If the damage is reduced, decrease the total number of damage counters added by an amount equal to the damage reduction.

If the number of damage counters ever equals or exceeds a character's Health, the following occurs: Heroes are KO'd and Rogues are captured. Unaligned characters are either swayed or captured, depending on whether a Rogue or a Hero dealt the final damage.

DISCARD: When a player is directed to discard cards the effect will also state where those cards must be discarded from. The directed player may choose which cards to discard UNLESS the effect indicates the cards are to be chosen at random. Discarded cards will always go to their owner's discard pile.

Many cards feature a DISCARD symbol; this is a cost that must be paid to activate the ability that follows this symbol and means the card itself must be discarded.

DRAW: Cards are drawn 1 at a time from the top of the deck and added to that player's hand. If an effect or rule would ever require a player to draw more cards than are currently in their deck, they shuffle their discard pile to form a new deck and continue drawing.

EMPOWER: Hero cards may also be used to empower Hero characters. To do this, the Hero player may take any card with Renown, regardless of affiliation, from their hand and slide it under the card they wish to empower in such a way that the Renown symbols of the card are visible. Later, the Hero player may discard empowered cards to activate a Hero's limited ability or to satisfy card effects targeting that Hero.

GAIN CONTROL: When a player gains control of another player's card they make all decisions regarding the use of that card until the control effect ends. If a card leaves play while under another player's control, it goes to the appropriate out-of-play area of its owner, not its controller. The controller pays any associated costs of using the card.

HEAL: When a card directs you to heal a character, remove damage counters from the character equal to the number indicated by the effect. If the character has less damage than the heal amount, all damage is removed.

Healing must be proactive; once a number of damage counters have been successfully placed on a character equaling or exceeding their Health, there is no opportunity to Heal before the character is either captured or KO'd.

HEALTH: A character's Health value is the number printed on their character card. A character's current health is this value minus the damage they have suffered.

IGNORE: When an effect directs you to ignore an effect or modifier it ignores all aspects of that thing, positive and negative. An ignored Attack Modifier would have the character ignore the damage they would suffer from the modifier as well as any additional effect that would affect the attacked character.

IN PLAY: The in play area is the area to which cards are played. This includes recruited characters, assets, attachments, and minions. These cards must be in play to utilize their abilities. Any ability that affects a card by default only affects cards in play, unless the ability says otherwise.

INSTEAD: The word instead is used to denote a replacement effect. Replacement effects are not cumulative; if a player resolves more than one card with a replacement effect trying to replace the same thing, the last one played is the one that persists.

KEYWORDS: Keywords are special bold designations, usually a word or a short phrase, that have a specific rule that applies to the use of the card or effect. The following keywords appear on cards:

• Attack Modifier: Can be used only when a character Attacks during the Confrontation Stage and modifies the amount of damage the Character deals when it Attacks.
• Rescue Modifier: Can be used only when a Hero Rescues in the Confrontation and modifies the number of citizens the Hero claims when it Rescues.
• Threaten Modifier: Can be used only when a Rogue Threatens in the Confrontation and modifies the number of citizens the Rogue claims when it Threatens.

KNOCKED OUT (KO'D): When a Hero has damage equal to or exceeding their Health, they are Knocked Out (KO'd). Immediately remove them from play, return all damage on them to the supply, and place the character near the Master Plan.

LOCATION: Locations are a card type found in the Location Deck. These Locations are dealt faceup between the Hero players and the Rogue players until there are 3 cards in play. Many Location cards have an effect, these effects are active if they are in the central row.

LOOK AT: When an effect directs a player to look at a card, they choose the card and look at its face without revealing it to any other players. It is then returned to its original location in the same state and order as it was before the effect.

MASTER PLAN: Master Plan is a player defined area where the Rogue players will keep their completed Schemes. When there are multiple Rogue players they share a Master Plan each contributing to the Scheme win condition of 5 Schemes.

MINION CARD: Minions are a card type that are played during a Rogue player's main action phase and put into play. Minions whose affiliated Rogue is no longer in play cannot be exhausted or discarded for effect and cannot be played or put into play but any relevant passive effect remains active. Minion effects that don't require exhausting or discarding the card or activating their affiliated Rogue can still function as long as they remain in play.

MODIFIERS: There are three types of modifiers based on the keyword the effect has:

• Attack Modifier: Can only be used when a character Attacks in the Confrontation and modifies the amount of damage the Character deals when it Attacks.
• Rescue Modifier: Can only be used when a Hero Rescues during the Confrontation Stage and modifies the number of citizens the Hero claims when it Rescues.
• Threaten Modifier: Can only be used when a Rogue Threatens during the Confrontation Stage and modifies the number of citizens the Rogue claims when it Threatens.

When playing Attack, Rescue, and Threaten Modifiers, all cards that are modifying the value of the action must be played before any of them are resolved. Once the first Modifier starts resolving, no additional modifiers can be added to the action. The increases provided by the modifiers are cumulative, each adding to the value of the character. You will resolve the total modified damage or claim value first, then any additional effects on the Modifier cards are resolved after the action in the order the acting player wishes.

Some effects will ignore or reduce the damage or claim of a modifier. Those effects only reduce or ignore the damage or claim of the number of modifiers indicated, but do not impact other modifiers, additional effects of those modifiers, or otherwise impact the total damage dealt.

A character's Attack, Rescue, and Threaten values are not modifiers and that damage or claim cannot be reduced or ignored by an effect that targets a modifier. The modifier increase to a character's base value does not individually affect the character being attacked or the location the citizens are being rescued or threatened at.

MOVE CITIZENS: Some effects direct you to move one or more citizens. Moving a citizen, even to a Scheme or Sanctuary is not considered claiming citizens. If there are fewer citizens at the Location than the total of the move effect, move all remaining citizens.

OPEN INFORMATION: All cards that are in the reserve, discard pile, Master Plan, or that have been removed from the game are open information. A player can request to look through any of these areas at any time.

OUT OF PLAY: Each player's reserve, hand, discard pile, resource pool, and characters that have been captured or KO'd are considered out of play. Only cards that specifically mention an out-of-play area can affect out-of-play cards, and only in that specifically mentioned area.

When a card is in play or is played and would move to an out of play area, it moves to the out-of-play area of the card's owner, not its controller.

REACTION: Effects that have the REACTION tag are the only cards that can be triggered during another player's turn, and only when the trigger condition on the card is met. REACTIONS on a player's own cards are always a choice to trigger. REACTIONS on non-player cards (like Unaligned characters) must be triggered and resolved.

READY: A ready card is one that is unexhausted and can be used for activation or any effect or ability that would require it to exhaust to trigger. Cards are readied during the Maintenance Stage.

RECOVER: If a Hero is KO'd or a Rogue is captured, some card effects allow them to recover and return to play, exhausted and under their owner's control and healed of all damage.

RESCUE VALUE: The Rescue value is the base number of citizens a Hero character claims during a Rescue action. This number can be modified or replaced.

RESOLVE: Players are directed to resolve effects on cards or mandatory effects associated with certain specific game-directed actions or phases. This means any use of a card, playing of a card from hand, and any mandatory steps of an action or phase are begun and finished in the directed order.

REVEAL: When an effect directs a player to reveal 1 or more cards, they turn those cards faceup on the table so all players can see them. They are then returned to their original location in the same state and order as before they were revealed.

ROUND: A round is a marked unit of time beginning with the Plotting Stage and ending with the Maintenance Stage. Within a round there are numerous phases and player turns.

SACRIFICE: When you are directed to sacrifice something, you must remove it from the game. If it is a card it is returned to the box or otherwise set aside so it cannot be confused with a card that is out of play but still part of the game. If it is a game component it is returned to the common supply.

SANCTUARY: Sanctuary is a player-defined area where the Hero players will keep their rescued citizens. When there are multiple Hero players they share a Sanctuary each contributing to the Rescue win condition of 30 citizens.

SCHEME: Schemes represent the machinations of Rogues. Schemes are played facedown at any Location without a Scheme already in play. Schemes have a completion threshold, which is represented by the number of citizens that must be placed on it before it can be completed.

Once a Scheme's completion threshold has been met, it can be completed during the Resolution Phase and moved to the Rogue player's Master Plan. Some completed Schemes have effects that will last until the end of the game while others are one-time effects. One-time effect Schemes should be turned face down in the Master Plan once they have been resolved. A few Schemes are played faceup or can be turned faceup prior to being completed—these are a notable exception, and their abilities are immediately active even if they have not been completed.

When a Scheme is completed, the Rogue player draws a number of cards equal to the marked card draw value in addition to any other reward or effect the Scheme may grant.

NOTE: You are not required to complete a Scheme upon meeting its completion threshold. It is also possible to advance a Scheme above its completion threshold by placing additional citizens on it.

SWAYED: An Unaligned character at a Location that has been defeated by a Rogue has been swayed to the Rogue's side. That Unaligned character remains at that Location but moves closest to the Rogue player. Any time that an Unaligned character claims citizens and there is a Scheme at their Location, the claimed citizens are added to the Scheme instead of the Unaligned character. If that Unaligned character is subsequently captured by a Hero any citizens on it are discarded back to the supply.

TARGET: When a card effect directs you to choose a player or another card they are considered to be the target of the card effect. Some cards may alter or prevent an effect that targets a specific character or player.

THEN: Use of the word "Then" in a card effect illustrates when the direction following it is contingent on the direction preceding it from having been resolved as much as possible first. The two effects are not simultaneous nor is the second effect contingent on the first resolving successfully.

THREATEN VALUE: The Threaten value is the base number of citizens a Rogue character claims during a Threaten action. This number can be modified or replaced.

TIES: When required to determine the highest or lowest or most or least or some other comparative value when more than one character, player, or affiliated card are tied for that value all of them are determined to qualify as having met the sought for requirement and any effect will apply to each.

TRAIT: Traits are thematic italicized descriptors related to a card. They have no direct impact on the game except when another card calls out a trait affecting that card in some way.

Example: The Wonder Woman card, "Gifts of Demeter" has the traits: Gift, Magic, Power. These have no material impact on the game on their own. Wonder Woman's ability "Gift from the Gods" reads "Search your deck or discard pile for any Gift and play it." This ability would allow the Wonder Woman player to play Gifts of Demeter from the deck or discard pile since it has the required Gift trait.

TURN: A player's turn is any rules-designated period in which they may take actions. For a Rogue this is during the Plotting Stage and when they have the ability to activate and resolve a Rogue's actions during the Confrontation. For a Hero player that would be during the Planning Stage and when they have the ability to activate and resolve a Hero's actions during the Confrontation Stage. A collection of turns beginning with the Plotting Stage and ending with the Maintenance Stage equals a round.

WHEN: The use of the word "When" is seen most often on cards with the REACTION tag and signifies the effect interrupts and takes priority over the effect it is reacting to. If a single player plays multiple "When" REACTIONS responding to the same trigger, the player using/playing the REACTIONS decides the order in which they resolve. If multiple players have used reactions to the same trigger they are resolved in the order in which they were played.

X: X is a dynamic value that is defined on the card itself. In cases where X is a variable that cannot be resolved, it is considered 0.

Overview of a Round

The game is played in rounds. Each round is composed of 4 stages in the order shown below.

Plotting Stage: This stage is composed of 2 phases:

• Rogue Action Phase: The Rogue player can take any of the following actions in any order and as often as they choose: Recruit a Rogue, Use Rogue Character Ability, Buy an Affiliated Rogue Card, Play a Card, Use a Card. After the Rogue player has performed all the actions they wish to perform, all cards in their resource pool are put into their discard pile.
• Rogue Draw Phase: The Rogue player draws 3 cards then discards down to their maximum hand size of 10 cards, if necessary.

Planning Stage: This stage is composed of 1 phase:

• Hero Action Phase: The Hero player can take any of the following actions in any order and as often as they choose: Recruit a Hero, Use Hero Character Ability, Buy an Affiliated Hero Card, Play a Card, Use a Card, Empower a Hero. After the Hero player has performed all the actions they wish to perform, all cards in their resource pool are put into their discard pile.

Confrontation Stage: The Confrontation Stage is made up of a cycle of repeating Confrontations consisting of 3 phases:

• Rogue Provoke Phase: During the first Rogue Provoke Phase of the game, the Rogue player must activate one of their ready characters. In future cycles, the Rogue player may choose to either activate one of their ready characters or pass their turn. An activated Rogue can play any number of affiliated cards, trigger any available abilities, and move to a Location to Threaten or Attack.
• Hero Oppose Phase: During the first Hero Oppose Phase of the game, the Hero player must choose to activate one of their characters. In future cycles, the Hero player may choose to activate a character or pass their turn. An activated Hero can play any number of affiliated cards, trigger any available abilities, and move to a Location to Rescue or Attack.
• Resolution Phase: After both players have had an opportunity to activate a character, the Resolution Phase begins. The Resolution Phase consists of 3 steps:
  1. Complete Schemes: The Rogue player can reveal Schemes that have citizens equal to or greater than the Scheme's completion threshold, resolve them, and add them to the Master Plan.
  2. Check for Win Conditions: Check the win conditions, in order, to determine a victor (if any).
  3. Prepare for Further Confrontations: If there is no winner, discard each Location with no citizens on it, draw a new Location from the Location deck, and place it in the same position. If 1 or more players activated a character in the Confrontation cycle, a new Confrontation cycle begins. If all players passed during the previous Confrontation cycle, the Maintenance Stage begins.

Maintenance Stage: This stage is composed of 3 phases:

• Ready Phase: Ready all exhausted cards and return all characters at Locations to their controller's play area.
• Draw Phase: The Hero player may discard any number of cards. Then, the Rogue player draws 3 cards and discards down to their maximum hand size of 10 cards, if necessary. Finally, the Hero player draws cards until they reach their maximum hand size of 6.
• End of Round Phase: Remove activation tokens from character cards and begin the next round.