Embers Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • 1. Spawn Monsters
  • 2. Use Actions
  • 3. Resolve Monster Attacks
  • 4. Reinforce
• Time Passes
• Winning the Game
• Difficulty Levels

Components

5 Hero Cards — each has a level-1 side and a level-2 side, showing its name, its maneuver icon, its actions, its health, and its costs.

12 Fire Cards — each is double-sided: a fire side (showing a spawn location icon and an event) and a monster side (showing fire damage, hero damage, and a movement point icon).

1 Night Card — double-sided, showing a time (a number alongside a free-promote-action icon) on one side and a different time on its other side.

Setup

1. Orient the Night Card to show 4 hours to dawn, and place it in the middle of the table.
2. Shuffle the 12 Fire Cards, fire-side up, and place them on the Night Card. This deck (including the Night Card), represents your campfire.
3. Take the top card of the deck and move it to the side to start the forage pile.
4. Flip all 5 Hero Cards to their level-1 sides and shuffle them. Place one in each of the camp spaces to the North, South, East, and West. Place the fifth hero in the tent.
5. Choose a difficulty level: Recruit, Warrior, or Veteran (see Difficulty Levels).

Note: There are eight locations around the campfire. Each has a camp space which may only hold 1 hero, and a wild space which may only hold monsters.

Gameplay

You must survive until dawn by playing through multiple turns. Every turn, complete the following 4 steps in order. Whenever you reveal the Night Card, resolve it immediately and then continue the turn from where you left off (see Time Passes).

1. Spawn Monsters

Spawn a new monster for each hero in a camp space. (Do not move or count any monsters that remain from previous turns.)

For each new monster, flip the top card of the deck to its monster side, and place it in the wild space at the location indicated on the new top card.

If that location has a hero, the monster spends one of its movement points (a paw-print icon) to step one space clockwise. Repeat until it reaches a location without a hero or it runs out of movement points. Whenever a monster is added to a location, stack it on top of any existing monsters, offset so all monster icons remain visible.

2. Use Actions

The top card of the deck shows an event which applies throughout this turn. Ignore events revealed later this turn.

At Recruit difficulty, ignore any event with an exclamation mark.

Each hero in a camp space may spend up to 2 action points (two diamond icons) on their listed actions (see Hero Actions). One at a time, choose a hero and resolve all of their actions before moving to another hero.

After resolving all actions, flip all the cards moved to your hand through your defend and forage actions so they are fire-side up, shuffle them, and place them at the bottom of the deck.

3. Resolve Monster Attacks

Resolve attacks one location at a time, and in the order of your choice. Multiple monsters at a single location combine their attacks (resolve them as one).

Each attack always targets the hero closest to that location, even if it would only damage the fire. If multiple heroes are tied for closest, choose one. A hero may be targeted for multiple attacks in the same turn.

The attack deals damage first to the fire, and then to the target hero, based on its icons:

Fire damage (flame icon): For each icon, move the top card of the deck to the bottom of the forage pile. If the attack targets the level-2 Firetender, it deals 1 less damage to the fire (ignore 1 flame icon).

Hero damage (claw icon): For each icon, the attack deals 1 damage to the hero. If the damage equals or exceeds the health of that hero, flip them to level 1 and place them in the tent. Extra damage does not carry over to other heroes or between attacks, so a level-2 hero can survive multiple 1-claw attacks.

1. These stacked monsters together target the Defender or the Firetender (you choose). If targeted, the Firetender would use their passive ability to reduce the 3-flame attack to 2-flame.
2. This monster targets the Firetender. The Firetender's passive ability completely negates the 1-flame damage, and their health absorbs the 1-claw damage with no effect.
3. This monster targets the Leader. It does 1 flame damage to the fire. The 2-claw damage defeats the Leader (flip them to level 1 and place them in the tent).

4. Reinforce

If you have fewer than 4 heroes in camp, choose a level-1 hero in the tent that was not placed there this turn, and place them in an empty location. If there are no empty locations, place them in any empty camp space.

You may repeat this step as many times as possible, and then start the next turn.

Time Passes

When you reveal the Night Card at the top of the deck, if it shows 4, 3 or 2 hours until dawn, immediately resolve the night card bonus (the free-promote-action icon). Then flip/rotate the Night Card to reduce time by 1, place it on the bottom of the deck, and continue the turn.

If it shows 1 hour until dawn, it triggers the end of the game (see Winning the Game).

Night card bonus: At Recruit or Warrior difficulty, flip one hero in camp to level 2 for free (ignore this at Veteran difficulty).

Note: If you reveal the Night Card while spawning a monster during step 1 of a turn, set the monster aside. Resolve the Night Card and then finish spawning the set-aside monster using the Fire Card now at the top of the deck.

Winning the Game

If you reveal the Night Card showing 1 hour until dawn, set it aside and survive the current turn to win the game!

If the deck ever runs out of fire cards, or there are no heroes left in camp, you lose the game.

Difficulty Levels

Difficulty	Recruit	Warrior	Veteran
Ignore events with an exclamation mark	Yes	No	No
Night Card Bonuses	Yes	Yes	No