Epic PVP: Fantasy
Epic PVP: Fantasy Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Standard 2-Player Rules
(read these first even if you decide to play with more than 2 players)
Set-Up
To set up for the game, each player chooses a Class and a Race from those that are available. Players take the Race and Class card and put them in front them, and take the corresponding Move and Special cards for that Race and Class and shuffle them together to make their draw deck.
Players then take a number of cards off the top of their deck equal to their character's Life stat (on the Class deck), and put them face down in a pile to their right. This is called their Life Pile. A player loses when they have no cards left in this pile.
Leave room for your discard pile as well as a spot in front of your Race and Class cards for your Aggression Pile which you will build during the game.
Next, each player draws a starting hand of 5 cards.
Lastly, players figure out who goes first by which character has the higher Initiative (this appears on both the Class and Race card, add them up to find out your character's Initiative). The player with the higher Initiative takes the first turn. If that is tied, the player with the lowest life goes first. If that is also tied both players discard the top card of their deck and compare the cost of the cards – Highest cost goes first (special cards have 0 Cost).
You are ready to play!
Table layout: In front of each player sits their Deck, their Race Card and Class Card (with a spot for the Aggression Pile in front of those), and their Life Pile off to the side. Between the two players is the Field, where both players play their Move cards. Each player's opponent sits across the Field from them.
Each Race card shows its Life stat, Race name, and Initiative. Each Class card shows its Initiative and Class name. Your character's Initiative is the total of your Class and Race card's initiatives. Both the Race card and the Class card have their own card back design.
The Cards
Let's look at some cards. Here's a Move card. This diagram shows you what all the various parts are.
A Move card shows, from top to bottom: its Cost (top left corner, printed on a card-count icon), its Block stat (top center, on a shield icon), its Card Name (running down the left edge), its Race/Class Indicator (a small portrait, bottom left), and its Attack stat (bottom center, on a circular icon). A "Basic Move" (such as Basic Strike) has no card text and shares its name and artwork with every other Basic Move of its type. A regular Move (such as Quick Stab) may have card text describing a special effect (for example: "This Move hits if any of your other Moves hit.").
Special Moves: These cards don't have Cost, Block, or Attack, and aren't played in the field like normal moves. Just follow the directions on the card as to when to play them and what each does. (For example, a Special Move like Battle Prayer might read: "Discard this card from your hand after you block an enemy Move with at least 3 more Block than you need. Put the top card of your deck into your Life Pile then draw a card from your deck.")
Game Play
In Epic PvP, players alternates taking turns. When one player has their Life Pile reduced to zero cards, the other player wins. Each turn is straightforward and follows these steps.
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Take two cards from the top of your deck and, without looking at them, add them to your Aggression pile. Your Aggression Pile provides you energy to play moves during your turn.
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Draw Cards FROM YOUR AGGRESSION PILE (optional). If you want, you may draw any number of cards from your Aggression Pile and put them in your hand. You MUST declare how many you want to draw before you start drawing. And remember, your Aggression Pile provides you with energy to play cards, so every card you draw will reduce the amount of energy you have left to play cards during your turn!
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Play Move Cards. Using your Aggression, you can play Move cards with a total Cost equal to (or less than) the number of cards in your Aggression Pile. Put any Move cards you play in the field between you and your opponent.
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Assign Blocks and Take Damage. You may assign any of your cards to block any incoming moves your opponent has in the field from their last turn. To block, your Move must have a BLOCK stat equal to or greater than the incoming cards ATTACK stat.
a. Once you assign blocks, all moves that you block go to the discard pile of the owner. Your move that did the blocking stays in the Field.
b. If there are any remaining unblocked enemy moves in the field, you take 1 Damage from each (each Move just does 1 damage if unblocked, NOT damage equal to it's Attack stat). For each Damage you take, reveal one of your Life Pile cards and add it to your Discard pile (which is always face-up). After you take damage, any Moves that dealt you damage are discarded.
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Rotate your moves to show your turn is over. Spin your Moves 180 degrees so the Attack stat is now pointed towards your enemy. At this point you should be the only player with Move cards in the field as all the enemy moves were either blocked or did damage (and in both cases were discarded afterwards).
That's it. Just keep going back and forth playing turns until one of you is out of Life.
OK, That's not all of it…
Card Text
Most Move cards and all Special Cards have text on them. Do whatever the text says – it's fun!
Basic Attacks
Basic Moves don't have text, and they all share the same name and artwork. Lots of cards however trigger off of "Basic" Moves (like "+1 to this Move's Attack if you also played a Basic Move this turn").
Class and Race Abilities
Your Class and Race cards also have special text on them. These are often really powerful abilities you can use during the game. If you have any questions about them, see the list at the end of the rules.
Permanents
Some cards can be "played as Permanents" or "Turn into Permanents" when they are blocked or something similar. When this happens, put the card next to your Class and Race card and leave it there so you can see its ability and use it for the rest of the game (or at least until you have to discard it for some reason).
Miscellaneous Rules
Timing
Sometimes two abilities will happen "at the same time." If the abilities are controlled by the same player, then the player gets to choose which one happens first – resolve that one fully, then move on to the other. If they are controlled by different players (very rare), then the player who played the card first resolves their ability first.
Getting Tired (reshuffling your deck)
When your need to draw a card from your deck (to use as Aggression or for any other reason) and there are not cards left in your deck, you reshuffle your discard pile to make a new draw deck. When you do this though, you take 1 point of Damage just before shuffling.
2-vs-2 Rules
If you want to play PvP with 4 players, this is how it works. You should totally do this it is super fun! Here are the changes to the game.
Set-Up
Sit next to your partner (across from the enemy team).
Make a shared Life Pile
Each player make their Life Pile as normal, but before the game starts, each team shuffles their Life Piles together to make one big Life Pile. If a team's Life Pile is ever reduced to 0 cards, that team loses.
Which Team Goes First?
The Team with the highest total Initiative goes first.
Turns
Team members take their turn at the same time – going through each phase together. Each player has their own Aggression Pile. When it's time to play Moves, the team member with the highest Initiative plays first (if Initiatives are tied, the team decides at the start of the game which will have to play first for the whole game).
Blocking
Any player on a team can assign to block any incoming Move during their turn.
Damage
When a team takes damage, and the card in the Life Pile is revealed, it goes into the discard pile of the player whose deck the Life card came from.
Sharing Information
Players may talk all they want, but they may NOT show their cards to each other and all talking must be public.
The word "Opponent" and Taking Damage Abilities
In 2-vs-2, your "opponent" is the player right across from you for card abilities. So if a card says "if your opponent blocks this Move, you draw a card" – you ONLY get to draw a card if the player directly across from you was the one who blocked your Move! This can greatly effect how you play your cards.
Some effects happen when damage is taken. If you have an effect that triggers when you take damage, then the Life card that was discarded from your Life pile must have come from your deck.
That's it, just play until one team is out of Life, making the other team the winners!
3 Player "open brawl" Rules - coming soon!
Example: Joan and Matt play as a team, seated with Matt's opponent across from Matt and Joan's opponent across from Joan. Between the two teams' decks sits Matt & Joan's shared Life Pile, with each player keeping their own Aggression Pile in front of their own Race and Class cards. Matt and Joan can play Moves that block any incoming Move from the other team. Joan and Matt will lose when their team Life Pile in the middle is reduced to zero cards. For card abilities, Matt and Joan's "opponent" is the player right across from them - but that only matters for card abilities, not playing Moves.
Print and Play Class and Race Tips
Human
The human has the ability to one time in each game, discard cards from your hand and replace them with new cards from your deck. It can be used to get you just the card you need when you need it, but be careful if you have to reshuffle your deck, you will lose 1 Life! The human also has a particularly combo-riffic Special card called "xxx".
Goblin
The Goblin is a card drawing machine - drawing a card every time he can block a Move with a Move of the same cost. The goblin has one of the best Special cards in the game as well – XXXX, which blocks all the moves their opponent plays! The big downside of the Goblin is of course – just 4 life.
Druid
The Druids ability is basically a "saving throw." Before you play any Moves, you can discard a card from your Aggression Pile. If that discarded card happened to be a Basic Move, you get to block any one incoming move! It's a good idea to pair the Druid with a Race that has more Basic Moves in the deck if you plan to use this. When playing against the Druid, be careful of the Druid's Tanglevines – especially early – as the ability on that card reduces the number of cards you add to your Aggression pile by 1 the next turn.
Rogue
Sneaky and annoying. The Rogue's special power can upset an opponent's careful planning as it forces a random discard when you damage your opponent. Your opponent gets to replace the discarded card, but that means he's going through his deck faster and you might be able to get him to shuffle and take 1 damage for doing so. The Rogue also has a Move called Feint, a super annoying low powered Move that MUST be blocked with the highest Cost Move you play… Grr….