Fickle Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Common Game Terms
• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay Overview
• Round Details
  • A. Start Round
  • B. Fairy Lineup
  • C. Fairy Selection
  • D. Fairy Powers
  • E. End Round
• Score
• Power Types
• Miscellaneous Rules
  • Table Talk
  • Favor Values
• Recommended Sets
• The Family Powers (Alphabetical Order)
  • Blinded
  • Coerce
  • Deflect
  • Dispel
  • Distract
  • Erase
  • Familiar
  • Give
  • Illusion
  • Mimic
  • Noble
  • Obsfuscate
  • Pariah
• Quick Reference

Common Game Terms

• Fairy, Fae - Card
• Family - Suit
• Power - Card Effect
• Favor - Victory Points
• Alliance - Tableau of Collected Cards
• Dismiss - Discard a Fairy Card
• Active - Card Power Unused, Placed Sideways
• Idle - Card Power Resolved

Components

• 1 Rulebook
• 1 Game Board (Mouse or Butterfly Side)
• 1 Court Crier Token (Play to left or Play to right Side)
• 8 Round Direction Tokens (Fickle side up / Back)
• 1 Phase Token
• 198 Fairy Cards (22 Family Decks, 9 Cards per Deck)

Game Board: Learning Side and Moon Side.

Fairy Card: Favor Value, Power Icon, Power Text, Power Type.

Direction Tokens: "Play to the Right" and "Play to the Left".

Setup

1. Place board in the center of the table. Use the Learning side for your first game and with new players. Experienced players can use the Moon board to track game rounds.
2. Put all Direction Tokens Fickle side up and shuffle. Place 5 tokens on the board. Put the rest away.
3. Place the Phase Token on the "Start Round" phase.
4. Choose 5 Families for the game. (Each Family is a set of 9 Fairy cards that share a single Power.)
5. If this is your first game, use these Families: Noble, Coerce, Give, Dispel, Share.
6. If not, pick 5 Families to customize your game (See Recommended Sets on page 12).
7. Shuffle the selected Family Cards together to create the Fairy Deck (45 cards). Deal 3 cards to each player.
8. Each player chooses 2 Fairy cards to keep and puts them face-down in front of themselves. The other card is put face-down to start the Dismiss pile. Once all players have their 2 cards, turn them face up. These starting Fairy cards begin each Alliance (Do not resolve their Fairy Powers.).
9. Give the Court Crier token to the player that has most recently been mischievous.
10. Setup is complete. Start the first round.

4 Player Setup diagram: Player 1 Alliance, Fairy Deck, Player 2 Alliance, Court Crier Token, Phase Token, Player 3 Alliance, Dismiss Pile, Player 4 Alliance.

Gameplay Overview

Your goal is to build the strongest Fairy Alliance in 5 rounds to win the Queen's Crown. You do this by keeping Fairies in your Alliance that gain you Favor points. Each card represents a Fairy from one of the five Families. Each Family has a unique Power that enables you to improve your Alliance and thwart your opponents. Every round you will choose a single Fairy, add it to your scoring Alliance, and resolve its Power. At the end of 5 rounds, the player with the highest total Favor points in their Alliance is the winner.

Easy... except with all those Powers, Fairies don't seem to stay in one Alliance for long. They tend to be... Fickle.

Round Details

Each round is played in five phases: A. Start Round, B. Fairy Lineup, C. Fairy Selection, D. Fairy Powers, E. End Round.

A. Start Round

It is the duty of the Court Crier to keep the ritual in order. Each round they start by revealing the Direction Token. Set the Court Crier Token to match the current Direction Token. The arrows indicate the direction to pass cards, and the direction for resolving ties (see Breaking Ties on page 8). The Court Crier also moves the phase token to ensure each round is completed accurately.

B. Fairy Lineup

Stack the deck for your neighbor (Simultaneous - all players)

Deal 3 cards to every player. Look at these cards and stack them in any order you choose. Place the stack of cards face down and in front of your neighbor, either to your left or right as determined by the current round token. Use the Fairy Lineup to outwit your neighbors by deciding the order your opponent will see their cards during Fairy Selection.

Anytime there are not enough cards in the Fairy Deck, shuffle the Dismiss pile and place it as the new Fairy Deck.

Diagram labels: Reorder; Stack Face-down and Pass.

C. Fairy Selection

Choose your Fairy for the round (Simultaneous - all players)

You will only choose one Fairy card per round, all others go to the Dismiss Pile. Players view Fairy cards one at a time and at the same time.

• Everyone looks at the first card in their stack, and chooses to keep it or dismiss it. To keep it, place it face down in front of you, and dismiss the rest without looking at them. To dismiss a Fairy Card, place it face down in the "Dismiss Pile."
• Everyone that dismissed the first card, looks at the 2nd card and chooses to keep it or dismiss it.
• Anyone that dismissed the second card, must keep the third card.

Place your chosen Fairy card face down in front of you. It will be revealed in the Fairy Powers phase. Any unchosen Fairy cards are put into the Dismiss Pile.

D. Fairy Powers

When you reveal your chosen Fairy card, add it to your Alliance, then resolve the Fairy Power. Everyone has chosen their Fairy Card, note the Favor value on your card.

Resolve Order: Players reveal their Fairy cards one at a time, starting with the highest Favor cards. The Court Crier moves the Phase Token to the "Favor 5" space, or calls out "Resolve Favor 5 Fairies" when using the Moon board. Reveal and resolve all Favor 5 Fairy cards. Once all Favor 5 cards are resolved, move the token to the "Favor 4" space. Once all Favor 4 cards are resolved, continue to resolve Favor 3, Favor 2, and then Favor 1 cards.

All disputes about rules or gameplay are decided by the current Court Crier.

Breaking Ties: When two players have cards of the same Favor value to resolve (Ex: There are two players resolving cards with a value of 3), they are "Tied for Favor." To resolve the order of tied Favor cards, start with the Court Crier, then resolve Fairy cards with tied Favor in the direction of the current round. (Ex: If the current round is to the right, the Court Crier has priority, then the tied player sitting closest to the right of the Court Crier resolves next.)

Active Power: When you reveal your card, place the Fairy into your Alliance. The Fairy Power is now "Active." You must now resolve Fairy Powers with a Direct effect or Chain effect if there is a valid target. Fairy Powers may target their own card as described. After the Power is resolved, set the card straight. It is then considered "Idle."

"Response" and "Delayed" cards stay Active until they are resolved. Place the card sideways so all players know the power is Active. If the card is taken or passed, and the Fairy Power is still Active, the new owner of the Fairy Card will gain the Power of the new card. When the Power is used, immediately turn the fairy card straight up to indicate the card is now Idle.

Refer to Power Types page 10 for special resolution rules for each Fairy Power.

Diagram labels: Active Power; Idle - Power Resolved.

E. End Round

After the last Fairy card is resolved, give the Court Crier token to the player who revealed their card last. This player is now the Court Crier. If this was the 5th round, complete end of game scoring. Otherwise, begin the next round.

Score

Total your Favor among the Fairy Families (Simultaneous - all players)

Scoring occurs only at the end of the game.

You are trying to gain the most Favor from all the Fairies, without overt bias toward any individual Family. Choosing the same Fairy Family each round is risky, as the other Fairies turn against you. Generally, the goal is diversity in your Alliance, but there is also a difficult, alternate way to score: Shoot the Moon with 5 or more cards of the same Family.

Note: Factions that have the score ability may contain exceptions to these scoring rules.

Score each Family set as follows:

• A single Fairy card of a Family scores its Favor value. (Example diagram value: 4)
• Two Fairy cards of the same Family score zero (0) Favor for that set of Family cards. (Example diagram value: 0)
• If your Alliance has 3 or 4 cards of the same Family, the highest value card in the set scores as negative Favor points for that Family set. (Example diagram value: -4)

Shoot the Moon: If you have 5 or more Fairy of the same Family, you Shoot the Moon. Dismiss all other Fairies in your Alliance, they do not impact your final score. Sum the total of all the cards from the single Family instead.

Example Score: 3 + 0 + 5 - 4 + 4 = 8.

If the winning score is tied, use the resolve ties rule to determine the winner; with the Court Crier going to the last player to resolve, then in the direction of the last Direction Token.

Power Types

Every card has an Icon on the bottom right to indicate the type of Fairy Power associated with that Family. These Power Types include rules that are an exception to the rulebook. Also use these Power Types to select Families and craft your favorite ways to play Fickle.

Direct Effect: The ability must target a Fairy card or player during the resolution of this Power (see Fairy Powers on page 7). Resolve the Power after you reveal the Fairy, when it enters your Alliance. After resolving the Power, the Fairy becomes Idle.

Chain Effect: The ability affects all the players. Start with the player that activated the ability, then resolve each player in the direction of the current round. If players must choose a card as part of the effect, everyone must choose before the chain resolution starts.

Response Effect: Cards with a Response Effect may be played in response to another player's action. You can play them out of turn, and even before the Response card is revealed during your resolve Fairy Power step. It will interrupt the current resolving Power and modify/re-target the effect. If played in normal sequence, place the Response card sideways into your Alliance to indicate the Power is Active. It may then be triggered at any point you choose. A Response card may stay Active between rounds, but it is immediately turned Idle when the power is used. Each card is a one-time use power.

Delayed Effect: Place the card into your Alliance sideways to indicate it has an Active Power to resolve in the next round. After the Delayed Effect is resolved in the next round, turn the card straight to indicate it is now Idle. If there are multiple Delayed Effects to resolve, start with the Court Crier, then resolve delayed effects in the current round direction. If an Active delayed effect card changes Alliance, it remains Active. The owner of the new Alliance will use the delayed power in the next round. Delayed effect cards revealed in the Fairy Power phase on the 5th round are not resolved.

Score Effect: Cards with a Score Effect have no "active" Power. Their special ability only happens during the end-game scoring, they have no other Family Power. When revealed, just add the card to your Alliance.

Miscellaneous Rules

Table Talk

You are building an Alliance of Fairy cards. But you will also need to influence other players to succeed.

Table talk is encouraged. Make vague agreements, imply favoritism. Use deceit when stacking Fairy cards for the other players. Be as tricky or direct as you choose. Of course, don't delay the game to do so, just drop a statement from time to time while playing.

• "Give me something good, and I won't use this on you."
• "Are you trying to trick me into taking something worse?"
• "I put the best card on top." (not really)
• "Don't target me, she's clearly winning right now."

Favor Values

Some global abilities refer to the highest or lowest value Fairy in your Alliance (Ex: Purge and Share). If you have more than one Fairy that matches the instructions of the Fairy Power, you choose which Fairy is affected. For targeted effects (Ex: Switch) the player who played the Fairy Power chooses which cards are affected.

When resolving play order in the Fairy Power phase, Pariah is negative (-), lowest and resolved after the "Favor 1" cards. For the passing of the Court Crier token when multiple players play Pariah, the most negative is considered to be the last player to resolve.

Recommended Sets

Any 5 Fairy Families can be played in a game. To ensure balanced scoring and card powers, avoid more than one Family of cards with the Score or Response type powers in a Fairy Deck.

Try these Fairy Family scenarios to discover the type of game that fits your Fairy friends:

• First Game - Noble, Coerce, Give, Dispel, Share
• Pariah Hot Potato - Pariah, Give, Share, Prestige, Psychic
• Royal Tea - Noble, Illusion, Familiar, Prestige, Pariah
• Turnabout - Reflect, Give, Switch, Prestige, Coerce
• Scorched Earth - Purge, Pariah, Scheme, Dispel, Transmute
• Dodge Ball - Share, Purge, Deflect, Switch, Dispel

The Family Powers (Alphabetical Order)

Blinded

Delayed Effect

Next round, during Fairy Selection you must choose to take or Dismiss the top card without looking at it.

• Do not look at your first card during Fairy Selection. If you choose the top card, dismiss the other two. If you dismiss the top card, you may look at the other two cards as usual.

Coerce

Direct Effect

Take a Fairy from an opponent's Alliance and put it into your Alliance.

Deflect

Response Effect

You may redirect one Direct Power directed at you to a different opponent, or avoid one Chain effect.

Dispel

Direct Effect

Take a Fairy from any Alliance and put it into the Dismiss pile.

• You may use this card to target itself.

Distract

Response Effect

You may replace any Fairy targeted by a Direct Power with this Fairy.

• Use to interrupt the Family Power of another player during their turn by replacing their targeted Fairy with your Distract Fairy card.
• Distract does not need to be a "valid" target, as long as the original intended target was valid.

Example: You have an active Distract(1) in your Alliance. A player uses a Switch on their turn to exchange their Share(4) with another players Noble(4). You may interrupt the exchange and replace the targeted Noble with the Distract(1). The Noble stays in its original Alliance. The Switch ability still occurs, but now between the Share(4) and your Distract(1). You receive the Share(4) and your opponent receives the (now idle) Distract(1).

Erase

Delayed Effect

Next round, choose any Alliance. Put their Fairy of highest value Favor into the Dismiss pile.

• Resolve this fairy power after the round direction is revealed, and before dealing the Fairy Selection cards for the round.
• If two or more cards are tied for the most Favor, you choose which one to target.

Familiar

Score Effect

Pair Familiar with another card to increase that card's Favor value.

Familiars don't score as a Family.

• Pair the Familiar card by placing it next to the card you choose to increase. They are now one card, of the Fairy Family card you chose.
• Two Familiar cards cannot be paired to the same card.

Example: If paired with Pariah card, it changes the value of that Pariah. Pariah(-2) and Familiar (+3) makes a Pariah(1). The Pariah card is then scored as usual.

Give

Direct Effect

Take a Fairy from your Alliance and put it into an opponent's Alliance.

Illusion

Score Effect

At end of game, choose to score each Illusion as a Fairy of another Family or score Illusion cards as a Family.

• Wild card family: Each Illusion card can be scored in the Illusion family or as any of the 4 other fairy families in the game.

Mimic

Direct Effect

Copy a Direct Power in any Alliance. Then resolve that effect targeting that same Alliance.

Noble

Score Effect

At end of game, the highest value Noble always scores as positive points for your Noble Family.

• Exception to the score penalty for multiple Fairies in set.

Example 1: Noble(2) and Noble(4) will score 4 Favor instead of 0.

Example 2: Noble(1), Noble(2) and Noble(4) will score 4 Favor instead of -4.

Example 3: Noble(1), Noble(2), Noble(4), Noble(1) and Noble(2) will Shoot the Moon and score 10 Favor.

Obsfuscate

Response Effect

When targeted, place target and one other Fairy face-down. Shuffle both. Opponent selects one as final target.

• Activate the Obfuscate fairy when you are targeted by another player. Take the fairy your opponent targeted and place it face-down. Then, choose any other fairy in your Alliance. Place it face-down. Now shuffle them so that neither player knows either card. Finally, the opponent chooses one card. That card is now that target of the opponent's action. Return the remaining card back in your Alliance.

Pariah

Score Effect

At end of game, the most negative value Pariah scores. If you Shoot the Moon (5+ cards), score all as positive Favor.

• Two Pariah do not score zero (0), score the most negative card instead.
• Pariah cards are always resolved last, -5 is the lowest card and last to resolve.
• For 5 or more Pariah, sum all and score them as a positive value. Dismiss all other families.

Example 1: Pariah(-4) will score -4 Favor.

Example 2: Pariah(-4) and Pariah(-2) will score -4 Favor.

Example 3: Pariah(-4), Pariah(-2) and Pariah(-1) will score -4 Favor.

Example 4: Pariah(-4), Pariah(-2), Pariah(-1), Pariah(-2) and Pariah(-3) score as 12 points.

Prestige

Direct Effect

Exchange any Fairy from your Alliance with a Fairy in an opponent's Alliance of the same Family.

Example: Exchange your Dispel (2) Fairy for your opponent's Dispel (4).

Psychic

Delayed Effect

Next round, view the first 2 cards in your Fairy Lineup before Fairy Selection.

• After the adjacent player gives you three face down cards for your Fairy Line Up, you may look at the top 2 cards. Place them face down again in the same order to begin the Fairy Selection round.

Purge

Chain Effect

All players take the Fairy of highest Favor in their Alliance and put it into the Dismiss pile.

Reduced

Delayed Effect

Next round, the top card of your Fairy Lineup is automatically Dismissed.

• Do not look at your first card during Fairy Selection. Dismiss it without looking at the card, then complete Fairy Selection as usual.

Reflect

Response Effect

After an opponent uses a Direct Power against you, copy that Power and resolve it as if you also played that fairy power.

• Only triggers if you or a card in your Alliance is targeted. Not triggered by Chain effect (Share, Purge).
• If the Reflect card is the target, you may use the Direct Power, even if the Reflect card is moved or dismissed.
• You can use the reflected Power against any opponent.

Scheme

Delayed Effect

Next round, take the Fairy of highest value Favor from an opponent's Alliance and put it in your Alliance.

• Resolve this fairy power after the round direction is revealed, and before dealing the Fairy Selection cards for the round.
• If two or more cards are tied for the most Favor, you choose which one to target.

Share

Chain Effect

All players take the Fairy of lowest Favor in their Alliance and simultaneously pass it in the direction of the current round.

• All players choose their lowest Fairy, and pass it. You can't pass the card just passed to you.
• If two Fairy are of equal value, like Dispel(1) and Give(1), the Alliance owner chooses which one to pass.

Switch

Direct Effect

Exchange a Fairy from your Alliance for a Fairy from an opponent's Alliance of equal value Favor.

• No effect if there isn't a valid target to exchange.

Example: You are resolving a Switch Fairy. You choose a Dispel(2) in your Alliance and Coerce(2) in an opponent's Alliance. Exchange the Dispel(2) for the Coerce(2).

Transmute

Direct Effect

Pick a player, dismiss their unrevealed Fairy. Add top card of deck to their Alliance, without resolving Power.

• The new card is drawn from the top of the Fairy Deck. This card is immediately placed in that player's Alliance in the Idle position. Do not resolve its fairy power.
• If targeted player doesn't have an unrevealed Fairy, they still add a new card into their Alliance.

Quick Reference

Setup

1. Place the gameboard at the center of the table.
   • Place the Mouse on "Start Round" if using the Learning side.
2. Randomly place 5 Fickle tokens on the board.
3. Select 5 Fairy Families to form the game deck.
4. Shuffle, then deal players 3 cards.
   • Discard one card to start the Dismiss deck.
   • Place the other 2 cards face up to start your scoring Alliance.
5. Determine the Court Crier.

Scoring

• 1 Fairy card of a Family scores its Favor Value.
• 2 Fairy cards score 0 Favor.
• 3 cards from the same Family score the negative value (-) of the highest Favor card.
• 4 cards from the same Family score the negative value (-) of the highest Favor card.
• 5 or more cards: you may add the Favor Value of all Fairies in that Family and dismiss all other Fairies in your Alliance (SHOOT THE MOON). If tied, use the Court Crier rule to determine the winner.

Round Summary

Start Round

• Reveal a Fickle token to decide round direction.
• Flip the Court Crier to match.
• Resolve Delayed Effects (if any).

Fairy Line Up

• Deal 3 cards.
• Players stack, then pass cards in round direction.

Fairy Selection

• Keep or Dismiss one card at a time, Dismiss cards to see the next card.
• Keep your chosen card in hand.

Fairy Powers

• Reveal and resolve Fairy Powers starting with Favor 5, then 4, 3, 2, 1.
• Resolve Ties starting with the Court Crier, then round direction.

End Round

• Give the Court Crier to the last Player to resolve Fairy Powers.
• Score cards after the 5th Round, or begin a new round.