Myths at War
Myths at War Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1.- Components
- Pantheon: this card sets the player's affiliation (any Mythology or neutral), his initial power and gives him abilities.
- Gods Deck: (Brown-backed cards) it must have at least 20 cards and contains characters, resources and events.
- Designs Deck: (Blue-backed cards) it must have at least 30 cards and contains actions and equipments.
- Tokens: (30 or more per player) they track Player's Power (P) and his Characters' Power.
2.- Winning the Game
There are two ways to win a game of Myths at War.
GOD OF GODS: After the Reorganization Phase, if a player has 30 or more (P), he wins the game. If more than one player have more than 29P, the one who most P wins. In the case of a tie, the game continues until one player wins.
OBLIVION: At any time, if a player has 0 or less P he immediately loses the game. If all players have 0 or less P, the player with less negative amount of P wins. In the case of a tie, the Initial Player wins.
Specific rules for more than two players (Multiplayer)
The game ends when there is only one player left. The player with more victory points wins the game.
GOD OF GODS: After the Reorganization Phase, if a player has more than 34P, he is eliminated and he wins as many victory points as half the number of remaining players in the game (counting half points too).
OBLIVION: At any time, if a player has 0 or less P, he is eliminated and the player on his right wins one victory point.
3.- Deckbuilding
To play a game of Myths at War, each player needs two decks. First of all, choose a Pantheon to set your affiliation, and then build both the Gods and Designs Decks.
Up to two copies of each card are allowed in a deck. Cards with the "God/Goddess" keyword or the "Unique" keyword are limited to only one copy. No more than two cards with the "Battle" keyword may be included in a Designs Deck.
Cards with a Mythology keyword different from your Pantheon's cannot be included in the Gods Deck nor the Designs Deck.
4.- Card Types
- Pantheon: It marks your "Pantheon" zone when the game begins.
- Characters: Gods, Heroes, Creatures, Humans, etc. They have their own Power pool.
- Resources: Places and domains that benefit their controller.
- Events: They represent events occurring during the game. They are resolved as soon as they are revealed in an oracle. These concern cards in pantheon or battlefield zones.
- Equipment: Tools, Weapons, etc. that can be attached to characters. They may modify the characters' stats and/or grant them abilities. Force and maximum power modifiers apply even if the Equipment card is Tired (Horizontal Position).
- Invocations: It is a kind of Equipment that can only be attached to characters with the "summoner" keyword. The invocation can't be attached to a Troop if its Maximum Power would fall below zero.
- Actions: Single use cards. They are discarded as they are played.
Card parts (character card): 1-Force (F); 2-Maximum power (MP); 3-Cost; 4-Keywords; 5-Ability; 6-Flavour Text.
5.- Playing Actions
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Abilities are actions printed on cards in play (Pantheon, characters, resources...). Abilities are only usable once per turn and if their card is Ready (Vertical Position).
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When the cards go against the rules, follow the instructions on the cards, not the rules.
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To use an action, the game must be in the indicated phase, the costs must be paid (Power cost and any part of the action's text written before the ";") and all the effects must be able to apply (if there is a choice, at least one must be able to apply).
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"INFLUENCE" actions can only be played by and only affect cards in the "pantheon" zone. The cost in power of these actions is paid from the Power Pool of the player playing it.
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"CONFRONTATION" can only be played by and only affect cards in the "Battlefield" zone, with the exception of resources. To play them, a player must have at least one character on the "Battlefield" or the action must move one of his characters there.
The power cost of the action is paid from the Power Pool of the Character performing it. If none of your Characters is affected by the card, pay the action from any Character on the "Battlefield".
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If any action refers to the card's name it is printed on, it always refers to that card even if there are other copies.
6.- Turn Sequence
6.1.- Game Setup
The Central Power Pool is created with tokens brought by all players (around 30 per player). Each player reveals his pantheon card, puts it into play, and takes as many tokens from the Central Power Pool as stated on his pantheon card to create his own Power Pool.
Each player shuffles his Gods deck and sets the cards one by one from left to right into 4 face-down piles which become the oracles.
Each player shuffles his Designs Deck and draws 5 cards to create his starting hand.
To determine the starting active player: each player takes tokens from the Central Power Pool and chooses secretly between 1 and 4 of them. All players reveal them simultaneously and add them to their opponent Power Pool.
The player who offered the most tokens decides who the active player is. In the event of a tie, the player with most P will decide. If the ties continue, the active player will be decided at random (rolling a die, or tossing a coin...).
Multiplayer
Seating order and the Active Player are chosen at random. The Active Player's Power Pool receives a number of extra P equal to the number of players. The next player's Power Pool receives one less extra P and so on.
6.2.- Transfer Phase
The active player takes the following actions, and then his opponent does the same.
A) The first card of each oracle is turned face-up, resolving immediately every event.
B) The player may discard one face-up card on his oracles without any power tokens on it.
C) The player may move Power tokens (these movements are called "transfers"):
- From the player's Power Pool to any face-up card of that player's oracles.
- From any face-up card of that player's oracles to the player's Power Pool.
- From any face-up card of that player's oracles to another.
The first player (the starting active player) has only 1 transfer. The second player has one more transfer and so on until a maximum of 5 transfers.
The player will be able to put into play any cards that have at least as many tokens on them as their Power Cost. If the card is a character, the power tokens remain on the card and become the character's power pool.
- Entering into play this way, the character will not keep more tokens than his Maximum Power. The excess goes to the Central Power Pool.
- Entering into play this way, a character that does not share its player's Mythology must lose one token. Neutral characters must always lose this token.
When Resources enter play, any tokens they may have go to the Central Power Pool.
6.3.- Influence Phase
In this phase, players take "INFLUENCE" actions alternately until all of them pass consecutively. The active player has the first opportunity to take one or pass.
Players have two special "INFLUENCE" actions:
- Equip: Any number of times per turn, a player may take an "INFLUENCE" action to attach an "Equipment" card from his hand to one of their characters paying its Power cost from that character's pool. A character may not have more than one weapon. A character may not have more than one armour.
- Meditate: Any number of times per turn a player may take an "INFLUENCE" action to bow one of his characters to have it gain two P (Gaining P always comes from the Central Power Pool).
6.4.- Confrontation Phase
This phase has 3 steps: Assigning, Confrontation and Resolution.
Assigning step: The active player may choose one of his ready characters in play and assigns it to the battlefield. Then, the other player decides whether to assign any of his ready Characters or not, and so on, until both players pass consecutively. Characters need to pay 1P from their Pool to be assigned to the Battlefield. Assigned characters go to the battlefield immediately. As opposed to the INFLUENCE phase and the CONFRONTATION step, a player who passes in the Assigning step can't assign any more characters.
Confrontation step: Starting with the active player, each player will have the opportunity to take "CONFRONTATION" actions or pass until all of them pass consecutively.
Resolution step: Each player will count the total force of his own army in order to know the difference between opposing sides.
- Ready characters count all their Troop force.
- Tired characters count half their Troop's force (add and subtract all bonus or penalties they may have, and then divide that result by 2. Always round down.)
- Exhausted characters or negative force troops do not count their Troop's force.
The player with lower army force loses the Confrontation Phase. If no cards with the "Battle" keyword have been played this turn, the loser removes as much P from his Power pool as the difference between the opposing sides' force.
Multiplayer
The starting player chooses another player to play the Confrontation Phase. Going in turn order from his left, the first player who has not yet played a Confrontation Phase this turn does the same (any player who has already played a Confrontation Phase this turn cannot be chosen twice). When all possible Confrontation Phases have been played, the Reorganization Phases start.
6.5.- Reorganization Phase
A) All characters are returned to their respective pantheon areas.
B) All possible active effects that don't specify duration are eliminated.
C) Remove all power tokens exceeding the maximum power of each Troop from their reserves, including characters in an oracle.
D) Remove all power tokens exceeding the cost of resources in an oracle.
E) Each player draws a card from the Designs Deck and puts it into his/her hand.
F) Prepare all cards in play.
G) The turn token is transferred to the player on your left.
Start a new turn.
7.- Glossary
To Exhaust: remove all P (power).
Battle: Action keyword. Limited to two battle actions in each deck. Battle actions only can be played if the player is able to resolve all effects should he lose.
To Tire: Bow the card to a horizontal position; a tired card can't use its abilities.
Created Card: Can't be included in decks, can't be added to an oracle. When a created card is destroyed, this card is removed from play. Their numbers are 0 unless the action indicate otherwise.
Battlefield: Game zone where the CONFRONTATION takes place.
To Control: When we take control of another player's card it's considered that it is ours. When the card is discarded or the control is returned to its original player, the card goes back to the same game zone where it was. At the end of the game we must always return all the cards to their owners.
To Copy: When we copy some element of the game we will act as if it was written on the card. If we copy an ability with a card's name in it we will be able to use it as if it was the name of our card.
Discard Pile: Game zone where discarded and destroyed cards go. There are two discard piles, one for each deck.
To Destroy: Send a card to its owner's discard pile. When a character is destroyed we also destroy all his equipment.
Army: Group of characters from a single player in the battlefield.
Confronted: A character is confronted when there is at least one enemy Character in the field of battle.
Environment: Keyword allowing the card cost to be paid by any or all performing Characters.
Exile: Game zone. Only usable if it's specified in a card.
In play: Card in the Battlefield or Pantheon zones.
Summoner: Character keyword that allows equipping summoning.
Mortal: Character without God/Goddess keyword.
Neutral: Affiliation without mythology affiliation.
Oracle: Game zone where the TRANSFERENCE phase occurs. If an action adds cards to the top of an oracle or changes the order of the cards we will lose the power points in it. When we place a card in an oracle we will put it always facedown. It is not possible to discard cards from oracles that contain power points on them. Whenever a player creates a new oracle, it must be created at the right of his rightmost oracle.
Passive: Non-specific phase text in cards, always active in Battlefield, Pantheon and Oracle zones.
Pantheon: Game zone where the INFLUENCE takes place. It is created by the pantheon card when the game begins. This card is always ready, can't be tired.
Permanent: Active effect until the end of the game unless another permanent effect cancels it.
Ready: Bow to vertical position.
Troop: Character and his attached equipments.