NOAH: Not Officially Authorized Heroes Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The NOAH System
• Setup
  • Enemy Box (applies to all boxes in the series)
  • Hero Box
• Goal of the Game & Game End
• Rounds & Turn Order
• The Enemies
• Gameplay
  • Anatomy of an Enemy Card
  • Anatomy of a Location Card
  • The Enemy Turn
• Reality Loss & Phases
  • Time Is Against You
• The Hero Factions
  • Health & Corruption
  • Energy & Abilities
  • Anatomy of the Action Cards
• The Hero Turn
  • 1. Play Action cards
  • 2. Recruit Agents & Upgrade Abilities
  • 3. Reset Your Energy Level
  • 4. Clean Up Action Cards
  • Example: Hero Turn
• Mercenary Cards
• Action Reference

The NOAH System

To play NOAH, you need the Hero Box and at least one Enemy Box!

NOAH is a full-fledged gamer's game in a pocket-sized package — compact enough for your backpack, versatile enough for hundreds of plays, none of which feels like the one before. We built NOAH from the ground up as a fully modular game.

Getting started is simple: all you need is the Hero Core Box with all the factions — and at least one Enemy Box full of Sleepers, just waiting to be unboxed. That's all it takes to get going.

After that, it gets dangerous. From the NOAH lineup, you choose your enemies yourself. In our shop, you'll find an ever-growing selection of Enemy Boxes, each of which plays completely differently. Every villain has its own way of terrorizing you, and its own Location cards with very special effects — sometimes annoying, sometimes deadly, never boring. That's how you dial the difficulty to whatever you're in the mood for: from "cozy game night" to "that was a damn bad idea."

And if that's still not enough: thanks to the "Mix & Match" system, all the monsters from all the Enemy Boxes can be combined any way you like. Aliens, clowns, and zombies in the same deck? Locations from three different boxes shuffled wildly together? Go right ahead. All the monsters get along famously — after all, they share a common goal: beating the crap out of you and your friends.

The result: nearly endless variety, difficulty made to measure, and a guarantee that no mission ever feels like the last.

Setup

Enemy Box (applies to all boxes in the series)

1. First, choose a mission. Its difficulty is marked by the dots along the right edge.
2. Take the indicated number of Enemy cards (blue, orange, red) and shuffle them together into one Enemy Deck.
3. Lay out the 4 Locations from left to right in the order given on the Mission card.
4. Draw the top 4 Enemy cards from the deck and place one face down beneath each Location. Then reveal the Enemy in the first position (far left).
5. Place the Reality Loss tracker next to the first Location and set the pointer chip to the starting space (icon).
6. Place all damage tokens in a supply next to the play area.
7. Set out the two Horror dice.

(Example Mission card: "After the blackout, rifts have opened up at the following locations, through which the horrors are invading reality: 1. Toronto, 2. Sydney, 3. Mumbai, 4. Casablanca.")

Hero Box

8. Each player chooses a faction and takes:

   • The matching Action cards (Agents)
   • The Faction card with the life points track
   • The faction's Ability card

   Faction: Each faction comes with a set of 14 unique Action cards, 1 Faction card, and 1 unique Ability card.

9. Lay out your Agents so you can see all your cards at a glance. Take all Agents with an energy cost of 0 into your hand. That's your starting hand. (Starting hand: All Action cards with a cost of 0.)

10. Place a red marker on space 8 of your life points track and a black marker on the 0 of the same track.

11. Now place one yellow marker on the first space of the Ability track and the other yellow marker on space 5 of the Energy track. (Energy & Ability: Each player starts the game with 5 Energy and begins on the first space of the Ability track.)

12. As the final step, shuffle the Mercenary cards and place them in a face-down deck. Reveal the top 4 Mercenary cards and lay them out in a row to the right of the Mercenary Deck. This is the Mercenary display (see the illustration on page 10).

Your Player Zone on the table should consist of the Faction card, Ability card, Agent supply (Action cards), hand, and a discard pile area (shown in the rulebook using the faction "The Silent Sentinels" as an example).

Goal of the Game & Game End

NOAH is a cooperative game. Together, you're trying to defeat the Darkness and take out all of its horrors.

The horrors are activated in 3 phases and descend on you. In each phase, you play as many rounds as it takes until either all 4 horrors are defeated or Reality Loss forces the phase to end (page 6).

You win the game if, together, you manage to defeat all 12 horrors by the end of phase 3. Should one of the participating factions be eliminated from the game (chapter: Life Points & Corruption), you lose the game immediately.

• Goal: Defeat all 12 horrors within the 3 game phases.
• End: If a faction is eliminated, you lose the game.
• Phase: The time — determined by the Reality Loss — you have to defeat 4 Enemies. 3 phases per game in total.
• Round: One full pass through the turn card deck.

Rounds & Turn Order

NOAH has a variable turn order determined by turn cards. At the start of the game and after every player or Sleeper turn, a new turn card is drawn from the deck to determine who goes next. A round is over when the turn card deck runs out. Shuffle it back together and start the next round by revealing the top turn card again.

Each round, the heroes always get 4 turns and the Enemies get 2. Assemble the turn card deck as follows:

• 1 player: 2x Enemy, 2x chosen faction + 2x free turn card
• 2 players: 2x Enemy, 2x each chosen faction
• 3 players: 2x Enemy, 1x each chosen faction + 1x free turn card
• 4 players: 2x Enemy, 1x each chosen faction

Note: If you want to make the game harder, use 3 Enemy turn cards instead of 2, regardless of player count.

The Enemies

The following section explains the basic rules for how the Enemies are played. Since you can play any Enemy Box from the NOAH lineup, you'll find any box-specific additional rules (and components) for those Enemies in their box.

In general, Enemies are played as follows:

• In each of the 3 phases, you face 4 Enemies.
• They form a row from left (1st position) to right (4th position) beneath the four Locations.
• That way, each Enemy is at home at one of the Locations. The Location has an effect and determines how much damage you have to deal to the Enemy before you stop taking damage from it (page 5).
• The Enemy in the first position (far left) is always face up. If a face-down Enemy slides into the first position, it must be revealed immediately.
• As soon as an Enemy is revealed, you must resolve any Reveal effect immediately (page 5).
• When an Enemy is defeated — that is, once you've dealt it at least as much damage as it has life points — its card is removed from the row and placed in the graveyard. All cards then slide one position to the left, and the frontmost card is revealed, unless it was already revealed earlier (by effects).

Gameplay

Anatomy of an Enemy Card

1. Health: Shows how much damage you have to deal to the Enemy to defeat it. Note: Health can be changed by Enemy effects or Location effects.
2. Damage: As soon as an Enemy takes its turn (see below), it deals its damage to all factions.
3. Effect: Every Enemy has an effect that triggers at a specific moment:
   • Eye icon: As soon as the Enemy card is revealed, the effect is resolved.
   • "1st": As soon as the Enemy card is in the 1st position (far left) of the row, the effect is resolved.
   • Tombstone (R.I.P.) icon: As soon as the Enemy is eliminated, the effect is resolved.
   • Infinity icon: This effect is an ongoing effect that lasts as long as the Enemy is face up and not yet defeated.
4. Reward: All factions receive this once the Enemy is defeated.
5. Type: Shows the Enemy's difficulty rating.

Anatomy of a Location Card

1. Effect: Every Location has a special effect that influences play with the Enemy stationed at that Location.
2. Damage: The Location also determines how much damage you have to deal to an Enemy so that it can no longer deal damage to you on its turn.
3. Recommended position: If you're playing your own "Freestyle" mission, this number tells you which position in the row this Location is ideally used in.

Note: By cleverly shifting the Enemies around (see Hero Actions), you can influence which Enemy is stationed at which Location — and with it, better manage the consequences of the Location effects, or turn them to your advantage.

The Enemy Turn

• When the turn card is revealed, it's the Enemies' turn.
• Take the two Horror dice (Reality Loss & Damage) and roll them once.
• IMPORTANT! Look at the Damage die (red) first. If the die shows the damage (starburst) symbol, the Enemies deal damage to all factions. To do this, add up all the damage of all face-up Enemies and reduce your life points accordingly.
• Enemies that have already taken as many damage tokens as their Location requires (see point 2 in the previous section) are out of commission and deal no damage to you.
• Outside of your turn, you can play Defense cards and Mercenaries with the matching (shield) icon to reduce the damage or prevent it entirely.
• Now look at the Reality Loss die. If it shows the Reality Loss (crescent) symbol, the pointer chip on the Reality Loss tracker is turned one space clockwise and the indicated effect takes place (next page: Reality Loss).

Reality Loss & Phases

Time Is Against You

Reality Loss is a ticking time bomb. Enemy effects and Enemy turns (page 5) push Reality Loss up. When that happens, turn the pointer chip one space clockwise and resolve the effects described there.

Once the dial reaches the next red space, that phase is over.

If you haven't defeated all 4 Enemies in the row by then, every faction suffers 1 Corruption point per surviving Enemy.

If, on the other hand, all 4 Enemies are defeated before the dial reaches the red space, you've done great work and can lay out the next phase. To do so, turn the pointer chip to the red space that ends this phase.

IMPORTANT! In both cases, the round ends immediately. That means you reshuffle the turn card deck, no matter how far you got.

Note 1: Certain Action cards let you lower Reality Loss and buy yourself some time (see the Action Reference).

Note 2: Every Enemy Box comes with its own Reality Loss. True to our "Mix & Match" principle, you can combine it with any other Enemy to raise or lower the difficulty. That said, it can absolutely happen that pairing one Reality Loss with the effects and fighting style of a particular Enemy turns the game into an unwinnable task.

The Hero Factions

Every hero faction is played with its own components, which you can identify by that faction's logo on the card back:

• 1 Faction card: Health & Corruption (the same for all factions)
• 1 Ability card: Energy & abilities (different for each faction)
• 14 Action cards: Agents that give you access to actions (different for each faction)

Health & Corruption

In this game, plenty of effects, actions, and above all damage dealt by the Enemies will cost you health or drive up your Corruption level. Health is shown by the red marker on the Faction card, Corruption by the black marker. Both markers sit on the same track, and if they ever land on the same space or cross each other, that faction is defeated and you lose the game immediately.

• Health > Corruption: OK
• Health = Corruption: Game end
• Health < Corruption: Game end

Energy & Abilities

Energy is the only "currency" in the game. You spend it to recruit Agents (Action cards) (page 8) or to move up the Ability track.

To advance on the Ability track, you can spend 2 Energy on your turn (page 8). There are different abilities you can unlock:

• Range: Determines which Locations you can attack. Range 1 only allows attacks on the Enemy in the first position of the row (far left). Range 2 allows attacks on Enemies up to the second Location, and so on.
• Boost: You can add +1/+2 or even +3 hits to any attack.
• Defense: From now on, you can always block the specified damage without having to play a card.
• Energy: Resets your Energy level to its previous value plus 1 during the third step of your turn (see page 8).

As soon as you reach the matching space on the track, you unlock that ability. If an effect ever forces you to move back past that space on the Ability track, you lose that ability immediately.

Anatomy of the Action Cards

Every faction has 14 different Agents that you can put into play as Action cards on your turn.

1. Every Agent can be recruited for the energy cost shown and taken into your hand.
2. The Action card has a base action that you can carry out when you play it (see the Action Reference on page 11).
3. Every base action can be upgraded by 2 effects:
   • By discarding another Action card, you can carry out the discard action shown instead of the base action. You don't get to carry out the action of the discarded card!
   • By taking on +1 Corruption, you can carry out an even stronger action instead of the base action. Sure, you're selling your soul to the dark power — but what you get in return is seriously powerful.
4. As a rule, you can play Action cards from your hand on your turn only. Some Action cards have an icon in the upper right corner and can be played outside your own turn — that is, during a fellow player's turn or the Enemies' turn.

The Hero Turn

When your faction's turn card is revealed, your heroes are up. The Hero Turn is played in 4 steps:

1. Play Action cards
2. Recruit Agents (Action cards) and/or upgrade abilities
3. Reset your energy level
4. Clean up Action cards

1. Play Action cards

Play Action cards from your hand. Where it makes sense, upgrade the action by discarding another card or by taking on Corruption (page 7). The cards you play are collected in a discard pile.

IMPORTANT! Those cards don't go back into your supply until step 4.

IMPORTANT! A single Action card with the Deal Hits symbol is called a HIT on other cards and effects, whereas several played Action cards of this type are called an ATTACK. Boosts, for example, are usually applied to attacks and not to single hit actions.

You don't have to play every card in your hand. Sometimes it's smarter to hold on to them for your next turn, or for an action outside your own turn.

2. Recruit Agents & Upgrade Abilities

Once you've carried out all your actions, you can invest Energy in new Action cards (Agents) and take them into your hand for your next turn. Keep in mind:

You can recruit as many Agents as your energy level allows, or until you hit the hand limit of 8 Action cards.

• You may only buy Action cards from your own supply. Cards you just played can't be used for your next turn!
• Subtract the matching cost from your Energy track.
• You can also spend 2 Energy to move up one space on the Ability track. You can do this as often as your energy level allows.

IMPORTANT! Unspent Energy is lost at the end of this step!

3. Reset Your Energy Level

Set your energy level back to 5 once you've recruited Agents and/or upgraded abilities.

Note: Depending on your progress on the Ability track, this value may be higher than 5 (see page 7).

4. Clean Up Action Cards

At the end of your turn, take all the Action cards you played from the discard pile and sort them back into your supply. That way they're available again for your turn after next.

Note: The Core Box includes a reference card that explains the 4 steps of the Hero Turn, so you don't have to look them up here every time.

Example: Hero Turn

Alex plays 2 "Calyx" cards and deals 2 damage to an opponent. Then she plays 2 "Vesana" cards, which allow her to charge energy. She moves the energy marker up 2 steps on the corresponding track. She does not play the third "Vesana" card or "Erevane"; she keeps them in her hand.

After playing her action cards, she decides to spend 5 energy to recruit the "Oryn" and "Noctavia" cards for her next turn and add them to her hand. She subtracts the corresponding energy from the track.

With the remaining 2 energy, she decides to move 1 step forward on the ability track. This unlocks the "+1 Hit" bonus.

Mercenary Cards

To pack more punch, the factions can bring in Mercenaries. Mercenaries can be recruited with the Action card (Recruit a Mercenary), through a Reward, or through effects.

• Every Location has a Mercenary at home, too, and that Mercenary can be recruited (see illustration). The first Mercenary in the display costs 1 Energy, the second 2 Energy, and so on.
• Once you've recruited a Mercenary, all the Mercenaries behind it slide one position to the left. Then you draw the top Mercenary card from the deck and place it in the last position of the display. Mercenaries can be played at any point during your turn to carry out their effect.

Mercenary card notes:

1. Mercenaries can be played at any point during your turn to carry out their effect.
2. Some Mercenaries have an icon in the upper right corner and can be played outside your own turn.
3. Once you've played a Mercenary, it goes on the Mercenary discard pile.
4. Some Mercenaries have an energy cost in the upper left corner. To play those Mercenaries, you have to spend that Energy first.

Once the last Mercenary has been drawn from the draw pile, shuffle all the Mercenaries from the discard pile into a new Mercenary Deck.

Illustration example: 1. Bruce takes the second mercenary card and pays 2 energy. 2. The third and fourth cards slide to the left. 3. Bruce draws a new mercenary card and places it at the end of the display.

Example Mercenary cards: Birdie (Deal 10 damage.); Drifter (Discard to reset the Reality Loss to the starting position of the current phase.); Bud (Hire a mercenary from the market for free.); Sparks (2x: Discard to deal twice as much damage to an enemy as they deal.)

Action Reference

• Deal Hits: Place as many damage tokens on one Enemy as the symbol shows.
• Charge up Energy: Move the energy marker up as many spaces as there are symbols on the card.
• Defense: During an Enemy turn, you can block as much damage as the symbol shows.
• Reposition: You can move one Enemy 1 Location to the right or left, swapping places with the Enemy stationed there.
• Spy: With this action, you can look at either the top card of the turn card deck or any Enemy that is still face down. The cards must then be turned face down again or placed back on top of the deck.
• Spy & Reorder: Unlike the "Look" action, you may move the card you looked at to any spot in the deck or in the row. Important: An Enemy card stays face down and can only swap places with another Enemy that is still face down.
• Ability: Take one "free" step up the Ability track.
• Lower Reality Loss: Move the Reality Loss pointer chip back one space counterclockwise.
• Increase Range (+1): Increase your range for one attack by the number shown.
• Recruit a Mercenary: Choose a Mercenary from the display and pay its cost in Energy.
• Recover health: Regain health points equal to the number shown.