Page Quest SEASON 1: Mythical Artifacts Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Components
• Game Setup
• Basic Information and Rules
  • Character Card
  • Experience Points (XP) and Leveling Up Your Character
  • Accessories
  • Item Cards
  • Adventure Page
  • Die Activation
  • Exerting Character
  • Dice Preparation
• How to Play
  • 1. Movement Phase
  • 2. Ambush Phase
  • Combat
    • I. Analyze Your Enemy
    • II. Prepare to Fight
    • III. Fight
    • IV. Results
    • Example of Combat
  • 3. Action Phase
    • Actions
    • Rest
• Actions Available in the First Adventure
• Other Icons Description
• Winning and Losing
• Advancing Your Character
• Additional Game Modes
  • Single Adventure Mode
  • 2-Player Campaign Mode
    • Special Locations
    • Example of 2 Player Game
    • Winning and Losing (2 Players)
    • Advancing Characters
  • 2-Player Single Adventure Mode
  • 2 Players Joining Campaigns and Inviting Friends

Introduction

Each adventure has its own goal and you face the challenges and tasks in order to complete it successfully.

The rules below describe how to play the game in solo campaign mode where your character will play through the adventures in order, growing in strength along the way but encountering more dangerous enemies.

The rules for a 2-player game and information about how to play just a single adventure are described at the end of this rule book.

Components

To play this game, you will need the following components:

• 5 six-sided dice (d6). Ideally, 4 dice of one color and the other one a different color.
• 6 cubes or discs as markers.
• 1 figure of any kind or a coin that will be used as your character.
• Extra tokens to mark different things, 10 should be enough.
• A pen or pencil for making notes at the end of the game.

In addition, you will need to print out the PDF of the current adventure and the Adventure log.

Game Setup

1. Place the adventure page for the adventure you are about to play in the middle of the play area — this is the board that your character travels through during the game. If this is the start of the campaign, your first adventure should be Belize #01. Continue with the other countries in numeric order.

2. Place the report page for the current adventure somewhere close by — here you will find extra rules for the current adventure, its main goal, helpful information, and a place to check all the special things you can find on this adventure.

3. Take your character card — if you are starting the campaign, choose one from the available pool of characters. Further adventures in the same campaign will use the same character as you chose before.

4. Place one die to the left side of the adventure page — this die is the adventure die and it will be used for various things during the game.

5. Roll the other four dice — these are your action dice. You may then re-roll up to two of them (high values are better), but you must keep the result of that re-roll. Place the dice in the prepared dice area to the right side of the adventure page without changing the results.

6. Leave space above the adventure page for the used dice area.

7. Place the 6 markers on your character card on the appropriate spaces according to the starting values (these have a different outline around the value). These mark your starting values for Attack, Defense, Health Points (HP), Experience Points (XP), Accessories, Food.

   IMPORTANT! When playing in campaign mode, it is possible that the starting values will change. In that case place those trackers on the character card according to those changes. Sometimes also there will be an extra event that will change those values just for the next adventure; this should be taken into consideration right now as well.

8. Place your character figure next to the adventure page, just to the left of the first location. This is where your character will start this adventure.

Basic Information and Rules

Golden rule - All additional rules presented on the report page and the adventure page take precedence over any rules presented in this rule book.

Character Card

During the game, the markers on the character card track your character's statistics and things that you are carrying (like food and accessories). Whenever you are instructed to gain or lose something, you need to adjust the marker accordingly, moving it to the right if you gain something and moving it to the left if you lose something.

There are upper limits to your statistics and to the things that you can carry. This is shown by the total number of spaces on the card. For example, your character starts with 4 Health Points, but can have a maximum of 10. The only exception from that rule is XP as explained below.

You cannot lose something that you don't have. If a game effect causes you to lose 2 food and you only have 1 food, you lose that food but then ignore the loss of the second food.

Every character also has its own unique ability that can be used at any time during the game. If the ability can only be used once per adventure, place a token on it once used to show that it cannot be used again.

IMPORTANT! If your Health Points (HP) tracker is ever moved to the 0 space, the game ends immediately and the adventure is lost!

Experience Points (XP) and Leveling Up Your Character

Your character will receive experience points from different sources, but mostly from defeating enemies. Whenever your character has 3 XP and receives any more, the first point gained is used to move the marker from 3 back to 0 and your character has leveled up. Any additional XP is then recorded as normal, starting from 0.

For example: If you are on 3 XP and gain 2 XP, you will level up and the marker will be on 1 XP afterwards.

When you level up, choose one of the rewards depicted below the tracker.

Accessories

During the adventure, your character might find some useful accessories. Once per round, at any time, one accessory may be spent (move the marker one space to the left) to gain one of the rewards depicted below the tracker.

For example: Stephen Miles has 2 accessories. You could use one of them to gain either 2 HP, or prepare 3 dice (page 3).

Item Cards

Abilities described on items can be used at any time as long as the requirements for activation are met. Some abilities are one use only, and should be marked with a token once used to show that they cannot be used again.

Some item abilities also require accessories to be activated, for example Belay device or Rusty machete.

Adventure Page

Every adventure page is divided into 8 sections. Each section is comprised of 1 to 3 different locations, which your character will visit during the game.

To complete the adventure, you must travel through each location in order from the top left corner all the way to the location on the bottom right. To succeed, you must also complete the goal described on the report page.

When moving, you do so by moving your figure from one location to the next one from left to right. If you are already at the rightmost location on a row, the next time you move, you place it on the leftmost location of the next row.

Each location on the adventure card might have:

1. Number of the section
2. Enemy icon
3. Action icon - each location might have more than one local action available.
4. Movement cost icon

Die Activation

In many situations, like performing an action, you must activate a die. You can only activate a die from your prepared dice area, and once used, it is moved to the used dice area.

Sometimes, a game effect will also cause you to activate a die for no benefit. This means you simply move one of your prepared dice to the used dice area.

If you are required to activate a die and the prepared dice area is empty, you must exert your character. You get all of your used dice back when you rest (see page 4).

Exerting Character

At any time in the game, you may exert your character to prepare one die or re-roll a die in the prepared dice area. This is not an action and can be done as many times as you want during the game. Every time you exert your character, you lose 1 HP.

This is most often done when you need to activate a die and you have none in your prepared dice area.

Dice Preparation

When you prepare one or more dice, take them from the used dice area, roll them and then place them without changing the results back into the prepared dice area.

How to Play

The game is played over a series of rounds, and each round is divided into 3 phases, carried out in the following order:

1. Movement phase
2. Ambush phase
3. Action phase

This process repeats until you complete the adventure successfully or your character dies.

1. Movement Phase

In this phase, you must move your figure to the next location. In the first round of the game, simply move the figure from off the page to the first location in the top left corner of the adventure page. In later rounds, you move your figure to the next location on the right.

Most times, movement is free. But if the location that you started in has a movement cost icon X, you must activate a die with the value at least equal to the number presented on the icon to move.

Remember, movement is not optional. If you do not have a prepared die of the appropriate value, you must exert your character until you have a suitable die to be able to move. There is a possibility that you will be forced to exert more than once!

Example: You are in a location which has an icon showing a movement cost of 2. During the movement phase, the prepared dice area is empty. This means that you must exert yourself, losing 1 HP to prepare a die from your used dice area. Unlucky for you, the result of your roll is 1 which is still not enough to move out of your current location.

You have no choice but to exert your character once again. You lose another HP, and prepare another die, this time rolling a 3, which is enough to move.

Note that you could have chosen to re-roll the die with value 1 in the prepared dice area, but it is always better to prepare a die instead if there are any dice in the used dice area.

You activate the die of value 3 to move to the next location. You lost 2 HP, but you still have a die of value 1 that you might get to use soon.

2. Ambush Phase

If the location you just moved to does not have an enemy icon, skip this phase and proceed to the action phase.

Otherwise, you have encountered an enemy and must fight it in combat! If there is more than one enemy icon, resolve combat for each enemy starting from the top to the bottom.

Combat

This usually takes place in the ambush phase when you enter a new location, but other effects might also cause you to fight an enemy. Those effects will have the same enemy icon.

Combat is divided into 4 stages:

• I. Analyze your enemy.
• II. Prepare to fight.
• III. Fight.
• IV. Results.

I. Analyze Your Enemy

First, you must roll the adventure die to learn the power of your enemy. Modify the roll according to any modifier listed underneath the enemy icon.

Look up the final result on the enemy table on the adventure page; this is the basic statistics of your enemy. If there are no Attack and Defense values on the table next to the number you are looking up, your enemy instantly runs away and the fight is over; proceed to the action phase.

Note: If the modified value of your roll is lower than the lowest result on the table, just use the lowest result. Similarly, if the modified value of your roll is higher than the highest result on the table, use the highest result. This is true for every table in the game!

In some cases the enemy is predefined with a number on the icon. In these cases, skip rolling the adventure die and looking the result up on the table.

Some enemies have an additional ability printed next to their Attack and Defense. If you are fighting such an enemy, you must resolve this ability now before proceeding to the next stage. If the ability requires you to activate a die and you don't have one, you must exert your character so that you have the die you need.

II. Prepare to Fight

During this stage, you must choose a prepared action die to activate. Before you choose which die to use, compare your Attack and Defense with the stats of the enemy that you are facing. The value on the die you choose is temporarily added to both your Attack and Defense for this combat (don't move the markers on your character card).

Place your chosen die in front of you; only move it to the used dice area after the fight is over.

Remember, if you do not have an active die, you must exert yourself first.

III. Fight

Remember the basic stats of your enemy as determined in stage I and then re-roll the adventure die. The result of that roll is added to both your enemy's Attack and Defense!

IV. Results

Now it is time to check how the combat went. This stage is comprised of two steps:

1. The enemy strikes first! Compare the enemy's Attack against your character's Defense. If the Attack is greater than your Defense, your character loses a number of HP equal to the difference. If you are reduced to 0 HP or lower, your character has died and you immediately lose the game.
2. If you survived, it's time for a counter attack! Compare your character's Attack with the enemy's Defense. If your Attack is equal to or higher, the enemy is defeated and you gain your reward: Gain XP as shown on the enemy table for the enemy you fought. If your Attack is lower than the enemy's Defense, it runs away and you don't receive anything!

Example of Combat

Stage I: Your character is in a location with an enemy icon that has a +2 modifier. You first roll the adventure die and you get a value of 3; adding the +2 gives you a final value of 5 which you look up on the enemy table on the adventure page. The enemy you will be facing has a base Attack of 2 and its Defense is also equal to 2.

Stage II: You check your character stats which are: 4 Attack and 2 Defense. You have two dice left in the prepared dice area, values 2 and 3. You choose the one of value 3. This temporarily increases your Attack to 7 and your Defense to 5.

Stage III: You re-roll the adventure die and roll a 5! That means both the Attack and Defense of that enemy are increased by 5, giving it an Attack and Defense of 7!

Stage IV: The result of the combat is determined. First, you compare the enemy's Attack of 7 to your character's Defense of 5. This means you are wounded, and lose 2 HP. Thankfully, you had 3 HP remaining and are not dead, yet.

Now it's time for your counter attack. Your Attack is 7 and the enemy's Defense is also 7. That is just enough, and the enemy is defeated. As reward you gain 1 XP, as per the table.

3. Action Phase

During this phase you must either perform an available action or rest. To rest, you must spend one food (move the marker one space to the left on your character card). If you do not have any food, you cannot rest and must choose to perform an action instead.

Food is very important. Without it, you cannot rest, and resting is how you get your action dice back. If you run out of food, you will be constantly forced to exert your character, losing HP each time you do.

Actions

Each location depicts one or more action icons; these are the actions available to you when you are at that location. If you choose to perform an action and there is more than one icon, you can choose which action to perform, but remember, you can only do one of them. Most actions will require you to activate a die.

Description of the actions available in the first adventure with their icons can be found below.

Rest

There is no icon associated with resting; it is an available choice on every location. After you have spent your food to rest, perform the following steps.

1. Choose any number of your prepared dice that you want to roll and pick them up.
2. Pick up all of the dice from the used dice area.
3. Roll all of the dice you have picked up and place them in the prepared dice area.

Actions Available in the First Adventure

Considering the campaign aspect of Page Quest, we don't want to spoil anything you will face in the future. Below, you will find a list of the actions available in the first adventure only. Actions from later adventures will have those actions explained on the report pages or the adventure pages themselves.

HUNTING - Activate an action die of any value, apply any modifier shown next to the Hunting icon, and then look up the final value on the hunting table on the adventure page. Receive everything depicted on the table next to the value.

DETOUR - Activate an action die of any value, then roll the adventure die. Apply any modifier shown next to the Detour icon and look up the final value on the detour table on the adventure page to see what you found. The value on the action die you chose does not matter.

SEARCH - Activate an action die of any value and apply any modifier shown next to the Search icon. Look up the final value on the search table of the adventure page and choose one of the rewards that has the final value listed to the left.

TRAP - Activate an action die of any value. This action doesn't have any additional effect.

Note: This is an action that you would normally choose not to perform, but sometimes, you just have to. For example, the location you are on only has the Trap action available and you have no food so you cannot rest.

ANCIENT COIN - Activate an action die of any value. Place a token on the report page to indicate that you've picked up an ancient coin.

SPECIAL EVENT - Random events need quick decisions from you. Most of the time, the outcome of undertaking those actions is unknown until some point in the future. Fingers crossed it will be a positive one!

Special action - the names of these events and the rules for them can be found on the report page for the current adventure. An example of an event like this in the first adventure is search car.

MEDITATE - Choose an action die in the prepared dice area and set it to any value.

ARTIFACT - At this location, you must do this action; you cannot rest. Activate an action die with a value of 5 or 6 to pick up the named artifact. If you do not have an action die with that value, you must keep exerting yourself until you do, or die trying.

HEALING OINTMENT - Activate an action die of any value and spend 1 food to gain 2 HP.

Note: Activating a die that won't give you any benefits, like for example during a search action that wouldn't give any reward, can sometimes be a good strategy.

Other Icons Description

• Gain 1 Food.
• Gain 1 HP.
• XP: Gain 1 XP.
• Gain 1 Accessory.
• Increase your Defense by 1.
• Increase your Attack by 1.
• Enemy icon with a number X: Resolve combat with the enemy of value X from the table.
• Enemy icon with +X: Resolve combat with modifier X for the roll in the 1st combat stage.
• Movement cost X: During the movement phase, if you start in a location with this icon, you must activate an action die with value X.
• Re-roll a single die in the prepared dice area.
• Increase the value of all dice in the prepared dice area by one.
• Prepare 1 die.
• Activate an action die of your choice.
• This action is not locked out in 2-player mode.
• You cannot rest at this location.

Winning and Losing

You win the game if your character reaches the final location, survives, and you fulfill the goal described on the report page. If you win, congratulations! Transfer the information from your character card and report page onto the Adventure log, recording your stats at the end of the game, how many coins you picked up, etc.

Take the next briefcase and prepare yourself for the next adventure. If it isn't published yet, you need to wait for a while.

You lose an adventure if your character dies at any time or if you finish the adventure without fulfilling the goal described on the report page. In that case, you can try again and restart the current adventure or restart the whole campaign and choose a new character.

Advancing Your Character

After you finish the first adventure, if you won, you may advance your character as shown on the report page for the adventure you just completed.

Other than your advancements, you start each adventure with the markers on your character card on their normal starting spaces, i.e. you do not keep any adjustments to your stats, XP, Food, or Accessories, unless otherwise stated. However, it is important to record what your stats were at the end of an adventure for other reasons...

Additional Game Modes

Single Adventure Mode

You can choose to play any of the Page Quest adventures as just a single standalone game, without going through the story all the way from the start. You may choose any character and adventure and play for fun.

However, the adventures are created with increasing difficulty because your character will have a possibility to advance and get better starting stats the more adventures they play. Therefore, if you choose to play a single adventure without going through the campaign, you need to distribute some advancement points.

The number of advancement points you get is equal to 1 less than the adventure number.

Each advancement point can be used to increase either your Attack, Defense, or HP by one.

For example: You decide to play adventure #4. You get 3 advancement points that you can distribute in any way you like. You could add all of them to your starting Attack or you might want to split them evenly between all of the stats, adding 1 to each.

2-Player Campaign Mode

It is possible to play the game with 2 players. The changes are as follows:

You will need two printed copies of the game but only one adventure page will be used by both players.

You will need 2 extra action dice. The prepared dice area is a common area and both players will be activating dice from it.

You will also need 6 more markers and a second figure for the extra character. Some additional tokens will also be needed. Players mark their own progression on their individual report page.

Each player plays one character, which is set up in the same way as the solo game, and both figures start just off the adventure page as normal.

One player is chosen to be the starting player. That player will start by playing one full round. The next player will then play two complete rounds. From then on, each player plays two rounds each time it is their turn. Therefore, between the players' turns, the characters will be one location apart on the adventure page.

Each action in a given location can be used only once, meaning if one player uses an action, it is locked for the next player that would want to use it, unless the action has the "not locked out in 2-player mode" symbol. If you want to, you can mark a locked action with a token, and remove that token once both characters have moved past the location.

A player may pass in their action phase instead of resting or taking another action. To pass, a player still needs to activate an action die without any effect. Some situations may force players to pass.

Enemy icons need to be resolved by both players when they enter the location; it doesn't matter if one player has already defeated an enemy on that space.

The active player can only rest when both figures are on the same location. This means that, with the exception of the first round of the game, a player may only rest when taking the first of their 2 rounds.

Special Locations

Some locations have special actions, like for example the artifact location in the first adventure. These locations force players to do something specific. This special action is always done by the player who is the first to enter that location. The second player who enters that location is forced to pass.

Example of 2 Player Game

Jake is the starting player and he begins his round. He moves his figure onto the first location and performs the detour action, using one of 6 dice from the prepared dice area.

Now it's Agnes's turn to perform her two rounds. She starts by moving her figure to the same location as Jake's character. She wanted to use the detour action but cannot because Jake already used it. Instead, she performs the hunt action, activating a second die from the prepared dice area.

During her second round, she moves her figure forward and enters the next location. Here, she chooses the search action using another action die; 3 remain in the prepared dice area.

It's now time for Jake's two rounds. During his first round, he moves to the location where Agnes is. He considers resting as the prepared dice area is getting low on dice, but because he has only one food, he decides to use the hunting action instead.

For his second round, he starts from the location with the movement cost icon that has value 2 printed on it. There are only 2 dice left in the prepared dice area with values 1 and 3. He activates the one with the 3 to move to the next location. Now he's unable to rest because Agnes's figure is not in the same location. To avoid the situation where Agnes would need to exert her character to move next round, he uses the meditate action to change the value on the last die in the prepared dice area to a 6.

The game continues with Agnes playing two rounds, followed by Jake's two rounds, and so on.

Winning and Losing (2 Players)

The winning conditions are similar to the solo game: both players must reach the last location and must fulfill the goal of the adventure as shown on the report page. When the second player reaches the final location, they finish that round and then the game is over.

The game is lost if they didn't manage to fulfill the goal or one of the characters dies.

Advancing Characters

Each player advances their character separately according to the rules described on the report page.

2-Player Single Adventure Mode

You can play the game in single adventure mode by choosing any adventure both players agree they want to play. Combine both the rules of 2-player mode with single adventure mode.

2 Players Joining Campaigns and Inviting Friends

It is possible for 2 players who were playing the campaign mode separately to join together and start playing together. Both characters need to be at the same point in the story to do this.

It is also possible during a solo campaign to invite another player to join you between adventures. Instead of them playing the previous adventures to get to the same point in the story, the new character just advances their character based on the number of adventures they would have had completed to get to the point in the story where you are. For example, you have played adventures 1-3 solo but then decide to play adventure 4 with 2 players. The new character gains 3 advancement points.