Penny Arcade: The Game – Gamers vs. Evil
Penny Arcade: The Game – Gamers vs. Evil Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Types of Cards
The game uses the following card types:
- Hero Card — shows the hero's special ability and the starting deck cards that hero begins with.
- Gamer Cards (Green) — bought with Tokens. Each shows its abilities, its cost, and any Victory Points.
- Evil Cards (Red) — bought with Power. Each shows its abilities, its cost, and any Victory Points.
- Gamer Boss and Gamer Boss Loot — the Green Boss stack.
- Evil Boss and Evil Boss Loot — the Red Boss stack.
- PAX Pox — cards worth negative Victory Points that are forced into your deck.
- Randomizer Cards — red-backed cards used to choose the piles for an advanced setup.
Setup for Your First Game
1. Heroes
Each player is dealt a random hero from among the following: Gabe, Tycho, Annarchy, and Catsby.
Each hero card tells the player how many Quarters and Cardboard Tubes go into his or her starting deck. Some heroes' decks also start with a special card included. Shuffle the cards listed on your hero together and draw six cards. You will use these cards to buy more powerful cards to add to your deck, improving it as the game goes on. Quarters are used to gain new Gamer cards (Green cards), and Cardboard Tubes are used to subjugate the forces of Evil (Red cards)!
For example, Tycho starts the game with more Cardboard Tubes (seven) than Quarters (five) in his deck, and he has a special ability that gives him +1 Power each turn, so you may want to focus more on the Evil (Red) cards for him.
2. The Board
Set up the starting game board to match the image in the rulebook.
The top row contains the following Gamer (Green) cards, in ascending cost order: Baby Ninja, Merch, Sinestine: Bow of the Black Maiden, Faerie Candymancer, TouchWieners, Sorcelator, and Werewolf with a Top Hat. At the end of the row, place the Green Boss Cardboard Tube Samurai.
The bottom row contains the following Evil (Red) cards, in ascending cost order: Tiny Bat, Canid, Scrotuum, Fleshreaper, Giant Snake, Chaos World-Smasher, and Winter King. At the end of the row place the Red Boss Dark Tycho.
Finally, place the twenty PAX Pox cards and Deleted Cards at the bottom of the board.
3. Setting Up a Boss Stack
Each Boss stack is made up of three Boss cards (Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3) and eight Boss Loots.
Shuffle the eight Boss Loot cards and keep them face down, then make one stack of cards as follows. Place the Level 3 Boss face up on the bottom of the stack, with four Loots face down on top of it. Then place the Level 2 Boss face up with the other four Loots face down on top of it. Finally, place the Level 1 Boss face up on top of the stack.
Game Setup for Advanced Players
Once you have played a few games, try changing up the game board. For advanced setup, the game board always includes twelve randomly chosen stacks of cards plus Merch, Fleshreaper, a random Red Boss, a random Green Boss, PAX Pox, and Deleted Cards. That's eighteen piles total, just like in the beginner board that you used when you first played.
Pull twelve cards at random from the Randomizer deck to decide which piles you will be using. The Randomizer deck has red-colored card backs.
Lay out the piles that match the Randomizer cards in two rows (Green and Red) in ascending cost order, with the red-backed Randomizer cards face down at the bottom of each stack to indicate when that stack runs out. Remember, when six piles run out, the game ends. When you set up the board for advanced games, there does not need to be an equal number of Green piles and Red piles.
Finally, instead of just dealing out one hero at random to each player, deal out two, and each player chooses one of them to use for the game.
Gameplay
Randomly determine a player to go first. Each player begins by shuffling his or her deck and drawing six cards. Players take turns in clockwise order.
Your hand will typically contain an assortment of cards with special abilities. Some, like your starting Quarters and Cardboard Tubes, simply give you +1 Token or +1 Power, respectively. As you progress and add new cards to your deck, you will gain new abilities and accumulate more Tokens and Power. Cards can be played in any order, and their abilities take effect immediately.
Each turn, you may buy any number of Gamer (Green) cards from the board with combined cost (listed in the lower right corner) less than or equal to the number of Tokens you have for the turn. You may also buy any number of Evil (Red) cards from the board with combined cost less than or equal to the amount of Power you have for the turn. Cards you buy or gain are always placed into your discard pile unless you are instructed otherwise.
When you have accumulated enough Tokens or Power in a turn, you may choose to buy a Boss Loot. When you do, take the topmost face-down card from underneath the current Boss and place it in your discard pile, unless instructed otherwise. When the first four Boss Loots for a Boss have been bought, the Boss levels up and increases in cost! When the last Boss Loot is bought, the Boss levels up again, and there is one final Boss to buy before ending the game. Note that the Level 3 Bosses not only end the game when bought, but are also worth Victory Points!
Once you have finished your turn, place all the cards you played, bought, or otherwise gained this turn and any remaining cards from your hand into your discard pile, and draw a new hand of six cards. Any unspent Tokens and Power from cards played during the turn are lost. Then, pass the turn to the player on your left. You don't need to reshuffle your discard pile into your deck as soon as you run out of cards, but if at any point during the game you run out of cards in your deck and need to draw or reveal a card, immediately reshuffle your discard pile to refresh your deck.
Sample Starting Turn Sequence
After shuffling up your starting cards, you draw a hand of three Quarters and three Cardboard Tubes for your first turn. You may play the three Quarters for a total of 3 Tokens, which is enough to buy a Merch (3 Token cost), and put the Merch into your discard pile. You may play the three Cardboard Tubes for 3 Power plus the extra point of Power that Tycho gets each turn from his special ability, for a total of 4 Power. That is enough to buy a Fleshreaper (4 Power cost), which also goes into your discard pile. Once you have played and bought all the cards you want, discard the cards you have played and any remaining in your hand, and draw a new hand of six cards. Then, play proceeds to the player on your left.
Additional Rules
PvP Attacks and Defenses
Some cards allow you to make a PvP Attack against the other players in the game. When you play a card with a PvP Attack ability, each other player has an opportunity to block the attack with a card that has a PvP Defense ability. A player using a PvP Defense card's ability negates the attack only for that defending player.
Any players who don't block the attack are then affected by the attack card's ability. Blocking an attack does not negate any other abilities (like +2 Power) of a card, unless it specifically counts the players successfully hit by the attack.
Some PvP Attack cards force the attacked players to gain a PAX Pox card. If this happens, the PAX Pox cards are usually placed in that player's discard pile, effectively adding them to that player's deck. They have no ability during the game, but at the end of the game, each PAX Pox in a player's deck subtracts 1 Victory Point from that player's total. So try to avoid getting too many, unless you have a good plan for deleting them at some point!
Deleting Cards
Some cards have an ability that allows you to delete a card from your hand, your deck, or even the board. When you play a card with a delete ability, you may choose a card and place it in the Deleted Cards stack, permanently removing it from your deck and the game. You cannot delete a card that you have already played during a turn.
Gaining Cards
When a card tells a player to gain a particular card, that card is taken from the board and immediately placed in that player's discard pile, at no additional cost, unless otherwise directed by the card. If there are no cards left in the appropriate stack, you simply don't gain the card.
Green Boss Loots
The Green Boss Loots all have an ability that tells you to roll a 20-sided die. When you play one of the cards, roll a d20, and the card will have an effect based on what you roll. Note: If you roll a 1, you've FUMBLED your ability, and each other player gets to draw a card. But if you roll an 18, 19, or 20, you've achieved a CRITICAL, and you get a bonus to your Loot ability!
Resolving Card Abilities
If an ability of a card affects multiple players, and the order matters (for example, a PvP Attack that has each of three opponents gain a PAX Pox with only two remaining on the board), resolve that ability for each affected player in clockwise order, starting with the player who played the ability.
End of Game
The game ends immediately when one of three conditions is met:
- The Level 3 Green Boss is bought
- The Level 3 Red Boss is bought
- Six stacks of cards are depleted from the board. PAX Pox counts as a stack.
Then, players total up the Victory Points on cards in their deck. The player with the highest total wins and is crowned the Master Gamer! In case of a tie, the player with the most Boss Loots wins.
Specific Cards
Chaos World-Smasher: Players may use any PvP Defense card to block the attack, not just PAX Pox cards.
Deep Crow: You may buy this while there are no remaining PAX Pox cards on the board. If you do, disregard its ability. While in your deck, Deep Crow has no abilities.
Div: You can only use this card's delete ability to delete a Gamer (Green) or PAX Pox card. You can't use it to delete Evil (Red) cards. You don't have to use its first ability when you play it, and you can always choose to get +1 Power.
Faerie Candymancer: You do not have to delete a card in order to get +2 Tokens. You can delete any card, but only draw a card if you delete a PAX Pox.
Giant Snake: If you play this while there are no remaining PAX Pox cards, each opponent must choose to discard a card, since they cannot choose to gain a PAX Pox.
Jim Darkmagic: Jim's special hero power must be used before you take any actions or play any cards for your turn.
Magical Unicorn: If you use this card's first ability, set it aside before discarding and drawing. If you need to reshuffle your deck in order to draw six cards, do not reshuffle this card back into your deck.
Natural Twenty: The first copy of this card that you play multiplies the Token and Power value of another card by two. Each subsequent copy of this card multiplies the previous value by two again. For example, if you play two copies of Natural Twenty on Sorcelator, the Sorcelator is worth +4 Tokens and +4 Power, and if you play three copies, Sorcelator would be worth +8 Tokens and +8 Power.
Pickle Recognition Engine: Regardless of what you reveal, the card remains on top of your deck. If you reveal an Evil (Red) card or a PAX Pox, you get +1 Token. If you reveal a Gamer (Green) card, you found a pickle and get +5 Tokens. You may play multiple copies of Pickle Recognition Engine in a turn and get +5 Tokens for each if the top card is a pickle.
Psychic Cat, Hawkman with a Laser Gun, and Stone Yeti: If you choose to use this card's first ability, you do not get the +1 Token and +1 Power from the Quarter and Cardboard Tube you discard. You can always choose not to discard and just use the second ability to get +1 Token and +1 Power.
Scrotuum: The first copy of this card that you play simply gives you +1 Power. Each copy past the first gives you +4 Power. For example, if you play two copies of Scrotuum in a turn, you get a total of +5 Power from them, and if you play three, you get +9 Power.
TouchWieners: Regardless of how many copies of this card you have in your hand, you may only reveal one for each copy of this card played by another player, drawing one card. Players choose to TouchWieners in clockwise order starting with the player who played it.
Twisp: Catsby's special card Twisp simply copies all abilities of any other card played in a turn, including Tokens, Power, card drawing, and PvP Attacks. If the card would be deleted, then Twisp is deleted.
Contents
412 Game Cards:
- 10 Hero Cards
- 28 Cardboard Tube Starting Cards
- 28 Quarter Starting Cards
- 126 Gamer Cards (9 each of 14 different cards)
- 126 Evil Cards (9 each of 14 different cards)
- 6 Gamer Boss Cards
- 6 Evil Boss Cards
- 32 Boss Loot Cards
- 20 PAX Pox Cards
- 1 Deleted Stack Card
- 3 Unique Hero Starting Cards (Bat'leth, License to Kill, Twisp)
- 26 Randomizer Cards
1 20-sided Die