Reventure: Orbtale
Reventure: Orbtale Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Rules Update (09/06/2021)
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Adventurer's Delight is now part of the base game
The expansion content (previously known as "Adventurer's Delight") has been included into base game. Due to the low-demand of the basic version, we've decided to merge everything into the "standard".
The Kickstarter pledge-upgrade paragraphs in the original notice are campaign logistics, not rules, and are omitted here.
In this first post-campaign revision of the rules, we've gathered a lot of feedback from you backers a playtested to improve and fix some of the issues we've found.
Here is a small diary of the latest design decissions:
- More epic endings: ending the game just finishing the treasure deck was predictable, kind of boring and a common source for ties, which are just so unepic for our standards → The treasure deck won't end the game any more, it'll just be reshuffled as many times as needed. You can now win just by activating all 4 orbs (more on this later) or by killing all other heroes.
- More useful orbs: even while we made the orbs abilities very powerful, the mechanic of losing them after unleashing their power proved to be just too much of a disadvantage to be worth most of times. Also, they often come into play late in the game and theyr are supposed to be the main feature or Orbtale → The orbs are now shuffled into the top half of the deck before the game starts, so they get into play faster than before. Also, they are now "activated" when used: place them next to your hero and you'll get a permanent boost like increasing your hand limit or the damage you deal.
- More legendary heroes: some of the heroes skills were very powerful, and others where just Ok. → Now, most skills have what you'd call "broken" combos under the right circumstances. We've also swapped some of the previous skills to better suited their corresponding heroes.
- More flavoured items: previously, all attack cards have what I call a flavour: "use this to deal damage". The "flavour" of the defense and strategy cards was not that defined → Now, defense cards are flavoured: "use this to prevent attacks, but get more exposed afterwise (since they go to your inventory after being used)" and the strategy cards are flavoured: "use this to get a huge strategic advantage if you take the risk of being damaged and succed (since they leave you vulnerable to attack cards)".
- More juicy loot: some items where just too context-dependent to be useful and were discarded >70% of times, while others where just too good to let pass. This also turned into almost empty inventories at all times → All lesser items have been boosted, so it will really hurt to discard them. Also, many items and chapter rules have been modified to encourage the use of the inventory.
- More intense combats: ties in combat are boring, and since inventory was rarely used, they were frequent → Ties will result into an additional round of combat, using the remaining cards on both player hands.
Components
Hero cards
They contain the different characters in the game. Each one has a unique skill.
Health tokens
Used to display the health state of each hero. A health token on its red side is called a "health container" and on its dark side it's called an "empty health container".
Whenever you are dealt any damage, flip one of your health containers to turn it into an empty health container.
If all your tokens are empty health containers your current hero is eliminated.
Treasure cards
They contain all kind of usable items that the heroes can pick up during their adventures. And also 4 orb cards.
There are four types of treasure cards:
- Attack (sword icon): these cards allow you to damage your opponents by dealing damage. They are the most common mean to defeat other heroes and they always go back to your hand after being used.
- Defense (shield icon): these cards allow you to defend against attack cards and grant you additional advantages like healing or drawing more cards, but they go to an inventory after being used.
- Strategy (map icon): these cards allow you to develop more complex strategies and must be discarded after being used. They work as high risk / high reward plays.
- Orbs (orb icon): collecting these is the main goal of the game. Whenever you play an orb, it becomes "active" and stays visible next to your character card, granting you a permanent bonus like healing, getting more cards... Be careful, they'll also attract the attention from the other heroes once revealed or activated.
Goal
Your goal is to gather the 4 legendary orbs that can grant any wish.
All 4 orbs are initially shuffled into the treasure deck, among all kinds of artifacts and weapons that will help you in your adventure.
You must collect the orbs either by drawing cards from the deck, defeating other heroes or stealing them using special cards and tactics.
Winning conditions
- You'll instantly win if you own all 4 orbs (in your hand, inventory or active).
- You also win the game if you defeat all other player heroes (hero reserves included).
Preparation
- Treasure deck: put apart the 4 orbs from the treasure deck. Shuffle all other treasure cards into a deck. Pick the top half of that deck and shuffle the orbs in that half. Then, put the half containing the orbs on top of the other.
- Inventory: each player draws 3 cards from the deck as their initial inventory.
- Current hero and hero reserve: each player receives 3 random hero cards and picks one as its current hero. The other 2 are placed facing down next to it on the hero reserve. All hero cards will be revealed simultaneously after all players have choosen which they'll use.
- Health: each player receives 5 health tokens (health containers).
- Turn token: a player designated at random (or the winner from the previous game) gets the turn token. It will be passed to the next player at the end of each chapter.
- Chapter decks: shuffle both chapter decks into two decks facing down next to each other so that they read "Orbtale" together.
Game sequence
Game start
The game takes place in semi-simultaneous turns called "chapters", each of them consisting in a specific sequence, detailed as follows.
Chapter sequence
Chapter start phase
Reveal a card from each chapter deck and place them on top of the previously revealed ones (if any). Read both cards together to announce the current chapter rule (this rule won't have any aeffect now, but it will be appliead at the end of the current chapter).
Exploration phase
Taking turns, starting with the player who has the turn token and advancing clockwise, each player draws 2 treasure cards from the deck and puts them into their inventories. If at any time the treasure deck runs out of cards, just reshuffle the treasures from the discard pile back into a new treasure deck.
Organization phase
All players must simultaneously build up their hands from the cards in their inventories by picking up to 3 cards from there. The rest of the cards in the inventory may be either kept there or discarded. The cards you choose for your hand will be the ones available to use on the combat phase, and the more cards you keep in your inventory the more penalty you will have when solving ties in combat.
Combat phase
Again, taking turns starting with the player who has the turn token, each player may decide to make an attack to another player (they may also choose to skip their turn). To do so:
- Pick another player as your opponent.
- Place one of the cards in your hand facing down on the table.
- Your opponent should do the same with a card from its hand.
- Reveal both cards and apply the following combat rules to determine the result.
Combat rules
When 2 cards are confronted, the outcome is calculated via a rock-paper scissors rule, following these priorities:
- Attack (sword): wins against Strategy.
- Defense (shield): wins against Attack.
- Strategy (map): wins against Defense.
- Orbs (orb): wins agains any other type.
Ties: if two cards are of the same type, the winner will be the player with less cards in their inventory. If both inventories contain the same amount of cards, a new round of combat must take place, with the remaining unused cards in both opponents' hands.
Cards played (over the table). Can't be played again, but are still considered part of the player's hand.
- When a player wins a round, the combat ends and the winner executes the text in the card they used.
- After a combat ends, both players return all played cards to their hands (unless otherwise specified).
- The combat ends. If one of the players was eliminated, it should put all cards on its inventory, including any active orbs, and the winner may steal up to 3 cards from there.
End of chapter phase
Read the current chapter rule again and apply its effects to any players meeting the criteria.
Then, apply any active orb rules (in the same player order you used this turn).
After that, if you were defeated but still have at least one character in your reserve, you will reincarnate at this phase. Pick one of the heroes in your reserve as your new character and restore your initial health (5 health containers). You may continue to play normally afterwise.
Every player puts all cards from their hand into their inventories.
FAQ
If The Mimic hero card (or any other with attached skills/hero cards) is transferred, does it keep its attached skills?
Yes.
If an orb is discarded by any means, place it instead on top of the treasure deck.
If both players are eliminated in combat, they both keep all their cards in their respective inventories for their next reincarnation. If they don't have any heroes left, they must discard all their cards instead (with the exception of any orbs, that should go on top of the treasure deck).