Rove
Rove Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- Allies: Standees (3), Ally Cards (4)
- Adversary Standees
- Round Tracker (1)
- Ether Tiles: Snapfrost (10), Everbloom (10), Wildfire (10), Windscreen (10)
- Trap Tiles: Magic (6), Adversary (10), Crumbling Column (6), Bursting Bell (6), Hatchery (6), Monstrous Growth (4)
- Other Tiles: Nektari Hive (4), Hoard Tile (8), Treasure Chest (4), Large Base Adapter (1)
- Defense Tokens (1/3), Damage Tokens (5/10), Reaction Tokens (4)
- Dice: Adversary Damage Dice (2), Ether Dice (40), Dim Dice (10), Ability Dice (1)
- Item Decks: Reward Deck / Ally Cards, Secret Stash Deck, Merchant Level 1 Deck, Merchant Level 2 Deck, Merchant Level 3 Deck, Merchant Level 4 Deck
Setting Up the Game for the First Time
If this is your first time playing Rove it's recommended that you play through quest 0, which the next couple of pages will walk you through. The encounters within this quest have been designed as a fun and easy way to learn the rules of Rove while playing the game. If this is not your first time playing the game you can skip quest 0 by leveling your Rover to 2, add the Merchant Level 1 deck to Mo and Makaal's shop, gain 30xR (lyst), and read Intermission - "Chapter 1" on page 12 of the campaign book.
Before we set up our first encounter of Rove, let's select which Rover you will play as: Dune Dancer, Flash, Shadow Piercer, Sophist, True Scale.
Roving, a Dangerous Profession
To be a Rover is to roam the wild lands of Chorus. You struggle to tame the lands around your clans and carve out a tenuous safety for all. All Rovers share a similar collection of tools to help them in this struggle. As a player you will take control of a Rover, and play through a narrative driven campaign to bring peace to the various clans that call Chorus home.
Each player will have to pick a class and open its corresponding box. The following pages contain a description of each basic class to help you decide what to pick.
Classes
True Scale
Rating — Complexity: 1/6, Melee Combat: 5/6, Range Combat: 1/6, Defense: 5/6, Support: 1/6
Kebrasska True Scales are powerful frontline warriors. The rasska with their four arms are a fearsome fighter capable of striking multiple foes at once, while the keb keeps their rasska bond mate safe from harm with their resilient shell and powerful mind.
You'll want to play this class if you enjoy front line combat, running interference for your team, and hitting back for as good or greater as you get.
Recommend Starting Items: 1 Stripped Blade, 1 Powdered Drakaen.
Flash
Rating — Complexity: 2/6, Melee Combat: 3/6, Range Combat: 6/6, Defense: 0/6, Support: 3/6
Starling Flashes are a roiling firestorm. The Flash is the rare starling that has aligned with two elements, fire and air. The mixed elemental nature of the Flash makes them chaotic and a poor fit for a more grounded lifestyle, so they often take to Roving where such power is a welcomed addition to any troop.
The opposing forces of fire and air make the Flash a powerful ally in combat. They can control the battlefield and support their allies with the might of a storm, or burn their enemies away with powerful flames. You should play the Flash if you wish to master ether, enjoy long range combat, and if you enjoy attacking a large number of enemies at once.
Recommend Starting Items: 1 Stripped Staff, 1 Powdered Drakaen.
Shadow Piercer
Rating — Complexity: 3/6, Melee Combat: 2/6, Range Combat: 5/6, Defense: 1/6, Support: 4/6
Tihfur Shadow Piercers are keen rangers of the forests and swamps who fight to keep their more feral nature in check. They have mastered their third eye, granting insight into the wilds of Chorus like none other. When pushed to their limits, or when instincts take over, the Shadow Piercer lets out their more bestial side.
Shadow Piercers have keen aim and assault their enemies from afar with their bow, however, when its time to go for the kill, the Shadow Piercer lets out their bestial side and dives into the melee with their powerful claws. If you enjoy powerful single target strikers, who can secure a kill when needed, you'll enjoy playing the Shadow Piercer.
Recommend Starting Items: 1 Stripped Bow, 1 Powdered Drakaen.
Sophist
Rating — Complexity: 4/6, Melee Combat: 2/6, Range Combat: 2/6, Defense: 4/6, Support: 4/6
The Zusag Sophist are a wily inquisitive bunch. With great alacrity, they have mastered the forces of Crux to manifest their thoughts into delightful fractals called glyphs. With their penchant to challenge every creature they meet to a game of wits, the Sophist makes for a powerful if not a peculiar ally.
The Sophist can create glyphs, which are tokens placed onto the map that affect units that stand within them. If you enjoy combat where positioning means everything, reacting to a constantly changing battlefield, and reposition the enemy to your advantage, you'll want to give the Sophist a try.
Recommend Starting Items: 1 Stripped Spear, 1 Powdered Drakaen.
Dune Dancer
Rating — Complexity: 5/6, Melee Combat: 3/6, Range Combat: 3/6, Defense: 3/6, Support: 3/6
The human Dune Dancer are powerful spell mages that are accompanied into battle with their faithful animal companions. Dune Dancers are consummate warriors and leaders, able to handle any situation with their deft use of blade, spell, and command.
The Dune Dancer is an easy class to play, but challenging to master. They enjoy equal parts ranged and melee combat, while they care about the positioning of their allies, and can summon war beasts onto the battlefield. If you enjoy high skill combat and leading your allies to victory, the Dune Dancer may be the class for you.
Recommend Starting Items: 1 Stripped Axe, 1 Powdered Drakaen.
Player Board and Class Components
A Rover is only as good as the equipment they carry. Open the deck labeled Merchant Level 1. The first 22 cards are stripped weapons, powdered drakaen and reference cards. Each Rover gets the previous listed weapon and a powdered drakaen. Return any unused items to the Merchant Level 1 deck and place the deck into its respective slot within the card deck tray.
Now that we have classes selected, let's go over the components in your class box and the player board.
Following are the components you'll find in a class box and where to place them in the player board.
Player Board: Several of the components we will discuss are slotted into the player board:
- A a space for your class profile board
- B four spaces to hold your ability tokens
- C a slot on the top left that represents your personal ether dice pool
- D a slot on the bottom left that represents your infusion ether dice pool
- E spaces to hold your trait tokens (you'll earn traits later in the campaign)
Class Board: Place this board into the large slot on the left side of your player board. On your class board you'll find:
- A your class name
- B your class symbol
- C a portrait of your class
- D the effects of your Aura and Miasma (these will be covered in more detail later)
- E your ether affinity (you'll reference this when dealing damage with an attack)
- F your maximum hit points
- G the maximum number of ether dice you can store in your personal pool or your infusion
- H the number of ether dice you start an encounter with
Ability Tokens: Place these four tokens into the four slots on the right side of your player board. Abilities form the foundation of what you do in any given round during combat.
Basic Skill Cards: These double sided cards are unique to each class and will form your starting hand. Skill cards come in three types; rally, rave, and react. Each starting class begins the game with 5 skill cards that are a combination of rally and raves, and 2 reaction cards where each side is a reaction.
You have both basic and upgrade skill cards. All skill cards for a class come in the same deck of cards, so be sure to separate the two. For now you can only use basic skill cards.
There's more to cover with skill cards, but that's enough for now. We'll discuss the actions found on skill cards in greater detail later.
Upgrade Skill Cards: These are more powerful skill cards that you will gain access to as you complete campaign milestones and level up. Upgrade skill cards have a star icon in the top corners of the card. For now these cards can remain in their class box.
Ether Field Tokens: Most classes have some access to the Aura and or Miasma ether fields. These ether fields represent the mind and body of the fighter that placed them, and so are unique to each character, which is why you'll notice your class icon in the center of the tile. There's more to discuss about these tiles, which will be covered in more detail later.
Creations: If you are playing the Sophist or the Dune Dancer, you'll find glyph tokens or summon standees in your class box, respectively. These classes have access to unique allies they can bring onto the battlefield. They will be discussed more later in the actions section of the book.
Standee: This represents your character on the map.
Set Up the First Encounter
- Open up quest box 0, and unpack the standees.
- Open the campaign book to page 4, Encounter 1, "Fling to the Hollow Gale."
- Place the codex book near the campaign book.
- Open the map book to page 3.
- Open the adversary book to page 2.
- Place the damage tracker to the left side of the adversary book.
- Place the token and tile tray to the left side of the adversary book.
- Place the adversary ability dice and adversary ability tokens near the adversary book.
- Place the galeling standees onto the map on the adversary markers. Double check the meeples on the adversary markers. Only place the galelings for the Rover count you are playing at.
- Place your class standee onto the map in a starting space of your choice. Only place one standee into an individual space.
- Place all ether dice, dim dice, and the two damage dice to the side within arms reach.
- Place the defense tokens to one side.
- Each player gets one hit point dial and one reaction token.
Throughout your first quest there will be page references to this rulebook. When a rule is referenced, flip through this book to better understand the nuances of how to play Rove. Start on page 4 of the campaign book, read the prologue and introduction to your first encounter, and continue from there.
Ether
Chorus is a magical world replete with elemental energies–referred to in the abstract as "ether." Categorized into six different varieties, in tandem all ether has had a profound outcome on the development of life across the entire world. For decades clans have worked to chart and thoroughly understand what effects ether produces and how to best utilize it.
- Water — Water seeks to connect. Much of Chorus relies upon the synthesizing properties of ice and water.
- Earth — Earth seems to always press. The safety of rock and soil protects, and nourishes, many.
- Fire — Fire wishes to consume. Its energies begets new strength.
- Air — Air desires only to move. Follow the winds and you will travel endlessly across Chorus.
- Crux — Crux must manifest. Some clans believe Crux to be the energy of the soul–that which is intangible.
- Morph — Morph will shape. Our bodies are at the mercy of its compulsive forces.
Ether Dice and Ether Pools
Ether forms a foundational concept in the game of Rove, as well as a major part of its game components. Following we'll explain the two types of ether dice, and the major game zones those dice are placed into.
Ether Dice: There are 40 of these six-sided dice. Each side of this dice has an icon for one of the six ether types. These dice represent the primary combat resource of the game.
Dim Dice: There are 10 of these six-sided dice. Each side of this dice has the same icon, a drained ether crystal. Dim is a typeless ether. While dim dice are a weaker resource than ether dice, resourceful Rovers will be able to find a use for them.
General Pool: The general pool is the out of play area where you place all ether and dim dice during setup. You can think of this as a dice bank. When Rovers generate ether dice, they are taken from the general pool. There should be enough ether dice included in the box that the general pool never runs out of dice.
Personal Pool: This is the area marked on the upper left side of the player board. Dice in the personal pool may be spent to play rave skill cards. At the end of their turn, Rovers check their ether limit. If they have more dice in this pool than their ether limit, they must discard dice until they no longer exceed their limit.
Infusion Pool: This is the area marked on the lower left side of the player board. Dice in the infusion pool may be spent to gain the effects of equipped items. At the end of their turn, Rovers check their ether limit. If they have more dice in this pool than their ether limit, they must discard dice until they no longer exceed their limit.
The Map Book
You'll find all the maps needed to play this game in this book. When you select which encounter to play from the Campaign Book, that book will tell you which page in the Map Book to open up to.
Map Icons
Starting Flag Icon: When starting a game, each Rover occupies one of the spaces marked with a flag icon.
Exit Space Icon: Some encounters will require you to occupy an exit space as part of the encounter goal. Exit spaces are marked with this icon.
Trap Icon: A trap tile is placed in this space. Find the corresponding tile and place it here. Example trap: Bursting Bells.
Enemy Icon: A white skull represents a minion; one Rover can usually take this adversary on by themselves. A white skull with horns is a mini-boss adversary; Rovers will have to focus their efforts to take this enemy on. A red skull represents a boss; these are the most difficult adversaries you will face and Rovers will have to pool all of their resources together to defeat them.
At the start of the game, enemies are placed into spaces with a skull icon. Each skull icon will have a letter to the right of it. This letter corresponds with an adversary statistic block in the adversary book. The campaign book will tell you which page(s) of the adversary book you are using for any given encounter.
Find the standee that matches the artwork of the adversary's statistic block, place the standee onto a stand, then place the standee into the space.
Not every adversary is placed at every Rover count. Next to minion skull icons will be 2, 3, or 4 meeples. The meeples represent at what Rover count an adversary is placed. If there are 2 meeples, that adversary is placed when there are 2, 3, or 4 Rovers present. An adversary with 3 meeples is only placed when there are 3 or 4 Rovers present, while an adversary with 4 meeples is only placed when there are 4 Rovers present.
Boss and mini-boss adversaries are always placed at all Rover counts.
Reminder Icons: To make sure certain special rules in an encounter are clear we use reminder icons to clearly label a space of importance. These icons have no inherent rules of their own, but the special rules of an encounter will point to these icons when relevant.
Terrain Key Terms
Following are several key terms that describe the state of a space.
Occupied: A space with a unit in it is occupied. Only one unit may occupy a space at a time.
Unoccupied: A space without a unit is unoccupied. Note: Barrier spaces are unique spaces. They are not considered to be occupied or unoccupied.
Empty: A normal space without a unit or tile.
Map Spaces
Rove is played on a hex grid map, with each hex referenced as a space. The spaces on a map will have color coded borders and an icon to denote what type of terrain they are.
Normal (Blank): Normal spaces do not have an outlined border. These spaces have no inherent rules and any unit can enter them.
Barrier (Black): Spaces with a black border represent a barrier of some sort and can not be traversed. Units cannot enter or occupy these spaces. Black bordered spaces block line-of-sight.
Open Air (White): White bordered spaces represent open air. Only flying units can dash or teleport into these spaces, while any unit can jump into them. Flying units can end their movement or teleport in these spaces, while units without flying cannot end any movement or teleport in these spaces.
Difficult (Blue): A space with a blue border represents difficult terrain that is challenging to move into. Units without flying that want to dash into these spaces must spend an additional movement point to do so. Units without flying that jump into difficult terrain ignore this effect. Units with flying ignore the effects of difficult spaces.
Dangerous (Red): Spaces with a red border are dangerous. The terrain rules of an encounter will explain the properties of these spaces, but often the effect will cause damage when entered.
Units without flying that enter into a dangerous space trigger its effect. Units without flying that jump into a dangerous space do not trigger its effects. Units without flying that end a jump or teleport in a dangerous space trigger its effect. Units without flying that end their turn in the same dangerous space they began their turn in, trigger its effect. Units with the trait ignore the effects of dangerous spaces.
Object (Yellow): Yellow spaces represent obstructions that block dashing movement. Units without flying cannot dash into these spaces or end any movement or teleport in these spaces. Units without flying can jump into obstacle spaces, but still can not end that jump action in an obstacle space. In this way, you can think of units without flying as able to jump over an obstacle, but those units can't jump onto that obstacle. Flying units can enter into and end their movement or teleport in object spaces.
Ether Node (Green): Ether nodes are special spaces. You'll notice that they have an ether dice icon on them. Before the game starts, grab an ether dice from the general pool, flip the dice so that the icon shown on the map book is face up on the dice, then place that dice onto the space. You'll find the effects of an active ether node detailed in the campaign book terrain section.
While an ether node has an ether dice on it, treat that space as an object space. Rovers can move to within 1 space of an ether node and spend a movement point to gain that ether dice from the node, adding it to their personal pool. Make sure not to flip the dice to a different face when doing this.
When an ether node no longer has an ether dice on it, the effects of the node are no longer active, and the space is now treated as a normal space.
Tiles
Tiles are varied terrain effects that are temporary. Once a tile has been interacted with, they are often removed from the map. No more than one tile may be placed into a space.
Traps: This tile represents a one time dangerous event. The terrain rules of an encounter will explain the effects of these tiles, but often this effect will cause damage. Any unit can trigger the effects of a trap. After a trap is triggered, remove it from the map.
Special Objects: Special objects follow the rules of objects and have additional features defined for them in the encounter's terrain rules. Often these rules will include hit points and which factions treat them as enemies or allies for the purposes of action targeting. Special objects can not be moved or teleported. If a special object is destroyed, remove it from the map.
Treasure Chests and Hoard Tiles: These are tiles that you can interact with to discover valuable treasure. The encounter terrain rules will explain what you need to do to retrieve these goods. Treasure chests will often require a key to be retrieved in order to be opened, while hoard tiles usually require a Rover to enter their space to loot them. Either way, once a treasure chest or hoard tile has been looted, they are removed from the map.
Ether Field: Ether fields are a subset of map tiles that represent one of the six elements. There's a wide variety of actions that Rovers or adversaries can perform that will place these tiles onto the map. Read up on the action section to better understand how these tiles are placed onto the map. Following are the various effects of ether fields:
- Aura (positive): The first attack a unit performs while occupying this space gains a benefit, then this tile is removed. The beneficial effect of this tile is determined by who owns it. If the tile is owned by a Rover, look to that Rover's class profile card, or if the tile is owned by the adversaries, the value is +2.
- Miasma (negative): The first attack a unit performs while occupying this space gains a penalty, then this tile is removed. The negative effect of this tile is determined by who owns it. If the tile is owned by a Rover, look to that Rover's class profile card, or if the tile is owned by the adversaries, the value is -2.
- Windscreen: A unit occupying this space that suffers 1 or more damage, reduce that damage by 2, then this tile is removed.
- Snapfrost: A unit that begins a movement action in this space, or attempts to move into this space, reduces that movement by 2 points, then this tile is removed.
- Everbloom: A unit that ends its turn occupying this space recovers 1. This tile persists.
- Wildfire: A unit that begins its turn occupying this space suffers 1. This tile persists.
Tile Placement: Remember, a space can only have one tile in it. Spaces with a special object, treasure chest, or hoard tile can not have an ether field or trap placed into them. However, spaces with an ether field or a trap can have an ether field or trap placed into them. In this case, remove the old ether field or trap before placing the new ether field or trap. What this comes down to is, ether fields and traps can be replaced by other ether fields or traps, while special objects, treasure chests, and hoard tiles are static.
Switching Maps in the Middle of an Encounter
Some encounters are of such a magnitude that you will switch maps in the middle of them. When this happens, the new map will have spaces noting where your Rovers will begin that map on. Your character's state is carried over from one map to the next. What this means is that your current health, skill card facing, ether dice in both your personal pool and infusion pool, your consumables, your reaction token, abilities, and so on maintain their state from one map to the next.
The Damage Tracker and Enemy Hit Points
Inside the box you'll find two damage trackers. These trays are placed to the left and right side of the adversary book and helps you track the damage that adversaries take.
The slots of the tracker line up with the statistic block of an adversary. Each collection of slots are numbered from 1 to 8, corresponding with the number found on adversary standees.
After damage is dealt to an adversary, grab a number of damage tokens equal to the damage dealt and place them in the corresponding slot that aligns with that adversary's statistic block and their standee number. When the damage in the slot equals the maximum hit points of the adversary, that adversary is slain and their standee is removed from the map.
Actions
This section will cover all the basic things Rovers and their enemies can do in the game. Player abilities, adversary abilities, and player skill cards will have one or more actions listed within them. Actions are discrete game events. What this means is that one action has to be completed before another action can be performed. Following are some key terms you'll want to know before reading this section:
Unit refers to any standee on the map, Rover, adversary, or otherwise.
Factions, enemies, and allies. The game has two primary factions, Rovers and Adversaries. Rovers and adversaries are universally enemies to each other. The various members of a faction are allies to each other. As you progress through the campaign you may encounter other factions that hold their own alliances or enmities with Rovers or Adversaries.
Actions can be positive, negative, or neutral. A unit that performs a positive action targets themselves or their allies with that action. A unit that performs a negative action targets their enemies with that action. If an action isn't labeled as positive or negative, then those terms aren't relevant to the action and it is neutral. For example, the movement actions dash and jump are neutral actions.
Dash
Dash is a movement action that grants a unit X movement points. That unit may spend any number of those movement points, including the number 0, to move one space for each movement point spent. A unit must enter at least one space to be considered having performed a movement action.
A dashing unit can enter into spaces occupied by their allies but not spaces occupied by their enemies. Units must always end their dash in an unoccupied space. All unspent movement points are lost when the dash action ends.
Example 1: You (Shadow Piercer) are performing a "Dash" 3 action. You spend one movement point for each space entered; entering three spaces and ending the dash action.
Example 2: In this position, the enemy (Nahoot) blocks your previous movement path. You move three spaces in a different path.
Jump
Jump is a movement action that grants a unit X movement points. That unit may spend any number of those movement points (including the number 0), to move one space for each movement point spent. A unit must enter at least one space to be considered having performed a movement action.
A jumping unit can enter into spaces occupied by either their allies or enemies, however units must still end their jump in an unoccupied space. All unspent movement points are lost when the jump action ends.
Teleport
Teleport is an action that removes a unit from the map, then that unit enters into an unoccupied space up to X spaces away from where it was removed. This action allows a unit to bypass many of the features of a map, to include barrier spaces that otherwise block normal movement. This is not a movement action.
Example: You (Flash) are performing a "Teleport" 3 action. You select an unoccupied space up to three spaces away, and place your Flying unit in that space; bypassing the barriers.
Flying
Flying is a unit trait and not an action, but it heavily influences how a unit moves around the map. Many adversaries have this trait. This trait allows a unit to fly over the battlefield avoiding many of its dangers.
A flying unit can enter into any space that is not a barrier and into spaces occupied by either allies or enemies. A flying unit must still end each of its actions in an unoccupied space.
Line-of-Sight
Before we get into the nit and gritty of actions that target other units, we need to quickly discuss line-of-sight. When a unit performs an action, they must have line-of-sight with the target(s) of that action. Only barrier spaces (black bordered spaces on the battle map) block line-of-sight. To determine if a performing unit has line-of-sight to their target, draw a straight line from the center of the space the performing unit occupies to the center of the space the target of the action occupies. If this line does not cross any part of a barrier space, then the performing unit has line-of-sight with their target.
Example: You (Flash) have line-of-sight to enemy A, but not enemy B, as the line to the target crosses a barrier space.
If a game effect increases the range of an attack by +1 and that action normally has a range of 1, that action now has a range of 1-2.
Push
Push is a negative action that allows the performing unit to force an enemy unit to move up to X spaces away. Each individual space the target unit enters must place them further away from the acting unit.
Pull
Pull is a negative action that allows the performing unit to force an enemy unit to move up to X spaces closer. Each individual space the target unit enters must place them closer to the acting unit.
When a Rover performs a push or pull, they decide the direction that the target moves. When pushing or pulling, the target must be pushed or pulled the maximum possible value for the selected direction. It is possible to push or pull a target into their enemies, objects, or other appropriate terrain feature, stopping the push or pull early.
The adversary logic section will explain how adversaries handle pushing and pulling their enemies.
Push and Pull can be effects of other actions, often attacks. When an attack with push or pull is resolved, if the target is still alive after damage resolution, it is moved following the above rules.
Note: Forced movements such as Push and Pull are not affected by difficult terrain spaces. Forced movement does not grant movement points, so there's nothing to adjust. Units forced into traps or dangerous spaces still suffer the effects of those spaces. This is because the triggering event for those spaces is a unit entering them.
Example 1: You (Sophist) are performing a "Push" 3, "Range" 1-3 action, targeting the enemy (Nahoot) adjacent to you. The enemy Nahoot is pushed for the maximum possible value, ending three spaces away from you.
Example 2: In this position, enemy B (Nahadir) blocks the direction of the push. The enemy A (Nahoot) is pushed one space away from you before stopping, as the next hex in the push direction is occupied by its ally B, ending the movement early.
Impact Damage
Units can be pushed or pulled into object, special object, or a barrier space, stopping the push or pull action early and causing the unit to suffer damage. If a unit targeted by a push or pull effect can no longer be forced to move due to impassable terrain blocking the chosen path, that unit suffers X damage, where X is the remaining push or pull distance that is blocked.
Note: Be aware that some units, most often adversaries, can have the flying trait. Flying units fly over objects, so these units can't be stopped short by these terrain features, however, flying units can not fly over barrier spaces, so try to push these units into black bordered spaces.
The edge of a map does not count as a barrier space, it is an unplayable space, but not necessarily a barrier space. Pushing a unit into the edge of the map will stop the push or pull early without causing impact damage. Similarly, units do not count as impassable terrain. Pushing a unit into their enemies won't cause impact damage.
Example: You (Sophist) are performing a "Push" 2, "Range" 1-3, "Target" 3 action, targeting the three enemies (Nahoot) in the chosen directions. Enemy A is pushed for the maximum possible value, suffering no damage. Enemy B can not be moved due to a barrier blocking the path, suffering two damage for the push distance that was blocked. Enemy C is pushed one space away before stopping early at the edge of the map, suffering no damage.
Falling
Adversaries can be pushed or pulled into an open air space. When an adversary without flying is pushed or pulled into an open air space, follow the rules for impact damage, however, there's a catch, no actual damage is dealt in this situation. If by following the rules of impact damage that unit would be brought to 0 hit points, then that unit is slain. However, if after following the rules for impact damage that unit is not brought to 0 hit points, then no damage is dealt, and the push or pull is stopped at the space just before the open air space.
In a narrative sense, if the push or pull that is affecting the adversary is strong enough to slay them with impact damage, it is strong enough to push them off the edge into the open air space, slaying them. If the push or pull is not strong enough, the adversary resists the forced movement, and suffers no damage as they teeter at the edge of the precipice.
Note: This rule only affects adversaries. This means any unit a part of the Rover faction, or a unit part of another faction, can not be slain by this rule.
Flying units can normally enter into open air spaces, and thus can be pushed or pulled into open air spaces with no other special considerations.
Example 1: You (Sophist) are performing a "Push" 3, "Range" 1-3 action, targeting enemy A (Nahoot) adjacent to you, pushing in the direction of the open air space next to it. Enemy A has two health points, is pushed one space away from you before stopping, as the next hex in the push direction is an open air space, and would suffer two damage; bringing it to zero health points and the enemy is slain.
Example 2: In a similar situation, enemy B has three health points. Causing the enemy to suffer two damage from impact damage would only bring it to one health point; not slaying the enemy and no damage is dealt as a result.
Melee Attack and Range Attack
Attacking is the primary negative action a unit will perform to slay their enemies. There are two types of attack actions a unit can perform, a melee attack or a range attack.
In many ways melee attack and range attack are the same action. A unit performing an attack action will select a target within the range value of the attack and then roll for damage, applying that damage to their target.
The biggest difference between the two actions is typing. Some effects, often the effects granted from items, will apply to either [M Attack] or [R Attack] actions. When this is the case, the specific attack type will be written out. It is possible for certain game effects to affect all attack actions. If this is the case, no specific attack type will be listed, and "attack action" will be listed.
Before we can discuss how to resolve dealing damage to the target of an attack action, we need to discuss certain properties of attack actions.
Range: Range is a property that most actions have. When a unit performs an action, the target of the action must be within the range value of that action. The printed range value of an action is explicit.
For example, actions often have a range value of 1. This means the target of the attack can only be 1 space from the performer.
While actions typically have a range value given as a range of numbers, such as 2-3. This means the target of the attack must be either 2 or 3 spaces away from the performer.
The +X effect increases the maximum range value of an action, while the minimum range of the action stays the same.
A typical heal action might have a range of 0-3, which means the action can target the performer or one of its allies from one to three spaces away. A heal action could have a range value of 2-3, meaning the action can only target allies that are two or three spaces away from the performer.
Example: You (True Scale) are performing a "Damage" 2, "Range" 2-3 ranged attack action, targeting one enemy (Nahoot) within range. Enemy A is two spaces away, being within the listed range of the action and can be targeted with the attack. Enemy B is one space away, not within the listed range, and can not be targeted with the attack.
Target: Actions with the X property can target up to X different units within the action's range. Actions without a listed X property have an unlisted 1 property. Regardless of the target value of an action, any individual action can not target the same unit more than once.
The +X effect increases the target value of an action. Because all actions have a target value, even if that target value is the unlisted 1, most actions can benefit from the +X effect. All other range and target selection restrictions still apply.
A melee attack action can have a range value of 1 and a target value of 3. This action can target up to three enemies and all of those enemies must be one space away from the performer. Continuing, a range attack action can have a range value of 2-3, and a target value of 2. This action can target up to two enemies and all of those enemies must be two or three spaces away from the performer.
Example: You (True Scale) are performing your "Strike" ability. Normally, you can only target one enemy with the ability. Using your "Stripped Axe" item effect, you gain +1 target, so now you can target both enemies!
Target Pattern: Units performing an action with a target pattern must select their targets from within the pattern. There are a few different rules that govern target patterns.
- Gray Space: A gray space is the space the performing unit occupies.
- Red Space: A red space targets the enemy of the performing unit.
- Black Space: A black space is a blank space and is used as a visual indicator between other types of spaces. In other words, units that occupy a black space of a target pattern are unaffected by the action.
- Primary Space: Target patterns that do not have a gray space will have a red space marked with a primary space indicator. The primary space of a target pattern must be placed within the range value of the action. Only the primary space of a target pattern must be within line-of-sight of the performing unit.
There are some interesting things you can do with target patterns that have a primary space indicator, such as you can target units that are behind barrier spaces and normally out of line-of-sight. Further, where ranged attacks can not normally target enemies that are within 1 of the performer, careful placement of a target pattern might be able to get around this restriction. Actions with target patterns come with a X property, often written as "X enemies / allies within." Only the listed number of targets may be selected from within the target pattern.
Actions with target patterns can benefit from +X effects, but remember, targets can only be selected from within the target pattern. There's no benefit if X exceeds the number of hexes within a target pattern. Target patterns can be rotated and flipped freely.
Example: You (True Scale) are performing your "Sweeping Cleave" skill. The three enemies A, B, and C (Nahoot) are all valid targets.
Example 1: You (Dune Dancer) are performing your "Ice Blast" skill. You place the primary hex of the target pattern on enemy A (Nahoot) within range, allowing you to target enemy B that is out of line-of-sight behind the barrier.
Example 2: In a similar situation, you place the primary hex of the target pattern on enemy B (Nahoot) within range, allowing you to target enemy A that is within 1 of you.
Damage: Along with the range and target property of an attack action, there are several other factors that can modify the damage of an attack. Attack actions will often target multiple units. Damage resolution will have to be followed for each target of an attack action.
The Damage Dice: The damage dice is an 8 sided dice. Six of the sides have one of the six ether icons, while the two remaining sides have the Dim icon. For each attack performed, the damage dice is rolled. Compare the face up icon to the attacking unit's ether affinity, and apply any +X or -X values to the damage value of the attack. A damage roll of Dim always equals +0.
Damage Resolution: Reference the following list to fully resolve the damage of an attack:
- All damage augments and penalties, such as +/- effects.
- Roll the damage dice and modify according to the attacking unit's ether affinity.
- Reduce the damage of the attack by the target's defense value.
Once all modifications have been applied, the target suffers the resulting amount of damage, decreasing their current hit point value. These steps are repeated for each target of an attack action, which means it is possible for different targets to suffer different amounts of damage from the same attack action. When all damage and effects are resolved against all targets, the attack action is resolved.
Effect Resolution: Attack actions will often have additional effects. Broadly speaking, these effects fall into the categories of:
- Push / Pull
- Ether Field
- Other effect
After the damage of an attack has been resolved, the effects of an attack are applied to the target in the order listed above. If an attack has a push or pull effect, that is applied to the target, then any ether fields are placed into the space of the target of the attack, and then any other effects are applied. The other effect category is purposely broad. If an attack has multiple other effects, the players get to determine in what order those effects are applied.
Other actions, such as heal actions, can have additional effects as well. Follow the above guidelines to resolve those additional effects.
Ether Fields
Rovers have actions where placing an ether field is the primary function of the action. These actions can be positive or negative, depending on the nature of the ether field being placed. With these actions the ether field can be placed anywhere on the map within the range of the action, but positive ether fields can't be placed into spaces occupied by an enemy, and negative ether fields can't be placed into spaces occupied by an ally.
Many actions will have an ether field icon as an effect of that action. Place an ether field of the type noted in the action into the space of each unit targeted by that action.
Defense: The defense action is a positive action that gives the target X defense tokens. A unit increases their defense value equal to the number of defense tokens they have. Defense tokens are removed at the beginning of a unit's turn. X can be an effect of other actions, often heals.
Ignore Defense: Ignore Defense is an effect of attack actions and not an action itself, but this is a good time to discuss it. An attack with this effect ignores the defense value of the target during damage resolution. Try to use attacks with this effect when targeting enemies with a high defense value. Be careful though, enemies can sometimes have this effect on their attacks as well, nullifying your sources of defense as a result.
Heal: The heal action is a positive action that allows the target to recover an amount of damage equal to the X property, increasing their current hit point value by X. A unit's current hit point value can not exceed their maximum hit point value. A unit whose current hit points equals their maximum hit points can still be targeted by a healing action, but a Rover whose current hit point value is 0 cannot be targeted with a heal action.
Suffer and Recover Damage: Certain effects will cause a unit to suffer or recover damage without requiring an attack or heal action be performed. Suffering damage ignores the defense of the target, and is not modified by the damage dice. Effects that ignore sources of damage can ignore suffering damage effects. The target of a suffer damage effect decreases their current hit point value by the amount of damage suffered.
Similar to suffering damage, certain effects will recover the damage suffered by a unit. The target of a recover effect increases their current hit point value by the amount of damage recovered.
Revive: Powdered Drakaen is an important item that allows you to perform the revive action. This is a special heal action that can only target downed Rovers, increasing their current hit point value by X, removing the downed state. A recently revived Rover acts normally and can still take their turn during the Rover phase. You'll want to make sure to bring a couple of Powdered Drakaen items with you during an encounter just in case.
The Downed State
The roving profession is dangerous and Rovers can be downed during play. A Rover enters the downed state when their current hit points are reduced to 0. Flip the downed Rover's standee upside down, or the mini onto its side, to represent them as out of the fight. A downed Rover still occupies their space, but cannot perform actions, use items, or otherwise act. If all Rovers are downed, the encounter is failed.
Forced Actions
Some Rover abilities can grant an enemy unit a forced action. The Rover performing the ability controls the forced action. If the forced action is a move, the Rover gets to move the target as they please following all the normal rules for the action. If the forced action is an attack, the ability will describe the properties of the attack, written from the perspective of the unit that will perform the forced action. During damage resolution of a forced attack, use the ether affinity of the unit that is forcing the action.
Generate Ether: When the wild ether icon appears, usually on rally skill cards or certain items, you get to add a random ether to your personal pool. To do this, grab an ether dice from the general pool, roll it, then add that to your personal pool to the left side of your player board. Sometimes you may have an icon that looks like the face of the dice: in this case, you get to add the ether shown to your personal pool. To do this, grab an ether dice from the general pool and flip it to the face shown on the generate icon, then add it to your personal pool.
Trade: This neutral action allows Rovers to trade ether dice. When a Rover performs this action, they can trade any one of their ether dice from their personal pool with one ether dice from the personal pool of another Rover. The two Rovers must agree to this trade.
Creations: Creation is an action category that describes anything a Rover can place onto the map. This includes placing traps, glyphs, or summons.
Traps: This is a pretty straightforward creation. Some actions allow you to place traps, just like the ones discussed in the terrain features section earlier in the book. The action that places the trap will explain what the trap does and if there are any special triggering conditions. If a Rover can place a trap, they will have several trap tiles in their class box. Some adversaries can also create traps. There is a generic trap tile for adversaries that create traps. There's no limit to the number of traps that can be created, but there is a limit to the number of trap tiles included in the box. If there are no trap tiles available when a trap needs to be created, a previously placed trap tile of the same type of trap is removed from the map first before the new trap is placed.
Glyphs: Rovers can create glyphs, which are tokens that you can place onto the map for additional effects. As a reminder, tokens do not occupy the space they are in. A unit can occupy the same space as a glyph. Glyphs have one additional restriction; a single space can't have more than one glyph in it. Think of glyph tokens as semi-permanent areas of effect the Rovers often can interact with in interesting ways.
When a glyph is created, the token can be placed into any space within 0-1 to the creator. Glyphs come with a glyph card, which explains their passive effect: A Glyph name, B Token limit, C Passive effect. These passive effects often include an effect that is triggered when a unit occupies its space.
If there are no glyph tokens available when a glyph needs to be created, a previously placed glyph token of the same type of glyph is removed from the map first before the new glyph is placed.
When a rover becomes downed, all of their glyphs are removed from the map.
Summons: Summons are allied units under the control of the Rover that brings them into battle. When a summon is created, they are placed into an unoccupied space within 1 of the summoner. If a Rover can create a summon, they will have standee(s) and a summon card for that summon in their class box. A summon can only be summoned if a standee is available for it. Summoned allies have a summon card that has their maximum hit points, traits, if any, and one or more abilities with an ability name: A Summon name, B Maximum hit points, C Traits, D Ability name, E Abilities, F Class icon.
For example, the Dune Dancer during their turn summons their Curious Ardorok. Immediately, the Dune Dancer commands the ardorok to perform their Sharp Beak ability, which contains a dash and an attack action. The ardorok moves and attacks the Dune Dancer's target, then the Dune Dancer completes their turn, performing any remaining abilities they may have.
When a summon attacks, they use the ether affinity of their controller to determine damage done. Summons are units, they can be targeted by actions like any other unit, and if they are brought to 0 hit points, they are removed from the map.
When a rover becomes downed, all of their summons are removed from the map.
Summons act during their controller's turn, including the turn they are brought onto the map, under the complete direction of their controller. When a summon acts, it is a discrete turn. What this means is the summon must act out their entire ability before the controller can act again. For most summons they only have one ability on their summon card and this ability usually contains a movement action and an attack action.
Skill Cards
Where abilities form the foundation of what you do as a Rover, skill cards are where your power shines. Here we're going to cover the various elements of a skill card. You have the name of the skill card, if there is a subdued star the card is a level-up card, if there is no star, it's a basic skill card, the card icon, the skill type icon, ether cost, if any, the class icon, the actions of the skill, action separator icon, action flow icon, augment block, a preview of the card that is on the other side of the card including it's skill type icon, name, and finally the flip icon as a reminder:
- A Skill name
- B Card icon
- C Level-up card icon
- D Skill type icon
- E Ether cost
- F Class symbol
- G Action(s)
- H Action Separator Icon
- I Action Flow Icon
- J Augment Block
- K Preview of other card side, its skill type, and card icon
- L Flip icon
This is a good time to remind you that there are three types of skill cards. There are rally, rave, and react skill cards. Rallies and raves can be paired with each other in several ways, while reacts are only paired with other reacts. Generally speaking, you will play rally skill cards to generate ether, the rave skill cards you play will spend that generated ether for powerful effects, and you'll use reacts to respond to the changing battlefield.
Along with the actions within the body of a skill card, there are a few other icons you'll want to be aware of.
Ether Cost: Rave skill cards require ether to be spent from your personal pool in order to be played. The cost for these skill cards will show one or more wild ether icons, meaning a number of ether and or dim dice equal to the number of wild ether icons must be spent from your personal pool to play the skill card.
Some raves are so powerful that an additional cost may need to be paid before they can be played. For example, in order for the Shadow Piercer to play their transformation raves, they will have to spend an ability activation. To do this, you must be able to move an ability token from its ready position to the used position. Remember, a Rover can only activate two abilities each round.
Action Separator: This symbol indicates that different actions can be performed, with no further dependencies. Actions are performed in order, from top to bottom.
Action Flow: This symbol indicates that the preceding action must be performed for the following action to be performed.
Augment: This field indicates an augment for an action that can be earned. Augments are written as "condition/cost: bonus." The condition or cost on the left side of the colon must be met to gain the bonus.
Ether Check: Some actions will have a chance to be augmented, and this is often done with an ether check. When you see the ether check icon, this is an augment that can be earned if specific ether is spent when the skill card is played. Each augment of a skill card must be met individually with its own dice. You can not use the same ether die to activate more than one augment.
Drain: Some Rover actions allow you to drain the ether type from a non-Dim dice for an augment. When an ether dice is drained, return that dice to the general pool, then take a Dim dice and add it to your personal pool. If there are no Dim dice available in the general pool, the element may still be drained, but no Dim dice is gained.
Flip: When a skill card is played, you flip it over revealing a new skill to be played in subsequent rounds. This is the normal play for most skill cards, however, some skill cards have special flip instructions. These special flip instructions follow the same formatting as actions and appear as the last action of the card. Special flip instructions often ask you to flip another card in your hand that has a matching card icon.
Example: To play the rave skill card 'Coordinated Assault' from the True Scale class requires the player to spend three ether dice. If at least one of the three ether dice spent is a Fire dice, the melee attack action gains "Push" 1. If at least one Morph dice is spent, the range attack action gains "Ignore Defense." If you are able to spend both a Fire dice and a Morph dice when playing Coordinated Assault, then you will gain the benefits of both augments. After performing the skill, flip the card over to the rally skill 'Settling Groundwork.'
Items
The equipment a Rover carries can have a profound effect on their success during their career. Fortunately, your adventure will not necessitate frequent trips back to outposts to resupply, as early on you will encounter Mo and Makaal ("M&M" for short) who will offer their expertise once they have been recruited. Mo is a starling crafter that hails from a clan dominated by keb rasska; a being of ether is even more sensitive to the effects of ether-infusion and this elevates their craftship. Makaal is a human merchant that has refined his ability to judge both people and product; he will ensure your group is always given a fair price for necessary wares.
Lyst is a common form of fungible currency across Chorus, and is what you will use to trade with M&M. These small, calcified chunks of raw ether have a variety of uses, but are most commonly used in the production of tools (or armaments) that are capable of channeling ether for empowered effects.
First, let's discuss the different properties of item cards. Items cards have a name, equipment slot icon, a lyst cost, a timing statement, an infusion cost (if any) to be used, and an effect.
Equipment
- A Name: The name of the item.
- B Equipment Slots: Rovers can equip 1 head item, 1 body item, 1 foot item, 2 hands worth of weapon items, and 4 pocket items before starting an encounter. A Rover can own any number of items, but because of the limited equipment capacity, owning more items than can be equipped may not be useful.
- C Lyst Cost: The amount of lyst that you need to spend to gain the item from the store. When selling an item, gain lyst equal to half of the lyst cost of the item, rounded up.
- D Timing Statement: Items come with a timing statement that describes when the item can be used.
- E Infusion cost: Items will look a lot like rave skill cards, costing ether dice to invoke, and even have augments that can be earned when specific ether dice are spent. Unlike skill cards, there is no limit to the number of items you can use in any given round.
- F Effect: This is the effect earned when infusion cost is spent. The effect of an item is written below the timing statement. Items effects are formatted just like unit actions are.
Exhausting Equipment: Equipment can only be used once each round. When a piece of equipment is used, flip the card 90 degrees, to represent that it is exhausted and can't be used for the remainder of the round. During the start phase of a round, you will flip all exhausted items vertically, indicating they can be used again.
Consumables
Almost all pocket items are consumable items, noted with an icon in the lower right hand corner of the item. Consumable items are usually cheaper to purchase than equipment, often don't require infused ether to use, and are one time use. When you use a consumable item, flip it face down as an indicator that it's been used. When an encounter ends, if you won the encounter, return any items you've consumed to the store, however, if the encounter was lost, you keep any consumed items and can immediately flip them face up.
Consumable Limits: You can only own one copy of a consumable item at a time.
Infusing and Infused Ether
We've discussed previously how each player has a personal ether dice pool and an infusion ether dice pool. We know that players can place ether dice into their personal pool by generating ether, often by playing rally skill cards. When you infuse ether dice from your personal pool, usually to play a rave skill card, you place the infused ether dice into your infusion pool.
You can then spend ether dice from your infusion pool to gain the effect of an item. When you spend ether from the infusion pool, return those dice to the general pool.
In this way, there is a life cycle to ether dice. You generate ether dice by playing rally skill cards, adding ether dice from the general pool to your personal pool. You then infuse ether dice from your personal pool to play rave skill cards, moving those dice to your infusion pool. Finally, you spend the ether dice from your infusion pool to gain the effects of an item and return those spent die to the general pool. In this way, it's not best to sit on your ether dice, but to generate them and spend them regularly.
Mo and Makaal Shop Inventory
Mo and Makaal's shop inventory initially consists of just the merchant level 1 cards. In between encounters, you may buy and sell items from M&M's shop inventory.
To buy an item, select the item you wish to purchase, deduct its lyst cost from the campaign sheet, and take the card from the shop inventory and add it to your personal supply.
To sell an item, select an item from your personal supply, add half of its lyst cost (rounded up) to the campaign sheet, and move the card from your personal supply to the shop inventory.
As you progress through your adventure you will earn items from the reward deck. You can sell these items to M&M, adding them to their shop inventory. You will also reach milestones in the story where you will be instructed to open the other merchant level decks and add them to M&M's shop inventory.
Adversaries
Adversaries are the primary enemy faction you will be fighting throughout the Rove campaign. Let's first cover the different elements of the adversary book.
Each adversary has a portrait, name, typing, maximum hit points, ether affinity, trait block, ability blocks each with their own name, and action track. The top right of each page is the quest chain and encounter where you'll encounter these adversaries:
- A Adversary portrait
- B Adversary name
- C Maximum hit point value
- D Ether affinities
- E Trait Block
- F Ability block
- G Ability name
- H Ability track
Threat Level: The type of skull indicates how deadly the enemy is. Most Rovers can take on a one skull enemy by themselves. A horned skull enemy usually indicates a powerful mini-boss threat. A red skull enemy is a boss and all Rovers will have to work together to slay it.
Ether Affinity: Just like Rovers, when an adversary attacks, the damage dice is rolled and compared to that unit's ether affinity to determine how damage is modified.
Ability Track: At the beginning of an encounter, place an ability token in the left most space of the ability track. As the game progresses, the ability token moves along the ability track with a roll of the adversary ability dice, changing what ability an adversary performs during a given round. If an ability token would advance off of the ability track, it is instead placed back on the left most space.
Primary Action Logic
In Rove adversaries follow a simple and intuitive logic to drive their actions, eliminating the need for players to control the enemies. Generally speaking, adversaries have four different primary actions they want to perform; single-target attacks, multi-target attacks, single-target healing, and multi-target healing. Each action follows a different logic that explains who the adversary wants to target with the action.
- Single-target attacks: Wants to target the closest enemy. If there are two or more enemies tied for closest, the adversary wants to target the closest enemy with the most hit points. If it's still ambiguous, the players get to decide who is targeted.
- Multi-target attacks: Wants to maximize the number of targets attacked. If the maximum number of enemies that can be targeted is 1, follows single-target attack logic instead.
- Healing: Wants to target self or the ally with the most damage, that is within range. If there are no damaged units within range that can be healed, it will heal itself.
- Multi-target Healing: Wants to maximize the number of damaged targets healed. Will target the closest units at maximum hit points if there are not enough damaged targets. This is because the heal action might still place ether fields in the space the target unit occupies.
If there is ambiguity as to how an adversary will act, such as multiple valid spaces an adversary could move to, multiple valid targets, and so on, the players make the choice how the adversary acts.
Movement and Primary Action Logic: Often primary actions are preceded by a movement or teleport action. Adversaries use this movement or teleport action to fulfill the logic of the primary action that follows. They want to spend the fewest number of movement points when moving or teleport the shortest distance required to fulfill their logic.
When moving, adversaries treat dangerous terrain and traps as difficult terrain, treating them as costing an additional movement point to enter. In this way, adversaries prefer to avoid entering into difficult and dangerous terrain and traps. When an adversary could enter into one of these terrain features or enter into a normal space to execute their primary action, they prefer to enter into a normal space over a space that costs more movement points. By following this logic, adversaries will generally avoid difficult and dangerous terrain, and avoid traps, however, if there is a situation where entering into one of these terrain features is the only way an adversary can execute their primary action during their turn, they will do so.
Special Logic: Sometimes adversaries will follow logic outside of what is described here. In those cases, the special logic is written within the adversary ability block, usually before any movement action explaining what this adversary is prioritizing with their move and follow on primary action.
Retreat: This is special logic applied to a movement or teleport action. An adversary that retreats wants to maximize their distance from the greatest number of enemies they can. Because this special logic usually is counter productive to primary actions, movement actions with retreat logic are usually the last action within an adversary's ability block.
Adversary Pushing and Pulling: When an adversary pushes or pulls an enemy, they want to maximize damage. What this means is, they will try to move their target into as many dangerous terrain spaces, traps, or into object / barrier spaces to exploit the impact damage rules as they can. If the adversary can't move their target to cause damage, this forced movement becomes ambiguous and the players get to decide how the target is moved.
On Advance: The actions after the On Advance indicator are delayed and are not performed with the other actions on the left side of the indicator. When the ability token advances from this ability block, the adversary then performs all actions listed after the On Advance indicator.
Example 1: The enemy (Zinix) is performing its "Iron Jaw" ability, targeting the Flash A or the Sophist B. Both rovers are two spaces away from the enemy, but Sophist current hit point value is higher. The enemy moves and attacks Sophist B.
Example 2: The enemy (Ashemak) is performing a "Damage" 1, "Range" 2-4 action, targeting the Flash A or the Sophist B. Sophist current hit point value is higher than Flash, but is not within the listed range, and can not be targeted with the attack. The enemy attacks Flash A, as that unit is the only valid target within range.
Example: The enemy (Wrathbone) is performing its "Tailbone Sweep" ability. Wrathbone wants to maximize the number of targets. Flash A is adjacent to the enemy and is a valid target for the attack. The other rovers and allies would be within range after moving towards them, allowing the enemy to attack more targets. The enemy moves two spaces and attacks Shadow Piercer B, Dune Dancer C, and Curious Ardorok D.
Example 1: The enemy (Onisski) is performing a "Recover 2", "Range" 0-3 heal action, targeting itself or the ally (Zinix) with more damage. Onisski has suffered no damage. Zinix B has suffered more damage than Zinix A, but is not within the listed range, and can not be targeted with the heal. Onisski heals Zinix A instead.
Example 2: The enemy (Nahadir) is performing its "Ariose Incantation" ability. Nahadir wants to maximize the number of targets. The ally (Zinix), self and one ally within range 0-5, is within the listed range, and can be targeted with the heal. Nahadir heals both of them.
Adversary Standees and Quest Boxes: Adversary standees are stored in quest boxes. A quest box contains all the adversary standees you will need for the quest you are about to take on. In this way, as you progress through the campaign you will unpack the standees that you need, making overall storage easier. When you are done with a quest, it is good to place all the adversary standees for that quest back in its quest box.
Large Adversaries: Some adversaries, most often bosses, occupy four spaces at once, otherwise these adversaries follow all the same rules that were discussed previously in this section.
When a large adversary moves or teleports, use its primary hex to more easily determine which spaces they are exiting from and entering into.
Remember, large adversaries occupy four spaces at once. Each space they enter must follow all the other terrain feature and unit rules discussed previously in this book. For example, if a large adversary doesn't have the flying trait, none of the hexes they occupy can be an object space.
Another reminder, the effects of dangerous and difficult terrain trigger when a unit enters them. It's possible for a large adversary to transverse the same space and not trigger it. This is because you can only enter a space that you do not currently occupy.
An attack action can only target a unit once. This means multi-target attacks that target a large adversary can only attack that adversary once. When attacking a large adversary, or when a large adversary attacks you, evaluate the action from the closest space. For example, ranged attacks often can't target a unit that is within range 1. Conversely, a large adversary attacks from the space closest to you. So, if a large adversary is performing a ranged attack, again which usually can't target enemies within range 1, and you are adjacent to that large adversary, they won't be able to target you.
Example 1: The enemy (Ahma) is performing a "Dash" 2 action, moving towards A. With the first movement point, Ahma enters two empty spaces. With the second movement point, Ahma enters two spaces with dangerous terrain; suffering one damage for each dangerous space entered, and ending the dash action.
Example 2: The enemy (Ahma) is moving one space. Ahma is already occupying a space with a dangerous space. Entering the depicted spaces, a different space of their large body will occupy the dangerous terrain. Since the Ahma did not leave the dangerous terrain space fully, it does not suffer any damage (the dangerous terrain effect will trigger if the Ahma still occupies the space at the end of its turn.)
Example (Targeting Large Adversaries) 1: You (Flash) are performing your "Tempest" skill, targeting the enemy (Ahma). You place the primary hex of the target pattern on the enemy, targeting all four spaces it occupies. Since an attack action can only target a unit once, you attack the enemy Ahma once; the other targeted spaces having no effect for the attack.
Example (Large Adversaries and Range) 2: You (Flash) are next to the enemy (Ahma) and want to perform a ranged attack with range 2. Two of the Ahma's occupied spaces are within the listed range, but you are within 1 of the closest space of the Ahma, so you can not target the enemy with the attack. Similarly, if the Ahma was performing a ranged attack against the Flash, it would be unable to perform the attack against the rover because of the same restrictions.
Spawning: Certain game effects will create new enemies in the middle of an encounter, often through encounter special rules. The game effect will detail the timing of when the new enemy is spawned and where they are spawned on the map. Once an enemy spawns, they follow all the normal rules for their unit immediately.
There are situations where the spawn location might not be empty. In these situations, spawn the unit as close to the defined location as possible. Another way to think about this is, an enemy will always spawn.
Slaying Rover Enemies
Adversaries do not follow the downed rules and cannot be revived. When the enemies of Rovers have their current hit points brought to 0, they are slain and their standee is removed from the map.
The Campaign Book and Playing the Game
Rove is a campaign style game where you will take on quests to help various clans. The campaign book is where you will read the story of the game and the special rules for the encounters you play.
Let's look at quest 1, encounter 2 - "Then Came too Late the Warning," starting on page 18 of the campaign book. First, you'll read an introduction to the encounter.
The next page covers the setup for the encounter:
- The Setup section tells you what pages in the map and adversary book to open up to.
- The Victory Condition section tells you what your goal for the encounter is. In the bottom right hand corner of this section you'll find the Round Limit. This tells you how many rounds you have to win the encounter by meeting the victory condition.
- The Challenges section lists extra optional modifiers you can apply to the encounter to make it more difficult if you're interested in testing the limits of your tactical acumen.
- The Terrain section explains any special terrain features. Common information here are effects for dangerous terrain or traps, and rules for ether nodes.
- The Special Rules section explains the unique rules that apply to this encounter, if any.
- The Codex Links section contains links to the codex book. These links come with a triggering event, that when met, tell you what page and what section to read in the codex book.
Challenges
Each encounter has three challenges, modifiers that if applied will make the encounter more difficult to win. These are optional difficulty modifiers. You may apply any number of challenges, or none of them, to help tune the game to a difficulty you find compelling.
You do earn rewards for completing challenges.
- If you complete an encounter with one or more challenges applied, Rovers earn 5xR lyst.
- If you complete an encounter with two or more challenges applied, Rovers start the next encounter with one additional random ether dice in their infusion pool.
- If you complete an encounter with three challenges applied, Rovers start the next encounter with one additional random ether dice in their personal pool.
Because the rewards for completing two or three challenges would affect the next encounter you play, it's best to write a note on the back of your campaign sheet to help keep track of these modifiers.
Some players may want an even more challenging game to play. If you're one of these players, check out the Hard Mode rules in the Other Gameplay Rules chapter.
Setting Up the Game
Following are instructions on how to set up a normal game of Rove. Think of this as a simple checklist so that you don't miss any steps.
- Open the campaign book to the introduction page of the encounter you want to play. Read through the introduction, setup, and rules of the encounter.
- Place the Codex book to the right of the campaign book. Don't read ahead though, the encounter codex links will tell you when to read entries from this book.
- Open the map book to the page listed in the setup section of the encounter. Place any map tiles required by the encounter. Place an ether dice flipped to the correct face on each ether node.
- Open the adversary book to the page listed in the setup section of the encounter.
- Place the damage trackers to the left and right side of the adversary book. Place the token and tile tray to the left of the adversary book. Place the adversary ability dice near the adversary book and place an ability token on the first space of each adversary ability track. Collect the adversary standees that match the adversaries for this encounter and place them on the map. Only place the adversaries for the Rover count you are playing at.
- Set the round tracker to 1 and place it above the map book.
- Place all the remaining ether and dim dice to one side within arms reach.
- Each player sets up their player board. Place your class board within the left slot of your player board. Place your four ability tokens into their slots on the right side of your player board. Place the trait tokens you've earned into their respective slots of your player board.
- Each player gets a hit point dial which they set to their class' maximum hit point value.
- Each player gets a reaction token.
- Place the damage dice within reach of all players.
- Each player selects a hand of 5 skill cards and 2 reaction cards to use. By default this pool of cards you get to choose from consists of the basic skill cards your class has access to. As you level up you can also select cards from an upgrade pool. The level up guide explains how many upgrade cards you can take. Which side of a card starts face up is decided by the player, but it is best to have a number of rallies face up.
- Each player selects their equipment. You can have 1 head item, 1 body item, 1 foot item, up to 2 hands worth of weapon items, and 4 pocket items.
- Each player adds to their personal pool a number of ether dice equal to their starting ether value.
Playing the Game
Each encounter is broken up into a series of rounds, each round has multiple phases:
- Start Phase
- Factions Phases
- A. Rover Phase — Individual Rover turns (i. Maximum ether dice check)
- B. Adversary Phase — Roll adversary action dice (i. Advance adversary ability tokens), Individual adversary turns
- End Phase
1. Start Phase: Slide all ability tokens so that the green check is visible. Flip over all reaction tokens to their blue side with an exclamation mark, indicating they are available. Flip all exhausted items vertically. Execute any start phase effects.
2. Faction Phase: Each unit of a faction will get a turn during their faction's phase. In most encounters there will be two factions, Rovers and adversaries, and most often the faction order will go Rover then adversaries. Some encounters may have more factions or a different order to the faction phases. The special rules will note additional factions, the order of faction phases, their alliances, and any other changes to these rules.
Rover Phase: This phase is where Rovers get to act. Each Rover will have a discrete turn, but the order in which those turns are taken is determined by the players. Rove is a cooperative game; communicate, strategize, and plan. Be polite to each other and no one player should try to run the show themselves.
During your turn you may perform up to two abilities, but the same ability can't be performed twice. The ability tokens slide within their space, revealing either a green check or a red block, as a memory aid. A green check indicates that the ability is available for use. When you perform an ability, slide that token so that the red block is visible, indicating the ability was used. When you have two red blocks, you've used all of your abilities for the round.
During your turn you may play 1 skill card that's a combination of rally and raves. If you have no or few ether dice in your personal pool, you'll want to play a rally so that you can gain more ether dice. If you are at your maximum ether dice in your personal pool, this is a good time to play a rave for a big effect. Ability and skill cards can be played in the order of the player's choosing. For example, you may perform 1 ability, then play 1 skill card, then perform 1 ability, or any other combination thereof.
Performing actions, abilities, and playing a skill card is not mandatory. It's recommended that you try to perform all of the actions that you can during your turn, but if you wish to skip an action, you can.
Note: You can't skip the effects of an action. For example, you perform an action with a Push 2 and Ether Field effect. You must push your target and place the ether field in your target's space.
Remember to use your items. Items can be used during their timing window.
The player chooses when their turn ends. Once you have performed 2 abilities and played 1 skill card, you should end your turn. Keep in mind, with this flexibility you can still play items with a timing window of "During your turn:" or play a reaction after you have performed your abilities or played your skill card.
When a player ends their turn, they must check their ether limit. You can only store a number of ether dice in your personal pool or your infusion pool equal to your ether limit, which is found on your class board. Each pool is checked separately. If you have dice in excess of your ether limit, discard a number of dice so that you are at your ether limit.
Remember, reaction skill cards can be played during their timing window. Once you've used your reaction, flip your reaction token over to its gray side with a slash mark as a reminder.
Adversary Phase: Each adversary unit on the map will get a turn. The order in which adversaries act is determined first by their type and then by their standee number. Adversaries activate in the order they are listed in the adversary book, starting with the left page, top to bottom, then the second page, top to bottom. Within each adversary type, each unit of that type activates starting with the unit with the lowest standee number up through to the unit with the highest standee number.
During an adversary's turn, they perform all actions within their selected ability. All units of a given adversary type perform the same ability. Adversaries always perform their first ability during round 1.
At the beginning of the adversary phase during round 2, and each round after that, roll the adversary ability dice for each adversary type that has at least one unit on the map. The ability dice has an X value on each side which describes the number of spaces to advance the ability token along the ability track. If an ability token would advance past the last space on the ability track, instead place the ability token at the first space, and continue advancing the ability tokens.
Once all adversary units have taken a turn, the adversary phase is complete.
3. End Phase: Execute any end phase effects. Advance the round tracker by 1 and check the round limit. If the round limit was exceeded and the victory condition was not met, end the encounter in failure. If the round limit hasn't been exceeded, end the round and advance to the start phase of the next round.
Winning an Encounter
If you achieve the encounter's objective and read the victory codex entry, you win, congratulations! Work through the rewards you earned. Most encounters you'll earn lyst which you write down in your campaign sheet. If you earned an item, look for it in the reward deck. If you leveled, follow the leveling instructions. Lastly, return any items that were used to Mo and Makaal's store, alternatively, you can deduct lyst from the reward equal to the cost of the items consumed during the encounter to quickly repurchase them.
Losing an Encounter
If all Rovers are downed, if any loss conditions are triggered, or if the final round of the encounter has ended and the objective wasn't met, the encounter is lost. This is a game, and that's okay.
Everything is reset to the state it was at before the encounter was played. Any items that were consumed during the encounter are not returned to Mo and Makaal and are instead kept by their owner.
If you're struggling to beat an encounter, it's worth reading about Story Mode on pg 64.
The Codex Book and Codex Entries
The codex book will be referenced often while playing the game. When you meet the conditions of a codex link, as outlined in the codex section of the encounter you are playing, you will be instructed what codex entry on which page to read.
Some codex entries are just story text, explaining a bit about the world or advances the story. Often codex entries will contain new special rules that modify the encounter you are playing, or contain new codex links with new conditions to be met.
Be sure to only read the codex link you have been instructed to read when referencing this book. Follow the numbered magnifying glass to the corresponding numbered entry in the Codex Book.
Campaign Sheet
The campaign sheet is where you will be tracking the progress of your campaign. There are several elements to the campaign sheet:
- A a space to name your Rover party
- B a space to track your party level
- C a section to track your class progression
- D a section to write down what traits you selected at certain milestones
- E a section to track which encounters you've completed
- F a section to track major campaign milestones
- G a section to track the effects of the adversary Aura and Miasma ether fields
- H a section to write in your party's lyst
- I a section to track what merchant levels you've unlocked for Mo and Makaal
- J a section to track what reward items you've acquired
- K the back of the campaign sheet where you will find a notes section
Characters and Ally Cards
While questing, Rovers will come across characters that will ally with them on the battlefield. These characters have an ally card, that you can find at the bottom of the Reward Deck, and standee to represent them on the map. The ally card will have the ally's maximum hit points, their ether affinity (used for damage resolution), one or more abilities, and passive traits, if any: A Ally name, B Maximum hit points, C Ether affinities, D Abilities.
Ally cards usually have two sides to them. Be sure to read the special rules of an encounter, as this will explain which side of the ally card to use at the beginning of the encounter and when to flip the card.
At the beginning of an encounter, players decide as a group which starting space the character will be placed in and who gets to control their ally card. During the chosen player's turn, they get to control the character, commanding that character to perform one of the abilities on their ally card. When the round ends, the ally card is passed onto the next player. This is repeated until all players have had a chance to control the character. Continue repeating this cycle until the encounter is over.
Though characters are allies with Rovers, and will act during the Rover phase, they are not Rovers, and are not counted toward anything that looks for the value of R.
The Value of R
Certain game effects scale off of the number of Rovers that are in an encounter. These scaling effects will reference the value 'R'. R references the number of Rovers in an encounter and only Rovers. Summons, glyphs, character allies and so on do not count toward the value of R. In this way, R can only ever equal 2, 3, or 4.
Leveling
Rove uses milestone leveling. What this means is as you hit certain milestones within the campaign, your party, and your Rover, will level up. At each level you gain different rewards.
- Level 1: All Rovers start at this level, this is where you unlock your base class.
- Level 2: You can take one base class upgrade card with you into an encounter.
- Level 3: You can take one additional base class upgrade card with you into an encounter.
- Level 4: Open your prime evolution class box.
- Level 5: You can take one prime class upgrade card with you into an encounter.
- Level 6: You can take one additional prime class upgrade card with you into an encounter.
- Level 7: Open your apex evolution class box.
- Level 8: You can take one apex class upgrade card with you into an encounter.
- Level 9: You can take one additional apex class upgrade card with you into an encounter.
Evolving
Each class has a Base, Prime, and Apex evolution: True Scale evolves to Toll Bearer (lvl 4) to Invisible Hand (lvl 7); Shadow Piercer evolves to Umbral Howl (lvl 4) to Nocturne Hoarfrost (lvl 7); Flash evolves to Hellion (lvl 4) to Aster (lvl 7); Sophist evolves to Conceptualist (lvl 4) to Maximist (lvl 7); Dune Dancer evolves to Ridge Striker (lvl 4) to Canyon Temper (lvl 7).
When you evolve, you get to open up your evolution's class box. For example, when you reach level 4 with the True Scale, you will get to open up the Toll Bearer class box. You will gain a new class board with unique special rules, new abilities, new basic skill cards, a new reaction card, new upgrade skill cards, and some classes will gain new tokens or tiles. There are some trait tokens with the evolution box, but you don't gain access to them until later in the campaign.
You'll notice that your evolution does not come with enough basic skill cards or reaction cards to form a complete hand. You'll have to fill out your 5 skill cards and 2 reaction card selections at the beginning of each encounter with cards from your previous evolution. It's probably best to at least take the 2 upgrade cards from your previous class.
Changing Classes, Adding or Removing Rovers Mid Campaign
If for whatever reason you want to change classes or if you wish to add a new Rover during a campaign, that's not a problem. All Rovers are the same level as the party level. Follow the previous section on leveling and catch the new Rover up with the rest of the party.
Other Gameplay Rules
The Map
Included with the game is a map of Lalos, a major continent on Chorus. As you progress through the campaign you will be instructed to place named stickers onto reserved spaces on the map. The stickers you place represent points of interest and how the world changes based on your decisions.
Playing the Game Single Player
There's no special rules for playing the game as a solo player, however, keep in mind that Rove was designed to be a cooperative game. That does mean that if you're a solo player, you'll have to at least play two handed, piloting a minimum of two Rovers.
Story Mode
Some of us play games to enjoy their story, and there's nothing wrong with that. If you wish to scale down the difficulty of Rove and give yourself a boost while playing the campaign you can apply up to three of the following campaign modifiers:
- Start each encounter with a free item gained from Mo and Makaal's shop.
- Start each encounter with a random ether dice in your infusion pool.
- Start each encounter with an additional random ether dice in your personal pool.
You can apply and remove these modifiers as you wish. Did you come across a particularly hard encounter that's stalling your progress through the campaign? Apply any of the above modifiers to give yourself a boost.
Because these modifiers scale down the difficulty of the game, they should not be combined with Challenge or Hard Mode rules.
Hard Mode
Some of us play games for the thrill of the challenge. If you wish to scale up the difficulty of Rove you can apply up to three of the following campaign modifiers:
- Increase the cost to buy items from the shop by 50%, rounded up. This does not increase the amount that you sell items back to the shop.
- When determining adversary single-target logic, the tie breaker for who the adversary will attack is their enemy with the fewest hit points.
- Hit points are no longer restored between encounters. Rovers only restore hit points after completing a quest.
These are advanced rules and should only be used if you are comfortable with the core rules of Rove.
You can apply and remove these modifiers as you wish. Did you come across a particularly hard encounter that's stalling your progress through the campaign? Remove any of the above modifiers to level out the difficulty of the game.
Because these modifiers scale up the difficulty of the game, they should not be combined with Story Mode rules.
The Golden Rule
Through the campaign we like to play around with the rules. Rules within the campaign book take precedence over this rule book. This book establishes the baseline for how the game is played, the campaign book plays with these rules and shuffles things up, when appropriate.