Runebound: Midnight Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • The Adventure
• Object of the Game
• Components
  • Adventure Cards
  • Midnight Market Cards
  • Hero Cards and Figures
  • Night King Tiles
  • Threat Tile
  • Black Mirror Counters
  • Shadow Counters
  • Game Board Overlay
    • Roads and Rivers
    • Towns
    • Strongholds
• Terrain Symbols
• Game Setup
  • Standard Runebound Components
  • Game Setup Steps
  • New Game Components Setup (Diagram Key)
• Calculating Hero Levels
• Night King Turn Sequence
  • Step 1: Black Mirror Step
  • Step 2: Threat Step
    • Threat Track
  • Step 3: Patrol Step
  • Step 4: Spending Step
    • Buying Counters
    • Improving a Shadow Power
    • Spawning Patrols
    • Unspent Gold
• Night King Counters
  • Combat Counters
  • Exhaustion Counters
  • Wound Counters
• Night King Tile
• Patrols
• Hero Player Turn Sequence
  • Step 1: Refresh
  • Step 2: Movement
    • Movement Dice and Towns
    • Entering Town and Stronghold Spaces
    • Interacting With Other Heroes
  • Step 3: Adventure
    • Night King Influence Roll
    • Defeating Challenges
    • Rewards
    • Undefeated Challenges, Escaping, and Knockouts
    • Threat Tests
• Miscellaneous New Rules
  • Win Condition
  • No Allies
  • Assaulting the Strongholds
• Optional Rules
  • Variant: Favored Minions
  • Variant: Favored Terrain
  • Variant: Well Equipped

Introduction

One player takes on the role of one of Izrador's Night Kings, once a hero of Eredane but now an immortal servant of evil. The rest of the players are rebels and freedom fighters, evading the Night King's patrols and defeating his minions, all the while gathering experience and Items and unlocking the powers of their Covenant Items, mystical weapons, armor, and artifacts that grow in power along with the Heroes.

The Adventure

Midnight is a whole new adventure for RUNEBOUND. In this adventure, the Night Kings of Izrador seek to expand their god's hold on the land and root out and destroy the desperate resistance. The heroes cannot hope to face Izrador or even his Night Kings, but they can infiltrate and destroy the source of Izrador's power, his black mirrors. To do so they must gather their strength, learn to fight, collect weapons and armor, and infiltrate the strongholds that protect the black mirrors. Guarding each mirror are terrible foes, powerful minions of the Night Kings that may require the strength of every Hero player to defeat.

Object of the Game

The object of RUNEBOUND is determined by the adventure you are playing.

In Midnight, the object of the game for the Hero players is to destroy black mirrors worth 1 point + 1 point per Hero player (each black mirror has a different point value). The Night King player's goal is to oppose the Hero players, thereby increasing the threat level to 10.

Components

• 72 Adventure Challenge Cards (31 green, 20 yellow, 13 blue, 8 red)
• 52 Market Item Cards
• 8 Hero Cards
• 8 Hero Figures
• 4 Night King Tiles
• 1 Threat Tile
• 8 Black Mirror Counters (5 1-point counters, 2 2-point counters, 1 3-point counter)
• 3 Shadow Counters
• 1 Game Board Overlay
• 1 Rulebook

Before you play your first game, carefully punch the cardboard pieces out of their frames so that they do not tear.

Some of the components from your main RUNEBOUND game are used in the Midnight adventure in the same way, while others have different uses or are replaced. The following components are either new to the game or have different uses in this variant.

Adventure Cards

The expansion includes new green, yellow, blue, and red adventure decks, which are comprised entirely of Challenges. These decks replace the adventure decks from your main RUNEBOUND board game. The original adventure decks may be set aside and will not be needed at all.

Midnight Market Cards

These Items replace the market deck from your main RUNEBOUND board game. However, the market deck from your main RUNEBOUND board game will still be used as goods and to represent upgrades for your Heroes' Covenant Items. Midnight market cards have the same back as other Runebound market cards, but can be identified by the Midnight icon in the lower right-hand corner of the cards.

Hero Cards and Figures

Midnight presents eight new Heroes and their corresponding plastic hero figures. You can use these heroes instead of, or in addition to, the 12 heroes from the main RUNEBOUND game.

Night King Tiles

Each Night King tile lists that Night King's powers and his chances to influence combat. Only one Night King tile will be used each game.

Threat Tile

The same threat level tile is used for all four Night Kings. It is used to track both the current threat level and this game's agreed-upon threat difficulty (see Optional Rules, page 8). The default threat difficulty is 16.

Black Mirror Counters

The black mirror counters represent the Heroes' victory points. The Night King player places one in each of his strongholds, and the point value of the black mirror affects the strength of the Challenges that are encountered in that stronghold.

Shadow Counters

The horned skull counter is used to mark the current threat level on the threat tile. The circular counter is used to mark the threat difficulty for this game on the threat tile.

Game Board Overlay

The game board for Midnight has a different appearance and two new types of spaces.

Roads and Rivers

There are no roads in Midnight, so that terrain symbol will not matter for the Heroes. Also, in addition to river spaces, the Midnight board has aquatic spaces (such as lakes and coasts) that are corresponded to by the river terrain symbol on the movement dice.

Towns

The towns of Midnight are not the refuges of other RUNEBOUND adventures. They are all either occupied by the forces of the Night Kings or are under siege by them, and as such require infiltration tests (see "Entering Town and Stronghold Spaces," page 6) to enter. Once safely inside a town, a Hero may perform a Market step as normal.

Strongholds

Strongholds are the center of the Night Kings' power, and the places from which they defend their black mirrors. Like towns, strongholds require infiltration tests to enter. Unlike towns, strongholds offer no safety or opportunity to purchase Items; all they offer is the chance to destroy a black mirror or die trying.

Terrain Symbols

The terrain symbols printed on the Midnight terrain key (page 3) are: Forest, Aquatic, Aquatic, Aquatic, Plains, Swamp, Mountains, and Hills. Aquatic spaces are corresponded to by the river terrain symbol on the movement dice (see "Roads and Rivers," page 2).

Game Setup

Standard Runebound Components

The RUNEBOUND market deck and all of the counters from your base RUNEBOUND game will be used in Midnight. The adventure cards from your base RUNEBOUND game will not be used.

Game Setup Steps

1. Determine who will be the Night King player and who will play the Heroes. Then randomly determine seating (seating order matters because play starts with the Night King player and proceeds clockwise).
2. Unfold the RUNEBOUND game board and place it centrally on a large table. Place the Midnight game board overlay over the map area of the RUNEBOUND board, as shown in the accompanying diagram.
3. The Night King player takes one Night King tile at random. Alternatively, if all players agree, he may take one of the Night King tiles of his choice. The Night King tile represents which of Izrador's lieutenants the Night King player will play for this game. If Heroes will be chosen rather than determined randomly, they should be selected at this time as well, and all Heroes and the Night King should reveal their chosen characters simultaneously. The Night King player then places a green adventure jewel, experience point–value side up, in the oval space next to the shadow power section of his tile. This represents the fact that his shadow power begins at level 1.
4. The Night King player places one black mirror counter on each of his strongholds. He may choose which counters (+1, +2, and +3) go on which strongholds.
5. The Night King player places the threat tile in front of him, places the threat level counter on the space marked "0," and places the threat difficulty counter on the space marked "16" (or another threat difficulty if one is determined; see page 8). Additionally, he places a number of doom counters beneath the threat tile equal to the number of Hero players. This is the threat pool.
6. The Night King player places one undefeated challenge counter on the map for every two Hero players (round up). These counters are placed in stronghold spaces of the Night King player's choice, with a maximum of one undefeated challenge counter in each stronghold. These counters represent patrols.
7. Place an adventure counter faceup on each space of the board marked with an adventure jewel. Make sure that the color of the adventure counter matches the color of the adventure jewel (place a green counter on each green adventure jewel, a yellow counter on each yellow adventure jewel, and so on). Also, place one red adventure counter on each stronghold space.

Game setup is now complete. The game is ready to begin.

New Game Components Setup (Diagram Key)

The numbered callouts on the setup diagram are:

1. Threat Tile: The Night King player places the threat tile in front of him, using threat counters to the mark the game's starting threat level (0) and its threat difficulty (usually 16).
2. Doom Counters: The Night King player places a number of doom counters beneath the threat tile equal to the number of Hero players.
3. Night King Tile: This goes in front of the Night King player.
4. Challenge Cards: Only the Midnight Challenge cards are used; they are placed on the Challenge deck spaces of the appropriate color.
5. RUNEBOUND Market Deck: The market deck (both Items and Allies) becomes the goods stack for this game.
6. Event Cards: There is no event deck in Midnight. This space remains empty.
7. Undefeated Challenge Spaces: The Night King player will use the undefeated Challenge counters as patrols. He places one of these counters on the board, in a Stronghold, for every two Hero players; the remaining counters are left in their spaces.
8. Board Overlay: The board overlay is placed on the RUNEBOUND game board so that it completely covers the original RUNEBOUND map.
9. Strongholds: The Night King player places one black mirror counter on each Stronghold space.
10. Market Stacks: Draw the first six cards from the Midnight market deck and place them in order from the top-most market stack to the sixth market stack (each corresponds to a town on the board, as shown by its symbol).

Calculating Hero Levels

Many game effects are dependent on the level of the Hero involved. All Heroes start the game at level 1. A Hero's level is equal to 1 + his total number of experience counters (the counters that boost a Hero's attributes, not to be confused with adventure counters, which are traded in for experience counters). If two Heroes have the same number of experience counters and you must determine which among them is higher level, the tie goes to the Hero with the most unspent experience points. If there is still a tie, the higher-level Hero is the one with the greater combined value of Items and goods.

You can keep track of your level using a six-sided die, or you might use a marker that is placed in front of the highest-level Hero.

Night King Turn Sequence

The Night King always goes first; play then proceeds clockwise. On the Night King's turn, he performs the following steps.

Step 1: Black Mirror Step

If one or more Heroes are in a stronghold with a black mirror, they enter combat with the red Challenge guarding it. If they defeat the Challenge, the black mirror there and any patrols in that stronghold are destroyed (see "Assaulting the Strongholds," page 7).

Step 2: Threat Step

The Night King adds a doom counter to the threat pool beneath the threat tile. The Night King then makes a threat test. This is performed by rolling two ten-sided dice and adding the number of counters in the threat pool to the roll as a modifier. If the total is less than the game's threat difficulty (usually 16), nothing happens and the Night King moves on to the next step. If the total is greater than or equal to the game's threat difficulty, several things happen:

1. All depleted adventure jewels with starbursts are replenished with adventure counters of the appropriate color, just as if an Event had been drawn.
2. All doom counters beneath the threat tile are returned to their pool, reducing the threat pool (and therefore the modifier added to threat rolls) to zero.
3. The threat level counter moves one space up the threat track.

Threat Track

In the threat track diagram (not reproduced here) the threat difficulty is 17, the threat level is 3, and the threat pool is at 3. If the Night King made a threat roll, he would roll 2d10+3. If the total of the numbers on the dice plus the threat pool is less than 17, nothing happens. If the modified roll is a 17 or higher, however, the three doom counters in the threat pool are discarded and the threat level counter is moved one space farther along on the threat track, from 3 to 4.

Step 3: Patrol Step

The Night King may move his patrols in order from the lowest-numbered undefeated challenge counter to the highest. Patrols follow all of the normal RUNEBOUND movement rules for Heroes: the Night King rolls five movement dice for each of his patrols (or four if the patrol is wounded), and a die may be expended to move the patrol into a space with terrain matching a symbol on the die. Just as Heroes can use any terrain symbol to enter a town space in RUNEBOUND, patrols can use any terrain symbol to enter a stronghold space. Alternatively, instead of rolling movement dice for a patrol, the Night King may move it into one adjacent space.

Patrols may not enter towns. If a patrol enters a space with a Hero, it may continue moving or may stop; if it stops, it attacks the Hero immediately. Once a patrol resolves combat with a Hero, the Night King moves on to the next patrol or, if he has no more, to the Spending step.

For more details, see "Patrols," page 5.

Step 4: Spending Step

The Night King gains gold equal to the number of Hero players plus the level of the highest-level Hero. Gold may be saved, or it may be spent during this phase only to do any of three things:

1. Buy counters (one at a time)
2. Improve a shadow power
3. Spawn a patrol

Buying Counters

The three types of counters a Night King can purchase are combat counters (the +2 Mind, +2 Body, and +2 Spirit experience counters, used to improve the combat values of a Challenge), exhaustion counters (used to add a bonus to a threat test roll), and wound counters (used to move or heal a patrol). A counter costs gold equal to the number of counters of that type the Night King already has (which means that if the Night King starts his turn with no counters, he may acquire one of each type for 0 gold). When a counter is purchased, the appropriate amount of gold is returned to the bank and the chosen counter is placed beneath the Night King tile. See the "Night King Counters" sidebar for information on how each counter is used.

Improving a Shadow Power

Improving a shadow power costs 5 gold. A shadow power starts at level 1, which is signified by placing the green adventure counter that starts in the shadow power area. When a shadow power is improved, the adventure counter is replaced with the next-highest adventure counter color.

Spawning Patrols

Finally, spawning a patrol costs 5 gold. If the Night King player spawns a patrol, he places the lowest-numbered unused undefeated challenge counter on the board in a stronghold of his choice.

Example: Darin is playing the Night King Jahzir, facing off against Pete and Dan as Hero players. It is turn three, and the threat level is at zero. Darin's turn begins and he skips the Black Mirror step, as there are no Heroes in any of his strongholds. Then he enters his Threat step by adding a doom counter to the five doom counters already in the threat pool, giving a total modifier to his threat roll this turn of +6. He rolls 2d10 and gets a total of 7; adding +6 for the threat pool gives him a total of 13, not quite enough to increase the threat level.

Darin then moves on to step 3, the patrol step. He has one patrol on the board, and it is a few spaces away from Pete's Hero figure. He rolls five movement dice for it but doesn't get the two forests he needs to get to Pete's Hero. He therefore decides to move the patrol toward Dan's Hero figure on the plains; he won't get there this turn, but he might be able to get to him next turn.

In step 4, Darin collects 3 gold: 2 gold for the two Hero players +1 gold for the highest-level Hero (both are still level 1). He used up all of his combat counters during the Hero players' turns, so he buys a +2 Mind counter for 0 gold and then buys a +2 Body counter for 1 gold. He decides to save the remaining 2 gold for next turn so he can afford to spawn another patrol, the better to box in Dan's Hero next turn.

Unspent Gold

Unspent gold is saved for use in later turns. (The source's body text prints "Unpsent gold"; corrected here.)

Night King Counters

The Night King player may discard as many counters as he wishes at a time, one at a time or all at once, but may only do so at the appropriate time as described under each counter.

Combat Counters

All three of the +2 combat value counters are considered one type for the purposes of calculating cost (meaning that if you have one +2 Mind counter, a +2 Body counter costs 1 gold, and a +2 Spirit counter added to those would cost 2 gold). A combat counter may be discarded after the Night King makes an influence roll for that counter's phase of combat. For each counter discarded, the Night King may re-roll an influence die.

• +2 Mind Experience Counter: May be discarded to re-roll one die when influencing ranged combat.
• +2 Body Experience Counter: May be discarded to re-roll one die when influencing melee combat.
• +2 Spirit Experience Counter: May be discarded to re-roll one die when influencing magic combat.

Exhaustion Counters

An exhaustion counter may be discarded before any threat test not made on the Night King's turn (caused by a failed infiltration test, a Hero escaping from a Challenge, or a Hero being knocked out). For each exhaustion counter discarded, the Night King gains a +1 bonus to the upcoming roll. Alternatively, three exhaustion counters may be discarded to add +1 to a threat test after the roll.

Wound Counters

A wound counter may be discarded after rolling movement for a patrol to re-roll one movement die. Alternatively, three wound counters may be discarded to remove one wound from a patrol's undefeated challenge space.

Night King Tile

The rules for the combat symbols and minions described below apply to all four Night Kings. Likewise, though each shadow power is different, the rules for marking their level are similar.

1. Ranged Phase: When Jahzir influences the ranged combat phase of a battle, the Challenge gains a +1 to its ranged combat value for every hill terrain symbol rolled.
2. Melee Phase: When Jahzir is ascendant, the Challenges of Midnight become brutal melee combatants. When he influences the melee combat phase, the Challenge gains a +1 to its melee combat value for every plains terrain symbol rolled.
3. Magic Phase: Jahzir has little care for sorcery. When he influences the magic combat phase, the Challenge gains a +1 to its combat value for every swamp terrain symbol rolled.
4. Minions: When using the favored minions variant rule, the number on the adventure counter beneath the minion type indicates the number of combat counters that must be discarded to increase the Challenge's damage. In this case, the Night King may discard 2 combat counters of the same type to increase a warlord's damage value in that phase by +1 for the combat, or he may discard 4 combat counters of the same type to increase a soldier's damage value in that phase by +1 for the combat.
5. Shadow Power: The experience counter placed in the shadow power area denotes the current level of the shadow power. In this case, Jahzir's shadow power is at three, which means that he may automatically increase the threat level a total of three times during the game when a Hero is knocked out.

Note: the sample tile shown in the rulebook is Jahzir's. The power text printed on the tile itself (including its level thresholds) is too small in the source PDF's illustration to transcribe reliably, so it is not reproduced here; refer to the printed Night King tile for each lieutenant's power text.

Patrols

Patrols in Midnight are roaming Challenges that the Night King controls. The following rules apply to patrols.

The patrols' position on the board is represented by undefeated challenge counters. When a patrol is spawned, the Night King selects the lowest-numbered undefeated challenge counter that is not already on the map. He places that counter on a stronghold space of his choice. These counters can be moved by the Night King player on his turn (see "Night King Turn Sequence," above).

If a patrol ends its movement in a space with one or more Heroes during the patrol step of the Night King's turn, the Night King may decide that it attacks one of those Heroes. The Night King draws three Challenges from an adventure deck, the color of which depends on the level of the Hero being attacked, as shown below:

Hero Level	Challenge Color
1	Green
2–3	Yellow
4–5	Blue
6+	Red

The Night King chooses one of the three cards he drew and discards the rest (places them facedown at the bottom of their adventure deck). The card chosen represents that patrol. Combat is entered immediately, and proceeds as normal (including the Night King's ability to influence one phase of combat and his ability to discard counters during the combat; see "Step 3: Adventure," pg. 6). Any wounds or other counters that would be placed on a patrol are placed, instead, on the undefeated challenge track space that corresponds to the counter representing that particular patrol. If a patrol takes wound counters equal to its Life value during a combat, its counter is discarded and all wound counters on its undefeated challenge track space are discarded. Hero players receive no reward or experience for defeating patrols. A patrol is automatically defeated if it begins combat with wound counters equal to or greater than its Life value.

Example: Darin has managed to pin down Dan's Hero figure, who is now level 2, with the patrol represented by undefeated challenge counter #1. Level 2 Heroes face yellow Challenges, so the Night King draws three yellow adventure cards and chooses the Bridge Sentry, then places the other two on the bottom of the yellow adventure deck. The Bridge Sentry enters combat with Dan's Hero, and manages to knock him out, but not without suffering 2 wounds. Darin places 2 wound counters on undefeated challenge space #1.

On his next turn, Darin rolls 4 movement dice for the wounded patrol, and gets the right terrain dice to enter the space of Pete's Hero figure. However, Pete's Hero is still only level 1, so this time Darin draws the three cards from the green adventure deck. All three Challenges drawn have Life values of 2, so whichever one Darin chooses, the patrol will automatically be defeated. Darin probably should've purchased enough wound counters to heal the patrol before sending it off after a lower-level Hero.

If a Hero enters a space with a patrol, he may not attack it; the Hero may continue his movement or enter his Adventure step to resolve an adventure jewel in that space (the patrols are too well-guarded for the Heroes to attack when in camp, though they are easily avoided).

Patrols cannot enter town spaces.

Hero Player Turn Sequence

Step 1: Refresh

As usual, any activated cards are turned faceup. Additionally, any activated Covenant Item abilities (see "Step 5: Experience," page 6) are refreshed.

Step 2: Movement

As usual, your Hero has five movement dice (or four, if he has any wound or exhaustion counters). However, movement works differently for Heroes in Midnight than it does in RUNEBOUND. Rather than rolling dice to move, each movement die represents an action a character can take. Some of those actions require rolling, but most simply require you to "spend" the die.

Journey: Spend 1 movement die to move 1 space.

Rest: Spend 1 movement die to discard 1 exhaustion counter.

Heal: Spend 1 movement die to roll a movement die. If the terrain symbol for your current space comes up, you find a healer who is sympathetic to the resistance, and you may discard 1 wound counter.

Barter: Spend 1 movement die to roll a movement die. If the terrain symbol for your current space comes up, you may either sell one of your Items for half its cost or draw one card from the Midnight market deck and place it faceup in front of you. Before you leave your current space, you may purchase any Items drawn. Items not purchased must be discarded (placed facedown at the bottom of the Midnight market deck).

Note that Items in Midnight are bought and sold using goods rather than gold (see "Step 3: Adventure," page 6).

You may spend movement dice in any order you wish.

Example: Dan, playing Harthan Axecaster, begins his turn in a forest with four wound counters. The Night King has patrols nearby, so Dan wants to remain in the forest; after all, forest spaces are difficult for the Night King to roll on his patrols' movement dice. Yet at the same time, he needs healing before he can attempt another Challenge, and for the same reason that forests are difficult for patrols to enter, they are difficult for Heroes to find healing in. He therefore spends one of his four movement dice to journey into an adjacent plains space. Once there he spends a movement die to roll to heal; the die comes up with a plains symbol, so he discards 1 wound counter. He decides to try again, but this time does not get a plains symbol. With his last movement die, he moves back into the forest space in the hope that the patrols won't get the movement dice they need to enter that space.

Example: Fully healed and with 6 goods to spend, Dan decides that he'd like Harthan to gain some better Items beyond his Throwing Hammer. He spends one movement die to move into a river space. Once there, he spends a movement die to barter; the roll comes up with a river, so he draws a Midnight market Item (Orcbane Poison) and places it in front of him. He rolls another die to barter, and it too comes up with a river, so he draws another Midnight market Item (Urutuk Hatchets) and places it in front of him.

Now Dan has some decisions to make. He has two movement dice left, he's one good short of being able to afford the Hatchets, and he's one space away from an adventure counter he'd like to attempt. He decides to see if he can make another successful barter roll, this time to allow him to sell his Throwing Hammer in return for two goods. He rolls the movement dice and, luckily, gains yet another river symbol. He sells the Throwing Hammer (discarding it) in return for two goods. Then he discards seven of his eight goods to buy the Urutuk Hatchets. He then spends his last movement die to move into the adjacent space with the adventure counter. As soon as he moves out of the space, he must discard any Items he drew from the Midnight market stack via bartering; in this case, the unpurchased Orcbane Poison is discarded.

Movement Dice and Towns

In the base RUNEBOUND game, any terrain symbol on the dice can be used to move into a town space. The same concept holds true in Midnight: any terrain symbol is considered to match your current terrain if you are in a town. This means that any movement die spent to Heal or Barter in town is automatically successful. Towns are therefore excellent places to rest and restock . . . if you can sneak or bluff your way in!

Entering Town and Stronghold Spaces

Before you can enter a town or stronghold space, you must attempt to infiltrate it. The servants of Izrador guard the gates and walls of the occupied towns carefully; additionally, heavily armed Heroes with powerful magic stick out like sore thumbs in the midst of the poor and desperate refugees of Midnight. To infiltrate, make a Sneak, Climb, or Diplomacy test against 10 + the cost of your highest-cost Item. If you succeed, you may move into the town space. If you fail, your turn ends and the Night King player may make a threat test.

Interacting With Other Heroes

If you enter a space occupied by another player's Hero at any point during your movement, you may negotiate with the other player's Hero as normal (except that instead of trading gold, you may trade goods). You may not attack other Heroes in Midnight.

Step 3: Adventure

If you end your movement in a space with an adventure counter, you may choose to attempt the adventure (you do not need to attempt the adventure).

Night King Influence Roll

After "Before Combat" actions are resolved, the Night King player must choose one (and only one) phase of the combat to influence with an influence roll. He rolls a number of movement dice equal to the level of the Hero involved in the combat (maximum of 5). His goal is to roll the terrain symbol shown next to the combat value on his Night King tile. For each terrain symbol of that type that comes up on the dice, the Challenge gains +1 to that phase's combat value.

The bonus is marked by placing all dice with the matching terrain symbol beneath the Challenge's combat value. That bonus remains throughout the combat.

The Night King may discard experience counters after rolling to re-roll one or more of the movement dice in the influence roll; each discarded experience counter of the appropriate type allows him to re-roll one movement die.

Example: Pete, whose Hero is level 4, is attempting the blue Challenge Kinire Spiritspeaker. After all "Before Combat" actions have been resolved, Darin decides that he'd like to influence the ranged phase in this combat. He rolls four movement dice (because Pete's Hero is level 4) and looks at his Night King tile to see what terrain symbols he needs . . . in this case, the hills terrain symbol.

Of the four dice he rolled, Darin only got a single die with a hills terrain symbol. He'd like to make things a bit harder for Pete's Hero, so he discards a +2 Mind combat counter to re-roll one of the dice; again, no hills! Using his last +2 Mind counter, he re-rolls one more die, and this time gets a hills terrain symbol. That gives him a total of 2 successes in his influence roll, or a +2 to the Challenge's ranged combat value. Darin places the two successful movement dice beneath the Challenge's ranged combat attributes, signifying that Kinire Spiritspeaker has ranged combat attributes of 17/3 for this combat instead of 15/3.

Defeating Challenges

If a Hero player defeats a Challenge (other than a patrol), he gains the reward listed on the card as well as the adventure counter representing the experience points for the Challenge. Note that rewards in Midnight are measured in goods, not gold. See Rewards, below.

Rewards

Since Izrador's occupation of Eredane, there has been no working economy. Gold exists only to flatter the traitor princes and false sussars that rule the cities; in Midnight, only the Night King player gains gold. The Heroes must make do with scavenged supplies and bartered goods.

Any time a reward tells you to receive goods, draw that number of cards from the RUNEBOUND market deck. Those cards remain facedown for the time being and have no meaning other than as a unit of value. A good may be a sack of grain, a bolt of cloth, a chunk of ore, or a bundle of rope; the Item or Ally on the face of the card isn't really part of your Hero's inventory.

Each RUNEBOUND market card equals one good. When you buy a Midnight market deck Item, whether by bartering in the wilderness or by entering a Market step in a town, you discard a number of the facedown RUNEBOUND market cards equal to the cost of the Item. Likewise, if you sell a Midnight market deck Item, you draw a number of goods from the RUNEBOUND market deck equal to half its cost (round down).

Undefeated Challenges, Escaping, and Knockouts

If a Hero escapes from or is knocked out by a Challenge, do not place the undefeated Challenge on the undefeated Challenge track. Instead, simply place it facedown at the bottom of the adventure deck of the appropriate color.

Additionally, rather than moving out of a space when escaping, a Hero simply remains where he was; he manages to conceal himself within the wild terrain, but does not move out of the space in which the combat took place. Finally, the following alternate rules apply to knockouts in Midnight:

1. Discard all of your Hero's goods (rather than gold) by placing them facedown on the bottom of the RUNEBOUND market deck.
2. Do not discard any Items.
3. If you are the highest-level Hero, the Night King player gains gold equal to your Hero's level.

Threat Tests

If a Hero fails an infiltration test, escapes, or is knocked out, the Night King player may make a threat test (see "Night King Turn Sequence," page 4). Just as with threat tests made during the Night King player's turn, these threat tests are made using 2d10 + the number of doom counters in the threat pool. In addition to the bonus provided by the doom counters in the threat pool, however, the Night King may discard exhaustion counters before or after the dice roll to modify the test in various ways. Only threat tests caused by the above events may be modified by discarding exhaustion counters; the threat test performed in the threat step of the Night King's turn cannot be modified in this way.

Step 4: Market Step

The Market step may only be entered if a Hero ended his movement in a town space. This step follows all of the normal rules from the base RUNEBOUND game except that the player draws a card from the Midnight market deck to add to his town's market stack instead of from the Runebound market deck.

Step 5: Experience

In Midnight, you must exchange your adventure counters for an experience counter as soon as you are able. Additionally, each time you gain an experience counter, you must also create or upgrade a Covenant Item.

Covenant Items

Each time you gain an experience counter, you must create or upgrade a Covenant Item. To create a Covenant Item, choose one of your Activate-to-Use or Always-on Midnight Items. Then look at your goods (the cards from the RUNEBOUND market stack that are normally facedown) and select one. That card becomes an upgrade. Slide the upgrade beneath the Covenant Item, faceup, so that its name, cost and illustration are hidden but its card text is visible.

Thereafter, the Covenant Item may still be used as normal. However, the upgrade becomes an additional power of the Item. If the upgrade is an Activate-to-Use special effect, you may activate it by sliding it beneath the card above it, hiding its special effect text. If the upgrade is an Always-On special effect, then it is always on. Finally, you may activate the Covenant Item's original special effect, if any, and keep its upgrade special effect text available for use.

Alternatively, rather than creating a new Covenant Item, you may upgrade a current Covenant Item. To do so, simply slide the chosen upgrade beneath the bottom-most upgrade currently on the Covenant Item.

An upgrade must meet these criteria:

1. Must be an Always-on or Activate-to-Use Item.
2. The Item's type and subtype are still visible, and therefore still count against your Item limits (such as your Weapon and Armor limits) and any character special limitations (such as the Dorn Defender's inability to use Weapon and Armor special effects granted by Items of cost 4 or higher).
3. If you wish, you may select an Ally or a Discard-to-Use Item as an upgrade. However, such upgrades never provide new special effects; instead, they are simply placed facedown beneath the Covenant Item. These upgrades may be activated in place of activating the Covenant Item or one of the Covenant Item's upgrades. In this way, you may gain the ability to use an Activate-to-Use Item several times in a single turn.
4. The printed cost on your first upgrade must be 3 or lower. Each additional upgrade has a maximum cost of 3 higher than the last upgrade's maximum cost (6 or less for the second, 9 or less for the third, and so on). Allies and Discard-to-Use upgrades, which are used facedown rather than for their normal powers, have costs of 0 for this purpose.

For most purposes other than activation, Covenant Item upgrades should be considered additional card text on the Item they are attached to. Once an upgrade is attached, it does not increase the cost of the Covenant Item itself (for the purposes of selling the Item or for infiltration, for instance).

Example: When he gained his first experience counter, the only Midnight market Item Dan had was the Urutuk Hatchets, and the only two goods (a RUNEBOUND market Item turned facedown and used instead of gold) he had were an Ally and the Rune Plate armor, with a cost of 15 gold. Since his first upgrade must have a cost of 3 or less, he can't use the Rune Plate; having no choice, he made the Urutuk Hatchets his Covenant Item and placed the Ally facedown beneath it. Since the Urutuk Hatchets are an Always-on Item, the Covenant Item upgrade had no effect.

As he gains his second experience counter, Dan has more options. He has a Padded Tunic, for instance, and could make a new Covenant Item out of it by using a facedown Ally or Discard-to-Use Item, allowing him to activate the Padded Tunic twice between refreshing. However, if he decides to upgrade the Urutuk Hatchets, he can use a cost 6 Item instead of cost 3 . . . and that would pave the way for a cost 9 upgrade next time. He decides to upgrade the Urutuk Hatchets using one of his Activate-to-Use goods, the Immolate Rune; since the Urutuk Hatchets already have a facedown upgrade, that means he can activate the Immolate special effect of the Urutuk Hatchets twice between refreshing!

Multiple Covenant Items

A Hero may have multiple Covenant Items; the benefit of doing so is that your Items' powers are likely to be varied and flexible. The drawback is that each new Covenant Item starts over with the lowest cost limitation for its upgrades (3 or lower).

But I Don't Have An Item!

It's quite possible that a Hero will gain an experience counter without having an Activate-to-Use or Always-on Midnight Item, meaning that he cannot create or upgrade a Covenant Item. Likewise, a Hero might have an Always-on Midnight Item but may only have Allies or Discard-to-Use RUNEBOUND Items (which are very useful as extra activations, but not for Always-on Items). Whether a Hero cannot create or upgrade a Covenant Item or can only create a sub-optimal Item/upgrade combination, he cannot "save up" a Covenant Item creation or upgrade. The player must create the best combination he can with what he has, or simply miss this opportunity to create a Covenant Item.

Planning Ahead

Experienced Midnight players will always be looking at the card text and costs of their goods, spending those they won't want as Covenant Item upgrades and thinking twice before trading in goods that might be very useful as upgrades. The most commonly and readily discarded goods are Allies and Discard-to-Use Items, as they are fairly common in the RUNEBOUND market deck and are only useful as extra activation upgrades. Weapon and Armor Items can be very useful upgrades, but since their Item types remain, players may want to think twice before attaching them; what might look like a great Armor Item now might seem less useful toward the end of the game, but if it's part of your Hero's upgrade stack, he can only gain another Armor Item if he discards or sells the entire Covenant Item, upgrades and all!

Miscellaneous New Rules

Win Condition

The Heroes must collect black mirror counters with a total value of 1 + 1 per Hero player (see "Assaulting the Strongholds," below). The Night King must reach threat level 10.

No Allies

There are no Allies in Midnight. Warriors willing to stand against Izrador are rare, and trust between them is even rarer. However, the Heroes of Midnight are desperate and savage fighters: For every two experience counters a Hero has, he may attack in one additional phase (up to a maximum of attacking in all three phases).

Example: Now that Dan's Hero Harthan Axecaster has two experience counters, he can attack in two phases every round and defends in the other. For instance, he enters combat with the yellow Challenge Jaran the Reaver. After performing the "Before Combat" test required by the card text and after Darin makes his influence roll as the Night King, combat begins. As he enters the ranged phase, Dan decides that Harthan will attack. He fails the combat roll, but since Jaran has a ranged damage value of 0, he takes no wounds. As he enters the melee phase, Dan decides that Harthan will attack again; this time he succeeds at the combat roll, and inflicts his melee damage value. Finally, he enters the magic phase; because he has already used his two chances to attack this round, he must defend this phase.

The next round, Dan decides that he'll probably auto-defend in the ranged phase and then will attack in the melee and magic phases; however, as per the normal RUNEBOUND rules, he can decide as he comes to each phase.

Assaulting the Strongholds

Normally, each Hero in Midnight must fight his battles alone. However, multiple Heroes may attempt red Challenges simultaneously—which is a good thing, because these Challenges are devious and deadly.

When a Hero figure ends his movement on a stronghold, he does not attempt an adventure there immediately. Instead, he waits until the beginning of the Night King's turn (meanwhile, any number of additional Heroes may attempt to join him by infiltrating the stronghold on their turns). At the beginning of the Night King's turn, for each stronghold space with one or more Heroes in it, he draws a red Challenge at random from the red adventure deck. The heroes in that space must enter combat with that Challenge immediately.

The following rules apply during combat with a red Challenge in a stronghold:

1. The Challenge's Life value gains a bonus equal to the number on the black mirror counter in its space.
2. All Heroes participating in the combat may use Before Combat special abilities as normal, and all Heroes may act during the escape phase if they wish.
3. Unlike combat with other Challenges in Midnight, the Night King player may influence every combat phase during this combat. After "Before Combat" actions are resolved, he rolls a number of movement dice for each combat phase equal to the level of the highest-level Hero participating in the combat.
4. At the beginning of each combat phase, each Hero attacks or defends, starting with the highest-level Hero and proceeding downward. A Hero may only attack during one combat phase when assaulting a black mirror, regardless of his normal ability to attack during more than one phase due to his level. He must defend during the other two phases. Note that Heroes with special abilities that allow them to attack during more than one phase, such as Telvan and Orcbane from Midnight and Silhouette from the RUNEBOUND base game, may still do so. Multiple Heroes may attack during the same phase, if they wish, but each makes his combat rolls separately.

If the Challenge is defeated, each Hero who participated in the combat gains 4 experience points. Additionally, the Hero players destroy the black mirror and gain the black mirror counter that was on this space. A black mirror counter provides its listed value toward the Heroes' win condition. Finally, any patrols within a number of spaces of the black mirror equal to its point value are destroyed.

Example: Pete and Dan decide that it is time to assault Erenhead, where Darin has placed one of his 2-point black mirrors. On their turns they both successfully infiltrate the stronghold, then their turns end (if one had infiltrated the stronghold and the other had not, the one inside might be in serious trouble, as he would have to face the Challenge alone).

On the Night King's turn, Darin sees that the Heroes have infiltrated Erenhead. Before any other steps, he draws a red Challenge: Prince Castor Mardif. After the Heroes resolve the "Before Combat" effect of the card text and take whatever "Before Combat" actions they wish, Darin then rolls to influence every combat phase. Since Dan's Hero is level 4 and Pete's Hero is level 5, he rolls 5 movement dice to influence each phase.

Once the effects of Darin's influence rolls have been determined and the Challenge's modified combat values calculated, combat begins. As the one with the higher-level Hero, Pete acts first in each phase. He decides to attack in the ranged phase using the Icewood Bow, and makes his roll; success! His ranged damage value is 1, but he inflicts +2 wounds thanks to the Icewood Bow for a total of 3 wounds on Prince Castor Mardif.

Then it is Dan's turn to attempt the ranged phase. He knows that he can inflict much more damage in the magic phase with the Immolate Rune upgrade on his Covenant Item, so he decides to wait until that phase to attack. Instead, he defends this phase. His ranged combat roll is successful, so he takes no damage. All the Hero players have resolved the phase, so the combat proceeds to the next combat phase.

In the melee phase, Pete's Hero must defend. He rolls and is unsuccessful, taking 3 wounds. Then Dan's Hero is up again; regardless of what he was planning on doing, he could change his mind and attack in this phase instead, if he felt it was necessary (such as if they needed to destroy the Challenge before it had a chance to knock out Pete's Hero). The essential point is that he does not need to declare whether he is attacking or defending in a particular phase until his turn in that phase. In this case, Dan sticks to his original intention and successfully defends in the melee phase. Then, after Pete's Hero successfully defends in the magic phase, Dan's Hero successfully attacks in the magic phase, inflicting 2 wounds. Normally this would be enough to defeat the Challenge, but because of the point value of the black mirror, the Challenge's Life value is 2 higher than normal (6 instead of 4).

The next round of combat, Pete decides that his Hero will attack again in the ranged phase. If he succeeds and inflicts at least 1 wound on the Challenge, the Challenge will be destroyed and Dan's Hero will not need to resolve this phase of combat. Instead, the combat will end and all patrols within two spaces of the stronghold (including within the stronghold itself) are discarded.

Optional Rules

Many levels of complexity can be added to RUNEBOUND: Midnight, each of which tends to favor either the Night King or the players. The threat level mechanic has been designed with that in mind; for each rule variant below (and in future rules variants presented online), a threat modifier is listed. That modifier affects the difficulty of the game's threat tests. Before any game, the Night King and Hero players should take turns selecting variant rules that favor their side, moving the threat difficulty up or down as appropriate, until both sides have chosen all of the variant rules they wish to use.

The threat difficulty can never be lower than 12 or higher than 20; no additional rules variants may be selected if they would cause the threat difficulty to go beyond those numbers.

Variant: Favored Minions

Threat Difficulty: +1 or more

At +1 threat difficulty, this variant allows the Night King player to begin with a red adventure counter on his tile, experience-point-value side facing up, next to one of his minions in the oval space provided. For each additional +1 to the game's threat difficulty the Night King player is willing to accept, he may place a red adventure counter next to another minion or may replace an adventure counter with the next-lower color, thereby decreasing the experience-point-value next to it.

When the Night King influences combat with one of his minions, he may discard combat counters of the appropriate type to increase the Challenge's damage value in that phase by 1. The experience-point-value next to the minion type on the Night King's tile represents the number of counters that must be discarded to increase the damage value. The Night King can increase the Challenge's damage value in any phase, regardless of which one he chooses to influence. A Challenge's damage value in any one phase can never be increased by more than 1 in this way.

Variant: Favored Terrain

Threat Difficulty: –1 or more

The Heroes of Midnight use the land as one of their primary weapons against the Night Kings. Each race has a terrain that it is completely at home in, that it is as much a part of as any natural animal. This variant gives each Hero a bonus movement die the first time he enters his favored terrain during movement (including if he starts his turn there). For each –1 to the game's threat difficulty the Hero players are willing to accept, the bonus movement dice gained by this variant increase by one, to a maximum of five. These bonus movement dice must be used before the Hero leaves that space, and bonus movement dice are not gained the second time that terrain type is entered during a Hero's movement. Bonus movement dice may be used to rest, heal, or barter, but not to journey.

Favored Terrain:

• Harthan: Mountains
• Elaria: Forests
• Ciridin: Swamps
• Gyruk: Hills
• Mirala: Aquatic
• Telvan: Any except towns
• Kael: Towns
• Jaena: Plains

Variant: Well Equipped

Threat Difficulty: –1 or more

The Heroes are not simply ragtag refugees . . . they are freedom fighters, and have been given supplies by their people to carry on their fight. For each –1 to the game's threat difficulty the Hero players are willing to accept, each Hero may search through the Midnight market deck and select 1 good worth of Items; he begins the game with the chosen Item(s).