RuneCast Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Contents
• Rules
  • Game Setup
  • Gameplay
    • Drawing an Item Card
    • Using a Heroes Ability
    • Roll to Attack
  • End of the Player Round
    • Loki's Roll
    • Order of Resolution
    • Special Results
  • Death Tokens
  • Victory
  • 2 Player Modifications
  • 3 Player Modifications
  • House Rules

Objective

"The Gods have sent you back to fight again. As weary as you are, you blink away the memories of Valhalla and pick up your weapon, ready to charge into battle once again in defense of Midgard, until the next time the Gods bring you back."

Contents

• 9 Double-sided 10" x 10" Battle Boards
• 6 4" x 8" Character Boards
• 32 Custom Dice
• 32 Card Fate Deck
• 16 Card Loki's Chosen Deck
• 6 Card Hero's Fate Deck
• 7 Death Tokens
• 7 Health Counters
• 24 "Breakpoint" Trackers

Rules

Game Setup

• Choose Characters.
• Separate & Shuffle: The Hero's Fate deck, Loki's Chosen Deck & Fate Decks.
• Deal 1 Hero's Fate Card to each player.
• Deal Fate Cards to players according to Table-1. PLAYERS DO NOT LOOK AT THEIR CARDS!
• Shuffle the Battle Boards and place in the center of the play area according to Table-2.
• Place Loki Deck above the Battle Board pile.
• Give each player a dice pool according to Table-3.
• Give the following to all players: 1 Health Tracker, 3 Breakpoint Trackers, and 1 Death Token.
• Place a Community Death Token near the Battle Boards.
• Place a Health Tracker on the Battle Board.

Table-1

Number of Characters	Item Cards
2	10
3	8
4	7
5	6
6	6

Table-2

Number of Characters	Battle Boards
2	4
3	6
4	8
5	10
6	12

Table-3

Number of Characters	Dice Pool
2	12
3	8
4	6
5	4
6	4

Gameplay

Players may perform 3 actions.

• Flip over 1 Fate Card from your hand.
• Use their Heroes Ability. Hero abilities can be used at any time during the game, not only on your turn! Use them to your group's advantage!
• Roll to attack.

You can use "DUR!" (Draw, Use, Roll) to remember the actions available to you!

Drawing an Item Card

• A players Fate Hand is a Blind Hand, they cannot know what Fate has in store for them.
• At the start of their turn a player may choose to turn over the top card of their Fate Hand.
• Fate will reward the player with a Weapon, Armor or Powerful Fate Card.
• Players may only have 1 Weapon & 1 Armor card in play. If they draw a 2nd Armor or Weapon Card, the existing card in play is discarded.
• If a player draws a Fate Card, it must be resolved immediately, before being placed in the Fate Deck discard pile.

Using a Heroes Ability

• Each Hero\Heroine in Rune Cast has a unique ability.
• Hero Abilities cost -1 Hit Point to activate.
• Players may activate their ability more than once.
• Players may activate their ability on other player's turns.
• Players MAY NOT exhaust their last hit point to activate an ability.

Roll to Attack

Players have a dice pool that varies based on the total number of players.

Abilities and Item or Fate cards may add or remove dice from your dice pool.

Results are tallied before the next players turn.

The dice in Rune Cast have 3 unique outcomes:

• Hammer: Representing Mjolnir, this counts as a wound. Move the Battle Board Health Tracker 1 point forward for each wound.
• Snake: Representing the World Serpent, Jörmungandr, a Snake Icon rolled is removed from the players pool and placed on the Battle Board. It has now become part of Loki's Dice Pool and will be rolled at the end of the round.
• Tree: Representing Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, Players may choose to heal 1 hit point by removing a die with a Tree Icon and placing it on their character tile. This die is removed from their dice pool, and will be returned at the end of their next turn. Players May heal a maximum of 2 hit points per turn in this manner.

End of the Player Round

Loki's Roll

After each player has taken their turn, and all results have been tallied, the Battle Board will contain anywhere from 1-24 dice! If the last wound has been scored on the battle, all dice in Loki's pool are immediately discarded, and the next battle begins. These dice belong to Loki, and he will use them to attack players and attempt to trigger the Battle Board Special Attack!

The player who went first becomes Loki's Thrall and will roll the dice for Loki this round. Each round, the next player in order takes a turn as Loki's Thrall.

There is 1 exception to choosing an Agent of Loki, if a player becomes eliminated in battle, they will become the Agent of Loki until that battle is completed and they are revived for the next battle. If more than 1 player is eliminated in a battle they will trade off being the Agent of Loki each round.

For Loki, the dice in Rune Cast have 3 unique outcomes:

• Hammer: This counts as a wound. Tally all Hammers rolled. Perform the following:
  • Draw a card from Loki's Deck.
  • Check the Runes on the card with the Hero's Fate Cards dealt to the players.
  • If there is a match, that player has been hit by Loki's attack!
  • If no match is found, move to the next set of Runes found on the card.
  • If the Runes are FFF, Loki's plans for this round have been foiled and his pool is emptied.
  • If the Runes are RRR, Loki has outsmarted the heroes and everyone takes the damage!
• Snake: Snake Icons are used by Loki to activate the Battle Board Special Attack.
  • Tally the results and verify if the Special Attack has been triggered.
  • If the attack has been triggered, resolve the attack.
  • Special Attacks can only be triggered once per round, so 8 Snake Icons will not trigger a 4 Snake Attack twice.
• Tree: Fate tries to balance all things; Tree Icons rolled by the Agent of Loki may trigger a positive affect for the Heroes.
  • Tally the results and verify if the Fates Boon has been triggered.
  • If the boon has been triggered, resolve the attack.
  • Fates Boons can only be triggered once per round, so 8 Tree Icons will not trigger a 4 Tree Boon twice.

Order of Resolution

Loki's roll results are resolved in the following order:

1. Hammers first, resolve all damage and target player.
2. Snakes second, trigger any battle abilities after damage is resolved.
3. Trees last, finally trigger and resolve any Boons.

Special Results

If Loki rolls all Hammers, do not draw a card from the Loki Deck to determine a target. Instead, ALL players take damage equal to half the number of Hammers rolled, rounded down.

Death Tokens

• In Runecast, the Gods have granted their chosen warriors the ability to return to life if they fall in battle. However, you can only return once!
• All players are issued a Death Token at the start of the game, an additional "Community Death Token" is placed near the Battle Stack.
• Once the player has been injured to the point of death, they can turn in their Death Token to return at the start of the next battle. When a player dies, they lose any Item, Armor, or Fate cards they currently had in play.
• When they return to life, they draw Fate Cards from the Fate Deck back up to their starting limit. If they died with 4 cards and they started with 6 they will draw 2 more cards from the Fate Deck. These will go on the bottom of their Fate Hand.
• If a player dies a second time, the group may choose to reincarnate that player with the Community Death Token. The player will again draw Fate Cards from the Fate Deck back to their starting limit and places those cards on the bottom of their Fate Hand.
• If a player dies and does not have a Death Token and there is no Community Death Token available, they become the Agent of Loki and now roll Loki's Pool every round.

Victory

Players defeat each battle once they score the last wound required. Any dice in Loki's Pool when the battle is defeated are discarded. Once the battle has had its wounds exhausted, it is turned over and the next battle starts. Play continues with the next player in turn order.

Players are victorious if at least 1 of the players survives the final battle; all players are counted victorious and will be rewarded with a place in Valhalla.

2 Player Modifications

For a 2 player game of Runecast, each player may choose 1 -2 additional characters, as if it were a 4-6 player game.

If players decide to only play with 2 characters total, disregard the Runes on the Hero Fate cards, and alternate Loki's Thrall and Loki's target each turn.

3 Player Modifications

For a 3 player game of Runecast, remove the following cards from the Hero Fate Deck: RFR, RRF, RFF. This ensures that you can use the Loki's Chosen deck, without the possibility of only 1 player being targeted every round.

House Rules

Players may choose to create any 'House Rules' they want. Some good examples are:

• Random Battles – shuffle all the battles together and deal out any random number you want.
• Maximum Loki Pool – Set a limit to the number of dice Loki can obtain each round.
• Unlimited Lives – Toss the Death Tokens back in the box, you're in it for the long haul!

Make up any rules you want! If they make Runecast more fun for you and your friends, you're playing the game the way it was meant to be played. Send cool rule suggestions to [email protected]