Set a Watch
Set a Watch Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 6 Adventurer Boards
- 30 Ability Cards
- 9 Unhallowed Cards
- 38 Creature Cards
- 4 Summon Cards
- 20 Location Cards
- 9 d6 dice & 9 d8 dice
- 4 Rest Tokens
- 1 Fire Token
- 1 Rulebook
- 1 Camp Board
Deluxe Edition / Upgrade Pack includes:
- 2 Adventurer Boards
- 10 Ability Cards
- 4 Unhallowed Cards
- 5 Variant Summon Cards
- 11 Location Cards
Deluxe content available at https://shop.rockmanorgames.com
Game Setup
1. Set out the board and Components
Place the Camp board and Rest Tokens within easy reach of all players.
2. Select Adventurers
Note: There must always be four Adventurers in play no matter the player count. If you have 4 players, each selects one Adventurer. With 3 players, pick a flex Adventurer that the player in camp controls during the Watch phase. In a 2 player game, each player selects two Adventurers. In a solo game, that player selects four.
Players select their Adventurer and take that Adventurer's board, 5 Ability cards, and 3 corresponding dice. Shuffle the Adventurer's Ability cards together and draw 2 cards at random to place on your Adventurer board (faceup). Draw a 3rd card and place it on your board exhausted (facedown). Place the remaining 2 Ability cards off to the side of your board (faceup).
The Adventurer board:
- A. Adventurer Class
- B. Ability Slots: Place three equipped Ability cards in these slots.
- C. Dice: These banners represent the dice your adventurer will play with: each blue banner represents a d8, and each red banner represents a d6 (e.g: The Ranger starts the game with three d8s of the same color). During the game, each spent combat die is to be placed on a different, empty banner space on your adventure board.
- D. Camp Action: This special ability can only be used once per Camp Phase if the Adventurer rests in Camp (see page 7).
- E. Attack Type: An Adventurer with Range can attack and damage Creatures in either first or second position of the Line. Melee can only attack and damage Creatures in first position of the Line.
Example cards shown on the Ranger's board — Elf Senses: Until the end of the round, reveal one more Creature than the Campfire reveal level currently allows. Prevent the next Reveal power from triggering. Long Shot: Defeat one unrevealed Creature card in the Line. Far Sight: Until the end of the round, the range of all Adventurers is increased by +1. Elven Scout (Camp Action): Draw the top 4 cards of the Creature deck, look at them, and return them on top of the Creature deck in any order.
3. Prepare the Creature Deck
Easy: Summon x1 — Normal: Summon x2 — Hard: Summon x3 — Insane: Summon x4
Take all Creature cards in the game. Select either 1, 2, 3, or 4 Summon cards, for respectively an Easy, Normal, Hard, or Insane game. Remove all unused Summon cards from the game. Set aside the two Acolytes, then select randomly 28 cards from the remaining Creature cards and add the two Acolytes atop of them. Remove unused Creature cards from the game. Shuffle the Creature cards together, and then divide them into facedown piles, as even in size as possible, so that the number of piles matches the number of Summon cards in play. Shuffle 1 Summon card into each pile. Then stack these piles to form the Creature deck, placing smaller piles on the bottom.
Summon card text: Choose one Adventurer to immediately exhaust one of their Ability cards, then discard this card to the Graveyard, and replace it with the top card from the Unhallowed deck.
4. Prepare the Map Deck
Take all the Location cards, and set aside all the respite and final Locations. Shuffle the remaining Location cards together and draw 8 cards without looking at them. Shuffle these 8 cards together, then select (randomly or by picking it) one of the previously set-aside final locations and add it to the bottom of the deck to form the Map deck. Remove any unused final Location cards from the game. Take all the remaining Location cards (including the respite Locations) and shuffle them together to form the Unused Location Deck.
5. Prepare the Unhallowed Deck
Take all the Unhallowed cards, shuffle them together, and without looking, draw and place one card in the Horde facedown. The Horde is a facedown deck of cards that is added to the final round of the game. The bigger the Horde is, the more difficult the final round will be. Then, draw and place 7 Unhallowed card faceup next to the Camp board to create the Unhallowed deck. Set aside all the remaining Unhallowed cards.
Setup diagram labels — Camp board Runes: Vanquish, Bolster, Seal. Unused Locations. Horde: Place inside the box. Creature Deck. Graveyard: Defeated Creatures go to this discard pile. Unhallowed Deck.
6. Light the Fire!
Finally, draw the top location card from the Map deck and place it as the current location on the Camp board. Do not resolve the location's firewood modifier for the first round (see page 7). Place the fire token to 7 firewood on the Camp Board. Alternatively, to vary the gameplay and make the game more difficult, you may roll a d6 to randomly set the starting firewood.
Creatures
During the Watch Phase, players will use their dice to defeat Creatures. When Creatures are defeated they go to the Graveyard, when they are not defeated they end up in the Horde.
The Creature card:
- A. Damage: This number represents the total number of Ability cards from the Adventuring party currently on Watch that are exhausted if the Creature is not defeated.
- B. Base Health: This number represents the total amount of damage that must be assigned with dice to defeat the Creature.
- C. Power text: This section contains all the unique abilities of the Creature, including Reveal and First position effects.
- D. Creature Type: Unhallowed are considered Creatures with a Creature Type of Unhallowed.
Example card — Acolyte (1 damage, 7 health, Human). Reveal: Draw a Creature and add it to the Horde. First position: Search the Graveyard for one Summon card and shuffle it back into the Creatures deck.
Summon and Unhallowed cards
When a Summon card is revealed from the Creatures deck, it's immediately resolved (see "Card Priority" on the back cover): one Adventurer on Watch chooses and exhausts 1 Ability card they control; then, the Summon card is discarded to the Graveyard, to be immediately replaced with the topmost card of the Unhallowed deck. When an Unhallowed card is revealed, resolve any triggerable Unhallowed card powers, and then when defeated, the Unhallowed card is discarded into the Graveyard.
Gameplay
The game is played over a series of 9 rounds represented by 8 random Locations and 1 Final Location. Each round is composed of a Camp phase and a Watch phase; before moving to the Camp phase, all Adventurers will be asked to roll their dice.
Locations
- A. Firewood Modifier: Advance or retreat the Firewood token based on this modifier.
- B. Creature count: This number respresents the number of Creature cards that will form the Line at the beginning of the Watch phase.
- C. Location type: Respites and Final Locations are marked.
- D. Location Ability: Location-specific effects and conditions; usually these represent effects lasting as long as the Location card is in play, but some Locations might have a different time trigger. In this case, the Location special ability is resolved when the triggering conditions are met.
Example card — Forbidden Tower (firewood modifier -2, Creature count 9): Exhausting an Ability card to increase firewood, increases firewood by an additional +1.
After rolling, players will decide, together as a team, who'll be the Adventurer going to the Camp. That Adventurer, during the Camp phase (see below), will assign their dice to any camp actions and/or Runes on the back of the map deck to resolve these actions. All other Adventurers will be on Watch (see page 8), where they'll be tasked to eliminate Creatures threatening the party.
Camp Phase
Each Adventurer MUST go to Camp exactly twice during the first 8 rounds of the game. During the final round all Adventurers go on Watch for the final battle.
The Adventurer who rests in Camp refreshes one of their exhausted ability cards. Take a Rest token on an Adventurer's first visit to Camp and place it on their board. Flip it over on their second visit. An Adventurer with all their Ability cards exhausted won't be able to participate in a Watch phase.
The Adventurer in camp does not participate in combat. Instead they assign their rolled dice and resolve the action one at a time on one of the following:
- an action space in the Camp
- an action space on their Adventurer board
- a Rune on the back of the card on the top of the Map deck
The selection is repeated until all three results have been assigned and resolved. The same action can be selected more than once per Camp phase, as long as a die is not assigned to a space already containing an assigned die.
Camp Actions
The Camp board has action spaces for each Camp action. Some Actions might come with a requirement that must be met in order for that action to be resolved.
Chop Wood (max 3 placements): Advance the Firewood token 2 spaces clockwise, increasing firewood by +2.
Scout Ahead (max 3 placements): Draw and look at the top 2 Creatures of the Creature deck. For each card, return it either to the top or to the bottom of the Creatures deck. Requirement: In order to assign a second (or third) result to this action space, the result on the second (third) die must be higher than the result of the highest die on this space.
Check Map (max 1 placement): Draw the top card of the Map deck and the top card from the Unused Locations deck, and choose one to place on the top of the Map deck, and the other one to the bottom of the Unused Locations deck. Requirement: You cannot resolve this action unless you spend a result of '4' or a higher. By resolving this action, you cannot swap out the Final Location.
Heal (max 1 placement): Refresh 1 exhausted Ability card in play (you can either target yourself, or any one Adventurer on Watch). Requirement: You must spend a result of exactly '6' in order to resolve this action.
Equip (max 1 placement): Swap 1 Ability card currently on your Adventurer board with 1 of your leftover unused Ability cards. If the Ability card that is swapped out is exhausted, the new card is placed on your Adventurer board exhausted as well.
Adventurer Special Camp Actions
Each Adventurer has a special camp action, listed on their Adventurer board. As per any other Camp action, an Adventurer wanting to activate their special camp action simply assigns one of their dice to their Adventurer board. Each Adventurer camp action can only be used max once per round.
Runes
Runes are special action spaces available on the back of location cards. During the Camp phase, the Adventurer at the Camp can activate these Runes by placing dice on them. Requirement: In order to activate the Runes, you need to spend at least two matching results (i.e. 2 '3s', or 2 '4s' and so on). Each result must be placed on a different Rune space (i.e. you cannot activate the same Rune more than once). If three matching results were rolled, they can be used to activate all three runes, or they can be used to activate two of them, and the third result can be used for a different action.
Seal (max 1 placement): Search the Graveyard for an Unhallowed card of your choosing and move it to the bottom of the Unhallowed deck. Do not shuffle the Graveyard afterwards.
Vanquish (max 1 placement): Take the top card of the Horde and remove it from the game.
Bolster (max 1 placement): Each Adventurer on Watch may choose to reroll any number of their dice.
When all of the Camp Adventurer's dice have been assigned and actions have been resolved, the game continues to the Watch Phase. If there is still an Adventurer with all 3 Ability cards exhausted at the end of the Camp phase, they cannot particpate in the next Watch phase. Without that Adventurer's dice actions, the next round will likely be your last.
Watch Phase
The Watch Phase represents a night of battling Creatures as they try and make their way into your Camp. After setting up the Line of Creatures, Adventurers spend their dice on direct attacks and Ability cards to defeat them. Players can activate abilities and assign dice in whatever order they see fit (there is no turn order) until all Creatures have been defeated or all Adventurers run out of useful actions. An Adventurer cannot participate in combat if all of their Ability cards are exhausted at the start of the Watch Phase.
Setting up the Line
Check the Creature count on the current Location card (see Locations pg 11): this is the number of Creatures the Adventurers will face during this Phase. Then draw cards from the Creature deck and place them facedown to form a Line, starting with the top card being placed closest to the Camp board, until the total number of cards in the Line is equal to the current Location's Creature count. If you ever need to draw a card from the Creature deck and cannot, shuffle all the Creatures in the Graveyard (including any Unhallowed and Summon cards) to create a new Creature deck. Then, draw Creature cards from the new deck until the Line is fully formed.
Reveal Creatures
Check the current firewood value on the Camp board. The number of Creatures revealed by the Campfire is indicated by the Campfire reveal level on the Camp board (1-6 firewood reveals 1 Creature, 7-11 firewood reveals 2 Creatures, and 12+ firewood reveals 3 Creatures). Creatures are revealed one at the time, starting with the facedown Creature closest to the Camp board. Every time a new Creature is turned faceup, their special powers are checked, and any effect triggered is immediately resolved. Creatures remain revealed even if the Firewood token would retreat enough to affect the number of Creatures revealed in the Line.
The firewood can never reach zero. If the firewood is ever zero, exhaust an Ability card of an Adventurer on Watch to increase firewood by +2.
Combat Actions
After Creatures are revealed and their effects are checked and resolved, Adventurers may work together and take actions until a Creature is defeated. Creatures are defeated by attacking them directly or activating an Ability card. When a Creature is defeated, it's moved to the Graveyard; then, the Line reacts. All facedown Creature cards move 1 space closer to the Camp board and then Creatures are revealed according to the Campfire reveal level.
Direct Attacks: Adventurers can spend and combine their dice to attack revealed Creatures in range. Melee characters can only attack Creatures in first position. Ranged characters can attack Creatures in first or second position. A Creature's Base Health is located in the top right of its card: this value can be modified by some Creature special Abilities to form the Creature's Health. When the sum of the results is equal to or higher than the Creature's Health, that Creature is defeated and sent to the Graveyard.
Activating Non-Passive Ability Cards: Once per card per round, Adventurers can spend a die on an unexhausted Ability card to activate it. Alternatively, Ability cards can also be exhausted to trigger their effects. This means that Adventurers can potentially trigger an Ability twice in the same round: once by spending a die on it, and a second time by exhausting it. They can of course activate said Ability just once per round by either spending the die, or by exhausting the card.
Passive Ability Cards: Passive abilities do not require a die to activate. Passive abilities are active as long as they remain faceup and may be used according to their text (e.g. the Ranger's Sharpshooter ability, reads "Once per round, you may reroll and reuse a die spent on a direct attack." whereas the Warrior's Cleave ability can be continually used to save the remainder of die result from a direct attack.)
Out of Actions: If Adventurers run out of actions and there are still Creatures in the Line, the Adventurers, as a group, exhaust cards based on each Creature's damage, one at the time, starting from the first undefeated Creature in the Line. Then, add those Creatures facedown to the top of the Horde in Line order. Whenever cards need to be exhausted, Adventurers must exhaust cards of their choosing from the Adventurers on Watch. The moment the Adventurers on Watch exhaust their last unexhausted Ability card, the game is lost.
Once the Line is clear of Creatures, the Watch Phase ends.
Ending the Round
If at least one Adventurer on the Watch has an unexhausted Ability card, play moves to the next round. Draw and reveal the next Location card and adjust firewood based on the Location drawn.
The Final Round
When the final Location is revealed, the Adventurers have reached the last round, and all Adventurers go on final Watch (i.e. there's no Camp phase this round).
Proceed to setup the Line normally; then draw cards from the Horde deck and place them facedown at the end of the Line until the entire Horde deck has been added to the Line. The Horde is not shuffled. Gameplay then proceeds as normal to the Watch phase.
Winning the Game
If at the end of the Final Round, at least one Adventurer has an unexhausted Ability card and there are no more Creature cards in the Line, the Adventurers win the game.
Losing the Game
If at any time, all Adventurers on Watch have all their Ability cards exhausted, the game is lost. Additionally, if an Unhallowed is to be summoned but the Unhallowed deck is empty, the game is lost.
Example
The Beast Master, Wizard, Ranger and Rogue are called on to defend the realm from impending darkness. One Unhallowed card has been drawn and placed facedown in the Horde; the first location is Snowy Pass. Each Adventurer starts with a random Ability card exhausted. The Firewood token was set randomly by casting a d6: the result is a 4, which means they can only reveal the first position Creature in Line at a time. Gameplay may now begin: the Adventurers roll their dice, obtaining 6, 3, 1 (Ranger); 8, 6, 3 (Beast Master); 4, 4, 1 (Wizard); and 4, 3, 1 (Rogue). The Snowy Pass special ability requires that one Adventurer places their lowest result on the Location card, and cannot use it this round. Players collectively decide that the Rogue should give up her '1' result. They place that result on Snowy Pass; the game then proceeds to the first Camp phase.
Snowy Pass (firewood modifier -3, Creature count 6): When this Location enters play, choose one Adventurer to place their lowest die result on this card. That die cannot be used this round.
The first Camp phase of the game begins with the Wizard going to Camp. They refresh their only exhausted Ability card, and gain a Rest token to mark they have been to Camp. Since the Wizard has rolled doubles, they could activate two different Rune abilities; nonetheless, they decide that advancing the Firewood token is more important. Thus, they decide to place all three of their dice on the Chop Wood action. This makes the Firewood token advance to 10 firewood, allowing Adventurers to keep the first two cards of the Line revealed throughout the subsequent Watch phase.
The Line: Eagle (1 damage, 4 health, Forest Creature) — Fell Beast (2 damage, 11 health, Fire Demon). Fell Beast, First position: Draw a Creature and place it in front of the Fell Beast (limit: once per Watch phase).
The game then proceeds to the Watch phase. The Creature count on Snowy Pass is 6; thus, the Adventurers draw 6 Creatures from the top of the Creature deck placing them facedown starting closest to the Camp board and moving backward from there to form the Line.
The 3 Adventurers on Watch (i.e. the Beast Master, the Rogue, and the Ranger) check the Campfire reveal level, which is 2, and thus they turn faceup, one at a time, the first 2 Creature cards in the Line, starting with the one closest to the Camp board. The first card is an Eagle (4 health): since the Eagle has no reveal ability, players proceed revealing the next card in the Line, discovering a Fell Beast (11 health). The Creature has no reveal Ability either, and its first position Ability is not triggerable because it's currently in the second position in the Line; thus, the game continues with players debating how to deal with those enemies.
The Rogue decides to go first and spends their '3' result on their Backstab ability, allowing them to reveal the last 2 Creatures in the Line, a Vampire (1 health) and an Acolyte (7 health). The Rogue's total die roll (which includes also dice already spent or stolen in the round) was 8 so she can defeat either one to the Graveyard. The Vampire has a reveal ability that steals the highest rolled die, but the Rogue's ability is fully resolved before any Creature abilities activate. They choose to defeat the Vampire thus preventing its reveal ability from triggering. Now that Backstab is fully resolved, the Acolyte's reveal power is triggered; the Adventurers draw a card from the Creature deck and add it to the Horde. The final round is getting tougher!
The Line: Eagle (1 damage, 4 health, Forest Creature) — Fell Beast (2 damage, 11 health, Fire Demon) — Acolyte (1 damage, 7 health, Human). Acolyte, Reveal: Draw a Creature and add it to the Horde. First position: Search the Graveyard for one Summon card and shuffle it back into the Creatures deck.
The Ranger and Beast Master both have range, so they can both attack a Creature in second position; their attacks of '3' and '8' combined grant 11 damage, enough to destroy the Fell Beast. The Fell Beast card is removed from the Line and moved to the Graveyard. This moves a new Creature up to the second position, and thus it's immediately revealed by the Campfire. It is a Forest Giant (7 health). The Giant has an ongoing ability modifying the Giant's Health by the base Health of the Creature immediately behind it in the Line. Since that Creature is unrevealed, it's immediately revealed and its base Health is added to the Giant's. That card is a Zombie Horde (8 health), which has the ongoing ability of adding the base Health of the Creature on the top of the Graveyard to the Health of Zombie Horde.
The Line: Eagle (1 damage, 4 health, Forest Creature) — Forest Giant (2 damage, 7 health, Giant) — Zombie Horde (1 damage, 8 health, Undead) — Acolyte (1 damage, 7 health, Human). Forest Giant, Ongoing: Forest Giant's health is increased by the next Creature's base health. Reveal the next creature in the Line if necessary. Zombie Horde, Ongoing: Zombie Horde's health is increased by the Creature's base health on top of the Graveyard.
The top card in the Graveyard is a Fell Beast (11 health), which brings the total Health of the Zombie Horde to 19. However, the Giant's ability works with the base Health of the next Creature in the Line, so that the ongoing ability of the Zombie Horde doesn't interfere with the ongoing ability of the Giant. This brings the Giant's Health to 15 (his base 7 + the the Zombie Horde's base 8).
The Ranger uses their passive ability Sharpshooter to reroll their previously spent '3' result and winds up with a '7'. The Beast Master exhausts (thus, without spending a die) their Tame Beast ability to tame and collect the Eagle. The Beast Master spends their '3' result on Set Snares to put the Zombie Horde back on top of the Creature deck (which means it will be the first Creature added to the Line during the next Watch phase). This leaves in the Line only the Giant with 14 health (7 plus the Acolyte's 7) and an Acolyte with 7 health. The Ranger uses their '7' result to directly attack the Acolyte and send it to the Graveyard. The remaining Giant drops down to 7 health because there are no Creatures left behind it. The Rogue, Ranger, and Beast Master have a 1, 4, 6, 6 and a 4 tamed Eagle remaining. The Beast Master decides to keep the Eagle for a later round and the Rogue and Ranger combine their dice and spend a '4' and a '6' to send the Giant to the Graveyard. All the Creatures in the Line are eliminated and thus, the Watch was successful.
A new location is now revealed, and the Firewood modifier applied. The game then proceeds to a new round: Adventurers roll their dice, and decide who'll be staying in the Camp and who'll be on the Watch.
Credits
Published by: Rock Manor Games
Game Design: Todd Walsh & Mike Gnade
Game Development: Ryan Ward & Samuel Bailey
Creature & Adventurer Illustrations: Simon Tosovsky & Robert Schneider
location Illustrations: Boris Stanisic & Andreas Rocha
Graphic Design: Anthony Amato & Mike Gnade
Technical Editing: Andrea Dell'Agnese & Julia Faeta
Honorary Producers: Fred Caldwell, Kristian Carlson, Arthur Gomez, Steffen Meyer, Michael Müller-Trudrung & Jeff "The Crow" Tjaden
Playtesting: Flynn Walsh, Meghan Walsh, Heather O'Neill, Chris O'Neill, Rosalie Gnade, Matthew Canglialosi, Michelle Deleppo, Tessa LaNeve, Heather Wilson, Nicole Amato, Anthony Amato, Benjamin Afrasyab Farahmand, Nolan James, Tammy Dotts, Joe Brannigan, Wendy Rothschell, David Friant, Ryan Ward, Ryan Friant, Ted Adams, Tom Panico, Jason Tagmire, Ben Begeal, Duane Kolar, Chris Visco, Dan Cassar, Jake Vander Ende, Joseph Kim, Denny Dong, Tom Callahan
Special Thanks: GMG Philadelphia, Tabletop Coop
Adventurers Overview
Warrior
A powerful melee warrior with high direct damage potential, the Warrior specializes in taking down high-health foes and boosting ally damage. Weak at range, the Warrior needs to depend on others to finish off Creatures farther away in Line. The Warrior is the only Adventurer who can keep the excess remainder on dice spent on direct damage.
Wizard
The Wizard makes up for weaker direct damage with powerful magic abilities. The Wizard is one of the best ranged Adventurers since most of his abilities can attack any revealed Creature in the Line. The Wizard's ability to polymorph Creatures can combo well with other allies that specialize in dealing with specific Creature types.
Cleric
The Cleric is the guardian of the light and the strongest against Undead and the Unhallowed. The Cleric's inner light can also reveal and manipulate the Line if your Firewood is low. While the Cleric may have weaker direct damage, the extra heal action in camp means that this Adventurer can bring a party back from the brink of exhaustion.
Beast Master
The Beast Master has strong direct damage potential and specializes in taming Forest Creatures, pulling them from the Line and storing them up as additional attack dice (their health is equivalent to what would be rolled on a die). In absence of Forest Creatures, the Beast Master must rely on high rolls to defeat Creatures.
Ranger
Packed with powerful ranged direct damage and a suite of abilities others can depend on, the Elf Ranger stands tall in any group. The Ranger is a formidable warrior when players focus on archery abilities, but can also play more of a support role with elven magic and a powerful camp scouting action.
Rogue
The Rogue may be weak when it comes to direct melee attacks, but makes up for it with versatility. The Rogue can switch from direct damage to revealing Creatures to boosting other allies, depending on the situation. The Rogue is always prepared and helps players get the abilities they need when resting in camp.
FAQ
Can I direct attack Creatures in the Line before the Campfire reveals them? No, the Campfire light needs to reveal the Creatures before Adventurers can direct attack them. Also when revealing Creatures, always check the Creature powers to see if they trigger (due to them being revealed, or the position they occupy in the Line, and so on): if any of these triggers are met, players must resolve these effects fully before moving on with the game. Thus, direct attacks can be performed only after Creatures have been revealed by the Campfire, and only after their special effects that might have triggered are fully resolved.
What happens when a First Position power reduces the Campfire reveal level? Creatures are revealed one at a time, and their effects are checked upon revealing. So for example, if you start a round with 7 firewood, which normally would allow you to reveal 2 Creatures, but the first Creature revealed is a Wyvern that reduces firewood to 4, bringing the total number of Creatures revealed to 1, then you stop revealing Creatures.
What happens when the Creature deck is empty? If the Creature deck is empty and you must draw a Creature card, shuffle the Graveyard (including any Unhallowed and Summon cards) to create a new Creature deck. Then, continue drawing from the new Creature deck.
What happens when all Ability cards of an Adventurer are exhausted? An Adventurer with all their ability cards exhausted is not allowed to take part in the Watch phase. So, it is always better sending said Adventurer to Camp for a free refresh of one of those cards, or alternatively make sure that another Adventurer going to Camp will use the Heal action to refresh one of the Ability cards of the other Adventurer, so that they can partipate in the Watch phase. If an Adventurer exhausts their last unexhausted Ability card in the middle of the Watch phase, they can still use any remaining dice to direct attack Creatures.
How many times can an Adventurer use their Ability cards? Passive abilities do not require a die and they either come with a limit (number of times per round / Location), or they can be used continually. All other abilities require to either have a result assigned to them or the card to be exhausted. This means they can be used twice per Location maximum: once with a die, and the other one when exhausted.
Can an Adventurer choose to exhaust an Ability card instead of assigning a result to it first? Yes, in fact it may be the smart play to save a high result to use for direct attacks instead of spending it to activate an Ability.
Who goes first in combat? There is no turn order. Players decide amongst themselves in what order they will use their dice for attack or to activate abilities. An Adventurer doesn't need to spend all their dice at once: they can use one for a direct attack, then save the rest for a later part of the Watch Phase, for example.
Do Ability cards refresh between locations? No. The only two ways to refresh an Ability cards are either being the Adventurer spending the round in Camp (automatic refresh at the beginning of the Camp phase), or being the target of a Heal action (the Adventurer at the Camp spend a '6' result to have any one Adventurer in play refresh one of their Abilities).
Can an Adventurer resolve the same Camp action more than once in the same Camp phase? Depends on the action the Adventurer wants to resolve. Some actions allow for subsequent result allocation in order for their effects to be triggered more than once. See Camp phase on pages 8-9.
When does the Rogue's ability Stay Dead apply? Whenever the Rogue defeats a Creature during a direct attack (including when teaming up with any other party members to direct attack a Creature) or uses an Ability that defeats a Creature.
What happens if you use Smoke Bomb on the Fire Serpent or Shade and ignore their special text? Since these Creatures don't have any Health without their special abilities, they are automatically defeated.
Do tamed Creatures go to the Graveyard after an Adventurer attacks with them or does that Adventurer keep them? Their health is used as a direct attack die. Then the Creature is discarded to the Graveyard.
Can tamed Creatures be used to resolve an attack against any Creature in the Line? No, tamed Creatures act exactly like a direct attack and thus are subject to the same limitations, such as the Adventurer's range and the fact that Creatures need to be revealed to be attacked.
Can the Beast Master keep Forest Creatures that were tamed but not used in the current Watch phase? Yes, the Beast Master can have up to two Forest Creatures at any given time and can save them between rounds.
Glossary
Base Health: refers to the Health value printed on the card - not the Creatures current Health which may be modified by effects in the game.
Health: represents the current Health of the Creature, and refers to the value that must be met or exceeded to send the Creature to the Graveyard.
Campfire: This refers to the center dial on the Camp board. The Campfire reveal level dictates how many Creatures are revealed at any given time. See "Reveal Creatures" on page 11 for more details.
Defeat: The act of placing a Creature card into the Graveyard.
Defeated: This term is sometimes used on Creature cards and triggers when the Creature is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard.
Direct Attack: The act of spending one or more dice to defeat a Creature.
Exhaust: This refers to the act of flipping over an Ability card to represent that you have used up that ability.
First Position: Many Creatures have first position powers that activate if they are ever the first Creature in the Line.
Graveyard: The Creature discard pile.
Horde: The Horde is a stack of additional Creature cards that will be added to the final round of the game.
In Camp: Refers to the Adventurer resting in camp that round.
The Line: The Line of Creatures that needs to be defeated every round.
Ongoing: Creatures with ongoing abilities trigger and continue to occur and change based on the game state.
On Watch: Refers to the Adventurers currently involved in combat.
Range: Refers to how far back in the Line an Adventurer, or their tamed Creatures, can target with a direct attack. Every Adventurer can target Creatures in first position. Adventurers with a Ranged icon in the bottom right corner of their Adventurer card can attack Creatures in first or second position. Effects increasing Adventurers range by +1 allow Adventurers to target cards up to 1 spaces further down the Line (so that Melee attacks are now able to target Creatures either in 1st or 2nd position in the Line, and Ranged attacks can target Creatures in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd position in the Line).
Recover a die: Ability Cards that say recover dice return them (at their value) to the Adventurer they were stolen from. Once returned, they can be used as normal.
Refresh: Flip over an Ability card to its unexhausted side so that the Ability can be used again. It can also be refered to as Heal because of the Camp action associated with refreshing.
Rest: An Adventurer going to camp this round is considered Resting. Remember that every Adventurer needs to rest exactly twice. Use the Rest tokens to keep track of resting.
Reveal: When a Creature is revealed, it is flipped faceup. Creature Reveal powers trigger when this occurs and/or when Creatures enter the Line for the first time (i.e. when an Unhallowed is summoned or a Creature is added to the Line from the Graveyard).
Steal: There are several Creature powers that steal a die. When a die is stolen from an Adventurer, it is placed on that Creature until it is defeated. Once the Creature is defeated, the die is returned to the corresponding Adventurer but it is considered spent. Recovered dice by other means can be spent as normal.
Tame: Some Creatures can be tamed, i.e. removed from the Line and added to an Adventurer's play area as an attack die. These Creatures can be saved between rounds unless otherwise specified.
Round Overview
- Roll Dice
- Camp Phase: Pick who rests in Camp. Resting player refreshes a card and takes Camp Actions:
- a. Chop Wood
- b. Scout Ahead
- c. Check Map with 4+
- d. Heal with exactly a 6
- e. Equip
- f. Cast Rune Spells with Doubles/Triples
- g. Adventurer camp ability
- Watch Phase:
- a. Reveal Creatures based on the Campfire reveal level
- b. Spend your dice as attacks or to activate abilities
- c. Exhaust a card to +2 firewood
- End Watch: Add any Creatures that were not defeated to the Horde one by one, triggering any relevant powers. Adventurer's on Watch exhaust cards equal to each Creature's damage.
- Reveal the next Location: Adjust the firewood by the value shown on the Location card.
Order of Play
If cards appear to activate at the same time or conflict with one another, please resolve card actions in the following order:
- Reveal Creatures one at a time corresponding with the Campfire reveal level. Trigger any relevant Reveal, Ongoing and/or First Position Creature powers (in that order).
- Adventures may use abilities and direct attacks to defeat Creatures.
- As soon as a Creature is defeated, advance the line and return to #1 before taking any Adventurer actions.
- Summon cards always trigger! If they are defeated as part of an Ability that targets unrevealed cards, resolve the Summon card and then resolve the rest of the Ability against the Creature that was summoned.