Shadowscape Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Game Components
• Game Overview
• Game Setup
  • The Golden Rule
  • The Hero Area
  • Dungeon Room Features
• Player Turn
  • Action Phase
  • Boosting Actions
  • Skill Symbols
  • Disabled Action
• Player Actions
  • Move
  • Attack
  • Search
  • Prepare
  • Heal
• Special Actions
  • Claim Action
    • Claiming General Action Cards
    • Claiming Equipment Cards
    • Claiming Whisper Cards
  • Alter Fate Action
• Enemy Phase
  • Enemy Activation
  • Enemy Movement
  • Enemy Attacks
  • Dungeon Lord Activation
  • Enemy Spawn
• Shrines
• Game End
• Advanced Rules
• Cooperative Rules
  • Cooperative Setup
  • Alter Fate Action
  • Game End
  • Difficulty Levels
  • Drawing Fate Cards

Introduction

Shadowscape is a 2-4 player game set in the world of Mistfall and Heart of the Mists. During the game, players will move their Heroes around a randomly generated dungeon, managing their tableau of Actions and their hand of Fate Cards, facing Enemies and gaining Equipment, all while trying to be the first to fulfil conditions on face up Whisper Cards, that grant them Shadow Shards which determine the winner of the game.

Game Components

220 cards:

• 60 Fate Cards
• 25 Room Cards
• 13 Hero Cards
• 52 Hero Action Cards
• 16 General Action Cards
• 9 Enemy Cards
• 17 Equipment Cards
• 19 Whisper Cards
• 5 Lord of the Dungeon Cards
• 4 Player Aid Cards

106 tokens:

• 30 Enemy tokens
• 10 Treasure tokens
• 40 Wound tokens
• 13 Hero tokens
• 5 Lord of the Dungeon tokens

Enemy tokens come in three types: Brigand, Beast and Undead.

Game Overview

A competitive game of Shadowscape is played over a number of consecutive player turns. Each turn, the active player will perform 2 Actions using their Action Cards to move, attack enemies, search the dungeon rooms, heal and draw Fate Cards. Each turn a player can also claim one card: a piece of valuable Equipment, a new Action Card or a Whisper Card. After the Lord of the Dungeon is slain, and the corresponding Whisper card is claimed, each player will resolve their last turn, and the game will end, with the player who managed to gather the most Shadow Shards emerging as the winner and champion of Shadowscape.

A cooperative game is played using the same turn structure. However players win or lose as a team. You will find the cooperative game rules in the Cooperative Rules section at the end of this booklet.

Game Setup

1. Set aside the Hero Starting Rooms (these 4 cards are double-sided, and each has only 2 doors), and shuffle the remaining Room Cards. Then, form the dungeon as a 5 by 5 grid, with the Hero Starting Rooms forming the corners of the board. Make sure that each Hero Starting Room is placed in such a way that its existing doors line up with adjacent room doors.
2. Separate the Whisper Cards into two piles according to the numbers of Shadow Shards (1, 2, 3). Then, shuffle the 1 and 2 stacks separately. Draw 2 value 2 cards. Shuffle the drawn 2 cards with the 3 Whisper card, and place them face-down on the table. Next, place a number of 2 Whisper cards equal to the number of players face-down on top of them. Then, place a number of 1 Whisper cards equal to 3 plus the number of players face-down on top of the deck. Any remaining Whisper cards are returned to the game box. Draw 4 Whisper cards and place them face-up on the table.
3. Shuffle all Equipment cards to form an Equipment deck. Draw 4 and place them face-up on the table.
4. Shuffle all General Action cards to form an Action deck. Draw 4 and place them face-up on the table.
5. Shuffle the Fate Cards and form a face-down Fate deck.
6. Divide tokens according to their backs into Beast, Brigand, and Undead Enemies, and Treasures. Place each type in a separate face-down pile. Make a separate pile with Wound tokens. Then, draw and place face-up a Beast Enemy on each Beast symbol in the dungeon. Repeat this process for Brigand and Undead Enemies, placing 1 token on each Brigand and each Undead symbol. Finally, repeat this process for Treasure tokens, placing 1 on each Treasure symbol in the dungeon.
7. If you are playing the advanced game, place all Regular Enemy Cards face up next to the dungeon. Otherwise place them back in the game box, they will not be used.
8. Draw 1 Lord of the Dungeon reference card and place it next to the dungeon, with the Competitive side face-up. Place the matching Lord of the Dungeon token next to the card.
9. Randomly determine the first player. Starting from the last player (the player sitting left of the first player) and proceeding in reverse turn order, each player now chooses a Hero Card, takes all the Hero Action Cards belonging to that Hero (recognizable by their Hero symbol) and 1 Player Aid card. Those cards are placed in front of the player (players may freely choose the face-up side of each Action Card), thus forming their Hero Area. After everyone has chosen their Heroes, once again starting from the last player and proceeding in reverse turn order, each player places their Hero token in one of the Hero Starting Rooms. If you own the Heroes of Mistfall Miniatures Pack, you can replace Hero tokens with their respective miniatures. Each Hero Starting Room may contain no more than 1 Hero token.

You are now ready to play Shadowscape.

The Golden Rule

Some cards or Hero special abilities will contradict the rules from this booklet. Whenever such a conflict occurs, the card rules trump the rules written herein.

The Hero Area

All the Action Cards and tokens in your possession, excluding the Fate Cards in your hand, are considered to be in your Hero Area.

Dungeon Room Features

On the dungeon room cards you will find 4 types of features: Lairs, Treasures, Shadow Shards and Shrines. An Enemy symbol (Beast, Brigand or Undead) printed on a room card is a Lair, belonging to the Enemy type depicted (so, a Beast Lair refers to a Beast symbol printed on a dungeon card, etc.). Treasure symbols signify spaces on which Treasure tokens will be placed at the start of the game, and whenever the Fate deck is reshuffled. Shadow Shard symbols are counted at the end of the game, when determining the winner. All other symbols represent Shrines, described in detail in the Shrines section.

Player Turn

Your turn in Shadowscape will consist of two main phases: the Action Phase and the Enemy Phase.

Action Phase

During the Action Phase you will perform 2 Actions. To perform an Action, choose one of your Action Cards and follow the text in the middle section of the card. After you perform the Action, flip the card to the other side. For the rest of your current turn it is considered exhausted, and cannot be used again (mark this by tilting that Action card).

Boosting Actions

Most Actions can be boosted. The bottom space of the Action Card you are using will show you the symbol you can use to boost the Action (Movement, Regular Attack, Magic Attack, Search, Heal, etc.). If the bottom section of the card contains no symbol, the action may not be boosted.

To generate a given symbol, simply discard a Fate Card with that symbol from your hand, and add 1 to the Action's effect. Discarding a Fate Card has no further effect, but you can discard as many cards as you want when boosting an Action. Some items and Special Abilities will also allow you to generate Action Symbols without discarding a Fate Card.

Actions are also boosted by Shrines. Shrines are covered in the Shrines section of these rules.

Skill Symbols

Some Actions can also be boosted with or based on Skill Symbols. Whenever these symbols are referred to, simply count the number of Skill Symbols currently visible in your Hero Area, and use that number instead of the Skill Symbol.

Example I: Aseke is about to draw Fate Cards, using one of her Action Cards [187 A]. Since there are 3 Skill symbols currently visible on Action Cards in her Hero Area, she will draw 3 Fate Cards.

Disabled Action

An Action Card with at least 1 Wound token cannot be used. Only an Action Card with no Wound tokens may be used to perform an Action. However, any Skill Symbols on disabled cards are still considered to be in your Hero Area. Please note that a Hero special ability printed on their Hero Card is never disabled, even when there are Wounds on the Hero Card.

Player Actions

Below follows a descriptions of Actions available to you during your turn. The symbol following the Action description is the one most usually used to boost it. However, some Action Cards in the game will break this rule.

Move

To perform a Move Action, choose any 1 of your Action Cards and ignore its text. Flip that card. On your Hero Card you will find a Movement Attribute, which will tell you how many movement points you will generate. You can boost this Action with Movement symbols. Each movement point allows you to enter an adjacent room (only rooms connected by doorways are considered adjacent). If you enter a room with at least 1 Enemy, you must stop regardless of how many movement points you have left. You may perform another Move Action on the same turn (provided you are still allow to perform an Action), to move out of the room.

Example II: Fengray wants to perform a Move Action. He uses one of his cards, ignoring its printed effect, and immediately receives Move equal to the Movement attribute on his Hero Card. With the generated Move 1, he can now move to an adjacent room. If he decided to boost the Action, he would still have to stop upon entering a room with an Enemy.

Attack

There are two types of attacks: a Regular Attack and a Magic Attack. The main difference between these types of attacks is that they are boosted with different Action Symbols (Regular Attack and Magic Attack symbols respectively).

In order to perform an Attack, use a card that allows you to attack an Enemy, choose a target (as described by the Action description on the card), and deal damage to the Enemy. Damage may be boosted according to the Action Symbol on the Action Card chosen. If you deal damage equal to or higher than the target's Defence, the Enemy is eliminated, and you can take its token as a Trophy and place it in your Hero Area.

You may not have more than a total of 3 Trophies and Treasure tokens (in any combination) in your Hero Area. If you add a fourth token, you must discard down to 3 (you may discard the newly acquired token as well).

You are not allowed to target another Hero with an Attack Action.

Example III: Arani performs a Regular Attack against a Redsand Thrall in the same dungeon room. [Card 144 A] The Regular Attack allows her to deal 2 damage. Since that is not enough to eliminate the Thrall, Arani boosts the Action by discarding a Fate Card with a Regular Attack symbol from her hand. Now she deals a total of 3 damage, which is equal to Redsand's Thrall Defence, thus eliminating this Enemy. Arani immediately takes the Enemy token and places it as a Trophy in her Hero Area.

Search

Searching works the same way as Attacking. However, Search Actions target Treasure tokens, not Enemies. If the number of search points you generate with this Action is equal to or higher than the Search value of a Treasure token located in the same room as your Hero token, you may take the Treasure and place it in your Hero Area.

Some Whisper cards require a player to perform a Search Action in a specific room. That Search Action may be performed even if there is no Treasure in that room. However, if there is a Treasure token there, you may take it, provided you generate enough Search points. If a Search Action allows you to search an adjacent room, you are considered to be in that room for the duration of the Search Action.

Prepare

A Prepare Action allows you to draw Fate Cards into your hand. Whenever performing this Action, simply follow the instructions printed on the Action card you are using. Whenever Hand Size is referred, check the Hand Size attribute on your Hero Card. The Hand Size is only enforced during a Prepare Action, so if a game effects leaves you with more Fate Cards in your hand, you do not have to discard them.

Prepare Actions cannot be boosted, but your Hand Size can be temporarily raised by a Foresight Shrine or a piece of Equipment.

Example IV: Celenthia decides that it is time to draw some Fate Cards. She uses a Prepare Action that allows her to draw 3 Fate Cards [148 B]. Since she already had 2 cards in her hand, after resolving the Action, Celenthia now has 5 Fate Cards in her hand. The card she used also states that after drawing, Celenthia must discard down to her current hand size. Since her hand size is 4, she now has to discard 1 Fate Card from her hand.

Heal

A Heal Action allows you to remove Wound tokens from your Hero and Action Cards. For each healing point generated by this Action, you can discard 1 Wound back into the general supply. This Action is boosted by Heal Action Symbols.

Remember that any card with 1 or more Wound tokens is disabled and you cannot use it. Cards with the Heal Action cannot be disabled by any game effects.

Example V: Venda performs a Heal Action, using a card that allows her to discard a total of 4 Wounds from her Hero Area [157 A]. She removes 2 Wounds from one of her Action Cards [159 A] making it immediately available, and proceeds to remove 2 more Wounds from her Hero Card. As she has no more Wounds in her Hero Area, Venda decides not to boost the Action.

Special Actions

During your Action Phase you may also perform 2 Special Actions. Each Special Action can only be performed once per player turn by the active player. You may perform a Special Action before, after or between your Player Actions. To perform a Special Action, you do not need to use an Action Card. Special Actions cannot be boosted.

Claim Action

Once per turn, you may take one of the face-up cards: an Equipment card, a General Action card or a Whisper card. If you claim any one of those cards, you are not allowed to claim another card, even if you have everything you need to do so. Immediately after claiming a card, replenish the offer from the relevant deck.

Claiming General Action Cards

You can spend a number of Treasure and/or Enemy tokens (in any combination) to claim a General Action Card. The number of tokens spent is represented on the card by a number of token symbols.

After expending the tokens, if you do not have any General Action Cards, simply place it next to your Hero Action Cards (thus making it available for you to use) choosing any of its sides to start face-up. If you already have a General Action Card, you must immediately tuck either the new, or the old General Action Card under your Hero Card (discard any Wound tokens from the old General Action Card). You may not use an Action Card tucked under your Hero Card, and you may not return it to your tableau of Action Cards.

Please note that you may inspect both sides of each of the Action Cards on the table, excluding the one on top of the General Actions pile.

Example VI: Having slain 2 Enemies (a Redsand Thrall and a Ghoren Warrior) and found 1 Treasure token, Ardenai decides to claim a new and rather expensive Action Card [132 A]. He discards the 2 Trophies and 1 Treasure to take the card. Since he already has a General Action Card [130 A], he decides to tuck it under his Hero Cards, thus exchanging it for his newly claimed card.

Claiming Equipment Cards

You can spend 1 Treasure token to claim an Equipment Card. You may have only one of each Clothing and Trinket and up to 2 Weapons. If you already have an Equipment Card in excess of the limit, immediately place it under the Equipment deck. You may also claim an Equipment card even if your profession (Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Wizard) prevents you from using its benefit, as noted on the card. Such an item may still be kept for Whisper card claiming purposes.

Example VII: During his turn Melekai discards 1 Treasure token to take the Versatile Blade card. Since he already has a Light Bow in his Hero Area (a Weapon, just like the Versatile Blade), he moves the Bow under the Equipment deck and places the Blade in his Hero Area.

Claiming Whisper Cards

You can claim a Whisper card immediately after you fulfilled its claim condition. You do not have to discard any Enemy or Treasure tokens to do so, you simply need to have them. A claimed Whisper card is placed under your Hero Card. For ease of play, a Whisper card displays the place you need to get to at the top (if you need to be in a specific room), and the items required at the bottom.

After claiming a Whisper card, if you reveal the 3 Shadow Shard Whisper Card, immediately place the Dungeon Lord token in the centre location of the dungeon. From that moment on, players may attack the Dungeon Lord as if it was a Regular Enemy.

Alter Fate Action

Once during your Action Phase you may also play exactly 1 Fate Card for its text effect. If you do so, follow the text on the bottom text part of the card (with the red background). In the competitive game you completely ignore the top (green) part of the text box. Please note that a room is considered empty, if it contains no Hero tokens and no Enemy tokens.

Enemy Phase

After concluding your Action Phase, draw 1 Fate card from the deck and look at the bottom symbol. You need to activate each Enemy in the dungeon with that symbol. If there are no Enemies with the displayed symbol in play, no Enemies are activated, but you must perform an Enemy Spawn.

Whenever the Fate deck runs out, reshuffle the discard pile and place 1 random Treasure token on each Treasure symbol in the dungeon that is not covered with a Treasure token.

Enemy Activation

An activated Enemy first moves, and then attacks (if in the same room as or in range of a Hero). Immediately after an Enemy activates, check if there are any Heroes in its range. A Hero is in an Enemy's range if the Hero is in the same room as an Enemy with a Melee Attack, or if the Hero is in the same room or in a room adjacent to an Enemy with a Ranged Attack (for more info, see Enemy Attacks).

If an Enemy has any Heroes in range the Enemy does not move, but is still considered activated. Repeat the above procedure every time an activated Enemy enters a new room: if the Enemy has a Hero in range, movement stops. Otherwise, the Enemy continues his movement.

Enemy Movement

To move an Enemy, follow the symbols printed at the top of the Enemy token from left to right. The Enemy will first move into an adjacent room through a door with the leftmost symbol. When determining the direction of the movement, take into account the symbol on the doorway of the room the Enemy is in, and not the room it is moving into. If an Enemy has more than 1 movement symbol, keep repeating the procedure until all symbols are resolved from left to right.

Also, when resolving Enemy movement, follow the rules below:

• Following the movement symbols may lead to an Enemy doubling back into the same room. If that would be the case, do not return the Enemy to the room, simply ignore the symbol and proceed to the next one (if any are left).
• If a symbol would lead an Enemy out of the board, ignore it and proceed to the next symbol.

Example VIII: The below Enemy will first move through the door with the first symbol, then through the door with the second symbol, and then again through the door with the third symbol.

Example IX: A Ghoren Slinger starts his activation in an empty room. Since the Slinger is a Ranged Enemy, all adjacent rooms are also checked for Heroes. Since no Heroes are there, the Ghoren Slinger moves to an adjacent room as guided by the movement symbol. There the range is checked. Since a Hero (Venda) is in one of the adjacent rooms, the Ghoren Slinger stops his movement here, getting ready to attack.

After an Enemy has moved (or remained in a room with a Hero), each activated Enemy attacks a Hero if able. If there are more Enemies able to attack during a turn, the active player may decide the order. If there is more than one choice for a target of an Enemy attack, it is also up to the active player to choose the target.

Enemy Attacks

There are two types of Enemy attacks: Melee and Ranged. A Melee Attack deals damage to one Hero in the same room as the attacking Enemy. A Ranged Attack deals damage to one Hero in the same or in an adjacent room.

When you are dealt damage, first cancel part of it using your Hero's Defence Attribute (on your Hero Card). You may boost your Defence using Defence symbols generated by discarding Fate Cards.

For every point of damage you were unable to cancel, place 1 Wound in your Hero Area, covering up a Wound symbol on your Hero Card or on any of your Action Cards. Wounds placed on your Hero Card have no effect, but Wounds placed on your Action Cards disable them. If all of the Wound symbols in your Hero Area are covered, any further Wounds are discarded without effect.

Example X: Durgen is being attacked by a Renegade Flamecaster. The Flamecaster's Ranged Attack is 4, of which 2 will be cancelled by Durgen's Defence. Durgen will also discard 1 Fate card with the Defence symbol to cancel 1 extra damage. Finally, Durgen will place 1 Wound on his Hero Card. This will not impact any of his capabilities, as a Hero Card is never disabled.

Dungeon Lord Activation

If the Dungeon Lord token is on the board, the Dungeon Lord activates during every Enemy Phase and attacks one Hero in their room. The Dungeon Lord never moves.

Enemy Spawn

If there are no Enemies of the type indicated by the Fate Card drawn, draw Enemy tokens of the indicated type and place them face up in the dungeon, until you have placed exactly 1 on each Enemy symbol (Beast, Brigand or Undead). If there are not enough Enemies in the pile, turn the discarded Enemies face down to form a new pile. If there are still not enough Enemy tokens of a given type, spawn as many as possible. As with attacking, the active player may choose which Enemy Lairs will not spawn new Enemies.

Please note: A spawned Enemy is not considered activated. It will not move or attack this turn.

Shrines

Apart from Lairs, some Dungeon Rooms also contain Shrines. Below you will find a list of effects of those Shrines on Heroes in their dungeon rooms:

• Arcane Shrine: Generates a +1 boost to any Actions requiring Magic Attack symbols.
• Battle Shrine: Generates a +1 boost to any Actions requiring Regular Attack symbols.
• Health Shrine: Generates a +1 boost to any Actions requiring Heal symbols.
• Armour Shrine: Generates a +1 Defence for an attacked Hero.
• Foresight Shrine: Allows a Hero who performs the Prepare Action to draw and keep 1 extra Fate Card.
• Hero Shrine: Generates +1 Skill symbol for a Hero in the same Location.

Game End

After the Dungeon Lord Whisper card is claimed by one player, all other players receive one more turn. During those final turns, each player may choose not to perform their Enemy Phase. After each player has had their turn, the game ends and points are scored.

Each player counts all Shadow Shards printed on any cards in their possession (including cards in their Hero Area and cards tucked under their Hero Card). For double-sided cards, Shadow Shards are printed on both sides for ease of play. They are not counted twice. Also, if a Hero ends the game in a room with a Shadow Shard symbol, the Shadow Shard is added to their total. The player with the most Shards is the winner. In case of a tie, the player closer to the one with the Lord of the Dungeon Whisper cards (from the players who tied) is the winner.

Advanced Rules

When you have played Shadowscape a few times, you may also add Regular Enemy Reference cards to your game. Those cards add special abilities to the Enemy tokens, as explained on those cards.

Cooperative Rules

If you are looking for a cooperative game experience, the rules detailed in this section will allow you to stand against the perils of Shadowscape with other players as allies, and not adversaries. In order to prepare and play a cooperative game of Shadowscape incorporate the rules modifications detailed below.

Cooperative Setup

When preparing the Whispers deck, follow the default procedure but do not remove any cards from the game. Also, when setting up the Lord of the Dungeon, make sure that the Cooperative side of the card is face up.

Alter Fate Action

When performing this Action, use the top (green) part of the Fate Card's text box. The bottom (red) part is completely ignored in the cooperative game.

Game End

Unlike the competitive game of Shadowscape, the cooperative game ends immediately after:

• The Lord of the Dungeon is eliminated. In this case, you win the game.
• The Fate Card deck runs out. In this case, you lose the game.
• If both of the above conditions occur at the same time, the game is considered a victory for the Heroes.

Difficulty Levels

Using the Regular Enemy Reference cards to your game will make cooperative Shadowscape more challenging. Other ways of increasing the difficulty level include:

• Drawing 2 Fate Cards at the end of each Player Turn, while activating Enemies.
• Starting the game by discarding 5 (Challenging), 10 (Difficult) or 15 (Very Difficult) cards from the top of the Fate Deck to the discard pile.

Drawing Fate Cards

Whenever a player performs an Action that allows drawing a given number of Fate Cards, that player must draw all of the cards he or she is allowed to draw, unless the Action specifically allows for drawing "up to" a given number.