Soulfall
Soulfall Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Place the board in the middle of the play area (use the 2-player side for a 2-player game / the 3-4 player side for a 3 or 4 player game). Shuffle the Lord cards and deal 4 to each player, face down, forming their hand. Make a pile of the remaining Lord cards, face down, within reach of all players. Take the top card of this pile and place it face up next to the pile, forming the discard pile. Put the Devotion cards, as well as the Tower card, near the play area. Give each player a Nomad card and the 10 corresponding Nomad markers. Each player takes 1 Shard, then place the other Shards near the play area. Give the 3 Action cards to the oldest player.
Starting with the youngest player, then clockwise, each player places 1 of their Nomad markers on a free space of the board. The oldest player begins the game.
Playing Soulfall
Each player is the leader of a nomad tribe, guiding it across a desert land. Along the way they will grow their tribe, build Outposts, try to win the favour of the Lords, and collect Shards, while preventing the other players from doing the same. The player with the highest score at the end of the game wins.
On the back of each Nomad card is a player aid summarizing the rules, how to score points, and the end-game conditions.
Turn Order
Soulfall is played over several turns. On a player's turn, they take and use the 3 Action cards to perform various actions. These are detailed on the cards. A player cannot perform the same action several times in a turn. They must use all 3 cards. Once they have played these 3 Action cards, their turn ends and the turn of the player to their left begins. If they have triggered an end-game condition, they take the Tower card.
Actions
Each Action card lists the various actions available to the player during their turn. A player performs 3 different actions and passes 1 Action card from their hand to the side of the play area.
- Remember that a player cannot perform the same action several times during their turn!
Draw
The player draws 2 cards from the Lord pile, chooses one to put in their hand, then discards the other.
- The card on top of the discard pile represents the current Lord.
- If there are not enough cards in the draw pile, the discard pile is shuffled and added to any remaining cards of the pile, then the top card of that pile is turned over and placed on the discard pile.
- There is no limit to the size of a player's hand.
Populate
The player places 1 Nomad marker from their reserve on a free space of the board, adjacent to 1 of their Nomad or Outpost markers.
- A player's last Nomad marker can never be removed from the board.
Prosper
The player takes 1 Shard from the supply.
- A player's last Shard can never be taken or lost.
Build
If the player has more Nomads than Outposts on the board, they may flip 1 of their Nomad markers.
- A player's last Nomad marker can never be removed from the board.
Devote
The player chooses and discards a Lord card from their hand and takes either the Devotion to a Lord card discarded near the play area, or that of another player, and places it face up in their personal reserve.
A player is devoted to a Lord if they have that Devotion to a Lord card in their personal reserve.
- A player may be devoted to an unlimited number of Lords.
Each Lord has 3 corresponding unique Lord cards. Any Lord card may be discarded to acquire that Devotion to a Lord card.
Play
The player chooses a Lord card from their hand, reveals it, performs its ability, then places it on the discard pile.
Each Lord card has 2 abilities. The top one usually grants the player an Action or a choice of Actions. The bottom one is always tied to a situation, and can only be performed if its conditions are met. If a player is able to use both abilities, they must. In that case, they perform the top one first and then the bottom one.
Some Lord cards also allow a player to perform a specific action more than once during their turn. For example, if the player has already used the Populate action, and chooses the Play action to play a Lord card that says Populate, they may Populate again.
Some Lord cards allow the player to Destroy. To Destroy, the player selects an opponent's Nomad marker on the board and returns it to that player's reserve.
- A Lord card does not go to the discard pile until its abilities have been performed.
End of the Game
Once a player is in possession of the Tower card, each other player takes one additional turn and then the game ends. A player must take the Tower card if, at the end of their turn:
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They have 8 or more Shards and/or
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They have 4 or more Outpost markers on the board and/or
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They have 2 or fewer Nomad markers left in their reserve
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Once a player takes the Tower card, nothing can prevent the end of the game.
Scoring
Each player scores points according to their tribe's achievements throughout the game. They score a number of points equal to:
(their Nomad markers played + their Devotion cards) Multiplied by (their Shards + their Outposts)
- Beware: the parentheses are important for calculating scores!
The player with the Tower card adds 5 points to their final score.
In case of a tie, the player with the most Shards wins. If the tie persists, the tied players compare their number of Nomads played; the one with the most wins.
Example
Will, the Yellow player, scores 42 points. He has played 5 Nomads, 4 Shards, 2 Outposts and 2 Devotion cards.
(5 Nomads + 2 Devotion cards) = 7 Multiplied by (2 Outposts + 4 Shards) = 6 7 x 6 = 42.
To make counting easier, Small Box Games recommends that each player remove their played Nomads and Outposts and place them on their player aids at the end of the game.