by Satoshi Nakamura

retheme by Monkey
rulebook by TmGergo
(based on the rulebooks by Z-Man Games and Whats Your Game?)

Contents

100 cards
this rulebook

Number of players
From 2 to 5 Players
(2 to 4 with Simplified rules)

Purpose of the game

Achieve the highest possible score. The score is calculated by summing the value of the cards each player will
have in front of him/her at the end of the game.

Preparation
Shuffle the cards and place the deck in the middle of the table where every player can reach it. This will be the
draw pile.

Order of play
The game proceeds in the following order:
Stage 1) Drafting
Stage 2) Playing cards
Stage 3) Drafting
Stage 4) Playing cards
Stage 5) Drafting
Stage 6) Playing cards
Stage 7) Drafting
Stage 8) Playing cards
Stage 9) Calculating points

Drafting
Drafting follows these five steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Deal five cards to each player face down from the draw pile.
When the dealer gives the signal, each player picks up his or her cards and chooses one of them.
Each player places the card they have chosen face down in front of them.
Each player then passes the remaining cards in their hand to the player next to them. For the 1st and
3rd draft pass to your left, for the 2nd and 4th draft pass to your right.
5. Repeat steps 2) through 5) until no one has any more cards in hand.

You are allowed to look at the cards you have chosen at any time.

Playing your cards

After a draft is complete you will have 5 cards in front of you. You may play 3 of these, one at a time. Play
your cards in the following manner:
1. Choose one card from your hand and place it on the table face down.
2. Once all players have placed their chosen cards face down, everyone turns their chosen card face up.
3. Look at the face up cards and apply any effects they might have. (See ahead Reading the cards - Card
effects)

Repeat steps 1) through 3) three times. Each player should have three played cards in front of them and two
unused cards still in their hand. Each player then places their two unused cards face down in the discard pile.
Every time you finish playing the cards in your hand, you should have three more cards in front of you. So
after Stage 2 you have 3 cards, after Stage 4 you have 6 cards, after Stage 6 you have 9 cards, and after Stage 8
you have 12 cards on the table in front of you.

End of the game and scoring

When the 4th draft (Stage 7) is finished and all cards have been played (Stage 8), it is time to calculate points
(Stage 9).
Some cards could be in the closed state (face down), because of the effects applied during the game. These
cards must be removed from the table as they are worth 0 (zero) points and cannot be used to obtain points.
Each player calculates his/her score summing up the value of his/her played cards. (See ahead Reading the
cards - Scoring.) The player achieving the highest score is the winner.

Reading the cards - Header

In the header of each card the following information is reported:

Faction: the faction the card belongs to

Card type: the type of the card
Number of cards: the total number of copies of the card in the deck
Scoring data: can be specific, conditional or variable (See ahead Reading the cards - Scoring)

Example:

Factions
Each card belongs to one of the following factions:

Card types
Each card has one of the following types:

Reading the cards - Card effects

Some of the cards produce an effect in the very moment in which they are played. The effect, to whom the
effect is applied and which faction or card type is affected are illustrated on the right side of the card.
The effects are:

Depending on the indicated symbol, the effects are applied to:

The faction or card type affected by the effect is also indicated. The special Any symbol indicates that any
card regardless of its faction and type may be affected (the number shows the number of affected cards):

The Open effect

Turn a face down (closed) card face up.

The Close effect

Turn a face up (open) card face down.

The Hunt effect

The Hunt effect only applies to the other cards revealed at the same time. Hunt does not affect cards that
were already played. Cards targeted by Hunt are put into play face down. Any effects on the targeted cards
(other than Hunt) are not applied.

Effect order
In case several cards with an effect are played simultaneously, the order with which the effects are applied is as
follows:
1. Hunt
2. Open
3. Close

Open and Close may affect the card that generates them as well.

Example:
A player plays a Holy Empire card, which has the effect you close one
Holy Empire card. The player also has another Holy Empire card face
up in front of him. Because both cards belong to the Holy Empire
faction the player may choose which one is affected and to be closed.

If multiple Open and Close effects are revealed at the same time apply as many of them as possible doing
all Open effects first then all Close effects.
If a player has no cards of the faction or type that is affected, he can ignore the effect.
Effect examples:

the player playing

this card opens two
of his/her cards of
any faction/type

all players close

one of their Holy
Empire cards

hunt all players

Shadow Kingdom
cards
(revealed together
with this card)

Reading the cards - Scoring

Cards with specific scoring
Cards with no footer (or having only the Ally symbol in their footer) have a specific scoring value. These
cards worth their scoring value when calculating points (Stage 9).

Conditional cards
Cards with the type of Tale have high scoring values but worth this value only if the condition in their footer
is satisfied, otherwise they worth 0 (zero) points.
The condition may be:
a) having the highest number of cards with a specific faction/card type (even if there is a tie between
players)
b) having a specific combo of several cards
c) having X (or more) number of a specific card (Note: The Any symbol in the footer shows only the
required number of cards. The card itself is represented by the artwork under the symbol.)
Condition examples:

Condition a) Having the highest number of Shadow Kingdom cards

Condition b) Having 2 Fairy Wood and 2 Holy Empire cards

Condition c) Having played the card shown on the artwork (Holy Empire 3)

Condition c) Having played at least 2 of the card shown on the artwork (Fairy Wood 1)

Variable cards
Cards with the X mark in their scoring data have variable values. The value of the card (X) equals the number
of required cards that the player has in front of him/her. The required card is indicated in the footer of the
card by its artwork.
The card worth X points or X*3 points depending on the multiplier shown in the footer of the card. Cards
with multiplier x1 always require themselves. Cards with x3 require another card from the deck they are allied
with. The required card has the Ally symbol and the artwork of the card it is required by in its footer.

Ally symbol

Examples:

Example 1: This card requires itself (as indicated in its footer). The
player played three copies of the card and so its value (X) is 3. The
multiplier in the footer is x1. The card worth 3x1 = 3 points.
This applies for all three copies of the card, altogether they worth
3*3 = 9 points.

Example 2: The Dragon Valley card on the right requires the Holy Empire card(s) on the left (this alliance is
indicated in both cards footer). The player played three copies of the Ally card and so the Dragon Valley
cards value (X) is 3. Its multiplier is x3. It worth 3x3 = 9 points.
Note: Calculating the Holy Empire cards value is independent of their ally card in the example above. They
all worth their specific 3 points.

The Trickster
The Trickster is the only card with the Almighty ability indicated with the following symbol in the cards
footer:

Almighty symbol
When scoring points, this card may be treated as having any single other card in order to gain variable points
(as a copy of the required card) or to satisfy a condition requiring the ownership of other specific cards
(condition c). You may only choose one other card to copy for The Trickster per game.
The Trickster does not copy the chosen cards faction, type, scoring data and scoring condition. E.g. it doesnt
count when scoring with conditional rules a) and b) (See Conditional cards).
Even if The Trickster copies another card, it still counts as -1 point when scoring.

Simplified rules
Remove from the deck the cards that have Hunt or Almighty effect or Conditional scoring (20 cards).

Team play rules

This is a 4-player game variant. First, the players form two teams of two. Next, sit at the table so you are
across from your partner. When playing a pair match, you should always consider what cards your partner is
playing.
The game is played as normal except for calculating scores. In the pair match, you win if the total score for
your team is higher than that of your opponent's team. Scores are calculated individually for all players before
totaling team scores.

Richard Garfield's team play rules

Play just as in the Team play rules above except all Shadow Kingdom cards have this additional effect,
"Exchange one of your cards in play for one of your partner's cards in play". This can be any card you have in play,
including the Shadow Kingdom card just played.
Exchange effects apply after Close effects are applied when playing cards. In other words, the order of effects
is:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Hunt
Open
Close
Exchange