Setting Up the Game

Game Size
• 3'x3' playing surface
• Avoid placing terrain on the very center of the board.
• For a 1.5 – 2 hour game, the following troupe sizes are recommended:
◦ 2-Player Game: 6 characters each
◦ 3-Player Game: 4 characters each
◦ 4-Player Game: 3 characters each

Grow Moonstones
One player should take seven 4-sided dice (or five for games with fewer than usual characters), hold them about
12-16” above the center of the board, then open their hand so that the dice drop. Leave them where they fall.
If any dice fall outside of the play area, they should be re-dropped from the center of the board.

Mulligan
If any player is unhappy with the Moonstone spread they may request a re-drop, called a Mulligan. No
player can call a Mulligan more than once.

Deployment
The player with the highest d6 roll chooses if they want to be the Early Bird or have Initiative.

• The Early Bird chooses a table edge and places down one model entirely within 10” of the table edge.
• The player with Initiative places down their first model entirely within 10” of the opposite table edge.
• Repeat the process until all models have been placed on the board.

3-4 Players:
The order deployment is the same order of their die rolls, from highest to lowest.
No player is considered to have Initiative.

Turns: Who Activates First?

• (The player with the highest score chooses which player activates first).
• Turn 1: If a player has Initiative, do not roll-off. That player is automatically considered the winner.
Otherwise, roll-off (1d6).
• Turn 2: Roll-off. A player with Initiative adds +2 to their roll.
• Turn 3: Roll-off. A player with Initiative adds +1 to their roll.
• Turn 4+: Roll-off.

Turn Steps

1: Replenish Step: 1 energy per each blue dot remaining on that card’s health bar.
2: Activation Step: players take turns to activate 1 unit at a time; the activation step repeats until all units have
been activated.
3: Discard Step: discard unspent energy and a new turn begins with the Replenish Step.
 Movement, Actions, and Modifiers

Movement Actions
• Jog (Cost 0 ): Once per turn. Can move up to 4” with as many changes of direction as desired.
Cannot move away from engaging enemy.
• Step (Cost 1 ): can move up to 1” in any direction (and can get out of engagement). Can also jump
down from an elevated surface (falling damage can happen).
• Traverse (Cost 2 ): Can move past an obstacle that is 1” thick or less. End up on the opposite side of
the obstacle, up to a maximum of 1” from the starting location of the model.
• Reaction Steps (Cost 1 ): After each action a character takes has been fully resolved, each opponent,
beginning with the player to the left of the active player, may declare that one of their models is making
a Reaction Step. The model can move up to 1”. Only one model per opponent is able to do this and only
once per each action taken by the active player.

Impediments to Movement
• Enemies: You cannot 'cross over' enemies.
• Gaps: A model can ‘squeeze’ through gaps made by any combination of items of terrain or friendly
models (but never enemy models). They must be able to end the move with sufficient room for their
base to be placed without overlapping anything.
◦ You cannot use abilities to move other models through gaps.
• Obstacles: Anything that hampers movement but doesn't entirely blocks it. (Can use Traverse action).
• Barriers: Objects that completely block movement. Might also block Line of Sight completely.
• Water: Can only be moved through using non-Jog movement, including movement from abilities.
• Wooded Patches: such as outcrop of trees or scrub-land. The whole patch is considered terrain. Can only
be moved through using non-Jog movement, including movement from abilities. Blocks Line of Sight
completely to models behind the Wooden Patch.
• Moonstones: You can move freely over Moonstones but may not end a move with the base overlapping
the dice.
• Slow: Jog actions are limited to 2”. Gained when a character is carrying a moonstone. If the character
already has the 'Slow' ability then there is no further cumulative effect.

Other Actions
• Harvest (Cost 1 ): reduce Depth Value on any Moonstone by –1. Once it reaches 0, the model gains
the moonstone. You may not take this action while engaged.
◦ There is no limit to the number of Moonstones a character can carry. A character cannot voluntarily
drop a Moonstone.
• Melee Attack (Cost 1 ): makes a Melee Attack against one model within Melee Range and LoS.
• Active Ability (Cost X , as listed): Perform the effect listed in the ability’s text.
• Arcane Ability (Cost X , as listed): Use the listed Arcane Ability.

Cover
• Intervening Objects: other models, obstacles, barriers that do not block LoS entirely, wooded patch
• Light Cover: if any of the possible LoS lines cross any intervening objects: –1 Arcane Card
• Heavy Cover: if a LoS line from the center of both bases crosses any intervening objects: –2 Arcane
Cards
• Ignore Nearby Objects: The active player may choose to ignore any friendly model or other intervening
objects that are within 1” of the originator of the ability for the purpose of determining cover.

Elevated Positions
If the attacker is higher than the target then they will gain +1 Arcane Stat (or +2 Melee Cards) for the action,
and for each full 2” higher the caster’s base is than the target’s base, they may add +1” to the range of their
Arcane Ability (max+6”), measured horizontally.
 Using Arcane Abilities

1 Choose Target: Spent the amount of energy listed in parentheses next to the Ability. Target any character
1 within listed Range and LoS. The caster (active character) can also target itself.

Draw Arcane Cards:

2
2 Caster’s Hand of Cards = Arcane Stat + Evade Stat of enemy target – cover (min. 1 card)
Target’s Hand of Cards = 6

Then choose 1 card, place it face down, and declare its number and color (or catastrophe). You can bluff.
Or you can choose to do nothing, end your action, and shuffle the Arcane Cards back into the deck.

Note: When targeting allies, do not factor their Evade stat. Also, if the target is not an enemy then the player to
the left of the caster is the resisting player and draws 6 cards.

Arcane Deck
Choose an Arcane Card: You can choose the necessary card (color and number) listed next to the ability. Or
* Three
you can colors:
lie and blue,
choose green, pink
anything else. Place*the
Three
card1's of down.
face each color * Two
Declare the 2'svalue
card’s of each color true or not).
(whether
* One 3's of each color * Three catastrophes

3
3 Call Bluff or Not: The resisting player must then call either “OK” or “Bluff”.

• OK = the caster does not reveal the card. Resolve the Ability’s effect as if the declared value was true.
• Bluff = the caster reveals the card:
◦ Caster was lying = the resisting player can choose any card from their hand to replace the caster’s
Arcane Card. Resolve the listed effect of the replacing card.
◦ Caster was telling the truth = the caster resolves the effects and can play the chosen Ability
again at 0 cost, using the remaining Cards in their hand. A new target may be chosen from the
same player. The same process of calling out Bluffs or OKs repeats until the cast has no more extra
actions.

4
4 Shuffle Cards: Players shuffle their Arcane Cards back into the Arcane Deck. .

Active Abilities that Use Arcane Cards

Active Abilities are not the same as Arcane Abilities, yet some Active Abilities require you to ‘flip an
Arcane Card’ to determine an effect. Draw a card from the top of the deck, then resolve effects, then
shuffle the card back to the deck.
 Melee Combat Sequence

1
1 Choose Target: Spend –1 and target enemy within Melee Range and LoS

2
2 Draw Melee Cards:
Attacker’s Hand of Cards = Melee Stat + 2 – 1 per extra enemy engaging you (min. 1 card)
Defender’s Hand of Cards = Melee Stat – 1 per extra enemy engaging you (min. 1 card)
Going For It: Once per round, before choosing a melee card to play, discard –1 to draw +2 cards.

Play Cards: Both players simultaneously place their chosen card face up on the table. You can place
3
3 duplicate cards of the same type.

4 Calculate Damage:
4
The damage you deal to your opponent is listed under the Deal column of your card, next to the name of
your opponent’s attack.

Damage Type: Choose one of the damage types listed on your Melee Card.

Critical Hits: When players place duplicate cards of the same type, they multiply the listed damage.
2 cards = x2 damage, 3 cards = x3 damage
This multiplication takes place before any further modifiers are added or subtracted.

Other Damage Modifiers:

• Defender automatically deals damage if attacker is outside of defender’s Melee Range
• Some passive abilities reduce the damage received.

Optional: Follow-Up Attacks

• Melee Card results highlighted in yellow allow you to make a Follow-up Attack.
• It costs 0 energy and you suffer no damage.
• You can play another Melee Card, score Critical Hits, and use Signature Moves as usual.

Optional: Signature Moves:

• Once all cards have been revealed, but before damage is calculated, upgrade any played matching card to
your character’s Signature Move.
• Use your Signature Move’s damage instead.
• Opponents can also upgrade if they have a matching card.
• Signature Moves also have special effects.
• If the Melee Cards being upgraded were a Critical Hit then all cards played become a copy of the
Signature Move. Multiply all damage and effects of the Signature Card.

5
5 The End Step: Some Signature Moves include events at the bottom of the card that occur now. Unless
specified otherwise, the effect still occurs even if the controlling character died.

6
6 Shuffle Cards: Players shuffle their Melee Cards back into the Melee Deck.
 Damage, Removal, and Winning the Game

Damage

Types: Impact, Piercing, Slicing or Magical

Wounds / Wds: Similar to damage, but does not have a type and cannot be modified. Filled in health boxes are
also referred to as Wds.

Wds Suffered From Falling (only abilities that use the term 'Directly Away' can cause a target to fall and suffer
wounds as if they had jumped):
0-2” : None
2-4” : 1/4 of total health boxes, rounding up
4-6” : 1/2 of total health boxes, rounding up
6+” : The character is Slain

Slain: Remove the character from the game, after first dropping all Moonstones carried. They land in base
contact with the victim (position determined by attacker), displaying a Depth Value of ‘1’ before the model is
removed from the board.

Removal From Play

The Board Edge: If a model’s base would overlap the edge of the board during a move, either voluntarily or as a
result of an enemy ability, then the model is Removed from Play. Other abilities might also make a model be
Removed from Play.

Characters which are Removed from Play do not count as Slain and do not drop Moonstones they are in
possession of.
Instead any Moonstones they are carrying are considered safe and included in the total number of Moonstones
your troupe has.

Characters which have been Removed from Play can only return if a specific ability instructs you to do so.

Winning the Game

The player with the most Moonstones in their possession at the end of Turn 4 (sunrise) is the winner.

If two or more players have an equal number of Moonstones, begin a new Sudden Death turn.
During the Sudden Death turn, if any player is ever in possession of more Moonstones than all other opponents,
they immediately win.
 Appendix: Definitions

Stats
(Note: All named abilities and Stat-increase effects ‘stack’ by default).

• Melee Stat – The number of Melee Cards the character draws when fighting in a Round of Melee.
• Range (Melee) – The range an enemy must be within for this character to declare it as a target of a
Melee Attack.
• Arcane Stat – The number of Arcane Cards this character draws when performing an Arcane Ability.
• Evade Stat – This represents how difficult it is for enemy characters to hit this model with a ranged
attack by modifying the number of Arcane Cards they draw.
• Passive Abilities – These are 'always-on' effects that apply bonuses or penalties to events that occur in
the game.
• Active Abilities – These are simple abilities that can be taken as actions by expending the amount of
energy noted in the brackets.
• Arcane Abilities – These are special abilities that can be taken as actions by discarding the amount of
energy noted in the brackets. They always begin with one or more coloured icons representing the
Arcane Cards which cause an effect when played.
• Energy – Energy is a character’s main resource. It is discarded each time the character takes actions and
is replenished at the start of each turn during the Replenish Step. However as characters suffer wounds
they begin to generate less energy. A character generates an amount of energy equal to the number of
blue dots remaining on their energy chart.
• Health Boxes – Each character has a certain number of health boxes which represent the amount of
damage they can suffer before being Slain. Each time the character suffers one or more wounds, the
controlling player should fill in a corresponding number of health boxes, starting from the right. When
all health boxes are filled in, the character is Slain.

Distances

• Measuring – Players can take measurements at any time and for any reason.
• Within – The distance between the originator’s base (or other given point) and the nearest part of the
target’s base is equal to or less than the given range.
• Entirely Within – Where the distance between the originator’s base (or other given point) and the
furthest part of the target’s base is equal to or less than the given range.
• Line of Sight / LoS – The ability to draw an unobstructed line along the playing surface from one
model’s base to another model, Moonstone, or terrain piece that the active player wishes to target with
an ability.

Misc

• Depth Value – The number shown on each die represents the difficulty of extracting it from the ground.
• Engagements – A model is considered to be engaging any enemy models that are within its Melee Range
and LoS. A model is considered to be engaged by any enemy models if it is within their Melee Range
and LoS. Engaged models cannot Harvest or take some actions as indicated in their cards.
• Gains / Restores – Some abilities allow characters to ‘restore’ resources such as energy or Wds while
others specify that the resource is ‘gained’. When ‘gain’ is used the character can exceed their usual
maximum, whereas ‘restore’ does not allow a character to exceed the starting values printed on their
card.
• Pulse – An area of effect (AoE) that affects all models within a given range, including the originator,
regardless of LoS.