The Brave and the Desperate
Everybody wants something. Some are desperate to restore the world that existed before the fall. Some want redemption. Some want respect. There is desire in every heart, and a shard for every desire.
The Gnomads are not particularly tough, but they're fast, which makes them a flexible force when they stick together. They seek the shards which will keep their clockwork machinery ticking.
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The Guild
The Venerable Guild of Mages is older than the Empire itself. This group of elderly witches and wizards has spent most of the last century in the Guild's vast library, studying, debating, and advising the ruling class.
They have age and power in common, but very little else. One thing they can agree on is the need to preserve magic, and to restore and protect their library.
The mages are powerful, but fragile, spellcasters, supported by Lunk, their mobile librarian. They seek to hoard and protect the rare magics trapped within certain shards, for the use of future generations.
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The Lawbringers
When the Empire fell, and the border towns were deserted, one small militia was left with a choice: leave the prisoners in their cells to die, or set them loose.
The sheriff and her deputy agreed on a third option: conscription. Working with a drunken minotaur, a serial delinquent and a murderous satyr to bring law and order back to the Wildlands might seem like a fool's errand, but all it takes is a little faith.
The Lawbringers are tough in a fight, and each character has their own speciality. They seek only the shards which will help them restore the rule of law.
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The Gnomad
The roving bands of blacksmiths, tinkerers, and artificers who travel the old roads were named for the gnomes, but are composed of many races (so long as they are small enough to fit into the caravans).
Extremely hard-working, most wagon-riders have a loyalty that rivals family.
The gnomes Tak and Elsie have a particular talent for clockwork, giving Elsie back the mobility she had lost, and bringing life to their helper, Automate. All they're trying to do is keep each other alive.
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The Pit Fighters
Warriors. Killers. Monsters. Slaves, prisoners and professional gladiators were made to fight for the Empire's entertainment, but who is left for them to entertain?
Who do an elvish assassin, an angry gnoll, orc siblings and a mysterious challenger have left to trust but each other? Now they are free, where will they go? And who is going to stand in their way?
The Pit Fighters are extremely dangerous up close, as they are exclusively focussed on melee combat. They seek powerful shards to keep themselves free.
Card Breakdown
Character Card
Each character has a character card showing three things:
A character icon which matches the action cards for their faction.
. A number indicating their health.
The character's name.
Action Cards
Action cards have a column of scales 4 and a column of flags 5. If a character 's icon appears in a scale 6, then that card can be used to move that character.
A flag beside a character icon indicates an action that character can take instead of movement. A character's icon will always appear in the same position on cards in their faction's deck.
Some cards have a flag which is not attached to any character icon 7. This is an open action, an action that any of that faction 's characters can take. Open actions cannot be used for movement, unless indicated by the flag.
Some cards in each deck will only have wild actions, some of which apply to the player rather than the characters. Each action card also has artwork of a character from that faction, which has no in-game effect.
Faction Cards
These provide a breakdown of which characters can take which actions, and how frequently they occur in that faction's action card deck.
Map Cards
The smaller map cards show a number between 1 and 42. These relate to spaces on the map, and are used during setup.
Map Breakdown
The board has two maps, the dungeon and the ruins, which have 42 spaces each. For your first game, we recommend playing in the dungeon. These symbols on the maps affect gameplay:
Spaces
These white lines divide spaces on the map. A move action will move a character from one space to an adjacent space. To move or shoot between adjacent spaces, you must cross a white line.
Spaces which are alongside one another, but are separated by an artwork element, only count as adjacent if they share a white dividing line. Any artwork element which separates two spaces but does not have a white line is considered a wall.
Arrows
An arrow in a dividing line indicates a climb to higher ground. You must climb to enter these spaces, spending one additional movement to move in the direction of the arrow.
Moving in the opposite direction does not cost an additional movement. There are a few of these in the ruins, but none in the dungeon.
These different arrows on the ruins board indicate that characters can move through the gate between spaces 25 and 30. It does not indicate high ground.
Cores
Each space on the map has a core: a number in a black or white circle. The number is used for setup.
The color of the core indicates whether or not the space contains cover - a white number in a black circle means that space contains cover. A black number in a white circle means that space does not contain cover.
The position of the core is used for checking line of sight between spaces. If you can draw a line from any part of the core in your character's space (including the white outline) to any part of another space's core, passing through white lines but without passing through high ground, or another space containing cover, then you have line of sight to that space.
Line of sight is explained in more detail under 'Common Concepts' on the next page.
Common Concepts
Playing out of Turn
Some actions, like melee or shield, can be used on other players' turns. These are almost always used to defend your characters, and are explained under 'Flag Actions' on page 12. If an attack is prevented, the card used to attack and the ones used to defend are all discarded. This all counts as one action.
There is also a special 'interrupt' action, which can be used after another player has taken an action. This is explained under 'Wild Actions' on page 14. You cannot be interrupted immediately after revealing a character or playing an interrupt.
Damage
During the game your characters will take damage. When this happens, place the matching number of damage tokens on the character card.
If the number of tokens ever equals or exceeds the health number printed on the card, that character is knocked out. Flip the character card face down, and return the tokens to the supply. The last player to injure the character takes the miniature - it counts as a point for them.
If a character is knocked out by any means other than an enemy player, remove it from the game - no player earns those points. Remember that you cannot target your own character with a ranged or melee attack.
Line of Sight
To make a ranged attack on an enemy character, you must have line of sight. To determine line of sight, trace a line from any part of the core of the space the attacker is in to any part of the core of the space the target is in.
If that line passes through a wall (a barrier between spaces not illustrated by a white line), you do not have line of sight. If that line passes through a space with cover that is not the attacker's or the target's space, then you also do not have line of sight.
Otherwise, you have line of sight. Characters can have line of sight in or out of spaces with cover, but never through them. You always have line of sight to the space you are in.
High Ground
If you are playing in the dungeon, these rules don't apply.
High ground will always be indicated on the board by the arrows pointing into that space, indicating that characters must climb to access the space.
High ground also affects line of sight. If you are on high ground, you may make a ranged attack on any other high ground you have line of sight to.
You can make a ranged attack from high ground to any lower ground which you have line of sight to, so long as that line of sight is not traced through another space with high ground. If you are on low ground, you cannot trace line of sight into or through any space on high ground.
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