by everettlane
Thanks, Max!
I haven't tested these new rules, but I'm putting them here so I can test them later. The major change is The Challenge. You now have 1 in your hand (and can collect more) so you can mess with the other players if you see they won't be able to meet the Challenge. Or you can take the random option, if the card in your hand isn't good for you either. The more chances you take with Challenges, the more Challenges you can have in hand, which I like both thematically and gamewise. (I'm still considering a "cooperation" option, say if another Hero has excess resources in that suit they can help you for a price?)
I also reduced the number of face-up Encounter Pairs. I'm wondering though if anyone would pay 4 resources to take the "blind" option? Maybe you can pay 4 to reveal the face-down cards, and then take your pick of the three available pairs, or mix and match from all six cards? I'll have to see how that comes out in testing.
I simplified a few other things -- it doesn't matter what resources you use to pay your Mentor to stay with you, or to play on an Encounter.
The other change was around the resource draw at the end. If you had a powerful Encounter card, it would give you 1 resource, so a powerful Mentor would basically pay for himself to stay with you. Instead, if you have no weak cards (equal or less than your stage), you only get 1 resource total. So there's more of an incentive to keep weak Encounter cards with you for the resource draw. I'll have to see if this makes it too hard to get new resources....
The Hero’s Journey v3
Every Hero has a Journey.
From your humble origin you will travel far, through deserts and forests, to castles across the sea. Betrayals and pacts, discoveries and chance meetings, the clash of battle and the hum of the marketplace lie before you. Helping you meet the challenges of the journey will be your mentors -- soldiers and sailors, bards and lunatics, merchants and savages.
Will the Journey end in Windfall or Calamity? Your story is yet to be written...Setup2-4 players
Extended Deck
72 Suit Chips
1 Pawn for each Player
The JourneyPlace the Events in order from The Origin to The Pact in a single file. These are the Stages of the Hero’s Journey. Put the three Crown Events (The End, The Calamity, The Windfall) at the end of that line in a T. These are the possible Endings of the Journey. Each player places a pawn in the space before the Origin.
Your pawn will move through each Event leading to one of three Endings. The rank of the Event card your pawn is currently on is the "Stage" of your journey.
ResourcesMake a bank of the suit coins. Give each player 6 coins, one of each suit.
The ChallengesShuffle the Aces and the Excuse together. Each player gets one Challenge card, with the remainder placed into a face-down draw pile.
The EncountersSeparate the 14 personality cards (including the Consul, the Watchman, and the Lightkeeper) into one shuffled face-down pile as the Mentor deck. In another face-down pile, shuffle the remaining 11 locations (including The Island, The Window, and The Borderland) along with The Rite and The Harvest, as the Place deck. These are the Encounter decks. Each Encounter consists of a pair of cards (one Mentor and one Place.) Turn over two Encounter pairs, in two rows above the Encounter decks.
How Resources WorkIn front of you are your coins. These represent your strengths and resources. Whenever you must
pay a resource, you’ll spend one of these coins (back to the bank, unless the rules say otherwise.)
As your Journey progresses, you’ll also have Encounter cards in front of you. These are the Mentors that are currently with you, and the Place where you currently are. You can have more than one Mentor traveling with you, but you can only be in one Place at a time. If you discard one of these cards, put it face down at the bottom of the appropriate Encounter Deck.
In addition to your own coin resources, your Mentors and the Place you’re in are also resources according to the rank of the card. So, for instance, if you have The Savage with you and 2 Wyrm coins, you have a total of 5 Wyrms resources available. Crown cards have a rank of 10, and Pawn and Court cards have a rank of 1.
Whenever you must
expend a certain number of resources, you can use a combination of coins and Encounter cards. Pay the coins to the bank, and discard the Encounter card. No change is given. For
Example:, if you had to expend 4 Suns, you could discard The Bard (worth 10), or The Desert and 1 Sun coin.
If you
draw resources, take the appropriate coins from the bank. If the bank is out of that resource, the player to your right will choose what substitute resources the bank will give you. If there are no more resources in the bank, you don’t get anything.
The PlayThe player closest to his or her own origin goes first.
Turn Order1)The Challenge
2)A New Encounter?
3)The Next Stage of the Journey
4)Resources
1) The ChallengeWill your Hero have the wherewithal to deal with the opportunities and challenges that arise along the journey? Perhaps your guide can be of help…At the start of your turn, you can either play a Challenge card from your hand, or reveal the top card from the Deck of Challenges. If you play the Challenge card in your hand, you must pay 1 resource of that suit (or any suit for The Excuse).
Every Hero is affected by Challenge, on every player’s turn (except Heroes that haven’t reached the Origin yet, or Heroes who have reached one of the three Endings.) The active player deals with The Challenge first, then the other players proceeding to the left.
If the Challenge is The Excuse, draw 2 resources of your choice. The 2 must be of different types.
If the Challenge is an Ace, count the number of resources you have before you in the suit of the Challenge. If you have as many as your Stage, you had the resources to deal with the challenge. Draw one coin of that suit.
If you lacked enough resources to deal with the Challenge, take your current Stage, divide it by two, and round up. You must expend that many resources of the Challenge suit. If you can’t, move back one Stage.
Example: It’s your opponent’s turn, and she plays the Ace of Wyrms from her hand as the Challenge (paying 1 Wyrm coin to do so). She is on The Journey (3), and has The Desert (2) and The Island (1) in front of her. She needs to have at least 3 Wyrms since she’s at Stage 3. The Desert is worth 2 Wyrms, and The Island is worth 1, so she has met the challenge, and takes 1 Wyrm coin back from the bank. You have The Savage (3) and The Forest (5), and are at The Battle (4). You have 5 Suns, and no other resource coins. Since you’re at Stage 4, you need to have 4 Wyrms to meet the challenge. You only have 3, with The Savage, so you’ve failed the challenge, and must pay 2 Wyrm resources (half of the Battle’s rank of 4.) You discard the Savage, who has nobly sacrificed himself so that you may continue.
Shuffle any played Challenges back into the Deck. If you played a Challenge from the Deck of Challenges, you may draw a new Challenge for your hand if there are at least two Challenges in the Deck.
2) A New Encounter?Should you stay where you are, or travel further down the road, in search of new places and allies? Can you convince your mentor to stay with you on the journey? You may find what you seek, but the seeking will cost you… A) Your CompanionsFirst, decide if you are keeping your current Mentors.
Mentor limit: In a 4 player game, you may have up to 2 Mentors at a time. In a 3 player game, you can have up to 3, and in a 2 player game you can have up to 4. If you have too many Mentors, you will need to discard.
If you want to keep any of your remaining current Mentors, pay one resource for each one. It doesn’t cost anything to stay where you are, so you can keep your current Place for free. If you don’t want to (or can’t afford to) keep a Mentor with you, discard it.
B) The Road BeckonsNext, you can remain where you are, or seek a new Encounter.
If you remain, take no cards and move on to the Stages step.
To travel onward, you may go to one of three Encounters: the Wanderer’s Encounter (the top pair of cards), the Traveler’s Encounter (the second pair), and the Seeker’s Encounter (the top face-down cards).
You can take The Wanderer’s Encounter, and any resource coins on those cards, for free.
To take The Traveler’s Encounter (and any resources on them), you must pay 1 resource to each card (Mentor and Place) in the Wanderer’s Encounter.
Likewise, to take the Seeker’s Encounter, you must pay 1 resources to each of the two cards in The Wanderer’s Encounter and the two cards in The Traveler’s Encounter.
After taking the Encounter, place the two cards in front of you. Move the other Encounter cards up one position, and reveal a new pair of Encounter Cards in the Traveler’s Encounter position. You must discard your old Place card if you had one.
Example: You have The Bard and The Forest. You want to keep The Bard with you, so you pay 1 Wave. The Wanderer’s Encounter is The Painter and The Mill. The Traveler’s Encounter is The Sailor and The Castle. You want to take the Traveler’s Encounter, so you place a Knot on the Painter and a Moon on The Mill. You then take The Sailor and The Castle, and place them in front of you. Two new cards are revealed for the Traveler’s Encounter. Since you’ve moved to The Castle, you discard The Forest.
On the next player’s turn, she decides to take The Painter and The Mill, which are still the Wanderer’s Encounter. She also gets the Knot and the Moon you put on them.
There are two Events that are also in the Encounter Place deck: The Rite and The Harvest. If you take one of these from an Encounter, you don’t need to discard your Place. If you want to keep The Rite or The Harvest in future turns, you must pay for them like a Mentor card, but they don’t count toward your Mentor limit.
3) The Next Stage of the JourneyFrom your Origin to the end – whatever that may be – the way will not be easy. But what choice does a Hero have but to press onward?There are three ways to move your Hero to the next Stage of the Journey: with a Matching Encounter card, by Expending Resources, and with The Other Path. If you can’t (or don’t want to) move to the next Stage, skip to the Resources step.
A) Matching Encounter CardIf one of your Encounter cards bears both suits of the Stage card, you may discard that Encounter card and move forward. Take 4 resource coins as a bonus, 2 of each suit on the Matching Encounter card. One of the 4 resources may be from another player. (Strategy note: there are three Matching Encounter cards for The Origin, The Chance Meeting, and The Pact, and two for all the other Stages.)
Example: Your Hero is at The Journey, and you have The Soldier and The Island. The Soldier and The Battle both have Wyrms and Knots, appropriately. Discard the Soldier. You take one Knot from an opposing player, and one Knot and two Wyrms from the bank. Keep the Island in front of you, and move to The Battle.
You can’t move to an Ending in this way. Pawns and Courts may be used for Matching Encounter cards. Rank doesn’t matter when playing a Matching Encounter card.
B) Expending ResourcesYou can also expend resources in the suits of the next Stage. The total of the resources must meet or exceed the rank of the next Stage, and at least one of each suit must be spent. You will need 10 of a resource to move to one of the three Endings.
Example: You have The Bard and The Mill, and are at The Origin. You keep both cards and spend 2 Moon coins and 1 Wave coin to move to The Journey. Onward!
Example: You have the Savage and The Mountain and are trying to get to The Battle. The Battle is rank 4, so you will need 4 resources in some combination of Knots and Wyrms. The Savage is worth 3 Wyrms, and you add 1 Knot resource coin. You discard The Savage, spend the Knot, and keep The Mountain in front of you. To Battle!
Example: You have The Author and The Mill, and need to get to The Market. Between them you have 8 Leaves and 2 Knots – more than enough. Discard both, and it’s off to the Market you go!
Example: You have The Sailor, The Watchman, and The Island, and need to get to The Chance Meeting. You discard The Sailor (worth 4 Leaves) and The Watchman (worth 1 Moon) and spend your last 2 Moon coins. What will The Chance Meeting on the Island bring?
Example: You are at The Pact, and have The Merchant and The Mill. Discard the Merchant and 1 Knot resource coin, and you can move to The Windfall. Or discard both cards, keep all your coins, and you can move to The End. The choice is yours!
C) The Other PathThe Rite and the Harvest represent alternate paths on the Hero’s Journey. If you have one as an Encounter card, you may place it parallel to the next Stage in your Journey, and move onto that card. You must expend 3 resources, from at least 2 suits on that card. From there you would move back onto the regular path as your next step. You may use The Other Path as any Stage, but not as an Ending. While on The Other Path, you’re considered to be at the same Stage as the card above it.
Example: You have The Author and The Rite, and are trying to get to The Pact. The Rite is worth 1, so between the two Encounter cards you have 3 Moons. You would need 6 more Moon/Sun resources (at least one of them being a Sun) to get to The Pact. Instead, you discard The Author (worth 2 Moons) and 1 Leaf coin, place The Rite parallel to The Pact, and move your pawn onto it. While on The Rite, you are at Stage 9 for the purposes of meeting a Challenge. From there, you could move onto one of the three Endings on a future turn.
After your Hero leaves one of The Other Paths, discard it to the bottom of the Place deck.
4) ResourcesA) Draw ResourcesIf you did
not move forward to a new Stage this turn, you may draw new Resources from your Mentors and Places.
For each of the Encounter cards in front of you that is at an equal rank or less than your current Stage, you may draw 3 resources: 2 for one of the suits on the card, and 1 for the other (or 1 for each suit on a Pawn or a Court).
If you didn't have any Encounter cards that were equal or less than your current Stage, pick one suit from any of your Encounter cards or your current Stage, and take 1 resource of that suit.
Example: You have The Merchant (9) and The Forest (5) in front of you, and you are at The Discovery (5). The Merchant is higher than The Discovery, so you can draw 1 resource. You take 1 Knot. The Forest isn’t higher, so you also get 1 Moon and 2 Leaves.
Example: You are at The Chance Meeting (7), with The Consul in front of you, and no Place Encounter card. The Consul is worth 1, so you take 1 Moon and 1 Wave. There are no Knots left, so the player to your right chooses the substitute, and gives you 1 Wyrm from the bank.
Example: You are at The Discovery, but The Sailor led you through the Desert to get there, so you don’t have any Encounter cards. You take 1 Sun.
B) Trade ResourcesYou can trade resources, even if you moved to a new Stage this turn.
You can trade resources 2:1 from the bank, or from any Encounter card if the bank is out of that resource. The resources you trade need not match each other. If you’re on the Market, you can trade 1:1.
You can also trade with any other Hero at any mutually agreeable rate. Trades between Heroes can happen any time during your turn.
Example: You are at The Betrayal, and need 3 Moons to get to the Pact next turn. You give 2 Leaves to the bank and take the last Moon from the bank. There’s a Moon on The Soldier in the Traveler’s Encounter, so you put 1 Wave and 1 Leaf on The Soldier and take the Moon. You offer to trade 1 Sun for 1 Moon from another player, but she demands 1 Sun and 2 Waves. You agree and make the trade.
Game End and ScoringFrom The Pact (or The Rite or The Harvest, if you’ve used those as Other Paths instead of The Pact) you may move to any of three Endings. To move to an Ending, you must expend 10 of the matching resource (Leaves, Wyrms or Knots).
Once the first Hero reaches an Ending, each other player gets one more turn. A Hero who has reached an Ending must discard all Challenge cards from her hand and shuffle them into the Deck of Challenges. A Hero on an Ending does not have to meet any Challenges for the rest of the game.
Scoring:
Double the rank of your current stage (10, if you have reached an Ending).
Add the number of resources coins you have.
Add a bonus of 6 if you have at least one of each type of resource.
Add the total of the ranks of your current Encounter cards. Crowns are worth 10, and Pawns and Courts are worth 1.
Advanced RulesWhen you reach a Stage or an Ending, it triggers one of the following events. (If you go back a Stage because of a failed Challenge, the event doesn’t trigger, except for The Market. Moving forward to a Stage a second time will trigger the event a second time.)
2. The Origin: Chance Beginnings. The opponent to your left secretly places 1 Leaf and 1 Wave coin from the bank into a closed fist, with the other being empty. Choose a hand, and take the coins if you chose correctly.
3. The Journey: A New Place. Take the Place card from the Wanderer’s Encounter pair, along with any resources on it. Shift the Traveler's Place up, and reveal a new Place for the Travelers’s Encounter. While on The Journey, you can have two Place cards. If you take a new Encounter while on The Journey, and you already have two Places, discard one of your old ones. If you move off The Journey, you must immediately discard down to one Place.
4. The Battle: The Chances of War. Reveal the top card from the Deck of Challenges. If it’s a Wyrm, a Knot, or The Excuse, you can take another turn. Otherwise, lose your next turn. Lay down your pawn so you don’t forget.
5. The Discovery: What’s In The Chest? Flip one of each type of resource coin from the bank. If it’s heads, keep it.
6. The Market: A Trading Place. Nothing happens immediately, but while your Hero is on The Market, you may make 1:1 trades from the bank.
7. The Chance Meeting: A New Encounter. Take the top face-down cards from the Mentor and Place decks. After you meet your next Challenge, discard a Place if you have two.
8. The Betrayal: Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto You. If you have at least one Wyrm and one Knot resource left, each player must give you 2 coins. If you don’t, lose a turn. Lay down your pawn so you don’t forget.
9. The Pact: Sealed Under The Sun and Moon. Take any of the two face-up Mentor cards. You must give any resources on it to the other players, in any way you deem fit. Shift the other Mentors up, if necessary, and reveal a new Mentor for the Traveler’s Encounter.
When moving onto The Harvest or The Rite using The Other Path, the following Events occur:
The Harvest: Gifts from the Earth. In addition to spending 3 resources to move to The Harvest, you must also expend 1 Sun and 1 Leaf. If you can, draw 4 resources, in any combination of Moons, Waves, Wyrms and Knots. If you can’t, you lose your next turn.
The Rite: Demands a Sacrifice. In addition to spending 3 resources to move to The Rite, you must expend at least 2 resources, in any combination of Moons, Wyrms, and Leaves. If you can, then every other player must give you either a Moon, a Wyrm, or a Leaf coin, if possible. If you can’t, you lose your next turn.
The Endings
Calamity: When counting your final score, compare your Wyrm resources with the other player who has the most Wyrm resources. If yours is higher, add the difference to your score. If yours is lower, subtract the difference.
The End: When you reach The End, take all resources on the Encounter cards.
Windfall: When counting your score, all Knot resources above 6 count double. If you have no Knots, subtract 6 from your score.
