Sidekick Saga Rulebook by Richard T. Saunders Release 6.0 Where are the Heroes? Introduction and HOW TO WIN! Ways To Play. Choosing a Sidekick

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2 Sidekick Saga Rulebook by Richard T. Saunders Release 6.0 Where are the Heroes? One morning, the city of New Dover woke up to discover that all the powerful Super Heroes had disappeared! Where did they all go? No one seems to know what happened to them! The Gangs, Thugs, Minions, and Villains of New Dover immediately noticed the power vacuum in the city and began to assert themselves. The city is reeling from their attacks! What can be done? The Sidekicks of the Super Heroes haven t given up the fight! They know they aren t as powerful as the Bad Guys, but they are courageous and resourceful. They know where the Heroes have helpful technologies, weapons, and devices. To help each other out, the Sidekicks have set-up supply lines between themselves to share useful things! They will protect New Dover! And maybe along the way, they can find out what happened to the Super Heroes... This is their story: this is The Sidekick Saga. Introduction and HOW TO WIN! Sidekick Saga is a cooperative adventure, combat, and exploration game for 1 4 players (ages 13 and up). It takes minutes for one game. There is also an ongoing story to find the missing Super Heroes! For 2 4 players, each player takes control of one of the Sidekick characters in the game. A solo player will take control of two Sidekick characters and will play them both as if it were a 2-Player game. The players work together to defeat the current Villain and their Villain Forces. This is a cooperative game: the Sidekicks win or lose together! There is only one way to win (usually): the players must defeat the main Villain by reducing him to 0 Hit Points! There are many ways to lose! 1. If all Sidekicks are defeated (reduced to 0 Hit Points), the Villain wins! Note: only 1 Sidekick needs to survive for the Sidekicks to win! Sometimes, other Sidekicks will take one for the team to defeat the Villain! 2. If time runs out, the Villain has stalled long enough to bring his evil scheme to fruition, and he wins! This happens if the Villain is still alive at the End of Act III (when the last Bad News card comes out). 3. If the City Terror ever gets too high (16 on the City Terror track), the Sidekicks lose! Ways To Play For your Introductory first play, you should play the First Patrol scenario from the Scenario Book! After that, there are two ways to play Sidekick Saga: Story Mode or Skirmish Mode. After your intro game, we strongly recommend you play the full Story Mode first to unlock all the cards! This makes Skirmish mode more fun as more options will be available! Story mode is like a 6-issue comic mini-series: it s an overarching story spanning 6 issues (6 game sessions/encounters). In Story Mode, you start with Issue #1 of the Sidekick Saga story and play through all 6 Issues (where each Comic Book Issue is a single game lasting 90 minutes). You set-up and and play normally, keeping things you find along the way for the endgame. At the endgame, depending on how the game went, something happens and changes the world up as you head to the next Issue. Skirmish Mode is like a one-shot comic: one battle with one Villain and that s the end of it. In Skirmish Mode, you choose a scenario from the Scenario Book. You either win or lose that scenario, and that s the end of it! Choosing a Sidekick Each player chooses one Sidekick to play the game. There are two kinds of Sidekicks in the game: premade Sidekicks (like Blackbird) and homemade Sidekicks (or create-your-own). 1

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4 Premade Sidekicks At the start of the Sidekick Saga, there are 4 premade heroes: Amethyst Arrow, BlackBird, Commissioner Jones, and Delphi. We strongly suggest each player start with one of these for playing the full Saga. Once you become familiar with the game and unlock other Powers (hint hint), there will be a lot more choices for Sidekick Powers for custom Sidekicks. NOTE: You can t play Epsilon Wave or Mach Q until you unlock their powers later in the Saga! Each Sidekick starts with two Powers: the two Powers are notated on the character sheet. For example, Blackbird starts with 2 Powers: KRAV MAGA and SCIENTIST (see figure). Note that each Power card has a Level 1 and Level 2 side (noted in the upper left corner): this is the Power Level of that Power. For the intro games, start with all Power Levels at 1. As the Saga progresses, you earn both new Powers and new Power Levels. 3

5 Place the Power cards underneath the Character with the Level, Title, and Icons showing. You should be able to glance at the Icons to remind yourself what the Power does, but if you forget, the full description is on the card underneath set a picture of how to do this in Set-Up below! You will be flipping your Character Sheet from HERO to SECRET IDENTITY (and back) a fair number of times during the game: putting the Power cards underneath (but still showing the title) allows you to see the Powers abilities in either mode. Your Powers are still active in SECRET IDENTITY mode, you just might not be able to use them. For example, Combat related Powers aren t used in SECRET IDENTITY mode, as you can t attack! When you start the game, there are only eight Powers, 2 for each of the 4 Sidekicks. As the Saga progresses, new Powers will be unlocked! Homemade Sidekicks When you want to make a homemade Sidekick, it s fairly straightforward. Find one of the generic Sidekick Character Sheets, and fill it in! You ll need to choose a name for the Sidekick, the Secret Identity, and a picture (drawn yourself or downloaded from the internet) for both sides. You ll also choose two Power cards to put under the Sidekick. If you are creating your own Sidekick, make sure you choose the appropriate Power Level See Skirmish Mode later on. We strongly suggest you use the premade Sidekicks to learn the game, but if you HAVE to make your own Super Hero Sidekick, there are 30 Powers sprinkled among all the Decks! Upgrades GG and DD in particular! Set-Up These rules for set-up are for Story Mode. The rules change slightly if you are in Skirmish Mode. See the Skirmish Mode Set-Up section near the end of the Rulebook for the changes. See the Picture on the next Page for Set-Up. 1. Find the Comic Book Issue with the Villain you want to fight. If this is your first time, choose Comic Book Issue #1! Take and read the Introduction. Note the extra rules of Set-Up (which you will follow below). If this is NOT your first time playing, consult your records (from End of Issue Maintenance) for the state of the a little help Cards, SOI Chart, Powers, Characters, Locations, and Heroic Items! 2. Each player chooses a Sidekick to play (solo players play two Sidekicks). Each player takes the Character sheet for that Sidekick and puts it in front of them (HERO side up). See Choosing a Sidekick, above. Make sure your Power cards are correct. (In Skirmish mode, you ll also set the Power Level, see Skirmish Mode, below). 3. Take a SOI token for each of the Sidekicks playing. For first time players, place them randomly on the Sidekick of Interest (SOI) Chart, filling from left to right. Otherwise, use the SOI positions from the last game! (NOTE! There are extra Tokens which will be used much later in the game!) 4. Take 4 base Heroic Items cards and place them hidden side up. This is the Heroic Items tableau. Your previous games or the Comic Book Issue may add or subtract Heroic Items to the tableau. 5. Each player takes a Turn Summary Card. 6. Find the Locations needed for this game and arrange them as described in your Comic Book Issue. Shuffle each Location deck thoroughly before placing it face down. Leave some space below each Location deck for some Sidekick markers. When a Sidekick is on a Location, you don t want the Sidekick marker to get in the way of drawing Location cards! So you want the marker (and Peril Numbers, see below) to be just under the Location cards. 7. Each player finds their Home Location (indicated on the Character Sheet) and places their Sidekick Marker just below that Location deck. 8. Find and shuffle the Lead Cards and place them in reach of everyone (off to the side of the Location decks). The 4

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7 GENERAL SIDEKICK DISCARD will be next to the Lead Cards. 9. Each player draws 1 Lead Card and 3 cards from their Home Location. This forms the Sidekick s hand. There are two ways to play: Open Hand (in which everyone can see everyone s hand) and Closed Hand (in which no one can see anyone s hand). By default, play with Closed Hands. See the Open Hand vs. Closed Hand discussion later in the rules. 10. Everyone takes a Xeonite Communicator. 11. Set-up the Villain Forces. See your Comic Book Issue. In general, all Villain Forces are laid out face down at the start of the game, and they are revealed as the game progresses. 12. Take the numbered tokens (1 13) (or Peril Numbers ) there should be two of each number! The Peril Numbers are used in pairs. Place two Peril Numbers (of the same number) next to each Villain Force. The first Peril Number is to show the order the Villan Forces need to be revealed. Consult your Comic Book Issue for that order. The second Peril Number is needed for reveals (see next step). 13. From the Villain Forces set-up, reveal (turn face up) n +1Villain Forces cards (in order), where n is the number of Sidekick Characters in play! As you reveal these forces, place the second corresponding Peril Number under the City Location that is affected by the reveal! Note that it is under the City Location so it doesn t get in the way of drawing cards! Example: Villain Force #1 is revealed and the Streets are his home! Leave the first 1 next to Villain Force #1! Put the second 1 under to the Streets Location! These Peril Numbers tie a Location to a Bad Guy! At a glance, players see what parts of the City are in peril and which Bad Guy are causing that peril! 14. Take the City Terror Chart and put the Red Marker on space 1, unless instructed otherwise. 15. Put all the Gang cards together (call them the Gang Hangout!) and put them next to the City Terror Chart. This will help remind the players to update the SOI when they defeat a Gang in Combat! 16. Start a Villain Forces discard next to the City Terror Chart. This will help remind the players to update the SOI when they defeat a Villain Forces in Combat! 17. Set-up the Bad News deck. This may change, depending on the Comic Book Issue, but in general, it looks like this: A total of 18 Bad News Cards and 3 End of Act Cards, with 6 Bad News per act. (a) Find the Villainous Plot cards for the current villain. (They look like normal Bad News cards, but say Villainous Plot on the front side) (b) Separate the Villainous Plot cards into Easy, Medium, and Hard decks and shuffle them into separate piles. (c) Find the Bad News cards and shuffle them. (d) Start three separate piles with the Act I:End of Morning, Act II:End of Afternoon, and Act III:End of Night cards on the bottom. Keep them horizontal. (e) Place 4 Bad News cards to the side of the Act I:End of Morning card (f) Place 4 Bad News cards to the side of the Act II:End of Afternoon card (g) Place 4 Bad News cards to the side of the Act III:End of Night card (h) Randomly choose 2 Easy, Medium, and Hard cards from the Villainous Plot cards. Shuffle the Easy Villainous Plot cards into the Morning deck, the Medium cards into the Afternoon deck, and the Hard cards into the Night Deck. In a 1 or 2-player game, you draw 1 Bad News card per turn. In a 4-player turn, you draw 2 Bad News cards per turn. In a 3-player game, you alternate 1, then 2. Consider making the deck easier to manage by rotating the Bad News cards so that everytime you have to draw 2 cards, they are horizontal, and everytime you have to draw 1 card, they are vertical. That way, you don t have to remember if you are on a 2-card or 1-card Bad News turn. (i) Place the Morning Deck on top of the Act I:End of Morning card. Place the Afternoon Deck on top of the Act II:End of Afternoon card. Place the Night Deck on top of the Act III:End of Night card. Place the Afternoon Deck on top of the Night Deck. Then Place the Morning Deck on top of those two decks. (j) Place the Bad News cards somewhere everyone can reach. Start a discard right next to it (showing the most 6

8 recently revealed Bad News). 18. Put the POW! tokens in reach of all Sidekicks. In a 3-Player game, each player starts with 10 Hit Points instead of 12. In a 4-Player game, each player starts with 8 Hit Points instead of 12. Each player takes some POW! tokens to notate this. 19. Put the Supply Lines card (counter-clockwise side up) in reach/view of all Sidekicks. The Supply Lines are the cards shared by the Sidekicks during the Populate Supply Lines phase. 20. Start the Game! Overview... or "How Does The Game Flow?" The Villains are moving quickly in this game. The Sidekicks need to stop them before they consolidate their power base! A single game takes place over 1 day with 3 Acts: The Morning (Act I), Afternoon (Act II), and Night (Act III). Each Act contains a certain number of turns (depending on number of players), and each turn contains four Main Phases: Bad News Phase, Sidekick Phase, Combat Phase, and End Phase. The turn is where the action is! Each part of the day (each turn) starts with the Bad News Phase. Bad News makes it more difficult for the Sidekicks to take down the Villain. But, the Sidekicks are also slowly revealing the plan/power structure of the Villain during the Bad News phase: this is both good and bad! Revealing means getting closer to the Villain, but also more trouble! The Sidekicks then get a chance to put their plans into action in the Sidekick Phase. Each Sidekick will gather some resources and then share them with their compatriots the Sidekicks have set-up a supply line between them so they can help each other out. Each Sidekick then decides to be a HERO or be in SECRET IDENTITY. When a Sidekick is a HERO, they can fight Bad Guys (Gangs, Thugs, Minions, Villains). When a Sidekick is in their SECRET IDENTITY, Bad Guys ignore them, allowing them to investigate and find resources. Next begins the Combat Phase: combat begins with Villains, Thugs, Minions, and Player Summary Card: Gangs around the city. Combat only occurs with Bad Guys who are in range or who Everything you need to aren t in disarray. know is on here! In the End phase, active Gangs will cause terror in the city, and any Bad Guys in disarray will regroup! Play continues turn after turn until they reach the End of an Act. The End of an Act is a chance for respite for the Sidekicks (and getting a meal). At the End of an Act, the Sidekicks decide on the direction of the Supply Lines. Play continues until all the Villain Forces are defeated, the players are all defeated, or the Villain has stalled long enough (End of Act III) to bring his plan into action! Bad Guys There are four types of Bad Guys in the game! Gang: A violent group that takes over a City Location! Thug: A lone low-life who haunts a City Location! Minion: A powerful, evil character beholden to the Villain! Villain: A super-powerful Bad Guy you have to defeat! When we say Bad Guys or Bad Guy, we are referring to all four types (It s much easier to say When the Bad Guys attack... rather than When the Gangs, Thugs, Minions, or Villains attack... )! All the Bad Guys have special abilites (see below), but they all have the same basic attack structure (see Combat). 7

9 Sidekick of Interest (SOI) The SOI is the Sidekick Of Interest. The SOI is where the Bad Guys concentrate their efforts! In other words, he s the Sidekick who has enraged the Bad Guys the most! We all know that Bad Guys hold grudges, so the more a Sidekick disrupts the Bad Guys, the more interested they become in that Sidekick! Word gets around when a Sidekicks defeats a Bad Guy! And everyone wants to take out the top Sidekick! The Sidekick of Interest (SOI) Chart marks how interesting each Sidekick is. Sidekicks move their Sidekick token (see Tokens above) left on the SOI Chart (see Chart at left) when they become more interesting, and right when they become less interesting. In general, anytime a Sidekick defeats any Bad Guy, he has become more interesting to the Bad Guys and that Sidekick rockets all the way to the left on the chart! The discard for the Bad Guys (Villain Forces, Gang Hangout, Bad News Discard) are all right next to the SOI Chart. After a Sidekick defeats the Bad Guy, discard that Bad Guy next to the SOI Chart that will immediately remind you to update the SOI chart! In general, the SOI Chart is used for disambiguation, so that means no two SOI Markers can ever be on the same space on the SOI Chart. Example of disambiguation: If two Sidekicks are at the same range of a Villain Force, the most interesting one (the leftmost) will be the target. Note that when a Sidekick changes to the SECRET IDENTITY form, he/she can no longer be targeted by Bad Guys, but his place on the SOI Chart doesn t change (unless another Sidekick moves up). The SOI is the leftmost Sidekick, regardless of whether the Sidekick is in SECRET IDENTITY form or not. The active SOI, on the other hand, is the leftmost Sidekick who is currently in HERO form. Once you know the game better, you know that adjusting the SOI Chart can mean the difference between defeat and victory! So, once you are more comfortable with the SOI Chart and the rules for adjusting it, you may want to do Combat in a certain order to adjust the SOI Chart in a certain order. There is another way for a Sidekick to become the SOI!!! He can create a distraction! But, it comes at a cost... he can t play any cards that turn! Instead of playing cards during the Execute part of the Sidekick Phase, a Sidekick creates a distraction, forcing the Bad Guys to notice him! This distraction causes that Sidekick to become the new SOI (moving his Token to the leftmost position). You ll notice that the backs of the SOI tokens are empty. Why aren t they two-sided? This is on purpose! When you get to create your own Superhero, you will need SOI tokens! We left the back of the SOI Tokens empty so you could mark them with your own character s names! There is also the notion of Least Interesting Sidekick (LIS). This Sidekick is at the lowest level on the SOI chart. Basically, the LIS is the Sidekick who handles the maintenance during the Bad News Phase (see Turn Order below). Why does the LEAST interesting Sidekick (LIS) do maintenance? The LIS is the least likely to get into Combat this turn, so it gives him/her something more to do on his/her turn! The LIS reads Bad News cards and reveals the Villain s Power Structure during the Bad News Phase. 8

10 Bad News!! Bad News Everyone!! The Bad News cards come out at the beginning of each turn. The LIS reads and handles all the Bad News for that turn. After reading, the Bad News card is discarded (face-up so you can see the last Bad News) to the Bad News discard. The number of Bad News that comes out each depends on the number of players: 1 2 Players: 1 Bad News per turn 3 Players: Alternate every turn. Start with 1 Bad News, then 2 Bad News, then 1 then Players: 2 Bad News per turn Supply Lines Every Comic Book Issue adds specific Bad News Cards (called Villainous Plot Cards) to the Bad News deck. It usually takes the form of 2 Bad News for the Morning (Easy), 2 Bad News for the Afternoon (Medium), and 2 Bad News for the Nighttime (Hard). The Easy cards are marked in green, the Medium cards with Yellow, and the Hard cards with red. These will mixed in with the generic Bad News cards (in gray) in each Act. The Sidekicks know they have to help each other by passing information and supplies between them! They have set-up Supply Lines around the city to share stuff. What are they sharing along the Supply Lines? The Sidekick cards! The Items, Locations, Leads basically any cards the Sidekicks have. Power Cards may NOT be shared over Supply Lines! They are intrinsic to the character! The Supply Lines have a direction associated with them: this represents the cars, info, and messengers going through the city in a single direction for drop-offs. At the end of an Act, the direction of Supply Line changes this represents the cars, info, and messengers going back the direction they came. In a 1 or 2-Player game, the directionality of the Supply Lines doesn t matter you can ignore the directionality rules in the rest of this section. At the start of the game, the Supply Lines are clockwise, which means the cards passed during the Sidekick phase are passed to the left during the Morning Act. At the end of the Morning Act, the direction shifts. During the Day, cards flow counter-clockwise (to the right). At the end the of Afternoon Act, the direction changes back to clockwise (to the left). There is a Supply Lines card that indicates the Current Direction. Flip it at the end of each Act. NOTE! The players may decide, collectively, to keep the Supply Lines flowing in the same direction. If any Sidekick discards a card, players prevent the Supply Line direction from changing. NOTE: If two or more Sidekicks end up on the same Location, they don t need the Supply Lines: they can just trade any cards they want. You CANNOT trade cards if you just move through a Location both Sidekicks must 9

11 end their movement in the same Location. (The exception is Mach Q! He may drop cards off as he moves through Locations it s one of his Powers!) Sidekick Cards: Leads and Locations There are two basic forms of cards the Sidekick can have in play (tableau or in their hand): the generic Lead Cards (labelled on the back), and all the Location cards (labelled by the different Locations all over the city). All together, these are all considered the Sidekick Cards. These are the cards that may be shared over the Supply Lines! There are four different types of Sidekick Cards: Lead: A Lead is like a clue: it allows the Sidekick to look deeper at a given Location to find better stuff typically a Lead allows drawing an extra Card at a given Location. After playing a Lead, it is discarded to the GENERAL SIDEKICK DISCARD. Alternatively, a number of Leads can be discarded to find the Heroic Items (see Heroic Items below). One-Shot: A One-Shot card is played, its effects happen, then it is discarded to the GENERAL SIDEKICK DISCARD. Usually, the one-shots can only be played in the Execute part of the Sidekick Phase, but occasionally, they can be played at others times this will be noted on the card. Ongoing: A Ongoing card is played in front of a Sidekick, and its effects linger for a while. Sometimes, that card will be discarded (to the GENERAL SIDEKICK DISCARD) to power a later effect, or sometimes it will stay around the whole game. It depends on what happens! Item: An Item card is played in front of the Sidekick, and can now be used. They aren t discarded when used, unless the card says so. If it is discarded, it goes to the GENERAL SIDEKICK DISCARD. Remember, when any Sidekick Card (either Lead or Location card) is discarded, it goes to the GENERAL SIDEKICK DISCARD! IT DOES NOT GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THE APPROPRIATE DECK! Only at the End of an Act do Sidekick Cards come back into play. Leads and Going to SECRET IDENTITY One of the things the Sidekicks are doing is running down leads. They know where some of the Superheroes stuff was, but not all of it. In many cases, they have to go investigating to look for it. The Lead cards give the Sidekicks a better chance of finding something useful at a Location (or even finding the Heroic Items, see below). To get a Lead, the Sidekick needs to change to the SECRET IDENTITY form flip the Character card to the SECRET IDENTITY side. When in the SECRET IDENTITY form, the Sidekick gains a Lead Card at the start of 10

12 the Execute part of the Sidekick Phase they are searching for something to lead them to the Superhero technology. In the SECRET IDENTITY form, Sidekicks can search without being bothered by fans, citizens or Bad Guys. Leads can only usually be drawn in SECRET IDENTITY mode (but some Locations may have Leads as well these can be found in any mode). There are really two reasons to change to your SECRET IDENTITY, both of which are complementary. One: you can get a Lead card. Two: You can t be attacked (but you can t attack either). If this would be a turn where you don t want Combat, it makes sense to change into your SECRET IDENTITY to get some Leads. In SECRET IDENTITY mode you are protected from Attacks, but note that a Bad Guy s Hack Attacks can still affect you! Heroic Items Even though the major heroes disappeared, we know they left behind some very big and powerful technology: we can these Heroic Items! They are strange and wonderful items! Some think they are from another dimension? We just don t know where they all are! We have to go explicitly looking to find and activate the hidden Heroic Items! Heroic Item cards are the big technologies known to be left behind by the heroes but where? In most games, 4 Heroic Items cards are turned hidden in the Heroic Items Tableau for all the Sidekicks to see. To find and claim a Heroic Item, a Sidekick must discard a certain number of Lead cards at a particular Location that turns that Heroic Item to found and claimed! When the Leads are discarded (to the GENERAL SIDEKICK DISCARD), the Heroic Items are found and claimed! Flip it over and put that Heroic Item in the finding Sidekick s hand. It becomes like any other Sidekick card. The best way to get a Lead is to change to the SECRET IDENTITY, but some other Leads can be found in HERO mode (as they are scattered in city Locations as well). If a Heroic Item is ever discarded, it comes back at the End of Act like all other Sidekick cards, going to deck where it was found! For example: the Force Field Controller would come back to the bottom of the Suburbs deck (if that s where it was found). However, all Heroic Items (both hidden and claimed) remain around between Comic Book Issues! Claimed Heroic Items remains in play (in a Sidekick s hand) between Comic Book issues. Newly discovered Heroic Items (but still hidden) survive between issues as well. 11

13 Tableau and Hand Each Sidekick has a tableau and a hand. These are two places the Sidekicks keep their cards. A Sidekick s tableau is all the cards in play, turned face-up in front of them. Each Sidekick has his own tableau. These represent the Items the Sidekicks are carrying and stuff they are doing. The tableaus are always visible to everyone. Thematically: it s the stuff they are wearing and using so everyone can see that! A Sidekick s hand is all the cards the Sidekicks are carrying, but not currently using. Each Sidekick has his own hand. Thematically, these are items hidden in pockets and pouches! During the Execute part of the Sidekick Phase, a Sidekick usually plays cards from his hand to his tableau, but he can take cards from his tableau back into his hand! Open Hand vs. Closed Hand There are two ways to play Sidekick Saga: Open Hand or Closed Hand. If you are playing the solo game, you are playing Open Hand. Open Hand means all Sidekick Cards are face-up and everyone can see what cards everyone else has in their hands. Closed Hand means Sidekicks can t see what other Sidekicks have in their hands. The default way to play is Closed Hand: it s more thematic! Sidekicks are roaming around the city, doing the best they can, but they can t keep track of what everyone else is doing! They can t see what all their compatriots have been up to. When playing Closed Hand, you can talk generally about what your cards are, but not specifically what the values may be. Think of it as shouting across the city... it s hard to share small details when shouting! Allowed: I need a Scientist! Can anyone get me a Scientist? I have a first-aid kit! It heals some! I found an awesome Xeonite Blaster! It rocks! Disallowed: The first-aid kit heals 2 Hit Points. I got the Xeonite Blaster and it gives me +12 to attack. In either mode, other Sidekicks are always allowed to see cards you have played in front of you in the tableau. For example, any Item has to be played in front of the character to be used (like the Xeonite Blaster). Everyone can see items in play! If you and your group feel more comfortable playing Open Hand, feel free. It makes the game easier, but it may really slow down the game! Open Hand can lead to some analysis paralysis... Every Sidekick gets a Xeonite Communicator these special items have different effects, depending on whether you are playing Open Hand or Closed Hand. Xeonite Communicator The Xeonite Communicators were a gift to the Sidekicks from one of the big Heroes before he disappeared. It allows an instant psionic and physical link between Sidekicks! With the link, the Sidekicks can immediately communicate/share anything and everything! But this effect only lasts a short time... At the start of a turn, any number of Sidekicks can discard their Xeonite Communicator. On that turn, everyone who discarded their Xeonite Communicator may show and discuss their hands in detail they show all cards! But 12

14 just for that one turn! This allows the Sidekicks (who are talking over the Xeonite Communicator) to make the most informed choices at crucial moments. Alternatively, a Xeonite Communicator can be discarded at any time to pass up to 3 cards to another Sidekick immediately! Xeonite Communicators may NOT be shared during the Populate Supply Lines part of the Sidekick Phase. Disarray A Bad Guy can be put into disarray using Sidekick special abilities, Sidekick cards, or special actions. (NOTE: It s usually very difficult to put the main Villain into disarray!) When a Bad Guy is put into disarray, this represents the Sidekick throwing that Bad Guy into chaos so he can t do anything! What are some things Sidekicks can do to put a Bad Guy into disarray? Messing up his computer, playing other bad guys against him, revealing a hideout so he has to move, etc. Basically, keeping a Bad Guy busy so he s not a threat for a while. While a Bad Guy is in disarray, he is out of commission and can t do anything (including Protecting other Villain Forces, see Protection below)! None of his effects are active either! Although a Bad Guy in disarray CANNOT attack Sidekicks, the Sidekicks CAN attack the Bad Guys in disarray! That s one of many reasons to put a Bad Guy in disarray! When attacking a Bad Guy in disarray, the base Defense and Hack Defense are used any other special abilities are not active (unless it says explicitly). To show a Bad Guy is in disarray, that Bag Guy card is rotated clockwise either 90, 180 or 270 degrees. This represents how many turns it will take the bad guy to get out of disarray: 90 =1 turn, 180 =2 turns, 270 =3 turns. Gang in disarray 90 : inactive for 1 turn Active Gang Gang in disarray 270 : inactive for 3 turns Gang in disarray 180 : inactive for 2 turns Gang regroups! Goes from 270 to 180 Nothing can be in disarray more than 270! If put into disarray for more than 270, it simply maxes out at 270. During the End Phase, every Bad Guy (or thing) in disarray is rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise. This shows the Bad Guy making progress dealing with his issues. Once a Bad Guy is back at normal orientation, he is active again and all his effects are active! Bad Guys already in disarray can be put further into disarray (but not beyond 270 ). It is possible for things OTHER than Bad Guys to be in disarray, but the same rules apply... 13

15 Gangs Gangs are groups of streetwise fighters that will take over a City Location. Their reach typically doesn t extend beyond that Location, and Sidekicks on a Location with a Gang will be attacked in the Combat Phase. There are two types of Gangs: Uncontrolled Gangs and Controlled Gangs. (Note that they are on opposite sides of the Gang cards!!!!!) Uncontrolled Gangs are chaotic, undisciplined groups who cause chaos. Controlled gangs (usually controlled by the Villain) have more focus and more resources, so tend to be harder to defeat. If a Gang is active on a City Location, Sidekicks may not draw cards there (even if they are in their SECRET IDENTITY form)! To remind yourself you can t draw Cards there, drape the Gang card across across the Location Cards. You won t accidentally draw a card, because the Gang card is on top of the deck! Although you can defeat Gangs with traditional combat (see Combat Phase), there are usually better ways to deal with gangs: 1. Discard POLICE FORCES to defeat gangs. Discard 2 for Uncontrolled Gangs, 3 for Controlled Gangs. POLICE FORCES are gained at the POLICE STATION. POLICE FORCES are discarded in the Execute part of the Sidekick Phase. The Sidekick DOES NOT have to be on the Gang s Location to defeat it he is just dispatching Police to the Location to clean it up. And yes, multiple players can discard POLICE FORCES at the same time to defeat a Gang! Defeating gangs this way causes no change to the SOI. NOTE: This does NOT count as an Attack! If the Sidekicks dispatch some POLICE FORCES to take down a gang, the Sidekicks may still Attack this turn! 2. Put a gang into disarray. It s remarkably easy to throw a gang into disarray (playing gang members off each other, using information against them, etc). While in disarray, the gang has no effect. I.e., Sidekicks can draw cards on that Location, no attacks will happen, etc. See disarray (above) for more information. 3. Move another gang into that Location. If two gangs are ever on the same spot, they destroy each other. Gangs only destroy each other once they are both active (not in disarray). (Edge case: if an even number of gangs are on a Location, they all destroy each other. If an odd number of gangs are on a space, the strongest one survives and all others are destroyed). 4. It is rare, but it is possible for a Sidekick to take control of a Gang (and it is considered a Controlled Gang then). When this happens, the Sidekicks may treat the City Location of the Sidekick-Controlled Gang as a normal spot (for drawing, moving, etc). But: the Gang protects the Sidekicks if a Sidekick and a Sidekick-Controlled Gang are in the same Location, ANY attacks by other Bad Guys target the Gang first, then the Sidekick. (If the Gang taken over was a Villain Forces Gang, then it is taken out of the Villain Forces Power Structure: See Power Structure below). Finally, if a Bad Guy ends up on the Sidekick Controlled Gang s City Location, the Controlled Gang will Attack the Bad Guy during the Sidekick s portion of the Combat phase. NOTE: Sidekick controlled Gangs do NOT cause the City Terror to increase! If an active Gang occupies a City Location, they will cause Terror on that City Location raise the City Terror level by 1 in the End Phase. See City Terror (below) for more details. 14

16 Thugs Thugs are just low-life Bad Guys looking for a fight. In general, Thugs come from the Bad News deck and they DO NOT work for any Villain! They work for themselves! The Thug, upon reveal from the Bad News deck, usually moves to a Location in the City either directly to the SOI or specific Location (their home on their card). While active, that Thug prevents drawing cards on that Location put the Thug physically across that Location deck to note that. In general, only Gangs and Thugs prevent Sidekicks from drawing at a Location (this is notated by placing that Bad Guy ON TOP OF the Location, effectively blocking it physically). A Thug! Minions Minions are Bad Guys who work for the Villains their allegiance is to their Villain, and they do what they can to protect their master! A Minion (working for the Villain, properly employed with Health Insurance) comes from the Villain Forces and typically stays in the Power Structure, but has a Home location he oversees on the board. A Minion generally doesn t move, and he acts as if he were on his Home Location. He stays in the Villain Forces Power Structure to show whom he protects (see Protection below), but still is ON the Location (for purposes of Range and Attacks, see Combat). A Minion the Power Structure generally DOES NOT prevent Sidekicks from drawing from that City Location deck. This is why Minions in the Power Structure STAY in the Power Structure: they DO NOT prevent characters from drawing cards. They are too busy following the orders of the Villain to prevent the Sidekicks from searching! Hey, they gotta worry about keeping their jobs and their Insurance! A Minion! Villains The Villain is the main Bad Guy that you usually have to defeat. He is very powerful, and has many loyal Minions working for him (see above). To win the game, you usually need to defeat the main Villain! They have powers and lots of hit points, but they are hard to defeat because their Villain Forces protect them! (See Villain Forces, next page!) 15

17 Villain Forces, Power Structure, and Protection The Power Structure of the Villain Forces for Issue 1! Each Villain has a different way of organizing his Minions, also known as his Villain Forces. The Villain Forces are all the Minions and machinations working for the Villain. Each Villain has a different Power Structure a way of organzing the Villain Forces cards. The Comic Book Issue featuring that Villain will describe how that s Villain s Power Structure works. In general, all Villain Forces are laid out face down at the start of the game, and they are revealed as the game progresses. One thing that s common to all Power Structures: some Villain Forces protect other Villain Forces. By protect, we mean that if A and B protects C, then C cannot be attacked until A and B are both defeated. For example, in Jon Frost s Villain Forces, Sidekicks cannot attack Level 2 Villain Force #6 until they have defeated the two Level 1 Villain Forces protecting him (#1 and #2)! Typically, you have to defeat most of the Villain Forces before you can even attack the main Villain!! Note that, unless otherwise specified, a Bad Guy in disarray does NOT offer any Protection to upper Villain Forces! Any revealed Villain Forces may attack (but nothing may attack or be attacked if it s not revealed)! The Protection of its lower Villain Forces DOES NOT STOP a Villain Force from doing its thing (Attacks, effects, etc)! Life isn t fair. Villain Forces can attack you, but they hide behind their subordinates and you can t attack them. Note that Hack Attacks (see below) DO NOT respect Protection! In other words, you may Hack Attack any revealed Bad Guy when you may not be able to Attack him normally. Combat Basics Each Character, Gang, Thug, Minion, and Villain can participate in Combat. Things that can be in combat have the 5 6 icons on the right side of their card. Note that a Sidekick in SECRET ID form cannot participate in Combat. Attack: The base value for how much physical damage you do in Combat. Range: How far your Attack can reach (range is computed orthogonally, see Range later). Defense: How much you resist when damage is done to you. Hack Attack: The base value for Hack Attack damage. Hack Defense: How much you resist a Hack Attack. Movement: How far you can move (computed orthogonally). Most Bad Guys don t move once in play, so they don t even have this on their card! There are two types of Combat: Attacks (physical attacks) and Hack Attacks (computer attacks). Typically, a Sidekick can t do BOTH a plain Attack and a Hack Attack in the same turn!!! 16

18 A Bad Guy in disarray cannot initiate any attacks (although he can still be attacked). If something has an empty Defense (no number, just a dash), it can t be Attacked. Similarly, if something has an empty Hack Defense, it can t be Hack Attacked. Attack Basics Attacks are straightforward: the purpose is to damage a target (reduce target Hit Points) and hopefully reduce it to 0 Hit Points, as to remove it from the game. Hit Points are notated on cards inside the, usually in the upper right corner for most Bad Guys. 1. Check Range: A Range of 0 means you can only attack a target on your same Location. Any range beyond that is how many Locations away you can attack. A Range of 1 means you can attack a target on you Location, above/below or left/right by one Location. Attacks cannot reach diagonally unless the Range is infinity. See Range discussion below. 2. Check Conditions: Check target card and other conditions to ensure you can still attack. Some Bad Guys may prohibit certain attacks, or one Villain Force may Protect another! 3. Compute Attack: Add attacker s base Attack to any modifiers (cards you discard, items you have, etc.) This is the full attack value. 4. Compute Target s Defense: Look at the Defense value on the Target and add all defense modifiers to the defense. This is the full defense value. 5. Do Damage: Compute the damage value by subtracting the full defense value from full attack value. If that value is positive, subtract that value from the target s Hit Points. 6. Discard? If the target is at or below 0 Hit Points, discard the Target: they are defeated. Otherwise, the Target stays around until next turn. Use the POW! tokens to notate damage! Example: Delphi (on the Streets) wants to attack the Bruiser (in the Suburbs). Delphi s Range is 0, but she has nothing to increase her Range. She fails a Range Check and cannot Attack the Bruiser. So, on her turn, Delphi moves to the Suburbs Delphi is now on the same Location as the Bruiser. A Range Check (of 0) will succeed! During the Combat Phase, she knows she can Attack! Delphi checks conditions: nothing (such as Protection) prohibits her from attacking the Bruiser. Delphi computes her Attack: Her base is 2. She also has a Boomerang (found in the Caves) which she discards for another +1 to her Attack. Delphi s full attack value is 3. The Bruiser s Defense is 1. No other modifiers. The Bruiser s full defense value is 1. Delphi does 3-1 = 2 Damage. The Bruiser has 3 Hit Points, and takes 2 Damage use the POW! tokens to notate this damage. The Bruiser is still going strong and is alive for another Turn (yes, damage persists). If he takes 1 damage next Turn, the Bruiser will be defeated. In Combat, you can use as many items/cards as you want, but you can only use each item/card at most once. Hack Attack Basics Hack Attacks are a little different than normal Attacks. There is (usually) no Range Check, as Hackers can login and attack anywhere! The purpose of a Hack Attack is to reduce the resources of the target, but it works differently for Sidekicks and Bad Guys. When the Sidekick Hack Attacks a Bad Guy, the purpose is to throw them into disarray. When a Bad Guy Hack Attacks a Sidekick, the Sidekick loses cards. The biggest incentive for Sidekicks to Hack Attack is that it bypasses Protection! If you can t normally Attack a Bad Guy because his minions guard him, you can still render him ineffective for a few turns! 17

19 1. Check Range: Usually a Hack Attack can attack anywhere, but sometimes conditions may change! 2. Check Conditions: Check target card and conditions ensure you can still attack. Some conditions may prohibit Hack Attacks! 3. Compute Attack: Add attacker s base Hack Attack to any modifiers (cards you discard, items you have, etc.) This is the full hack attack value. 4. Compute Target s Defense: Look at the Hack Defense value on the Target and add all defense modifiers to the defense. This is the full hack defense value. 5. Do Damage: Subtract full hack defense value from full hack attack value: If it s positive, the attack succeeded! 6. Results: A successful Hack Attack against a Bad Guy throws them into disarray by 90 degrees for each value over 1. For example: a Hack Attack that succeeds by 2 causes the Bad Guy into disarray by 90 2 = 180 degrees. A Hack Attack can never cause more than 270 degrees of disarray. A successful Hack Attack against a Sidekick causes that Sidekick to lose a Sidekick card! The Sidekick chooses a card it may be in play or in hand. Remember, being in SECRET IDENTITY does NOT prevent Hack Attacks! Note that Hack Attacks (by the Sidekicks) happen before any other attacks. Range Many powers, effects, and attacks in the game have a Range:. Range is always computed orthogonally: up or down or left and right never diagonally. Range 0 is the same Location. Range 1 is one Location away. Range 2 is two Locations away. The chart above shows what Locations you can reach/effect for the different ranges. Attack Type Preferences Like the Sidekicks, Bad Guys can either Attack or Hack Attack, but not both (usually). In general, Bad Guys will use Attack when it is their turn in Combat. If a Bad Guy is to Hack Attack instead, it will say that explicitly on their card. Note that there are some Bad Guys who can both Hack Attack and physical Attack on the same turn! Who Do The Bad Guys Attack? But when the Bad Guys do Attack, who do they Attack? Each Bad Guy has an attack strategy noted on their card. There are two main attack strategies: Opportunistic and Vengeful. An Opportunistic Bad Guy basically Attacks the closest Sidekick he can, using the following rules in order: 1. Find the closest active Sidekick(s) in Range: Recall that Range 0 means you are on the same Location in the city. Range is computed orthogonally, never diagonally. If there are no Sidekicks in Range, no Attack happens. 2. If multiple targets, use the active SOI. If there are multiple targets in the same range, whatever active target is the most interesting (highest on the Sidekick of Interest (SOI) chart), they are the target of the attack. 18

20 A Vengeful Bad Guy basically Attacks the most interesting Sidekick he can, using the following rules in order: 1. Find the most interesting active Sidekick in Range: Going left to right on the SOI Chart (from most interesting Sidekick to least interesting Sidekick), the Bad Guy searches until he finds a Sidekick in Range and then Attacks that Sidekick! An Attack must be in range or it simply doesn t happen. It is also possible that all Sidekicks are in SECRET IDENTITY form which means no Attacks happen that turn (remember, though, that Hack Attacks can still happen!) If a Bad Guy has a different Attack Strategy than the ones listed, it will be noted on the card. Defeated What does it mean to be defeated? Basically, if anything with Hit Points (Thug, Gang, Minion, Villain, Sidekick) is reduced to 0 Hit Points, they are defeated and usually can t act anymore. Bad Guy Defeated! In the case of the Bad Guys, 0 Hit Points means they are knocked unconcious and the Sidekick wins the battle! The Bad Guys are then taken into custody by the Police (or run off) their cards are discarded and the SOI Chart updated! All Bad Guy discards are right next to the SOI chart to remind players to update the SOI Chart after defeating a Bad Guy! Gangs are simply placed back in the Gang Hangout! There s more where they came from!. Thugs are discarded to the Bad News discard. Back to the streets... Minions are discarded to the Maximum Security Prison:the Villain Forces Discard. If a Villain is ever defeated, usually you win! In case you don t, discard their card to the same place as the Minions. If a defeated Bad Guy had a Peril Number, all corresponding Peril Numbers are removed from the City Locations keep the Peril Numbers in the Villain Forces Power structure so you can see the order things happened (Important later in the game)! Sidekick Defeated! What happens when a Sidekick is defeated (i.e., reduced to 0 Hit Points)? If all Sidekicks are defeated, then the players lose and the game is over! Consult the current Comic Book Issue to see what that means for the players. Otherwise, play continues normally after the defeated Sidekick completes these actions: Discard All Cards! The defeated Sidekick must immediately discard all his cards to the GENERAL SIDEKICK DISCARD! Head Home! A defeated Sidekick is immediately sent to their Home Location. Put the Sidekick s marker on the Home Location, laid down to its side to show that it s defeated. Change to SECRET IDENTITY! Turn the defeated Sidekick s Character Sheet to SECRET ID side. He must stay in SECRET IDENTITY form for the rest of the game. A defeated Sidekick is just like being in SECRET IDENTITY form except: The Sidekick can never move! The Sidekick can never go into HERO form (even if other effects, like St. Nick, would require it). The defeated Sidekick can still draw Lead and Home Location cards and pass them along the Supply Lines. Thematically, the Sidekick just barely gets out of the Combat, losing everything! In terrible condition, he heads home to heal. Luckily, he can still do research at home and pass along information to his compatriots. Discarding and Destroying There are generally two things that happen to cards as the Sidekicks play: discard and destroy. 19

21 Discarded cards are put back into the proper discard. For Sidekick cards (Lead and Location cards), the discard is the GENERAL SIDEKICK DISCARD (see below). Discards stay in the current game and can come back (usually in the next Act). Destroyed cards are placed back in the box, and can t be used again this game session (but they can next game). Many times during play, cards from the Sidekicks are discarded. They are put in the GENERAL SIDEKICK DISCARD pile. If a deck (Location, Sidekick cards) ever runs out of cards, they are generally NOT immediately refilled! The end of an Act is when decks are refilled (representing the Sidekicks and the City catching their collective breaths). City Terror! The City Terror Chart represents how the city is feeling. If there is too much going on, the Sidekicks will feel the effects!!! It s in the Sidekick best interests to keep the City feeling safe. Usually, active Gangs cause the most City Terror, but there are plenty of ways the Bad Guys scare the city. As the City Terror grows, there are repercussions! At 6 and above: When Populating the Supply Lines (sharing cards with your fellow Sidekicks), you are limited to passing at most 2 cards (each) along the Supply Lines. At 11 and above: Movement is at -1, unless you discard a card (You can always move at least 1). At 16: The Sidekicks immediately lose! Terror effects are cumulative: i.e., at Terror Level 13, Movement is reduced AND it s more difficult to pass cards. Luckily, there are some cards and special abilities that allow the Sidekicks to reduce the City Terror. City Locations Each City Location tends to concentrate a certain type of card there. 1. Police Station: This is home to Commissioner Jones: Head of Police. There are only POLICE FORCES here. 2. Streets: Mostly things related the Gangs are here. 3. Uptown: This is home to Blackbird: the researcher. Things related to research and extra Leads are found here. 4. Hero HQ: Xeonite technology is here. 5. RINCON Labs: New technology and Scientists are here. 6. The Caves: Some old-fangled, but still useful, technology is here. 7. Downtown: This is home to Amethyst Arrow: the archer. A lot of Jade and and her Mom s stuff is here. 8. Suburbs: This is home to Delphi: the hacker. Hacking-related stuff is here. 9. Warehouse District: Random, but useful stuff is here. The City Locations are marked with a symbol in the lower left corner. Other types of Locations will reveal themselves as the game progresses! 20

22 HOW TO PLAY A normal game takes place over 3 Acts: Morning, Afternoon and Night. At the end of each Act, the Sidekicks have a chance to rest. Each Act has a number of turns (based on number of players) where Bad Guys and Sidekicks engage. A Turn has four basic Phases: Bad News Phase: Villain do dastardly deeds! Sidekick Phase: The Sidekicks act! Combat Phase: Good Guys and Bad Guys Fight! End Phase: Miscellaneous effects! After the End Phase, Sidekicks check for End of Act. If so, go to respite, otherwise continue to the next turn. The Structure of a Turn 1 Bad News Card alternate 1 then 2 Cards 2 Bad News Cards Bad News Phase: 1-2 players, 3-players, 4 players 1. The Least Interesting Sidekick (LIS) draws and reads the Bad News card(s) for this turn 2. The LIS reveals the next Villain Force, marking affected Locations with Peril Numbers Sidekick Phase: Novice: Players go in SOI Order, Normal: All Sidekicks perform each step simulataneously 1. Move: Move up to your Movement Rate. 2. Gather Resources: Draw a Location card from your current Location. 3. Decide: Decide to be a HERO or change into SECRET IDENTITY 4. Populate Supply Lines: Pass as many cards as you like from your hand (or in front of you) in the current Supply Lines direction. 5. Execute: If in SECRET IDENTITY form: (a) Draw a Lead Card, then play as many (legal) cards as you like that can be played If in HERO form, do exactly 1 of the following: (a) Play as many (legal) cards as you like that can be played (or) (b) Move your Sidekick to the top of the SOI Chart (or) (c) Rotate a Gang 90 degrees clockwise (into disarray) Combat Phase: A Sidekick must be in HERO form to be in Combat! 1. Sidekicks may Hack Attack in any order they like. Hack Attacks bypass Protection! 2. Bad Guys attack in City Order: top-to-bottom, left-to-right 3. Sidekicks may attack in any order they like (if they haven t Hack Attacked). Attacks must respect Protection! End Phase: 1. City Terror! For every City Location occupied by a Gang (not in disarray), raise the City Terror level by Regroup! For every Gang, Thug, Minion, Villain, or OTHER in disarray, rotate them 90 degrees counterclockwise If the End of an Act (End of Morning, End of Afternoon, or End of Night) shows up in the End Phase, a few things happen: Is it end of Night? Unless something special happens, THE PLAYERS LOSE! Check your Comic Book Issue to see what happens! Otherwise, respite! 1. Change the direction of the Supply Lines. Any Sidekick may discard one card to keep the direction the same. 2. Take all cards from GENERAL SIDEKICK DISCARD and sort them into appropriate, separate discard decks. Shuffle each discard deck individually, placing each discard deck on the bottom of the appropriate deck. 3. Start the next Act! 21