In a little known land some time ago, there were heroic adventurers, mighty rulers, fearsome monsters, and powerful magicians. Nobody knows how to get there any more. But if you read these rules, and play this game... who knows? You just might find yourself transported in time and space... to the lands of Emperor Balladan, a once-mighty ruler who of late has been plagued with misfortune. Enemies to the north and east have seized much of the empire. The emperor's six great magical treasures have been stolen by evil sorcerers and hidden throughout the land. Balladan is anxious to regain these items, and will pay handsomely for them, for they are the keys to his power. Players assume the roles of either a fighter, a cleric, a magician, or an elf and set out for adventure in this magic land. Their goal is to find treasure, both for themselves and for the emperor. The treasures are hidden throughout the land, in castles, cities, and many other unexpected places. As the players travel through mountains and swamps, across the great desert or even the great sea, they will encounter many strange animals and people... and perhaps even clues to treasures. The roads and trails are fraught with danger, but the rewards are many. When the emperor's treasures have all been found, the game ends, and the player with the most treasure is the winner.
ABOUT THE ORIGINAL GAME SEARCH FOR THE EMPEROR'S TREASURE is a classic Tom Wham game which was originally included in the center of issue #51 of DRAGON magazine, in July of 1981. In 1990, it was republished as part of a boxed set called The Best of Dragon Magazine Games, but that edition of the game differed from the original. This digital conversion is based on the original game (which had nicer game components), not the republished one. ABOUT THE DIGITAL CONVERSION SOFTWARE: BRPG v1.6m or later is required to play this digital conversion. This rulebook assumes working familiarity with the BRPG software s commands and features. UPDATED RULEBOOK: This rulebook is based on the original printed game s rulebook, but some changes have been made to account for the digital conversion. For example, all references to cardboard chits or playing pieces have been changed to token. The PDF format also has the advantage of being searchable, to find specific rules faster. SOFTWARE SETUP: You should disable all the dice except for the d6. Purists may wish to enable the d6 dice with pips. If you use BRPG for other games, we recommend that you keep a separate BRPG installation on your hard drive just for Search for the Emperor s Treasure, so that you don t need to continually customize your BRPG installation to support other game systems. If you do so, rename the executable to something like Battlegrounds SFET, so as not to share Preferences files with your other BRPG installation. You will probably also want to disable or delete the Encounters, Deployments, Dice Macros, and other illustrative files that come with BRPG by default. INVENTORY OF GAME PARTS Your EMPEROR'S TREASURE game conversion contains the following: 34 Treasure tokens 8 Character tokens 42 Encounter tokens 27 Arms tokens 26 Spell tokens 2 Ship tokens 2 Boat tokens Wound Marker tokens (with adjustable values from 1 to 20) 8 character cards 1 Playing map 1 Rules booklet
TYPICAL TOKENS PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES All character tokens and most of the encounter tokens have three numbers printed on them. These are their personal attributes. Detailed information on every encounter token may be found in the Encounter Descriptions. Escape Number is used when attempting to flee from a hostile encounter. The higher the number, the better the chance of escape. Wound Number is the number of wounds required to kill the character or creature. Ability Score is added to any weapon (sometimes a spell) used by the character. If the character or creature has no weapon, this number is the number of attack dice it may use during melee (see Battle Sequence). The Economy Any spell markers not chosen by the players, plus the 2 ships, the 2 boats, and the Wound Markers, are kept near the edge of the map during play. These markers will be taken from and returned to the Economy, as needed. Wound Markers These small tokens are used repeatedly during the game. When a character is wounded during a hostile encounter, the player must place a Wound Marker on his character card, and set it to display the correct number of Wounds received (using BRPG s token-swapping feature). Each Wound Marker can be set to display any number between 1 and 20. If the number of wounds accumulated equals or exceeds the character's Wound Number, he is dead and out of the game. When a player manages to heal a character's wound or wounds, adjust the number showing on the Wound Marker, or delete it altogether, as appropriate. During hostile encounters, it will be necessary to keep track of wounds inflicted on creatures drawn from the Encounter Pool. This is also done with Wound Markers. When the encounter is over, the Encounter token is returned to the Encounter Pool, even if the creature was killed. If a ship or boat is wounded (sustains damage), a separate Wound Marker must be used to track damage on the vessel. When a ship or boat is returned to the Economy, its damage is repaired, and it becomes available again.
HOW TO START Load the BRPG Encounter file called SftET.bge. This will load the map and all the playing pieces (tokens). Most of the tokens are sorted into stacks or groups called Pools. The Encounter Pool contains all the Encounter tokens, the Treasure Pool contains all the Treasure tokens, and the Arms Pool contains all the Arms tokens. The character tokens are located just above the map. The three Pools are located to the right of the map, as are the other game markers, such as ships, boats, and spells. These are collectively called the Economy. Whenever a player must draw a token from a Pool, use the selection marquee to select all of the tokens in the Pool, then right-click on the Pool and select the Stack & Shuffle command from the contextual popup menu that appears. The stack of tokens will be shuffled and whichever token ends up at the top of the stack is the token drawn from the Pool. Selecting a Character: There are 8 Character Cards (2 magicians, 2 fighters, 2 elves, and 2 clerics) located just below the map. Each player will play the role of one of the 8 characters provided in the game. Each player should roll two dice. The player with the highest roll gets the first pick. Character selection then proceeds with the next-highest roller, and this is repeated until everyone has chosen a character. Each player takes one character (use the Owner command in BRPG to assign each character token to a player); the remainder are out of play for this game. When character selection is complete, place each character's token on the map at the Inn of Nobnodd, and delete any unused Character Cards and character tokens. Turn Sequence: Right-click on each character token and select the Include in Turn Sequence command in BRPG to list each character in the Turn Sequencer. Then edit each row in the Turn Sequencer to assign a Sequence number to each character (lowest number goes first). Players can either roll dice once again to determine the acting order, or simply assign the Sequence numbers in such a way that the first person that got to choose their character goes last, and the last person that got to choose their character goes first. Personal Possessions: Each player should draw one token from the Arms Pool and place it on his Character Card. This is all they have when the game begins. Other personal possessions (more arms, clues, treasures, etc.) obtained during the game must be kept on the Character Card assigned to each player. The card will state if a character may use a weapon or shield. Additional arms can be obtained during the game. A character may carry a weapon or shield he cannot use. Characters who can use magic spells should now select their starting spells (see Magic Spells). Spells are not considered to be personal possessions but must be kept on the Character Card until they are cast. Player/Character Cooperation Any time characters occupy the same space, the players may trade, buy, and sell possessions between each other. They may not attack one another nor help each other during an encounter.
SEQUENCE OF PLAY Play consists of a series of turns during which each player takes their turn in the order indicated by the Turn Sequencer. A player-turn usually consists of several events. Sometimes a player's actions will result in an encounter for a different player. During a turn, a player may do many things, but they must be done in the proper order. 1. MOVE: Movement is optional. A player may choose to stay in place. If a player intends to move, he should roll the dice macro called Movement Roll and then move from space to space along the marked trails on the map. A meditating" player may not move (see Magic Spells). 2. TURN IN CLUES: If the player has arrived at the location indicated by a treasure clue (or delivers Maid Marywin or the Elf Princess to her destination), the clue (or Encounter) token is returned to the Encounter Pool and the player draws the proper number of treasures from the Treasure Pool. 3. EXPLORE: If the player's token is in any area listed on the Exploration Chart, the player should roll the appropriate dice macro for the location he is in and take the action indicated. 4. ENCOUNTER: If the player's token is not in any of the areas named on the Exploration Chart, he must draw one token from the Encounter Pool. If the encounter applies to the type of terrain the character is in, it must be resolved. If the encounter does not apply to the one who drew it, he or she has the option of presenting it to any other player, provided his character is in the right terrain. If the Encounter token does not apply to the player who drew it, and he does not present it to another player, the token is returned to the Encounter Pool. A hostile encounter is one in which the character is attacked. If a character runs away (see Escape) from a hostile encounter, he must drop any one personal possession (if any are owned). Once a player has concluded their player-turn, they should press the End My Turn button.