Mage Tower Rulebook Ver 0.1 This is a very early version of the rulebook, and is one of the last things being worked on while the Kickstarter is happening. All the text to play the game is here, but the rulebook background and various example images will be added later. Read the text for the rules descriptions, or look at the images for a basic overview. GAME SET-UP (TWO PLAYER): Give each player the five basic cards (2x Archer, 2x Elite Archer, 1x Knight) and their own monster deck. The monster deck consists of four of each monster card (Orc, Hellhound, Warlock, Ogre, Demon, Giant) and is 24 cards total. Now we have to use the "Draft Deck" to create each player's deck. The Draft Deck is the 170 unique
Mage Tower Rulebook Ver 0.1 cards with the blue "Player Card" back. For your first couple games, we recommend you simply give each player 8 random cards from the draft deck, so that each player has a 13 card deck including their five basic cards. If you've already played a few games, instead you should "draft" the cards. This means you take 8 random cards from the draft deck and lay them out face up for all players to see. The first player picks which card he would like for his deck. Then the second player picks a card. You continue taking turns until all 8 cards are chosen. Since this is a two player game, you then reveal 8 more cards from the draft deck. Now the second player gets to pick first, and you continue to take turns picking cards. At the end each player should have 8 cards total from the draft deck, which they combine with their 5 basic cards to form a 13 card deck. Each player places their 13 card deck and their monster deck to their right (see the picture below). Also there are three prize cards called Summoning, Intellect, and Gloryseeking. Take the 9 copies of each of these cards and place them in their own piles on the game board. Do the same for the 9 "Demonspawn" cards that have a yellow card back. (see the picture below.)
Mage Tower Rulebook Ver 0.1
Starting Out Each player begins the game at 20 life and draws two cards from their deck, then the first player begins their turn. A Turn of Mage Tower 1. BEGINNING OF TURN PHASE 2. MONSTER PHASE 3. CASTING PHASE 4. END OF TURN PHASE
Beginning of turn phase: The player draws two cards (even on their first turn, so they'll have four cards after drawing). The player also gets 1 gold which can later be used to buy Prize Cards (see the description in the Casting Phase section.) Any cards that have "beginning of turn" effects happen during this phase. You cannot play cards during this phase. If you ever need to draw a card and your deck has no cards in it, shuffle your discard pile and place it face down as your deck.
Monster phase: You are going to reveal cards from the top of the monster deck and place them onto the monster board zone of the play area. To place a monster, you put it into the "closest monster position. The monster board is divided into rows of four positions, and the closest position is the one that is in the lowest row and furthest to the right. Here is an example of the board with the spots labeled from 1-12 with 1 being the closest position and 12 being the furthest. (There can be more than three rows of monsters, though it is unlikely.
An example of a monster card In the top right and left each monster has a "point cost". You are going to reveal monsters until you hit between 10-12 points total of monsters each turn. If the monster deck is empty just shuffle your monster discard pile and place it face down as the monster deck. Let s go into a three turn example of how revealing monsters works.
Mage Tower Rulebook Ver 0.1 Monster Board Example Turn 1 Let s pretend the first three cards that come out of the monster deck are a Warlock, an Orc, and a Giant. That s 11 points total so we stop there:
Mage Tower Rulebook Ver 0.1 Monster Board Example Turn 2 At the beginning of your turn if there are any monsters you didn t kill from last turn, they become angry! To show they re angry you turn them upside-down, then reveal the new monsters for the turn.
Mage Tower Rulebook Ver 0.1 Monster Board Example Turn 3 If any monsters are angry at the beginning of your monster phase, they attack you! This means you take damage equal to their attack values then discard them. After doing this any monsters that aren t angry yet become angry, then new monsters come out like normal. Monster Abilities And Demonspawn Some Monsters have abilities that happen when they become angry. For example, the Warlock deals 1 damage to you when it becomes angry. These abilities only happen when the monster goes from being non-angry to angry, and don t happen again when the monster attacks you. Note that above I didn t address the Warlock s ability during Turn 2 of the monster board example, where it would normally have dealt me 1 damage. Demons create a 1/1 Demonspawn when they become angry. When this happens, simply take a 1/1
Demonspawn card from the Demonspawn pile (see game set-up section) and put it in the next monster slot. This happens before revealing new monsters for the turn. When the Demonspawn leaves the monster board, return it to the Demonspawn pile instead of putting it in the monster deck s discard pile. CASTING PHASE A sample image of an Ability card Playing a Card This is the phase where you can play the cards from your hand. Every card has an energy cost in the top right and left of the card. Each turn you get 7 energy (it's the same every turn.) So you can play up to 7 energy worth of cards. For example, you could play a Knight (3 energy) and an Elite Archer (4 energy), but since that uses all your energy you couldn't play any more cards this turn. There is no penalty for not using all your energy.
When you play an Ability card, you do what it says on the card and the card stays in front of you until the end of the turn when it is discarded. When you play Permanent and Defender cards they go to your Summoning Zone (see more info on those cards below.) Arrow Damage (IMPORTANT) - Cards that deal damage with a --> symbol after the word "damage" do arrow damage. Arrow damage always does the same thing- it damages the closest monster, and any extra damage carries over to the monster behind it. So if you play an Elite Archer to deal 5 damage -->, and the closest monster is an Ogre, the Ogre takes 4 damage and 1 extra damage is carried over to the monster behind it. The reason it takes 4 damage is because it is a 3/4 so it has 4 health, and it only takes 4 damage to kill it. Then the extra 1 damage goes to the next monster. If you can kill multiple monsters the extra damage always carries over to the monster behind them. When a monster is killed or destroyed, it is discarded, which is good because then it can't get angry or attack you next turn. Extra damage only carries over to the next monster when the word damage has the --> symbol after it. Damage is permanent.
Mage Tower Rulebook Ver 0.1 Defenders (IMPORTANT) (DEFENDER ATTACKING EXAMPLE IMAGE WILL BE ADDED IN A LATER VERSION) You will notice cards in your deck that have an attack and defense value as well, like the Knight, which is a 3/4. When you play these cards, you place them in your Summoned Zone. You can use defenders to attack the closest monster once per turn (even on the turn you play them.) When they attack the closest monster, the monster deals damage equal to its attack to your defender, and your defender deals damage equal to its attack to the monster. So if you have a Knight who attacks an Orc, the Knight will deal 3 damage to the Orc (killing it since it only has 3 defense), and the Orc will deal 2 damage to the Knight (leaving it alive since it has 4 defense.) Extra damage dealt by defenders doesn t carry over to the next monster like Arrow Damage does (see above section on Arrow Damage.) The damage on your defenders stays on them until they have damage equal to or more than their defense, then they die and are discarded. Prize Cards (IMPORTANT) (PRIZE CARD PRIMER IMAGE WILL BE ADDED IN A LATER VERSION)
At the beginning of every turn you gain 1 gold, and you can use that gold to buy a Prize Card. The Prize Cards are called Summoning, Intellect, and Gloryseeking and are available every game. Prize Cards always cost 4 gold. When you buy a prize card, it is immediately played like any other Ability card and stays in play until your end of turn phase. You do what it says on the card, and at the end of your turn you discard it like any other Ability, and it permanently becomes part of your deck. Also, note that all the prize cards have an ability that says Draw a card if you didn t buy this this turn. Ignore this effect on the turn you buy the prize card, but later when you draw it and play it from your hand you will draw a card when you play it. Monster - Attack Cards (IMPORTANT) (MONSTER-ATTACK CARD IMAGE WILL BE ADDED IN A LATER VERSION) Not all cards that have attack and defense values are defenders, a few special cards will say "Monster - Attack" in the type line. When you play these, you place the card directly onto the next spot on the opponent's monster board. They work just like a normal monster except when they die they go back to your deck's discard pile. These cards also have special rules when there s more than two players (see the Multiplayer Rules section.) Permanents/Debuffs (IMPORTANT) - Permanents are cards that are played into the summoning zone, and stay there for the rest of the game (unless they have an ability that says otherwise). They have various beneficial effects and abilities. Debuffs are simply permanents that attach to a monster and hurt it in some way. They tell you what monsters they can attach themselves to, and are discarded if the monster dies. Activated Abilities (IMPORTANT) (ACTIVATED ABILITY PRIMER IMAGE WILL BE ADDED IN A LATER VERSION) Some permanents or defenders will have activated abilities. These are in the format of "Cost : Thing that happens". So if a card says "2: Draw a card." then you may pay 2 energy to draw a card. If a card says "Discard a card: Deal 3 damage to any monster." then you may discard a card to deal 3 damage to any monster. These abilities may be used as many times as you want as long as you can pay the cost. You can only play these abilities during your Casting Phase. Other Cards - Most cards don't use any special symbols or wording, they just say what they do. But some cards are more complicated than others, so if you have any trouble just check the card-by-card FAQ later on in the rulebook. If a card contradicts the rulebook, the card's text takes precedence. End of Turn Phase: Discard any Ability cards that were played this turn. Abilities that happen at end of turn happen during this phase. You cannot play cards during this phase.
When The Monster Board Is Empty If the monster board is empty, then any arrow damage done is done to each opponent. (So for example if you play Archer which deals 3 damage -->, that damage is simply dealt to each opponent since there are no monsters.) This only works with arrow damage (-->) cards, not cards that just say Deal 3 damage to any monster. If you finish off the last monster wih arrow damage and there is some left over, it is dealt to each opponent. Your Defenders may still attack, but since there are no monsters instead they deal damage to each opponent, however they take 2 damage in return. So if you have two opponents and attack with a Knight, each opponent takes 3 damage and the Knight takes 2 damage. MULTIPLAYER RULES (3-4 PLAYERS): Drafting In Multiplayer -Instead of drafting two sets of 8 cards, you draft a set of 8 cards for each player. game you will draft four sets of 8 cards. So in a four player -Instead of drafting with all cards face up, each player is given 8 random cards from the get-go. Each player privately picks one card for themselves, then passes the rest to the player to their left. Each player continues picking until all the cards are picked and each player has 8 cards. Players aren t allowed to look at what cards other players are picking or have picked. Monster Deck In Multiplayer -Instead of each player having their own 24 card monster deck, shuffle all the monster cards together to form one large 48 card monster deck with eight of each monster type. Each player still has their own monster board, but they draw and discard monsters from the same monster deck and monster discard pile. Monster-Attack Cards In Multiplayer "Monster - Attack" Cards: There are five "Monster-Attack" type cards in the draft deck that go onto your opponent's monster board when you play them. Each "Monster-Attack" type card has two Monster Placeholder cards with a gold border and a yellow card back. In three or four player games, you use the placeholder cards for each player beyond the first. Just keep them next to the Demonspawn cards, and only use them for each player beyond the first, and return them to the game board after use (they don't go in anyone's deck). The "real" blue-backed copy of the Monster-Attack card is used on the
player to your left and does go back into your deck-- the placeholder cards are used for everyone else. Boon and Attack Cards In Multiplayer "Boon" and "Attack" Type Ability Cards - There are cards with type "Boon" and "Attack" that typically affect other players. In games with 3 and 4 players ONLY, if a player plays an "Ability Attack card that doesn't affect one or all of the opponents, each opponent that is unaffected by that "Attack" card loses 2 life. When a player plays an Ability - Boon" card in games with 3 and 4 players ONLY, and that card doesn't affect one or more opponents, each unaffected opponent gains 2 life. Note this only matters for ABILITY cards, not PERMANENT or EQUIPMENT or anything else. This is so that players typically can't choose to play a boon or attack card at certain times to try to team up on someone. (Note: A player being unaffected by a card means that it doesn't change anything regarding their own life total, energy, gold, hand, deck, discard, monster deck, permanents, defenders, debuffs, monster discard, or monster board.)