Learn to play V ersion 2.0 Table of Contents 2 2 2 2 What is this book? What will I need? How do I get started? The Golden Rule 2Setup 2 3 3 4 7 7 Hero Setup Quest Setup Goal of the Game Turn One 4 4 4 6 6 6 7 Travel Phase Pursuit Phase Hero Phase Defence Phase Encounter Phase Encounter Aftermath Time Phase 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 Reinforcement Phase Travel Phase Pursuit Phase Hero Phase Defence Phase Encounter Phase Time Phase Turn Two What happens now? 7Credits 1 Setup The road has been long, and even with body and will honed to perfection of the true Myrmidon, Valkea started feeling its burdens. She has been traversing unknown territory for the last five days, each morning waking up to a different land around her. Places that had once been days or weeks of travel apart were joined inexplicably and maddeningly by strands of living Mists when a cataclysm shook the world a few years before. Now, she had to experience the insanity on her own. Now Valkea was walking down a desert path, the surrounding landscape resembling that of Naar, her homeland. Yet, the Myrmidon could recognize none of the terrain features surrounding her; neither the road, nor the walls of jagged, dark red rock that pierced the misty sky. The only thing that allowed her to keep marching was a sense that she will prevail by the strength of her will and the unbreakable bond once forged with her beloved Terhu. Feeling a sudden touch of cold on her back, Valkea stopped abruptly. A skeleton sitting by the side of the road, clutching a rusty weapon, suddenly reared its head, empty eye sockets coming to life with a ravenous glow. And as the ominous hiss and clatter of living bones announced the arrival of more monstrosities, Valkea welcomed her enemies as a Myrmidon should: long spear in hand, its shaft resting on a sturdy shield held high. Hero Setup Now that you know the Golden Rule, it’s time to find Valkea’s Hero Charter. Look for a large tile with her picture and symbol (which is conveniently circled in the image below): Place the tile in front of you, making sure that the face-up side does not feature this symbol: . Leave ample space for cards on all sides of the Hero Charter. Now is also the time to collect all cards belonging to Valkea. You will recognize them by this symbol (also found on the Hero Charter). W hat is this book? Welcome to the world of Mistfall: Heart of the Mists, a realm of dark powers and perilous adventures! What you are reading now is an introduction to the rules in a form of a playthrough which you can just read – or set up and follow on your table. Whichever option you choose, keeping the Heart of the Mists player aid, cards and Location tiles may be a good idea, simply to more easily follow Valkea’s first adventure. What will I need? A copy of Heart of the Mists, a flat surface (like a table), and about 60 minutes is all you’ll need to play through this introduction (although, if you decide to continue beyond what’s outlined in this booklet, you may need an extra half an hour). You will be playing through a special Quest created specifically for the purpose of teaching you the rules. How do I get started? Cards: – Shield Rush, – Long Spear, Alekar’s Shield, – Blunt Axe If you haven’t yet punched out the tokens and unwrapped the cards, now would be a great time to go about doing just that. The playthrough assumes that you will guide Valkea the Myrmidon through the Mists, so you will not be using any cards or Hero Charters belonging to other characters. Also, please note that most of the decks for a normal game would need to be shuffled first, but in case of this Quest you will not need to do that, as you will be asked to pull specific cards out of different decks. – Stand Fast!, – Depicted above are four types of cards, each with Valkea’s symbol in the bottom left corner of the card’s artwork. These cards are (from left to right): Basic Feats, Basic Gear, Advanced Feats and Reward Gear (you’ll also find that these categories are written on the cards themselves). The fifth (rightmost) card is also a Reward Gear card, but one without a Hero symbol, which makes it a General Reward Gear card. The Golden Rule Find all of the cards of the types depicted above (the ones with Valkea’s symbol, as well as all other Reward Gear cards) and set them aside. Return all other cards that share their back with them to the game box. You will not need them during this playthrough. Card rules always override game rules. Whatever is written here (or in any other rulebook) is automatically trumped by any card text. If two or more cards conflict, negation always comes on top. Now take a look at your Hero Charter. It says that your Starting Gear consists of: Chainmail, Long Spear, and Round Shield. Place these cards face-up below your Hero Charter. Then, take all of Valkea’s Basic Feat cards, as well as the remaining Basic Gear card (the Short Sword) and place them as a deck face-down next to your Hero Charter, where it says “Deck”. Place the Advanced Feat cards right below the deck (face-up). Slide the two Reward Gear cards with your symbol under the Advanced Feats. Place the General Rewards to the side face-down, and place 3 cards: Blunt Axe, Arcane Cuirass and Great Shield face-up next to it, thus forming the Reward Display. 2 Create an Encounter deck using the Raging Bones and Resolve of the Dead Encounters. All other cards (unused Enemies, Encounters, Allies, etc.) are returned to the box. You will need them in a full game of Heart of the Mists, but not during this playthrough. Create the Resolve Pool by placing a single Resolve token (round token resembling a coin) close by. Normally, the Resolve Pool is shared by all players, but since you are playing alone, you won’t have to share. Finally, take one of the wooden cubes and place it on your Hero Charter – on the darker space with the number 4 – and draw your starting hand. Normally, you would draw it from your deck (shuffled before starting the game), but in this case simply take: Build Momentum, Pummel, Myrmidon Discipline, Talon Block and the Short Sword card to form your starting hand of cards. Your playing area should now look like this (not including the Reward Deck and Reward Display): Locations Find the Plains of Sorrow and the Tomb of the Wicked Location tiles and place them in the middle of the table: Valkea is now ready to face her Enemies! Place them side-by-side as depicted above, and then place a single Wound Token on Plains of Sorrow. Finally, place the Party Pawn (which you will first need to mount on its plastic base) on Plains of Sorrow, and flip the Tomb of the Wicked Location tile face down. Quest Setup Quest Charter and Tokens Find the Quest Charter and the Time Charter and place them above the Locations tiles: Each time you play Heart of the Mists you set up one of the Quests in the Quest Guide. There are a few important differences between this Quest and the Quests you will find in the Quest Guide, the main one being the size and composition of the game map formed using Location tiles. Enemies and Encounters. For this playthrough you will only need the Blue Enemy deck (Undead Enemies), and a selected set of Encounters. Place one of the cubes on the space with a single Hero Number Symbol and one on the 0 position of the Reinforcement Track, as depicted above. Then place a cube on the first (top left) position of the Darkness Track located on the Time Charter, and 4 Objective Tokens in the Token Holding Box. Return the Quest Tokens (the square tokens with letters A-F) to the box, and form a token bank out of all other tokens in the game. Any game materials not mentioned in the above setup should also be returned to the box. You may want to also keep the Rules of Play and the Player Aid handy, but for now, you will only need to follow this guide. First find all of the Blue Enemies – they will all share the back depicted on the right side of the above picture. Place them face-down to form a deck. Then, find the Regular Encounters – ones with the back on the left side of the above picture – and find all that contain only the word Deadlands written in italics at the top of their main text box: You are now ready to play. Goal of the Game 3 For this playthrough, your goal will be to make your way from the Plains of Sorrow to the Tomb of the Wicked, and then leave it – allowing Valkea to finally find her way. You will have to achieve this goal before your time runs out – and without falling prey to Undead monsters stalking the lands tainted and twisted by the Mists. T urn One Pursuit Phase Most Enemies are harmless as long as they remain in the Quest Area , although they are on the table (and in the same Location), they are still far enough to pose no threat. However, during the Pursuit Phase, they will go after Heroes. Valkea has just entered the Plains of Sorrow, so your first turn will start with the Travel Phase (the second Phase on the Player Aid sheet). Travel Phase Looking at your Hero Charter, you will find an Enemy Focus track, marked with this symbol: . The cube placed on the track shows that you have a total of 4 Enemy Focus, and since it’s more than 0, Enemies are aware of your presence. Because of that, the leftmost Enemy (in your case it’s the Bone Wraith) will move from the Quest Area to your Hero Area . Whenever the party enters a Location for the first time, the Location is considered Perilous. The single Wound token placed on Plains of Sorrow is there to signify that. Whenever Heroes end a Travel Phase in a Perilous Location, they need to draw a suitable Encounter which will populate the Location with Enemies. Encounters are drawn from the Encounter deck. One of their types – like Deadlands – has to match the type of Location (if there is no match, the card is redrawn) but in this case simply place the Resolve of the Dead on the Active Encounter space of the Quest Charter: is where all the things belonging to your Hero are Your Hero Area located: your Gear, some of your active Feats, and also the Enemies that will attack you later during the turn if not dealt with. Take the Bone Wraith card and place it above your Hero Charter, to signify that he is now in your Hero Area . Now, since an Enemy entered your Hero Area , your Enemy Focus will immediately go down. Whenever this occurs, divide your current Enemy Focus by 2, drop any fractions, and place your marker cube in the space with the number you came up with. In this case, the cube will move to the space with a 2. As long as there are Enemies in the Quest Area and your Hero has any Enemy Focus , you will have to repeat this procedure, so you need to place the Bone Serpent in your Hero Area as well, moving the marker cube on your Enemy Focus track to 1. At the end of the Pursuit Phase your Hero Area should look like this: This signifies that there is an Active Encounter in play – which means that there will be more Enemies appearing every turn, as well as that there might be some special rules in play. For now, as part of setting up a new Encounter there are a few things you will need to do. Let’s take a look at the Encounter card itself: The first thing to do is to draw Enemies. The Resolve of the Dead Encounter will start with a total of 2 Enemies. You will find this information right under the Encounter art: the 2 means: number of Heroes times 2. The same box also tells you that the Enemies need to come from a Blue deck, and that they can have any Keywords (we’ll go over Keywords soon). Whenever there are no more Enemies in the Quest Area, or no Hero has any Enemy Focus left, the Pursuit Phase ends (even if that means Enemies remain in the Quest Area ). It’s time to move to the Hero Phase. Instead of drawing randomly, find a Bone Wraith, and a Bone Serpent in the Blue Enemy deck. All Enemies – as they are drawn – are placed right under the Quest Charter in what is referred to as the Quest Area , one by one. Hero Phase During the Hero Phase each Hero gets their own Hero Turn, during which they are able to attack Enemies, acquire new Feats, and often do whatever is necessary to successfully end the current Encounter. Whenever you draw any new Enemies, always add them to the Quest Area from left to right – and if there are already any Enemies on the table, simply expand their line by adding new ones. The general rule is that you are allowed to use one Regular Action, any number of Fast Actions and any number of Reflexes. Since you can resolve any of your Actions (Reflex, despite not having the word “Action” in its name is also an Action) in any order, you can start with a Fast Action. Let’s take a look at your hand: Having drawn the Enemies, now you need to follow any Setup Rules the Encounter might introduce. As it happens Resolve of the Dead has some special setup rules (as detailed on the Encounter card). To follow these rules, take 2 Resolve tokens (in the card text they are depicted as ), and place them on the Bone Serpent. 4 At this point your Hero Area Resolving an Action simply means that you get to resolve a single effect that is preceded by Regular Action, Fast Action or Reflex. Now, if you take a look at the Pummel card in your hand, you will see that there’s an effect preceded by the phrase Fast Action. This Fast Action can be played from your hand (as indicated by the hand symbol preceding the description), and it can target an Enemy in Range . Since your Hero Area is in Range (other Hero Areas , and the Quest Area are in Range ), you will be able to use the effect against any one of the Enemies in front of you. should look like this: In order to resolve the Fast Action of the Pummel card you need to have a Spear card in your Hero Area . “Spear” is a Keyword, as indicated by the fact that it is italicized. A “Spear card” is simply a card with the Spear Keyword. In your case, you have the Long Spear card in your Hero Area , so this requirement is met. Target the Bone Serpent with the Fast Action, but before resolving the Action effect, you will first need to check the Enemy’s Vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities are always listed at the bottom of the text box with Enemy Special Abilities, and they are always preceded by a Wound token symbol . You’ve bruised the dead a bit, but now it’s time to deal some serious damage. Resolve the second Regular Action of the Long Spear card. It is in your Hero Area , so you can resolve it now; and it has a Range of , which is more than Enough to reach any of your Enemies. Target the Bone Serpent. Unfortunately, there is no match between Bone Serpent’s Vulnerabilities and Long Spear’s Keywords, so no Wounds are placed before we move to resolving the Action itself. On its own, the second Regular Action of the Long Spear deals 3 Physical Damage (as indicated by the Physical Damage symbol ) to the Bone Serpent, which is how much life this Enemy currently has (a total of 4 Life minus 1 Wound ). However, every time you deal damage to an Enemy, you first have to cancel some of it, based on the Enemy’s defence. In the case of the Bone Serpent, the Vulnerabilities are: Blunt and Flame. Whenever you target the Bone Serpent with a card that has any of these Keywords, you will place 1 Wound token on that Enemy immediately for each Keyword match – and you will do this before anything else is resolved. Since the Bone Serpent and the Pummel card share the Blunt Keyword, immediately place 1 Wound on that Enemy. In this case, a total of 2 Damage will be cancelled by the Bone Serpent’s Physical Defence (used in this case, since you’re dealing Physical Damage ). Normally, this Enemy’s Physical Defence is 1 (as printed on the card just below the Enemy name). However the Bone Serpent gains +1 Physical Defence whenever it’s targeted by a card with the Piercing Keyword. Unfortunately, Long Spear has that exact Kewyord, so if you would conclude the Action now, you would place 1 (3 Physical Damage minus a total of 2 Physical Defence ) Wound on the Enemy. Now it’s time to resolve the Fast Action itself. It will allow you to place a Daze Marker (indicated by the Daze Marker Symbol ) on the targeted Enemy. Find and place the Daze Marker on the Bone Serpent. However, the Action also allows you to discard 1 Combat card to place another daze Marker on a different Enemy. So, discard the Gain Momentum card from your hand (it has the required Combat Keyword), to target the Bone Wraith. Just like with the Bone Serpent, check Vulnerabilities, then place 1 Wound on the Enemy, and finally also place a Daze token . However, the Regular Action of the Long Spear card also allows you to discard up to 2 Combat cards to deal additional damage. Discard the Talon Block and Myrmidon Discipline cards now, to bring the total of damage dealt to 5 . After cancelling 2 Physical Damage with Bone Serpent’s defence, place a total of 3 Wounds on the Enemy. Next step is generating Enemy Focus. As you act, you become more of a danger in the eyes of the Enemies. To indicate that, different effects will make you gain Enemy Focus (indicated by this symbol ). The description of the Pummel card’s Fast Action ends with: “ 1 ”. This means that you have to generate 1 Enemy Focus . To indicate the Enemy Focus gained, move the cube on the Enemy Focus Track 1 space to the right, as shown by the arrow. (2 for dealing 3 Physical Now generate a total of 4 Enemy Focus Damage , plus additional 2 for discarding 2 Combat cards to deal +1 Damage for each), and move the cube on your Enemy Focus Track to the space with the number 6. Finally, as instructed by the Regular Action you’ve just resolved, discard the Long Spear card into your discard pile. Since the Bone Serpent has just been eliminated (the number of Wounds was equal or higher than its Life ), look at its Resolve Value, depicted in the top left corner, and take 1 Resolve token from the bank. Then, as instructed by the Encounter card, also take the 2 Resolve tokens from the Bone Serpent card. Discard the eliminated Bone Serpent and look at the Encounter card. Finally, it’s time to discard the card. Place the card used face-up in your discard pile. As a general rule, any card played out of your hand will be discarded after its Action (or any one of its Actions) is resolved, while cards in your Hero Area remain there after resolving the Action, unless the effect description says something else. 5 Under Progression it says that whenever you receive any Resolve , you may return any of the tokens to the bank to place 1 Objective Token on Whenever you are dealt damage that you cannot or don’t want to cancel, for each point of damage you must move 1 card from either your hand, the top of your deck, or from your discard pile (not just the top – you are free to choose) to your Burial pile. So, if you’re dealt 3 damage and you cancel none, you will have to Bury a total of 3 cards – and you may choose individually for each of them where they will come from. it for each Resolve so returned. Return all 3 Resolve to the token bank now, and place 3 Objective Tokens on the Resolve of the Dead card. You can only cancel damage by resolving Reflexes – the only type of Action that you can use not only on your Hero Turn, but practically any time. Consequently, for the 1 dealt by the Bone Wraith you have two options: you can either resolve the Reflex of the Talon Block, or resolve the Reflex of the Round Shield to cancel the damage. Choose the latter option, and place the Round Shield on top of your deck. Since Valkea no longer has her Long Spear in her Hero Area , it’s probably a good idea to make sure she’s does not go on unarmed. Resolve the first Fast Action of the Short Sword card, to place it into your Hero Area . Also, as instructed by the Action description, generate 1 more Enemy Focus , bringing your current total to 7. Finally, before the Defence Phase is over, you need to resolve Conditions. To do so, look at each Enemy and each Hero Charter – and resolve Conditions for each Hero and Enemy that has them. In this case, only the Bone Wraith has a Condition token. If these were damage dealing Conditions (like Burning or Poisoned), each of those tokens would place 1 Wound on the Enemy. Then, you would get to choose 1 Condition token that gets removed. has stopped on the Since the cube on your Enemy Focus Track Reinforcements symbol , you have to immediately move the cube on the Reinforcement Track (located on the Quest Charter) one space to the right, and remove 1 Objective Token from the Token Holding Box (located on the Darkness Track). The latter happens every time a cube on any Enemy Focus Track stops on, or passes any symbol (when moving right). Currently, there is not much of a choice. Daze does not place any Wounds, and since it is the only Condition return its token tokens to the bank. Having survived the Enemy onslaught, it’s time to take a closer look at the Active Encounter in the Encounter Phase. Encounter Phase It’s time to end your turn. Normally, you draw cards from the top of your deck, until you have 5 cards in your hand. For the purpose of this playthrough, find the following cards in your deck: Build Momentum, Talon Block, Shield Rush, Pummel and Focused Thrust. Use these cards to form your hand. In order to make progress on your way, you will need to successfully end the current Encounter. Each Encounter will tell you what your options are. First, let’s take a look at the current Active Encounter: With five cards in your hand, and one Enemy already soundly beaten, it’s time to proceed to the Defence Phase. Defence Phase This is where Enemies get to turn the tables on you, but don’t worry, you’ll get them yet! During the Defence Phase Enemies will finally get to attack you, and since you have a Bone Wraith in your Hero Area , you will have to activate it to attack (if there were more Enemies, you’d have to activate each of them once). However, any Enemies in the Quest Area would not be activated – only those that actually got to you will have their chance of dealing you some damage. During the Encounter Phase, you check if any of the conditions outlined in the End sections are met. Resolve of the Dead needs a total of 3 Objective Tokens ( +2, as printed in the End section of the Encounter) to end successfully. Alternatively, if no Enemies are left in play, this Encounter will also end successfully. Since there are in fact 3 Objective Tokens on the Resolve of the Dead card, the Encounter ends, and Encounter Aftermath is resolved. Note however, that if none of the End conditions were met, the game would simply progress to the Time Phase. The Bone Wraith deals 2 Physical Damage, as indicated by the 2 above the Special Abilities and Vulnerabilities box on the Bone Wraith card. However, this Enemy also has a Daze token . Each Daze token on an Enemy (or on a Hero) makes that Enemy (or Hero) deal 1 less damage of any kind, so this skeletal Enemy will only deal you 1 . Encounter Aftermath Any Enemies still left after finishing the Encounter would be discarded now. This does not provide you with extra Resolve as they are not eliminated, but simply clears the table. You should now also discard the Wound token from the Plains of Sorrow Location tile, as finishing the Encounter means you’ve just made the Location Safe. Congratulations! 6 T urn T wo The next step is receiving Rewards. Start by drawing a Reward card from the top of the Reward deck – and for this playthrough, simply add the Enchanted Spyglass card. Now, you should have the following cards in your Reward Display: It’s time to get to know the Reinforcement and Travel Phases a little better, after which, you will be able to either continue the mini-adventure on your own, or simply go through the rules of Heart of the Mists to play a full game. Reinforcement Phase During the Reinforcement Phase new Enemies might arrive at the Quest Area , if there is an Active Encounter in play. For a moment, let’s assume that Resolve of the Dead is still in play. The first step of the Reinforcement Phase is to move the marker cube on the Reinforcement Track . Since you generated enough Enemy Focus for the cube on your Enemy Focus track to reach the Reinforcement Symbol , the Reinforcement Track now tells you that you need to draw 1 new Enemy. However, the Resolve of the Dead Encounter also indicates that the cube on the Reinforcement Track moves one space to the right during the Reinforcement Phase ( 1 ). Regardless of the number of players, one player chooses one of the cards from the Display and either takes it, or places it under the Reward Deck, in the latter case either to receive its Resolve Value, or to purchase their Personal Reward, by spending 2 Resolve from the pool. The next step is to draw Enemy cards – and you would draw them the same way as during Encounter setup, with the only difference being that any special Setup Rules from the Encounter card would not be applied. They are only used during actual Encounter setup. Finally, whatever the position of the cube was on the Reinforcements track, it is moved all the way to 0 – regardless of whether there is an Active Encounter in play. This simply always happens at the end of the Reinforcements Phase, and this is what you need to do now. Take the Enchanted Spyglass and place it under the Reward Deck, and immediately take 1 Resolve and add it to the Resolve Pool. Draw another card to replenish the Display. Find and place the Light Bow next to the cards already on the table. Next, move the Light Bow to the bottom of the Reward Deck, and discard 2 Resolve tokens to the bank. Take the Spear of Dawn card from under your Advanced Feats stack, and add it to your hand. W hat happens now? You can set up the Raging Bones Encounter and try to beat it on your own. In order to play it, you will need to first read the rules of Enraging Enemies from the Rules of Play, page 11. You can also read up on some rules not mentioned in the playthrough to get everything you need to play a Quest out of the Quest Guide. Having received your Rewards, and with no Enemies in play, it’s time to rest. Add up the Restoration values found on your Hero Charter and on your current Location. In this case you will receive a total of 4 Restoration . For each point of Restoration, you may either move any one card from the Burial pile to your discard pile, or move any card from your discard pile to the bottom of your deck. Should you choose the latter, skim through Part II: Playing the Game in order to find the rules on Allies, Enraging and Attachments. Also remember that the Glossary at the end of the rules can answer some questions that arise in-play. Since you’ve Buried no cards so far, simply take Talon Block, Build Momentum, Pummel and Long Spear, and place them under your deck in any order you choose. Your deck does not reshuffle automatically when you run out of cards – restoring through resting and healing is the only way to get your cards back. No shuffling also means that the order of the cards in the deck is very much dependent on your decisions! Good luck and have fun! Credits Game design: Błażej Kubacki Now move the marker cube on your Enemy Focus track back to the space with the white number 4. This is resetting your Enemy Focus – and it will happen after every successfully finished Encounter, even if your current Enemy Focus is lower than your starting value. Game development: Andrei Novac Illustrations: Enggar Adirasa Graphic design: Agnieszka Kopera English rules: Błażej Kubacki Finally, discard the Resolve of the Dead Encounter and proceed to the Time Phase. If your copy of Mistfall: Heart of the Mists is missing any components or if any game components are defective, please contact our customer support at www.nskn.net. Time Phase Look at the Darkness Track located on the Time Charter. The position of the cube will tell you how far the time will progress on the Time Track. In this case, the cube is still in the first space of the track (with the following symbol: 1), so move the cube on the Time Track one space to the right. Spaces that are empty or contain the Hero Number symbol produce no game effects. For the purpose of this playthrough, also ignore any other symbols on the Time Track. Mistfall: Heart of the Mists was financed through Kickstarter. We would like to offer our special thanks to the amazing Kickstarter community gathered around Mistfall: Heart of the Mists and express our gratitude to our backers for their trust and support. 7 ©2016 NSKN Legendary Games SRL. All rights reserved. For more information about Mistfall: Heart of the Mists please visit www.nskn.net.
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