Familiar Tales

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• Starting a campaign
  • 1. Choose familiars
       • 4 players: Each player chooses 1 familiar
       • 3 players: 1 player chooses 2 familiars, the others get 1
       • 2 players: Each player chooses 2 familiars
       • 1 player: The player controls all 4 familiars
    2. Setup skill decks
       • 1 familiar: Shuffle your familiar's starting deck
       • 2 familiars: Combine both of the starting decks and remove the following, then shuffle the remainder together:
         • 2x Reckless
         • 2x Assist
         • 1x Focus
       • 4 familiars: Combine both of the starting decks and remove the following, then shuffle the remainder together:
         • 4x Reckless
         • 4x Assist
         • 2x Focus
    3. Set sideboard dials to 0
    4. Set your familiars' power dial(s) to 0 and set the life dial(s) to the highest number
    5. Record which players have which familiars in the campaign journal
    6. Fill in the START CHAPTER 1 (101) bubble on the campaign sheet
    7. Continue to setup
• Setup
  • 1. Set out the location book and chance die.
    2. Place the sideboard next to the location book.
    3. Set the discontent key card in its sideboard slot.
    4. Place the child character card next to the sideboard.
    5. Place the artifact cards face up next to the book.
    6. Place the Fatigue cards face up next to the book.
    7. Shuffle all available skill cards and reveal 4 from the top of the deck to form the training row.
    8. Shuffle all available item cards and reveal 4 from the top of the deck to form the crafting row.
    9. Sort the various tokens and put them next to the book.
    10. Each player does the following:
        • Takes their character card, dashboard, and deck box for their familiar.
        • Shuffles their skill cards and draws a hand of 5.
        • Equips their item cards and places extras in their character's stash.
        • Apply any affliction tokens or marks of devotion to their characters.
    11. Give the campaign journal to a player.
    12. Each familiar will have its own turn. Set the turn order in the app, but make sure anyone controlling 2 familiars does not play in back-to-back turns.
    13. Find the last location bubble filled in the campaign journal, which is the highest number, and enter that in the app. The app can be found at www.FamiliarTalesGame.com
• Enemy Encounters

  • When an enemy is encountered in the game, do the following:

    1. The app or location book will tell you how many enemies are generated, collect the figures for them.
    2. Unless otherwise instructed, place them on the entry space . If there's more than 1, divide them equally across each entry space.
    3. Review the encounters section in the location book. If enemies have life tracks, place a life marker on the highest numbered slot.
    4. Continue playing until instructed to resolve an enemy turn.
• Location Book
  • • Starting Setup: Follow these instructions when you first get to the page, before any turns.
    • Special Rules: These rules only apply at this location.
    • Victory Objectives: This will tell players what must be done to advance.
    • Spaces: These are defined by lines, dotted or solid. Note that each space has dot in the middle for determining line of sight. Line of sight is determined by drawing an imaginary line between 2 dots without crossing a double solid line.
    • Spaces/Sections: When a familiar moves onto one of these spaces, read the section in the book for how to interact here.
    • Encounters Section: This is where you will find enemy info for this page.
    • Section: This section lists any instructions for leaving the location. This is where familiars need to gather to leave.
    • Space/Section: When on a campfire space, refer to the corresponding section for instructions.
    • Space: During starting setup, players will place their figures here.
    • Spaces: This is where enemies will be place when generating encounters.
    • Spaces: When a familiar is on a space with an uncovered , they can encounter that event by putting the code into the app. Any instructions from the app are only for that familiar.
    • Forage Spaces: Familiars can forage for the indicated resources on these spaces.
    • Forage Difficulty: The number (top right of page) indicates the difficulty of the insight skill test.
• Skill Tests

  • Skill tests will be required to pass many things in the game, including enemy encounters. Follow these steps to resolve the tests:

    1. Play any number of skill cards from your hand, 1 at a time. As you play them, resolve its icon effect (upper left). Note that some skill cards have additional effects when played to specific types of skill tests. Other players can also play cards with the chain icon to assist.
    2. After all skill cards have been played, count the total skill value from cards played (including from other players) and any relevant bonuses.
    3. Roll the chance die:
       • If you roll a positive, add it to your skill total.
       • If you roll a negative, subtract it from your skill total.
       • If you roll a danger symbol, add 1 danger in the app.
       • If you roll a power symbol and pass the test, add 1 power to your familiar.
       • If your total is >= the difficulty, you pass and resolve the pass effect. Otherwise, resolve the fail effect (if there is 1).
    4. Discard all cards played into that skill test. Players who also played link cards should also discard those.
• Player Turns

  • After turning to a location book page, and doing the starting setup, players will begin taking turns and the app will tell you whose turn it is. Each turn consists of 2 phases.

  • 1. Action Phase

    • You may have your familiar(s) perform any number of actions during action phase.

    • Move
      • 1. Play any number of skill cards and resolve the icon effects on them.
        2. Total the move points on the cards and move your familiar across dashed lines <= to that number of move points. Note that double dashed lines take 2 movement to cross. Familiars can't move across solid lines.
        3. Discard all played cards.
    • Forage

      • If your familiar is on a forage space, make an insight skill test using the difficulty number in the top right of the current page. If the familiar passes, cover one of the resource symbols with a token and collect the matching resource. If there are no more of that resource in the supply, it can't be foraged.

    • Care
      • 1. To do this action, the familiar must be on the space with the child.
        2. Consult the discontent dial and its key card. Follow the instructions for card on the card for the discontent level.
        3. If successful, reduce discontent by 1.
    • Equip

      • To perform an equip action, retrieve any number of items from the familiar's stash and equip them.

        • Equipped Items: To show that a familiar has an item equipped, place it face up near that familiar. Item bonuses and effects are only active when equipped.
        • Stash: This is a face down pile of cards the familiar has. There is no limit to the number of items in familiar's stash.
        • Equipment Limits: A familiar can only have 1 Weapon, 1 Armor, and 1 Accessory equipped at a time. There is no limit to the number of consumable items a player has equipped.
    • Melee Attack
      • 1. Target an enemy in the familiar's space.
        2. Make a might skill test. The difficulty is the enemy's defense.
        3. If the skill test is passed, reduce the enemy's life. The amount is reduced by the damage value on the familiar's equipped weapon plus any bonuses.

        If an enemy is hit, reduce it's counter on the appropriate track. If they don't have a track, they have 1 life.

        If the enemy is defeated, remove its life marker from its track, remove the figure, and give any loot

    • Ranged Attack
      • 1. Target an enemy in the familiar's line of sight to the player who defeated the enemy. See the "Spaces" entry under Location Book for info on line of sight.
        2. Make an agility skill test. The difficulty is the enemy's defense value.
        3. If the skill test is passed, reduce the enemy's life. The amount is reduced by the damage value on the familiar's equipped weapon plus any bonuses.

        See Melee Attack for info on assigning damage.

    • Trade

      • Gain 1 danger , then the familiar can trade items and resource tokens with any familiar on its space. The items may be immediately equipped or stashed.

    • Craft

      • Acquire a card from the crafting row by paying its resource cost and equipping it or adding it to your familiar's stash. Draw a new card from the deck to replace it. If the deck is empty, shuffle the discard to create a new deck.

    • Train
      • 1. Choose a card from the training row and pay the power cost for it to acquire it.
        2. Resolve any Acquire effects on the card.
        3. Add the card to your discard pile.
        4. Draw a new card from the deck to replace it. If the deck is empty, shuffle the discard to create a new deck.

        Bond and Story Craft cards: These cards can only be acquired by a specific familiar. The cards will tell you what to do when acquired.

    • Special Actions

      • These actions are sometimes available.

        • An action granted by a skill card.
        • An action available to remove a status effect.
        • The action on the familiar's life dial.
        • Actions that are available on gear spaces or a space with an objective ! token on it. These are always described in the location book.

        Skill Card Actions: Some skill cards have effects preceded by the word "ACTION". These actions are performed by playing that card, resolving the action, and discarding the card. The icon effect is not triggered when playing a card for its action.

        If a skill card's action effect a specific familiar, they always affect that familiar regardless of who played the card.

  • 2. Draw Phase

    • Draw back up to a hand of 5 cards. If your draw pile is ever empty, shuffle your discard to create a new draw pile.

      NOTE: Even if a player is controlling multiple familiars, they will still only draw 5 cards.

  • End Turn

    • When a familiar's turn is complete, push the End Turn button on the app. The app will show whose turn it is next or have players resolve negative effects.

      The higher your danger level, the more likely it is to have negative effects.

• Enemy Turn

  • The app will instruct players to resolve an enemy turn and give the players steps to follow.

  • Moving an Enemy

    • Move the enemy a number of spaces equal to its move points. If there is a tie in where the enemy should move, the players decide.

  • Attacking with an Enemy
    • • Melee Attack: Target a familiar in the same space. If there is more than 1 familiar, players decide who to target.
      • Ranged Attack: The enemy will target a familiar it does not share a space with and has line of sight to. If there is more than 1 target, players decide.
  • Defending with a Familiar

    • When a familiar you control has been targeted, they may defend if the player has skill cards in their hand. If so:

      1. Make a resilience skill test with that familiar. The difficulty of the test is equal to the enemy's melee or ranged attack value.
      2. If the familiar passes the test, it takes no damage. If they fail, subtract the test result from the enemy's attack value and take that much damage.

      If a familiar does not defend, they take the full value of the enemy's attack.

  • Defeated Familiar

    • If a familiar's life reaches zero, the familiar is defeated. Do the following in order:

      1. Remove that familiar's figure from the board and place it on its character card.
      2. Misfortune +2.
      3. Acquire 2 Fatigue.
      4. Set that familiar's life dial to its max.
      5. That familiar becomes Badly Injured and places the affliction token on its card.

      Returning to play: At the start of the defeated familiar's next turn, return it to play on any space containing another familiar. If there are no other familiars, place it on a or space.

  • Fatigue Cards

    • When you are instructed to draw Fatigue cards, take them from the pile. When you play a Fatigue card, return it to the supply instead of your discard pile. If a player is instructed to take a Fatigue card, but there are none in the supply, nothing happens.

• Afflictions and Marks of Devotion
  • Afflictions

    • When a character gets an affliction, place to corresponding token on their character card. If there are no tokens of that type available, ignore the effect.

      On Fire: When this happens, banish any items equipped to it that have the Flammable keyword. At the start of that familiar's turn, reduce its life by 1, then roll the chance die. If a positive number is rolled, remove the affliction. If a danger is rolled, +1 danger. If an On Fire familiar enters a water space, remove this affliction. As an action, an On Fire familiar can make a resilience test with a difficulty of 4; remove it on success.

      Poisoned: At the start of the familiar's turn, reduce its life by 1, then roll the chance die and remove the affliction on a positive number. If danger is rolled, danger +1. When this familiar is healed, remove the affliction.

      Trapped: A trapped familiar cannot move from its current space. When a trapped familiar loses life, it loses 1 additional life. As an action, the familiar can make a might test with a difficulty of 4. On success, remove this affliction.

      Badly Injured: When a familiar loses life, it loses 1 additional life. When the familiar is healed, remove this affliction.

      Knocked Down: When a familiar is knocked down, lay it on its side. The next time that familiar moves, 2 move points must be used to stand up. Enemies represented by tokens can't be knocked down.

  • Marks of Devotion

    • When a familiar gains a mark of devotion, they choose a mark of devotion token and place it on the familiar's character card. For each token it will add +1 to the matching type of skill test. If a player would get a mark, but there are none of that type left, the player receives nothing.

• Skill Card Icon Effects

  • There are 2 types of icon effects. ! icon effects are triggered immediately without any other cards needed. ▯ icon effects are only triggered when you have an item card with a matching symbol.

    Danger (!): Increase the danger level in the app by 1.

    Heal (!): Increase your familiar's life by 1.

    Draw (!): You may acquire 1 Fatigue (to your discard) to draw 1 card.

    Reroll (!): After rolling the chance die, you may reroll it.

    Link (!): If playing solo, draw 1 card. If playing with others, you can play this out of turn to assist another player with a skill test.

    Item Powers (▯): For each of these played, you may choose 1 effect with a matching symbol on 1 item card that your familiar has equipped.