Thursday, February 16, 2017

Manahearts: A Mage Knight Scenario

Requires Mage Knight & Mage Knight: The Lost Legion
3 Chapter mostly competitive Scenario (best with 4)
At the end of each chapter, each player scored themselves per normal rules plus scenario specific bonus.  At the end of the third chapter, whoever has the highest score over all 3 chapters wins, even if they lost or were eliminated from previous chapters.

The cards required for this scenario can be FOUND HERE. They are intentionally made with light print and small size because it makes it possible to keep what's written on them secret, even when printed on normal printer paper. Sorry for the poor layout. I have no real excuse.

General Scenario Rules

  • Mage Knights can go over the Fame limit on the fame track.  If the Mage Knight would reach maximum Fame, they put their shield marker back to second from the bottom row (80), with an additional shield on top to note the second time around.
    • Each time the Mage Knight would gain a skill and advanced ability, that works as normal.
    • Each time the Mage Knight would gain additional armor, increased draw limit and unit token, instead the Mage Knight only gains 1 additional armor.

Chapter 1 - Forging the Manahearts

Story

in this chapter, the mage knights have to try to find illusive Manahearts.  However, it is known they appear to be normal mana crystals but must be forged into a Manaheart, but not any mana crystal will work.

Setup

Map shape is up to the players to decide. However, because this scenario is best played with 4 players, it is recommended to play with a wedge shape and use all available map tiles, stacking country tiles on top of the core tiles, as normal.
All skill tokens are used, competitive and cooperative. Players have full opportunity to work together and battle one another throughout this campaign.

Testing a Crystal

Only one crystal can be tested each round and takes the player’s encounter for that turn.  Anytime a player wants to test a crystal they must take it to a magical grove.  If tested, the player rolls 2 mana dice.  If both dice show the same color as the crystal being tested, an unforged Manaheart for that color has been found.  That player takes the Unforged Manaheart card of the appropriate color. Gold and Black can not be used to substitute for a color for this roll.  There can only be 1 Manaheart (unforged or forged) for each base color: Red, White, Blue, Green.  

Forging a Manaheart

Once an appropriate crystal is found that can be forged into a Manaheart, the player must take that crystal to a place to be forged into a functional Manaheart.  Depending on how many Manahearts have been forged, the players must go to different locations.  The first Manaheart must be forged at a Village.  The second Manaheart must be forged at a Monastery.  The third Manaheart must be forged at a Mage Tower.  The fourth Manaheart must be forged at a city.  In this scenario, monasteries can be attacked for an artifact, but they monastery is not destroyed in the process.  The player still marks the monastery with a shield to show that the artifact has been stolen and that that player is no longer allowed to use the services of that monastery. Only one artifact can be stolen from each monastery.
To forge at a mage tower or city still requires defeating the tower or city to gain initial access.
The people of that location can forge the crystal into a Manaheart.  However it takes time.  The process is complete at the end of the round.  The player leaves the crystal at the location.  At the start of the next round, the Manaheart has been forged and the player who dropped it off can go pick it up without a fight.  However, another player can attack the location to steal the Manaheart if they get there first. Once the forged Manaheart is acquired, discard the Unforged Manaheart card and take the Manaheart card instead.
If attacking a village, draw 1 gray token to fight.  If attacking a Monastery, draw 1 purple token.  If attacking a mage tower, draw 1 purple and 1 gray.  If attacking a city, draw the first half of the token present on the dial, rounded up.

Manaheart Abilities

Owning a Manaheart provides many bonuses.
  • Once per turn, it can be used to change a die in the source to the color of that Manaheart.
  • Once per round, can be used to take a card of that color from your discard and shuffle it back into your deed deck.
  • If every die in the source is the same color as the Manaheart, that Manaheart becomes empowered until the source is no longer all that color.
    • While empowered, players do not reroll dice back into the source after using them.  Die used from the source are placed to the side of the board until the last die is used, at which point all the dice are rolled back into the source which will likely cause the Manaheart to no longer be empowered. Cards that force a die in the source to be rerolled do not function correctly and play as though they rolled or chose the color of the empowered Manaheart.
    • The player with an empowered Manaheart can play a card sideways to add +2 to the trait listed in the following table, instead of +1. Cards gain +3 if that card is the same color as the Manaheart.
    • The listed effect is also gained.
COLOR
EFFECT
ABILITY
Red
Attack
All attacks become Coldfire Siege
White
Influence
Refresh all units at the start of each of your turns.
Blue
Defense
You have +3 armor and Resistance to all attacks.
Green
Move
All terrain costs are 1/2.


If a player attacks another player and defeats them, the winning player may steal their Manaheart.  No Mage knight may hold more than one Manaheart at a time.  
If a player would do some action so they would be holding more than 1 manaheart, they can only hold one and must choose.  Place a mana crystal of the appropriate color in their hex to indicate the dropped Manaheart. Any player may pick it up by moving into that hex. A player standing the same hex as a manaheart can use the non-empowered abilities of the manaheart.

Goal

The goal of this scenario is the players to find all 4 Manahearts.  Once they have all been forged, this Chapter ends.  

Scoring

5 per manaheart found
10 per manaheart forged
20 per manaheart held or in the same hex at end of chapter

Chapter 2 - Pure Manaheart

Story

In this scenario the Volkaire has shown up on the scene and he has discovered a Black Manaheart. While he carries the Black Manaheart, Volkaire can not be hurt. The Mage knights must work together to forge a Gold Manaheart to overcome his defenses and defeat Volkaire.

Setup

The game is set up the same as Volkaire’s Quest. The Race Level is up to the players.  However it is highly recommended to play on a Fair Race level and Heroic or Legendary Combat level, because the Mage Knights have already gained some levels. The players keep everything they had from the previous chapter, but the map is reset.
During setup, go through all of the map tiles and find each tile with an Ancient Runes and make sure they are included in whichever map setup the players choose. Additionally, go through the Ancient Runes tiles and find the Altar for each of the base mana colors. Add enough other random altar tiles so there are enough for each Ancient Runes. Return the rest to the box and shuffle the tiles for use during the game.

Forging the Gold Manaheart

The Mage Knights must take their Manahearts and forge them together to create the Gold Manaheart.

Infusing the Manahearts

To do this, the players must find every mana alter and infuse that Manaheart with power from a different source.  The player must spend the mana as normal, have the same colored Manaheart and power the Manaheart with something, depending on the color of the Manaheart.
Red is powered by pain and the player must take 4 wound cards into their hand
White is powered by alliance and the player must have at least 10 levels of followers
Blue is powered by protection and the player must take no wounds from a Coldfire Attack 10. This attack can not be put onto units.
Green is powered by nature and the player must have visited a magic grove, a mana mine and any other underground locations (monster den, spawning ground, labryrinth, dungeon, etc) during this round.

Combining the Manaheart Shards

As each Manaheart is infused, that Manaheart is broken into a shard, rendering it useless. Discard the Manaheart card and take the Manaheart Shard card instead. However, once all the Manaheart shards are brought together they fuse into a Gold Manaheart.  Each player maintains control of their manaheart shard, and multiple shards can be carried by one mage knight.  Once a single player holds all four shards, the gold manaheart is created.


Volkaire can only be hurt by the one holding the Gold Manaheart.
A mage knight with the Gold Manaheart can pass to to a mage knight in an adjacent hex by spending 2 Move and 1 Influence.
Mage Knights may combat each other for control of the Gold Manaheart. A victorious player gains the Gold Manaheart after combat.

Gold Manaheart Abilities

Whomever has the Gold Manaheart gains the following abilities.
  • The mage knight holding the gold manaheart can play any card sideways for +2 instead of +1.
  • The player may spend a mana of any base color to turn the Gold Manaheart into that color temporarily. Place the appropriate Manaheart card next to the Gold Manaheart card to indicate which color is currently active.

Goal

If the players defeat Volkaire, they use the Gold Manaheart to shatter the Black Manaheart. They win the Chapter and continue to the next chapter with no penalty.
If Volkaire makes it to the portal, the Black Manaheart shatters upon contact with the portal and the imbalance of power causes the Gold Manaheart to shatter as well.  The players lose this Chapter and suffer penalties in the next Chapter.

Scoring

30 for defeating Volkaire
20 for holding Gold manaheart at the end of the chapter

Chapter 3 - Collapse

Story

With the Manahearts shattered, the world has lost its foundation and begins to crumble on itself.
Players keep everything they had in the previous chapter and the map does not change.


When the pure manahearts shattered, shards of both flew everywhere and the mage knights have a chance to grab a Gold or Black shard.  Grabbing both causes them to disintegrate each other.  The world is literally falling apart and only one pure manaheart shard can be brought back.  If a Gold shard is brought back, a time of peace and serenity will come.  If a black manaheart shard is brought back, corruption and villainy will reign.

Setup

At the start of the chapter, each player is given a Gold Manaheart Shard card and a Black Manaheart Shard card. At the end of the game, only one team can win, but all Mage Knights could be on the same team. Each player, going in any order, discards one of the Shard cards facedown and explains which card they are choosing to keep. Bluffing is allowed. The discarded cards are shuffled and revealed. If each Mage Knight discarded the same color, they are all working together to survive the collapsing world. If they did not all choose the same color Shard to keep, then they are not all working together, but they do not know who is on which side.


Go through the Country and Core cards and build a deck of 2 copies of each card whose tile is present on the map. Shuffle the deck and place it to the side. This is the Collapse Deck.


Additionally, every rampaging location is filled with an appropriate monster token.

Collapsing the World

At the end of each turn rotation, each player secretly draws 2 cards from the Collapse Deck and secretly chooses one and discards the other facedown. The chosen cards are piled together and is shuffled and displayed to all players.  For each tile number on the revealed cards, that tile is damaged.  Any mage knights on that tile take a 2 wounds into their hand.  Also put a marker on the tile to show it is collapsing.  If a collapsing tile is damaged again, the tile is destroyed.  Any mage knights on the tile are killed and removed from the game.  That player is eliminated and sits the remainder of the game.

Continuing the Story

If the players lost Chapter 2 and Volkaire escaped, the players draw twice as many collapse cards as there are Mage Knights, damaging (potentially destroying) those tiles before the game starts.

Gameplay

Players can not make use of villages, mage towers, monasteries and keeps during this chapter.  The residents of those locations have all fled.

Goal

Mage knights are racing back to the portal of the world before the world swallows them.  Whichever color shard gets to the portal first is the winner, sealing the losing team away in a collapsing world.

Scoring

35 for being the first player out
15 for being on winning team
-50 for being eliminated

Monday, January 16, 2017

I have a Patreon Page!

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on this blog, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working. In fact I'm probably more involved with gaming than I've been in a long time. To the point that, I've set up a Patreon page so you can support me in this and get neat rewards along the way.

If this blog isn't evidence enough, I'm very passionate about games and I love designing and building them. I'm working on some original games now and could use some supplies and playtesters and people with skills that I don't have. I am far from being a professional. I'm just one guy who loves games but I would love to be able to get enough foundation to get one of my designs crowdfunded on Kickstarter into a real published game. That's the dream for me. But it could become reality with your help.

My main focus right now is a card drafting, sorta worker placement game where the players take the role of a monster terrorizing a nearby town and each monster grows and evolves through the game through drafting. But because each monster has a unique deck with unique abilities, you might pick up some abilities from your opponents. Become the fire-breathing, brain-eating, blood-sucking ghost ogre you've always dreamed of!

Thanks, friends!