 |
Rulebook |
| |
Credits
Game Design and Story Development: Chad Scott and Josh Fry
Component Artwork and Illustrations: Travis Hanson
Editing and Layout: Josh Fry and Travis Hanson
Special Thanks to our principal Playtesting Team:
Kent Bridge, Paul Johnson, Shane Lindstrom, and Patrick Ockershauser
Additional Thanks go to:
James Lutter, Ryan Howe, Zack Foster, and Stephanie Huey
Produced by Salamander Games |
| |
Copyright
© 2008, 2002 Salamander Games, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Summonaria, Salamander Games, and the Salamander Games logo are trademarks of Salamander
Games, Inc.
This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. All artwork in
all Salamander Games products and the images contained therein have been produced either as work
for hire or internally. The exclusive copyright on the artwork and images it depicts is the property of
Salamander Games, Inc. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork presented
herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Salamander Games, Inc.
Any similarity to any persons (living or dead), characters, places, or events is purely coincidental. |
| |
“And so the Stones lay, hidden from the eyes of all,
As Days passed into Years and Years into Centuries
Forgotten monuments from the Elder days,
When unimaginable energies were harnessed
Their powers used to delve deep into the world,
And unlock the secrets held there
Silently the Stones sit in their darkened towers,
Patient even against the passing of eternity
Awaiting the time when their power will be awakened,
And their secrets laid bare before their new Master
When the Spell of Focusing brings the five into One,
The knowledge of Shezari will once again be known
On the island of Komundus the keys await...”
- Excerpt from the Tome of Khaz’Rhall,
Unearthed near Kurdigar’s Peak |
| |
Background
Summonaria takes place in the world of Thranok,
a rich and varied world teeming with a wealth of
creatures dispersed across many different geographic
areas. The diversity of stagnant swamps,
arid grasslands, dense forests, blue oceans, deep
caves, and green valleys has led to a very territorial
dispersion of creatures and peoples. The free
peoples of the realm, the men, dwarves, and
gnomes who built their villages and towns in the
lush foothills, have all come together and built
for themselves a great and peaceful civilization
but must constantly be on guard to keep it from
falling into ruin at the hands of the monsters
and outsiders that wander the wild. The world
is largely untamed and there are still many places
left to legend and to the devices of the creatures
that roam there. Many do not venture far from
the comfort of their homes for fear of the dangers
that the wild lands are home to.
Magic is a rare and very powerful thing in
Thranok and only the most brilliant and talented
scholars learn its secrets. Of the handful of wizards
and potion brewers in the world, a select
few have arisen to wield the strongest forms of
magic that give them control over the world
around them and the transportation of matter
over great distances...these are the Master
Summoners. These five wizards have learned to
extract the energies inherent in the key magical
resources found in Thranok and use them to
shape reality itself to their own wishes. Theirs is
the true power, and they are feared and revered
across the land.
Now these sorcerers, in their endless searching
for new magical knowledge, have all stumbled
upon a great secret that was lost, or perhaps hidden,
by an ancient and unknown civilization. On
a small and secluded island, far from the reaches
of the continents of the known world, lay the
objects of all their endeavors...the key to ultimate
magical power over the entire realm. On
this island stand five magnificent towers, the
Towers of Komundus. These towers were constructed
by the great wizards of long ago and
within their thick stone walls, high atop their
pinnacle, is set in each an enormous, flawless
crystal that shimmers with a brilliant light that
seems to come from deep within. These are the
fabled Shezarian Stones and it is written in ancient
texts that if one of great power were to cast
the great Spell of Focusing while using the Stones
to direct his own magical energy, he would become
one with the mystical source of all magic in
Thranok and once again wield the power of the
ancients to do great good or unspeakable evil!
It is for this reason that the Master Summoners
now find themselves in the middle of a great and
terrible struggle. Racing to the island, each of
the Master Summoners claim a portion of it for
themselves and prepare to do battle for control
of the towers. Using their own mystic resources
drawn from the materials their allies are transporting
to the island, the combatants begin summoning
powerful warriors from their armies to
begin the great struggle for domination of the
towers and their treasured contents. The first to
garrison their warriors in the tower strongholds
and take possession of the Stones will be able to
complete the Spell of Focusing and command
legendary magical power.
As a player, you will take on the role of one of
the great Master Summoners of Thranok. As
one of these wizards, you will manage your available
magical resources as they are transported to
the island and channel their energies through
your Summoner’s Focus, a powerful magical relic
that allows you to summon stalwart champions
from your homelands to stand for you in battle.
As the battle for magical supremacy mounts, you
must carefully manage your resources and summon
to your aid the right combination of warriors.
Lay siege to the towers and capture them
so that your success in achieving ultimate power
will be assured. The battle of Summonaria begins! |
| |
Description of the Battlefield
Summonaria is played on a gameboard that is
eleven squares wide and eleven squares long, representing
the island and its main features. It can
be played by two to four players, each beginning
on an opposing portal square.
It is upon this portal square that all of your Master
Summoner’s units will begin.
Also located on the game board are the
five towers, the Towers of Komundus, the resting
places of the Shezarian Stones.
Also note that there are four temples, one in each
corner of the gameboard. Visiting temples with your units can often sway
the balance of power in combat. Their use will be
described later in detail. Also note that the
gameboard is sectioned off into four equally proportioned
shaded areas bounded by yellow borders.
These represent a Summoner’s domain and
their use will be described in greater detail later. |
| |
The Object of the Game
The object of the game is to seize control of a
majority of the towers with your units and hold
control of them for an entire turn so that the
Spell of Focusing can be completed. In a two or
three-person game, a player must control the
tower in his or her own domain in addition to
three of the other four towers. In a four-person
game, a player must only control two of the other
four towers in addition to the one in his or her
own domain. |
| |
Winning Criteria
To win, a player must have a unit occupying each
of the required number of towers as described
above. The towers may be crumbled; they do
not have to be standing for the player to win the
game. (see later description of towers and their
two states) |
| |
Game Setup and Play
Determine which player is to go first. Deal 3
resource cards to each player. Place each of the
tower tokens on their matching tower squares.
| |
Advance Guard – Fearing the loss of their advantage
in the oncoming war, each Master Summoner
sends a group of advance scouts to land on
the island and set up defenses in preparation for
their lord’s arrival. Each Master Summoner begins
the game with two units already in play. The
units each Master Summoner begins with are listed
below:
The Defenders of Steneval –Barbarian Warchief & Dwarven Axeman
The Stewards of Destiny – Fire Elemental & Water Elemental
The Nightstalkers of Vodash – Winged Horror & Mummy
The Sylvan Guardians – Satyr & Wasp Swarm
The Tribes of Pain – Troll & Goblin Warrior
One of each of these units must be placed on the
tower square and the summoning square within
the Master Summoner’s domain prior to the beginning
of the game. The decision of placement
of the two units upon the two squares is left to the
discretion of the player. Normal action for the
two units begins on the first turn of the game.
|
On each player’s turn, he or she proceeds through
the following steps:
1 - Draw New Resource Cards
2 - Summon a New Unit
3 - Move and Engage Units
4 - Place Summoned Unit on the Board
A player does not have to perform all of the steps
outlined above and may skip them
as desired, but may not perform them out of order
or back up to a previous step once one is
completed.
1. Draw New Resource Cards
| |
There is a central deck of 100 resource cards. This
deck is comprised of the four basic magical resources
found in Thranok: Dragon’s Teeth, Toadstools,
Bloodstones, and Fairy Dust. These are
the four basic materials that will have to be managed
in order to ensure that your Master Summoner
will have the energy he needs to summon
the proper units. Each player draws from the
same central deck once it has been shuffled at the
beginning of the game. Once a resource is used
to summon a unit, it goes into the exhausted resource
pile. After the deck has been completely
used up, shuffle the exhausted resource pile and
begin drawing from it. A player must draw two
resource cards each turn. This represents what
resources are newly available to your Master
Summoner through his supply line to the island.
A player may never have more than seven resource
cards in his or her hand. If a player is holding six cards and wants to draw, he or she
must first discard down to five so that the two
cards that are drawn do not push his or her hand
above the allowed seven.
Focus Disruption Rule - If an opposing player’s
unit occupies the tower in the player’s domain,
then his or her Master Summoner’s mystic link
to his incoming supply line is disrupted by his
inability to focus through the nearby Stone. That
player may then only draw one resource card per
turn until the opposing player’s unit is driven
from the tower in his or her domain.
|
2. Summon a New Unit
| |
The four magical resources found in the game are
Bloodstones, Dragon’s Teeth, Toadstools, and Fairy
Dust. When summoning a unit, a Master Summoner
must correctly mix the necessary resource
components in the proper order for the magic to
work. Each unit has a primary, secondary, and
tertiary resource requirement necessary to summon
it to the island. These requirements are detailed
in the unit’s description, as shown in the
example below:
To summon a new unit from the Master
Summoner’s army, a player must determine the
unit’s summoning cost. The unit’s summoning cost is shown on the unit’s token and in the
bestiary under the appropriate Master Summoner.
It is the last item shown on the token.
For example, the darkling token shown below
lists the cost to summon this creature as 1-3-2.
|
|
In order to summon a new darkling, the player
would have to expend one Toadstool, three
Bloodstones, and two Dragon’s Teeth.
Each of the Master Summoners draws strength
from the different available magical resources to
varying degrees. Because of this, a more valuable
resource can have its magical energies transmuted
into those needed from a lesser magical
resource. Accordingly, a player may always opt
to expend a primary resource as a substitute for a
secondary or a tertiary resource. Likewise, a secondary
resource may be substituted when a tertiary
resource is needed.
For example, the player controlling the
Nightstalkers of Vodash could opt to use Toadstools
in place of any Bloodstones or Dragon’s Teeth if he or she had them available.
|
Likewise,
the player could choose to use Bloodstones in
place of Dragon’s Teeth. Keeping this in mind
then, if the player chose to summon the darkling
shown previously, he or she could use six Toadstools.
The player could also choose to use two
Toadstools and four Bloodstones to summon the
darkling. So long as the minimum number of
required resources or an appropriate substitute
of an equal amount of a more significant resource
is expended, the unit will be summoned into the
player’s portal square.
|
3. Move and Engage Units
| |
After the player has finished summoning any new
units, he or she may then move his or her current
units. Each unit has a certain number of
squares that it may move during the player’s turn.
This value is found on the unit’s token (in the
circular medallion) and in the bestiary under the
appropriate Master Summoner and creature. In
the darkling example above, the darkling may
move two squares each turn. A unit may move
in any direction: forward, backward, to either side,
or diagonally. A unit may never move through a
square that is already occupied by another unit.
A unit also may never end its turn on an opposing
player’s portal square.
If a player’s unit is adjacent to an opposing player’s
unit, then he or she may attack the opposing
player’s unit. This attack uses all of the unit’s remaining movement for the turn. Thus a unit must have at least one square of movement remaining
to initiate an attack. Each unit has an
Attack Rating, shown both on the unit’s token
(in the starburst medallion) and in the bestiary
under the appropriate Master Summoner and
creature. For the darkling example, the value of
its Attack Rating is 3d10. This means that when
attacking another creature, the darkling’s player
rolls three ten-sided dice. The attacking unit
rolls first to determine if the defending unit is
successfully hit.
For each 1 and 2 rolled on the attacking unit’s attack
roll, the attacking unit has successfully landed a
hit on the defending unit. If the attacking unit
scores at least one hit, he or she may roll all of
his or her attack dice another time. The attacker
continues to roll the dice until no hit is landed
on a roll of the dice. In the example scenario, if
the darkling was attacking another creature, the
darkling’s player might roll the following on his
or her three ten-sided attack dice:
First roll: 1 - 5 - 1 = 2 hits scored
Second roll: 10 - 7 - 8 = 0 hits scored, stop rolling
The attacking darkling got to roll its attack dice
twice and scored a total of two hits.
After the attacker has completed rolling his or
her attack dice and has tallied up the total number
of hits scored on the opposing player’s unit,
the damage is then applied to the defending unit.
Each unit can withstand a certain number of hits before dying, shown on the unit’s token (in the
heart medallion) and in the bestiary under the
appropriate Master Summoner and creature. For
example, looking at the darkling we see that it
has a Hit Rating of 2. Once the darkling has
taken two hits, it is destroyed. Hits are cumulative
and there is no way to heal them unless the
unit has a special ability (as described in the
bestiary) that can alter their current number of
hits. In the previous example, once the darkling
took one hit in an attack, the player controlling
it would place a Wound counter on the darkling
to denote that it has taken one hit and can only
take one more before it is destroyed.
Once the attack has been rolled and damage has
been applied to the defending unit, it is then the
defender’s turn to try and destroy the attacker.
The defender repeats the attacking process described
above, rolling attack dice equal to his or
her defending unit’s Attack Rating and applying
the results to the attacking unit. After the
defender has completed returning the attack, the
attack sequence is complete. If neither unit was
destroyed, then both units remain where they are
and it is up to the players controlling them
whether they will do battle again on the next turn.
If the attack destroys the defender, then the attacking
unit must move into the square that was
occupied by the defending unit and the defending
unit does not get to return the attack before
it is destroyed. If the defender destroys the attacking
unit, the defender does not move out of its current square.
If a player moves a unit onto one of the five towers
found on the gameboard, that unit is said to
be occupying the tower. Keep in mind that the
ultimate goal of the game is to have your units
occupy a majority of the towers and seize control
of the Shezarian Stones for your Master
Summoner. Each tower can be in one of two
states: standing or crumbled. If a tower is standing,
it will absorb the first hit taken by the defending
unit and will then become crumbled. At
this point the tower token should be flipped over
to denote the tower’s crumbled status. Any further
hits scored on the defending unit beyond
the first absorbed by the tower are taken directly
by the defending unit. Note that here a hit is
defined to be a single point of damage assessed
in an attack, not the total of the attack itself. A
tower can be returned to standing status if there
are no opposing player’s units adjacent to it and
the player controlling the occupying unit declares
that it will rebuild the tower. The occupying unit
spends its turn in the tower (it does not move,
does not attack another unit, and does not use
any special abilities) and can then flip the tower
token back over to its standing status at the end
of the turn. Once the tower is returned to standing
status, it will again be able to absorb the first
hit scored in an attack upon an occupying unit.
Notice that each player has one quarter of the
board sectioned out around his or her summoning
square. This area is that player’s domain and
represents the portion of the island where the
Master Summoner using its portal square has
landed and begun to use his magical focus to link
himself with the nearby Shezarian Stone and in
doing so activate his summoning portal. While
his units are in this area, the magical link he shares with them will be at its greatest strength. A Master
Summoner’s units have a natural advantage
when encountered in their domain. All attacks
take place in the defender’s square. If an attack
is taking place in a player’s domain, that player’s
units receive an additional 1d10 on their attack
rolls. In the previously stated example, the darkling
would roll 4d10 rather than the normal
3d10 if it were attacking or defending within its
Master’s domain. Note that the tower in the center
of the board is not in one of the four domains.
This tower has no domain and does not
impart any benefits for either side during battle,
nor does it affect any player’s resource link should
someone be occupying it with a unit. Additionally,
only the domain surrounding a player’s portal
square is considered his or her own. All domains
and portal squares not assigned to a player
at the start of the game are neutral territory and
have no affect on combat or a Master
Summoner’s abilities.
|
4. Place Summoned Unit on the Board
| |
After the player has finished moving his or her
units, if he or she summoned a unit this turn, it
is now placed in his or her portal square. It is
important that this be done as the final step to a
player’s turn. No unit can be sitting on the portal
square in order for the summoning magic to
work successfully. If any unit is located on the
player’s portal square during this phase of the
turn, the summoning magic is disrupted and the
unit being summoned is destroyed, losing all of
the resources used to summon the unit. This
completes the player’s turn and the next player
begins their turn. |
|
| |
Temples
There are four temples on the game board, one
found in each corner. When a unit lands upon a
temple square, it may choose to become blessed.
A unit must end its turn at a temple in order to
receive the temple’s blessing, which is then shown
by flipping over the unit’s token to the “blessed”
side. This blessing allows the unit to negate the
next hit incurred upon it. Note that this is shown
on the unit’s token by showing the unit’s Hit Rating
as one point higher than it would be normally.
The blessing does not heal the unit if it
has already sustained previous wounds, rather it
offers an additional point of protection until the
creature loses its blessed status or is successfully
hit for one or more points, at which point the
blessing is used up and is lost and any additional
wounds beyond the first point are applied as normal.
A unit may only carry one blessing at any
given time.
As an example, let us return to the darkling. A
darkling has a Hit Rating of 2. If it visits a temple,
it would still be able to withstand two hits before
dying (having a Hit Rating of 2) but now it
would be able to negate the first hit it receives
with the blessing it carries, removing the blessing
and leaving it unharmed with its original capacity
to take two hits. It could then revisit the
temple and receive another blessing if desired.
If it had sustained an injury and was now only at
a Hit Rating of 1, visiting the temple again would
provide it a blessing that would bring it back up
to a Hit Rating of 2 but would not heal the creature
in doing so (i.e. the darkling is still injured
but blessed, so it cannot receive another blessing
and is carrying an injury to its original Hit Rating). |
| |
Trading Resources
Players may trade magical resources amongst
each other at any time. Players negotiate the
trade, with each player placing the agreed-upon
cards face down in front of them and passing
them to the other player. Of course, a player can
choose to pass the wrong cards if he or she wishes,
so it is always important to consider the likelihood
that the other player may be using deception
as a strategy during the trade. Both players
pick up their new resource cards at the same time,
so that a trade is finalized and not reversible before
either player knows what the other has provided.
No player may back out of a trade once
the cards have exchanged hands.
A player may also transmute one of his or her
magical resources into another variety by trading
in three of any one resource for one of any
other resource. This method of resource exchange
allows a player to adjust his or her resource
holdings to better provide for their needs,
though this is an expensive solution. For example,
the Nightstalkers player could trade in
three fairy dusts, which have little use for summoning
units in this army, for one toadstool that
might have greater value. To perform this exchange,
the player places the three cards he or
she is exchanging on the discard pile and pulls
the desired resource card from the discard pile,
placing it into his or her hand. |
| |
Summoning Limits
There is not an endless supply of units available
to be summoned. The numbers of tokens that
are available represent the number of creatures
that are available to be summoned by your Master
Summoner. If a player no longer has a token
available for a particular creature, another of its
kind cannot be summoned. For example, there
are two werewolf tokens available to the
Nightstalkers player. If the player has already
summoned both werewolves (they are both on
the board and alive), then he or she may not summon
another werewolf until one is destroyed. |
| |
Special Abilities
Some units have special abilities. The units with
special abilities are signified with a box containing
the name of their special ability just under
the resource requirements on that unit’s token.
These special abilities are also listed by name in
the bestiary under the appropriate Master Summoner
and creature. The use of these special
abilities and the rules that apply to them is described
in full detail under the unit possessing
that special ability in the bestiary. |
| |
Fear (The Nightstalkers of Vodash)
All of the units commanded by Vodash have the
innate special ability to cause fear in their opponents.
Any time an opponent declares an attack
against a unit posessing Fear, the player commanding
the Fear-causing unit may roll a 1d6.
On a roll of 6, the attacking unit hesitates out of
fear and must make its attack after the Fear-causing
unit makes its defensive attack, allowing the defender to resolve its attack and damage first.
The defending unit does not move into the
attacker’s square if the attacker is destroyed before
it can make its attack. The Fear special ability
is denoted on each unit it applies to by a small
skull medallion in the lower right hand corner
above the unit’s name.
If the player commanding a unit with the Fear
special ability does not state that his or her units
are attempting to incite fear during another
player’s attack, the special ability is not put into
play.
*Special Note - Units possessing Fear as a special
ability are also immune to fear. Thus if the opposing
unit is also a unit that has Fear as one of
its special abilities, this ability is disregarded. |
| |
Ranged Attacks
Some units are capable of making ranged attacks. When a ranged attack is made, the
defender does not get to return the attack. If
the defender is destroyed, the attacker does not
move into the defender’s square. Ranged
attacks do not gain bonuses for taking place in
either player’s domain. |
| |
| © 2008 Salamander Games, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
|