The Dragon’s Hoard

This post is mostly the rules of the game I’m creating, partly descriptive of said game.

Game contents
The game consists of the following components.
One gameboard.
One dragon.
One dragon token.
48 adventurer tokens (2 each of F1, F2, R1, R2, S1, S2; all come in each of four colours)
A token of each colour to mark each player’s game colour, and a token each for wealth and fame.
A deck of action cards
A deck of treasure cards
A deck of search cards
A deck of magic items
A deck of spell cards
3 decks of adventurer cards (one each for fighters, rogues, and spellcasters)
20 Focus counters
12 stat modifier counters
X life counters (enough for the healthiest 12 adventurers to be alive at the same time.)
12 corpse counters. These will be in pairs – one to mark the location and one to mark the contents at that location.

Setup:
Place the dragon in the centre of the board, facing any chosen direction.
Place your fame counters on zero, and your wealth counters on 24. (Subject to change.)
Choose one player to be the first player. This player takes the dragon token. Beginning with this player, each player takes one adventurer by choosing a card from any of the adventurer decks. Continue clockwise until you have three adventurers each. You may have up to two of any single type of adventurer.
For each adventurer you draw, pay the hiring cost, and advance your fame accordingly.
You have one chance to purchase equipment for your adventurers before they begin their quest.
After you have drawn three adventurers, you may purchase any number of cards from the magic item deck (or should I distinguish a shop deck, comprised of smaller magic items?), at a cost of 3 points of wealth per card. When you choose to cease such purchases, you must allocate each of these cards to be carried or equipped by your adventurers, as you desire.
Place the adventurers on any of the available entrances, and keep the reference cards visible on the table.
(Use your tokens labelled F, R or S to represent these adventurers.)

Beginning with the player holding the dragon token, deal or draw five cards each from the action deck. The limit throughout the game is seven cards in hand. You may not exceed this limit by drawing cards.

Turn Order
The player holding the dragon token begins the game, and in his turn takes two actions. Each player in clockwise order then take similar turns. When play returns to the player holding the dragon token, he replaces his turn with a dragon turn, where he activates the dragon once and forfeits his normal two actions. Once he has done so, he passes the dragon token clockwise, and the player receiving the token becomes the new player 1.

Adventurers
There are three adventurer decks. Fighters, rogues, and spellcasters.
Fighter deck is comprised of many fighter types, such as archers, heavily armoured combatants, nimble warriors, dwarvish axebearers, maybe a monk or samurai, and anything else I come up with. They all have a defining trait, and their cost reflects how valuable to your team they will be. If you’re lucky, you’ll get an expensive famous warrior who will increase your fame just for hiring him.

Rogues will be any devious character I can conceive. Mostly cutpurses and pickpockets and such, but I’ll also throw in a bard or a jester, or maybe even a ninja. Or more.

Spellcasters will be all flavours of magician, sorcerer, elementalist, summoner, and even cleric. One magician will be a diviner, and will have the ability to view decks of cards and hands of other players. He may not feel as valuable as a firemage but played correctly, he might do just as well.
I might even throw a necromancer into the mix. We’ll see. I’ll have to see if I can raise corpses or something!

Adventurer stats.
Speed – how fast they can move. This will be adversely affected by armour.
Attack – the ability to strike an enemy. The Damage value will be attack plus weapon modifiers.
Agility – the ability to avoid attack. This value is improved in a defend action. The Defence value will be agility plus armour modifiers.
Strength – how many items they can hold in their pack and still be effective in their skills
Search – your ability to discover hidden objects, effects or actions.
Stealth – your ability to manoeuvre without being detected.
Concentration – how many focus tokens you can use.
Health – the number of wounds they can absorb until death.

Magicians will have a spell repertoire available. These might be spells that they begin with, or spells that they can gain during their gameplay.
Magicians might cost more than the average adventurer. Some magicians will expire spells once cast, but be able to discover new spells during play. Others will be able to repeat spells but run out completely until they rest or return to town.

Cards
The largest deck is the action deck.
This deck is comprised of two main types of card. The foremost are adventurer action boosters. These cards will improve the ability to fight, or improve the ability to take treasure, or improve any number of actions in any number of ways. They will never be detrimental to other players, only helpful to your own adventurers.
The second type of card will be dragon actions. You may play one dragon action card when it is your turn to take a dragon turn. This type of card boosts the abilities of the dragon to slay opposing adventurers and protect its treasure.

Treasure cards represent the dragon hoard. When you steal from the dragon, you earn a loot card.
These cards are held in your hand of cards, and the cardback is identical to an action card.
The treasure deck is the game clock. When there is no more treasure in the dragon’s hoard, there is no reason to return.
If you manage to get all your adventurers back to town, you secure your treasure, and increase your wealth by their combined value. You may then send your healed adventurers back in to continue the quest.

Search deck.
This deck will have random events that occur when adventurers search caverns and passages for misplaced or hidden treasures. These cards will include cards that allow you to find equipment or magical items but it will also have adverse encounters, like a group of wandering orcs that attack. There will also be search cards that show ‘nothing’. Sometimes when you search a room there is nothing to be found.
If you are able to search well, you draw multiple cards and choose the resultant card. The card must be shown to all players and resolved. Anything found is placed in the pack of the searching adventurer, unless stated otherwise.

Turn actions.
On your turn you may take two actions. They may be any combination of the following.
Recruit: – Hire a new adventurer if you have less than three. This adventurer arrives at any chosen entrance at the beginning of your next turn.
Rest: – Discard any number of cards from your hand, and draw action cards until your hand size is seven cards. But discard all focus tokens you have on all your adventurers.
or, Activate an adventurer.

When you activate an adventurer you may have them perform one of the following.
Move – the adventurer moves a number of spaces equal to his speed. During your movement, you may spend one point of speed to give an item from your pack to an adjacent adventurer. You may do this as many times as you require, providing you have surplus points in speed remaining. These items are placed in the pack of the receiving adventurer.
Attack – the adventurer may move a number of spaces equal to half his speed value (round down) and then attack an opposing adventurer within his range when he finishes his movement. See combat for further details.
Defend – the adventurer improves his agility value by 2 until your next turn. If he is attacked, he returns an attack of his own.
Support – the adventurer may move a number of spaces equal to half his speed (round down), and then may provide support to any combat that takes place within his range, at any time until your next turn. See combat for further details.
Search – the player may draw a number of cards from the search deck equal to his search value (minimum zero). The character reveals and resolves the card. The agility and attack abilities are reduced by 2 when you search.
Cast – any spellcasting adventurer may cast an appropriate spell that they have in their repertoire.
Loot – grab any and all items that resides in this current location. These items go into the looting adventurer’s pack.
Equip – take one item from their pack and equip it. This may include unequipping items of your choice.
Steal – Thieves may attempt to steal from other players’ adventurers. To do so, the thief must be no more than one square from a target adventurer.
All characters may steal from the dragon hoard if they are adjacent to it and you hold less than seven cards in your hand. On a successful attempt, draw one card from the treasure deck and place it in your hand. Improve your fame by one point every time you successfully steal from the dragon hoard.

You may only activate a single adventurer once on any turn. If you activate two adventurers in the same turn, then your third adventurer gains one focus counter. If you take a rest action in any turn, you lose all focus counters on all of your adventurers.

Focus Counters
An adventurer may hold a number of focus counters equal to his concentration value. These are gained by not being activated when two other adventurers of your party were.
Each focus token held adds one point to the next ability they use, and then are consumed. Such tokens are returned to the available pool of focus counters.
For example, if a rogue is not activated for two consecutive turns, but both other adventurers are activated both turns, the rogue would now have two focus points.
Here is the impact of two focus tokens for each of his action choices.
Move – His speed is increased by two.
Attack – His attack value is increased by two.
Defend – His agility is increased by two, over and above the increase already given. His attack value is not so increased if he is attacked.
Support – His attack value is increased by two before the penalties of supporting are applied.
Search – His search value is increased by two, allowing him to choose from two additional cards.
Cast – The range or the damage of the spell is increased by two, where possible. The choice is given to the caster which benefit is gained.
Loot – No benefit
Equip – Regardless the number of focus tokens, only one extra item may be equipped.
Steal – The stealth ability is increased by two. Stealing from the hoard has no benefit.

If he was attacked while he had two focus tokens, his agility would be increased by 2 and he would lose his focus tokens.

Dragon Turn
When a player is about to take his second turn while holding the dragon token, his turn is replaced by a dragon turn.
In this turn, he is allowed to activate the dragon in an attempt to protect the dragon hoard from opposing adventurers.
The player may first move the dragon 90 degrees left or right if he desires. The dragon never leaves the hoard, however.
If the player holds any dragon action cards, he may play one such card as the dragon’s attack.
If he has no such card, or chooses not to play it, he may use the dragon’s standard attack.
(The standard attack is a claw attack in an adjacent front-facing square.)
The attack is resolved immediately.
He may withhold the dragon’s attack if he chooses to do so.

After he has performed the dragon turn, he passes the dragon token clockwise and his turn ends.

Theft.
When you attempt to steal from an adventurer, compare the stealth of your adventurer to the search of your target. The highest value wins. Each player may play one action card from their hand or one spell to boost their ability. The thief plays their card first.
If the thief is successful, they may choose to take one card randomly from either the adventurer’s pack or the player’s hand (in an attempt to steal dragon hoard terasure.)
A stolen equipment card goes into the pack of the thief; an action/treasure card goes into the thief player’s hand.
All hand and adventurer strength limitations apply. A card that cannot be kept is given back to the target player.

If the thief was unsuccessful, now the target gets to make an attack against the thief out of turn order. This is considered a free action.

Combat
When a character makes an attack, he has the chance to deal wounds to that character.
There are two ways to make an attack. Ranged or Melee are physical attacks, and spells are magical attacks.

Magical attacks are made by spellcasters. The range of the attack is the range of the spell. The target character must be within a number of spaces equal to or smaller than this range.
There are two types of magical spells that can be used as a magical attack.
Some spells, such as lightning bolt, attack a character based on agility and can be avoided, to avoid all damage.
Penetration spells, such as fireball cannot be avoided, and deal damage based on the range and the armour of the target.
Quite often, spells can target multiple opponents. Spells can not tell the difference between friend and foe. They harm everyone equally.

Magical attacks usually have a range much larger than physical attacks, but provide melee counter attacks if in range.
Focus counters applied to the spellcaster can affect either the casting range of the spell, or affect the attack value of the spell.

agility spells
Spell attack + focus modifier > target agility + card modifier – armour penalty = target takes damage of spell.
Spell attack + focus modifer target armour + card modifier = wounds taken by target.

Physical attacks have a range dependant on the weapon used.
Physical attacks can be defended against, but they can also be supported by other adventurers.
However, in physical combat, it can be possible and more likely that both combatants attack at the same time.

Supporting characters must be within range of the enemy adventurer, not the adventurer they support.
Their attacks are not fully effective, as they are merely providing distraction and cover for the allied combatant.
Hence, their attack and defence values are halved. However, the supporting adventurers do not take damage, unless they were the target of the attack.

Add all combat modifiers, including weapons, armour, action cards, spells, and focus counters, before halving for the support value.

To resolve a physical combat:
For the attacker,
Attack + weapon + spell modifers + action card + support attack + focus counters = Damage
For the target of the attack,
Armour + agility + defend modifier + spell modifiers + action card + support defence + focus counters – search penalty = defence
Damage – defence = wounds taken, minimum zero.

If the target was attacking or defending in their previous turn, they are allowed to counter attack – even if the attack made against them kills them. These attacks happen simultaneously, but for sake of clarification, we resolve them separately.

An attack only lasts for one round of combat. Further combat may take place in the future turns of either combatant, or such a combatant may choose to flee.

Character death
Characters will die, frequently. Usually by spells, traps, monsters, the dragon, or combat with other adventurers.
If yours dies, remove all focus or stat modifying counters from the adventurer card. The corpse remains at the adventurer’s last position, and holds the equipment once held and worn. Use a corpse marker to identify the location of the corpse, and another to mark the equipment at that location. Place the adventurer card in the discarded adventurer pile. Remove the corpse markers if the corpse is looted.
Your party size is now reduced, but on a brighter note you are now allowed to take a recruit action during your turn.
A recruited character begins ‘in town’ and you are allowed to purchase one magic item at a cost of three wealth. However, that item must be carried or equipped by the newly recruited character. This character may equip the item as a free action.

Returning to town
Any adventurer that exits the board through an entrance has made it back to town. Their health is restored, the character may sell any equipment being worn or carried, may purchase one item, and you might be able to replenish the spells of certain spellcasters.
You must take a ‘recruit’ action to bring them back onto the board, or the adventurer may wait until the remainder of the party escapes the caverns.

Increasing your score

When all living party members are in town, as one of your actions you may convert any treasure cards held in your hand into wealth and you may convert your fame into wealth. You may then redraw your hand back to five cards.
You are permitted to change the equipment and carried items between your adventurers, as you see fit.
Your following action must be a ‘recruit’ action where you place all of your adventurers back on the board at any entrance(s) of your choice.

Fame points
Fame can be converted to wealth when your entire party is in town. To do so, decrease your fame to 1, and increase your wealth by the following chart. Your first five points of fame are worth nothing.
If your Fame was:
- between 6 and 10 you gain 1 wealth.
- between 11 and 15 you gain 2 wealth.
- between 16 and 22 you gain 4 wealth.
- on 23 you gain 6 wealth.
Fame cannot be increased more than 23.

Once the last treasure has been removed from the dragon’s hoard, or when any deck of adventurers is depleted, you may not convert your fame into wealth.

Ending the game
When the last treasure is taken from the hoard, all players must expose the treasure in their hands. These cards still count in your hand size. The game ends when all loot has made it to town. (Shuffle your hand before any theft attempts are made from you!)

The winner of the game is the player with the highest wealth. Ties are broken by fame points.