What This Game Is
Heroes explore a modular hex-tile board, fight monsters, close Rift Gates, and complete 3 randomly-drawn Quest cards before defeating the final boss Malachar the Undying in the Ashen Court. The Doom Track is a shared pressure clock — every Fate token drawn, every overcrowded space, every Short Rest pushes it higher. Tone is high fantasy and dark, not horror — restrained, literary.
How a Round Works
Each hero takes a full turn: 2 actions + 1 free Move, or 3 actions (spending the Move).
Monsters activate highest Toughness to lowest. The Travelling Merchant moves 1 space along the connected map's perimeter.
Every hero draws 1 Fate token simultaneously and resolves its icon — Doom, Rift, Monster, Encounter, Blank, or Reckoning.
Refresh one exhausted ability per hero. Optional Level Up (3 gold) or Short Rest.
Core Rules at a Glance
STR melee attacks · AGI ranged attacks, stealth · INT spellcasting, resisting Corruption, social · WIS Banish — closing Rifts and clearing Doom tokens. Dice pools use standard d6s; 5 or 6 is a success.
Every Realm tile has 1 center space + 3 perimeter spaces. The center grants +1 die to any roll made there and can hold a Doom token like any other space. Rift Gates always sit on the center.
Each token on a space reduces every die face rolled there by 1. If a tile's 4 spaces are all occupied, the Doom Track advances by 1 instead of placing another token.
Heroes on a space pool WIS and roll together. 1+ successes clears a Doom token there. On a Rift Gate specifically, 4+ successes closes the Rift entirely.
Corruption reaching 6 leaves a hero Corrupted — permanently lost, becoming a Wraith. Corruption dropping to exactly 0 triggers a Dark Pact: a blind-drawn card, held face-down, that resolves only when a Reckoning Fate token is drawn and the holder rolls a 1.
Win by completing all 3 active Quests, unlocking the Ashen Court, and defeating Malachar. Lose if the Doom Track reaches 13, or every hero is Vanquished at once.
Explore the Realms
Every section below is generated from the same data that drives the printable cards — nothing here is out of sync with the physical components.