Rulebook

Introduction

In Archmagi, you play as a Magi, a sorcerer of elemental magic. You have come to the city of Sanandaj and discovered that their wise old Archmagi has recently passed away. The city is in need of someone to take his place. This prestigious position is elected by the will of the people, and now their favor is coveted by all Magi who come to this city. Take on quests and slay monsters to prove your worth! Will you gain the favor of the people to become the next Archmagi, or will someone else prove themselves more worthy?

Archmagi is an asymmetric competitive deck-building card game for 2-4 players, where all players will be building a single centralized deck called the Magic Pool. Each player has their own unique ability and unique elemental spell cards that they can add to the Magic Pool during the game. Players will be able to use their own element of spells better than other spells. Sometimes, use of the spell cards will grant each player power in the form of magic Crystals. Players can then use these Crystals to defeat Monsters and gain Favor points. The player with the most Favor points at the end of the game wins.

Contents

12 Starting Common Spells
16 Round 1 Common Spells

12 Round 2 Common Spells

8 Round 3 Common Spells

4 Round 4 Common Spells

20 Fire Spells

3 Starting Fire Spells

20 Water Spells

3 Starting Water Spells

20 Flora Spells

3 Starting Flora Spells

20 Lightning Spells

3 Starting Lightning Spells

4 Magi Ability Cards

10 Tier 1 Monster Cards

10 Tier 2 Monster Cards

10 Tier 3 Monster Cards
80 Crystal Tokens

Spells

Top Action Any Magi can use the Top Action of any Spell

Bottom Action
Bottom Actions of Spells can only be used by Magi of that specific Element.

Round Added
The Round this Spell is added to the Magic Pool.

Common Spells
Any Magi can use the Action of a Common Spell

Player Count Requirement
The Player count that is required for this Spell to be added to the
Magic Pool.

Spells

Setup

1. Shuffle and place the Round 1 Common cards (player count specific, indicated at the bottom right) and the Starting Spells matching the color of each Magi to form the Magic Pool deck in the center of the play area.

2. Shuffle and place the 3 Monster Decks off to the side of the Magic Pool.

3. Place the Crystals in a pile on the other side of the Magic Pool.

4. Give each player a starting hand of exactly 3 of the Starting Common Spells. These cards have the following action:
"Look at the top 4 Spells of your Spell Book, Draft one, then Reshuffle your Spell Book."

5. Have each player shuffle the 20 Spells of their chosen color into a deck and place it in front of them.

Player Turn

There are 4 Phases to each Turn. After all 4 Phases of your turn are finished, the player to your left starts their Turn.

Draw Phase

Draw the Spell from the top of the Magic Pool into your Hand.

Play Phase

Gain 2 Plays (unless otherwise indicated). You can gain additional Plays from various effects.
Plays can each be spent to do one of the following:

Drawing the Spell from the top of the Magic Pool into your Hand.
Activating the Top or Bottom Action of a Spell of your color or the Top Action of a Spell of any color, laying it down faceup in a Play Area between you and the Magic Pool.

Special Circumstances:

Fire Magi
When the Fire Magi Plays a Fire Spell, they may perform the Top Action Followed by the Bottom Action.
Flora Magi
As a Play the Flora Magi can Plant a Flora Spell by placing it in front of them. They cannot use a Play to perform the Bottom Action of their Spells.

You may end your Play Phase at any time.
Plays do not hold over to future Turns. At the end of Play Phase, you lose any remaining unspent Plays.

Monster Phase

You may Defeat 1 Monster in only 1 of the 3 Monster Paths if you can pay its cost, taking the Monster card for its rewards. Then refill the Monster Path with the next Monster from the top of that Tier's Monster Deck.

Discard Phase

Discard all Played Spells from the Play Area to the discard pile of the Magic Pool.

If you have more than 10 Spells in your Hand, you must discard Spells from your Hand until you have 10 cards left.

Flow of Magic

At any time during the game, when a Spell of your element is discarded by another player, you may discard a Spell to put the Spell of your element into your Hand.

Common Spells

Common Spells are weaker than Elemental Spells and are Exhausted upon use.

- Whenever a Common Spell would be Discarded it goes to a separate pile called the Exhausted Pile.

End of Round

The moment that the Magic Pool has run out of Spells, the Round ends. There are 4 Rounds in the game before it is over.

Depending on which Round it is, there are specific things that need to happen to set up the next round.

At the end of Round 1

- Place out 3 of the Tier 1 Monsters out to create the Path of the Tier 1 Monsters.

- Shuffle in the Round 2 Common Spells into the Magic Pool.

At the end of Round 2

- Place out 3 of the Tier 2 Monsters out to create the Path of the Tier 2 Monsters.

- Shuffle in the Round 3 Common Spells into the Magic Pool.

At the end of Round 3

- Place out 3 of the Tier 3 Monsters out to create the Path of the Tier 3 Monsters.

- Shuffle the Tier 3 Common Cards into the Magic Pool

- All Drafts may be used as Draws instead this Round.

At the end of Round 4

- The player whose Turn it is gets to finish their Turn, then the game is over.

- The player with the most Favor Points wins!

Monsters

During the Monster Phase of their turns, players can spend Crystals and Cards to Defeat 1 Monster per Turn. When a Monster is Defeated, that player gains the Monster's Rewards immediately and then takes the Monster card and keeps it for the rest of the game for its Favor Points.

When you Defeat a Monster, refill its spot in the Monster Path with the next Monster from the top of that Tier's Monster Deck. If there are no more Monsters in that Tier of Monster Deck, then do not Refill the empty spot.

Cost to Defeat
These are the resources you will need to discard in order to Defeat this Monster

Monster Tier

This number is the Tier of the Monster and indicates which Monster Deck it should be shuffled into.

Favor Points
Whoever has the most Favor Points at the end of the game wins!

Reward
These are the immediate one-time rewards that a Monster gives you when you Defeat it.

Monsters

Symbols

Symbols Guide

Draw
Draw this many Spells from the top of the Magic Pool (unless otherwise indicated).

Draft
Take this many Spells from the top of your Spell Book and put them in the Discard Pile of the Magic Pool. During Round 4 or if you have no Spells left in your Spell Book, you may use this as Draw instead.

Discard
Take this many Spells from your Hand and put them in the Discard pile of the Magic Pool.

Search
Look at this many Spells from the top of the Magic Pool (unless otherwise indicated) and take one of those Spells into your Hand. Then put the rest back on top of the Magic Pool in any order of your choosing.

Plant
Take this many Spells from your Hand (unless otherwise indicated) and place it in your Planted area in front of you.

Uproot
Take this many Spells from your Planted area and Discard it.

Gain Crystals
Take this many Crystals from the main pile of Crystals and add it to your personal pile of Crystals.

Spend Crystals

Take this many Crystals from your pile of Crystals and put them back into the main pile of Crystals.

Favor Points
These are the points that you get when you Defeat a Monster. Each of this symbol is worth 1 Favor Point. Whoever has the most Favor Points at the end of Round 5 wins the game!

Additional

Additional Rules Clarifications

General

- All rules must be followed unless a Spell tells you to do otherwise, then the rule of the Spell supersedes the rules of the game.

Spells

- Whenever you Play an Action of a Spell, you must follow all of it left to right, top to bottom.

- No parts of Actions are optional unless it specifies otherwise
(example: "you may")

- When Discarding or Exhausting Spells as part of an Action on a Spell or during a Reward, they must be Discarded or Exhausted immediately, you do not wait until Discard Phase to do this.

Spell Book

- If your Spell Book runs out of Spells, any excess Drafts are Draws instead. You may use Drafts as Draws anytime you have no Spells in your Spell Book.

End of Round

- Often the end of a Round will happen in the middle of a Turn. If the Magic Pool is emptied by a Draw, even if that Draw is incomplete, pause the current player's turn, set up the next Round, then resume that player's Turn, continuing their Draw if needed.

- Search can does not trigger the end of the Round unless there is only one Spell left in the Magic Pool.

- Search only reveals the top Spells of the Magic Pool up to the number of Spells in the Magic Pool. If there there is a higher number on the Search Action than the number of Spells left in the Magic Pool, that search only checks the number of Spells left in the Magic Pool.

Credits

Game Created by:

Conor Hannah

Game Concept:

Benjamin Steele

Conor Hannah

Game Design:

Conor Hannah

Wayne Bloom

Additional Design:

Benjamin Steele

Cedar Hannah

Graphic Design & Art:

Conor Hannah

Playtesters:

Benjamin Steele, Brent Hannah, Brock Hannah, Cedar Hannah, Charles Allen, Charles Morrow, Israel Rollinson, Landon Hall, Rebekah White, Wayne Bloom