GARGON - The Amulet of Craft Published by Amigo Designer - Ruediger Dorn 3-5 Players, 10 years and up approx. 45 min playing time contains ... 102 Gargon cards in 6 colours 18 Bonus cards Rulebook Translation - Peter Card October 2001 GAME CONCEPT Mages used to play a traditional game with their followers to hone their skills. They let dragons, pegasi, gargoyles, phoenixes, manticores and fairies fight each other to capture magic amulets. The mage who gain's the most amulets is awarded Gargon the amulet of Craft. Now this cardgame recreates that struggle. The players take the part of the mages, and try to capture as many Gargon cards with amulets as possible. Each amulet is worth 1 point. Whoever controls a Gargon card of value 0,the amulet of Craft, doubles their amulets. Their is also a bonus for controlling the most Gargon cards in each colour. The player with most points wins. °GARGON- and BONUS CARDS The Gargon cards come in six colours. Each colour represents a legendary creature, Dragon (white), Pegasus (blue), Gargoyle (violet), Manticore (yellow) and Fairy (green). The Gargon cards have the same colour on the front- and back- side, so that the number of cards of each species that each player holds in his hand can always be seen. Each Gargon card bears a number in the range 0 to 15. In battle, a card with a 15 is the strongest, a card with a 0 is the weakest. Gargon cards with value 1 to 12 bear from 1 to 5 amulets. The amulets are important at the end of the game, when they help determine the winner. The strongest cards have no amulets. There are two Gargon cards worth 0 in each colour. They bear no amulets, but double the number of captured amulets in the corresponding colour. There are six bonus cards (in six colours), with +10 on one side and +5 on the other, and twelve bonus cards with +5 on both sides. • GAME PREPARATION The 18 bonus cards will not be used until adding up the victory points at the end of the game, and are put to one side until then. All the Gargon cards are shuffled. Each player is dealt 10 cards IMPORTANT! Each player must hold his cards so that the other players can see the colours on the backs. The rest of the cards are divided into two equal draw piles and laid face down in the middle of the table, then spread out so that the colours on the backs can be seen. •SEQUENCE OF ACTIONS IN A TURN• Gargon cards are played in rounds. The youngest player is the start player for the first round. Thereafter, in each round the start passes clockwise. Each round has two phases, the card play phase, and the battle phase. 1. THE START PLAYER BEGINS THE CARD PLAY PHASE The start player begins the round by playing cards. He plays one to three cards from his hand face down in front of him. Depending on the number of cards played, the following combinations are allowed; •One card (Combination 1:0) •Two cards of the same type(Combination 2:0) •Two cards of different types (Combination 1:1) •Three cards of two different types (Combination 2:1) •Three cards of three different types (Combination 1:1:1) IMPORTANT :Three cards of the same type are not allowed. Now the other players must follow or pass in clockwise order. A PLAYER FOLLOWS A player must lay face down in front of him the same number of cards as the start player with the same combination. The player has a free choice of which species to play. He can play the same species as the start player, or something different. The rule is that the combination of the cards played must match the cards played the start player. EXCEPTION: The last player in the turn can only use suites of creatures that have already been used that turn, ie. the last player cannot introduce any new suites (see example on right) EXAMPLE: Adam plays 2 yellow & 1 red Bernd plays 2 blue & 1 violet Collette plays 2 green &1 blue Dagmar(last) plays 2 green & 1 yellow A PLAYER PASSES Passing means that a player cannot or will not play cards. Instead, he draws one to three cards from one or both of the draw pile in the middle of the table. The top cards in a draw pile will always be taken. END OF THE CARD PLAY PHASE The card play phase ends when each player has had one chance to play or pass. 2. THE START PLAYER BEGINS THE BATTLE PHASE The players turn their cards face up. Now the creatures can be seen, with the card values and amulets carried. The start player begins the battle phase, by choosing one of the suites he played in for a battle. There are three possibilities (A,B,C) A) The player is the only one who played one or two cards in the chosen suite. In this case, all the cards he played win without a fight. They are laid face down in front of him. B) If other players have played one or two cards in the chosen suite there will be a battle with those players 1. Battle If a player has played two cards of the same suite, only the strongest fights in the first battle. The card values are compared, and the player who played the card with the highest value has won and places the card face down in front of him. All the other cards from this battle go the discard pile. Each player except the winner of the battle immediately draws into his hand a card from either of the two stacks in the middle of the table (beginning with the start player, in clockwise order). If anybody forgets, they don't get one. 2.Battle If there is still a card of the chosen suite remaining in front of the players, a second battle must be fought. Once again the card values are compared with each other, the strongest card wins the battle, and is laid face down in front of the owner. All the other cards of this suite are placed on the discard stack and the owning players must draw a replacement. C) If, after the first battle, only one card of the chosen suite is left in front of a player, that card automatically wins and is laid face down in front of the owning player. ATTENTION: Gargon cards of value 0 (with a special function described under GAME END ) can only win a battle in cases A or C. If two players played cards of the same colour of value 0 in the same round, both cards are placed on the discard pile. In this case, their is no victor. If the start player has more cards in front of him, a battle is fought in the next suite. If there are no more cards left in front of him, the next player on his left chooses a suite. The battles in the other suites are resolved in the same way. Each card that a player wins must be laid face down in front of him. THE START PLAYER CHANGES When no more face up cards remain, the round is over, and the start player changes in clockwise direction. Should a player have no cards at the moment that he becomes the start player, the player to his left becomes the new start player. GAME END If the last card from one of the two stacks in the middle of the table is taken, the current round is played to the end. Then the game ends and the players add up their scores. The cards in hand are discarded. For each suite, the player with the most cards in front of him is determined. He receives a +10 bonus card in the colour of that suite. If more than player is tied for the most cards in a suite, they each receive a +5 bonus card. Next, each player counts the amulets shown on the cards in front of them. Gargon cards with value 0 double the number of amulets in the corresponding colour. Whoever has both 0 value gargon cards in the same suite, triples the amulets for that suite. Each amulet is worth one point. The players add together their points from bonus cards and from amulets. The player with highest points total is the winner! EXAMPLE OF A ROUND OF PLAY Adam is the start player, and begins the card play phase playing three cards. (The example shows him with two yellow & one red) Bernd passes and draws the top two cards from the the first pile and the top card from the second pile. Collette follows and must play two cards of one colour and one card of another colour. (see example, two blue & one red) Dagmar follows, and as the last player must play red, blue or yellow in the proportion 2:1 The cards just played are turned face up and the battle phase of the round begins. Adam is the start player. He begins with the Manticores (yellow). Since no other players played any Manticores, Adam wlns both of his Manticores automatically (see example to right: Manticore battle) Adam has played one Phoenix (red), as has Collette, and Dagmar has played 2 Phoenix cards. The first battle involves the Phoenix cards with values 14, 9 and 8. Dagmar wins the battle with the 14. Adam and Collette put their Phoenixes on the discard pile and each draw another card from one of the two piles in the middle of the table. Adam draws first, followed by Collette. (see the example: Phoenix Battle) For battle number 2, the Phoenix value 0 is alone, since no other players played a second Phoenix card. Dagmar puts the 0 face down on top of the 14. Adam has no more cards that he played , so it's Collettes turn. She has two Pegasus cards (blue). Dagmar also has a Pegasus. Dagmar wins the first battle with her 12 against Collette's 8. Dagmar puts her 12 face down in front of her. As loser of the first battle, Collette draws a new card. In the second battle, Collette's 2 is alone, and so she automatically wins. (see the example: Pegasus Battle). Since there are no remaining cards that were played, the round ends. Bernd is the new start player, as he is on Adam's left. EXAMPLE OF SCORING AT THE END OF THE GAME At the end of the game, Adam has the following cards in front of him. (0,5,13 Gargoyles; 7,13 Pixies; 1,10 Dragons; 2,6 Manticores) He has the most Gargoyles and gets the violet +10 bonus. He has 3 amulets on his violet Gargoyles, plus a 0 which doubles the total to 6 amulets. Adam has the most Pixies, so he gets the green +10 bonus card. He has 2 amulets on the 2 Pixies. Bernd and Collette are tied with Adam for the most Dragons, so he gets a +5 bonus card. He has 6 amulets on his 2 Dragons. Adam does not have the most Manticores. There are 8 amulets on his 2 Manticore cards. Altogether, he has 25 bonus points and 22 amulets for 47 points. The other players receive the following score at the end of the game. Bernd has 15 bonus points and 20 amulets for a total of 35. Collette with 25 bonus points and 32 amulets has 57 points in total. Dagmar with 14 amulets gets 14 points. Collette has won the game with 57 points. VARIANT Cards that have been won are kept face up so that the other players can always see how many cards, and which type each player has won.