How To Play Hero Tales Of The Tomes

Hero: Tales of the Tomes is a fast paced, competitive, deck building game for 2-5 players. Play occurs in rounds, with each player or “Hero” taking a number of actions on their turn during the round. The winner is the last Hero standing at the end of the game!

What’s In The Box?

Hero: Tales of the Tomes includes:

• 135 main deck cards (made up of companions, equipment, spells and quests)
• 23 side deck cards
• 15 wooden mana tokens
• 15 wooden armour tokens
• 15 wooden damage tokens
• 5 Hero Cards (each with 3 additional, unique ability cards)
• 1 score pad
• 1 level tracker die
• 1 instruction guide

Game Setup

To start the game, decide which player will go first. This can be done with rolling a die, “Rock Paper Scissors” or however you like to randomly select a first player! We opted to roll the die provided, with the highest roll going first. Starting with this player and working clockwise, everyone takes it in turns to select the Hero they would like to play. The game rounds will then continue to proceed in a clockwise order until one Hero emerges victorious. The first player should also take control of the level tracker die.

Shuffle the main deck cards and deal 5 cards out to each player. This will be your opening hand. Quest cards cannot be part of your opening hand, so shuffle these back into the main deck. Each player gets one free mulligan, meaning if you don’t like the cards in your opening hand, you can choose to set aside any number of cards you don’t want, and draw that many new ones from the main deck. Once all players are happy with their opening 5 cards, shuffle any set aside back into the main deck and place it within reach of all players.

Place the side deck within reach of all players. Don’t worry about shuffling it, as the cards in this deck are sought out as a result of special abilities, so can be kept in any order. The score pad will be used during the game to track your Hero’s health - we instead chose to download and use the Hero: Tales of the Tomes health tracker app.

Place the tokens in a general pool on the table, and leave a space for a discard pile (also known as the “Graveyard”). You are now ready to play!

Taking Your Turn

At this point, I will explain what happens on a player’s turn, using the order described in the rule book. I found this a helpful structure to follow in game, preventing any missed steps! I will then further break down any key elements of these steps later.

Start Phase

If is is the first player’s turn, all heroes level up! On even levels, all players must choose a new ability for their Hero and place that side of the ability card face up beside their Hero for all players to see. If it’s an odd level, heroes instead gain additional attributes as indicated on each player’s Hero card (attributes are mana, armour and attack values). All “once per round” abilities reset and your mana and armour values return to their maximum.

During this phase on an individual player’s turn, all “once per turn” abilities reset and any “start of turn” abilities activate. All companions that player has stop defending the end of the start phase. The active player then draws a card from the main deck - there is no maximum hand size!

Play Phase

This is where the fun begins. You can now play spells, equipment and companion cards from your hand, and attack you enemy heroes. Unlike other card games, there is no strict order to how you sequence these events on your turn, just remember to follow these four simple rules:

The combined level of companion or equipment cards played on your turn must not exceed your Hero’s current level.

You can only cast spells if you have enough remaining mana - once you've spent your mana, you don’t get any more until it resets on your next start phase!

Your Hero and individual companions can only attack once on your turn.

When attacking, you can only use abilities and quick-cast spells to buff your team or disadvantage your enemies.

For example - you can spend mana to play a spell, attack an enemy Hero with a companion, play an equipment from your hand and then attack the same enemy Hero with your own Hero and another with a second companion.

End Phase

“End of the turn” abilities will activate now. You will then decide how you would like your companions to defend for the upcoming round. Companions who attacked this round can still defend for your Hero.

And that’s a turn! Each player will follow the same sequence of phases during their turn. Once all players after the first player have had their turn, the round ends, the first player moves the die to the next level and the sequence starts again. Simple!

Types Of Cards

As with all card games, reading the card explains the card. With that in mind, lets take a look at the card types in more detail!

Heroes

Each hero has a unique theme or play style, for example, making use of powerful spells, gaining power through multiple attacks, replaying cards that have been discarded/put in the Graveyard or buffing themselves with companions. The more you play, the more you will learn which cards in the main deck synergise best with your Hero, allowing you to improve your strategies!

Each Hero card has an image of that Hero, their overall health and a value for their attack, mana and armour (which will increase on each odd level up).

Companions

These are powerful allies which your Hero will summon to their side to aid them in battle. They can attack, defend and will often have powerful abilities which could swing the game in favour of your Hero. The top left of the card denotes the level you Hero must be in order to play that card, with the companion’s health and attack value also on the card. All companions can attack and defend on the turn they were played and there is no limit to how many you can have!

Equipment

Weapons and armour which can buff your Hero and give them bonus abilities or attributes. Equipments played automatically attach to your Hero and there is no limit to the amount your Hero can carry/use.

Spells

The quickest way to change the game and affect your enemies are through spells and there are two types - buff or quick cast. Buff spells can only target companions and will only “drop off” when a companion is killed. Quick cast spells can be played at any time, on any player’s turn, allowing you to interact with their turn and potentially changing the outcome, stopping them in their tracks! Spells which have resolved (ended) are put into the Graveyard.

Quests

These cards affect the whole game for all players. They are special cards which activate as soon as they appear at the top of the deck, causing special buffs or challenges during the game and usually have a very valuable reward for the player who defeats the quest or is the last one to be involved with it! If an effect would cause a player to draw multiple cards and a quest card is revealed, simply set it to the side and its effect will activate once the player has finished drawing all their cards.

Attacking

As previously mentioned, a player on their turn can attack at any time, in any order. This is the main way to defeat your rival heroes and emerge victorious! When you decide to attack, simply declare which of your team (your Hero or companions) are attacking and the enemy Hero or companions which they are attacking. Defending players will then have time to react or “respond” to the attack with quick cast spells or by activating abilities (see below).

Your attacking companions or Hero deal physical damage (called combat damage), equal to their attack value, to the defending Hero/companion’s health value. If the target’s health reaches zero, it will be killed and removed from play. Damage from spells or abilities is not classed as combat damage. If any of your attackers are killed in response to an attack being declared, they will not damage the defending player’s companions or Hero.

Defending

Defending companions shield a Hero or another companion, reducing the damage dealt to their health value. Defending companions are not dealt damage, unless the attack specifically targets them. Players can decide to defend with as many or as few companions as they want. The combined health total of all companions defending one Hero or another companion equals the total amount they reduce the damage to that creature or Hero by. In some instances, this means no damage will get through at all!

Response!

On a declaration of attack or the casting of a spell, any other player can choose to respond by activating an ability or paying mana to play a quick cast spell. For example, Player 2 chooses to play a companion card. In response, Player 1 casts a quick cast spell to deal damage to the companion to kill it. Player 3 then decides to cast a quick cast spell of their own, targeting Player 1’s spell. As Player 3 was the last to respond, their spell activates first, meaning Player 1’s spell is destroyed before it can damage Player 2’s companion, so their companion is able to reach the board without being killed!

Abilities

The cards in Hero: Tales of the Tomes have the option of 4 different abilities:

Active Abilities - Abilities which players must choose to activate, by paying the “cost” required. They can used at any time and be activated on any player’s turn, giving players ways to interact with one another and ways to negate things like equipments or attacks.

Passive Abilities - Continuous effects which occur when a card comes into play, and stop when the card is destroyed.

Triggered Abilities - Happen automatically as a result of something happening in game, for example, when a companion deals damage or another card comes into play.

Keyword Abilities - Shortened to one word on the card, there are 4 keyword abilities in the game, which are explained in more detail in the instruction guide: Alacrity X, Hinder, Retaliate and Unequip.

And that fellow heroes, is how to play Hero: Tales of the Tomes. It’s an exciting, quick fire, winner takes all game that pitches your heroes against one another to claim victory over all! Whilst at first glance what a player can do on a turn may seem overwhelming, the repetitive nature of player turns make the game easy to pick up - so ready your equipment, call in your companions, fire up your spells and get ready to be the last Hero standing!