This is a cooperative game in which players together protect a city against enemies.
See The Last Fairy Tale (a bit further down) for the definitive rules, this introduction is only a general summary.
In the first phase of the game players together build (the core of) a city. According to certain rules they place tiles and figures until the requirements are met and we may call it a “city”.
From that moment the game plays over rounds (which all proceed the same), until one of the groups wins. Either the enemies take over the city, or the defenders have defended themselves against all enemies.
The round sequence goes as follows:
- The player whose turn it is may change one thing about the city. (He may build something, break something down, replenish something or use something up, open a bridge or close it.)
- After that he may perform one (military) action. He moves soldiers, or gets reinforcements, or performs another special action.
- After that he must (according to standard rules) perform the enemy’s turn
- At the end of the round, when all players have had their turn, the enemies move and attack. This also goes according to several standard rules.
There is a small luck element. Which cards you draw (for yourself or for moving enemies), or how you roll the dice (for example for attack or defense), matters.
But the vast majority is fixed. Figures move according to fixed rules. (The players themselves can map out the routes and indicate mandatory directions with arrows etc.) Actions always do exactly what you expect. Tiles may only be placed according to fixed rules.
Ultimately I want the game to play as follows:
- Players try together to predict what the most vulnerable parts of the city are, and strategically place figures and buildings there.
- In addition they try with arrows, walls, alleys, bridges, etc. to lead the enemies toward choke points or detours.
- Lastly they must make trade-offs about which parts of the city may be demolished/lost (because that will happen ANYWAY, the game must be that difficult). And of course they must get the people (also ordinary citizens?) out of there in time.
Alternative titles: “Singa Base” (anagram of Ba Sing Se, the impenetrable city from Avatar)
Further Ideas
The tile in the middle, with which each game begins, may not fall. In other words: the monsters/enemy may not reach it, but you may also not destroy it through your own actions.
Why is this important? Well, many tiles cause you to break down your own city!
Sometimes this is subtle: raising a bridge, letting a watchtower collapse, etc.
But often it is less subtle: letting something explode, setting something on fire, letting something flood, etc.
Enemies can also in some cases break down parts of the city.
How is the city expanded? During your turn you simply attach a new tile to the city. Tiles contain roads/corridors that map out the route the enemy must follow.
Tiles can also have special properties, such as a piece of water, a trapdoor, etc.
How do new enemies enter the field?
Enemies appear on a certain side of the city (north / east / south / west). You will always have openings on all sides of unfinished corridors.
They normally appear at the furthest point. But some enemies appear closer or on specific tiles.
PROBLEM 1: In this way you know exactly which route the enemy will follow and everything depends on the tiles.
How do we prevent this?
First: each player has their own figure that walks through the city. A figure is needed to place certain things, switch things on/off, activate things, etc.
Second: all players have an entire hand of tiles (to allow more choice and strategy), but at the same time tiles in general are difficult to place.
IDEA: You need resources to do certain things. So you not only want to keep the enemy away from the center, but also away from your resources.
IDEA 2: It seems fun to play with “height differences”. The center of the city (with which you start) is the highest point.
Each layer around it goes one level down, like a kind of staircase that slopes downward.
What can you use this for? In this way you can throw something down to kill enemies. Or you can let something roll downward.
At the same time enemies can fall through a trapdoor to a lower level, or change height through other special tiles.
(This is also a tactical part. If the river floods, it will not be able to go upward, but will flood the layers below it as well!)
IDEA: I should actually research how people used to besiege castles and capture cities.
IDEA (DOUBT): Besides a figure the city also simply has an army. You must train/build up this army yourself and place it in the right places. But if that works, they of course help enormously with holding back the enemy.
IMPORTANT: As the city becomes larger, more monsters must of course enter!
Maybe … one monster simply enters at each opening?
Or the same number of monsters enter as the longest side of the city (width or height, whichever is longer). How they are distributed … depends on something else ??
I don’t know, roll a die for each enemy. 1–4 indicate the four directions. 5 indicates that you may choose yourself. And 6 does something very special (the monster must go to a “monster spot”, or it doubles, I don’t know)
THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH THIS, is that this can take a lot of time toward the end of the game, when the city is very large and there are many monsters.
At the same time … it is not too bad. If you build efficiently, the longest side of the city will be at most something like 6 or 7.
In addition, you also break down parts of the city yourself.
When does the game end?
Loss?
If your “city center” is destroyed or captured, you immediately lose.
There are also special tiles that can initiate an earlier loss.
(Do you also lose if one or all player figures are dead? Can they even die??)
Win?
All tiles have been used (destroyed tiles do not return to the deck??) and you are still alive?
Ooor you have had X rounds and are still alive.
Ooor you have defeated Y enemies in total.
Special Properties on Tiles
A wall/gate on the edges.
A river.
A trapdoor (or “trap” in general)
A certain weapon
A secret door that leads somewhere else??
There must also be things that help the monsters/enemy. You must place those things, because they are simply on your tile, which creates more difficult choices.
For example:
- Every time the enemy passes this tile, an extra enemy appears at this location!
- This tile cannot catch fire (when you try to set the enemy on fire)
- If there are more enemies on this tile than “good guys”, you lose the game. (Or you simply receive a large penalty.)
EXAMPLE OF GAMEPLAY:
- Someone sees that soon many enemies will be on a certain tile.
- That person places an explosion and lets it go off at the right moment.
- Yay, enemies dead, but … now this tile is on fire!
- Each turn/round the fire spreads to all adjacent tiles (that are flammable)
- To prevent a disaster, the next player walks to the water, picks it up, walks back, and extinguishes the fire with it.
The Last Fairy Tale
This is a (sort of) final version of the rules.
(Old title: “The Impenetrable Fortress”)
FONTS: Bellefair, Parisienne, Handlee, Cookie,
THICK FONTS: Spicy Rice, Kavoon, Chela One, Gorditas
Intro
The fairy tale world is in revolt! Scary monsters and dangerous enemies have already conquered the entire land …
… but the brave fairy tale forest is the only thing still standing.
It is your task to defend it against the endless armies of enemies, such as Big Bad Wolves, Ice Witches, Frost Giants, and more.
Goal
During the game you will expand the forest and defend it against enemies.
Each forest begins with the Great Wise Oak Tree.
You lose the game immediately when three monsters have reached the oak tree.
You win the game immediately if the three dark diamonds are destroyed.
Setup
Place the starting card (Great Wise Oak Tree) in the middle on the table.
Draw four random tiles and place these (as desired) on all four sides of the starting card.
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Place the three “dark diamond” tiles aside.
Now split the stack into three (roughly) equal parts. Put one diamond card in each pile.
Shuffle the piles individually, place them back on top of each other: this becomes the draw pile for the rest of the game.
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Draw three more tiles from the stack and place them face up next to it: this is the “market”.
Finally everyone chooses a character and places it on the oak tree.
The game can begin!
Gameplay
Starting with the starting player, everyone takes their turn clockwise. This continues until the game has ended.
Remember: this is a cooperative game! You play together, so try to help each other, but let everyone control their own figure.
In these rules the terms enemies and monsters are used for convenience. I assume that you can look at fairy tales with more nuance and realize that fairy tale characters are not all monsters :p
Turn
Each turn has three phases:
New monsters appear
Perform an action (with your character)
Monsters move
New Monsters
To place new monsters you must determine two things: where and how many?
Where do the monsters appear?
On the starting card (the oak tree) four directions are clearly indicated with sides of a die:
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To determine where new monsters appear, roll the die.
1–4: the new monsters must enter the city from this direction (see image)
5: you may determine yourself from which direction the monsters come
6: the new monsters appear on a special monster tile (this will be explained later)
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Special situations can occur if tiles are full. This will be explained shortly under the heading “Moving Monsters”.
How many appear?
This is the golden formula:
Number of new monsters = longest side of the city – 2
The longest side is simply the greatest horizontal or vertical distance in your city.
The picture will make a lot clear:
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Note: you can also remember it another way. This rule is in the game so that players gradually expand their city nicely (instead of out of proportion) and so that automatically more monsters appear as soon as the city becomes larger.
Perform Action
All players, regardless of which character they play, have the following standard actions:
- Move at most two tiles.
- Expand the city.
- Remove one monster (from the current tile)
You may perform each of these actions at most once per turn. You may determine the order yourself.
Moving
Players must, just like monsters, follow the indicated roads on the tiles.
It is allowed to break movement into parts: walk a bit, perform an action, walk a bit.
Expanding
Choose one tile from the market and place it on the city.
The tile must of course touch at least one existing tile and the roads must connect.
Now refill the market back to three.
Special properties
All players have a unique character who can do something special. To keep the rules organized, at the end (appendix A?) there is an entire table with all properties.
Moving Monsters
Roll the die again.
- 1–4: all monsters on this side of the oak tree move
- 5: choose yourself a side that moves
- 6: all monsters on all sides move!
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All monsters that must move now take one step.
The monsters move in order from closest to the oak tree to farthest away from the oak tree.
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How do you determine the direction of movement?
With the well-known step-by-step plan for monster movement:
A monster always chooses the turn toward the oak tree. (If it stands directly in front of it, it goes straight.)
If the desired turn does not exist, a monster tries all other turns clockwise, until it finds one that exists.
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There is one exceptional situation: if all turns do not exist. In this case a monster must move to a full adjacent tile, if one exists.
In this case the monster gets “haste” (or “claustrophobia”): if a monster comes onto a tile that is full, it immediately wants to leave again and takes another step. (Go through the step-by-step plan again.)
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When does a turn not exist?
A turn “does not exist” if:
- It is not indicated on the tile
- It does not connect to another tile. (For example it goes outside the play area.)
- The adjacent tile is already full.
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When is a tile full?
Each tile can have a maximum of 3 monsters.
(There are special tiles or situations that can change this.)
End of Game
The moment the third monster has reached the oak tree, you have lost.
The moment the third diamond is destroyed, you have won!
Those were all the rules! This game, however, has many special characters, tiles, and expanding variants. I highly recommend reading those and also using them.
To do / Ideas
TO DO: It seems cool to me if you really tell a fairy tale while you play this game.
In other words, you must pick up or deliver things at certain places (“quests”).
Maybe there is magic in the game. A curse that rests over the land, or good spells that you can find and use.
Maybe there are special figures (a witch, the wizard of Oz, some kind of wise man, I don’t know) whom you can visit and consult.
And along the way you find the tiles with the house of Little Red Riding Hood, or Rumpelstiltskin, or Cinderella’s palace, etc. => and in that way you actually build a fairy tale forest.
(It just seems cool to me if you really get a few “fronts” on which you defend the fairy tale forest. And that there is magic, and quests that must be completed.)
IDEA: One character is a kind of “Messenger”. If he comes onto a tile with monsters, he immediately loses his message (or is maybe out of the game?), and he also cannot pass along monsters.
But if it succeeds to deliver things, you often get a lot in return.
IDEA: A certain building of which there are multiple. To activate/maintain its effect, two players must stand simultaneously on two of those same building tiles.
TO DO: Find a good way/good moment to explain the system of “resources” and such.
A. Characters
Character #1: May remove all monsters from his current tile (instead of one monster at a time)
Character #2: May move four steps per turn (instead of two).
Character #3: Blocks the passage. Monsters that come onto your tile cannot move further until you leave.
Character #4: May place a maximum of three tiles in your turn (instead of one)
Character #5: You are a distraction. All monsters on adjacent tiles take the shortest route to reach you (instead of following the standard rules).
Character #6: Does not have to roll for new monsters, but must roll twice for monster movement. (Or the other way around: no movement, but roll twice for new monsters.)
Character #7:
Little Red Riding Hood:
Cinderella:
Aladdin:
B. Tile Symbols
These symbols can appear on any tile.
Resources
Special (strong) tiles cost a lot of money/resources to build.
How do you get these resources? By placing tiles in the city that have such a symbol.
- Wood: most common, most needed
- Gold: moderately common, moderately needed
- Magic: barely appears, only needed for super powerful tiles
IDEA: For fun use all kinds of strange resources? Like: love, candy, friendship, etc.
Suppose you want to build a tile that needs 3 wood and 2 gold. Then you count how many resource icons you see in the current city, and check whether that is enough. If you buy something, you do not lose those resources or something like that. They simply remain in your city.
Simple symbols
Distraction = adjacent monsters want to turn toward this tile first.
Bomb = destroy an adjacent tile. All monsters on that tile disappear immediately. Important: you may not blow up a tile on which a fellow player stands!
Swap trick = swap an adjacent tile with one from the market. Alternative: rotate an adjacent tile.
Haste = monsters that come onto this tile immediately get haste (take another step), even if the tile is not full.
More complex symbols
Fixed order = this tile has a different movement order than normal.
- Monsters first try the turn according to the standard rules.
- But if that is full, they follow the order on the tile instead of clockwise.
Max Capacity = this tile has a different maximum capacity than 3.
Gate = gates block turns for monsters, not for players. But if the tile is full, the gate is broken and monsters can pass through.
Wall = a wall is a gate, but the capacity (before it breaks) can change. Max capacity wall = number of connected tiles that make up this wall
C. Special Tiles
These tiles are special and follow completely their own rules. (They are often also expensive/difficult to place.)
Dark Diamonds
These tiles are needed to win the game.
On these tiles are the “dark diamonds” that the monsters have created. By destroying all three, you defeat the enemy and win the game.
You destroy such a diamond simply by standing on the tile with a player. Then remove the tile from the field.
Special Buildings
?? = if there is one monster here, it may not move further. Only when a second monster arrives,
Candy House = ??
Treasure Chest = monsters love gold. If they stand on an adjacent tile, they ALWAYS walk to the treasure chest. However, with that gold they can buy new troops, so place this monster immediately somewhere at the edge of the city again.
Palace = monsters may not come here, players may.
Catapult = if a player lands on this tile, he fires a catapult. Remove all monsters from an adjacent tile.
Trapdoor =