Gamehelpdeliverance

Deliverance Rules

This is a co-operative game

Quick Start:

Smite evil and protect the saints of Fallbrook as an elite angelic warrior! BGA currently only supports Skirmish Mode, which is 2 battles back-to-back. One against minions, and then a boss. Victory is achieved by defeating all of the demons in both battles. Defeat is suffered when there are no more angels on the battlefield.

I - Pick your angel:

Angels have unique skill sets, but generally pick one based on what art attracts you or on the back in the top right are ratings for how they play. Click an angel button once to see their character board, and click the button again to select it for play.

II - Battle 1 Setup:

Battle setup happens automatically, randomly placing map tiles based on Angel count and setting up the enemies/saints according to Battle cards drawn. Angels each start with 2 Courage.

III - Earthfall:

Pick a starting square for your angel to enter the fray from. Skirmish mode starting squares are spaces on the Heavenly Gates tile.

IV - Rounds:

After a battle is set up and angels are on the board, rounds begin until all the angelic or demonic forces are defeated. A round is played in distinct phases:

IVa - Darkness Phase

IVa1 - Place Darkness cards

The number of cards placed in the darkness are equal to number of angels + number of oppressed saints (First round does not count saints). Once the track is full of face down cards, they will start to become face up and disrupt your carefully laid plans. If the track is full of face up cards and additional cards need to be placed, EACH angel will take damage equal to the number of cards that could not be placed.

IVa2 - Resolve Darkness Cards

Darkness cards are resolved left to right and may contain a combination of 3 icons: Activate (lightning bolt), Ongoing (circular arrows), Stronghold (Castle). Cards with Activate will resolve their effects, and then be discarded unless they also have the Ongoing icon. Cards with the Ongoing icon are passive effects that will disrupt your play during the action phase. Cards with the Stronghold icon cannot be Cast Down, these are typically only from the Prince deck.

IVb - Action Phase

IVb1 - Refresh action tokens

Angels gain 2 action tokens to use, demon cards on the initiative track have their action tokens flipped to the gold "ready" side.

IVb2 - Decide first angel

Players get to choose which angel goes first each round. Vote for whichever angels you think could make a strong first move. Ties are given to a tie-breaker where a die is rolled for each option, high roll wins. The decided angel gets the initiative token and takes the first turn.

IVb3 - Turn Order

Turns are taken alternately by angels and demon cards in the initiative track until all angels and demons have gone.

IVc - Level Up Phase (Skirmish only)

The XP tracker (Gold circle around a number) determines levels. XP is always group and the whole party gains levels simultaneously. To take a level you can choose to gain a Treasure or Talent. Regardless of the choice, draw the next 2 cards from the appropriate deck and chose one to equip. The other card is placed back in the deck (if talent) or discarded (if treasure).

XP is gained by protecting saints (1 each time a saint is protected) and defeating demons, it does not matter the manner in which they are defeated, XP per demon is listed on the demon board and battle card.

XP required for the group to level up is the number of angels playing +1

IVc1 - Treasure

You can have a max of 5 treasures equipped, if you would chose above this you must select one to discard. Treasures are how you increase your stats and may give other bonuses, penalties, or actions that can be used according to their text.

IVc2 - Talents

Each angel has 3 decks of 5 unique talents going level 1-3. When selecting talent you will choose from the lowest level that is not currently equipped. Talents can give Ongoing passive effects, give new actions to use, or upgrade the angel's base skills.

V - Final Battle setup

Immediately after all demons in the first battle have been defeated:

• all statuses are removed from angels and the board.
• all saints are removed
• all face down darkness is discarded
• angels with remaining actions get to choose a bonus for each unused action:
  • Gain 1 Courage
  • Cast down darkness
  • Heal self 3
  • Draw a prayer card.

Then new map tiles are randomly drawn and placed according to player count and set up by drawing battle cards. The final tile drawn is set up from the Prince deck and a special Prince Darkness deck of 5 cards comes into play. Prince darkness cards are placed face-up immediately and one is drawn as the first card in each Darkness Phase. Then back into Rounds until players are gloriously victorious or defeated.

Angel Tableau/Turns

The angel tableau starts with a character board and 3 face down talent decks. Each angel starts with 4 unique skills, and a pray action. On the left of the board are the angel's stats: Max Health (Hearts), Strength (Red/Sword), Discipline (Green/Hammer), Wisdom (Blue/Book). When one of these icons appears in a skill, substitute the current number.

Angels have a max of 5 shields, 5 prayer cards, 5 Courage, and 5 Treasures. When the amount of Damage tokens equals the Max Health, the angel is defeated. It is moved off the board and looses all statuses, damage/shield. Defeated Angels KEEP equipped talents, treasures, prayer cards, action tokens, and courage. Defeated angels may only pray and use prayer cards until they are revived. Defeated angels may gain courage, but take no healing/damage/shields/statuses. On revival they come back with 1 hp (Gain Max Health -1 Damage) on a starting square.

Actions

These are denoted by either the Action (Hourglass) or Free Action (Hourglass with wings) icons. On the left of a board skill is the Cost this can be a combination of Action, Free Action and Courage (+/-x). These icons and costs will appear on other cards that grant actions to use.

Action Costs: If there is a Free Action above an Action (most first skills), this means the first time that skill is used in a turn it does not cost an action token. Additional uses will cost an action token. Vise-versa is true as well, some actions (Uriel's Crucible) cost an action token the first time it is used, but not on further uses.

If an angel gets an "Extra Action" by some effect, they may use any of their actions that they have enough courage for without expending normal Action Token costs.

Courage Costs: Always apply. If an angel is at max Courage (5) they may still take actions that grant Courage.

Actions available to use will be highlighted when you can use them. Some actions will require additional choices. These will either appear on the board as highlighted squares, pulsating objects on the board, or buttons in the top bar. After making your selections you can reset selections or submit them for processing.

Angel (and demon) standees on the board have their current health (max health - damage tokens) and shields displayed as a helpful reference.

Angel Movement

All movement is Orthogonal, up/down/left/right

Blue barriers block movement (and adjacency)

Saints do not block movement, and may stack

Standees do not stack

Standees may move through other standees

Angels cannot end movement on demons

When an angel ends movement on another angel, it is displaced and will fall back to make room. They cannot share a space.

Demon Turns

All demons of a type take their turn at once according to the rules on their character board.

They will take each action in standee number order.

1. First, any Activate (lightning bolt) icon actions will trigger, once all standees have acted the next triggers.
2. For the action (hourglass) a die is rolled and the action matching the number rolled is taken, once more in standee order.

If there are multiple valid targets or paths, the players get to give their input on which decision is made. Damage and status tokens are placed on the board near the number matching the standee affected.

If a demon gains an Extra Action, roll a die to see which of the actions they take.

Engage

When a demon engages a target, it uses 2 values: Range and Move.

1. If the demon is already in Range of Target, it does the rest of the action
2. If the demon is out of Range, it will move towards the target until it expends all movement or it is within range
3. If the demon is still out of range, the rest of the action is not executed (fizzles)

A demon's movement follows the same rules as angel movement with the following changes:

• Demons may not end movement on angels
• A demon ending movement on another demon, the other demon will attempt to make room by surrounding the target angel, instead of falling back.

Tests

Many actions have an effect "Test X+." When testing, 2 dice are rolled and the result must be X or greater to Succeed, or it is considered Failed. Some tests have bonuses for success or penalties for failure. Tests may be carried out by angels, demons, heaven, or darkness. This matters when it comes to statuses.

Status Effects

In general statuses do not stack. An angel with Blessed can be targeted with something that gives Blessed, but would not gain another Blessed boon.

Statuses are categorized into Boons and Afflictions

Boons

• Blessed : When the bearer of this Boon Succeeds a test, heal 1 damage.
• Empower : When the bearer of this Boon would deal damage, increase the amount by 1.
• Swift : When the bearer of this Boon would cause movement, increase the distance by 1.
• Light : Affects a square on the board. When an angel ends their turn on this Boon, heal 1 damage.

Afflictions

• Cursed : When the bearer of this Affliction Fails a test it is dealt 1 damage.
• Wither : When the Bearer of this Affliction ends their turn it is dealt 1 damage.
• Root : When the bearer of this Affliction would move, they don't move, then remove this affliction.
• Shadow : Affects a square on the board. When an angel ends their turn on this Affliction, it is dealt 1 damage.

Notes on Light and Shadow:

• Light and Shadow do not affect demons directly.
• If a square with light would gain shadow, the light is lost and turned to shadow.
• If a square with shadow would gain light, the shadow is lost and turned to light.
• A standee standing on Light or Shadow may have that boon/affliction removed "from target"
• Something that does not specify a target for remove affliction may remove shadow from anywhere on the board.

Board Game Arena Implementation

Many effects have certain valid targets such as angels, demons, squares, saints, statuses, and misc cards.

In general we focus on the main board, selectable objects (angel/demon standees, saints, light/shadow) will fade in and out. Once selected they will have a green tint. (Until the UI/UX update)

This is effect is particularly difficult to see with light/shadow tiles to select, it will be changing.

When selecting, you can select more or fewer than the number required. An example of this is voting for first angel to act. In a game with Uriel, Christine, and Shula, you may vote for however many you think have a good first move. Player1 says Uriel or Shula. Player2 says Shula, and Player3 says Christine. Shula would win the votes and go first. In a tie, a die is thrown (behind the scenes) for each valid option with the most votes and the highest wins.

This same decision making technique is used throughout the game, if Uriel uses Scorch (Move 3, then 1 damage to an adjacent demon) and has 2 adjacent demons after moving then it asks for input on which one to damage. In this case only Uriel's controller has a say, but may still opt for any or both. If both (or none) then a tiebreak happens to see which takes the damage.

If there is only 1 outcome it is auto-selected and resolves the effect without further input.

Squares may need to be selected, most commonly for moving but also for other actions. Valid squares will have a light blue square to select, which will turn light green when clicked. In the case of a movement path, additional squares may highlight until all movement is exhausted or you submit the path to take.

Sometimes an effect will do damage to angels "Distributed as players choose". In this case you can volunteer for however much damage you are willing to take. Once everyone has a say it distributes all the damage according to who wants the most.

Example: 4 damage to distribute, Uriel wants 2, Christine wants 3, Shula wants 0.

Christine would get at least 2, Uriel would get at least 1, and a tiebreak would happen between Uriel and Christine to see who takes the 4th (since they both volunteered for 1 more at this point). Shula would get 0. If everyone volunteers for 0, it will evenly distribute and run tiebreaks for any that doesn't assign evenly.

Roadmap

This is currently Alpha, and there are a lot of UX updates we wish to implement such as:

• Making selection more apparent, both for valid targets and after they are selected.
• Auto-scroll the map to center on which character is acting
• Move character boards around so the one with initiative is closest
• Show where standees off-screen are to scroll to
• Increase communications:
  • Collapse all effects of an action into one message
  • Have top bar dynamically say who is selecting what and why
  • Show valid selections in the top bar

Thank you for your interest, playing, and any feedback!

Now go kick some demon butt!