Pug Quest: Preview

Pug Quest: Preview

Information:

Mechanics: Cooperative, Set Collection, Hand Management

Player Age: 10+

Player Count: 1 - 5 Players

Time to Play: 30 - 40 Minutes

Game Designer: Alessandro Rivaroli

Game Artists: Mariano De Biase

Publisher: Tin Hat Games

Disclaimer: A preview copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

The Game:

Objective:

The aim of the game is to cooperatively defeat all enemies on three worlds, including the boss on the third world. However, if all heroes die on one world or if the heroes can not complete the world within 10 rounds then they lose.

Card Anatomy:

Pug quest has six types of cards: treasure, energy, monsters, heroes, bosses, and worlds.

Treasure:
By defeating enemies and surviving worlds, players can gain treasures. These cards give the players one time effects or equipment that can be used multiple times.

Energy:
There are five energy types: strength, speed, intellect, spirit, and magic. Additionally, there is a wild ability called ‘jolly’ that can mimic any of the five energy types.
The energy is the main currency of this game. It is used for activating abilities and equipment, buying treasure after completing a world, and defending against attacks.


Enemies:
On the left hand of the card there are many important values. Running in order of top to bottom is the initiative (turn order), life, movement direction, and type (shown by energy type). Next to the energy type is the attack. Some monsters have a prize below their attack, in this case when they die they won’t give you treasure or experience (more on this later) but will act as a treasure themselves for the player who slayed the beast.


Heroes:
Each hero has two cards. First, is the hero itself which has the same iconography as the monsters, although on the right side instead of the left. Instead of an attack there is a passive ability, individual to each character.
The second card is the hero’s special abilities. These abilities are spent on your turn by discarding the matching energy. When the hero starts they will only have access to the first three abilities. When a hero has two experience points they gain access to the level 2 ability, and when they have five experience points they gain access to the level 3 ability (more on experience in the how to play).


Bosses:
The boss works the same as the monsters. However, like the heroes they each have a special card to go with the boss to give it unique attacks or turn conditions.

Worlds:
There will only be three worlds in each game and each world has it's own type, active ability, and location of where the enemies will spawn. The amount of enemies that spawn is based on player count. For example if there are two players each spot on the world that says, 1 or 2 will spawn a enemy. Bosses will only spawn on the third world.


The Board:
On the board there is a hero section (bottom two rows) and an enemy section (top two rows), each separated into five columns. Either side of this board will loop around to the other side when factoring in attacks or movement, so if a movement would take an enemy/hero past the last column in the row then the movement would continue starting from the other side. Also, there is a timer to track 10 rounds and a counter to track which world the players are currently on.

Setup:

1. Separate the treasure, monsters, energy and world cards into separate decks and shuffle each one.
2. Deal/pick a hero for each player.
3. Shuffle and draw three worlds for the game.
4. Select or randomly draw a boss for the third world.
5. Each player draws energy cards based on player count
- 1 player = 10 cards
- 2 or 3 players = 9 cards
- 4 or 5 players = 8 cards
6. Place five energy cards next to the energy deck.
7. Draw the first world and summon the enemies based on the player count and the world’s enemy positioning.

How to Play:

Each world only lasts a maximum of 10 rounds and all characters have their turn within each round. The order of the turns will be based on each characters initiative, starting from the highest to the lowest.

Enemy Movement:

During their turn, monsters will move based on their individual movement. In the instance that there is already an enemy in the new space, the new enemy will move to the available space behind. If the space behind the enemy is occupied, the new enemy will swap places with the monster on the front space, and that front monster will be placed where the new monster started the turn.

Enemy Attacks:

The monster attacks based on where their attack and if any conditions on the cards attack ability are met (more on this in attack type). A player can block by discarding an energy card matching the attacking enemy type for each point of damage the player wishes to block.

On the Players Turn:

Players are able to do two turn actions and as many free actions as desired.
These actions include:

Movement:
This allows your pug to move in any direction up to as many spaces as that pug’s movement allows.

Standard attack:
By discarding one energy that matches your type you can do a basic melee attack of one damage (more on this type of attack soon). Unlike the other actions, this one can only be done once per turn, pugs are cute and aren't that violent after all.

Draw:
The player can draw two energy cards in any combination from the face up line and the draw pile.

Discard:
Sick of those cards that keep coming up that you have no use for? Well this action allows you to discard as many of those annoying energy cards as you want and draw up replacements.

Free Actions:
There are several free actions that will occur but here are the main ones during your turn:

Treasure Cards:
After the first world you should have a couple of treasures. Using these treasures as one time effects or using the combo on a treasure card counts as a free action.

Combo's:
This is the time where you are able to use as many of your character’s combos as your energy allows.

Attack:

When attacking you first have to make sure you are using the right type of attack (more on this soon). But let's say you are able to attack the enemy or they are able to attack you. Then damage occurs (not including defence) based on the amount detailed in the attack. If at any point the damage endured by the enemy or hero were to match their life then they have died. If an enemy has died in this way they will drop treasure to the first hero below them, as well as give the hero who dealt the killing blow an experience point. Instead of this, the enemy may work as a treasure themselves and be added to the hero’s attack moves.

Attack Types:
There are different types of attacks that allow the character to attack their sworn enemies.

New World:

Once you have slayed all the enemies on one world you will move on to the next. So what does this mean? First off, anyone that died is now alive again, treasures can be traded between players, and the round timer resets to one. Now onto the two main parts. The market place, depending on the amount of players, will reveal an equal amount of treasures. Each living player can purchase one of the treasures by discarding an energy matching the worlds type. The game will get harder in world two and three, so treasure is definitely a commodity here. Each turn a player must discard an energy matching the world’s type and in the third world a boss will join the fight with their own unique attacks.

Who Will Like This ?

Don't be fooled by the adorable art, this game is a light to mid weight dungeon crawlish game that can be as difficult as it is cute. It uses a unique Rummikub hoarding system to unleash devastating combos that bring enemies to their knees. Pug Quest has enough variability with the different heroes and enemies to keep pug lovers and hardcore gamers engaged. This will be a game I hope to back when the kickstarter launches and has earnt a seal of Kickstarter Excellence.

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Pug Quest on Kickstarter
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