Official Paragons Rulebook

Game Phase

Setting up the playing field

Players each have a Combat Board where they can play up to 8 mercenaries: 2 deep and 4 across (referred to as Rows and Columns respectively). The front row (furthest from the player) is called the Front Line. The back row (closest to the player) is called the Back Line.

During the Game Phase, when players play cards with the Hidden keyword, they are put in a ‘Hidden Pile’ seperate from their player’s Combat Board. Players may look at their own Hidden cards anytime, but not their opponent’s.

In the shared playing space, a D10 die or mana counter can help track the Mana Threshold for a given round. The Mana Threshold is the amount of mana a player starts with on their turn which they can budget and spend until their next turn as they please.

Place the Neutral Mercenary Deck in the shared playing space as well, and put its top 5 cards face up Texas Hold’em Style. This is the Mercenary Pool: it is a shop where players will be able to Recruit new mercenaries for a price. The Mercenary Pool belongs to an area of the game space which can be referred to more generally as the Buying Pool (a fact that may be relevant in future expansions.)

When a mercenary is Recruited from the Buying Pool during play, replace that card with the top card from the Neutral Mercenary Deck.

Starting play

Players start with 20 Life. You may keep track of this however you’d like. We recommend a D20. Whatever your method, life should always be visible to players at all times. Please also note that a player’s Life Total can never exceed 20 points.

At the start of the game, players draw 5 cards from the top of their deck. They may also elect to Mulligan once: removing any number of cards from their hand and redrawing back up to 5 cards. Any cards discarded this way are then shuffled back into their decks.

Then play begins!

Play order is always Warrior→ plays before Mage→ Plays before Ranger.

Beginning Your Turn

At the start of a turn, you either draw until you have 5 cards or, if you have 5 or more cards already, you draw 1 card instead. You must always draw at least 1 card. There is no maximum hand size.

Players play cards with mana, a resource represented by a number 1 to 10 that corresponds with the round that is currently being played (1 mana on the 1st round, 2 on the second, and so on until the 10th round, whereafter mana is capped at 10.) This number is referred to as the Mana Theshold.

The amount of mana you can access at any moment can never be higher than the number of rounds entered (hence it is a ‘theshold’ that cannot be overcome). The amount of mana currently at your disposal is referred to as your Mana Total, which is carried over into enemy players’ turns until the start of your next turn.

Please note that once mana is spent, it cannot be un-spent, even if players respond with cards that nullify a card’s effects or prevent it from coming into play.

Turns are taken sequentially, and when spoken of collectively are referred to as the Round (Round 1 is when the Mana Threshold is set to 1, etc.) Therefore a Round starts with the Warrior, continues with the Mage, and ends with the Ranger.

Options During Your Turn (and during your opponents’)

Generally speaking, there are five different types of Voluntary Actions you can take in Paragons:

1- You may play mercenary cards any time on your turn. Mercenaries can be played to any space on the Combat Board unless otherwise noted by the card. If that space is occupied by a mercenary already, the occupying mercenary can be “bumped” to any Surrounding space (left, right, up, or down) so long as that space is unoccupied.

Mercenaries typically resolve onto the Board instantly unless the spell played in response explicitly says otherwise (e.g. “When a mercenary would come into play, do ____ instead.”)

Mercenaries cannot attack or use Voluntary Abilities on the turn that they are played unless the card explicitly says otherwise. Voluntary Abilities are mercenary abilities which depend upon player choice to come into effect. Mercenary abilities that have an effect whether or not you choose to do anything are called Passive Abilities and take effect immediately.

2- You may begin a Combat any time on your turn by initiating an attack. Attacking occurs one mercenary at a time before damage resolves. Please note that a mercenary can only attack once per turn unless the card explicitly says otherwise. Using a mercenary, a player chooses whether they wish to target an enemy player directly or any targetable mercenary on their opponent’s combat board.

If you target a player directly, that player may Defend with any one of their unexhausted mercenaries. A Defending mercenary trades their attack power and health with the attacking mercenary (numbers indicated on the bottom left and right of mercenary cards, respectively). If a player chooses not to Defend in this instance, they deduct the mercenary’s total attack power from their Life Total.

If you wish to target a mercenary instead, you can choose from among the following: any Frontline mercenary on an enemy’s Combat Board (as defined at the start of the Game Phase section), or any Backline mercenary on an enemy’s Combat Board who is ‘exposed’, that is, one that does not have an allied mercenary in the Front Line of the column they inhabit.

The enemy player may then elect to Defend it with any unexhausted Adjacent mercenary. Adjacent mercenaries are mercenaries to the immediate left or right of the mercenary in question. If a player chooses not to Defend the mercenary, the attacking mercenary and its target exchange their attack power and health in the same manner as prescribed above.

If a mercenary survives combat, it remains damaged until the start of the next player’s turn, at which point its health goes back to full. If a mercenary’s health is reduced to zero or below, it is Destroyed. Cards that are Destroyed go into their player’s discard pile (a player is the person who played the card, so for example, cards you play on your opponent’s board that are destroyed still go to your own discard pile.)

Mercenaries become Exhausted when they attack, which is indicated by rotating the card 90 degrees. Exhausted mercenaries cannot attack, defend, or use Voluntary Abilities that require them to become Exhausted. Exhausted mercenaries Recover at the start of their players’ turns, unexhuasting them.

Defending is a special class of Voluntary Action that only occurs when an attack has been declared.

A player may initiate more than one Combat during a turn. A Combat ends when a player plays a mercenary card or spell unrelated to the Combat.

3-You may use a Mercenary’s Voluntary Ability any time on your turn unless the card explicitly describes otherwise. Cards that let you use their activated abilities on enemy turns and/or on the turn they’re played always use the phrase ‘anytime’ in their ability description.

4-You may Recruit Lesser Mercenaries from the Buy Pool for 2 mana, or Greater Mercenaries for 3 mana, anytime during your turn. To Recruit a card, take it from the Buy Pool and put it into your hand.

5-You may play Spells any time on either your or your opponents’ turns so long as you have enough mana to do so.

Advanced Notes on Voluntary Actions

Notes on Order of Operations

Whenever a player takes any Voluntary Action, their opponent always has the opportunity to React with any permitted Voluntary Actions of their own. This option goes both ways, with the underlying principle that whatever is played last in this card/action chain resolves first. When no one decides to add more to the chain, the chain begins resolving in the manner prescribed above.

If the resolution of this chain disrupts the permissability of actions that would resolve later, the initiative is handed to the player whose action it was to make a different choice utilizing the same card/action if possible in a way that is allowed by the ruleset. If that is impossible, the action is rescinded.

Notes on Card Activity Besides Voluntary Actions

Special cases regarding the Beginning and Ending of turns-

Drawing at the Beginning of your turn is not a Voluntary Action. Voluntary Actions are only ever available to you after the Beginning of a turn and before the Ending of one (that may seem obvious, but is important to note for competitive players trying to understand the precise limits of card abilities).

The most important consequence of this is that cards that describe abilities which occur on the beginning or end of a turn are therefore not ‘Voluntary’ in terms of the games’ mechanics, even if they include an element of choice. It also means that abilities using this language do not invite the opportunity to provoke Reactions from enemy players.

Notes on Mercenary Types (Melee, Ranged, Caster)

Mercenaries have distinct combat types, indicated on the bottom left hand corner of the card where their attack power total is shown.

A Sword indicates that this mercenary is a Melee-type mercenary. Melee mercenaries are not able to attack from the Backline if they have an allied mercenary directly in front of them (it’s hard to swing a sword at the enemy with a friend in the way!)

An Arrow indicates that this mercenary is a Ranged-type mercenary. Ranged mercenaries do not have the same limitation as Melee mercenaries. Other than that, the only difference between melee and ranged mercenaries is that ranged mercenaries also have a special ability that reads “when this card is dealt damage by a caster-type mercenary’s casting ability, it does damage back equal to its attack power (as if it were in combat).”

A Staff indicates that this mercenary is a Caster-type mercenary. In addition to having all the traits of a Ranged-type mercenary, casters have their own special ability: “This ability reads as “Exhaust this card anytime on your turn to do X damage to a mercenary, where X is this card’s Base Attack Power Stat.”

This caster ability cannot be used on the same turn that the caster-type mercenary attacks (and vice versa), even if the mercenary becomes unexhausted.

Note: A mercenary’s Base Stats are the physical numerals printed for its attack power and health values. Buffs and stat changes are temporary, Base Stats are forever <3

Notes on Spell Types

Spells are ordinarily single-use non-mercenary cards that can be played from your hand or revealed from among your Hidden cards at any time (when the reveal conditions are met) and are so labeled at the bottom of the card. These are played, have an effect, and then generally are Destroyed after resolving.

There are special spells called Imbuements that attach to mercenaries permanently and confer effects based on the spell’s description. These live or die along with the mercenary they imbue, becoming Destroyed when the Mercenary they imbue is Bounced, Destroyed, or Banished.

There are also Enchantment spells that act like Imbuements, but attach to Combat Board spaces rather than the mercenaries that occupy them. Once played successfully onto a particular space, there they remain for the rest of the game unless replaced by a new Enchantment, in which case the old Enchantment is destroyed (there can only be one Enchantment occupying a space at a time.)

One final note: There are certain cards that will copy or duplicate your spells. Please remember that these copy ‘cards’ are completely removed from the game when they resolve and do not enter your Discard or Reserve Pile.

Concluding the Game

A player loses when their Life Total is reduced to or below 0, if they need to draw from their deck and are unable to do so, or if they at any point exhibit remarkably poor sportsmanship (yes, seriously). Keep it classy, folks.

Paragons is designed to be played as a ‘best of 3’ tournament-style TCG-like, where the losing player of a game may substitute any cards from their Reserve Pile (as defined in the ‘Assemble your Deck’ section) into their deck in an attempt to rebound their fortunes, knowing more now about their opponent’s strategy. If they choose to do this, the resulting deck should be exactly 30 cards when they are done.

The ‘best of 3’ format is not mandatory, and card balance should allow for fun and relatively competitive experiences in ‘best of 1’ play, which may be more manageable for players on a tight schedule. However, for the best experience, Authocracy recommends the ‘best of 3’ format as the most competitive, balanced, and enjoyable approach. If you are in a hurry, it may be a good idea to save the constructed decks for the next time you are able to play.

The game is also fine-tuned for 1-on-1 play. Three-for-alls can be a lot of fun and make for quite a slugfest, but the most balanced outcomes are going to come from 1-on-1 play in a Bo3 format. As a social game, however, nothing quite tops a 3-for-all casual game night between friends.

For larger affairs, we recommend having a Paragons set for every two players, enabling a Round Robin-style tournament.