LOOTERS of te LABYRINT ©2020 Jason Gieske A competitive strategy game for 2-8 players At last you've found it; a legendary and mysterious labyrinth, rumored to hold many treasures! Unfortunately, you're not alone you've been followed by other treasure raiders, and you'll have to act quickly and shrewdly to secure the plunder for yourself: GOAL Obtain more of the labyrinth’s treasures than any other player or team. Table A. Treasures needed to win by player count Players 2orteams| 3 4 5 Treasures to win 7 5 4 a COMPONENTS * 1 game board ¢ 1 team treasure board with game summary on reverse side 48 labyrinth wall pieces ¢ 48 labyrinth wall piece cards ¢ 3 game variant instruction cards ¢ 8 player aid cards, one of each player color ¢ 8 wooden player pawns, one of each player color ¢ 1 gray minotaur pawn ¢ 8 player pawn snap bases, 4 white & 4 black * 8 rubble tokens, one of each player color * 8 axe tokens, one of each player color * 48 acrylic labyrinth wall tokens; 5 of each player color, 8 clear ¢ 13 resin treasure pieces ¢ 1 instruction manualol? = a pl] oO eeoe ecco ie iar eeSETUP @Place the players’ pawns on the black starting squares adjacent to the corner squares of the board. Choose starting locations in a way that most evenly distributes players around the board. For example, ina 4 player game each player's pawn should start next to a different corner. @Place the treasures on the 13 orange treasure squares on the board. @ Lay the labyrinth wall pieces to the side of the board within easy reach of all players, sorted into stacks by shape. @OShuffle the deck of 48 labyrinth wall cards and deal a hand of cards to each player (see table B). Undealt cards are 7 placed to the side of the board to form a draw pile. 4 Each player should keep the player aid@, rubble token @ and wall tokens @ (see table B) of their color on the table in © front of them. Table B. Cards & tokens by player count Players 2-3 4 | 5-6 Wall cards & wall tokens 2. 4 2 Fora team game place the team treasure board @ next to the labyrinth wall pieces and snap the black and white bases @ to the player pawns to create two even teams with alternating starting positions.| PLAYER TURNS The player who most recently used money starts the game. Players take turns, going clockwise. On your turn, you must perform one of four actions: A. Move pawn B. Place labyrinth wall piece | C. Weaken labyrinth wall : D. Play rubble token Move pawn ‘Move your player pawn in one direction horizontally or vertically. You can only stop this movement by running into ‘either the edge of the board ora labyrinth wall piece, in the Jatter case weakening the labyrinth wall your pawn hits. (See: "WEAKENING & DEMOLISHING LABYRINTH WALLS.") FINER POINT: Pawn collision Player pawns do not stop moving when collecting treasures, nor when "passing through other pawns. If, however, the pawn runs into another E- pawn which is next to the edge of the board or a labyrinth wall, this - blocks further movement and the pawn stops next to the other pawn "instead, and does not collide with the labyrinth wall. [PLE: Pawn movement ad is stopped by the blue pawn, ich, being next to a labyrinth all, prevents white’s pawn from iting and weakening the wall.Place labyrinth wall piece 1. Choose a card from your hand and place it in the discard pile next to the draw pile. z. Place a corresponding labyrinth wall piece (same symbol and shape) on the board, aligning it with the grid. It must be placed so that it is entirely within the playing grid, and cannot be placed so that it blocks the access of any player pawns to any treasures. The labyrinth wall piece can be rotated and flipped. 3. Place one of your wall tokens on the first node of the labyrinth wall. (See: "LABYRINTH WALLS" for more about nodes.) FINER POINT: Blocking access to treasures A treasure obstructing the only path to another treasure doesn't block access since it is removed when a pawn passes through its square. Likewise, a player pawn does not create a blockage unless it is impossible to pass through the pawn to get through the opening. An area is allowed to be completely blocked off by labyrinth walls if there are ™ no pawns or treasures in that area. Rubble tokens can create access to otherwise blocked areas, since they act as open spaces on the board. EXAMPLE: Placing wall White plays is “wane” ma @ card € the discard pile, then places a “wave” Ee B labyrinth wall piece from the supply onto the board. He places one of his wall tokens on the first node of the wall piece. The wall doesn’t block any player pawns from any treasures, so the placement is legal.| Weaken labyrinth wall Weaken one of your own labyrinth walls. If its wall token ce ' was already on the removal node, demolish the wall instead; this allows you to draw a new card. | (See: "WEAKENING & DEMOLISHING LABYRINTH WALLS.") f 5 Z : Play rubble token Place your rubble token on any square of any labyrinth wall on the board. The rubble token makes an opening in the / Wall that any player pawn can pass through. It remains on F that wall until the wall is demolished. Note that pawns passing through a wall’s rubble token do not weaken the wall. When a wall with a rubble token on it is demolished, - the rubble token goes back to its owner and can be used again later in the game. PLE: Placing and using rubble token In his first turn, white places his rubble token on one of blue’s walls, next to his > player pawn. - n his second turn, white moves his pawn in the direction of the rubble token. > Because his pawn still runs into the wall after passing through the open space created by his rubble token, and the wall token is on the “X” node of the wall, e wall is demolished, returning white’s rubble token to him and blue’s wall ken to her. Turn I 8LABYRINTH WALLS q Labyrinth walls are either 4 squares in size, with 2 nodes, or ‘s 6 squares in size, with 3 nodes. Every labyrinth wall has a starting node with a directional arrow, and a removal node with an “X”. The 6-square labyrinth walls have one additional arrow node in the middle. A labyrinth wall’s token is placed on the starting node when the wall is placed on the board, and moves from nod to node each time the labyrinth wall is weakened, following % the direction indicated by the arrows. Each type of labyrinth wall has a unique symbol to help yo identify it more easily. : WEAKENING & DEMOLISHING LABYRINTH WALLS When a pawn runs into a labyrinth wall, the pawn stops o: the space next to the wall, and the wall token moves down to the next node on the wall to indicate that the wall has been weakened. If the token is on the removal node of the labyrinth wall when a pawn runs into it, the wall is instead demolished; it is removed from the board and returned to the supply. The ~ wall’s token goes back to its owner, who then drawsa new card from the draw pile to add to her hand. FINER POINT: Depleting the draw deck If the draw deck runs out of cards, first remove cards from the discard pile corresponding to walls currently on the board so that it isn't possible to draw cards for which there are no walls to place. Then shuff the remaining discard pile to form the new draw pile and put the removed cards back in the discard pile.MPL: Weakening labyrinth wall ite ie his pawn and hits his own wall, weakening it. Blue then takes her rn, moving her pawn to weaken the wall a second time. Her pawn doesn’t jove since it is already next to the wall in the direction she moves it. . i ee LE Demolishing labyrinth wall In his next turn white demolishes the wall. He could run his pawn into the wall ‘like blue did on her previous turn, or simply use the weaken wall action; in this articular case the two turn actions are effectively identical. The demolished oa is removed from the board, and the wall token returns to white’s supply. _" then draws a new card from the draw pile and adds it to his hand.OBTAINING TREASURE Gain treasure by moving your pawn through or onto a space containing a treasure piece. Take the treasure piece off the ~ board and add it to your stash of plunder, which must be kept visible to the other players. GAME END The first player or team to collect the required number of treasures wins the game. The game ends immediately onc the final treasure is obtained. (Refer to Table A on page | of the instructions.) TEAM PLAY 4, 6, and 8 player games are best played in 2 teams, with alternating starting positions on the board. Turn order remains clockwise as normal. Each player has their own pawn, rubble token, wall tokens, and hand of cards. Play is the same as in a normal game, except teammates share treasures; place obtained treasure on the matching side of the team treasure board. The first team to obtain 7 treasures wins. TABLE TALK a The identity of cards in hand must remain private except in | team games, where players may communicate freely with | their team publicly, at the risk of revealing their strategies to the opposing team. Decide before the game starts if you would rather disallow ~ or limit table talk to speed up the game.hange things up a bit if you'd like. Detailed instructions © for these variants can be found on cards included with the labyrinth wall card deck. Here’s a summary of each variant: » Labyrinth Walls Players build a starting maze before beginning the game. ; _ This impacts the strategies of the initial turns. ' The Minotaur > The player or team with the fewest treasures can deploy and > control the minotaur to attempt to steal treasure from > others. This variant works best in team games. If you want a © balancing, come-from-behind mechanic added to the — game, or simply feel that no labyrinth is complete without a ‘minotaur, use this variant. - This variant introduces options for proximity placement " restrictions, which make the game potentially less . defensive overall. Players or teams can only place walls and/or rubble tokens near their own pawns. . Tournament Scoring - If you run a Looters of the Labyrinth tournament, the score "for each individual game is the number of treasures that each player or team collects. The overall score summed up from all games determines the winner. As such, each player or team should play an equal number of games in the - tournament.LOOTERS OF THE LABYRINTH: THE ORIGIN STORY I dreamed one night that I was playing a board game. It seemed like an interesting concept, although what was going on wasn‘ entirely clear. Something with moving a pawn to get around walls that could be moved or changed somehow. In the dream, I thought to myself, “this game is kind of interesting, but it could be better.” Soon after, I awoke and thought to myself, “whatever that was, it seems to have potential as a real board game, but I think I can make it a lot better!” And so, Looters of the Labyrinth was — born. Not all at once of course, but from that moment of inspiration it began to take shape, and over the course of a few years of thinking and playtesting and discussing and designing and procrastinating, it became what it is today. PLAY ONLINE! Looters of the Labyrinth is available for both Tabletopia and Tabletop Simulator. Also, you can find a short how-to-play video here: https://youtu.be/gBWdWpKkIkM Looters of the Labyrinth ©2020 Jason Gieske Designed, Illustrated, and Published by Jason Gieske Special thanks to my various playtesters, particularly family and friends ~ and everyone at my FLGS. Also, a big thank you to Adam of Adam's Apple Games for all the valuable input and advice. I credit God with inspiring me with the dream to create this project. Questions? Contact me at [email protected] or Jason Gieske’s Games 723 Hawthorne St. Apt. 1 Alexandria, MN 56308-1840(AME SUMMARY layers take turns, going clockwise. ~Ona turn, perform one of four actions: 1. Move your pawn in an orthogonal direction until it collides with the edge of the board ora labyrinth wall, . Place a labyrinth wall piece ina way that fits on the joard but doesn’t completely block any players from any Treasures. -Or- 3. Weaken a labyrinth wall which belongs to you, ‘demolishing it instead if the wall token was already on the ” node. 4. Place your rubble token on any square of any labyrinth » wall on the board. It will stay there until the wall is demolished. Collect the most treasures to win!