Elysium by Gilbert and Dunstangames in One Page by Steve Lewis

Elysium by Gilbert and DunstanGames In One Page by Steve Lewis

Published by Space Cowboys, 2015 v1.0 pub2/1/18

In Elysium, you will be taking cards from the supply, making sure you keep hold of the necessary colored pillars to take more cards in future turns. At the end of the round, you can pay to transfer these cards into a scoring zone (“writing them into legend”), where you earn points for forming sets of same-leveled cards or same-colored cards (of different levels).

To set up, choose five of the colored families of cards (21 each) and shuffle them to form a single deck (105 cards). Set out the three level bonuses and five family bonuses (matching the five families chosen). Place the quests (thick cards numbered 1-4, or 1-2 with two dots in a two-player game) on the table below the triangular(ish) roof of the temple, and the steps beneath the quests, with the round marker on 1. Each player assembles a player board (the bump with the harp will be at the bottom); place four columns (one of each color) on the middle portion, and four coins on the money portion to the right. One player is randomly given the circular “1” marker, and players take the other numbers in ascending order going clockwise around the table. Each player takes victory points equal to the number they received. For an X-player game, deal 3X+1 cards on the table face-up to form the Agora (market).

Each of the five consists of four phases.

1. Awakening (setup) - Discard any unpurchased cards from the market, and deal 3X+1 cards to form a new market (skip this step in the first round). If the Apollo family is in play, deal four additional cards in the Oracle area.

2. Actions - Starting with the player with the “1” marker and continuing in ascending order, each player takes a family card or a quest card. In order to take a card, you must have the columns shown on the card (or on the temple above the quest card). Place the card above your player board. After taking a card, you must discard one of your columns; it doesn’t have to be one of the columns required to take that card. At the end of the round, you must have taken three family cards and one quest card. If you don’t have the columns needed to legally take a family card, take a citizen card from the top of the deck (do not flip it over to reveal the family side); if you can’t legally take a quest card, you don’t take a quest card; instead, pass your turn, and at the end of the phase, take a remaining quest card and flip it to its “incomplete” side. At any time during your turn, you may activate powers on the cards above your player board; turn them sideways to indicate that you’ve used them. Note that some cards have powers that must be used immediately, only once per game, only at the end of the game, or only in the next phase.

3. Write into legends (transfer) - Each person takes the numbered disc corresponding to the quest card they took. If you have an incomplete quest, take the highest available number, or maintain relative order if multiple players have incomplete quests. Receive any gold and/or victory points on the quest card you took. Players may also transfer a number of cards to their Elysium (below the player board) matching the harp number on the quest card. To do so, pay the number of coins equal to the level of the card you are transferring. If you are transferring a citizen, pay the level you would be transferring that card in place of. Citizens must be assigned to groups of either different levels of the same family (1-2-3) or different families of the same level (e.g. 1-1-1-1-1). Transferred cards cannot be rearranged once moved to the Elysium. Citizens can only be assigned to groups that already have two or more cards in them. The first player to complete a family set takes the 5-point disc of that color; the second player (which may be the same player) takes the 2-point disc. When a player has two or more cards in a level set, they take the level bonus disc of that level, and keep it until another player has more cards in their level set than them (when a player has five cards in their set, they keep the disc).

4. End of epoch (cleanup) - All players take back their four columns and un-rotate their used action cards. Advance the round marker, and begin the next round.

At the end of the fifth round, players count up their points. Any legend with only one card is removed from play. Players get 3/6 points for 2/3 cards in a family set, and 2/4/8/12 points for 2/3/4/5 cards in a level set. If the Ares family was used, players get 16/8/4/2 points for having the most prestige points and descending. Players also add up points from bonus discs and Chronos (hourglass) powers, but lose 2 points for each citizen in their Elysium. The player with the highest score wins; in the case of a tie, the player with more gold left wins.

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