ROOK CITY RENEGADES

RULE & LORE BOOK

CREDITS
Writer and Designer: Christopher Badell
Artist: Adam Rebottaro
Additional Game Design: Christopher Burton
Editor: Christopher Badell
Layout and Graphic Design: SaRae Henderson and Darrell Louder
Developers: Christopher Badell and Christopher Burton
Continuity Auditor: Jesse Garrison
Product Developers: Christopher Badell and Paul Bender
Playtesters: Michael J. Ahlers, Christopher Battles, Christopher Dade,
Ian Delaney, Brian Denning, Alex Franklin, Richard
Gillingham, Bryan Graham, AJ Harris, Graham Hildebrandt,
Donner Holten, Brian Jewett, Tim and Katelyn Jewett,
Steve Kaylor, Carl Klutzke, Benjamin Larsen, Ruduen, Russ
Luzetski, Jim McEwan, Cole Preece, Andy Rasmussen,
Ryan Samarco, Michael Schector, Bill Stull, Brent Ur, Benton
Winfrey, Sameer Yalamanchi, Samuel Zhu, and so many
more around the world! Evil may never sleep, but neither
do the Sentinels of the Multiverse.

Sentinel Comics was created by

Christopher Badell and Adam Rebottaro

©2011 Flat River Group, LLC

www.GreaterThanGames.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction........................................................................ page 2
Components........................................................................ page 2
◦ Sleeves....................................................................... page 3
New Rules and Clarifications.......................................... page 4
Lore
◦ The Heroes................................................................ page 6
◦ Villains......................................................................page 14
◦ Environments..........................................................page 25
FAQs...................................................................................page 31

1
 INTRODUCTION
Rook City. Nighttime. The Cult of Gloom performs their dark rituals,
seeking to open the way for their dread lord and master. Rumors abound
of a red-masked killer lurking in the shadows. A monstrous giant rat-
man-beast stalks the sewers, its terrible teeth teeming with toxins. And,
above it all, The Chairman of The Organization — the largest organized
crime syndicate the world has ever seen — watches the ebb and flow
of his underlings, his subjects, his city. If things need a more hands-on
approach, he'll send his Operative to deal with the dirty work.

Sentinels of the Multiverse: Rook City Renegades expands the

award-winning core game of Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive
Edition! Gritty heroes, terrible villains, and deadly environments all
come together in this expansion, adding a lot of content, and even a
few new mechanics!

Sentinels of the Multiverse: Rook City Renegades requires the

Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition Core Game to play.

COMPONENTS

1 Villain HP Spinner 1 Additional Large

HP Spinner Wheel

Damage dealt by
this target is
IRREDUCIBLE

14 “1” HP Tokens 3 Nemesis Tokens 7 Irreducible Damage Tokens

2
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of the Plague
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rumors a of therat-like
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e.
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Discover
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Chairman during minus 1 Thug cards.

ed,

Setup: Summon the Plague Locus.

START PHASE oss card is destroy
If there are no Techniq After an Underb
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1 Technique card ue cards in play, put it under this
discover

the Villain turn.

Operative’s Villain

Villain play area.

Hand” side up.
WOLF-TEK from The Operati Plague Rat is immune to toxic damage.
ve’s side deck.
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START PHASE under
32 BARR AGE
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cards

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HERO
highest HP 2 melee with the
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QUICK DRAW
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INCANTATION damage. Alpha damage. Then,
POWE
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deals play or 1 Underboss card discover
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damage dealt to ADVANCED... Play the top card
= the on the top card of your trash TheADVANCED...
Chairman. END phase
Damage dealt by Plague Rat is irreducible.

6 Hero Character Cards 24 Hero Variant 11 Villain Character Cards

Character Cards
Villain: Plague
Rat
Rapid Infectio
Villain: SPITE
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target
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otherwith
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highestwith lowest HP 2 infernal damage.card.
TURN SEQUE
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Villain Turn

9 Event Cards
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Flip
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rends the minds “Knowing
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ist, NightMist Built in a Day
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ents
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the numbe
--Ambuscade, Rook City Renegades #135
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how many players
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playing.
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regardless of

(6 Decks of 40 Cards each) (9 Decks of 25 Cards each)

5 Reminder Cards
HIDDEN TERY
AND BATINFO
BLADE
BLADEINSIDER

The Chair
Rook City man
hero

IOUS RACKE
ANTI-HERO TEER
SENTIMENT
5 Alpha
Environment
villain
AMBITBRUCE
ONGOING,
WATKIN
REPORTESMEAR
THUG R
S 3
is destroyed,
When this card Ongoing
destroy
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an1Environment target
If there are any Smear
card.
isinplayed, 1 Hero
play, this discards
cards
2tocards. card is immune
ONGOING, TECHNIQUE ENDdamage
PHASE .

9 Critical Event Cards

After this card is When
END Hero may discardeach
EachPHASE
ONE-SHOT
SHOT played, destroy this cardisdeals
Thiscard destroy
ONE-
Techniqu all other Each
1 card.
discove Environment target ile
ed,
target r 1 Smear project
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e cards.
ive deals
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charact
Hero the with
TheTheOperat e. X is
After
highesteHP
Operativ 4 melee damag the
ENDdamag e, where
highest HP 1 sonic
number of cards
PHASE
is dealt
The the
Ifwith
non-VillaBroker is in
in target, play,
she
damage
activate theby a Discove
minus rthe
damage. 1 Smear card.
dealsactivate the
the attacker way.
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COMMANDS onplay,
her card. discarded this
If The Muscle . on his card.
COMMANDS
END PHASE us evil is barely evilto
The Operative deals “The
“Werewolmost dangero
“costumed vigilantes running
man stepping
wild
on another
the Hero target in our ves, Bruce? down
all.streets,
It’s one filling theing
Give heads
to of our
look
the lowest HP 3 with
What’ll
atchildren
youwith
come forgett
. It’sdangerous
me a break.
ideas, while
melee damage get ahead
man-eatin up withmoving
next-- up .”giant
aus!”
. doing wheng rat
nothingyou’re
into protect
the sewers?”
Mystery Comics
Vol. 2 #154
EROO01

--Bruce
--Tabitha
--Mr. Fixer,
Watkins, Mystery Comics Vol. 1 #356
“Your opponent Taft, Rook
“What ishears everythin
information, strike is now.” City Renegade EROO02

. Theiftime
gnot a weapon?
to
A knife your s #65
is much
chatter
harder sword says.
Give me something toI listen
can wield
to.”.”
EROO03
VOPE02

“Enough
es #73
VOPE03

--ZhuOperative, e, Rook City Renegad

--The Long,
Operativ
Mystery Comics Vol. 2 #247
VOPE01

--The Mystery Comics Vol. 2 #243

The Operative's Side Deck Environment Decks 21 Divider Cards

(1 Deck of 10 Cards) (5 Decks of 15 Cards each)
The additional large HP spinner wheel is to replace the large wheel from
the core game, as it was slightly miscut leading to difficulties turning it
smoothly.

If you’re missing any components, or if anything arrived damaged,

please email [email protected] to get a replacement.

SLEEVING ROOK CITY RENEGADES

If you want to sleeve all the cards in Sentinels of the Multiverse: Rook
City Renegades, you’ll need 3 sizes of sleeves:
• 35 "tarot" size card sleeves, 70mm by 120mm, for the Hero character
cards and Reminder cards
• 29 "large scale" size card sleeves, 88mm by 130mm, for Villain
character cards and Event cards
• 550 "standard" size card sleeves, 63mm by 88mm, for all of the Hero,
Villain, and Environment deck cards

You can purchase packs of sleeves specially built for this exact purpose
on the Greater Than Games webstore: http://store.greaterthangames.
com! Just search for the Sentinels of the Multiverse card sleeves on our
store to find the types and numbers of sleeves you need.

3
 NEW RULES AND RULE CLARIFICATIONS
NEW KEYWORD: SUDDENLY!
SUDDENLY! is a new keyword that has a specific effect whenever a card
with that keyword ends up in your hand.

SUDDENLY!: If this card is ever in your hand, immediately

play it. If this card is drawn during setup, draw a card
and shuffle the SUDDENLY! card back into the deck. At
the start of the game, each Hero will have a hand of
4 cards, none of which with the SUDDENLY! keyword.
• If a SUDDENLY! card is in the hand of a Hero who
cannot play cards, it cannot be played. However,
as soon as that Hero can ever play cards, the
SUDDENLY! card must immediately be played.

SUDDENLY! cards add an element of chaos and hint at a struggle for

control. Not being able to plan for them means they often mess things
up at least a bit when they are played.

VILLAINS WITH MULTIPLE CHARACTER CARDS

In Rook City Renegades, there are two Villains with more than one
Villain character card, but in two different ways.

The Chairman is the main Villain character card for the Villain deck "The
Organization." However, he has his right-hand assassin The Operative,
who also has her own Villain character card. She also has a "side deck,"
which we explain in the next section. The Villain character cards for The
Chairman and The Operative both start the game in play, and you have
to defeat The Operative in order to take down The Chairman.

For the Villain deck "The Fey-Court," The Dagda and The Morrigan are
both equal rulers of the Fey-Court and both start in play. You cannot win
the game by knocking only one of them out — both must be defeated in
order to win that way. However, The Dagda does give you an alternate
victory condition to work towards on his flip side.

In all cases in which there are multiple Villain character cards, two main
rules apply:
• When a Villain character card is destroyed, remove it from the game
unless it or another card in play says otherwise.
• When there are no Villain character cards in play, you win the game,
unless a card in play says otherwise.

4
INTRODUCING: THE SIDE DECK
The Operative’s deck is the first instance of a "side deck," which does
not follow the regular rules of a deck in Sentinels of the Multiverse.

A side deck is made up of cards of the same type as the play area it is
placed in during setup. It has its own trash, separate from any other
trash in its play area. Do not play, reveal, discard, summon, discover, or
interact with cards in side decks in any way unless the card telling you to
do so specifically names the side deck. It is not affected by effects that
refer to "each deck," "the villain deck," "any deck," or similar effects.

The Operative’s side deck is a deck of Villain cards, but it is not "the
Villain deck" for effects that reference decks. It does not play a card
during the Villain turn PLAY PHASE, like the Villain deck does, instead
only playing cards when instructed to do so by other cards in play.

TOKENS ON VILLAIN CHARACTER CARDS

Some Villains use tokens to track certain game elements. To track these
effects, you can use HP tokens or any other sort of tokens or similar
objects you have available. Tokens referred to by a Villain character
card mean only those tokens, not any other tokens added to a card,
such as damage boosting/reducing tokens or even tokens related to
other effects from other decks.

When a Villain character card with tokens on it flips, leave the tokens
on that card. They are not affected by the flip, unless something in play
says otherwise.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION
This section is an update to the Conflict Resolution rules printed in the
rulebook that came with the core game.

Whenever cards are played, put them into the appropriate play area
starting from left to right in the order in which they were played. During
Villain and Environment turns, when resolving the order of PHASE
effects (or effects with a unique icon, like Omnitron’s Exterminate and
Fabricate text), resolve them in the order those cards were played, from
left to right in that play area. During Hero turns, effects in each PHASE
are resolved in the order of that Hero’s choosing.

In ambiguous situations, such as tied HP or multiple targets damaged

simultaneously, the players choose the outcome or order of effects.

5
 LORE
THE HEROES
Rook City Renegades includes six tenacious heroes who are
brave enough to stand against overwhelming odds and seemingly
unstoppable foes. Each of them are strong and capable in their own
way, but some Hero decks are more complicated than others. Here is a
comparison of the complexity of each Hero deck, on a scale from 1 to
10, where 1 is the least complicated and 10 is the most.

HERO COMPLEXITY CHART

Hero Name Hero Icon Complexity

Expatriette 4

Setback 6

NightMist 7

Mr. Fixer 5

The Harpy 9

Alpha 7

The next few pages contain biographical information for the heroes in
this set, as well as gameplay explanation and tips for each of them!

6
 BACKSTORY Growing up with no powers
was hard for Amanda Cohen. As the
daughter of Citizen Dawn, leader of the
EXPATRIETTE Citizens of the Sun, she was expected to
blossom into a leader herself with a vast array of powers. Instead, she
spent her childhood scorned for being unworthy and, after a terrible
fight with her mother that cost Amanda her right eye, she escaped
Insula Primalis and left the Citizens of the Sun behind.

Hardened against the power-hungry, Amanda hunted tyrants and

oppressors. In her crusade, she learned of groups of heroes, such as the
Freedom Five, but was skeptical. With time, she grew to appreciate their
use of power for good, and not for gain. Taking the name "Expatriette,"
she strikes out against those who abuse power, using only her wits and
an impressive arsenal of firearms.

While things deteriorated more and more in Rook City, the heroes who
regularly patrolled the failing city grew increasingly concerned about
the disappearance of Mr. Fixer. Three of those heroes joined forces:
Expatriette, Setback, and Nightmist. They worked together to protect
Rook City and to investigate the loss of their friend.

Amanda Cohen fell into her leadership role well. With powerful allies at
her side, she was able to take a tactician's approach to combat, laying
down heavy fire when necessary. As part of Dark Watch, Expatriette
takes a bit more time with her actions, having to consider her moves
more carefully as she is now responsible for not just her own life, but for
those of her teammates.

Expatriette has fought on both sides of the law, and isn't afraid to get
her hands dirty. The variety of character cards she has in Rook City
Renegades reflects this, showing her as a vigilante, as a gritty assailant,
as a focused teammate, and even as a combatant with a secret identity...

GAMEPLAY Expatriette’s deck is all about Guns and Ammo — the ways she
deals damage, and the interesting ways that damage can be modified.
Each of her Gun cards has different ways of optionally using Ammo, and
the Ammo cards modify the effects of the Gun’s damage. She has ways
of getting more cards in play and in hand, stocking up on Ammo, and
even some clever plans that can help out the entire team. All in all,
Expatriette is a capable and well-armed addition to any team of heroes.

7
 BACKSTORY Pete Riske had just been fired
from his third casino job. He was down
on his luck again, but things occasionally
setback seemed to fall into place for him, once in
a while. More commonly, they fell out of place. People had always pitied
Pete for his bad luck, but he didn’t see it that way. Sometimes, things
just don’t go your way.

Pete heard about a lucrative medical testing opportunity through

RevoCorp that would help with his bills until he found another job. At
the testing center, they assured him that the wires and vats of weird goo
were up to code. Plus, he got to stay in their cushy facility for a couple
weeks during testing! As the weeks went by, Pete was feeling great!
Never better, in fact. He’d gained about 20 pounds of muscle and was
stronger and faster than ever! The doctors insisted that he not leave
the facility for a lot longer for additional testing. Well, Pete was getting
bored of the same blank walls. The doors were usually locked at night,
but one night, they weren’t, and he just walked right out.

Pete made it back home with only a few trips and stumbles along the
way, only to learn that his apartment building had burned to the ground
while he was away. As he sifted through the ashes, he looked up to
realize he was surrounded by blue and green armored soldiers led by a
guy in a lab coat. Turns out, Baron Blade was behind the medical testing
experiment, and Pete’s newly found physical prowess was exactly what
the Baron was looking for. Things were looking tense, but then, the
Freedom Five showed up, fought Baron Blade, and saved Pete!

Pete started hanging out with the Freedom Five. The fast lady called him
"a bit of a setback," and he liked the sound of that. Pete took the name
Setback, and he helped out where he could. Eventually, he met another
friend of the Freedom Five: Expatriette. Pete found her fascinating.
She was smart, really good at things, and funny in a way that she didn’t
mean to be. Setback and Expatriette teamed up a bunch, fighting crime
in Megalopolis and in Rook City, where they ended up being able to do
more good, especially as part of the hero team Dark Watch.

GAMEPLAY Setback’s deck features both Lucky and Unlucky cards. Far
more Unlucky cards, in fact, but the Lucky cards are particularly powerful.
When Unlucky cards come into play, there’s an initial effect that is
potentially helpful, but then a slew of ongoing consequences. However,
you can play Lucky cards to clean up your messes with positive effects!
One way or another, Setback is always full of surprises!

8
 BACKSTORY When Faye Diamond took over
Diamond Investigations, she began to
investigate the disappearance of her
NIGHTMIST grandfather Joe. That investigation led
her deep into a coven of witches whose unreliable magic went awry,
transforming Faye's body into incorporeal mists! Soon after being
cursed, an elderly man appeared at the agency, identifying himself only
as The Master. He claimed that he was here to teach her to handle both
her gift of magic and her curse of the mists. Years of training with The
Master went by, but Faye knew she still had much to learn. One night,
there was a rapid knocking at the door to Diamond Investigations —
Tachyon had come seeking the aid of a paranormal investigator. Taking
the name NightMist, Faye assisted the Freedom Five in turning back the
first assault of terror from the villainous entity GloomWeaver.

During the Vengeance event, NightMist’s curse was broken, but she was
unwilling to live a "normal" life. NightMist used a dark ritual to reach
into the Void and drink deep of the eldritch power she found there.
However, when she attempted to return to her mortal form, she found
she was lost and beset by creatures of the Void. The being who was once
NightMist fought against all manner of unknowable forms for what must
have been years. The fighting led her to a jagged rift between worlds,
surrounded by scores of powerful entities, each striving to be the one
to control the portal. NightMist swept them all aside and pointed the
portal towards her home. When Faye returned, it had only been a few
days since her disappearance. Though the world around her had hardly
changed, she was a very different person.

While things deteriorated in Rook City, the heroes who patrolled the
failing city grew increasingly concerned about the disappearance of
Mr. Fixer. Three of those heroes joined forces: Expatriette, Setback,
and NightMist. They worked together to protect Rook City and to
investigate the loss of their friend. Without NightMist and her recent
power fluctuations, they would not have been able to save him.

GAMEPLAY Every card in NightMist's deck has a Spell Number in the

upper right hand corner of the gametext box: . Cards in her deck
reference the Spell Number that is on the top card in her trash using a
torn Spell Number icon: . Whenever you see that icon, treat it as the
Spell Number on the top card of your trash. If she has no card in her
trash, the Spell Number counts as 0. NightMist has access to many
powerful magicks, but she needs her Relics and Ongoing cards to
survive the toll they exact.

9
 BACKSTORY The old mechanic that runs
"Slim’s Auto Shop" only answers to
"Slim." There was a time when he went
MR. FIXER by "H. R. Walker," but those were simpler
times. He used to run a martial arts school for kids, most of whom never
paid for their classes, but about 25 years ago, a group of his students
were killed for standing up for themselves, gunned down by drug
dealers for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It wasn't even
mentioned in the papers. No one cared. Sifu Walker closed down the
school the next day, telling students, "The only way to stay safe is to not
fight back."

Slim went quiet and just ran his auto shop. The neighborhood came to
think of him as merely the best mechanic in town and nothing more.
Slim doesn't use the fancy diagnostic computer like the big shops, but
he always gets the cars running better than before, and doesn't charge
much at all. However, the pushers and dealers kept expanding their
territory. Slim maintained a policy of "Don’t fight back. Give them what
they want." But when his shop assistant, Charlie, was killed by some
Organization thugs, Slim knew he couldn’t stay quiet any longer. It was
time for him to fix things.

Harold Robert Walker has gone by many names over the many decades
of his life. He first appeared in the pages of Sentinel Comics in the
Golden Age as a boxer called "Black Fist," who later became a martial
artist under that same name. It wasn’t until the '70s that he made the
transition to a teacher and mentor, taking on the name "Sifu Walker."
And after his untimely death at the hands of his former pupil, his twisted
arcane resurrection at the hands of one of his oldest foes left him in an
even more perilous state, rescued by a ragtag team of heroes known
as Dark Watch, but missing much of his humanity. Mr. Fixer’s story is a
grim one, but even in his darkest times, he still brings a lot of light into
the world for others.

GAMEPLAY Mr. Fixer mixes martial arts and shop tools in a way that flows
through combat. He uses both Tool cards and Style cards to augment
the only power he has: the one printed on his Hero character card. His
Style cards provide him with a wide variety of powerful Reactions, with
good reason to switch between them, depending on what’s happening
in the game. He’s at his best when he has both a Tool card and a Style
card in play, but a variety of One-Shots cards with collect, discover, and
salvage abilities on them make it quick and easy to get ol’ Slim up to
speed.

10
 BACKSTORY Lillian Corvus was best known
as the dangerous and powerful villain
The Matriarch. She was well remembered
THE HARPY as a terrible threat… yet, she only once
attacked. She was swiftly subdued by the hero team known as the
Freedom Five, and spent years in prison, as a result. There, her cousin
Meredith Stinson would visit her with some regularity, checking on her
and helping her deal with the pain and trauma that she experienced in
becoming The Matriarch.

When she finally left the prison (through a series of bizarre incidents),
she felt the call of the mask that gave her avian power, and she ultimately
found herself unable to resist its call. Donning the mask felt different,
however. Rather than the exhilaration she felt in the past, the magical
pathways inside her burned with eldritch energy. Birds swarmed her in
anger, cawing and pecking against the perceived threat. Tachyon found
her huddled in a warehouse, surrounded by a ring of magic, keeping
everyone and everything out. Tachyon called her ally NightMist for
magical assistance, and she was able to reach through the wards and
stabilize Lillian’s power, dispersing the infuriated flock.

Knowing that her powers are more than she can handle, Lillian
apprenticed herself to NightMist, returning with her to learn how to
control her magic. Over time, NightMist learned just how incredibly
powerful young Lillian was, though her control was tenuous, at best.

Taking the name The Harpy, Lillian is now a full-fledged member of

Dark Watch and studies magic under the careful tutelage of NightMist.
They all keep their eyes on Lillian, as her power constantly threatens
to get away from her. The Harpy’s story is one of struggle — the pain of
being so ostracized as to turn to villainy, the shame of her actions and of
her incarceration, the feeling of a lack of control over her cursed power,
and her striving for acceptance among a team of people that don’t all
trust her.

GAMEPLAY The Harpy’s deck represents quite a lot of both arcane and
avian power, but also the struggle to maintain that power. She has Flock
cards, which can do a lot of damage, but are also costly to keep
controlled. Her One-Shots and Ongoings can help… or they can unleash
the Flock, hoping to down The Harpy’s foes before the feathery debt
comes due. Look to cards like Huginn, Muninn, Eldritch Training, and
Magical Bequest to stay in control. Alternatively, cards like Uncontrollable
Flock and The Mask of Sky and Shroud make her really let loose.

11
 BACKSTORY Tabitha Taft is anything other
than your average, mild-mannered
reporter. She’s brusque, brash, and
ALPHA tenacious when she’s got a lead on a
juicy story. She’s also a werewolf. In her time at The Rook City Record,
she’s kept that a secret while exposing many secrets the subjects of her
stories would rather keep hidden, though it hasn’t always been easy.
Before nights with a full moon, she retreats to her basement and locks
herself up with a complicated array of silver shackles, just to make sure
she doesn’t hurt anyone when she loses all control.

Usually, she has an above average amount of control. Early on, she was
a member of a werewolf pack, but that didn’t last long — she doesn’t
get along with other werewolves, and she certainly doesn’t appreciate
their "we must eat all the humans" viewpoint. That’s not what Tabitha
wants. She took the name and role of the leader of that pack, and then
left them behind, keeping only "Alpha" for herself.

Tabitha Taft chases down leads during the day as a reporter, but when
the night comes, she slips into something a bit more… furry… and
Alpha takes to the streets, sniffing out crime and corruption with her
heightened senses. In her time as a lupine crime fighter, she’s crossed
paths with many heroes, most notably the members of the hero team
Dark Watch. She’s learned a lot about them, and keeping their identities
secret is almost as important to her as protecting her own, so she takes
steps during her day job to keep certain stories out of print.

Recently, she’s learned even more about herself and her past. She was
never quite sure when she became a werewolf — in fact, she could never
remember a time that she wasn’t cursed. When a dangerously focused
pack showed up in Rook City, led by a powerful werewolf who had fully
abandoned any vestige of his humanity, she was confronted not just
with dealing with another threat to the people of her city, but also with
a threat to her very concept of her identity! Even still, Alpha knows that
she has to calm the wolf within and focus on control, or she won’t be
able to escape her "wolf-woman" origins.

GAMEPLAY Alpha is the first brand new addition to the Hero line-up of
Sentinels of the Multiverse! Alpha has a decent amount of control over
the aspects of her werewolf nature, but the more she lets the wolf take
over, the more dangerous she can be to everyone around her! Her
Aspect cards are powerful, but get enough of them out, and you’ll start
to feel the hunger take control…

12
HERO VARIANTS
This set also contains quite a few Hero Variant character cards. Like the
Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition core game, each Hero
has their primary character card, plus one First Appearance variant.
Additionally, each member of the Dark Watch team (Expatriette,
Setback, NightMist, Mr. Fixer, and The Harpy) has a Variant card just
for their Dark Watch appearances. They also each have a story Variant,
which depicts a story change for the character that happened sometime
during the history of Sentinel Comics.

Alpha is the one Hero in this set who is not a member of Dark Watch,
though she is an ally of theirs. Though she doesn’t have a Dark Watch
Variant, she does have two story Variants, one for her reporter alter ego,
and one for the short-lived but memorable Alpha 2000 comic book.

Additionally, six of the core game heroes get story Variant cards in this
set: Detective Wraith, Stealth Suit Bunker, Scavenger Unity, Backdraft
Ra, Haunted Fanatic, and Werewolf Haka.

To learn more of the stories hinted at by these cards,

check out the award-winning Sentinel Comics podcast,
The Letters Page, hosted by Sentinel Comics creators
Christopher Badell and Adam Rebottaro.
www.GreaterThanGames.com/TheLettersPage

13
 VILLAINS
Each of the Villains in Rook City Renegades is dangerous to the Heroes
and the world they live in, but some are far more challenging to defeat!
Similar to Hero complexity, Villains are rated in difficulty from 1 (the
least challenging) to 10 (the most challenging).

VILLAIN DIFFICULTY CHART

Villain Name Nemesis Icon Difficulty

The Organization 7

Plague Rat 6

Spite 6

GloomWeaver 8

Kismet 4

Ambuscade 5

Apex 7

The Fey-Court 4

Terrorform 7

Over the next several pages, you can read more about each of the
Villains’ stories, as well as how their deck plays.

14
THE ORGANIZATION
BACKSTORY Rook City inhabitants complain about terrible crime rates, but
few are aware that a single organization, led by a shadowy figure known
only as "The Chairman," is responsible for the vast majority of Rook
City's corruption. Tales of The Chairman are few and far between, but
he has purportedly held the reins of organized crime in Rook City for
the better part of the last century. Most criminologists theorize that "The
Chairman" must be a title, passed down through the years. Some wild
stories have been told of one man who has somehow lived this long,
controlling the streets since their creation, but there is no evidence to
substantiate these claims. However, if such a man did exist, Rook City
surely would be at his mercy, and the tales do not mention mercy…

Graham Pike is, in fact, the man known as

"The Chairman," and he’s around for far
too long. He stole biotech secrets from
THE CHAIRMAN his father in the 1920s, killing his father
and taking over the Pike family business. Pike Pharmaceuticals used
to be known as a pharmaceutical company with good intentions, but
now Pike Industries was all about profits and exploitation. Illicit drugs.
Human experimentation. Mutating pollution. Furthermore, Graham
Pike seemed to unlock some form of immortality, and used it not to
just stop his aging and extend his life, but also to set up an enduring
criminal organization within the heart of Rook City. He even has control
of Mayor Overbrook, who runs the city only in name, bowing to every
concession demanded by Chairman Pike.

Even considering his keen mind, his seeming immortality, and his
ruthless aggression, The Chairman's greatest strength might just be his
ability to pick the right people to work for him.

Sophia Anna Isabel DeLeon’s parents,

immigrants from the Philippines, died
only a year after she was born. With no
THE OPERATIVE other family, Sophia Anna was left to fend
for herself in a Rook City orphanage, coming to understand at an early
age that being strong was all that mattered.

Kids at the orphanage were invited to take free classes at a local

martial arts school. After she'd trained there for only a few years, the
school closed after some of the older students were tragically killed
in gang warfare. Sophia Anna never stopped training. By the time she
was fifteen, she had organized a group of the biggest, toughest street

15
 kids and trained them as pickpockets and street thugs. Then, she got
noticed. In working her way through rival gangs, she found that most of
them had a common contact. Seeking out that contact led her higher
and higher through the organized criminal activities of Rook City. Until
she met The Chairman.

He admired her strength, her leadership qualities, her intelligence, but

most of all, her ruthlessness. He needed someone like her to work at his
side; someone to be his hand on the streets. In exchange, he offered the
power of working at the top, but also offered to halt her aging process,
keeping her at her prime indefinitely. She would forever be in her mid-
twenties, strong, sharp, fast, and unfading.

Now, Sophia works as the right hand of The Chairman. She is so feared
in the underground world that just the mention of The Operative is
enough to close deals and end resistance. She’s not in the streets as
much as she used to be, but training with The Chairman has only made
her stronger, and their hold on the city grows tighter by the day.

GAMEPLAY Combined, The Chairman and The Operative are the top
leadership of The Organization. Each has their own Villain character
card and deck, though The Chairman’s deck is a true Villain deck, while
The Operative’s deck introduces the concept of "side decks." The
Operative's deck plays cards when an effect from either The Chairman
or The Operative indicates to do so. As a result, the cards in her deck
can be particularly punishing.

The Chairman likes to stay high above the action, not getting
personally involved. He gives Commands to The Operative. She gives
Commands to the various Underbosses of The Organization. They, in
turn, give Orders to the low-level Thugs that make up the rank-and-
file of The Organization. The Underbosses and The Operative are
fighting the Heroes right from the start. However, if the Heroes defeat
enough Underbosses, The Chairman gets personally involved. He’s a
dangerous foe, but also the only shot the Heroes have at taking this
whole Organization down.

The Organization cards can be played into an org chart of sorts, making
parsing effect order easier. Thug cards don’t have any START PHASE
or END PHASE text, only acting in response to certain triggers, or when
they receive Orders, so they can be played in a row at the bottom of the
Villain play area, leaving space near the two Villain characters cards for
the Underbosses, who do have END PHASE text.

16
 BACKSTORY Many decades ago, a foul
drug-dealer controlled large swaths of
the Rook City drug market. He made his
PLAGUE RAT hideout deep in the Rook City sewers,
keeping his stash safe from competitors and law enforcement alike.
However, his criminal enterprise was worn down by a long battle with a
new criminal organization taking control of the city. Over time, he was
entirely ousted from the streets of Rook City, and lived in the sewers to
survive. Years of handling the vile drugs he sold, mixed with the toxic
waste from the industrial plants, slowly twisted and mutated the dealer
into a giant, hideous, rat-like monster. Now, his last shreds of humanity
all but eliminated, Plague Rat takes the Rook City sewers in search of his
next meal, infecting all he touches.

GAMEPLAY Plague Rat is a dangerous foe, especially cornered. His

Ongoing cards all infect Heroes with his terrible Rat Plague, eating away
at their life and sometimes causing the Heroes to turn on each other!
Get ready to mitigate a lot of bitey and toxic damage, deal with
degenerating effects from Ongoing cards, and put out enough damage
to take down a giant mutated rat monster!

17
 BACKSTORY An unsolved string of murders
led The Wraith to Jonathan "Jack"
Donovan, but his gleeful pride in his kills
SPITE was what put him on the Rook City
Penitentiary Death Row. However, Pike Industries had a deal with the
penitentiary through their secretive Barzakh Wing. Some inmates were
offered a chance to take part in clinical testing for a reduction of their
sentence from death to life in prison. What the researchers in the
Barzakh Wing didn’t disclose was the nigh absolute fatality rate of the
tests. Jonathan Donovan broke their streak and ultimately led to the
destruction of the Barzakh Wing, followed by a thorough cover-up. The
testing Donovan underwent there made him something far more
terrible, able to devour the life forces of other people. Requiring that
life essence to maintain his power, Spite now stalks the streets, always
on the hunt for his next unsuspecting victim.

GAMEPLAY Spite is back to his old ways, hunting Bystanders who appear
as cards in his deck. On the front side of his Villain character card, he’s
incredibly hard to take down, mostly due to him hiding in crowds.
However, when he gets enough attention, he flips and takes the fight to
the heroes.

Protect the Bystanders, as he gets additional tokens whenever he downs

one. The tokens fuel his Ongoings and lead to him flipping, where he’s
far more dangerous, though more vulnerable in a fight.

The Bystanders are cards in his deck, but they count as Environment
targets — and not as Villain targets — for targeting purposes. Like the
Bystander cards in the Rook City Environment deck, you want to be
careful not to hurt them, but they give you the ability to take damage
for them.

18
 BACKSTORY GloomWeaver is an extra-
dimensional demon worshiped by an
ancient and mysterious cult. He feeds on
GLOOMWEAVER the gloom and despair of mankind,
awarding dark magic to those who worship him in return for their
sacrifices, encouraging them to inflict suffering on the world around
them to feed his powers. Although he often sends his thoughts and
power into this world for brief periods of time, he has failed to
permanently breach the veil that separates him from the feast of
desperate souls that our world offers.

But that is about to change. Terrible battles between villains and heroes
have grown more frequent over the past few decades — the strife and
misery their battles have wrought have increased his power. Cultists
have begun collecting the terrible relics of GloomWeaver: the Pouch
of Bones, the Drum of Despair, and the Grimoire of Curses. If all three
are brought together and GloomWeaver is invoked, the veil will be
sundered! The world’s greatest heroes gather, intent on stopping the
demon’s plot, but GloomWeaver is pleased — their strife and anguish
feed his power, and Gloomweaver spurs his cultists on to bring discord
and despair into this world, permanently. And with the heroes defeated,
GloomWeaver and his worshipers will be free to spread their malevolent
influence across the multiverse indefinitely.

GAMEPLAY GloomWeaver starts off as merely an idol for the Cult of Gloom
to worship. His dread presence can be felt through this statue, harming
those near it and emboldening the cult members, but GloomWeaver
himself is not yet in play. His Chosen and Cultists work to bring him into
this world, which the Heroes do NOT want to happen.

He still can be defeated, either by destroying his idol, or eradicating

the Cult’s leadership. However, if the Cult gets his Relics in play,
GloomWeaver tears through the veil between this reality and his realm,
his character card flips, and GloomWeaver himself enters the game!
Can you win after he flips? It’s possible… but not easy!

19
 BACKSTORY The nomadic Adhin family
believed the source of their good fortune
was a small talisman they'd been passing
KISMET down over the years as a family heirloom.
It was thanks to this, they claimed, that they could always find the best
uses for their talents.

That is, up until Gabrielle Adhin. She longed for opulence, attention,
and freedom from this "just getting by and being thankful for the
bare scraps you have" way of life. Ever since childhood she had felt
odd, indistinct sensations from time to time. Like she was moving in a
hundred different directions at once, but in directions there were no
words for. When she "inherited" the charm, suddenly it all made sense.
In her mind's eye, she saw countless, branching possible realities, all
different. In time, she used the charm to hone her psychic abilities,
learning to bend the miasma of minute possibilities to her will.

Within a few years, Gabrielle Adhin, the black sheep of the Adhin line,
had carved a swath through reality, playing her mind games on the
unsuspecting people around her, and taking whatever she wanted. In
and out of The Block more times than F.I.L.T.E.R. would dare to admit,
Gabrielle now laughingly calls herself Kismet, and bends the power
of her family’s talisman with her powerful abilities in order to not just
positively influence her own fortune, but to jinx those who stand in her
way! Kismet does as she pleases and has little regard for the fate of
others. All existence is her playground, and even when her trickster
ways are momentarily halted, she always seems to weasel her way back
into her chaotic escapades.

GAMEPLAY Much like her cursed nemesis, Kismet also has Lucky and
Unlucky cards! She just uses them VERY differently. It’s you who will
suffer the consequences of her actions. She plays Unlucky cards in Hero
play areas to curse those who dare face her and uses her Lucky cards to
empower her effects and get ahead of the Heroes. Kismet is a fairly
straightforward fight… except that her Unlucky cards keep you far from
at your best.

20
 BACKSTORY Ansel G. Moreau, world-
famous French action movie star, has a
few dark secrets. His hobby of big game
AMBUSCADE hunting has spiraled out of control — his
constant need for bigger and more threatening prey has him hunting
the very heroes that protect the earth! To this end, he employed a shady
genetics corporation to give him superpowers, but the process went
terribly wrong, scarring his million-dollar face and ending his acting
career.

However, he did gain some new energy-manipulation abilities from

the process, which he plans to put to good use. Taking the name
Ambuscade, he employs his new powers and a vast arsenal to hunt the
heroes he considers to be the most dangerous and powerful. At the top
of his list? Haka, the ageless Maori warrior. No one else could provide
a sufficient challenge to one as skilled as Ambuscade, the world's most
efficient and calculating hunter…

GAMEPLAY Ambuscade can turn on his cloaking device, going invisible.

While you can see him, he fires shots at the strongest heroes, hoping to
distract them long enough for him to get up to his old tricks, turning
invisible to keep the heroes from detecting him as he hunts! When his
character card flips to his stealthy side, he is immune to damage, but he
gives heroes opportunities to reveal the top card of his deck and play it
if it’s a One-Shot, which flips him back. So, heroes can hunt for him, as
well! Better to find him on your turn and suffer the consequences of
drawing his attention, than to leave him to his own devices! Ambuscade
isn’t a terribly high difficulty villain, but he's no slouch, either! He can be
quite the showboating threat if the heroes can’t find him in time!

21
 BACKSTORY The Wolf-King used to have an
inferior human name. Almost certainly
something puny like "Carl" or dithering
APEX like "Steven." He no longer recalls. Known
only as Apex, the Wolf-King, he had shed all elements of his human
existence, living only as a true Lycan Superior. The humans have been
the apex predator of this world for far too long. Their reign ends here.

Apex calls to all werewolves who yearn for more. The rapture of the hunt,
the pitiful cries of their prey, the freedom granted by the full moon — all
speak to the primal nature of the true werewolf. Countless lycanthropes
have joined his pack, including several key former pack alphas. Each
brought their packs to Apex, swore fealty, and renounced their status for
a chance to be part of something greater. Though that won’t stop them
each from wanting a shot at the throne of the wolves, if such a thing could
be within their reach.

Recently, Apex made a secret deal with the leader of the Court of Blood,
Blood Countess Bathory herself. Her coven of blood mage vampires
have long been at odds with the werewolves, but the Wolf-King and the
Blood Countess together could be a formidable foe to the mortals who
supposedly run this world. The vampires of the Court of Blood want to
avoid drawing notable attention their way, but they have no issue with
the tactless werewolves throwing themselves at the armies of humankind.
Blood Countess has assigned a liaison to Apex’s pack — an upstart mage
named Magistra Damaris — who both provides the pack with powerful
blood magic, but also keeps an eye on the werewolves. Blood Countess
knows just how much she can trust her beastly allies.

An army of werewolves greater than has ever been assembled, empowered

by blood magic and emboldened by the lycan superiority doctrine of
their leader, could potentially wipe out humankind.

GAMEPLAY It’s important for Apex to be the top dog, as it were. If another
werewolf manages to take his title and lead the werewolf army, Apex’s
card flips and he has to try to retake his rightful position. The werewolves
are all incredibly dangerous, but the heroes have an opportunity to use
their infighting against them. There are many powerful werewolves in
Apex’s deck, all of them eager to fight the heroes, but equally keen to
take Apex’s role as King of the Werewolves for themselves.

22
 BACKSTORY Tales of fairies, pixies,
leprechauns, and other Fey creatures are
as old as human stories can be, tangled
THE FEY-COURT in with myths and legends from days of
yore. They appear unexpectedly, helping or hindering people with their
assistance, boons, curses, or trickery. You never know what to expect
from the Fey, if you even believe in them, that is.

The Fey-Court lies beyond the mortal veil. It is a court of great power;
not one that man was meant to tread. The leaders of the Fey-Court
— the verdant King, The Dagda, and the Queen of hearth and strife,
The Morrigan — are as steadfast as they are capricious. As unchanging
as they are inconstant. As placid as they are turbulent. Their faithful
advisors — the leprechaun elder Ogma, the changeling champion Lugh,
and the trickster satyr Puck — lend their wisdom and their predilections
to the Fey monarchs, each vying for a modicum of control in the ever-
changing court. Meanwhile, Fey courtiers of all manner of stripes, spots,
and whims dance the politic eternal, seeking favor and shifting their
loyalties with each step.

When a mortal finds themselves the focus of the court, things get…
complicated. You never leave the court unscathed. The Fey-Court
claims to care not for the goings-on of the mortal realm, but this lie
holds little water, given how often the Fey embroil themselves in mortal
affairs. Know this: the Fey-Court can appear anywhere, though it rarely
does. If you find yourself in the court of the Fey, your existence continues
at its whims. And the politics that the Fey-Court plays, it plays for keeps.

GAMEPLAY The Dagda collects tokens on his character card to indicate

the things the Heroes have done that the Fey-Court approves of. On the
other hand, The Morrigan starts with a number of tokens, indicating her
patience for the presence of these foolish mortals, and if her tokens
ever runs out, so does her patience. You can win the game by giving
The Dagda enough tokens and keeping him on the benevolent side of
this character card, but be careful! The Morrigan is always only a few
tokens away from ending the game on her terms. The Bonds offered by
the rulers of the Fey-Court can help a lot, but they come with a price to
be paid… eventually. You’ll need to curry the favor of the Advisors of
the Fey-Court to gain acceptance from The Dagda, avoid The Morrigan’s
wrath, and survive this encounter with the Court of the Fey.

23
 BACKSTORY The company RevoCorp has
had their corporate irons in a lot of fires.
Biotech, gene-tech, nano-tech, info-tech,
TERRORFORM future-tech — RevoCorp has done it all!
However, even from their sinister start to their monthly machinations,
the dark underbelly of RevoCorp is mostly unwitnessed in the world.

Following the surprise success of the energy harvester that became

"Akash’Mecha," RevoCorp has secretly created a massive terraforming
machine. Run by the Revokers, the Terrorform has been directed to
tear up a national park in the Midwest. The appearance of this massive
machine in a national park draws attention from a variety of heroes, who
do battle with the Revokers and the Terrorform itself!

Ultimately, the Terrorform is destroyed! But, this was exactly what

RevoCorp wanted. The Terrorform and the heroes made a mess of the
park, allowing RevoCorp to come in afterwards and make a big show
of rebuilding and restoring, meanwhile harvesting out all the minerals,
oil, lumber, and other resources that were previously protected by that
park’s existence. Both a PR and mineral/oil rights success for RevoCorp!
The heroes don't even realize they've played into RevoCorp's plan, or
that RevoCorp was even behind any of what happened here.

GAMEPLAY The Terrorform is a massive structure that is nigh invulnerable

from the outside. You’ll need to get access to its far more vulnerable
insides to deal with it… fortunately, that’s exactly what Access cards are
for! Each of them gives you a task or challenge, and when you complete
it, you get that much closer to getting inside! Once you’ve breached its
exterior, the Terrorform Villain character card flips, and the fight
continues in the heart of the machine!

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ENVIRONMENTS
The grim and gritty locations visited by the street-level Dark Watch
Heroes and their allies are not the most welcoming places, but they
each have their potential silver linings. Environment decks are rated by
their Peril, with 1 being the least perilous Environment and 10 being
the most.

ENVIRONMENT PERIL CHART

Environment Name Peril

Rook City 8

Pike Industrial Complex 8

Diamond Manor 4

The Temple of Zhu Long 6

The Realm of Discord 5

In the next few pages, you can read more about the history and story of
each of these Environments, and also learn a bit about the mechanics
of their decks!

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 ROOK CITY
BACKSTORY Overbrook City was founded in the mid-1800s as a portage
town. The rivers which met near the city originally made for ideal trade
routes, and later became an important source of industrial cooling for
the various power plants and industrial facilities in the city built and
managed by Pike Industries in 1921. In the middle of the 20th century,
the gothic architecture and the grim pallor of the city, brought on by the
various plants and factories, resulted in the city being referred to as
"Rook City" in the local paper, and the name stuck. The name "Overbrook
City" only exists in certain legal documents and on monuments.
However, a descendant of the Overbrook family has recently reclaimed
some political power, due to some shady financial backing.

Rook City has the highest crime rate of any city in the world, with an
overworked and underfunded police department, which has led to talk
of switching to privatized defense for the metropolitan area. Between
the street thugs and organized crime, the filthy streets and the putrid
sewers, the unsavory characters and the nigh-constant wail of sirens,
Rook City is the opposite of a tourist attraction.

GAMEPLAY Corrupt officials, smear campaigns by local media against the

heroes, street gangs, and blighted boroughs can all be found in this
terrible place. Heroes will have to deal with the negative Smear cards,
as well as several Environment targets who are most decidedly not on
their side. Fortunately, there are a few Bystanders in the deck. They’re
risky to have around, but also can be quite helpful.

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PIKE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
BACKSTORY Established 1921, the Pike Industrial Complex was the
culmination of Jonathan Pike’s dream to push industrial progress to its
limits. His plan involved both power processing and chemical
experimentation in order to develop and synthesize the most advanced
biomedical serums and elixirs. His goal was to both augment the human
form and create new material-engineering techniques, revolutionizing
the human experience through technology. However, these plans were
cut short by his untimely demise in 1924, and Pike Industries was left in
the hands of his 26-year-old son, Graham Pike.

Graham was not the humanitarian his father was, but was similarly
scientifically minded. He went even further with his father’s goals,
engaging in testing that was harmful for the subjects and experiments
that left Rook City in worse and worse shape.

Pike Industries still claims Graham Pike as its CEO, though no one has
seen the man in over 40 years. There is a tower in the Pike Industrial
Complex which only select employees are allowed to enter, and the
orders from Mr. Pike come from that building. The rest of the Industrial
Complex is devoted to the creation of the stimulants and compounds
that make Pike Industries such a successful chemical production
company, and the testing of those chemicals on their various subjects.

GAMEPLAY Pike Industrial Complex is fairly straightforward, yet still

incredibly dangerous. It’s full of Vats full of suspicious chemicals that
you really want to avoid damaging, escaped Rats that have been
experimented on and thus are more dangerous than your average
mutated lab rat, and also cards that make both of those elements more
dangerous/more prevalent/worse in other ways. Be careful!

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 THE TEMPLE OF ZHU LONG
BACKSTORY Hidden amongst the peaks of the Himalayas, the Temple of
Zhu Long is a place of many eldritch secrets. The mystic Zhu Long keeps
his magics hidden from the world there, protected by his scores of
apprentices, wards, and assassins. Many find themselves in life-debt to
Zhu Long, and it is a steep debt indeed. But what price could be a fair
one for cheating death itself?

Surrounded by unfavorable conditions, Zhu Long has found a spot

which harnesses the harshest of ley-lines in order to perform his rituals.
You would be wise to never visit the Temple of Zhu Long. However,
sometimes, there is no other way. The ancient purveyor of life and death
holds the keys to certain doors which should remain closed.

GAMEPLAY Zhu Long’s deck is a strange place where almost anything can
happen! The deck features dangerous Disciples, bizarre and powerful
rituals, and even Zhu Long himself, in more than one form! You can get
a lot of use out of his rituals, but beware — the Dragon Master may ask
more of you than you’re willing to offer.

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THE REALM OF DISCORD
BACKSTORY An ethereal plane only barely connected to this world via the
crossing lines of the Multiverse, the Realm of Discord is an ever-shifting
dimension of chaos and entropy. The few solid forms in this dimension
are constantly destroying themselves and reforming in entirely different
forms.

The bizarre denizens of this plane thrive on the discordant disruptions,

feeding off the panic of any which stumble upon the Realm. This is not
a welcome place for mortal beings… and yet, the heroes are drawn
through twisting portals to combat a great evil here as often as myriad
extra-planar demons attempt to breach the barriers which prevent our
world from being flooded with the innate chaos of the Realm of Discord.

GAMEPLAY The Realm of Discord deck is full of Distortion cards that

drastically change what’s happening in the game! Only one can be in
play at a time, but each of them changes the rules of the game, so keep
an eye on how the current Environment Distortion is upending things.

The Denizens of the Realm of Discord are potential threats, but some
of them are as likely to help the Heroes as hurt them! Just be aware
that when dealing with the Oracle of Discord, you may find yourself
inexorably changed.

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 DIAMOND MANOR
BACKSTORY When Faye Diamond (A.K.A. the hero and paranormal
investigator NightMist) was searching her grandfather’s long-lost
storage locker, one of the curious things she found was a deed to a
property she had no knowledge of. It had an address, which seemed a
straight-forward location within Rook City, but going to the address was
more confusing than illuminating. Just an empty street with abandoned
buildings, none of which seemed in any way residential. A brief magical
examination showed that things were not quite what they appeared to
be, however. One of the dilapidated doors was some sort of spatial
portal! Teasing open the wards enough to slip through the door,
NightMist found herself in a house that clearly hadn’t been visited in
decades. This was her grandfather’s house, and the magic within was
palpable. The location of the house — many miles from the street where
NightMist had just been moments ago — was an incredibly magical
swamp on the outskirts of Rook City.

Since then, NightMist has updated the house significantly, cleaning

out most of the cobwebs (some still belong to magical spiders she
encourages to do their art between the higher ceiling beams) and
making the place a sanctuary for herself and other magical beings who
might require shelter. Diamond Manor houses several arcane denizens
now, as well as an untold number of powerful relics, the likes of which
should never fall into the hands of those with ill-intent.

In later years, after her jaunt through the Void, Diamond Manor also
becomes a base of operations for the hero team Dark Watch. It’s a great
place for the magical research that NightMist and The Harpy do, a very
secret hold-out location for Expatriette and Setback, and as quiet a
place as possible for Mr. Fixer to meditate in an attempt to hold on to
his humanity. Hopefully, the number of heroes gathering in one place
draws no undue attention…

GAMEPLAY Diamond Manor is a magical location. The home of NightMist

and later a makeshift headquarters for Dark Watch, the house is full of
magical knowledge, magical creatures, and very magical Relics. If any
Villains were to get their hands on those Relics, it could spell doom for
all reality. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Villains will attempt to do.
Do what you can to keep the Villains from getting their hands on the
power of Diamond Manor!
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FAQS
• Can I destroy a card from my hand? "Destroy" only affects cards in
play. You cannot destroy cards in a hand, a deck, or a trash.
• Can a One-Shot card be destroyed while it’s being played?
One-Shots do not count as cards in play and cannot be the target of
destroy effects.
• If I have the option to use multiple powers during my POWER
PHASE and only use one, do I get to draw extra cards during my
DRAW PHASE? No. You draw one extra card in your DRAW PHASE
when you don’t play any cards on your PLAY PHASE and don’t use
any powers on your POWER PHASE during your turn.
◦ If it's your turn and you skip or are made to skip your PLAY
and POWER PHASES, you still draw 2 cards for the DRAW
PHASE. However, getting an off-turn DRAW PHASE doesn't
let you draw 2 cards.
• What happens if a card is played from the top of the deck or
something like that and the play is in some way against the rules,
such as another copy of a Limited card? If a Hero card is being
played but cannot be played for any reason, it goes to the Hero’s
hand. If a non-Hero card is being played but cannot be played for
any reason, it goes into its associated trash.
• When and in what order do the PHASE effects happen on my
turn? When a card has a phase effect on it, it occurs on the indicated
phase of the play area the card is in, each time that phase occurs.
Effects that activate on each phase act in the order outlined by the
"Conflict Resolution" rules on page 5 of this rulebook.
• A card lets a Hero deal damage to a target, and then says that
something happens to "that target" as a result. If the damage
is redirected to another target, does the second effect happen
to the initial target, or to the target it was redirected to? The
second target. The Wraith’s Stun Bolt is a good example of this. The
Wraith deals 1 lightning damage to a target. Then, that target deals
−1 damage until The Wraith’s START PHASE. If the damage The
Wraith is dealing is redirected, it’s the final target who actually gets
the −1 damage modifier.
• If a card says to shuffle the trash into a deck but there are no
cards in that trash, do you still need to shuffle the deck? No, if
there are no cards in the trash, you do not shuffle zero cards into the
associated deck.
• If I have multiple Reactions in play, can I use all of them in
response to the same damage? If a hero target has multiple
Reactions available to them, they can activate as many as they like,
one at a time, to any instance of damage. If a Reaction negates the
damage in some way (such as by destroying the attacker, preventing

31
 the attacker from dealing damage, or reducing the damage to zero),
no further Reactions can be used in response to that instance of
damage.
• When modifying, redirecting, or reacting to "would be dealt"
damage, what is the order of operation? First, apply any modifiers
to the damage, including fixed, irreducible, bonuses, penalties, or
"cannot deal damage/immune to damage" effects. Then, if damage
is still dealt and is greater than zero, follow any "would be dealt
damage" instructions, including Reactions. If there are multiple
"would be dealt damage" instructions, players choose which
order they apply in, but if one prevents damage from being dealt,
the remaining effects do not occur. If damage is redirected, start
the process again on the new target, recalculating modifiers and
reacting to the redirected damage amount as appropriate.
• A card tells me to put a token on a card. What tokens am I
supposed to use? You can use spare HP tokens, or any other token-
like objects you happen to have handy (pennies, dice, etc).
• What play area do Spite’s Bystanders go into when played? What
about Shinobi Assassins when played from a player’s hand?
Unless otherwise specified, cards are played into the play area of
the deck they’re originally from when played. Spite’s Bystanders go
to the Villain play area, and Shinobi Assassins go to the Environment
play area.
• Do cards like Police Backup in Megalopolis count as Hero
cards? Does Police Backup count as both a Hero target and an
Environment target? Do Bystanders in Spite’s deck count as an
Environment card? No, Yes, and No. Police Backup states that it
counts as a Hero target, but it doesn’t say anything about being a
Hero card, nor does it say anything about not being an Environment
target. Spite’s Bystanders state that they are Environment targets
and are not Villain targets, but say nothing about being Environment
cards. They are still Villain cards, since they come from a Villain
deck, and are not Environment cards. This means that any effect
that specifically refers to Environment cards does not affect them.
However, since they are specified as Environment targets and not
Villain targets, they notably DO count as non-Villain targets, and
would NOT count as non-Environment targets.
• If a Hero skips their PLAY PHASE and POWER PHASE, and
then the first card they draw during their DRAW PHASE is a
"Suddenly!" card, do they still draw a second card? Yes. If you
skip your PLAY and POWER PHASES, you may draw an additional
card during your DRAW PHASE, even if one of them happens to
play itself for SUDDENLY! reasons.

33
• If a target is in the process of being destroyed, can more damage
be dealt to it? No. Targets that are already being destroyed cannot
be dealt damage, even if some effect would attempt to do so.
• What happens to any extra card plays you might have during
your PLAY PHASE if a SUDDENLY! card is drawn during that phase?
Playing a SUDDENLY! card does NOT eat up one of your card plays.
SUDDENLY! card plays do not count as regular card plays, as they are
forced and not voluntary.
• What happens if I draw a SUDDENLY! card and something in play
prevents card plays? If you are unable to play cards and then draw
a SUDDENLY! card, it stays in your hand until you are allowed to play it.
As soon as you can play it, you must do so.
• The Harpy’s card "Mask of Sky and Shroud" lets you draw up to
five cards as a power. Can you draw one at a time and decide
to stop? Or do you have to choose the number you draw before
starting to draw cards? You draw cards one at a time, choosing
when you want to stop, or stopping when you get to five, whichever
comes first. Any SUDDENLY! cards (or Flock cards that have gained
the SUDDENLY! keyword from the mask) that you draw in that time are
played, but count towards your draw, as you did draw them.
• For cards that instruct you to do "up to" a number, such as "deal
up to 3 targets" or "draw up to 5 cards", is 0 an acceptable
number to pick? Yes, you can always choose 0 in an "up to" effect,
but you cannot choose a negative number. If an effect had a minimum
number of cards you could draw, for example, it might be phrased
"draw 1 to 3 cards", meaning you had to draw at least 1.
• Do cards like Take Down or Isolating Mists allow the players
to see the Villain card about to be played before making the
decision to discard it? Yes, the effect works similar to the way a
Reaction does, giving you the choice to get rid of the card after you
know what it is.
• When an effect counts cards in play, do Event cards count? No,
Event and Collection cards do not count. Event and Collection cards
provide extra rules and options to the Villains and Heroes in the
game, but are not cards that can be interacted with in any way other
than by the rules written on them. If you want, you can tuck an Event
card under a Villain character card so only the gameplay text at the
bottom is visible.

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 Desperate times…

…call for Disparate measures

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