reikhelm/deepfall/RULEBOOK.md

# DEEPFALL — Rulebook

*Reikhelm, the deep hold, is sinking into the Maw. Delve fast, hold ground, and know
when to die. The deepest grave is the brightest glory.*

**Players:** 2–6 · **Time:** 45–75 min · **Ages:** 12+

> This is the playtest rulebook. Every number here is grounded in the DEEPFALL balance
> simulator (`deepfall-sim`); see `FINDINGS.md` for what the data said and `DESIGN.md`
> for the deeper why. Where the sim used continuous coefficients, this rulebook rounds
> them to clean tabletop integers.

---

## 1. The idea & how you win

You lead a **delve-company** plundering a collapsing megadungeon. Beneath the deepest
floor waits **the Maw**, a rising hunger that devours the hold one floor at a time, **from
the bottom up** — so the richest, deepest rooms are doomed *first*.

You don't win by surviving. You win by **Glory**, and the surest fortunes come from
spending a company deliberately: send a crew quietly **to ground** with its loot, or hurl
it into a **Worthy End** at the bottom and let the Maw take it gloriously. Nobody is ever
eliminated — a dead crew becomes Glory and silent territory, and you muster a fresh one.

**The game ends when the Maw eats Floor 1. Most Glory wins.**

---

## 2. Components

| Component | Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| **Room tiles** | ~48 deck | 10 themes (Threshold → Throne); each shows value, ⚔ threat, 🜏 lock, produce icon |
| **Floor strips** (or trays) | 6 | The dungeon, top (Floor 1) to bottom (Floor 6) |
| **The Maw marker** + **Dread track** | 1 | The doom clock |
| **Delve dice** | 7 types | Recruit / Warrior / Scholar / Priest / Rogue / Champion / Relic (see §5) |
| **Dice bags** | 1 per player | Your bag is your engine |
| **Lineage cards** | 6 | Your "race" half |
| **Calling cards** | 6 | Your "class/faction" half |
| **Player mats** | 1 per player | Party, held rooms, Mettle, hand |
| **Control markers** + **Fallen (skull) markers** | per player | Claim rooms / mark your dead |
| **Mettle & Loot tokens**, **Glory track**, **Denizen rep tracks** | shared | The economy |

The six dice **faces**: ⚔ **Steel** · 🜏 **Cunning** · ✚ **Faith** · 💰 **Greed** · ✦ **Mettle** · ☠ **Dread**.

---

## 3. Setup

1. **Build the dungeon.** Stock the six floor strips, **rooms-per-floor = number of
   players** (so a 4-player game has 4 rooms per floor, a 6-player game has 6). Draw room
   tiles weighted richer with depth: Floor 1 is mostly Threshold/Stone; Floor 6 holds the
   Throne and the Vaults. *(Easiest: use the **reikhelm Generator Companion** — give it a
   seed and it prints the exact layout. Every game, a new dungeon.)*
2. **Depth track.** Each floor has a **Depth Value** printed beside it:

   | Floor | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
   |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
   | **Depth Value** | ×1 | ×2 | ×2 | ×3 | ×3 | ×4 |

   A room's **Glory at collapse = its tile value × its floor's Depth Value.** (A Vault,
   value 6, on Floor 6 is worth `6 × 4 = 24`.)
3. **The Maw** starts just below Floor 6. Set the shared **Dread track** to 0; its length
   is **3 + number of players** (see §9).
4. **Draft your company.** Each player takes one **Lineage** + one **Calling** (deal 2 of
   each, keep 1 of each, or draft) and builds their **starting dice bag** as printed on the
   Lineage card.
5. Give each player their markers, a player mat, and 0 Glory. Seed the shared **Recruit
   Pool** with dice of each recruitable type. Pick a first player; pass the marker
   clockwise each round.

---

## 4. The company: Lineage × Calling

Two halves smash into one identity. Each grants an **advantage** and a **cost** — no free
builds.

### Lineages (the "race" — sets your starting bag + a passive)

| Lineage | Advantage | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| **Dvergar** | Ignore 1 point of a room's ⚔ threat when claiming | −1 ✚ Faith (courts Dread) |
| **Wisp** | Draw +1 die every hand | Bigger hand rolls more ☠ Dread |
| **Revenant** | Convert leftover ☠ Dread into ✦ Mettle (peril as fuel) | Cannot cancel Dread with Faith |
| **Gnoll** | +Loot when you claim a **combat** room (Den/Forge/Crypt/Throne) | −1 ✚ Faith |
| **Sylphid** | +1 Move and +1 🜏 Cunning | Fragile: a Setback sheds an extra die |
| **Golem-born** | Never lose dice to a Setback | −1 hand size (rigid) |

### Callings (the "class/faction" — special + recruit pool)

| Calling | Special | Recruits |
|---|---|---|
| **Reaver** | Pillage: gain Loot every time you claim a room | Warrior (cheap) |
| **Lorekeeper** | Open **Vaults solo** — no trinity needed | Scholar |
| **Wardancer** | Free **Last Stand**; Worthy End **×2.2**; +1 marker strength; +1 Move | Champion |
| **Hierophant** | Cancel +1 Dread; heal Setbacks; +25% held-room production | Priest |
| **Warden** | Your control markers count **double** for majority | Champion |
| **Prospector** | Cheaper recruits; +1 hand; can find **Relic** dice | Relic |

6 × 6 = **36 companies.** They are deliberately *spicy, not flat* — Dvergar and Reaver run
a touch strong, Wardancer a touch swingy — but the sim confirms **every combo is viable**
(no dead picks).

---

## 5. The dice

Your bag holds delve dice. Each is a d6; the types differ only in their face mix:

| Die (color) | ⚔ | 🜏 | ✚ | 💰 | ✦ | ☠ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Recruit** (grey) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| **Warrior** (red) | 3 | – | – | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| **Scholar** (blue) | – | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| **Priest** (white) | – | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| **Rogue** (green) | 1 | 1 | – | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| **Champion** (gold) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | – |
| **Relic** (purple) | – | – | 1 | 3 | 2 | – |

---

## 6. A round

A round has two phases.

### Phase A — The Delve (players take turns, clockwise)

> *Speed tip:* roll your opening hand during the previous player's turn, so your turn is
> decisions, not dice-fishing. With 5–6 players this keeps downtime low.

On your turn:

1. **Draw & roll** a hand from your bag (default **4 dice**, ± Lineage/Calling).
2. **Press On?** *(push-your-luck)* You may draw & roll **another** hand for more symbols
   — as many times as you dare, stopping whenever you like. **But every Press On feeds the
   Maw** (add a Dread to the shared track), and rolling too much ☠ risks a **Setback**.
3. **Resolve Dread.** Cancel ☠ with ✚ Faith one-for-one (Hierophant cancels one extra;
   Revenant converts instead — see its card). If **3 or more ☠ remain**, suffer a
   **Setback**: return your lowest die to the box (Golem-born ignores this; Sylphid loses
   an extra; Hierophant heals one).
4. **Spend your symbols** in any order:
   - **Move** between floors. You get **1 Move** free (± Lineage/Calling); buy extra Moves
     with 🜏 Cunning or ✦ Mettle (1 each).
   - **Claim a room** on your current floor (see §7).
   - **Loot:** each 💰 Greed banks Loot, worth more the deeper you are.
   - **Recruit:** spend ✦ Mettle to add a die of your Calling's type to your bag (§8).
5. **Choose your exit** (see §7.3): **Stay**, **Cash Out**, or **declare a Last Stand**.

### Phase B — The Maw (everyone, together — the big moment)

1. **Advance the Maw.** The Maw rises **1 floor** automatically each round, **+1 more** if
   the shared **Dread track** is full (then reset it). *(It never eats more than one floor
   per round — see §9 — so "one floor away" is always an honest warning.)*
2. **Collapse** the floor it reaches:
   - **Score it.** For each room, whoever has the most marker strength takes its Glory
     (`tile value × Depth Value`). Ties split, rounding down. **Warden** markers count
     double; **Fallen** markers count as 1.
   - **Value rises.** Half the value of every **unclaimed** room **rises to the floor
     above** as refugee plunder (add a plunder token). *This is why the top floors swell
     into the richest finale — never abandon the shallows.*
   - **The Maw takes the floor**, and anyone still on it (see §7.3).
3. Pass the first-player marker. New round.

The game ends the instant **Floor 1 collapses.**

---

## 7. The heart of the game

### 7.1 Claiming rooms (area control + the trinity)

To **claim** a room you must, across this turn, produce:
- **⚔ Steel ≥ the room's threat** (fight through the monsters), **and**
- **🜏 Cunning ≥ the room's lock** (crack the mechanism).

**Vaults** also demand the **trinity**: you must have rolled at least one ⚔, one 🜏, *and*
one ✚ this turn (the EverQuest holy trinity, made literal) — unless you're a **Lorekeeper**.

Place a **control marker**; its **strength = 1 + extra symbols you poured in** (Warden ×2).
Didn't quite make it? Your Steel/Cunning **carry over as assault progress** — keep chipping
at the same room next turn. A near-miss is never a total loss.

Holding a room makes it **produce** each turn (a Forge throws Steel, a Library Cunning, a
Vault Greed) — your engine grows on the ground you keep, right up until the Maw takes it.

### 7.2 Room tiles at a glance

| Theme | Value | ⚔ Threat | 🜏 Lock | Produces | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold | 1 | 0 | 0 | – | safe mouth |
| Stone | 2 | 1 | 0 | – | plain |
| Cistern | 3 | 1 | 1 | ✦ | flooded |
| Den | 3 | 3 | 0 | ⚔ | combat lair |
| Crypt | 3 | 2 | 1 | ✚ | undead (combat) |
| Hall | 4 | 1 | 1 | ✦ | pillared |
| Library | 4 | 1 | 2 | 🜏 | loot-rich, locked |
| Forge | 5 | 4 | 1 | ⚔ | lava (combat) |
| **Vault** | 6 | 2 | 2 | 💰 | **needs trinity** |
| **Throne** | 7 | 5 | 2 | 💰 | boss (combat), deepest |

### 7.3 The three exits (this is the game)

Every turn, every crew faces the same choice. This triangle *is* DEEPFALL:

- **STAY / Press On** — keep the crew active: keep recruiting, holding, producing. More
  upside, but the Maw is climbing, and a crew caught flat-footed loses **everything
  unbanked and all its active territory**.
- **CASH OUT ("Go to Ground")** — retire the crew. **Bank** its Loot + a **depth dividend**
  (deepest floor reached × 2). Its markers become permanent **Fallen** markers (strength 1)
  that still score at every future collapse. Then muster a **fresh** company at the
  frontier. Safe, repeatable, keeps your dead earning. *(Decline, from Small World.)*
- **WORTHY END ("Last Stand")** — declare it (free if you hold a Throne/Vault, or as a
  **Wardancer**). When the Maw **Takes** your active crew, score a huge **Worthy End**:
  `deepest floor × 2.5` (Wardancer ×2.2 on top), and **the Maw consumes your held rooms
  clean** so no rival inherits them. The single biggest payout — and all-or-nothing.
  *(Valhalla, from Blood Rage.)*

Being Taken **without** a Last Stand is the game's one real disaster (lose loot + territory
for nothing). The exits above are *always* offered, so a careful player never falls into
it — and the simulator confirms it almost never happens.

> **Design note:** under perfectly greedy play the bots treat Cash Out and Worthy End as
> substitutes, so aggression slightly over-wins. At a human table the *denial* (salting a
> rival's inheritance) and the sheer drama of a deep martyr make Worthy End pull its
> weight. This is the one spot still under playtest — see `FINDINGS.md`.

---

## 8. Recruiting (building your bag)

Spend ✦ **Mettle** (default cost 2) to take a die from the Recruit Pool into your bag —
the type set by your **Calling** (Reaver→Warrior, Lorekeeper→Scholar, etc.; Prospector
gets the rare **Relic**). A bigger, sharper bag means stronger hands *and* more Press-On
fuel. This is your in-game engine (Quarriors' dice-building).

---

## 9. The Maw & player count

> **Component rule (playtest-critical):** the Maw marker must **loudly flag the next floor
> to collapse.** New players reliably forget the dungeon collapses *bottom-up* and think
> they have more time than they do — give the Maw a big, unmissable "EATS THIS FLOOR NEXT"
> pointer. (See `PLAYTEST.md`, finding #3.)

The Maw rises **1 floor per round**, **+1** whenever the shared **Dread track** fills (then
it resets). Players add Dread to the track every time they **Press On** and whenever
uncanceled ☠ is rolled — so the table's collective greed literally pulls the doom down
faster. **The Maw never collapses more than one floor in a single round.**

**Scaling (validated to 11-round games at every count):**

| Players | Rooms / floor | Dread track length |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 4 | 5 |
| 3 | 4 | 6 |
| 4 | 4 | 7 |
| 5 | 5 | 8 |
| 6 | 6 | 9 |

Rooms-per-floor scaling keeps contention (and the fight for majorities) constant; the
longer Dread track on a bigger table absorbs the extra collective Dread so the game still
ends in ~11 rounds with tight margins and a near-zero feel-bad rate.

---

## 10. Turn quick-reference

```
YOUR TURN (Delve Phase)
  1. Roll hand (4 dice ± mods)
  2. Press On? → +1 Dread to track, risk a Setback   (repeat / stop)
  3. Dread: cancel with Faith; 3+ left = Setback (lose a die)
  4. Spend: Move · Claim a room · bank Loot (Greed) · Recruit (Mettle)
  5. Exit: STAY  /  CASH OUT (bank + Fallen markers)  /  LAST STAND

MAW PHASE (all together)
  • Maw rises 1 floor (+1 if Dread track full → reset)
  • Collapse: score majorities (value × depth) → unclaimed value RISES up
              → Take anyone still on the floor (Worthy Ends fire here)
  • Floor 1 collapses → GAME OVER, most Glory wins
```

---

## 11. The generator companion (procgen)

DEEPFALL's dungeon is a **real reikhelm dungeon**. The companion turns a seed into either:
- a **Setup Sheet** ("Floor 6: Vault, Throne, Forge, Crypt…") you copy with the tile deck —
  30-second setup, infinite dungeons from one box; or
- a fully **AI-rendered board** for that seed (the deluxe one-off / campaign mode).

Same generator that powers the reikhelm playground — so the board, the variety, and the
art all come from the engine you already have.