Graveyard of Legends

This game is © 2025 David Hammerle. All Rights Reserved. You are granted permission to download and play for non-commercial, personal use only. No redistribution or commercial exploitation is permitted. For any other use, please contact davehammerlecoder@gmail.com.

This is my most recent board/card game, and, I think, also my best. It borrows elements from two of my previous games, Militious Treasure Hunt and Blastflare, but I think I fixed most of those games' flaws.

It had some issues with randomness, so I added a counter that tries to measure how much advantage each side gets randomly from the placement of pickups, and then gives the opposing side bonus mana to compensate. If I were to continue working on this game, I would probably expand that counter to compensate for the turn order being advantageous to one side or the other also.

I've probably played this one 5 or 10 times and I always thought it was fun, but the people I played it with were not enthusiastic enough about it to actively want to play it again, so it might just be that I like this type of game more than most people. There are still some cards that are probably overpowered or underpowered, but I think most of them are reasonably well-balanced.

• Graveyard of Legends Rules.txt (the info on this webpage)
• Graveyard of Legends Card List.txt (just for reference)
• Graveyard of Legends Cards to Print.pdf (to print and sleeve)
• Graveyard of Legends Terrain Cards.jpg (to copy)

Balancing

• 2 mana equivalent to a single weapon attack
• stun is equal to 3 damage
• gaining 1 mana is about worth the same as gaining 1 health
• a non-starting weapon should be about 50% stronger than a starting weapon

Decks

• Elemental Spell Decks x 6: Fire, Air, Water, Earth, White, Black (together having one copy of each spell in total)
• General Spells Deck (another copy of each spell)
• Starting Weapons Deck (just one of each)
• Item Weapons Deck (just one of each)
• Chaos Elements Deck (just one of each)
• Hyper Orb Deck (just one of each)
• Turn Order Deck (one card for each hero in play plus one card for each player)
• Hero Control Cards Deck (to put in front of controlling player, a second card for each hero in play)
• (don't need the 16 blue-bordered cards for the different decks; those are only used for the tabletop simulator version of the game)
• (don't need the extra hero cards because I removed the part of the game that uses them)

(this short version of the rules is for people who've already read the rules, but want a reminder)

Pickups

• orb pickups already on board: 1 hyper, 1 healing, 3 mana, 2 items
• if any of these 6 orbs not on board at end of turn then current player picks 1 to respawn at random location
• mana orb: +2 mana
• healing orb: +3 health, if full health then +2 mana instead
• weapon orb: pick 1 item weapon from 3 randomly drawn from item weapon deck, if take weapon must lose starting weapon but not other weapons
• hyper orb: picking up costs 3 mana, can speed up game by picking hyper to gain randomly

Pickups Compensation

• compensation counter starts at 0 in no player's benefit
• each time a pickup is placed, count the range to the closest character of each player
• increase compensation counter in the farther character's player's benefit by that amount
• any time the compensation counter is at least 3 in a player's benefit, that player chooses one character to gain 1 mana and the counter loses 3 compensation points

Spells in Hand

• NEW ignore spell focus for characters
• NEW spells in hand determined primarily by spirit and almost always add up to 5 total
• at end of your turn, redraw spells up to current limits

Player Turn

• gain 3 redistribute points
• may spend a redistribute point to move 1 mana or health from a friendly hero to another friendly hero
• may spend 3 redistribute points to move a hyper orb from a friendly hero to another friendly hero

Hero Turn

• includes 1 movement action, 1 weapon action, 1 spell action
• taken in any order and parts of movement can be in between other actions

Hero Claiming

• start game with 8 random dormant heroes on the map at 8 random locations
• each starting location may not be adjacent to another including diagonals
• up to once per hero's turn, controlling player may claim an adjacent dormant hero
• then new hero goes up to full health and is added to turn order deck
• after each player claims 3 heroes (in addition to starting hero) that player may never claim another hero

Starting Weapons

• any time a new hero is claimed or respawns under someone’s control, look at top 3 cards of Starting Weapons deck and pick one to take for that hero and put the other 2 on the bottom of the deck

Hero Death

• if a hero ever reaches 0 health, it is dead and disappears
• the player that lost the hero gets 1 death point
• when a player has at least 4 death points, it loses

Hero Respawn

• when a player's hero dies, a new hero spawns to replace it
• it spawns at a random location with full health under the player's control
• if the location is on a pickup or on or adjacent to another hero, choose a different random location

Turn Order Deck

• draw from it to determine who goes next
• has 1 card per hero and 1 card per player

Terrain

• forest and mountains block line of sight, can shoot into them and out of them but not through them
• by default: move faster over plains, slow over sea and mountains, fine over forest

Statuses

• stun: no spell or weapon action, but still movement action and gen mana and such
• stuck: no movement action next turn
• slow: movement action halved, round down
• other than these 3 and decay shouldn't need to track residual effects on heroes for the most part

More Rules

• movement: normal movement is 1 onto any plus 2 onto plains/hills/forest
• targeting: AOE attacks can be used on a space but normal single target attacks must target a character
• max health: max health is equal to starting health and can't heal to more health than that
• no friendly fire: there is no friendly fire, can't damage friends with radial attacks, also can't heal/shield enemies with radial heals/shields
• push back: pushes in either direction attacker is from defender or just the 1 direction if in a straight line
• lose spell cards: if spell card bonus goes away immediately discard down till under overall limits
• damage bonuses and penalties: multipliers/divisors are applied first and then additions/subtractions

• Lay out terrain cards randomly in a 10x9 grid with 3 cards the long way (3 spaces each) in one direction and 5 cards the short way (2 spaces each) in the perpendicular direction.
• Randomly choose 8 heroes to start on the map at random locations (roll a 1d10 twice). Reroll any locations that land on or adjacent to an existing hero, including diagonals.
• Pick a player randomly to be the Start Player.
• The other player then picks a Spirit to play from amongst all of them. Then the Start Player picks one of the remaining spirits.
• The Start Player then picks one of the 8 heroes on the map to start with. Then the other player picks one of the remaining 7 heroes on the map to start with.
• All other heroes on the map are dormant until claimed.
• Draw from the Turn Order Deck as normal to determine which player or hero takes the first turn.

Claiming

• Each player starts with 1 hero and may claim an additional 3 heroes throughout the game, but no more than that.
• To claim a hero, a player's hero must be on a space adjacent to a dormant hero at some point during its turn.
• A player may not claim more than one hero in the same turn.

Activation

• When a hero is claimed by a player or spawns into play under control of a player, the character starts at full health.
• The controlling player should put the hero's card in front of the player along with an indicator showing which figurine on the map is for that hero, probably just a similar figurine.
• You should also immediately add the Turn Order card for that hero to the Turn Order Deck and shuffle it.

Starting Weapons

• The player gaining control should pick one from the top 3 cards of the Starting Weapons Deck for the hero to have.
• The other unchosen weapons should go to the bottom of the Starting Weapons Deck.

General

• The pickups are: 1 hyper, 1 healing, 3 mana, 2 items.
• Spawn all pickups (orbs) at the beginning of the game.
• If any of these 6 pickups are not on the map at the end of a player's turn, that player picks 1 to respawn at a random location.
• Pick a new random location each time the random location chosen lands on a hero or another orb.

Compensation Points

• After respawning a pickup, count the distance in spaces to the closest hero on each side.
• Whichever hero is closer, the opposing player gains a number of compensation points equal to the difference in distance.
• Any compensation points gained by a player when the opposing player has compensations points reduces the opposing player's compensation points instead.
• This way only one player will have compensation points at any given time.
• Whenever a player has 3 or more compensation points, that player loses 3 compensation points and chooses a friend to gain 1 mana.

Pickup Types

• Mana Orb: Gives 2 mana to the hero collecting it.
• Healing Orb: Gives 3 health to the hero collecting it. If the hero has full health, the hero gains 2 mana instead.
• Item Orb: The collecting hero looks at the top 3 cards from the Item Weapon Deck and selects 1 to take. The other 2 go on the bottom of the deck. The hero may still use its Starting Weapon.
• Hyper Orb: The collecting hero must spend 3 mana to collect it. Any hero possessing a hyper orb has that hero's hyper ability but loses it when it loses the hyper orb.

Pick Up Any Time

• A player may choose to pick up an orb as soon as the player enters the space it is on, even if not stopping there.
• A player may choose not to pick up an orb on their hero's space or to pick up the orb later as long as the hero is still on the space with the orb.

• At the end of your turn, if you have fewer than your normal number of spells in hand from each Spell Deck, draw back up to those limits.
• If at any time you have more Spell cards in hand, you should immediately discard until you are under the limit.
• Those limits primarily depend on which Spirit you are using.
• The 7 Spell Decks are: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, White, Black, General.
• The General Spells Deck just contains one of every Spell Card in the 6 category-specific decks.
• When drawing multiple spells at once, you may decide which order to draw from the Spell Decks in.
• Ignore text like 'spell Water' referring to a Spell Deck in a hero's description. It doesn't currently do anything.

• Each turn you should draw a card from the top of the Turn Order Deck to determine which hero or player will take their turn now.
• When the Turn Order Deck runs out, reshuffle the discard pile and use it as the new Turn Order Deck.
• As soon as a player gains control of a hero, add that hero's Turn Order card to the Turn Order Deck.

General

• The player gets 1 Move Action, 1 Weapon Action, and 1 Spell Action for a hero on its turn.
• These Actions may be used in any order.
• Weapon Actions and Spell Actions may also be used in the middle of movement.
• Weapon Action: Attacks with 1 weapon the hero possesses.
• Spell Action: Required to use a Spell on your turn unless the Spell says "no action needed."
• Move Action: Allows you to use the hero's normal movement.

Movement

• Movement is described by terrain type: P for Plains, H for Hills, F for Forest, M for Mountain, W for Water.
• Water movement is allowed over both Sea spaces and also over land spaces with Rivers on them.
• Movement for different terrain types may be done in any order.
• For example, if a hero has "movement 1 any plus 2 P H F," it could move 1 space onto Forest (F), 1 onto Mountains (any), and then 1 onto Hills (H).

General

• On each player turn, the player may use its Spirit's ability and gains 3 redistribute points to spend.
• Spending the redistribute points and using the ability can be done in any order, including spending some redistribute points before and others after the ability.

Redistribute Points

• You may spend a redistribute point to move 1 mana or health from a friendly hero to another friendly hero.
• You may spend 3 redistribute points to move a hyper orb from a friendly hero to another friendly hero.
• The hyper orb will then give that hero its Hyper ability, and the other hero will lose its Hyper ability.

• Targets of Weapons and Spells must be at or within range (no diagonals) to hit a target.
• Abilities that directly hit a Hero may only target a Hero, not a space.
• They must have line of sight to the target to be used unless they have the "over" ability.
• Line of sight is measured by drawing an imaginary line from the center of the origination space to the center of the target space, assuming all spaces are squares of the same size.
• Forest and Mountain terrain block line of sight, but not other Terrain types.
• Line of sight can go into a Forest or Mountain and may come out of a Forest or Mountain, but may not pass through a Forest or Mountain.
• If the imaginary line passes through any part of a Forest or Mountain, there is no line of sight.
• The line of sight may cross corners of Forest or Mountain spaces as long as it doesn't pass between two Forests/Mountains on diagonal from each other.
• The line of sight may not run along the edge of a Forest or Mountain.

• Abilities that have a radius are "Area Effect" abilities and hit everything inside their radius.
• Area Effect abilities may target a space rather than a Hero.
• The targeted space doesn't need to have line of sight to a Hero to impact the Hero.
• Radius is measured with two numbers, e.g., 3r2d.
• The first number is the number of spaces out from the middle that the ability will impact.
• The second number is the maximum number of diagonals that may be included when measuring the distance.

Examples

2r0d (No diagonals allowed):

OOXOO
OXXXO
XXXXX
OXXXO
OOXOO
    

2r1d (Up to 1 diagonal allowed):

OXXXO
XXXXX
XXXXX
XXXXX
OXXXO
    

2r2d (Up to 2 diagonals allowed):

XXXXX
XXXXX
XXXXX
XXXXX
XXXXX
    

General

• If a hero ever reaches 0 health, it is dead and disappears.
• The player that lost the hero gets 1 death point.
• When a player reaches 4 death points, the player loses and the opposing player wins.
• After each hero death, a new hero spawns immediately under that player's control.

Hero Spawning

• The player looks at 3 of the remaining heroes that have not been in play yet at random and picks one.
• If fewer than 3 heroes remain that haven't been in play yet, the player chooses from any of them.
• The new hero spawns at a random location.
• Choose a new random location if the hero lands on a pickup or a space on or adjacent to another hero.
• Choose a Starting Weapon for the hero from the top 3 cards of the Starting Weapon Deck as normal.

Statuses

• Stun: The affected hero may not take Spell or Weapon Actions until the end of its next turn.
• Stuck: The affected hero may not move voluntarily until the end of its next turn.
• Slow: The affected hero's movement from Movement Actions is halved, rounding down until the end of its next turn. For example, a unit with movement "1 any + 1 P H F" and Slow would only be allowed to move one space over Plains, Hills, or Forest.
• Decay: The affected hero takes 1 damage at the beginning of each turn. Decay may stack.

Don't Stack

• Statuses other than Decay don't stack.

Push Back

• Push back moves the target in any combination of either orthogonal direction that the destination is from the origin, chosen by the player that created the effect.
• If the origin and destination are in the same line of spaces, then it will push back in that direction.

• A "Friend" is a hero controlled by the player or an allied player.
• An "Enemy" is a hero controlled by an opposing player.
• An active hero may not end their turn on a dormant hero.
• Distances in this game are counted orthogonally, no diagonals.
• Heroes may not have more health than their starting health.
• There is no friendly fire. Heroes can't damage each other, even with Area Effect abilities.
• Similarly, you may not heal enemies.
• If a number is affected both by multipliers/divisors and also by additions/subtractions, apply the multipliers and divisors first and then the additions and subtractions.

• This game can be played in 1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, or 1 vs. 2 formats.
• The main difference between one side being played by an individual or a team is that playing on a team, each player controls 2 heroes, whereas a lone player controls all 4 heroes on their side.
• Each player also maintains their own separate hand of spell cards.
• Playing in teams, one player on the team starts in control of the first hero. Then the next 2 heroes to be claimed are controlled by the other player, and the last hero is controlled by the first player.

Terrain Cards

• The map is made up of Terrain Cards, which are index cards with a 2x3 grid of Terrain Types drawn on them.
• You will need to create the terrain cards from index cards manually by drawing on them.
• I have included an image with all the Terrain Cards so that you can copy them.

Other Cards

• I included a PDF that has all the cards.
• See my section on how to make the cards for how to make the cards for the game using the PDF.
• You won't actually need all the cards in the PDF, though.
• Specifically, you should only need 2 cards of each hero, one for the Turn Order Deck and one to go in front of the controlling player.
• And you won't need the card backs at the end of the PDF with the blue borders.
• You will need the rest of the cards.
• There are two copies of each Spell card because one copy is for the 6 category-specific decks and the other is for the lone General Spells Deck.

Colors of Card Sleeves

• I would suggest you at least use two different colors of card sleeves for the General Spells Deck vs. the 6 category-specific decks.
• I would also suggest using different card sleeve colors for the Turn Order Deck than the other hero cards that each go in front of its controlling player.
• And also different card sleeve colors for the Item Weapons Deck and the Starting Weapons Deck.
• But it could be even more helpful to just make each deck have a different sleeve color.

Figurines

• You will need to use something to represent the actual heroes.
• I use figurines.
• You will also need some way of associating the figurine on the map with the card in front of the controlling player that describes its capabilities.
• I used pairs of figurines that look similar to each other, with one on the map and one on the card.

Dice For Random Locations

• You will need a way to randomly select a location on the map.
• I used a 10-sided die and rolled it twice, once for one direction and the other for the perpendicular direction.
• Since the map is 10x9, not 10x10, you'll need to re-roll 10s on one of the dice.

Pickups as Coins

• To represent pickups (orbs) on the map, I used coins:
• Pennies for Healing Orbs
• Dimes for Mana Orbs
• Nickels for Item Weapon Orbs
• Quarters for Hyper Orbs

Damage, Mana, Decay, Hyper Orbs as Coins

• You will need to track damage, mana, decay, and hyper orbs on heroes also.
• I used coins for this, similarly to how I used them for the pickups.
• Pennies for Damage
• Dimes for Mana
• Quarters for Hyper Orbs
• Nickels for Decay (damage each turn)