Core Set Rules
Introduction
You are reading the Mathenyism Rulebook. That means one of two things. 1: You and a group of friends are confused about the effects of a certain card, and are looking in here to figure out what exactly happens, or 2: You have no friends and are reading this to learn all the rules by yourself, having purchased this game to use with three or four of your imaginary companions (or prostitutes) in order to stave off your bouts of crippling loneliness as you head inexorably towards suicide. Either way, this game will provide hours (and sometimes minutes) of genocidal and religiously intolerant fun!
The Goal
The goal is to be the first player to accumulate 10 followers. Sounds easy, right? In Mathenyism the tide of global domination can change in moments. A normal multiplayer game can take as little as twenty minutes to complete, although a good game will last approximately two hours.
Number of Players
Mathenyism plays best with four or more players. Although two and three player games are possible, it just is not as much fun. So find all your friends (or prostitutes) and get playing!
Types of Cards
There are four types of cards: Leaders, Objects, Actions, and Fighting Units.
Leaders give the player their affiliation and provide certain bonuses to the player, depending on which leader they have. For example: Adolf Hitler is a political leader who gives a +2 bonus to any fighting units that player has. While it is not required to have a Leader, a player is more vulnerable without one. A player may have only one leader card in play at a time (certain cards can change this). Leaders are permanent; a player can not simply discard their leader if they no longer want to be that affiliation.
Objects are permanent: the card remains in play even after the player's turn is over, and the effect of the card continues until the object card leaves play or is destroyed.
Actions have a one time use; they take effect and are discarded immediately after the card is played. These cards have a variety of effects, depending on the card in use. Some action cards take effect only when certain game conditions are met (e.g. the "Nuclear Winter" political action card can only be used if there is a "Nuclear Warhead" or "Plutonium" card currently in play.) Some action cards can be played during other player's turns. A few very rare action cards have permanent effects.
Fighting Units are cards that fight. Each fighting unit has a large number in the top right corner showing that fighting unit's strength. For more on combat and fighting units, see "Attacking a Player". Each player can have a maximum of five fighting units in play at any time. A player cannot randomly discard fighting units already in play to make space for new ones they wish to play.
Affiliations
There are two affiliation types in the game: Political and Religious. The type of affiliation a player becomes is determined by their Leader card. A player can only play cards of their affiliation. If the player does not have a Leader card in play, they can play cards from both affiliations. Both affiliations are roughly equal; one does not have any major advantage or disadvantage over the other.
Political: The ability to use political intrigue, spies, high tech weaponry, the military, and various acts of physical force against enemies.
Religious: The ability to convert opponents, use magick, and defend against zombie plagues or acts of God.
Some cards such as "Jihad" or "Born-Again" allow the player from one affiliation to use cards from the other affiliation for the duration of their turn. Other cards can modify the status of a Leader, even allowing a Leader to control both politics and religion permanently. Fear the might of HitlerChrist!
To Begin Playing
Shuffle the deck and deal five cards to each player, face down. The remaining cards in the deck are placed face down in a stack in the center of the play area. Each player looks at their cards, and plays any Leader card they may have. The players then decide by rolling the dice (or having a fistfight) which player will go first. The play progresses to the left of each player.
On Your turn
Step 1: Draw Two Cards; show one
The player draws two cards at the beginning of their turn. Players may draw from anywhere in the deck. One of these cards is turned over, showing the card to everyone (public draw), and the other is kept secret. The player is allowed to look at both cards and choose which one to show the other players. Both cards then go into the player's hand. A player can always barter or trade the cards with other players at any time.
Step 2: Card Effects
After a player draws their two cards, card effects take place. Some object and action cards have effects that continue through multiple turns after they are put into play. For example, "The Doctrine of Mathenyism" has an effect that allows you to look at other players hands and discard cards. That effect would take place during this stage of your turn.
Step 3: Player Action
The next stage is to add followers and play cards. A player can do two of the following four things:
- play an action card
- play an object card
- play a fighting unit
- Put one card from their hand into their followers pile
A player can not do two of the same thing. For instance, they can not play two action cards, or put two followers into play.
Step 4: Combat
A players can attack only during their turn or their allies’ turns. For detailed information on how combat works, see "Combat" on the next three pages.
Final Step: Discard or Draw
If the player has more than five cards, they must discard down to five. A player can choose to simply discard cards, or can give or barter cards with other players. The player can not discard cards into their Followers pile. If the player has fewer than five cards, they must draw from the deck or barter with other players until they have five cards in their hand. Once the player has five cards in their hand, their turn is over and play progresses to the left. All players discard face down, because it's cool. If the draw deck has no more cards left, the discard pile is shuffled and made into the new draw deck.
Combat
Players attack each other with Fighting Units currently in play. Some special action cards can also be played during combat (such as Miracle, which cancels combat). These special cards say "Play During Combat" or "Play at any time" on them. After the battles conclude, the player progresses to the Discard or Draw phase of their turn. All Fighting Units have a "Strength" listed on them in the top right corner. If an attack is successful (not blocked with Fighting Units or prevented by the other player), that player loses a number of followers equal to the Units’ strength to the attacking player. Any fighting unit can be block any other fighting unit, regardless of either units’ strength. If one fighting unit blocks another, the unit with the highest strength (after modifiers) wins the battle and the opposing card is destroyed. If the card was blocked, no damage gets through to the player. If you do not block and take damage in combat, you lose a number of followers equal to the strength of the attacking units to the player who attacked you.
Defending During Combat
When defending, players can block with single or multiple cards. If a player chooses to block one attacking card with multiple units, those blocking cards are merged together to form a new single super-unit blocking card. This merge is permanent. These super-units can only be made when defending, not attacking. A maximum of three cards can be made into a single super-unit.
Players can also make their allies help them defend, and can create multiple unit defenders from both their and their allies’ Fighting Units. If this happens and the alliance ends, each player who contributed units to that defender rolls a die. The highest roll gets the entire unit. If there is a tie, the unit (and all the cardds in it) is destroyed.
For Example, I attack you with my Stealth Bomber (Strength 4). You have Slaves (Strength 1), Blogger (Strength 1) and KGB (Strength 3) in play. Instead of blocking with only one and losing that Unit, you can combine all three of them into a "KGB Blogger Slaves" Unit with a strength of 5. After combat ends, that new unit would remain.
Combat Examples
You attack me with a Grammar Nazi (Strength 5). I have Slaves and a Stealth Bomber in play. I have several options. I can block with my Slaves (Strength 1), which will kill the slaves; I can block with my Stealth Bomber (Strength 4) that has a +2 bonus from my leader (Total strength 6), which will kill your Grammar Nazi; or I can choose to not block at all and lose five followers to you. Additionally, I could also choose to combine my slaves and my Stealth Bomber when defending (see previous page for details).
As another example, I attack you with two units: Knights Templar (Strength 2) and Monks (Strength 1). You, however, only have Slaves (Strength 1) and Army (Strength 1) to defend with. If you block both of my units, both of yours would die along with my Monks (if there is a tie in Unit power, both units die). No damage would get through, however, and you would not lose any followers. You also could combine your Slaves and Army together (See previous page) and block only my monks, which would kill my card. My Knights Templar would still get through, and you would lose two followers to me.
Alliances
Several cards in the game create alliances amongst players. Alliances do several things: Allied players can not attack each other.Allies must help each other in combat if one of the allies requests help.Allied players can attack on each other’s turns and can merge together Fighting Units when defending (see “Defending in Combat”). Some cards have effects that include your allies (such as no hand limit or bonuses to Fighting Units).Alliances add great depth and strategy to Mathenyism! Since there are multiple alliance cards (and “end alliance” cards) in the deck, many alliances can occur in the course of a single game. Do not be suprised if you find yourself allied to two or three other players at the same time.
Strategies
Players are highly encouraged to interact with other players. This includes bartering or trading cards during gameplay, forming alliances, looking at other players hands, and so forth.Alliances are an extremely powerful mechanism and should not be overlooked. By forming alliances with other players, you can gain bonuses or special abilities (such as +2 to your fighting units or no hand limit). They can also help you when defending. Although alliances are encouraged, in the end there can be only one winner. It is wise to learn when to end an alliance and attack your former ally for their followers.