This War of Mine

• Place game board in centre of table
• Select player that will start as leader:
  • This player receives the journal
• Prepare starting playable characters:
  • Shuffle characters deck
  • Draw cards from deck and put the following next to game board to form starting group:
    • 1st drawn red-bordered character card
    • 1st and 2nd drawn black-bordered character card
  • Place remaining character cards deck on Characters space on game board
  • For each character in starting group:
    • Place a Hunger token next to character card with level 2 showing
    • Place matching miniature figurine on Guard space of game board
    • Assign each character a colour and attach plastic base disc of that colour to base of miniature
    • Place corresponding cardboard base disc token next to character card:
      • This helps players identify more clearly which character is which
• Prepare the following card decks by shuffling all cards and placing deck face-down on marked space on game board:
  • Exploration
  • Findings
  • Locations
  • Visitors
  • Colours
  • Narrative Actions
  • Fate
• Prepare the following card decks by shuffling all cards and placing deck face-down next to game board:
  • Desperate Measures
  • Wares
  • Rooms
  • Corridors
• Prepare Farmers' Market:
  • Place Market sheet next to game board
  • Place tolerance marker on 4 space of market sheet
  • Place farmer and thug miniatures next to market sheet
• Prepare sewers:
  • Shuffle sewers map tiles and place face-down next to game board
  • Place sewers starting tile on top of pile
  • Place exploring party token next to pile
• Draw 3 location cards to spaces below locations card deck
• Prepare Fittings and Idea decks:
  • Separate Fittings cards by colour
  • Cards with green coloured corner go on Fittings space
  • Cards with red coloured corner go on Ideas space
  • Both of these decks do not need to be shuffled
• Prepare Residents and Night Raid decks:
  • Remove cards in each deck that contain red corners:
    • These will be added into the decks during the game, so do not return them to box
  • Shuffle remaining cards and place decks face-down on corresponding space on board
• Prepare shelter cards:
  • Place 2 Farmers' Market module fittings on game board
  • Ensure all shelter cards are face-up before shuffling
  • Shuffle all shelter cards
  • Deal cards to empty shelter spaces on board with name matching name marked on card
  • Return unused cards to game box
• Prepare events deck:
  • Shuffle 3 Ending Event cards and place on Events space
  • Place Chapter III card on top of deck
  • Place 4 random Event cards on top of deck
  • Place Chapter II card on top of deck
  • Place 3 random Event cards on top of deck
  • Place Chapter I card on top of deck
  • Return remaining events cards to box
• Place following resources into storage area:
  • 1 lockpick
  • 1 shovel
  • 4 components
  • 4 wood
  • 2 water
  • 3 raw food
• Place noise marker on 1 space of noise track
• Place combat dice and black die next to board

The game is played over a number of days where players will work together to make decisions about what the characters in the group should do during each phase of the day in order to attempt to keep them alive and satisfy their objectives.

Decision Making

The game advises passing around the journal itself as a way to determine who the leader is. This will then lead people to start flicking through the book, which wastes a bunch of time. It's advised instead of write "Leader" on one of the blank cards provided with the game and pass that around instead. Any time a decision is made in the game, all players are encouraged to discuss and help the current leader decide what to do. However, the final decision is always made by the current leader and only the leader should touch the game components.

Use of Tokens

During the game, you will be asked to take notes and write on tokens. Rather than write on actual tokens, it is advised to make use of the lettered tokens and keep a pen and pad of paper nearby to write notes on to link letters to notes. For example, rather than writing "Example, 12345" on a token, on your pad of paper, write "A: Example, 12345" and use the blue token with an A on it as this token. If the passage refers to some ability that can be used in a particular phase, it's also advised to write down the phase the ability can be used in as a more explicit reminder.

Trading

During the game, you may have the ability to trade with others.

You are never allowed to buy, sell or use the following resources in any part of a trade:

• Water
• Wood
• Components

To trade with others:

• When scavenging:
  • Refer to the card being resolved to determine which goods can be traded for
  • Sum up the tokens you wish to trade for
  • Add the trade commission written on the card to this value
  • Discard tokens from the Findings Pile whose total value is at least this value
  • Add the tokens traded for to the Findings Pile space
• When trading at the shelter:
  • Refer to the card being resolved to determine which goods can be traded for
  • Sum up the tokens you wish to trade for
  • Add the trade commission written on the card to this value
  • Discard tokens from the shelter's storage whose total value is at least this value
  • Add the tokens traded for to the shelter's storage space

The game ends in one of two ways:

• At least one of the starting characters survives to complete the final objective of the game, in which case the group wins
• Otherwise, the group loses

Players may wish to complete the rest of the story with the extra characters that joined the group during the game, but a complete victory requires that at least one of the starting characters survives to the end.

When combat begins, randomly draw a number of enemy combatant tokens based on the Residents card being resolved.

Each token has a letter and number printed on it. The letter determines which weapon the enemy has based on the Resident card. The number represents the enemy's prowess. Place enemy tokens in the leftmost column of the combat chart based on the weapon they are using in the fight.

Each character involved in the fight can then be assigned a weapon that is in the findings pile.

Combat in this game is round based. Each round, you roll a combat die for each enemy based on what weapon they are using.

Combatants with firearms go before those with melee weapons or fighting unarmed. If a firearm-wielding character manages to kill another combatant, that combatant is removed from combat immediately and does not roll for damage. For a combatant to use a firearm, a character must discard an ammo. Enemies are considered to have infinite ammo. If a character runs out of ammo, they must switch to a different weapon or fight unarmed from now on. If an enemy is using a firearm and rolls the (...) icon on the red combat die, they have run out of ammo and must have their token moved to another row of the combat chart based on what weapons are still available for them to use in the fight, or must continue the fight unarmed.

Special weapon rules

• Assault rifle:
  • You may choose to discard 2 ammo instead of 1 to take 2 shots in a single round instead of 1
• Shotgun:
  • If you roll the side of the red die with a bunch of small dots on it while using the shotgun, the target dies immediately
• Hatchet:
  • If you roll the side of the yellow die with a hatchet icon while using the hatchet, the target dies immediately

If you roll the shotgun face on the red die or the hatchet icon on the yellow die but are not using the shotgun or hatchet respectively, the roll is considered a miss.

Damage

The number of icons on the die rolled shows how many wounds are dealt to the target. Damage dealt by characters can be distributed as the players wish between the enemies in the fight. Enemy damage is represented by sliding their token one column to the right for each wound received. Once an enemy receives 3 wounds, they have died and the enemy token is returned to the enemy token supply and shuffled. Damage dealt by enemies can be distributed as the players wish between the playable characters in the current fight. Character damage is represented using the wounds state tokens.

If the § symbol is rolled by either the enemy or a playable character, choose one of the following:

• Treat the roll as a miss
• Draw 1 fate card:
  • Resolve the text below the combat die icon on the card

Prowess

When a die is rolled, prowess determines how many times the die can be re-rolled to attempt to get a better result. If the die is re-rolled, the previous result is lost. Only the result of the final roll is used. Enemies will only use their prowess when they get 0 wounds on a roll.

Backstab

When resolving a backstab, only one side attacks. Rolls and damage are resolved by the backstabbing side as normal.

When resolving a backstab from a hiding place, the backstab is resolved and then normal combat begins.

Fleeing

Before each round, you can decide to flee. This will cause enemies to perform a backstab, after which characters then leave combat.

Death

• When a character dies during combat, see 266 in the Book of Scripts
• When an enemy dies in combat:
  • If the enemy was a thug, do nothing
  • Otherwise, for each character present:
    • Roll the black die
    • If the number rolled is equal to or less than their empathy:
      • Increase character's misery by 1