Casting Shadows (2023)

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Explore a dark, enchanting world and battle your opponents in this 2-4 player turn-based competitive strategic board game.

Throughout the game, you'll collect resources, learn new spells, summon a companion, and - if you're lucky - unlock your Shadow Form, all in the quest to become the ultimate Shadow Caster.

The last player standing after this supernatural showdown wins the game!

The Standard edition of Casting Shadows inlcludes 73 standard-sized cards, 4 rules reference cards, 5 custom dice, 7 Hex tiles, 13 Resource tokens, 4 Player boards, and 4 meeples.

How to Play

Your turn consists of 3 phases:

Phase 1
Take the 5 Resource dice and roll them in front of you to form your Resource Pool, which contains the Resources you can spend this turn. If you start your turn on a Hex tile that grants you a specific Resource, add the corresponding Resource token to your Resource Pool.

Phase 2
During this phase, you get 4 Action points to spend, and you can use them to perform any of the Actions below in any order. Each Action costs 1 Action point. You can perform the same Action more than once on your turn if you still have Action points tospend. You do not have to spend all 4 Action points each turn, but unused Action points do not roll over to subsequent turns.

Your Actions include:

TRAVEL: Move your Character from your current Hex tile (the Hex tile where your Meeple currently stands) to any adjacent Hex tile.
COLLECT: Move a Spell, Counterspell, or Resource card from next to your current Hex tile to your Spell Book by spending the required Resources shown in the card’s Collection Cost. After you Collect a Spell or Resource card, immediately replace it with the top card from the Main deck. If you Collect a Counterspell card from the Counterspell deck, you do not need to replace it with a card from the Main deck.
REFRESH: Move the card next to your current Hex tile to the discard pile and replace it with the top card from the Main deck. You cannot Refresh a card from an Ancient Rune Hex tile or a Dusty Desert Hex tile.
REROLL: Choose any number of rolled Resource dice and roll them again. You cannot Reroll Cursed Crystals.
PROTECT: Remove 1 Cursed Crystal from your Resource Pool. Heads up: Any Cursed Crystals remaining in front of you will hurt you at the end of your turn!
CAST: Spend Resources to use a Spell card effect from your Spell Book. You can use each Spell card effect only once per turn. In addition to an Action point cost, some Actions (such as COLLECT and CAST) require you to spend Resources. Remove spent Resources from your Resource Pool by returning that Resource to the central area of Resource dice and tokens.

Phase 3
During this phase, you may absorb any remaining Shadow Fragments in your Resource Pool by moving your Shadow Tracker up by that amount. If you’ve absorbed enough Shadow Energy and you are in your Base Form, you may immediately transform into Shadow Form.