ROUND SETUP

1. DEAL CARDS

The dealer gathers all 52 playing cards, shuffles them into a deck, and deals 8 cards face down to each player. You may only look at your own hand of cards.

• Two-Player Games: To the right of each player is that player’s “sidekick”. Sidekicks are not players, but they do play a card into each trick. Deal each sidekick a hand of 8 face-down cards. After dealing, flip 2 cards of each sidekick’s hand face up.

2. EVENT

For round 3 only, reveal one random event card for the round and follow its instructions. Even when these events present special scoring rules, players still also score for their hero/villain alignment as usual.

3. STORY/SUPERHERO CARDS

• Rounds 1-4: Each player gains one stamina from the general supply and draws 3 story cards. Play 1 story card face up onto your player mat over the number for the current round and discard the other 2 story cards.

• Round 5: In clockwise order, starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player chooses one of their two superhero cards (which up until this time have served as reference cards), reveals it face up on the superhero space of their player mat, and gains its benefit. Discard the unchosen superhero cards.

4. CHARGE ABILITIES

Simultaneously with the other players, place your stamina tokens on your abilities to charge them.

If you have excess stamina, it remains in your stamina supply for use in future rounds and may not be placed after this phase of the current round.

5. REVEAL ALIGNMENT

Simultaneously with the other players, place your alignment dial in front of you, revealing your choice of either the hero or villain side.

• Hero: You will try to win as many tricks as possible. At the end of the round, you gain 1 VP per trick won.

• Villain: You will try to lose every trick. At the end of the round, if you won zero tricks, you gain 4 VP.