Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread Rules Reference
Arydia is an open-world cooperative campaign RPG board game where 1-4 exiles explore a fantasy land, fighting foes, completing jobs, and leveling up their characters. The game alternates between Adventure mode (exploration, travel, NPC interactions) and Combat mode (tactical grid-based battles with a foe AI system driven by Threat cards).
Objective
Complete the campaign story objectives. Exiles cooperate to explore Arydia, defeat foes, complete jobs, and progress through the narrative to earn their way home.
How to Play
Adventure Mode: Players take turns in any order performing Worldmap or Location Map actions Combat Mode (when triggered): Each round consists of a Foe Turn followed by an Exile Turn Foe Turn: Draw and resolve a Threat card, then activated foes act in initiative order Exile Turn: Active exile refreshes action tokens, takes actions, then checks for victory/defeat
Tips for New Players
- Natural 1 always fails: A natural 1 on any d20 roll is always a failure, even if modifiers would bring the total high enough. RP cannot save a natural 1.
- Natural 20 bonuses differ by mode: In Adventure mode, a natural 20 on a check lets you add TRV-77 to the Travel discard pile OR THR-77 to the Threat deck. In Combat, a natural 20 adds 2 Combos.
- Master skills before using them: When you learn a new skill at level up, you cannot use it until you complete its 'To Master' requirement. Plan ahead for which skills you want.
- Foe AI targeting priorities: Foes target based on their AI card priority (Closest, Furthest, Most Exiles, Most HP, or Least HP). Ties go to the exile requiring the fewest movement to reach. Use positioning to control who gets targeted.
- Save your Surge: Each exile can Surge only once per combat. When KO'd, Surge lets you act normally for one round. If you heal even 1 HP during that round, you stay standing. Time it carefully.
- Watch the Threat tracker: When Threat hits 7, a Limit Break occurs -- all foes gain a Power token (extra damage) and activate. Try to keep foes with expensive behaviors from building too much Threat.
- Combo Limit Break is powerful: When Combo reaches 7, any exile can spend all 7 as a Free action to take one action without paying combo costs or action tokens. Build combo with Basic Moves.
- Rest refreshes everything: Resting at a town replenishes all HP, MP, and SP, shuffles the Travel deck, refreshes Travel tokens, and refreshes markers that require those resources. But it also draws a DAY card.
- Stash wisely: When stowing items, all markers are lost and Wear tokens must be repaired first. Use the Stash to save valuable items you cannot currently equip.
- One job at a time: The party can only hold 1 job at a time. You can intentionally fail a job to return it and take a different one.
- Foe spawn icons on maps: The foe icons on maps only indicate where foes spawn at the start of combat. They have no effect after foes have spawned.
- Same action multiple times: In combat, you can take the same action multiple times in one turn (e.g., two Basic Attacks or two Basic Moves), as long as you have the required action tokens and pay all costs.