What is Moonstone?

Moonstone takes place in the land of Tauber, a mythical isle of fantasy and fairytale where humans, goblins, faeries, gnomes, giants, fauns, trolls, merfolk and more, all thrive under the golden sun and pearlescent moons.

These days, Tauber is both turbulent but also relatively peaceful; there is little to no war, and most disagreements are seen as nothing more than squabbles or differences of opinion.

However, when the moons shine bright on a clear night the moonstones appear.

Sprouting out of the ground like so many crystalline toadstools, moonstones are both mysterious and valuable. The Wizards at the Tower of Grommel offer a fine sum of gold for any moonstones that are brought to them intact. The trouble, however, as soon as the light of the blazing sun touches them, moonstones will disappear as if nothing more than dust.

Still, the leaders of both Commonwealth and Dominion send forth their warriors, magicians and rogues to secure the moonstones to sell to the mysterious Wizards. The Leshavult seek stones for money, but also for their own arcane reasons. Shades, once thought lost to the ages, are skulking in abandoned cities and many fear that the time of peace, prosperity and unlimited teacakes is coming to an end…

Gameplay

Each player selects 4 - 6 beautifully crafted miniatures, with unique abilities to battle on a 3' x 3' board, attempting to secure as many Moonstones as possible. In addition to the alternating activations of the game, both players are constantly kept in the action due to how arcane abilities, melee actions and reaction steps are resolved.

One of Moonstone’s most unique features (aside from flatulent pug knights and a deity named Gary) are the Arcane and Melee decks. Unlike most wargames, Moonstone does not resolve abilities or melee by rolling dice and hitting a pre-set target number. Instead, when an arcane or melee action is resolved, both players draw cards from a deck (Arcane for magical abilities and melee for close combat fights) and attempt to outplay each other through a combination of guessing and bluffing, playing cards face-down then revealing them.

For melee, both players use a shared deck of cards with both ‘defensive' cards and 'aggressive' cards. These opposing cards can cause damage, block attacks or even get both characters killed! For example, if an attacker chooses an 'aggressive' card which targets low, such as the rising attack, a high guard will leave target woefully unprotected and susceptible to lots of damage. On the flip side though, a low guard would protect the defender perfectly and leave the aggressor stunned, allowing the plucky defender a chance to counter-attack!

For arcane abilities, a slightly different deck is used which contains numbered and coloured cards as well the fateful catastrophe cards. Unlike melee, only one player starts off playing an arcane card, this time trying to hit a determined number and/or colour on the ability they are resolving. Didn’t get the right cards? Don’t worry, a player is allowed (and often encouraged in the case of Faeries) to outright lie about the arcane card they've played.

This can be an attempt to succeed in the face of a bad hand, to activate some unique abilities that trigger off bluffing successfully, or even to deliberately fail... Their opponent must then determine, with their own hand of cards, whether they're telling the truth and either call their bluff or pass. Bluffing however is not without its dangers, as a correctly called or miscalled bluff can often have catastrophic consequences for one of the players!

Start your journey into Tauber here:

The 2-Player Starter Set provides a great entrance to the game with all you need to play including the dice, tokens, cards, rules, measures and models. Specifically, the starter set contains one dominion and one commonwealth troupe (each of 4 miniatures) with models well suited to learning the game.

The Moonstone Rulebook contains all of the games core rules, some of the lore from the world of Tauber, and 31 characters from the Dominion and Commonwealth factions.

If you add a Card Deck to this, you can get started using the paper standees in our resources section before deciding which miniatures you want to purchase.