You’ll be wondering if you’ll even make it through the night in Embers, Button Shy’s latest solo game

It continues to amaze me how many different games Button Shy publishes that continue to adhere to their strict 18 cards only rule (expansions notwithstanding). Such a tiny sandbox to play with, yet the designers of these ‘wallet games’ have done some pretty amazing things under these constraints, often providing a surprising amount of depth for such a small footprint.

Embers, a solo survival game by designer Steven Aramini, is another such example of the economy of design, the 18 cards comprising 1 night card, 5 hero cards, and 12 fire/monster cards. Setting up the game takes about a minute, and a full playthrough up to about 15 minutes, perfect for a quick game fix on the go. Let’s get started:

First you place the night card in the middle of your play area. Each side has two sections, each with a number (Side one has a 4 and a 3, side two has a 2 and a 1). This card represents the passage of time through the night (more on that in a minute).

Then you take the 12 fire/monster cards and shuffle them. Note that on one side of each of these cards is a burning campfire, and on the other is a monster. You’ll be placing the shuffled cards fire side up on top of the night card. This pile of cards represents your campfire. You’ll be drawing and placing monsters from this deck each round, as well as adding more cards from your hand to the bottom of the deck to keep the fire going. Take the top card and put it off to the side, starting your forage pile. Foraging cards from the forage pile puts them into your hand, adding to the fire cards that you put back into the campfire.

Next, shuffle the five hero cards. These cards have two sides as well— level one and level two. Place 4 of the 5 hero cards, level one side up, around the campfire at the cardinal directions from the center- north, south, east, and west. These are 4 of the 8 campfire spots that heroes can occupy (the other 4 being the intercardinal directions in between). Your fifth hero goes off to the side, a pile we will call the tent.

With your campfire ablaze and your heroes huddled around it, you can now start the game! Every round will start with drawing up to four cards (one for each hero around the campfire) from the campfire deck, flipping each one to the monster side in turn and using the mini map on top card of the deck just revealed to determine where each monster goes. Monsters get placed on the perimeter of the camp site, just to the outside of the hero cards, and if the monster is deployed into the same sector that a hero card is in, it will travel clockwise one space per movement icon on the monster card until it either reaches a blank sector or runs out of movement. If a monster ends up in a space with another monster, it stacks, leaving the bottom strip of icons on the bottom monster card visible- these are cumulative. Once the monsters are in place, it’s time for the heroes to act!

Each hero card displays the actions available to them and their health (level one is one health, level two is two health). At level one, each hero has the defend, forage, bolster, and upgrade actions, as well as a unique maneuver action. Let’s go through each in turn:

Defend: Costs one action point, removes one monster card from the sector occupied by the hero, which goes into the player’s hand to be added back to the campfire after all hero actions have been completed.

Forage: Costs one action point, places one card from the forage pile into the player’s hand, to be added back to the campfire after all hero actions have been completed.

Bolster: Costs two action points, basically gives one other hero an additional action point to be spent immediately.

Upgrade: Two action points, flip the card to level two. This will give your hero a second health point and an additional asymmetric ability such as double forage or double defend. 

Maneuver: One action point. Each hero has a different maneuver ability, and you’ll want to get to know these well, as the whole game really revolves around moving around the fire to get into position to defend against the monsters. They are very specifically worded. The Scout’s running jump can easily send him halfway around the campfire, while the Leader can simply move to one adjacent space, an ability that is upgraded to command at level two, allowing the Leader to move any hero one space for one action point. 

After each hero has taken their actions, hopefully clearing out a few monsters or foraged along the way, the monsters get to act!

Along the bottom of the monster cards is a strip of icons. First the movement icon(s), explained above (only relevant when the monster is drawn and placed). Next there may be fire damage icons, which are added up if in a stack of monster cards. This is the number of fire cards that are removed from the campfire deck to the forage pile. Finally, there may also be attack icons. These will be tallied up as well and directed against the nearest hero, potentially killing it. (Don’t worry, they can come back!)

As more cards start cycling out of the campfire deck, the chance of flipping to the night card gets greater. Once it is revealed it flips to the next number down and placed at the bottom of the deck. It is essential to keep adding cards back in to maintain a fire until the night card hits 1. When it does, the sun comes up, banishing the darkness and the monsters and the player wins the game. If the campfire deck ever runs out of fire cards, the player loses, succumbing to the darkness.

I have to admit, Embers surprised me. It certainly isn’t like any other Button Shy game I’ve played. Embers has a flow to it that makes that up to 15 minute playtime whiz by. I easily played it a dozen times back to back once I sorted out the rules. The art by Steven De Waele is a treat as well; the variation between the two levels of the heroes is just cool. 

The Kickstarter campaign starts today!