Dominion: Dark Ages Rules

Official-rulebook flavor excerpt: “Times have been hard.”

Dark Ages depicts a kingdom in decline: ruined settlements, scavenging, plague, raiders, and rebuilding from whatever is left. Mechanically it focuses heavily on trashing, cards that react to being trashed, upgrading cards, Ruins, Shelters, and several special cards that are not in the Supply.

Setup

Use the normal Dominion setup with 10 Kingdom piles. If a game uses cards that give out Ruins, make a face-down Ruins pile with the five Ruins types mixed together; only the top Ruins is available at any moment. If Shelters are being used, each player replaces their three starting Estates with Hovel, Necropolis, and Overgrown Estate. Cards such as Hermit, Urchin, Bandit Camp, Marauder, and Pillage require their special non-Supply piles to be available.

Ruins

Ruins are Action cards worth very little individually and are normally gained through attacks or setup effects. The Ruins pile is one Supply pile even though its individual cards have different names. The top Ruins is the one gained. When one is removed, reveal the next card. Ruins can be played like other Actions and can matter for cards that refer to Action cards or card names.

Shelters

Hovel, Necropolis, and Overgrown Estate are starting cards, not Supply piles. They cannot normally be bought or returned to a nonexistent Shelter pile. They replace Estates only when the game setup calls for Shelters.

Card-by-Card Clarifications

Altar

Trash a card from your hand if you can, then gain a card up to the printed limit whether or not you actually trashed a card.

Armory

The card you gain goes directly on top of your deck rather than to your discard pile.

Band of Misfits

Band of Misfits plays a cheaper non-Command Action from the top of a Supply pile without moving that card. Because the copied card stays in the Supply, effects that try to move or trash that physical card can fail. Band of Misfits stays in play as long as the card it is imitating would have stayed in play; this matters with Duration cards and cards that themselves replay Durations.

Bandit Camp

Draw first, then gain a Spoils from the special Spoils pile if one is available. The Spoils pile is outside the Supply.

Beggar

When played, gain up to three Coppers directly into your hand. When another player plays an Attack, you may discard Beggar from your hand to gain two Silvers, placing one on your deck and the other in your discard pile when possible.

Catacombs

Look at the top three cards of your deck. Either take all three into your hand, or discard all three and draw three replacement cards. If discarding those cards causes a shuffle, the discarded cards can be shuffled back in and may be drawn again. When Catacombs is trashed, gain a card costing less than it.

Count

Resolve two separate choices. First choose among its hand-management/Copper options; then choose among its coin, hand-trashing, or Duchy options. You may choose an option even when you cannot fully perform it. If several cards are trashed together and have trash abilities, trash them all first, then resolve the triggered abilities in an order you choose.

Counterfeit

Counterfeit gives coins and +1 Buy, then may play one Treasure from your hand twice and trash it afterward. You still receive both play effects before the trash. If the Treasure moves itself somewhere else first, such as Spoils returning to its pile, Counterfeit may be unable to trash it.

Cultist

Draw two cards, then each other player gains the current top Ruins in turn order while Ruins remain. You may then play another Cultist from your hand without spending another Action. When a Cultist is trashed, its owner immediately draws three cards, even if the trashing occurs on another player's turn.

Death Cart

You may trash Death Cart itself or another Action from your hand for its large coin bonus. Gaining Death Cart also makes you gain two Ruins if available.

Feodum

Feodum scores based on how many Silvers you own at the end of the game, with one point per three Silvers rounded down. When a Feodum is trashed, gain three Silvers if possible.

Forager

Trash a card from your hand if possible. Its coin production is based on the number of differently named Treasure cards currently in the trash, not the total number of Treasures there. You still receive its Action and Buy even when there is nothing to trash.

Fortress

Fortress gives +1 Card and +2 Actions. Whenever it is trashed, its owner immediately takes it from the trash into their hand. It still counts as having been trashed, so the effect that required a trash can still succeed.

Graverobber

Choose one of its two modes. One can gain an eligible card from the trash onto your deck; the other trashes an Action from your hand and gains a more expensive card to your discard pile. You may choose a mode even if no legal target ultimately exists.

Hermit

You may trash a non-Treasure from your hand or discard pile, then gain a low-cost card. When Hermit later leaves play, if you bought no cards that turn, trash Hermit if possible and gain a Madman. Gaining cards without buying them does not stop Hermit's transformation.

Hunting Grounds

When played, draw four cards. When trashed, choose between gaining a Duchy or gaining three Estates; if the chosen pile has fewer cards, gain as many as possible.

Ironmonger

Draw a card, reveal the next card, then either discard that revealed card or return it to your deck. Afterward, receive all bonuses that correspond to the revealed card's types. Multi-type cards can give several bonuses at once.

Junk Dealer

Resolve its card draw and other bonuses first, then trash a card from your hand if you can. The trash is mandatory when a card is available.

Knights

The Knights form one shuffled Supply pile containing ten differently named cards. Only the top Knight can be gained. Their shared attack makes each other player reveal two cards, trash an eligible one of that player's choice, and discard the rest. If a Knight is trashed by that shared attack, the attacking Knight is also trashed. Individual Knights have additional abilities; Dame Josephine is also a Victory card, Sir Martin has a different cost, Sir Vander rewards its owner when trashed, and Dame Anna can trash up to two cards from hand.

Marauder

Gain a Spoils first, then each other player gains the top Ruins in turn order while Ruins remain.

Market Square

When played, it provides card, Action, and Buy bonuses. Whenever one of your cards is trashed, you may discard any number of Market Squares from your hand; each discarded Market Square gains you a Gold if one is available.

Mystic

Receive its Action and coin bonus, name an exact card name, then reveal your top card. If the name matches exactly, put the card into your hand; otherwise return it to the top of your deck. The named card does not need to be in the current Supply.

Pillage

Trash Pillage first. If that succeeds, each other player with at least five cards reveals their hand and discards a card you choose, resolving players in turn order. Then gain up to two Spoils.

Poor House

Take its initial coin bonus, reveal your hand, then lose one coin for each Treasure in your hand. The reduction can erase the whole bonus, but your coin total for the turn does not go below zero because of Poor House.

Procession

You may play a non-Duration Action from your hand twice, then trash that Action and gain an Action costing exactly one coin more. Trash-triggered abilities resolve before the gain. The played Action does not consume a second Action play. Procession cannot select a Duration card, though the card it gains may be a Duration.

Rats

Resolve in order: draw a card, gain another Rats if possible, then trash a non-Rats card from your hand if you have one. If Rats itself is trashed, draw a card immediately. The Rats pile contains twenty copies regardless of player count.

Rebuild

Name a card, then reveal until finding a Victory card with a different name. Trash that Victory card and gain a Victory card costing up to the allowed amount more. The named card can be anything, even a card not used in the game.

Rogue

If the trash contains an eligible card in Rogue's cost range, you must gain one of those cards. Only when no such card exists does Rogue attack, making each other player reveal two cards, trash an eligible one of their choice if possible, and discard the rest.

Sage

Reveal cards until finding one meeting Sage's minimum cost requirement; put that card into your hand and discard the earlier revealed cards. If your deck and discard pile run out first, discard everything revealed and stop.

Scavenger

You may put your entire deck into your discard pile. Whether or not you do, put a card from your discard pile on top of your deck if one is available. Moving the deck this way is not “discarding” individual cards for discard-trigger abilities.

Squire

Take its coin bonus and choose one of its three benefits. If Squire is trashed, gain an Attack card from the Supply if one is available.

Storeroom

First discard any number of cards and draw that many replacements. Then discard any number of cards again, including cards just drawn, for its coin-producing effect.

Urchin

Urchin draws a card, gives +1 Action, and makes each other player discard down to four. While an Urchin is in play, playing a different Attack can let you trash that Urchin to gain a Mercenary. Replaying the same physical Urchin is not enough to trash itself through this condition.

Vagrant

Draw a card first, then reveal the new top card. If it is a Curse, Ruins, Shelter, or Victory card, put it into your hand; otherwise return it to the top of your deck.

Wandering Minstrel

Draw a card, then reveal the top three cards of your deck. Put all revealed Actions back on top in any order and discard every revealed non-Action. If fewer than three cards exist after shuffling, reveal what you can.

Ruins Clarifications

Abandoned Mine

Produces its small coin bonus when played.

Ruined Library

Draw one card.

Ruined Market

Receive +1 Buy.

Ruined Village

Receive +1 Action.

Survivors

Look at the top two cards. Either discard both or return both to the top in any order; you cannot discard only one of them.

Shelter Clarifications

Hovel

When you buy a Victory card, you may trash Hovel from your hand. It gives no additional reward for doing so.

Necropolis

Necropolis is an Action and gives +2 Actions when played.

Overgrown Estate

This is a Victory card worth zero points. When trashed, immediately draw a card before continuing the effect that trashed it.

Special Non-Supply Cards

Madman

Madman is obtained through Hermit. When played, receive +2 Actions, return Madman to its pile if possible, then draw one card for each card remaining in your hand. If it cannot be returned, the card-draw portion does not happen.

Mercenary

Mercenary is obtained through Urchin. You may trash two cards from your hand; only if you actually trash two do you receive the draw/coin bonus and make other players discard down to three.

Spoils

Spoils is obtained from specific Dark Ages cards. When played, it produces its large coin value and returns itself to the Spoils pile. Returning it is not trashing it.

Accessibility Notes

Keep the top Ruins card announced whenever it changes. If Knights are used, announce the current top Knight by name and read its unique text when it becomes available. Keep the Madman, Mercenary, and Spoils piles in fixed labeled locations. When a card is trashed and triggers another ability, announce the trash first, then the triggered effect so the timing is clear. If Shelters replace Estates, identify each Shelter by name during initial-deck setup.

Source

This accessible rules page is based on the current Rio Grande Games rulebook and retains additional accessibility guidance for mixed blind and sighted play. Official Rio Grande Games Dark Ages rulebook PDF.