Welcome to Rapture!

The universe of Rapture offers a profund, intricate and coherent story, which is transmitted thorugh a skirmish tabletop game. The complexity of this universe allows a wide range in difference when it comes to the looks, gameplay and stories of the individual factions which clash against each another due to the most different backgrounds, motivations and origins.
The battles will be carried out by specialized characters of different kinds with various skills. The initiation into the game is very beginner friendly, and with more experience more strategic depth becomes available. The game has proven itself to be thrilling and consequential from the first round to the last.

This is guaranteed by balanced factions and a wide range of possibilities when it comes to winning the game. Quick interactions between the players that occur in the own or the opponents turn, in form of flexible and influencable actions, result in a very dynamic game. The gameplay can be expanded and heightened with many optional rules and add-ons.

The universe is in constant expansion and allows for new stories, protagonists and occurrences to appear.

Why Rapture?

Rapture is an action-packed, beginner-friendly skirmish wargame for 2-4 players. Choose between entirely different fractions and play asymmetrical missions.

Exciting, fast-paced games with great tactical depth and an ever-suspenseful outcome await you! Play quick, intensive rounds without having to dedicate an entire day to just one game.

Rapture takes little time to set up and is no more complicated than a board game! Choose between unique fractions, each with their own characteristics and style of play. Assemble your battlegroups from different units such as heroes, squads, and bands. Activate your units in alternating order. Stay alert when your opponent activates their units and react swiftly with our innovative reaction system. Accomplish your own individual mission or keep your opponent from accomplishing theirs. Win by victory points – even if your battlegroup has been entirely eliminated.

Gameplay Highlights

- Quick and Intense
- Unique factions, individual playing style
- Heroes, Bands and Squads
- Immersive reaction system
- Asymetrical missions
- Engaging addons
- 60-120 Minutes
- 2-4 Players

Gameplay Description

The game is played in six rounds on a 90x90 cm game board. The average game session takes between 60-120 minutes, depending on player experience and add-ons used.

Each player leads a battlegroup into the battlefield, usually consisting of 3-5 units carrying a total points score of 100.

All the units at your disposal for this fall into exactly one of the following three unit types:

The hero, a single-model character. The band, consisting of a leader and one or more apprentices. The squad, which usually includes three models representing the main fighting forces of the fractions.

Each hero, band leader, and apprentice has their own individual name, and each name can only appear once in a battlegroup. Squads are an exception and can be represented twice within the same battlegroup.

Each unit has its own profile card with various attributes such as range, resistance, and number of attacks, as well as its individual skills.

The first activation of each round is dependent on the total initiatives of all remaining units on the playing field. It is thus always clear which player gets to start each round, which can change multiple times over the course of the game.

Special attributes include health points, moral points, as well as action and reaction points. Just like the classic health points, moral points in the game are also represented by a status bar. Both bars can be attacked individually, which, in cases of advanced damage, can carry various bonuses or penalties for the targeted unit. A unit can thus be eliminated in two ways, the difference being that a unit depleted of health points must leave the playing field, while a unit without moral points makes a run for it and escapes. Since certain actions cost moral points, as well, moral represents an important resource in the game.

Equally significant is the number of actions and reactions. Our game allows for every player to actively take part in the proceedings, so that waiting times are kept to a minimum and the playing time is maximized. The units are activated in turn, and for each of your opponent’s actions, you can carry out a corresponding reaction. The number of actions and reactions are available independent of each other, meaning using all of your action points does not lower your ability to react.

Complete obliteration of your opponent is obviously an advantage, but it does not automatically lead to victory. Every player has an individual mission to accomplish in order to receive victory points. While eliminating enemy units also brings victory points, the missions are more lucrative in this regard, which means that a completely eliminated battlegroup can still win by victory points.

You can complement the basic rules set with a multitude of additional add-ons to change or amplify the gameplay. Some of these include weather effectsand natural events, times of day and how they change throughout the game,creatures with which you can interact, loot boxes with useful contents, and many more. These add-ons can be used in any combination.

On top of the standard game, there are also alternative game modes with their own special rules to make sure you never get bored. There is SPLAT!, for instance, where you have to mark as many terrain pieces with your team color as possible, or Catch the Shard, where you must catch an abandoned Angel shard on the playing field and try to hold on to it.

Rapture can be played with 2, 3, or 4 players with absolutely no problem. You can find all the rules in the rule and story book!

Story

Rapture is set in the year 2049 on our Earth, in our timeline of mankind. Two years earlier, in 2047, most of humanity was harvested off the planet by an alien civilization. There is now only a small percentage of humanity left on Earth, the part which was not suitable for this harvest.

This has created a power vacuum and various secret societies and factions that have been operating in secrecy are taking their chance to step into the light and want to secure their part of this new world. It should be said that our earth has remained largely undamaged, so the angels have not caused a classic apocalypse. Of course, a few things and facilities go down when there are no humans around to take care of them and to maintain them, but the world is still mostly intact - just a lot more deserted.

With Rapture, we deal with a lot of myths, legends, and also some conspiracy theories, sort of as a "what if." What if some of them were true or what if some historical event as we know it happened for some unknown and secret reason or cause?

Through these events, conflicts arise among the factions on Earth and especially with the mysterious angels. These "angels" are namely also responsible for the harvest, among other things, and they want to bring their extraterrestrial mission to an end and clean the remnants of humanity from the planet.
But how could it all come to this? And where do the angels come from anyway?

In our prologue, which you can also read in its entirety on our website, the two characters Yssantis and Konstantin introduce us to the overall plot.

—description from the designer

Masters of the Universe: Battleground