Simple Play Method

The general aim of the simple play method is to defeat all the other servants by
reducing their mana points to zero until you are the remaining one on the board. A
lot of this is relied on chance by the number the dice lands on as well so everyone
has a fair chance regardless of which servant you pick. There can be up to a
maximum of 7 players for both the simple and strategy based play methods. The holy
grail will always be placed in the centre of the board and cannot be moved.

Instructions

Step 1) All players can place their servant on any squares on the outer square ends
of the board to start.

Step 2) Each player rolls the dice and will move their servant around on the board
according to the number it lands on.

Step 3) If a player has their servant directly facing another servant, the player
in turn can choose to initiate a battle between the two.

Step 4) Once a battle has been initiated, the two players in the battle will each
get to roll the dice three times.

Step 5) Each player will reduce their opponent’s servant’s mana by each roll
according to the number the dice lands on. (e.g. 1st roll lands on 4, 2nd roll
lands on 2, 3rd roll lands on 6 = 12 mana points damage)

Rules

All servants start off with 50 mana points each (can be higher if you want the
game to last longer but 50 sounds good enough for a quick game)
Servants can move forward, backwards, left, right and diagonally on the squares
but cannot jump over other servants or be on the same square as them.
If a player chooses not to initiate a battle with another servant, then their
turn will be skipped in the next round.
Should a player have multiple servants directly facing their own servant (photo
below), then they can choose which servant to apply their damage on on their 3
rolls if a battle has been initiated.
Players that are currently not in turn but once have their servant attacked
from rule #4 will be able to enter the battle and have their 3 turns at rolling the
dice.

So to be a bit more clear on the 4th rule, an example of the situation is shown in
the photo above. Archer and Rider can choose to apply their attack damage on each
other or on Caster and Berserker because they’re facing them directly (yes,
including the diagonal direction) while both Berserker and Caster can only attack
at Archer and Rider and not each other since they’re not facing each other
directly. Likewise for Saber and Lancer, they can only attack Assassin since
they’re both blocked by that servant but Assassin can attack both Saber and Lancer.
This will probably spice things up it will be possible to have a 3+ way battle in
this game.

So that’s that for the simple play method! Now for the more strategic-based play
method.

Strategic Play Method

This method is overall similar to the simple play method in terms of moving around
and how the battles are done, but there are a few more things added on to make the
players evaluate their servant’s situation and how it will affect the game, which
might require some heavy thinking and possibly create alliances. You will have to
be smart about when to and when not to initiate a battle since the strength of the
servants will come into play early on. The starting positions for the servants will
be different in which they will all line up at one end of the board while the holy
grail will be placed in the centre square on the other side.

Instructions

Step 1) Each player starts off with zero mana points for their servants and will
roll the dice to build it up while also moving around on the board according to the
number the dice lands on. (e.g. player 1 rolls a 4 on the dice from the 1st turn
and rolls a 3 on the 2nd turn = 7 mana points for their servant)

Step 2) Players can initiate battles like in the simple play method but can recover
from their damages taken by other servants when it is their turn to roll the dice
to move their servant. (e.g. player 1 has 32 mana points remaining after taking 12
point damages from a previous battle, but recovers to 38 points after rolling a 6
from the dice)

Again, the aim is to defeat all the other servants by reducing their mana to zero,
but with the addition of mana recovery, it should provide an interesting and
strategical game aspect for the players. For the possible 3+ way battles, the rules
remain the same although it would be pretty epic if something like this happened
below.

So you think that was all to it for the strategic play method? Not quite. In order
to actually win the game, the holy grail needs to be acquired by the servant on the
board. I’ve done a little diagram below with another set of rules on this final
part of the game. Right click to enlarge.

Similar to how the battle ended for the grail in Fate/ZERO, no clear winner will be
announced unless the last remaining servant is able to reach the holy grail on the
board!

Well that’s it for this self-personal long-awaited post of mine lol, hope you guys
actually enjoyed reading as much as I did making this. Would love to get some
feedback or suggestions for the game if you think it can be improved or even
letting me know if you’ve tried it out. I’m hoping to be able to record some video
footage of people playing this Fate/ZERO board game of mine sometime in the future
so I can upload it to my youtube channel, since I think it’d be explained better
with a video example, perhaps with a few small friends of mine who have also
watched the anime haha.