A game about battling monsters, using a standard deck of playing cards.
To roll a new character, select a level to begin. The default is level 8, though you may select any level, including level 0.
Draw a number of cards equal to your chosen level. These will be your character's stats. The number of stats in your character is your character's level.
The stats of your character and monsters are determined by suit. The ranks of all cards in a suit are added together to get the value of that stat.
- Clubs: Strength; used when attacking an enemy.
- Spades: Armor; used when defending against an enemy.
- Hearts: Life; determines whether you are still alive.
- Diamonds: Initiative; determines who attacks first.
The ranks of aces are 1. The ranks of face cards are 10. Any other card is face value.
If at any point the deck runs out of cards, pause, and shuffle the discard pile into the deck. Then continue as usual. Thus, the deck can be treated as continuous. This applies even if there is only one card in the deck/discard pile.
Some stats will be subtracted from directly. Since the ranks of the cards that make up the stat wont necessarily match up with the number subtracted, use the following procedure.
To subtract N points from a set of cards:
- (
Check) Move to the card with the next highest rank.- If N is less than or equal to 0, then goto
Finish. - If there is no next highest card,
- If subtracting from armor, flip down the lowest available card.
- Goto
Finish.
- If N is greater than or equal to the rank of the current card,
- Subtract the rank from N.
- Flip the card down.
- Goto
Check.
- If N is less than the rank of the current card, then goto
Check.
- If N is less than or equal to 0, then goto
- (
Finish)
The rank of the remaining face-up cards will be the approximate result of subtracting N from the total rank of the set. The result is rounded down if the set is the armor stat, and rounded up for anything else (life stat).
At some points, stats will be changed temporarily with a "modifier". This involves drawing a number of cards from the deck.
For generating modifier M (which starts at 0):
- Draw a card from the deck.
- If the card is black, add its rank to M.
- If the card is red, subtract its rank from M.
- Discard the card.
Repeat this process for the number of cards to be drawn.
If there are no cards in the deck, then M equals 0.
The game is made up of encounters, which consist of a series of phases. The phases are cycled through until the game is won or lost. Each cycle makes one encounter. A new encounter starts with the Roll phase.
Draw a number of cards equal to your character's level. These will be the stats of the new monster. If you cannot draw enough cards, or there are 0 cards in the deck afterwards, then you win the game!
Next, move on to the Priority phase.
This phase determines whether you or the monster attacks first.
For both the player and the monster (start with whoever defended last in the previous round):
- Draw one card using the modifier rule.
- Add the result to the initiative stat.
Whoever has the greatest initiative wins. In the event of a tie, whoever defended last in the previous round gets priority.
Remove all modifiers from initiative.
Next, move on to the Attack phase.
The attack phase starts by running an attack procedure with whoever has priority as the attacker, and the other as the defender. The phase continues by repeatedly alternating between you and the monster as attacker and defender, until one or the other dies.
Before you attack, if your initiative is greater than 0 and at least twice the initiative of the monster (or if the monster's initiative is 0), then you can choose to run away by discarding the monster's cards and skipping to the next encounter.
- Determine the armor modifier.
- Draw two cards using the modifier rule.
- If the modifier is less than 0, then round it to 0.
- Treat the final result as a single card and add its rank to the defender's armor.
- When using the subtraction rule, the armor modifier has priority over cards of the same rank.
- Determine the strength modifier.
- Draw two cards using the modifier rule.
- If the modifier is less than 0, then round it to 0.
- Treat the final result as a single card and add its rank to the attacker's strength.
- Using the subtraction rule, subtract the attacker's strength from the defender's face-up armor.
- Any remaining strength is damage to the defender's life.
- If the damage is greater than 0, then use the subtraction rule to subtract the damage from the defender's life.
- If any life cards are flipped down, then flip up all of the defender's face-down armor cards.
- Remove all modifiers.
- If you were damaged, and your life is less than or equal to 0, then you lose the game.
- If the monster was damaged, and their life is less than or equal to 0, then skip to the Experience phase.
If no one died after both the player and the monster have attacked, then begin the next attack round by moving back to the Priority phase.
Flip up all face-down cards.
Draw a card. If the monster's level is 0, then add the drawn card to your stats. Otherwise, select from the monster a stat which has cards. From that stat, select the card whose rank is nearest to the rank of the drawn card. If there are two cards whose distances are equal, then select the larger of the two. Discard the drawn card, as well as the monster's remaining cards.
Begin the next encounter by proceeding to the Roll phase.
You lose the game when your life reaches 0 as a result of being damaged. That means, if your life happens to start at 0, then you will not lose immediately. You will lose only if you are damaged.
You win the game when you cannot draw enough cards to roll a monster's stats, and there aren't any more cards in the deck. For a standard 52-card deck, this implies that you are at least level 26 at the start of an encounter (you and the monster would both have 26 stats, so the deck would have 0 cards).