Rule Clarifications

HP Tracker

• Tracks each players’ HP as it increases or is reduced (damage taken or healed)
• Is not a runecard, so it does not leave the table, go into the deck, or go into players’ hands
• Set your HP to 12 by default at the start of the game
• Flip it over when your HP goes below 1 (hits 0) to represent your defeat
• May be flipped over again when targeted by an effect like Revive

‘Cards’ or ‘Card’

• Actions, Reactions, or Modifiers; also includes any potential future card types that go into the deck and hands and are called ‘runes’
• Are shuffled into the deck and are allowed in players’ hands to be played
• Also referred to as Runecards or Runes

Legal Modifiers aka Charms

• The black symbols that match Modifiers and which are located on many Actions and Reactions
• Shows what Modifier is allowed to be played with the Action or Reaction that they are on

Modifier Restrictions

• Whatever Legal Modifiers (Charms) that aren’t displayed or are otherwise described on the Action or Reaction they are written on or the Modifer’s text, such as Blame’s “Blame may modify any Action”
• Does not include the rule that does not allow playing Modifiers on other players’ Actions or Reactions
• Does not include the rule that does not allow playing Modifiers on other card types, such as HP Trackers

OR

• You must choose one effect when playing a card with a bold, all-caps OR in the card text
• The choices are always split by the OR
• You must repeat the chosen effect for each additional target for card effects that add targets, such as if modified by Share

Keywords

• (forced) (ongoing) (immune); also includes any potential future keywords beyond these three
• Are located in bold and in parenthesis after the card type but before the non-bold card text, if there are any on that card
• Not all cards have a keyword

(ongoing)

• A card with this keyword is not naturally discarded during the Clean the Table portion of the End of Turn phase like most cards are
• A card with this keyword is often discarded at the start of your next turn (or the targeting player’s next turn if affected by card effects like Blame), but will always direct you as to when the (ongoing) card must be discarded or how it may be discarded

(forced)

• A card with this keyword prevents any player from playing a Reaction card when this card targets them unless some other card text explicitly describes how it interacts with (forced) cards

(immune)

• A card with this keyword cannot be prevented from occurring once it resolves by other card effects or other, older (played earlier than this card) card effects with the keyword (immune)
• The priority for (immune) cards goes to the most recently played card that is currently trying to resolve or do its effects
• A card with this keyword will ignore most any preventative card, including Banish, Defend, or Decoy
• A card with this keyword can be prevented before it resolves (which is when card text can attempt to occur), such as from the effects of a Reaction or a card like Revoke
• Was previously denoted as the card text “This card ignores other card effects.”

Actions

• You can only play Actions during your Action phase
• You cannot play Actions during any other phase or someone else’s turn
• Actions have 4 states: Played, Resolved, Affecting, and Not Affecting
• An Action is considered still being played when you are placing it onto the table, choosing legal Modifiers and playing them with the Action, and then when choosing targets
• An Action is considered as starting to Resolve only after a final target is chosen with either a Reaction that changes the target like Redirect, or after a Reaction is played during the point where that Reaction says “resolve the Action,” or immediately after the target(s) do not or cannot play a Reaction
• During this point when you are Resolving an Action, as directed by the card text on the Action and any other involved cards, you must complete all effects in order
• After Resolved, an Action that still has effects that continue to do something is now an Action that is Affecting something or someone, and these are often marked with the keyword (ongoing)
• Actions with (ongoing) will continue to affect someone or something until the card directs when it should be discarded
• Actions without (ongoing) will also continue to affect someone or something until the card says so, but they will be discarded either when directed if sooner or during the Clean the Table portion of the End of the Turn phase of the turn when it was played

Reactions

• Reactions are played only when you are directly targeted by an Action
• You cannot play a Reaction card directly against another Reaction card
• You can only play 1 Reaction card at a time when an Action targets you for each instance that you are targeted (it is possible to play multiple Reactions when you first play a Redirect, then the new target you chose plays a Redirect and chooses you as the new target again)
• You can play a Reaction against an Action that targeted you from the effects of a Redirect
• Follow any additional restrictions or timings when playing a Reaction as directed by that Reaction’s card text, including when to resolve the Action and when to resolve the Reaction (resolve Channel before resolving the Action, but resolve Trap after resolving the Action)
• If you are involved in a shared Action from the effects of a card effect like Share, wait until you are the current target to play your Reaction card
• You can’t play a Reaction if the card targeting you is (forced) or if you are otherwise prevented by certain card effects like Banish or Daze

Modifiers

• You can play any number of legal Modifiers onto any Action or Reaction while you are playing it, but before you’ve chosen targets or resolved that card
• Refers to the black charms (symbols) on the middle left side of cards to see what Modifier you can play with them
• Or, refer to the Modifier’s card text to see what explicit exceptions to the normal modifier restrictions are allowed (such as “You can play this card on any Action”)
• You can’t directly play Modifiers on another player’s cards unless a card explicitly says so (“any Action” would not allow you to modify someone else’s cards)
• You can’t play Modifiers on cards that have already been played unless a card explicitly says so (“any Action” would not allow you to modify an already played card)

Play as a Boost

• Also see this section for any other card that replaces “Boost” with another card name
• A card with “Play as an X” follows the rules of the named card; “Play as a Boost” would mean that cards like Triangulate must follow the same rules that Boost follow, including the requirement to follow the Boost modifier restrictions such that you can only play Triangulate on card that have a Boost charm
• Cards with this text will always be treated as also having the name of X in the “Play as an X” for the purposes of card effects like Triangulate’s “Always overrides other Boost cards.”

Boost-able digits

• Refers to digits on a card that can be modified by a Boost, either because that card has a Boost charm or because of some other card effect like Anarchy
• In the case of Redirect, this limits what Actions your Redirect can change the values of that Action’s digits by adding Boosts to Redirect to Actions that can be modified by Boost already

Arcane Secrets ‘Guess’

• Requires that the targeting player, which can be changed by effects like Blame, guess an attribute about a card, often the card type, as a condition for any further effects
• If not stated otherwise on the card using the guess, failing to guess correctly will simply end the card effect that used the guess
• If a guess must be made from a location with no cards, such as an empty player’s hand or an empty deck, the guess effect will automatically fail
• If a guess must be made from an empty deck, the deck is not then shuffled to give the guess effect a card like when drawing from an empty deck
• If a guess must be made from an empty hand, the player with no cards in their hand does not suffer Underdraw damage like when made to discard while having no cards in their hand
• Is often given further restrictions or descriptions about what specific kind of guess must be made, such as “guess the card” or “guess the card type”
• Card type guesses require the bold, all-caps type word like ACTION, REACTION, or MODIFIER that precedes any keywords and non-bold card text
• Guesses made using a card type are satisfied by at least one card type matching on the revealed card involved in the guess effect, meaning that Wild Magic will work for the guesses of Action, Reaction, or Modifier
• When the card effect that required a guess resolves (or when the card effect after resolution affects a player to guess, and that guess and its effects complete), the revealed card involved in the guess effect is returned to its original location in its original orientation, such as face down on top of the deck, unless otherwise affected by the guess card effect