Quick start

Learn the basics in about five minutes. Playtest rules v0.2 · 4 players · 45–60 minutes

Blocking costs cards, so every player would rather someone else paid for the block. Nobody is ever knocked out: a blocked Rite gives you Favor and cards back, so you can try again.

What you play with

• Favor is your money. You spend it to play cards and to attempt Rites. You can hold up to 6 (Hollow Market: 7).
• Your deck has four kinds of cards: Champions stay on the table, Tactics are one-shot effects, Interrupts can be played on anyone's turn, and Pacts are deals with another player.
• Every main-deck card has a Block number (0–3) on its shield. That's what it's worth when you use it to stop someone's Rite.

Your turn

Save some Favor. You only gain Favor on your own turn, and leftover Favor is what pays for Interrupts on everyone else's turns.

Casting a Rite

1. Pay and place it. Pay your next Rite's Favor cost and put it on the Altar in the middle of the table.
2. Opponents can block. Going around the table, each opponent may put any number of cards from their hand face down into the Defense Pool. You can bluff with a 0-Block card.
3. Flip and count. Add up the Block on the flipped cards. If the total reaches the Rite's Ward, it's blocked. If not, it resolves and you move up a step. The committed cards are discarded either way.

• Ready Champions protect you: each one you control that isn't turned sideways adds +1 Ward to your Rite.
• The leader pays more: if you're alone in the lead, your Rite costs +1 Favor.
• Last chance: when a Step 4 or 5 Rite hits the Altar, every other player draws 1 card first.
• If you're blocked: the Rite goes back on your stack, you gain 2 Favor and draw 2 cards. Try again next turn.

Fighting

Champions only fight other Champions, never players. You attack to knock out the leader's Champions so their Rites are easier to block. Your attackers deal their total Power as damage; if that reaches the target's Guard (the second number, as in 3/2), it's destroyed. The target always strikes back at one attacker. Attacking turns your Champions sideways, so they don't add Ward to your own Rite that turn.

Your first game on this table

1. Sit and pick a deck. Click Sit here, then choose a starter deck. Any faction works, and two players can pick the same one.
2. Join voice and start. Click 🎙 Join voice, then 🎲 Pick who goes first. Everyone clicks Draw opening hand to draw 6.
3. Set starting Favor. Going clockwise from the first player, players 1 and 2 start with 0 Favor, player 3 with 1 and player 4 with 2. Use the + on your tracker.
4. Take your turn. Click Dawn, then drag cards from your hand onto the table. Click any card for options, or hover a card and press E to turn it sideways.
5. Attempt a Rite. Drag the top Rite onto The Altar and lower your Favor by its cost. Opponents drag cards into the Defense Pool; they go in face down. Click Flip all, then Resolved ✓ or Blocked ✕.
6. End your turn. Click Dusk to clear damage, then End turn.