Full rules

Dead to Rites playtest edition · rules v0.2 · 4 players · 45–60 minutes

Overview

Dead to Rites is a 4-player free-for-all card game. Every player is always racing to finish a 5-step Ritual, and the other three must work together to stop whoever is closest.

• The core tension: blocking the leader costs you cards, which slows your own Ritual. Everyone wants someone else to pay for the block.
• No elimination: a player whose Rite is blocked gets Favor back and draws cards, so nobody is ever out of it.

Components

Each player has:

• 1 Crown card: your faction, with its passive ability. It comes with a tracker card for your Favor, plus Secrets, Bonds, Requiem or Wildfire if your Crown uses one.
• 5 Rite cards (Steps 1–5): kept face up in order beside your play area, never shuffled into your deck.
• A 40-card main deck: at most 3 copies of any card.

Shared between everyone is the Altar mat: each player's step track (0–5), the Altar where a Rite waits while players respond, and the Defense Pool where opponents commit cards against it.

Main deck card types

Block value: every main-deck card has a Block number (0–3) in its corner. Any card can be committed face down to the Defense Pool for that value, so even a weak card still helps stop the leader.

Key terms

Favor

The resource you spend to play cards and attempt Rites.

Power / Guard

A Champion's attack and toughness, written 3/1 (3 Power, 1 Guard).

Block

The number on a card's shield: what it's worth when committed to a Defense Pool.

Ward

A Rite's defense: the total Block needed to stop it. Not the same as a Champion's Guard.

Engaged / ready

A Champion engages (turns sideways) when it attacks or uses an "Engage:" ability. Engaged Champions can't attack and don't add Ward. Your Champions ready (turn upright) at your Dawn.

Destroyed

Put into its owner's discard pile.

Target

A card that says "target" makes you choose a player or Champion when you play it. "Target Champion" can be any Champion, including your own; "target opponent's Champion" can't be yours. If the target is gone or can't be targeted when the card resolves, that part does nothing. Attacks aren't cards, so a Champion that can't be targeted can still be attacked.

Counter

Cancel a card. It has no effect, goes to the discard pile, and its cost isn't refunded.

Expel X

Put the top X cards of your deck into your discard pile.

Poison

A keyword on some Champions. Damage they deal doesn't clear at Dusk.

Ace Champion

A Crown's gold-framed signature Champion. You can't control two with the same name.

Reminder text

Small italic text in parentheses. It only reminds you of a rule and never changes it.

Leader

The player furthest along the step track. If players are tied, "the leader" on a card means one of them of your choice. (Threat only applies to a player alone in the lead.)

Setup

1. Lay out your Crown and Rites. Place your Crown card and lay out your 5 Rite cards face up in order.
2. Start at Step 0. Every player's marker starts on Step 0 of their track.
3. Draw 6. Shuffle your main deck and draw 6 cards. Once, at the start of the game, you may mulligan: shuffle those 6 back and draw 6 new ones.
4. Pick a first player. Choose at random. Play goes clockwise.
5. Starting Favor. Players 1 and 2 start with 0, player 3 with 1, player 4 with 2. This offsets going later.

Turn structure

Each turn has five phases. Any player can play Interrupts during any phase.

Saving Favor matters. Favor only refills on your own turn. Favor you hold back is what pays for Interrupts on everyone else's turns.

Favor cap: you can never have more than 6 Favor (Hollow Market: 7), at any time, on any player's turn. Favor gained over the cap is lost. For example, at Dawn with 5 Favor you gain only 1.

First turn: every player, including the first player, gains Favor and draws at Dawn as normal. Starting Favor already offsets going later.

Combat

Champions only fight other Champions; there are no attacks on players. The point of attacking is to strip Guard away from a Rite before it hits the Altar.

Attacking (during your Combat phase)

1. Declare all attacks at once. For each Champion you attack with, choose one target: a Champion controlled by any opponent. Several of your Champions may pick the same target, or you can split them across targets and opponents.
2. Engage your attackers. A Champion can attack once per turn.
3. Interrupt window. Any player may play Interrupts (for example, Iron Wall cancels the whole attack on one Champion; Scorched Ground lowers an attacker's Power).
4. Resolve each fight. The attackers deal damage to the target equal to their total Power.
5. Strike back. Every target strikes back once, whether or not it was destroyed. The defending player chooses which attacker it hits, and deals damage equal to the target's Power.

Combat rules

• No defending Champions. The defender can't move another Champion in to protect the target. Only Interrupts can stop an attack.
• Damage: damage on a Champion adds up. When its total damage is equal to or greater than its Guard, it's destroyed. Card damage works the same way as combat damage.
• Damage clears at Dusk, so there's nothing to track between turns. The exception is Poison: damage from a Poison Champion stays until the damaged Champion leaves play.
• New Champions can't attack the turn they're played unless the card says so (Flame Herald). They can still be attacked, and still add +1 Ward.
• Attacking costs you defense. An engaged Champion doesn't add its +1 Ward to your Rite this turn.
• Group kills: "When [this card] destroys a Champion" effects (Cutpurse) trigger for every Champion in the attacking group.
• Strike back isn't an attack. Champions that "can't attack" (Bastion Golem, Castle Guard) still strike back.

The Ritual track

To advance, pay your next Rite's cost and place it on the Altar. It resolves only if the other players fail to block it.

• Threat (leader tax): if you're alone in the lead on the track, your Rite costs +1 Favor.
• Champion Guard: each of your ready Champions adds +1 to your Rite's Ward, whatever its Guard. Engaged Champions don't count. Destroying the leader's Champions makes them easier to block later.
• Crowning: when a Step 4 or 5 Rite hits the Altar, every other player draws 1 card before responding.
• Completed Rites: a resolved Rite goes face up on your Completed pile, newest on top. Your step always equals the number of Rites in that pile.
• Rite bonuses: each Crown's Steps 1–4 give a small bonus while that Rite is in your Completed pile. Step 5 has no bonus: resolving it wins the game.

Stopping the leader

When a Rite is on the Altar, the other three players pool cards to beat its Ward.

1. Commit cards. Starting left of the active player, each opponent may commit any number of cards face down to the Defense Pool, or pass.
2. Interrupts. Any player, including the active player, may play Interrupts during this window.
3. Flip the pool. Add up the Block values of every committed card.
4. Total is equal to or more than the Ward. The Rite is blocked (see below).
5. Total is less than the Ward. The Rite resolves and the player advances. Committed cards are discarded either way.

Bluffing: cards go in face down, so you can commit a 0-Block card to look helpful while saving your good ones. Everyone can see how many cards each player commits, but not which ones.

When a Rite is blocked

1. The Rite returns to the top of your Rite stack.
2. Gain 2 Favor (up to your cap). The rest of the Favor you paid is lost.
3. Draw 2 cards (Grave Choir draws 3).

Helped block: you helped block a Rite if you committed at least one card to its Defense Pool, or played an Interrupt that added to the Defense Pool total.

Pacts

Pacts turn table talk into rules. You offer one to a single player, and they accept or decline.

• If they accept, both of you are bound by the card's terms until the end of your next Dawn. Effects that happen "at the start of your next turn" still happen before it ends. The Pact stays face up between you, then goes to your discard pile. If nobody broke it, it ended unbroken (this counts for Bonds).
• If they decline, the Pact goes back to your hand and you get the Favor back.
• Breaking a Pact is allowed: you break it by acting against its terms. The breaker loses 2 Favor, the other player draws 2 cards, and the Pact goes to the discard pile.
• "Can't" on a Pact means "agrees not to". You can still do it, but doing it breaks the Pact (unless a card like Arbiter of Oaths says Pacts can't be broken).
• Verbal deals outside Pacts are allowed but never binding.

Ace Champions

Ace Champions are signature Champions with full art and a gold frame. Each Crown's starter deck has one.

• One of each name: you can't control two Aces with the same name, but you can control several different Aces. If an Ace would come into play while you already control one with that name, you can't play it (or return it to play).
• The limit is per player: an opponent can control their own copy of the same Ace.
• Otherwise an Ace is a normal Champion: it attacks, strikes back, adds +1 Ward and can be destroyed.

The six Crowns

Each Crown excels at a different part of the game. Any player may pick any Crown, even if all four pick the same one.

Path rule: each Crown has a Path, its own way to advance without the Altar. A Path can only advance you through Steps 1–3. Steps 4 and 5 must always go through the Altar.

Timing and details

Deck building

• 40 cards, at most 3 copies of any card, plus your Crown's 5 Rites kept separately.
• Only your own Crown's cards and Neutral cards. Cards from another faction can only be played under that faction's Crown.
• Every Crown has a ready-to-play starter deck: 28 Crown cards (9 cards ×3 plus 1 Ace Champion) and 12 Neutral cards. The starter decks on this table are the v0.2 lists.

Using this table

The online table is a sandbox: it doesn't enforce rules. Players move cards and adjust their own counters, just like at a real table, and the log records everything.