This game is © 2025 David Hammerle. All Rights Reserved. You are granted permission to download and play for non-commercial, personal use only. No redistribution or commercial exploitation is permitted. For any other use, please contact davehammerlecoder@gmail.com.
I made this as a relatively simple 1v1 card-based combat game. Characters exist in a line from the front to the rear, and position in the line matters for a variety of reasons, adding some depth to the game. There are also a few different categories of spells, and specific characters give you access to specific categories and might generate extra mana.
Each player's Characters exist in a line, with one Character at the Front, one at the Rear, and the others in a line between them.
By default, all damage is dealt to the Front of the enemy's line. However, it is not actually applied to the specific Character that is currently at the Front until enough damage accumulates to kill the Front Character. Until it can kill the Front Character, it continues to accumulate.
Once there is enough damage to Front to kill the Front Character, it must be expended to kill the Front Character. Damage to your Front is also retained from one Day to the next.
A Character may only deal damage if it is within Range of the enemy Front. Range is described as a range (e.g., 1-2) or as a number followed by a plus sign (e.g., 2+). For example, 'Range 1-1' means the attacking Character must be at the Front of its controlling player's line to hit the enemy Front. 'Range 1-2' allows the attacking Character to be at the Front or right behind the Front. Ranges with a plus sign mean the Character may be at that range or further back (e.g., '2+' means the Character can attack from anywhere except the Front). This rule also applies to Targeted Damage.
Any ability that says 'may target damage' may optionally target the damage. The attacking Character must still be in range of the enemy Front, but if it is, the player may target any enemy Character. Targeted Damage can be partially or fully applied to kill any number of enemy Characters, provided there is enough total Targeted Damage to kill them. You cannot "partially" wound an enemy with Targeted Damage; you must have enough to kill that Character outright.
Targeted Damage can accumulate. You may wait until you have enough to kill a specific Character before using it. At the end of a phase, players must take turns applying any remaining Targeted Damage. On a player's turn, all remaining Targeted Damage must be expended at once and may kill any number of enemy Characters if sufficient. Any leftover Targeted Damage that does not kill a Character is converted into damage to the enemy Front.
Any time a Character is killed, it doesn't actually die immediately. It first goes into a 'Dying' state and then actually dies at the end of the current Phase.
The normal number of Character cards for each player to have in hand is 5. At the beginning of the game, both players should draw cards from the Character deck until they have that many cards in their hand. As soon as the number of Characters in a player's hand goes below this number, the player should draw back up to that number of cards.
Select Characters from your hand to play for the current Day and place them face down in front of you in your Line. You must have enough Money to pay for all of them. Each time you play a Character card face down, you may draw back up to your Character card limit. Both players do this simultaneously.
If a player plays the Farseer Character, that player may reveal it at any time to force the opposing player to finish picking and revealing their Characters first. If a player plays the Merchant Character, that player may maintain 2 extra Character cards in hand and may discard a Character card that has already been played without paying for it.
Reveal the Characters you played face down.
Draw up to your hand limits for the different Spell Categories based on which Characters you control. If a player controls at least one live Character with access to a Spell Category, they should maintain 4 Spell cards of that Category in hand. If only a dead Character grants access (no live Character), maintain 2 Spell cards for that Category instead.
The Spell Categories are Elementalism, White, and Black. Whenever you play a Spell card, draw back to your new hand-size limits. If a Character dies that provides access to a Spell Category, you must discard down to your new limits immediately.
Repeat all these phases for each round (Day) and continue until one side is wiped out or there is no progress toward one side being wiped out.
Mana must be spent to play Spell Cards. By default, each player generates 3 Mana at the beginning of each Day. Characters may also produce Mana at the beginning of each Day. Unspent Mana is retained between Rounds.
Pick a start player at random. Players alternate playing one Spell card at a time. If a player chooses to pass (or cannot play), that player cannot play any more Spell cards this round. The other player continues until done.
Characters killed in this phase are "Dying" until the end of the phase. Targeted Damage generated by a Spell may be used immediately or allowed to accumulate. At the end of the phase, any remaining Targeted Damage can still be applied, or you may retain it until the Targeted Damage Phase.
If you are playing the Hurricane Spell, you must play it as your first Spell in this Round or you will not be allowed to play it.
Players alternate using one movement ability from any one of their Characters at a time. Passing means a player may not use any more movement abilities in this phase.
All Characters with "may target damage" generate Targeted Damage if they are in range. Then, players alternate using Targeted Damage to kill enemy Characters. Killed Characters apply their Targeted Damage but not their normal damage. Passing converts any unspent Targeted Damage into damage to the enemy Front.
All Characters generate normal Damage. If a player chose not to generate Targeted Damage for a Character earlier, that Character can now generate normal Damage. Players then alternate killing the enemy Front Character if enough Damage has accumulated to do so. Once you cannot kill the next Front Character, any leftover Damage is retained for the next Round. (Damage to an individual Character is not retained between Rounds.)
You'll need to print the included PDF file and use that to create the cards. If you're not sure how to do that, I have instructions here.
You may run into the issue that you want to keep Spell cards with residual effects out in play to keep track of their effects, but still want them to be returned to their Spell deck so they can be drawn again. One option is to create extra copies of all cards that have residual effects. Another option is to make multiple copies of every card in general.
You'll also need to keep track of accumulated Mana, Targeted Damage, and Damage to Front. Coins or dice (or both) can be used for this purpose.