Tutorial

Objective

The player with the most cards of their color once the board is full wins the game.

Acquiring Cards

First and foremost - players need cards! Head to the Free Mint tab to mint a free set of 12 cards, and if you like the game you can buy some packs by going to the Card Packs tab

Game Setup

Prior to beginning the game, the lobby creator decides on a few of the rules for the game like the Potency Cap, Play Timer, Board Size, and Required Wins

Once the lobby is created & the players have joined, each player selects the cards to play with from their pool.

A player's card pool consists of cards that they own, Metamask authentication required.

Once both players select their cards, the game is allowed to begin!

The creator of the lobby always goes first. If more than 1 win is required to win the match, then first move will alternate between the two players.

Potency Cap

This determines the overall level of power the cards that the players can use. Each card has a Potency value which is related to it's strength.

Prior to beginning a game the lobby creator sets a Potency Cap, when the players select cards for their hand or deck their total potency needs to be equal or less than the cap.

Play Timer

The Play Timer is an in-game timer that ensures players make moves in a timely fashion. There are two times when it comes to the Play Timer: Turn Time and Float Time

Turn time is a flat 30 seconds that each player gets when it becomes their turn. Once the Turn Time runs out, the timer starts to count down from their Float Time.

Float Time is a 90 second amount of time that players can dip into during any turn if their Turn Time runs out.

If a player exhausts their current Turn Time and their Float Time, a random card will be played from their hand to a random location on the board.

Board Size

The standard format for Runes TCG is played on a 3x3 grid, but we are experimenting with new modes! This includes a 4x4 grid.

When playing with the 4x4 board, players will select decks of 15 cards that they will draw from throughout the game.

The player who moves first won't draw a card but will start with 4 cards, the player who goes second will start with 3 but will draw a card. Both players will continue to draw cards at the beginnings of their turns.

Required Wins

This is a fancy way for saying "Do you want to play best 2 out of 3?"

Required Wins determines how many wins a player needs in order to win a match. Because ties are possible in Runes - if the game ends in a tie then those games don't count towards either players win total.

After each game the player who goes first alternates.

The first player to win the required number of times wins the match!

Basic Gameplay

Each player takes turns placing cards on the board. When a card is placed on the board it enters the game as the color of that player.

When a card (cardA) is placed adjacent (up, down, left, right) to another card (cardB), they compare numbers of the sides that are touching. If cardA has a higher number than cardB, then cardB is assigned to cardA's color. If cardA has an equal or lesser number than cardB then cardB remains the color that it is.

Players take turns placing cards on the board until the board is full.

After the board is full, the player with the most cards under their control wins the game! In the standard 3x3 game mode, note that the last remaining card in the player’s hand counts towards the final score.

Example: If playerA went first and they control 5 cards on the board, and playerB controls 4 but has one card left in their hand, then it’s a tie

5 (on the board) = 4 (on the board) + 1 (in hand)

Board

The game is played on a 3x3 grid where players take turns placing cards from their hand.

The players hands are displayed on the left & right so that the other player knows how many cards are left in their hand.

Above the board there is a running score, the left number being player A’s score, the right number being player B’s score.

Card Anatomy

Cards have the following attributes:

• Directional Power: Each card in the game has a Top, Bottom, Left, & Right power value. These values determine how the cards interact with other cards on the grid when placed.
• Coming Soon: Elemental Affinity, Abilities, and more...

Potency

Naturally there are cards in Runes that are more powerful than others.

So what keeps someone from gathering the most powerful cards in the game & beating up on everyone else?

We assign a cost to a card, and make players choose a set of cards that, when their costs are added together, equal a number lower than a “cap”. This cost is called potency. The stronger the card, the higher the potency.