The whole game in one line

Be the first player to 20 lore. You gain lore by sending characters on quests — everything else is about protecting your questers or stopping your opponent's.

What you need

  • A 60-card deck built from at most 2 of the 6 ink colors: Amber, Amethyst, Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire, Steel.
  • A way to track lore — the official play mat and dials, or just dice or paper.
  • An opponent with their own deck. Two starter decks are the easiest way to begin.

The goal

Race your opponent to 20 lore. Most of your lore comes from questing: exert a ready character and gain lore equal to the number next to the leaf icon on its card. Some cards and abilities also grant lore directly.

A turn, step by step

  1. Ready. Stand up all of your exerted (sideways) cards.
  2. Set. Resolve anything that happens "at the start of your turn."
  3. Draw. Draw one card. (The player who goes first skips their draw on turn one.)
  4. Main phase. Do any of the actions below, in any order, as many times as you can pay for.
  5. End of turn. Resolve "end of turn" effects, then pass to your opponent.

Your options during the main phase

  • Ink a card. Once per turn, put a card with the swirl symbol in the corner face-down into your inkwell. Each card there gives you 1 ink to spend per turn.
  • Play a card. Pay its ink cost to put a character, item, or action (including songs) into play.
  • Quest. Exert a ready character to gain its lore.
  • Challenge. Exert one of your ready characters to attack an exerted opposing character. Both deal damage equal to their Strength; a character with damage at or above its Willpower is banished.
  • Use an ability. Pay any ink or exert cost printed on the card.
Drying ink

A character can't quest, challenge, or use exert abilities the turn you play it — unless it has Rush. It can still be challenged, though.

Words you'll hear at the table

  • Exert / ready — turning a card sideways to use it; standing it back up at the start of your next turn.
  • Inkwell — your face-down resource pile. Card count = ink per turn.
  • Lore — your score. First to 20 wins.
  • Shift — play a character on top of another version of the same character for a discounted cost.
  • Bodyguard — must be challenged before your other characters; may enter play exerted.
  • Ward — can't be chosen by opponents' effects.
  • Evasive — can only be challenged by other evasive characters.
  • Singer — can exert instead of paying ink to sing a song of the listed cost.

Where to go next