How To Play Runeslingers The Awakening
60 12 2-4
Binding is a defense
card type bar.
of the same ailment
In the example below, you are currently ailed with 5 burn ailments and 1 curse ailment on your field.
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Rulebook
contents
Learn to Play 3
Three Golden Rules 3
Background 3
Power Loss conditions 4
Game Loss Conditions 4
Gaining Determination 4
How to Win: Power 4
Equips 5
Anatomy of a Runeslinger 5
Card Types & Areas of Play 6
Anatomy of A Card 6
Areas of The Field 7
Your Field 7
Setup Steps 8
Post Setup Overview 9
Card states & Positions 10
Card Play Steps 10
Playing a Card 10
How To Play Cards 10
Phases of A Turn 11
Ailments 12
Applying Ailments 12
Ailments: Advanced Rules 13
Boons 13
Boons: Advanced Rules 14
Blocking Damage 14
Blocking: Advanced Rules 14
The Ladder 15
Answerable Actions 15
Answering With A Shout 15
Damage 16
Health Loss 16
Triggered Effects 16
Keywords 17
Resolving Effects 18
Advanced Rules: Targets 18
Prizes 19
Modes of Play 19
Common Terms 20
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Background
You are a Runeslinger, a wielder of magical incantations called Runespells. You have traveled far to compete in this year’s annual Fett; a runeslinging tournament that will test your skills to their limits.
You have conquered many runestones in your travels, absorbing their magic in the form of runespells, chants and boons. You have transformed your most prized possessions into magical trinkets; powerful items imbued with magic.
In each encounter (game) of the Fett, you will sling runespells and deploy powerful defenses in an effort to reduce your opponent’s power from 5 to 0.
• Your deck is “bottomless”. Any time you would draw, void, sear, set, place or
discard cards from an empty deck as part of an effect, you must first shuffle your
discard pile into your deck. This ensures that your deck is never truly “empty”; the
above bolded effects cannot be prevented from resolving if your deck reaches 0
cards. This rule does not apply to instances where you would “look” at cards in an
empty deck, since looking does not alter the number of cards in your deck.
• When an effect contradicts the rules, the effect in question supersedes the rules.
• When two or more effects contradict each other, the following priority order
resolves these conflicts from lowest (always overridden) to highest:
a. Card effects (lowest priority)
b. Runeslinger Stance and Ability effects
c. Ailment effects (highest priority). For example, the fragment II ailment effect states
“Your maximum hand size is 4”; this effect cannot be negated by a card effect that
states “Your maximum hand size is 10”
• When two or more effects contradict each other that are controlled by different
players and are of the same priority level, the active player’s (player whose turn it is)
effect has the highest priority (takes precedent) during that turn
the GOlden Rules
During play, game play conditions may contradict the rules. In such cases, defer to the rules below:
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When you lose a power, you gain a determination. Determinations are used to pay for your Runeslinger’s activated ability when you use it. Your determinations can be tracked using the provided a dice or counters . If you are at 1 power, you will have lost 4 power and have gained 4 determinations.
Choose wisely whether you wish you save up your determinations to use your ability multiple times in a single Play Phase, or if you want to use them as they are gained, ensuring you are always gain the benefit of your equip ability.
When your deck is empty (has 0 cards in it), pause all actions and lose a power. Next, shuffle your discard pile and place it face-down in your deck area as your new deck. Resume all paused actions (such as drawing, searing or voiding cards from your deck).
If your Health reaches 0, you lose a power and reset your health to its current maximum (usually 20). Next, if there is unresolved pierce damage or health loss that was paused when you lost a power, it is now applied to your newly reset health total. Your health only resets (returns to) its current maximum when it reaches 0.
In your Ailment Phase, if you have 8 or more exposed ailments, you must remove any of those 8 exposed ailments at a time and lose a power. Repeat this step until you have fewer than 8 exposed ailments on your Runeslinger. Ailments under a boon are not exposed ailments; they are concealed are not counted as being on you.
Empty Deck
8+ Ailments
0 Health
The following conditions cause your Runeslinger (you) to lose a power:
Each Runeslinger begins an encounter with 5 Power; when all of your power is
lost, you are defeated. When you lose a power, you gain a determination ; the resource used to pay for your Runeslinger’s equipped ability. Use a die to track your Runeslinger’s power on your stance.
How to Win: PoweR
Power Loss conditions
Game Loss Conditions
• If you have no cards in both your discard pile and your deck at the same time; you
lose the encounter; this is possible if most your cards have been voided by effects.
• If your maximum total health is 0 due to effects; you lose the encounter. This is
most commonly occurs if you have 20 instances of the debilitate ailment.
The following conditions cause you to automatically lose the encounter (game).
Gaining Determination
4
This is your Block value. Block denotes how much damage you prevent when you block. Eva has 4 block.
Your Runeslinger character card is the representation of you the player, on your field. All effects that refer to “target Runeslinger” or “any target”, refer to a Runeslinger character card and by extension, you.
This is your starting maximum
Health. Health is reduced
when you are dealt damage by
or lose health from effects.
Health cannot exceed its maximum.
Talaka’s Heart is a Stance and Flame Of Nim is an Ability. Before an encounter begins, you must choose and equip a stance and ability to your Runeslinger for use during play.
This is your Power. Use a D6 die to track your power, beginning at 5. When your
power reaches 0, you lose the encounter.
This is your Runeslinger. Eva has the “Runeseer” class. Your class dictates what class of Stance and Ability you can equip to your Runeslinger.
This is your activated ability’s Determination cost. Flame Of Nim costs 2 determinations to activate and use in your Play Phase.
Equips allow you to customize your Runeslinger with special powers. Equips are also used to track your Runeslinger’s stats during play. Your current power is tracked on your stance, your health is tracked on your ability, and your block and determinations are tracked on your Runeslinger.
Abilities are activated effects (you must pay a cost to use them). You can activate
your inherent or equip ability during the Play Phase of your turn. Equip
abilities have a determination cost. Above, Flame of Nim costs 2
determinations to activate (use). Inherent abilities are on your Runeslinger card and cost light to activate. Eva’s inherent ability Breathe Fire costs 1 to activate.
Stances have effects that are always active during play. When you sling a spirit runespell, Talaka’s Heart triggers, allowing you to target an enemy Runeslinger with its effect; “The target sears 2 (places the top 2 cards of their deck into their discard pile face up)”.
anatomy of a Runeslinger
Equips
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The card type icon
denotes this card’s type. Binding is a Boon. Each unique card type has its own icon making card identification easy.
This is the card Name.
| This is Binding’s card effect. |
| This is the keyword bar. Some cards have keywords that add special effects to them. |
| Rarity, set number and artist. |
card; it has the defense icon. Defense cards can be targeted and destroyed by damage.
| This is the card art. |
| This is the Binding is a Basic Class prefixes such as “Basic” are only used to show card affiliations; not restrictions. The Boon type is used for play rules. |
Boon.
Runespells have a single effect and are then discarded during the Play Phase of the turn they are played in. Spirit, Utility and Attack cards are runespells.
• To you play a card, unless that card has the Fate or Choice keyword, a valid target must exist for each of that card’s effects that target. For example, the spirit runespell Fireball deals 8 damage to “any target”. This damage must target either a Runeslinger (dealt to health) or a defense card (dealt to defense); if it can’t, Fireball cannot be played.
• All runespells are played on an exposed concentration you control.
This is Binding’s Light
cost. In order to play
Binding, you must pay
this cost by creating this
much . See “How to
play cards” on page 11.
Defense Cards have a defense value depicted in their top-right . When a defense card is dealt damage (Ex. by a spirit runespell like Fireball below) that is equal to or greater than its defense value in a single turn, it is destroyed and discarded. Defense cards remain in play until they are destroyed/discarded by an effect or by damage. Trinket, Boon and Chant cards are defense cards.
• You can only control 1 copy of the same Trinket (a type of defense card) at a time.
• When you play a defense card, if an effect reduces its defense to 0, it is destroyed.
• All Chants and trinkets are played on an exposed concentration you control.
Boon defense cards are played on an either an ailment or boon on any player’s field.
3
anatomy of a card
Card Types & Areas of Play
Currently in Runeslingers there are two normal card types; Runespells and Defense Cards.
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Each player has a field they control with areas of play designated on it. All game objects such as ailments, cards, dice, Runeslingers and equips must exist on a field on one of their designated play areas. All objects on your field and their corresponding effects are controlled by you and therefore apply to you, unless otherwise specified; for example, an effect that states “Runeslingers have -2 maximum health” is an example of global effect; it applies to all Runeslingers.
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3
Exposed Ready
Concentration
6
4 5
Your field
Concealed
Ailment
Exposed used Concentration
Concealed
concentration
Areas of the field
1 Ailment Areas: Your ailments & boons are played here; you have 4 ailment areas.
2
Concentration Areas: Concentrations you control are played here. You have 6 concentration areas. All cards you play except boons must be played on a exposed concentration you control (trinkets and chants can also be played no utility areas). [NOTE] Concentrations in play are NOT considered “cards”; they are “concentration”.
3
Runeslinger: Your Runeslinger character card and two chosen equips (stance and ability) begin the encounter in play here.
4
1
Deck: Your deck of 30 cards is placed here.
5
Discard Pile: All cards that discarded from anywhere are placed into their owner’s discard pile; you own a card if it began the encounter in your deck. All cards that are destroyed are “discarded”. A card can be discarded from a hand or the field.
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Void Pile: Cards that you “void” are placed into your void pile. Your void pile is to be kept separate from your discard pile at all times. Your void pile is never to be shuffled into your discard pile or deck unless otherwise stated by an effect.
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Utility Slots: You can play a chant or trinket on a utility slot with no other card on
it that you control. You cannot play concentrations on utility slots. Only trinkets
and chants can be played in utility slots.
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Each player rolls a die. The player who wins the roll may choose to go first or second. Only on the first turn of the encounter, the player who goes first draws 1 in their draw phase. Subsequently, a player always draws 2 cards in their draw phase. If it’s your turn, you are the “active” player.
Before the first card of the game is drawn, each player turns their Runeslinger and equips face-up.
[NOTE]: The active player decides the order in which effects resolve, if multiple effects would resolve at the same time.
Setup
Step 1: ready your Runeslinger
If you are using a new starter deck, choose to play as either Romin or Eva. Remove
your Runeslinger character card (Eva or Romin) and your two equip cards (stance and
ability) from the top of your starter deck.
Place your chosen Runeslinger face-down on your field in the area marked “Runeslinger”. Set your chosen equip cards (stance and ability) next to your Runeslinger
face-down; stance on the left, ability on the right. Place a D6 die set to 5 on your stance in the center and a D20 die set to 20 on your ability in the center. Your stance tracks your current Power while your ability tracks your current Health.
Step 2: ready The components
Place at least 1 copy of each of the six ailments between both players to be accessed during play. The ailments are: Burn, Debilitate, Curse, Fragment, Weaken and Insanity. Place a reference sheet next to each player for use during play. Ensure each player understands each zone on their field, according to the reference sheet. Each player should also have at least 3 D6 dice to track ailments and tokens on cards during play.
Step 3: Ready your deck
Each player shuffles their 30-card deck. After shuffling, players pass their deck to their opponent to cut it. Only 3 cuts of a deck may be made; card faces must never been seen during the cutting process by any player. Cut decks are given back to their owners. Each player places their cut deck in their deck area on their field face-down.
Step 4: Draw and set concentration
Each player draws 5 cards from their shuffled face-down decks. Next, each player places a card face-down from their hand in a concentration area on their field as a starting concentration. As this is a part of setup, the encounter has not yet begun; both starting concentrations are set before any player starts their turn.
Step 5: determine the active player
[NOTE]: Each player has a hand of cards they must keep secret from their opponent. The maximum hand size is 8; if your hand is full (at its maximum) and you would draw an additional card, discard that card instead of drawing it.
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Post Setup Overview
After setup, the field should appear as below. Runeslingers and equips are set; each player controls 1 concentration and has 4 cards in their hand (keep your hand secret).
Your Hand
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Emily has Plutonic Spike (below, right) in her hand and wants to play it. Emily begins by using (turning horizontal) her 2 ready exposed concentrations. This adds +2 to her pool. Next, she plays Plutonic Spike onto her exposed concentration (EC), spending her 2 to pay its cost. Once played, Emily controls Plutonic Spike since it’s on her field. Recall that all cards except boons must be played on an EC you control.
1. Pay Costs: This card’s costs, followed by any other conditional cost must be paid.
2. Play: Place the card onto a valid location on the field; it is now “in play”. Game
effects can now apply to this card.
3. Resolve Keywords: Any keywords on this card applicable to its play must be
resolved (examples include token, choice and fate).
4. Declare Choices: If this card has effects that require a choice to be made, such as
which ailment this card’s on-hit damage will apply, make and announce them now.
5. Declare Targets: You must choose and announce the valid target(s) of each effect
on this card that targets; if even one “target” effect on this card has no valid target
in play, this card cannot be played (see Advanced Rules: Targeting on page 18).
6. Answerable Action: An answerable action is created for the enemy player to your
left (if a 2-player game, it is your opponent).
7. Resolve Effects: This card’s effects resolve in the order they are written.
How To Play Cards
Cards are played from your hand onto a valid area on the field. Unless otherwise stated, cards you play must be played onto your field, with the exception of Boons (see Boons,
page 13).
Card states & Positions
Ready Exposed
Concentration
Used Exposed
Concentration
Used Concealed
Concentration
Use +1 Light
There are two card states that a card can exist in:
1: Exposed - There is no card on top of this card. 2: Concealed - There is a card on top of this card. There are two card positions that a card can exist in: 1: Ready - This card is in the vertical | position.
2: Used - This card is in the horizontal ― position. It cannot be turned used again until it is readied (turned vertical).
Playing a card
Card Play Steps
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Start your turn; you are now the active player. All exposed (has no other card on it) used (horizontal) cards you control are readied (turned vertical).
If you have 8 exposed ailments on your Runeslinger, remove any 8 of them and lose a power; repeat this step until you have fewer than 8 exposed ailments. If you have 10 ailments and 2 of them are concealed by a boon, you remove 8 exposed ailments and lose a power. The exposed ailments you remove is your choice; they don’t have to be of the same type.
Draw 2 cards from the top of your deck (the maximum hand size is 8). You may now pass; if you do, skip your Play Phase and either draw a 3rd card, or return an exposed concentration you control to your hand. At any point if you would draw a card that exceeds your maximum hand size, that card is discarded instead.
In any order you choose, as many times are you are able, you may:
• Once per turn - Set 1 card from your hand face-down as a ready concentration.
• Activate your Runeslinger ability by paying its (equip and/or main ability) cost.
• Use the effect of a defense card you control by turning it horizontally.
• Sling a runespell or play a defense card from your hand by paying its cost.
• Create 1 by using an exposed ready concentration you control (you may perform
this action even if it’s not your turn if you are creating to pay a cost on a card).
• Activate the effect of a card you control by paying that effect’s activation cost.
Phases of a turn
Each turn is divided into 5 phases and each turn has a beginning and an end. The
beginning of the turn exists when the ready phase begins, before its steps occur;
the end of the turn exists after all steps in the discard phase of a turn have been completed by all players. Phases also have a beginning (before steps) and an end (after
steps).
1: Ready Phase
2: Ailment Phase
3: Draw Phase
4: Play Phase
5: Discard Phase
1. All runespells in play are discarded (placed into their owner’s discard piles). Effects of all
Runeslinger abilities and stances activated or triggered this turn end (unless stated otherwise). Unless
otherwise stated, when a card leaves play, its effects end. Resolved effects that state “until the end of the next turn” for example, only end when their condition is fully met, even after their source leaves play.
2. All unspent created this turn is removed.
3. All defense cards in play recover to their maximum defense values.
4. All block barriers on all cards are removed.
5. You, the active player end your turn. The player to your left becomes the active
player, starting their turn at the beginning of their Ready Phase.
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On your field, you have four ailment areas to the left of your Runeslinger on which
each ailment type affecting you is tracked. Certain ailments have effects that trigger
(happen) when each new instance of that ailment is applied to you (Burn I, for example).
Note that in game, ailments are not considered “cards”.
Ailments
Ailments are negative effects that can be applied to (be put on) your Runeslinger by
effects.
Ailment Name (type).
| Multiple instances on you “stack”. In this example, you currently have 5 Burn Ailments on your Runeslinger, denoted by the D6 set to 5. |
| These are Burn’s effect levels. Burn has two effects; level I happens each time a new Burn ailment is applied to you. Level II is active while you are ailed with 4 or more instances of Burn. |
Applying ailments
Ailments can be applied directly to a Runeslinger, or by a damage effect that applies ailments if it “hits” a Runeslinger.
When you sling Rainbow Dart you choose the ailments you wish to apply with its effect
(since their type is not already specified) and then you choose Rainbow Dart’s target. Both choices must be announced. If Glancing Arrow deals at least 1 point of damage to a Runeslinger it “hits”. When Glancing Arrow hits a Runeslinger, the hit applies 2 weaken ailments to that
Runeslinger. 12
• The maximum number of unique (different) ailment types possible on your Runeslinger is four; one on each of your four ailment areas.
• There is no maximum number of ailment instances that an ailment can have.
• When ailments are “converted” from one type to another (by an effect), the original
ailment is removed and a new ailment is applied to the target Runeslinger of a different type; this process repeats for each ailment being converted on the target.
• You can only have one ailment on you of the same type; if at any time there are two ailments of the same type on you, those ailments and their instances combine & merge onto one ailment area.
• Ailments cannot be applied under a boon (unless the effect states it does).
• When an ailment is “removed” from your Runeslinger, you take that many ailment
instances off of your Runeslinger. If you have 4 burn ailments and you are to remove
3 ailments, remove 3 instances of burn, leaving the final burn ailment card on you to
represent your remaining single burn ailment.
• When multiple “ailments” are applied to a Runeslinger, unless those ailments are
ordered in the text of the effect applying them, the active player chooses the order
that those ailments are applied to the affected Runeslinger.
• When multiple ailments are applied to a Runeslinger that have applied effects (Burn I),
each ailment’s instance effect is triggered in the order it is applied. For example, if 4
burn ailments are applied to you, you lose 2 health 4 times consecutively (not at once).
Boons can be played only on either ailments or other boons. Boons are defense cards that conceal (temporarily remove from play) the ailments under them. Concealed ailments have no effect on you and are not counted as being on you. When a boon you control is destroyed, the ailments under it become “active” on you once more. Below, the boon Divine Barrier is concealing your 5 burn ailments granting you +2 block. If you play Divine Barrier on an opponent’s ailment and Divine Barrier is destroyed while under that enemy player’s control, that opponent would lose 9 health, since that enemy Runeslinger does not “own” your Divine Barrier; they just control it.
Ailments: Advanced Rules
Boons
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When an enemy-controlled damage source will deal damage to either a defense card you control or your Runeslinger, this triggers the option for you to block that game object by discarding a card from your hand (anything in play is a game object).
Boons: Advanced rules
• You can play a boon on either an ailment or existing boon on any player’s field.
• When a new boon is played on an existing boon, the existing boon is destroyed and
replaced by the new boon. Some boons (Divine Barrier) have negative effects that apply to their controller when they are destroyed, if that controller does not own
that boon (recall that you “own” a card if it began the encounter in your deck).
• Because boons are defense cards, they can be targeted and destroyed by damage.
• Boons you play on an opponent’s field are played facing you. This denotes you own
the boon but your opponent controls it; its effects apply to its controller not you.
• When a boon is replaced by a new boon, the concealed ailments are never exposed.
Blocking Damage
Your Runeslinger’s block denotes how much block barrier you apply when you block. Eva has 4 block. If you discard a card to block, 4 block barrier is applied to the object you are blocking.
The amount of damage a block barrier can prevent is equal to your Runeslinger’s block value , calculated at the time you block but after any triggered effects resolve that increase or decrease your Runeslinger’s block value.
• Certain effects “trigger” when you block. In such cases, those effects must resolve
before the value of the block barrier you are applying is calculated and before that
barrier is applied to the object of your block.
• You cannot block direct damage or health loss from effects such as Burn I.
• You cannot block if your Runeslinger’s block value is zero.
• Your intent to block must be declared before damage resolves on its target.
• You can block even if it’s not your turn, as long as you haven’t blocked this turn.
• You can only block once per turn.
• You have no maximum block value. Your starting block value is listed on your
Blocking: Advanced Rules
When you block, you apply a block barrier to the object you are blocking. A block barrier prevents damage up to its value from being dealt to the defense card or Runeslinger it is applied to for the duration of the current turn, or until it is depleted by damage; whichever is first.
Runeslinger character card as (usually 4). Numerous effects can increase or decrease your block value.
• When a block barrier is depleted (by damage or effects), any remaining unresolved damage is then dealt to the object it was protecting. 14
An answerable action is created for you when the opponent to your left plays a card.
You may answer (respond to) your answerable action by playing a card from your hand
that has the Shout keyword, even if it is not your turn.
• When you choose not to answer your answerable action, it disappears.
When a player answers, a ladder is created. The ladder tracks the order in which card effects resolve when there is more than one effect to resolve at a time. Playing a defense card such as a boon or trinket does not create an answerable action.
Let’s look at an example of answering:
3. Stone Trap resolves first (rung 2), placing Flaming Fists under it to conceal it.
4. When it comes time for Flaming Fists (rung 1) to resolve its effects, it is no longer
in play and therefore has no effects (Recall that when a card leaves the field or is
concealed, its effects stop).
When an answerable action is created, the first card played creates the bottom rung of the “ladder”. Each subsequent answer that is played creates an additional rung on that ladder. When no player wishes to add to the ladder by answering, the ladder of effects resolves in order from most recent (top rung), to oldest (bottom rung).
The Ladder
1. You sling the attack runespell Flaming Fists, targeting the enemy Runeslinger. An
answerable action is created for your opponent (you played a runespell card).
2. Your opponent answers by playing the defense card Stone Trap (it has Shout) and
targets Flaming Fists, choosing it as the target of Stone Trap’s “target card” effect.
Since no more answerable actions exist, the ladder is complete; you have “reached the top of the ladder”. Now that the ladder is complete, all effects on the ladder resolve in order from highest to lowest rung; think of this as “climbing down the ladder”.
Answering with a shout
Answerable actions
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Damage can either by dealt to a Runeslinger’s health or a defense card’s defense. Modifiers can be applied to damage to change how it functions. The damage modifiers are currently direct and pierce.
Damage is the basic, unmodified damage type in Runeslingers. If a Runeslinger is
dealt damage that exceeds its health, only damage equal to that Runeslinger’s health is
dealt to it.
Direct damage cannot be blocked; it is dealt directly to its target (ignores block barriers).
Pierce damage is dealt to its target in full. If a portion of pierce damage causes the
target to lose a power and reset its health, any remaining damage is dealt to the target’s
new health total. If pierce damage is dealt to a defense card, any remaining damage
over the target’s defense value is dealt to that defense card’s controlling Runeslinger.
triggered effects
Triggered effects occur when their trigger condition (everything before a colon :) is met.
The triggered effect is denoted after a colon :. Stone Trap has two trigger conditions
and two triggered effects.
Trigger Condition 1 - “When you play Stone Trap:”. This condition triggers the effect after its colon: Place target card under Stone Trap.
Trigger Condition 1 - “When Stone Trap leaves the field:”. This condition triggers the effect after its colon: “Return the card under it to its owner’s hand”.
When a trigger condition is met, its triggered effect occurs immediately. If multiple effects trigger simultaneously (due to having the same trigger condition), the active player resolves the triggered effects they control in the order of their choosing, followed by the non-active player.
Triggered effects do not appear on the ladder; they pause game play when they are triggered, they resolve, then game play resumes.
Damage Types
Certain effects cause a Runeslinger to “lose X health”. Health loss cannot be blocked and is not damage. Health loss inherently pierces; it always reduces the health of the affected Runeslinger by its total prescribed amount.
Unlike basic damage (non-piercing), health loss cannot be prevented by a Runeslinger reaching 0 health. If the Runeslinger Eva has a current maximum health of 20 and is at 5 health, and an effect causes Eva to “lose 10 health” Eva would lose 5 health, lose a power, reset her health to 20, then lose the remaining 5 health, leaving Eva’s health at 15.
Health loss
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Keywords
distract
When this card leaves your field, the concentration under it is discarded (placed into its owner’s discard pile). A card with distract must always be set on a concentration.
Certain cards have keywords on their keyword bar (above the text box). Keywords add
unique effects and rules to the cards they are found on. Each card can have up to 3 unique keywords written on it. When a card is played, where applicable, its keywords are always resolved from left to right in order.
Keywords can be added to or removed from cards by effects; this can result in a card having more than 3 keywords. Added keywords are resolved after previous keywords
(written) in the order the are added.
Target enemy Runeslinger chooses one of this card’s bullet • effects; only the chosen effect is used. Only bullet effects with a valid target for their effect may be chosen.
This card enters play with this many basic tokens on it (all tokens are “basic” unless otherwise stated). Tokens are used to track a number; a die can be used to track the number of tokens on this card. A Mastery token is an example of a non-basic token.
Once per turn during your Play Phase you may add +1 tokens to this card to “charge” it. Tokens added by charging are “basic”; they have no special effects.
You choose one of this card’s bullet • effects; only the chosen effect is used. Only bullet effects with a valid target for their effect may be chosen.
This card can be played normally during your Play Phase or during any Play Phase as an answer (response to) an answerable action. An answerable action is created for you when an opponent plays a card.
This card’s damage is dealt to its target in full. If a portion of this damage causes the target to lose a power and reset its health, any remaining damage is dealt to the target’s new health total. If pierce damage is dealt to a defense card, damage over the target’s defense value is dealt to that card’s controlling Runeslinger. All health loss pierces.
Use : Turn this card horizontal to use this effect. You cannot use a card on the turn it is played or if it is already used (horizontal). Used cards “ready” by being turned vertical in the Ready Phase of your turn.
token
Charge
choice
fate
shout
pierce
use
This card can be used (turned horizontal) on the turn it is played.
Quick
You must apply this many ailments (X) of the same ailment type to your Runeslinger as a cost to play this card.
Ail X
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Advanced Rules: Targets
Very often during play, it is impossible for an effect to resolve in full.
An example of this is an effect that deals 10 damage to target Runeslinger. If that Runeslinger has 5 health, this effect will only deal 5 damage to the target Runeslinger before it loses a power and resets its health (unless that damage has pierce).
In such a case, effects may only do as much as is possible, even if none of the effect is possible, as long as there is a valid target in play for that effect, it can be used. This concept is only applied to effects that do not interact with a deck (called the deck exception).
The deck exception is made possible by the bottomless deck golden rule (page 3); sear, void, draw, set, place and discard effects are always resolved in full to ensure power is lost when a deck is empty.
In this example, Sam chooses the second bullet effect, since he will only have to discard 1 card from his hand, instead of 3.
Example 3
Sam has 1 card in his hand and you sling (play) Supernova. You choose Sam as the opponent choosing Supernova’s effect (since it has the Fate keyword).
Example 2
Sam controls 3 boons on his field and is also ailed with 3 curse ailments; all four of Sam’s ailment areas are “full”; Sam can currently only be ailed with additional curse ailments.
In this case, Sam chooses the first bullet effect; you target Sam with the chosen effect, but no burn ailment are applied to Sam by the chosen effect.
Example 1
An effect targets your Runeslinger; it states “Apply 3 unique ailments to target Runeslinger”. If two of your ailment areas have boons on them, it is only possible for such an effect to apply 2 unique (different) ailments to you. In such a case, the controller of the card effect must choose which 2 ailments are being applied. The 2 chosen ailments are applied to your Runeslinger in the order the active player chooses.
Resolving Effects: Advanced Rules
In order to play a card with “target” in its text, a valid target must exist on the field
for each effect on that card that targets.
• If the target of an effect leaves the field before an effect can resolve, the effect does nothing and “fizzles” instead.
• When a card with the Fate or Choice keyword is played, only a bullet option with a possible valid target can be selected to be used by the deciding player.
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Modes of PLay
Runeslingers currently supports three unique modes of play: constructed, draft and sealed. All modes of play require that each player bring their own Runeslinger, stance and ability to the game that share the same class.
When organized a tournament, both round-robin and swiss formats can be enjoyed by players. Round-robin ensures all players have a chance to play each other, while swiss can be used for larger tournaments where round-robin play is not feasible. Regardless of the tournament format chosen, encounters are always played as a best-of-one.
Constructed
Players play with their own pre-constructed deck consisting of exactly 40 cards. No more than 3 copies of the same card may be in the deck at once. No more than 1 copy of any “X” ( have the “X” suffix after their name) card may be in the same deck at once.
draft
Draft mode allows players to construct their decks using a randomized assortment of cards from booster packs. A minimum of 4 players is required to host a draft, however six is best.
• To begin a draft, each player must have 4 sealed 9-card Runeslingers booster packs
in front of them.
• Each player opens 2 booster packs and shuffles their contents together. Each player
now has a “draft pack” with 18 cards in it.
• Each player chooses 2 cards from their draft pack and passes the remaining cards
to the player on their left. Doing this until all cards are chosen, each player will end
up with 18 cards face-down in front of them.
• Repeat the previous steps with the remaining 2 booster packs, except this time each
player passes their cards to the right.
• Once all cards are chosen, each player removes 6 cards from their 36 draft card
pool; the remaining 30 cards form that player’s deck for the draft.
• Each player may bring their own Runeslinger and equips to a draft; you do not have
to draft them to use them.
sealed
Similar to draft, in a sealed event, players combine six booster packs into a deck. Sealed is less random than draft, and allows players to create a more competitive, structured deck. A sealed deck must follow the same rules for deck construction as the constructed format.
Prizes
We encourage players running at-home events to purchase Runeslingers Organized Play Kits. Each kit has prize support for up to 6 players, including highly limited foil cards (1/500), and exclusive playmats (1/500). The box topper from each booster box can also be used as prize support for first place events winners.
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Common Terms
Answer: Cards you have in your hand with the Shout keyword can be played as an
answer (response to) an answerable action that was created for you, even if it’s not
your Play Phase.
At Random: An enemy chooses without seeing, the prescribed number of cards
(usually from your hand).
Concealed: When an ailment or card is under another card, the object on the bottom is “concealed”. Concealed ailments and cards are not in play; they have no effects. Control: A card on your field (your side of the play area) is controlled by you and its effects apply to you.
Convert Ailment: Remove the prescribed number of ailments and then apply the same number of ailments of a different type to the same target. When multiple ailments are converted, ailments are removed and then applied one at a time. Destroy: When a card is destroyed, it is placed into its owner’s discard pile. Cards that are destroyed before their effects can resolve, have no effect.
Down/Downed: The term used to describe a Runeslinger losing a power.
Direct Damage: Direct damage cannot be blocked.
Health Loss: When your Runeslinger loses health, its health is reduced by the specified number. Health loss cannot be blocked, and always reduces your Runeslinger’s health by its full amount. If you have 1 health and you lose 2 health (assuming your maximum health is 20), you lose one power, reset your health to 19. Sear: Take this many cards from the top of your deck and place them face-up in your discard pile in any order.
Void: Take this many cards from the top of your deck and place them face-up in your void pile in any order.
Sling: Thematic term to describe playing a runespell card.
Answerable Action: When an enemy plays a card an “answerable action” is
created for you. You can answer (shout) answerable actions that are created for you. Exposed: When a card or ailment has no card on it, it is exposed, and can be targeted and affected by effects.
Own: Cards that began the encounter in your own deck are owned by you. You can control a card you do not own for example, if an opponent plays one of their boons on an ailment you control; you would control that boon, but not own it.
Card: Either a concentration, defense card or runespell in play and anything in a player’s hand is a card. Ailments, Runeslingers, stances and abilities are not cards. Target: In order to play this card, you must be able to assign a valid target for each effect on this card that targets. After this card is played, if a target of this card’s effect leaves the field, the effect in question has no effect since it has no valid target.
Hit: A “hit” is achieved when a damage effect deals at least 1 point of damage to its target. Certain effects are only damage if they damage preceding them “hits” its target.