Rules

CIDWaM is a game for two players. Players take turns drawing cards from randomized decks, and using those cards to represent a combat scenario. The goal of the game is to reduce your opponent's Life Points to zero.

Supplies:

In order to play CIDWaM, both players will need:

• A deck of at least 40 cards
• a set of polyhedral dice
• assorted counters, or some method of tracking numbers

Also suggested is a 6x6 grid playmat (rough image here). Only one of these is needed. On every space where four corners of spaces align, there's another space. (The regular grid spaces are for Souls, and the in-between spaces are the Environment slots.)

On Deckbuilding:

Your deck can contain as many copies as you like of any given card, with the exception of cards with the "Mythic" type. You may only have three copies of any given "Mythic" card in your deck. Your deck must contain a minimum of 40 cards, but there is no maximum. Other than that, there are currently no restrictions, no formats, and no banned cards.

Setup:

• Each player shuffles their deck thoroughly. They may agree to present their deck to their opponent to "cut".
• Each player sets their life counters to 30
• Each player earns 2 coins
• Each player draws the top five cards of their deck to become their starting hand, and they may play up to one 0-value Soul and/or spend their two coins on Souls from their hands.
• Each player takes the top card of their deck and places it face down in their Incantation Zone to become a Shield Card.
• Each player rolls a d20. The highest number determines who goes first.

Typical turn order:

• Earn a Coin.
• Draw a card. If you would draw a card and there are no cards in your deck, shuffle your discard into your deck and then draw a card.
• Beginning of turn effects (if you have multiple, you choose the order.)
• Summon phase
• Movement/Combat Phase
• End of turn effects (same as above)
• Other player’s turn begins.

Summon Phase:

During your summon phase, you play cards from your hand in order to build up your board presence and tip the scales in your favor before you move in and attack. You can play a Soul into any space in your Zone (the two rows closest to you) that does not already have a Soul in it, and Environments into any Environment space on the board. Other card types have specific ways to play them as defined in the Card Types section.
All cards have values, which must be paid with Coins. You earn one Coin at the beginning of each of your turns. To earn extra Coins, you can do one of two things: discard cards from your hand, earning one Coin per card, or discarding a Shield card, earning the Coin value of the card.
You may play as many cards from your hand as you like, as long as you can pay for them. However: you may only have 6 Souls on the board at a time, and 6 full Incantation slots (which may be filled with Incantations or Shield Cards). You also may not play an Environment if all Environment slots are full. Some cards have “on play” effects, and these trigger as soon as you play the card. If multiple “on play” effects would trigger at once, the controller chooses the order. You can’t play a Soul in the same space as another Soul, as two Souls can’t occupy the same space.
Also during your Summon phase, you have the opportunity to manipulate your Shield cards. As many times as you like per turn, you may:

• pay two Coins to place the top card of your deck face down in an empty Incantation slot. This is a Shield Card, which counts as an Incantation. If you take direct damage while you have a Shield Card, choose one of your Shields to be broken, and the damage is prevented. The card goes into your hand.
• discard one of your Shield Cards, which allows you to earn equal to its value.

Move/Combat Phase:

Once you have finished playing cards, you move onto the Move/Combat phase. Each Soul has a movement pattern that determines how they move around the board. For each Soul you control, in whatever order you please, make the decision whether or not to move that Soul. If they move, follow their movement pattern. Some patterns will give you a choice as to what direction to move. This is determined on a card-by-card basis. Your Souls cannot move through your opponent’s Souls, and Souls cannot end their movement in the same space as another Soul.
Once you have moved or not moved the Soul, if it ends up adjacent to an opponent’s Soul, you then choose to fight or not. In a fight, each Soul rolls its Hit Dice, and then bonuses are applied, and then the numbers are compared. The Soul with the higher roll wins, and subtracts the lower roll from its roll this turn, and the Soul with the lower roll is discarded. If your movement puts your Soul adjacent to multiple Souls your opponent controls, you get to choose the initial target, but your opponent may then choose to have the other Souls fight your Soul. In this case, your Soul does not roll again, but instead retains its original roll, which has already had the first fight’s number subtracted.
When a Soul you control is in the row closest to your opponent, it is within range to attack them directly. This attack is treated like a normal combat, except that the number you roll on the Hit Dice is subtracted from your opponent’s life point total. If your opponent has a Shield Card, instead of taking damage, the Shield is broken and they put that card into their hand. Or, if your opponent has any Incantations, they may choose to discard one instead of taking damage.

[a small note on the playtest version of CIDWaM - for simplicity’s sake, I’ve reduced the available movement patterns to those of standard chess pieces. This will not be the only option for movement in future versions of the game, but the notation for movement patterns is still being workshopped. In the meantime, to clear up any confusion, Souls move *exactly* like their chess counterparts. This means that pawns cannot turn; they can only move forward one space, or two spaces from their starting position. This freedom of movement was something that pawns had access to in closed playtests, but this has changed. Pieces still can only attack in adjacent positions. In addition, castling, promotion, and en passant, advanced chess moves, are not part of CIDWaM’s ruleset.]

How to Win:

You win the game by reducing your opponent’s Life Points to zero. Whenever a Soul you control is in the row closest to your opponent, it may attack your opponent directly. If your opponent has no Shield Cards, and chooses not to discard an Incantation, roll the attacking Soul’s Hit Dice, and then your opponent subtracts the result from their Life Points.

Card Types:

• Souls
  • These are your main game pieces that stick around on the board. They represent a living thing. When you play a Soul, you place it into an empty space in your zone. You can only control six Souls at a time. Souls have a movement pattern that denotes how they’re able to move through the grid of spaces. They also have Hit Dice, which denotes how strong they are and what their potential for damage-dealing is. Some Souls may have additional attributes called effects, that can happen when they’re played from your hand, while they’re on the field, when they get into combat, when they die, or anything else! Some attributes have been abstracted into keywords in order to save space, which can be found in the Glossary.
• Spells
  • These are one-time use cards that have a specific effect. They represent a magical attack or other legerdemain. When you play a Spell, you follow what the card says, carrying out any events, and then put the card into the discard pile.
• Environments
  • These are like special overlays that go into Environment slots on the board. They give the surrounding four spaces a special attribute. When you play an Environment, you choose a slot on the board for it to get played into. Once all of the Environment slots on a board are filled, no more Environments can be played.
• Incantations
  • These are effects that are ongoing, and affect more than one piece at a time. They represent huge and powerful magical spells that endure for longer than a split second. You have six Incantation slots, and whenever you play an Incantation or a Shield Card you place it into one of these slots. If all of your Incantation slots are full, you may choose to discard one, but if you discard a Shield Card this way you don’t earn from it or put it into your hand.
• Relics
  • These are cards that get attached to other cards in order to give them extra effects. These effects may be ongoing and restricted to a single piece, or they may bestow a payment effect. They represent mysterious artifacts or powerful magical items. When you play a Relic, you choose a valid piece to attach it to. The card will inform you what kind of piece it can be attached to. If the piece that a Relic is attached to is discarded, that Relic is discarded as well.
• Personas (under construction)
  • These are not exactly “cards” in the game’s understanding of the term “card”, but they are physically cards, so they’ll go in this section. Personas are special game pieces that give you access to abilities. They represent the role being played by the player. Every deck has a Persona, and each player has full access to know what both players’ Personas are and do. Sometimes they have an ability that is always on, and sometimes they give you access to a payment ability. If your Persona’s ability is a payment ability, you are generally allowed to activate it as many times as you are able to pay for, whenever you’d like. (Some Personas will come with caveats to this, of course.)

Codified Tokens:

Some cards tell you to make a specific token, listed only by its name. This is to economize card space and make cards more legible. The Codified Tokens are specified here. The best way to represent these tokens while playing is with a small piece of paper or a notecard with the relevant information written on it, or with a specially preprepared token.

• Generic Soul Token: a token Soul with no name, no type, no value, a hit die of 1d4, and the ability to move one space in any direction.
• Rat Token: a token Soul with the name Rat, the type Vermin, no value, a hit die of 1, and the ability to move one space in any direction.
• For Sale token: a token Environment with “Pay 3: Discard this Environment. Either player may pay for this.”

Glossary:

This glossary is organized alphabetically for ease of use.

• Adjacent: next to, in any one of the four cardinal directions. not diagonal.
• Advantage: roll a Soul’s hit dice twice, and use the result that is higher.
• Agile: This Soul can attack diagonally.
• Backup: If an adjacent ally Soul is attacking or being attacked, they can add this Soul’s Hit Dice to their Roll.
• Board: the playspace of the game, as represented by the 6x6 grid and its Environment spaces and Incantation slots. Cards in hands and decks, cards outside the game, and any counters used to track life totals or coin totals are not “on the board”, but counters used as a game mechanic to track something on a specific Piece(like a +1 counter or similar) are considered “on the board”.
• Card: a physical game piece. you know what a card is. In the game, the word “card” refers to any Piece that is not currently on the board (this includes cards in hands and decks, as well as outside the game.)
• Coin: a game abstraction that represents currency. The Coin totals of each player are public knowledge, and must be kept track of at all times. You can track them with physical counters, but this is not required. There is no limit on how many Coins you can have. If you have to pay a certain amount of Coins, and you do not have that many Coins, you can’t pay that cost.
• Copy: A token that represents a preexisting card with the specified name.
• Counter: an arbitrary game piece that is used to keep track of a number. You can use anything you want to denote counters as long as it is clear and understandable. If a Piece with counters on it would go anywhere except the board, the counters fall off.
• Curate: Look at the top card of your deck. You may discard it or put it back.
• Deck: a preconfigured unique stack of cards that each player brings to the game.
• Destroy: to put into the discard from the board.
• Discard: As a verb, this means to put something into your discard. As a noun, this means a pile of cards that have been used already. When something instructs you to discard, you take the card and put it into the discard pile.
• Draw: to put the top card of the deck into your hand.
• Earn: to gain an amount of Coins. There is no limit on how many Coins you can have.
• Effect: something that causes the game state to change. Any card type may have Effects.
• Environment: see Card Types.
• Flight: This soul can move through opponents’ Souls.
• Hand: the selection of cards that you have immediately available to you to play the game with.
• Here: a word that means “in the four spaces that this Environment governs”.
• Hit Dice: the number of dice and small bonuses denoted on a Soul. usually formatted as something like 1d6, where the number before the d is how many dice to roll, and the number after it is how many sides those dice should have. If there is a bonus (like +3) after the dice (eg, 1d6+3), the bonus is applied after the dice are rolled. If the Hit Die is just a number, then the Soul’s roll will always be that number (unless it’s given a bonus).
• Incantation: see Card Types.
• Keyword: an attribute or effect on any card type that has been shortened to save physical space on a card.
• Max Out: Use the highest possible roll of the die or group of dice you’re currently rolling.
• Pay: to lose an amount of Coins. If you have to pay a certain amount of Coins, and you do not have that many Coins, you can’t pay that cost.
• Payment Effect: an effect that only happens when a certain amount of Coins are paid.
• Persona: see Card Types.
• Piece: a general term given to a card that is currently in play. A card that is anywhere else but the board is a card, but they become pieces when they are on the board. (Your Incantation Slots count as being “on the board”.
• Play: to pay Coins equal to a card’s value and put it in its appropriate place on the board (or not, if it is a Spell) and carry out its immediate effects.
• Range [number]: This Soul can attack from [number] spaces away.
• Relic: see Card Types.
• Resilient [number]: When you play this Soul, put [number] life counters on it. If it would lose in combat, remove a life counter from it instead. If you can’t, destroy it.
• Roll: the result of rolling a Soul’s Hit Dice. Souls can only roll their hit dice once per turn.
• Secret:this card gets played face-down. It can be turned face up when a cost is paid or a condition is met. (this will be denoted on the card.)
• Soul: see Card Types.
• Space: a singular square on the 6x6 board that the game is played on.
• Spell: see Card Types.
• Swift: you may play this Soul into the Neutral Zone (the middle two rows of the board).
• Team-up: this Soul may occupy the same space as any number of Souls with Team-up (and up to one without). A Team-up has the combined Hit Dice and abilities of all Souls in the stack, and their controller chooses one of their movement patterns to use each turn.
• Token: a non-physical Piece that is usually created by another Piece or a Persona. You can use anything you like to denote tokens, as long as it is clear and understandable. Tokens of Pieces are treated exactly like cards that have become Pieces, except that they don’t exist before they’re created, and stop existing if they leave play. There are a few tokens that are identified only by their name, and these are explained in the Codified Tokens section.
• Token Copy: see Copy.
• Value: How many coins a card costs to play.
• Zone: the board is divided into three Zones: your Zone (the two rows closest to you), the Neutral Zone (the middle two rows of the board), and your opponent’s Zone (the two rows furthest from you).