Rules and Hero System
Return to Home.
- Match setup and draft flow
- Live-play rules
- Implemented hero clarifications
- Theme mapping from Ringbound to Thronebound
The realm deck contains 36 cards: four dominions with ranks 6 through Ace. The hero deck contains 12 unique special cards. At match start:
- Each player receives one realm card from the shuffled realm deck.
- Those two opening cards determine draft order and the first attacker.
- One additional realm card is revealed as the crowned dominion for the match.
- The game reveals 10 more realm cards and 8 hero cards as shared visible draft pools.
- Players alternate drafting until both draft caps are filled or no legal picks remain.
Each player finishes with a maximum of 6 realm cards and 4 hero cards, counting the opening realm card. R1 R3
During play, the attacker leads with a realm card. The defender must answer the newest attack with a higher card of the same dominion or a valid crowned-dominion card. If the defense succeeds, the attacker may reinforce with a card whose rank matches one already on the table unless a hero effect changes the rule.
If the defender cannot or chooses not to continue:
- The defender concedes the round.
- The defender takes one wound.
- The attacker keeps initiative for the next round.
If the round is fully defended:
- The roles swap.
- Both players clean up and draw back toward six realm cards while the realm deck still has cards.
A player loses immediately upon reaching six wounds. Once the realm deck is empty, the code applies this tiebreak order:
- First player to empty all realm cards wins.
- If both realm hands are empty, fewer wounds wins.
- If wounds are tied, fewer total remaining cards wins.
- If everything is equal, the game selects a winner at random and records the reason on the game-over screen. R1
The hero system is the most rules-dense part of the project, so the current build's exact behavior matters. These are the important implementation notes carried over from the report:
| Topic | Implemented behavior |
|---|---|
Asclepius timing |
May be used whenever that player has wounds remaining; the code does not restrict it to a narrow phase window. |
Autolycus timing |
Lets the player who used it choose a temporary crowned dominion for the current round. |
Circe timing |
Names one dominion that the defender cannot play for the rest of the round. |
Ares timing |
Must be paired with an attack card, and the extra wound applies only if that specific attack survives through a fully defended round end. |
| Conceded defense cleanup | Attack cards are discarded, but defense cards already played return to the defender's hand. |
| Deck-empty endgame | The code checks empty realm hands first, then wounds, then total remaining cards; it does not require all hero cards to be spent first. |
For the source-level implementation of these rules, see:
- Hero handling:
ringbound_game/heroes.py - Combat and legality checks:
ringbound_game/combat.py,ringbound_game/rules.py - Round cleanup and endgame:
ringbound_game/rounds.py - Browser rewrite parity notes:
WEB_REWRITE.md
The player-facing hero roster has been rethemed. Internally, several IDs still use older Ringbound names, which is why both naming systems appear in the code.
| Legacy Ringbound character | Current Thronebound character | Current ability |
|---|---|---|
| Aragorn | Odysseus | Return one played attack card to your hand |
| Legolas | Achilles | Add one attack card regardless of rank |
| Gandalf | Athena | Cancel one non-crown attack |
| Galadriel | Asclepius | Heal two wounds at any time |
| Frodo | Hermes | Disable the crowned dominion for one round |
| Boromir | Ajax | Auto-defend one attack; attacker discards one random card |
| Nazgul | Hades | Defender may use only crown cards |
| Saruman | Medea | Exchange one card with defender's highest or crown card |
| Sauron | Argus Panoptes | View opponent's hand |
| Balrog | Ares | Inflict one wound even if fully defended |
| Gollum | Autolycus | Redefine the crown suit for one round |
| Wormtongue | Circe | Name a dominion the defender cannot play this round |
The canonical current hero data lives in data/hero_cards.json.
| Legacy Ringbound region | Current Thronebound dominion |
|---|---|
| Gondor | Verdant Court |
| Shire | Ember Throne |
| Rohan | Tidewake Dominion |
| Mordor | Obsidian Veil |
Dominion identity and art-direction notes live in data/dominions.json.
| Hero | Card art |
|---|---|
| Odysseus |  |
| Achilles |  |
| Athena |  |
| Medea |  |
- For architecture and module responsibilities, continue to Architecture and Code Map.
- For balance evidence and testing results, continue to Testing and Results.