A card game of chromatic conjuration and collection.
This document contains a list of rules and frequently asked questions about Colōris Arcānum gameplay. These official Colōris Arcānum Rules are currently in an alpha version and will change. If the official rules do not cover a problem, players should come up with their own answers. If this happens please submit the details as an issue on GitHub.
Colōris Arcānum is a game centered around conjuring and collecting colors, attacking opponents, and surviving cataclysms. The main goal of Colōris Arcānum is to be the first player to complete 3 full-color sets. To achieve this goal players use action cards to attack, swap cards, use spells, and a whole lot more.
After initiative, each player deals 5 cards at the start of the game. At the beginning of each turn, players will add 2 cards to their hand from the remaining draw pile. At the end of a turn, a player cannot have more than 7 cards in their hand. If they do, they will need to discard their chosen excess cards into the discard pile. If at the end of a turn a player has run out of cards, they will need to draw 5 at the start of their next turn.
Each player can play up to 3 cards per turn. A play is any time a card is placed on the table. A play could be putting mana into your mana pool, colors on the table, or action cards into the partition zone. You do not need to play all 3 cards per turn if you do not want to. Some cards such as deck and cataclysm cards do not count as plays.
Step 1: Determining the dealer and player initiative. Each player will grab a card from the deck. The player possessing the card with the highest mana value is the dealer and will go first after dealing.
Step 2: Shuffle the deck. The game has more cards than a typical deck so the dealer may need to split the cards up to provide an adequate shuffle.
Step 3: Dealing the cards. Each player will receive 5 cards. Deal one card to each player one at a time.
Step 4: Setup the game. Put the remaining cards in the partition zone face down. This will be the draw pile.
Step 5: Begin the game. Start play with the dealer and play clockwise around the table.
There are four places where cards are played during a turn:
- A player can play a mana card or action card face up in their mana pool.
- A player can play cards face up in the partition zone.
- A player can move color cards from the partition zone face up to their color section.
- A player can add any card in-hand to the discard pile.
There are several ways to accumulate mana into the mana pool.
First, a player can put mana cards or action cards into the mana pool from their hand. If you put an action card into your pool, it becomes a mana card for the rest of the game. If you give an action card to another player, it must go straight into their mana pool and cannot be used for its action.
Players may also use a combination of color, enhancement, and attack cards to take mana from other players. But remember other players can always set up defenses and losing an attack will cost the attacker.
Players can attack other players for mana from their pool, colors cards, or a combination of both. The defending player chooses how they want to dispense their cards – not the attacker. A player can never give up cards from their hand, only from the cards already in play.
Mana cannot be broken. For example, if a player attacks for ◇2 and then the defender only has ◇3 in their pool, they don’t get ◇1 back. If a player has no mana or chooses to give up a color card, that card can only go into the attacking player’s color collection. If a player has no useable cards on the table then the player does not dispense any cards to the attacker.
Cards do not go back into a player’s hand from the mana pool. (That is unless they use the resurrection spell card.)
There is one defense card for every color set.
Action cards allow players to do things like attack other players, steal cards, and use spells. Follow the rules and instructions for each action card printed on the card.
Action cards can also be used for mana in the mana pool. The mana value for each action card is shown in the corner.
Remember, capturing 3 different colored-sets wins the game. Each color card will need other color cards of the same type to create a complete color-set. The colors Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Purple, Magenta are in sets of three. While White and Grey are color-sets of two. With Black being unique as the only color with a set of four cards. There are also two wild cards which can be used to substitute any color.
Each color card has an activation cost requiring the player to spend mana to capture the card.
A player can only organize their color collection on their turn. If the player realizes they've won during another player's turn, they must wait until it’s their turn to win. Players may collect as many colors as they want, but they must have 3 full sets (of different colors) to win the game.