The game's rules

The decks

Destinies

Destiny represents the main cards you have. The first edition of The First Spine has 4 destinies, namely the Conjurer, the Summoner, the Sorcerer and the Hunter.

Origins

The origin represents where your player comes from, and the cards that will complete your starting deck. The origin must remain secret and complete your deck with 6 additional cards. Remember: if you play a card of your origin, expect to reveal your strategy.

Healer

The healer has a healing spell and a whole range of defenses.

Architect

The architect can modify the playing field as he pleases.

Priest

The Priest knows the pangs of pain and uses it for his own ends.

Blacksmith

The Blacksmith can increase the defense of his cards and use a deadly hammer.

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The essentials

Objective of the game

The First Spine is a board and card game, in the sense that players draw cards, and can put them down and play them on a game board.

Choose a destiny and an origin for your character, and reduce to 0 the hit points of your opponents by placing the cards on the game board.

Content of the game

Installation

1 Choose a destiny

Each player chooses a destiny and takes the respective destiny and origin decks. They place the sorcerer card in front of them in the center of the end of the game board which is closest to them..

2 Choose an origin

Each player chooses and draws the six original cards from the origins deck, marked with the same letter in the lower right on a silver background. The remaining cards must be put offside.

3 Start-up

Players shuffle their cards and draw 6 cards to form their starting hand.

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The cards

Card types

Stats & capacities

Special cards

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Game play

Start-up

Each part is broken down into turns going in a clockwise order. Each turn contains 3 phases of games to be played in order: discard / draw, actions and finally confrontations.

Before playing

The player who starts is the one who lost a previous game. If no game has been played before, the one who got up the earliest starts.

Before the turn

Before starting your turn, effects that happen “before your turn” resolve before the discard / draw phase.

Discard & Draw

You can discard a card, i.e. put it in your discard pile. You can discard additional cards, for one hit point per card.

Then, you have to draw cards to have a hand of six cards.

This phase must be played at the start of each round and is mandatory.

If you cannot draw enough cards at the start of your turn to make up your hand, your wizard loses 1 life for each card you cannot draw.

Actions

Confrontations

Procedure

If a creature you control is placed next to another card controlled by an opponent the cards must enter into confrontation. If one of your cards must confront several cards, you choose the card with which it enters into confrontation.

During a confrontation, you must calculate the hit points lost by each card. To do this, you must take the attack (in red) on the side of the confronting cards and subtract the defense (in blue) from their opposite card. The result obtained must be deducted from the hit points of the cards..

The confrontation phase must close the player's turn.

Example

In the example above, The Paladin belongs to the active player and enters into confrontation with the Barbed Wire.

The Paladin inflicts 3 - 0 life points to the Barbed Wire, so 3 hit points in total. The Barbed Wire inflicts 4 - 2 hit points, so 2 hit points in total.

The Barbed wire is therefore destroyed and goes to the owner's discard pile. The Paladin stays in play with 2 hit points.

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The capacities

Card capacities

Death

If the card loses at least one life point, it is destroyed. If the card is destroyed by a creature or artifact, that creature or artifact is destroyed.

Treason

If the card is destroyed by an opponent, it must be returned to the board in the same place and checked by the opponent who destroyed it. The card loses this ability once it has been returned to the game. If the card must go to a discard pile, it must be put in the discard of its original owner.

Run

At the start of your turn (before the draw phase), you can move one of the cards that has this ability.

Burden earth

If the card is destroyed by another card, the space occupied by this card can only be used from your next turn.

Growth

The card wins 1 each owner's turn for 5 turns.

Side capacities

Threat

The card confronts with other cards placed on the side of the ability.

Aura

The card placed on the side of the ability wins 2 for all sides as long as it is controlled by the same player.

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Special cases

Here are some rules that will help you if conflicts arise during the game:

Capacities vs. Effects

Capacities (symbols on cards) take priority over effects (text on cards).

Multiple abilities and effects at the same time

If multiple abilities are to be played at the same time, they resolve in the order of the abilities presented in this rule. An effect composed of several sentences is considered to be a series of effects. If several effects must be played at the same time, the active player has priority over these effects.

Card vs rule

If a card contradicts the rules, the card wins.

Card vs card

If two cards contradict each other, the one saying you can't do anything wins out over the one saying you can do it.