███ ████ ███ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ ██ █ █ █ ███ █ ██ █ ██ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ ███ ████ ███ █ █ █ █ ████ ██ ███ ███ ████ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ ███ █ █ ███ █ ██ ███ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ ██ █ █ ███ ████
Playtest v0.2 — the whole rulebook, one page.
Quickstart
The short version. Full rules: MENU
1. Split your deck: aces and jokers
are Monsters, face cards are
Adventurers, number cards are
Equipment. A new deck's Monsters
are blank until you lose.
2. Shuffle every player's Monsters
into one shared pile. That pile is
the dungeon and the timer.
3. Draw 3 Adventurers face up. Draw 7
Equipment to hand. Hand limit 7.
4. Work out what you have to beat:
25 × players + monsters +
modifiers.
5. Each round everyone takes 3
actions at the same time - Draw,
Hire, Equip, Cast - then one
Monster is drawn and hits the whole
band.
6. Discard Adventurers matching the
Monster's suit, and their gear with
them. If what they were carrying
beat the Monster's attack, it dies
too.
7. After that attack, total every
equipped card still in play. Over
the Dungeon Strength? Cleared.
+150 XP.
8. Out of monsters with the dungeon
still standing, or out of
Adventurers? You fell. Take a scar:
inscribe a new Monster and upgrade
one piece of Equipment. +10 XP.
The one thing people miss: you check whether the dungeon is cleared after the monster attacks, not before. The gear you just lost does not count.
1. WHAT IS THIS
Start with a plain deck of cards. Then deface it.
Inscribe Qi Words. Scrawl in mutations. Ink your own equipment and art. Every word you write is permanent.
┌────────┐ ┌────────┐ ┌────────┐ │Q ♠│ │7 ♥│ │4 ♦│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ████ │ │ ▓▓▓▓ │ │ ▚▚▚▚ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │♠ Q│ │♥ 7│ │♦ 4│ └────────┘ └────────┘ └────────┘ ADVENTURER EQUIPMENT MONSTER
What you are left with is a dungeon that remembers every game you have played.
THREE DECKS OUT OF ONE
Your deck becomes three: the Adventurers you send in, the Equipment you hang on them, and the Monsters you have already lost to.
That last one is the important one. Monsters are not printed - they are earned. Every dungeon that beats you leaves a Monster behind, inscribed in your own handwriting, and every dungeon after that has to get past it.
2. WHAT YOU NEED
ON THE TABLE
▪ A standard deck of cards, jokers in ▪ A marker or Sharpie ▪ A Lexicon to pull words from
YOUR LEXICON
Use this one - LEXICON - which is part of this terminal and holds every Qi Word the game has agreed on.
Or bring your own. A small pocket notebook and a rubber band does the job and always has: the notebook keeps your words, the band keeps the deck.
Most tables end up with both - one to pull from, one to write in.
WHAT YOU BUILD
One deck splits three ways, and it splits the same way for everybody:
MONSTERS aces and jokers 6 ADVENTURERS face cards 12 EQUIPMENT number cards 36
That is the whole deck. Nothing is left over and nothing is added.
Two or more players. Everyone brings their own deck, and every deck is different, because every deck has lost different fights.
The marker is not optional. This is a game you write on.
3. THE OBJECTIVE
Survive the dungeon's monsters and out-gear it.
Clear the dungeon when your equipped card values outmuscle its Strength - and you check that after a monster attacks, never before.
┌──────────────────────────────────┐ │ DUNGEON STRENGTH │ │ │ │ 25 × PLAYERS │ │ + MONSTERS │ │ + MODIFIERS │ └──────────────────────────────────┘
THE CLOCK
The clock is the Monster pile itself.
If the last monster attacks and the dungeon still stands, your band has run out of time - and failed.
So the pile is both the threat and the timer. A big shared pile is a long game you are more likely to lose.
4. SETUP
0. WHAT EVERYBODY BRINGS
Before anything is shuffled: every player brings their own deck and their own Lexicon.
One standard deck each - brand new or already defaced - and something to pull words from. See 2.
Nobody plays out of somebody else's deck. The scars on yours are yours, and the dungeon is built out of whatever everyone drags to the table.
1. SPLIT YOUR DECK
Three piles, the same three for everyone at the table:
MONSTERS aces and jokers 6 ADVENTURERS face cards 12 EQUIPMENT number cards 36
A new deck's Monsters are blank cards. What gets written on them is what you lost to - see FALL.
2. ADVENTURERS
1. Shuffle your Adventurer deck. 2. Draw 3 face up in front of you. 3. Set the rest aside.
3. MONSTERS
1. Put your initials on your Monster
cards first. Everyone's monsters go
into one pile and somebody has to
be able to hand them back.
2. Combine all players' Monster decks
into that one shared Monster pile.
3. Shuffle it well. This is the
dungeon.
A corner initial does it. It is your deck - you are allowed to write on it.
4. EQUIPMENT
1. Shuffle your Equipment deck.
2. Draw 7 cards into your hand.
3. Your hand limit is 7 - never hold
more.
NAME YOUR DECK
Once your deck clears its first dungeon, you will give it a name. It is yours now, scars and all.
5. THE ROUND
┌───────────────┐
│ READY │
└───────┬───────┘
│
┌───────▼───────┐
│ PLAYER TURN │
└───────┬───────┘
│
┌───────▼───────┐
│ MONSTER ATTACK│
└───────┬───────┘
│
└───────◀───────┘
1 ▸ READY
Take 3 Actions - Draw, Hire, Equip or Cast. Resolve every Qi Word immediately. Draw back up to a full hand.
2 ▸ PLAYER TURN
Spend the 3 Actions. All players act simultaneously - resolve them in any order. See 6 for the four actions in full.
3 ▸ MONSTER ATTACK
Draw 1 card from the Monster pile. It strikes the whole band at once. See 7.
Then check the dungeon - see 8 - and go round again.
6. YOUR THREE ACTIONS
Three per turn. Every player acts at the same time, in any order.
▶ DRAW
Draw Equipment or a Hero from its deck into your hand.
▶ HIRE
Play a Hero from your hand into an empty slot. Every player has three slots in total.
▶ EQUIP
Play a piece of Equipment onto a Hero in play. Equipping nullifies its Qi Word - the card is worth its face value and nothing else.
▶ CAST
Use a piece of Equipment's Qi Word instead of equipping it. The effect lasts this turn only, and the card is discarded at the end of the turn.
THE TRADE
Every card is one or the other, never both. Equip it, or cast its Qi Word.
Equip is permanent value that counts toward clearing the dungeon. Cast is a one-turn effect that burns the card.
7. THE MONSTER ATTACK
Draw 1 card from the Monster pile, plus one more for every escalation the dungeon has had. Each strikes the whole band at once - not one player, all of them.
1. Every player discards Adventurers
matching the Monster's suit.
Their equipment goes too.
2. Resolve any mutation and Qi Word
effects.
3. Hit Adventurers retaliate.
RETALIATION
If the combined equipped value of the Adventurers that were hit is greater than the Monster's total attack, the Monster is slain - discarded from the dungeon, adding nothing to Dungeon Strength.
So the cards you just lost can still take the monster down with them.
JOKERS AND ESCALATION
The dungeon is laid out in rows. A row holds at most two jokers.
Draw a joker and place it in the first row with room. Placed, it does what jokers do:
┌── a placed joker ──────────────┐ │ Every equipped piece of │ │ Equipment, on EVERY player's │ │ Adventurers, is discarded. │ └────────────────────────────────┘
If every row is already full, the joker has nowhere to go. It escalates instead:
▪ add a new row to the dungeon
▪ it does not wipe equipment
▪ from now on, every Monster Attack
draws one extra Monster, for this and
each further escalation
ROW 1 [J][J] full
ROW 2 [J][ ] room for one more
ROW 3 .... the next escalation
opens this one
So the 3rd joker escalates. The 4th and 5th wipe equipment in the new row. The 6th escalates again. And on it goes.
An escalating joker is the dungeon getting wider, not meaner: you keep your gear, and pay for it every round after.
8. CLEARING THE DUNGEON
After a monster attacks, total the face values of all equipped cards in play. Beat the Dungeon Strength and the dungeon is cleared.
WHAT THE BAND TAKES
▪ The band gains experience. Monsters do not mutate and Equipment is not inscribed. ▪ Randomly draw 1 Adventurer and a Qi Word from the Adventurer Lexicon, then inscribe it on that Adventurer. ▪ Add +150 XP to the deck. ┌── level up ────────────────────┐ │ Clear TWO dungeons in a row │ │ and your deck levels up. │ │ │ │ Write +1 on every Monster, so │ │ their base value stays equal │ │ to your new Level. │ └────────────────────────────────┘
Levelling makes your own monsters hit harder, forever. Getting stronger is also how the dungeon gets stronger.
9. WHEN YOU FALL
Failure is the rule, not the exception. Clearing a dungeon is hard and takes experience - most runs end in scars, and that is how a deck earns its story.
When your band falls, you leave the dungeon stronger. In order:
1. Draw one uninscribed Monster from
your deck. None left? Skip this
step.
2. Draw 1 random piece of Equipment
from your Equipment deck. Its
number is the monster's modifier.
3. Pick or invent a monster Qi Word
from the Lexicon and inscribe it on
the Monster with that modifier.
Invented it? Submit it to the
Lexicon for a moderator's review.
4. Upgrade that drawn piece of
Equipment with its own Qi Word -
but no modifier.
You lost, so the dungeon got a new monster with your handwriting on it - and you got a better weapon. Both are permanent. Both come back next game.
10. ELIMINATION
▪ Exhaust your last Adventurer and you leave the dungeon. ▪ If anyone is driven out, the dungeon wins - the whole band takes a scar. ▪ Even in defeat the deck levels up: add +10 XP on the box.
One player running dry ends it for everyone. Keeping the weakest band alive is not charity, it is the win condition.
11. XP AND LEGEND
Game after game, drive your deck toward legendary status - the rank it earns the moment it banks 1000+ XP.
████ ███ ███ ███
██ █ █ █ █ █ █ XP
██ █ █ █ █ █ █ TO
██ █ █ █ █ █ █ LEGEND
████ ███ ███ ███
WHERE XP COMES FROM
CLEARED A DUNGEON ......... +150 FELL / DRIVEN OUT ......... +10
LEVELS
Clear two dungeons in a row and your deck levels up. Your Level is the base value of every Monster, so write +1 on each of them when it happens.
12. QI WORDS
A Qi Word is a word inscribed on a card - its permanent power. Monster words and equipment words alike live in the online Lexicon, or in your own hand-written pocket lexicon. Pull from either when you inscribe a card.
COINING YOUR OWN
Invent your own Qi Words and submit them to the Lexicon. A coined word should add texture and risk to the dungeon - not a shortcut out of it.
A word you send is in your Lexicon straight away, and in everybody else's once a moderator approves it.
▪ A term may never intentionally end the dungeon. ▪ A term may never intentionally win the dungeon. ▪ A term may be challenged as OP by other players and require modification. ▪ A term may not make the game not fun. ▪ A term may not violate the spirit of the game.
WHAT GOES ON THE CARD
Only the Qi Word itself. Not what it does, not the rule, not a sentence explaining it. There is no room, and that is what a Lexicon is for.
Keep your own pocket lexicon and write each Qi Word into it as you inscribe it on the card. Looking one up mid-game is far quicker out of your own notebook than off a screen.
HOW TO WRITE ONE
The sentence that argues least at a table is the one that says when it fires and then what it does: If ... then ...
┌── an example ──────────────────┐ │ EMBERCLAW │ │ │ │ If the Monster that hit this │ │ Adventurer is ♦, then this │ │ card counts as +3 when they │ │ retaliate. │ └────────────────────────────────┘
Trigger first, effect second, nothing else in the sentence. Written that way the table can settle an argument by reading it once.
CARD TERMS
QI WORD
A word inscribed on a card - its permanent power.
EQUIPPED
Equipment attached onto an Adventurer.
DISCARDED
Gone for good - removed from this game.
13. GLOSSARY
Try DEFINE SCAR for one at a time.
QI WORD
A word inscribed on a card - its permanent power.
EQUIPPED
Equipment attached onto an Adventurer.
DISCARDED
Gone for good - removed from this game.
ADVENTURER
A card from your Adventurer deck. You start a dungeon with 3 face up.
EQUIPMENT
A card you hang on an Adventurer. Its face value counts toward clearing the dungeon.
MONSTER
An inscribed card in the shared pile. Base value = your deck's Level, plus its written modifier.
ROW
One escalation of the dungeon. A row holds at most two jokers.
ESCALATION
What a joker does when every row is full: it adds a new row instead of wiping equipment, and every Monster Attack from then on draws one extra Monster per escalation.
MONSTER PILE
Every player's Monsters, shuffled together. It is the dungeon, and it is the clock.
DUNGEON STRENGTH
25 × players + monsters + modifiers. Beat it with equipped value to clear.
MODIFIER
The number written on a Monster when it was inscribed, added to its base value.
LEVEL
Your deck's rank. It is the base value of all your Monsters. Two clears in a row raises it.
SCAR
What a lost dungeon leaves behind: a new inscribed Monster and an upgraded piece of Equipment.
XP
Banked on the box. +150 for a clear, +10 for a fall. 1000+ is legendary.
LEXICON
The online dictionary of every Qi Word, and where coined words go for review.
That is the whole rulebook.
The Lexicon
The dictionary of every Qi Word - adventurer, equipment and monster words alike. Pull from it when you inscribe a card.
It is not somewhere else. It is this terminal: tap WORDS along the bottom to browse the whole list, or FIND to search it. The list is kept on your device, so it still answers at a table with no signal.
Credits
DecknForge is in active playtest. These rules are v0.2 and they will change.
THE SHAPE OF IT
A legacy game with no box to buy. The components are a deck of cards you already own and a marker. Everything that makes your copy yours, you wrote on it yourself - and most of it you wrote because you lost.
THE PARTS
▪ The rules and the Lexicon, both in here. Tap RULES or WORDS. ▪ Coining a word means signing in, and that part lives in the companion app.
decknforge.jon-2fc.workers.dev/me
"Now go deface a deck."