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Poker deckTarot deckDice

I. Components

Cards preparationPlayer’s HandShadow Gallery

II. Game Setup

First PlayerRounds1. Move2. Activation3. Summoning4. Discard

III. Player’s turn

Determining diceExploding dieRerrolsDamage types

IIII. Attack

SummoningActivatingRiskingDiscarding

V. The Fool

ConditionsFinal RoundsScoring

VI. End Game

Overkill

233

456

Make peace 6

77

788

99

10

11111111

10

7

10

12

1312

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Poker deckThe 52 (or 56) cards from the Poker deck (or Minor Arcana in Tarot) make the Mana deck. This is the most common card deck in Europe - from Ace to King, divided into 2 colors and 4 suits. In Arcana Magica, suit is disregarded with just its color being important. Players use Red Mana for Summoning (getting a unit into players’ army), and Black Mana for Activation (attacking opponents).

Optional rule: King’s men

The Minor Tarot deck includes a card that has been left out the traditional European deck with time – The Knight (Kn). Its value is 14, which makes it the most powerful in the deck. If you don’t want to use it, remove it from the Мana deck to play a standard game of Arcana Magica.

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First editions of the game will hold an addi-tional Tarot Card, on top of the traditional deck - The Ferryman (XXII). You can leave it aside or unleash the full might of the Archangel by adding a fourth XX card.

Tarot deck

Dice

The Tarot deck has 22 cards. The lowest is The Magician (I) and the highest is The World. There is a special, zero-valued card, which is The Fool (0), and it has its own rules. Tarot cards are used as units (warriors) that go to players’ armies. They have a value that is resembled by the Roman symbol (VII is 7, III is 3, XIX is 19, etc.). Value does not change and states their health, summoning and activation points, attack potential and victory points.

The explosive die rule applies to any – when the maximum amount on the die has been thrown, it is rolled again adding any sum stacked to it so far. All the maximum amounts are the number displayed on the die (4, 6, 8, 12, and 20).

The play utilizes the only 5 dice with a completely symmetric form: 4, 6, 8, 12 and 20-sided (known as ‘fair dice’). They are used for calculating the damage dealt in a battle.

Optional rule: Chosen One

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II. Game Setup

There are 3 levels of tiering (organizing) the cards at the start of your game. This is the way you prepare your Summoning and Mana decks and you should choose one among them. Mind that each one could change the game dramati-cally. A standard game of Arcana Magica employs Low order.

Shuffle all the cards from the Tarot (Major) deck for the Summoning deck (Tarot deck) and all the Poker cards for the Mana deck.

Preparing the decks

1. Chaos

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2. Low Order

Step 1: Take the highest cards from the Summoning deck starting from The Devil (XV), including it. Shuffle both decksStep 2: Add 5 of the 0 - XIIII (low tier) cards to the high cards. Step 3: Shuffle them separately again and add magic.Step 4: Put the lows stack on top of the high cards.That way stronger cards will appear as soon as you reach the middle of the Summoning deck.Shuffle the poker cards. Don't add magic, they are purely mathematical.

After preparing the decks, place 4 cards from the top of the Summoning deck in the middle (5 for 4-player game), this is the Shadow Gallery. Give each player 4 cards from the Mana deck. Set the jokers and the dice aside. The game is ready to be played with the first player starting.

The players always start their turn with 4 cards of the Poker deck. Players refill their hands up to that number at the beginning of each turn, adding to any cards that might have been kept in the previous round.

If a player wants to change all of their cards, before they start their turn, they can state that and draw card from the Jokers’ deck randomly. If they get the Red Joker - they draw new ones for the turn. However, if a black card is drawn, they lose this turn + the next one. The initial hand is discarded in any of the two cases.

Player’s Hand

Change hand

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Shadow GalleryThe Shadow Gallery is the place where you summon (buy) Tarot units for your army. It holds 4 cards (5 for a 4-player game).

Make PeacePlayers cannot attack opponents who have less than 3 cards in the first 4 rounds. Put a 4 sided die as a counter on the first player token and increase it at the end of each round. No attacking limist from the 5th round onwards.

End of roundAt the end of each round, the card that was in the first, leftmost position (if any) is discarded, if any other cards are still available, they are shifted to the leftmost available position. This means that if the leftmost card is summoned in the round, no card would be discarded. After the cards have been positioned, the gallery is refilled with cards from top of the Summon-ing deck.

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III. Player’s turn

Determing First Player

Rounds

1. Move

2. Activation

The person who had a prophetic dream most recently starts the game first. You can also roll a die or pick a card.

The game is played in consecutive rounds - one player turn after the other. After it finishes, the next player in clockwise order (as the sun goes) becomes the first player. Every round, a player can do 4 actions. Any could be played or ignored in the strict order of:

At the start of every turn, each player can move the first (leftmost) card in their army to the very back of the row (rightmost space available,) leaving the second one as a leader.

In Activation you attack an opponent’s army. This is explained in more details in the next section, Attack.The players may spend any number of Mana cards in their turn to activate any number of Tarot units from their army, no matter their position. Price of activa-tion is the card’s value which should be matched or over.

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Calculating Mana Value

Example: If you give 7 of pentacles and Jack/11 of swords, this makes 18 for activation. You can use this value to activate any unit or units that sum up to it, or less.

3. Summoning

4. Discard cards

After the activation, the player can spend Summoning points for buying just one card from the Shadow Gallery. For this action, players use red mana cards (cups and wands) for their full value and black mana (pentacles and swords) halved down. As with activation they can be combined. The Ace always has value of 1.When you buy the card, it goes to the rightmost position (opposite of the card that will be attacked, back of the army).

Players use the Black mana (swords and pentacles) in their full value when activating, and the Red Mana (wands and cups) summed together halved down. They can be combined. The Ace is always a 1.

ResurrectionYou can also buy a card from your Trophy Gallery - the cards that you killed from the opponents' armies. But you have to pay double the value of their prize. This is done instead of using the Shadow Gallery (players cannot get 2 cards in their army in one turn.

At the end of their turn, each player can discard/ keep as many cards from the leftover as they wish.

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IV. Attack

Dice Damage

Exploding Die

Damage is dealt with the 5 dice (D&D standard). These are the 4, 6, 8, 12, and 20-sided dice.Each symbol on the Tarot cards applies to a different die. The I (the Roman 1) is an Arrow symbol and when you have 4 arrows - IIII in total from all cards that you activate (like VII - The Chariot and II - High Priestess), you throw a 4-sided die.

The V (Roman 5) is accounted for a 6-sided die, X symbol (Roman 10) goes with a 12-sided die, if the card has two X-s (XIX, XX, XXI, XXII), the player rolls a 20-sided die.

*Available also on the reference card

Whenever two identical dice need to be rolled in one activation, the player rolls a higher one - 8 arrows go with an 8-sided die, two V symbols - 12-sided, if you have two X from different cards, you roll 20-sided. In the extremely rare case of having to roll two 20-sided dice, the rolls are made consecutively, and their damage added up.

Then, the number of appropriate dice based on activation is rolled, and the damage is distributed by the attacker.

The explosive die rule applies to any dice – when the maximum amount on the die has been thrown, the die is rolled again, adding any sum stacked to it so far. All the maximum amounts are the number of sides the dice have (4, 6, 8, 12, and 20).

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Risking

Discarding

RerollsRerolls come when using the lowest tier in the Poker cards - from Ace (1) to Five (5) (I symbol on the side of the card).

After rolling dice players can choose to reroll any of them for the number of rerolls they have. Same die could be rerolled more then once. The previous value is negated when rerolling.

Both red and black cards used provide rerolls.Rerolls are not summed up.Ace gives you two rerolls.

Melee DamageSymbols higher than I (V, X respec-tively d6, d12, d20) deal melee damage - the Leader, leftmost card in player’s army, is targeted by them.

Ranged DamageThe 4 and 8 sided dice deal ranged damage. They can be placed on any unit in the opponent’s army. It is dealt with the melee (you cannot kill a unit and then attack the leader).

OverkillIf the calculated sum of the damage exceeds the health of the card attacked, it is killed. If the rest of the damage exceeds twice the health of the second card in line, it is defeated as well.

Range damage could be combined with melee when calculating overkill.

Example: A player rolls 23 points from a 12-sided, and 4-sided dice. Then adds the ranged damage to the melee target. With them the leader of the opponent IIII being killed, behind it it’s a VIII card, the splash damage is enough to also kill it (23 - 4 = 19 and 19 > 2x7).

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IV. The FoolThe Fool has no value, and therefore it interacts differently. It does not fight and could not be attacked by any means. It is activated only by the holding player to be sacrificed. Then it protects the army from an attack. Mind that once in the army, it can be used only one time.

SummoningA player needs to forfeit their whole turn (any action) and discard all their mana cards to summon the Fool. It goes at the back (rightmost position) of the army, as any other card would. Its space is considered empty by the opponent players.

ActivatingThe card cannot be activated in the Activation phase of the turn. The unit is used when a player is attacked and sustaining damage, after the damage has been calculated and assigned. The player holding the Fool can sacrifice it to negate all damage done.

Risking

DiscardingIn all cases, when activated, the Fool goes out of the army to the Discard Pile Summoning deck. If there is no more Discard Pile (All the cards are in the Shadow Gallery, trophies or armies) the Fool dies and an End game event is triggered. The token for killing the Fool is always taken by the person, who made the attack.

Optional rule: Fool’s DeckThe Black and the Red joker are set aside, with the 10-sid-ed die on top of them. It will signify the number of black cards that are there.

When the Fool is sacrificed (activated), a black card is added to the Jokers’ deck, and the die is set to its next value. Then, if the 'Bet Rule' is used again, this number of black cards are added for the draw.

- Red Joker - all the damage that was dealt is now targeted to the attacking opponent with the player using the Fool spreading the damage. - Black Joker was drawn - the Fool dies in vain, doesn’t protect the army, and the damage is dealt as assigned.

As an option, instead of only sacrificing the Fool, a player can ‘’bet’’ on it. This means they can pick in a random one of the two matna Jokers (red and black). There are two scenarios:As an option, instead of only sacrificing the Fool, a player can ‘’bet’’ on it. This means they can pick in a random one of the two mana Jokers (red and black). There are two scenarios:

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Killing a XX-die card (XIX, XX, XXI, XXII)

Summoning the last card from the Shadow Gallery

Discarding the Fool when there is no more Summoning or Discard Deck

Killing the last card of a player’s army

End Game PhaseThe player that triggered the first end-game condition, throws an 8-sided die - the result signifies the number of rounds left in the game, including this one. At the end of each round, (including the one it was triggered) the die is decre-sed by one. If it’s at 1, this is the last round, and the game ends after it. When another end game condition occurs, there are two scenarios:

If the die points more than 4, the number will half down. If the current value of the die points 4 or less, it will decrease by 1.

In an attack, one of the three or four highest Units is defeated and taken as a trophy.

A player summons the last available unit in the Shadow Gallery and there’s no Summoning deck

When the Fool is activated and sacrificed or discarded from the Shadow Gallery, and there is no more Summoning deck.

Killing the last unit of an opponent’s army.

When EITHER of them occurs, the end phase begins. The player that triggered the event, takes the token that applies to it. Each token gives you 10 points when scoring the final results. At the start of the game, players can decide to ignore one or more of the conditions, if they wish.

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IV. End Game

Optional rule: Counting sand

When an end game event is triggered players can choose which die to roll to determine the number of remaining rounds coming from the d4 (extremely short game) to d20 (extremely long game). Again when another event occurs if the rounds die is at its half or less it is decreased by 1 or halved it is over.

ScoringThe players count the sum value of their trophies deck, the points from tokens (if any), and half of the value of their current army. The player with the most points wins.

Optional rule: AdeptsBefore starting the game, players can agree on one of the 4 availa-ble game modes for scoring:

WarlockPlayers count only the value of their trophy decks.

SorcererPlayers count trophies and half the player’s army.

PatriarchNo trophies are counted, just army points.

ArchmagePlayers count their full army and trophy decks.

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