Arcana Magica
Arcana Magica Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
I. Components
The traditional 78 Tarot cards are divided into two decks of Major and Minor Arcana. Major cards are used as Units and Minor as mana.
Components include: the Units Deck (Major Tarot), the Mana Deck (Minor Tarot / Poker), Armageddon Tokens, 7 polyhedral dice, and the First Player Token.
Mana Deck
The deck holds 56 cards - divided in 4 suits (spades, cups, etc.), 14 cards from Ace to Knight. Each suit corresponds to one of the four elements. Each card has an Element (frame and sign), a Value - higher (bigger) when using the same element and smaller (halved, rounded up or down), the number of provided Rerolls (1 or 2), and lastly, traditional Suit and symbol (ace of spades, etc.).
Each mana card shows: Element Frame, Element sign, Value, Rerolls when attacking, and Suit.
The Jokers
As any authentic Poker deck, this one holds four Jokers for each suit/element. They were used to substitute missing cards in the past. Many games started involving them as well. In Arcana Magica they are utilized for chance draw, and are called the Fool's deck.
Units Deck
This deck holds 23 Tarot sized cards. It is known as Major Arcana. Players use these cards as units for their armies.
Each card has a value showing its summoning cost and health. Next to it, on the left is the number of arrows it provides and on the right, the dice it provides when attacking (p. 10). Cards have element and sign as the mana deck. Name of the card is added for flavour as well - it is not used in the game.
Each unit card shows: Arrows provided, Dice provided, Card value, Tarot name, and Element frame.
Cards Elements
In traditional Tarot cards are associated with one of the 4 elements. Each card from the Major Arcana has a corresponding element. Each suit of the Minor Arcana corresponds to one as well.
In Arcana Magica players use the Minor as mana for summoning and activating their Units (Major cards). When matching, they are used for their full value and half when not (p.7-8).
Dice
Players use dice when attacking each other. The value thrown shows the amount of damage dealt in battle. The game uses the standard set of 5 polyhedral dice with 4, 6, 8, 12, 20 sides. Those are also known as "fair dice". Two additional dice are included in this set, both 10-sided. They may be used as counters or in advanced play modes (p. 16).
II. Game Setup
Assembling the Decks
Step 1: Take out the highest cards from the Tarot deck starting from The Devil (15), including it. Now you have two decks - low tier (0-14) and high tier (15-22). Shuffle them separately.
Step 2: Add 5 of the 0-14 (low tier) cards to the high tier deck.
Step 3: Shuffle decks separately again.
Step 4: Put the low tier deck on top of the high cards. Higher value Units will appear as soon as you reach the middle of the deck.
Simply shuffle all the cards from the Tarot deck for the Units deck, and all playing cards for the Mana deck. Once done with Units, shuffle the playing cards - this is your Mana deck.
Determine First Player
The person who had a prophetic dream most recently starts the game first. You can also roll a die or pick a card.
Make Peace
Players cannot attack opponents who have less than 3 units in their Army 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 limits afterwards.
Fool's Deck
Set aside the Jokers aside from the Mana deck, shuffle them and put them face-down. You will draw a card from here when instructed.
Create the Shadow Gallery
After preparing the decks, place 4 cards from the top of the Units deck in the middle of the area (5 for 4-player game). This is the Shadow Gallery (Marketplace). The game is ready to be played with the first player starting their turn.
Get Ready
Set the other dice aside. Leave space in front of players for their armies and the Trophy Units they will capture. Give each player 4 cards from the Mana deck. Start the game beginning with the first player.
Setup areas include: the Units Deck, the Mana Deck, the Shadow Gallery (Marketplace) in the middle, Discarded Units, and each player's Consumed Mana pile.
III. Rounds and Turns
Rounds
The game is played in consecutive rounds - one player turn after the other. The next player seating in a clockwise order becomes the first player in the next round. In their turn, players can skip any of 4 actions. Actions can be any of the following and can be performed in any order: Move, Activation, Summoning, Discard.
Player's Army
Armies are an essential part of the game. On their turn, players can add to their own army by performing the summoning action, and if they already have units, they can attack other players by performing the activation action (see page 7-8). The first Unit is the Leader.
Newly summoned units are added to the end of the line (rightmost position). When an opponent's unit is defeated (captured), it goes face down next to the attacker's army as a Trophy where it can be resurrected back into the game or counted as victory points at the end of the game.
Player's Hand
Players start their turn with 4 cards which is the limit. They are used as points when summoning and activating and discarded to a common deck once spent.
Can I change my hand? If a player wants to change all of their cards, before they start their turn, they can state that and draw a card from the Fools' deck randomly. If they get the Red Joker - players draw new ones for the turn. However, if a black card is drawn, they lose this turn. The initial hand is discarded in any case.
IV. Actions
Move
At the start of their turn, players 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. One move is allowed per turn.
Activation
In Activation, players choose Units to attack an opponent's army. In their turn, players may spend any number of Mana cards from their hand, to activate any number of Units from their army, no matter their position in it. Calculate mana, place tokens on activated cards and Attack (page 10). Cards are discarded after using them.
Calculating Mana Value
Mana cards hold their full value when used as their element and halved (small) value in all other cases. Players decide whether to use a card for its element or as another when making different combinations. Players need to equal or top the activated Units' element value with the corresponding mana points. Only one element is assigned per card. Any exceeding value is lost.
Example: 7 Earth plus 3 Earth makes 10 Earth points - enough to activate the Hermit (Earth Unit) with value of 9.
Example: 14 Fire is enough to activate 10 + 4 of two fire cards.
Combining Cards When Activating
Any combination of cards is possible. This means using one mana card to activate more than one Unit. There's no limit to the number of cards used.
Example: 12 Air + 5 Water as Air (smaller value) could be combined to activate 11 + 6 points of Air Units.
Example: Using different elements' lower value, gathering 6 + 7 + 7 = 20 which is enough for a 19 card.
Summoning Units
Players may also spend Mana on Summoning a card from the Shadow Gallery or Resurrecting one from their Trophies. Calculation is done the same way as activating - matching the summoned card's elemental value using mana cards.
Summon
In this action, players use Mana cards to summon Unit from the Shadow Gallery to their Army. Players can summon only one unit per turn. The new Unit goes to the last position (rightmost) in player's army.
Resurrection
Players may also summon a Unit card from their Trophies - the captured cards from opponents' armies. This is done instead of summoning from the Shadow Gallery.
Discard Hand Cards
At the end of their turn, players can keep or discard any cards left in their hand.
V. End of Round
Refill the Shadow Gallery
After all players have finished their turn, the round ends and firstly the gallery needs to be refilled. The card that was in the first, leftmost position (if any) is discarded. This means that if the first position card is summoned in the round, no card would be discarded. Leftover units in the gallery are shifted to the leftmost available position. After the cards have been positioned, the gallery is refilled with cards from the top of the Units deck. In case the deck is empty shuffle the discard pile and use the cards from it.
Steps: 1. Discard the Unit on the leftmost position (if still there). 2. Move any leftover cards to the left. 3. Refill the gallery.
Switch First Player
Move the First player token to the next player in clockwise order. They are next to go. Decrease the peace counter or the end-game counter if any of them are active.
Refill Players' Hands
All players fill up their hands to 4 in turn order. That way players can plan on their turn as the game goes. When the deck is finished shuffle the discard pile to form a new one.
VI. Attack
Dice Damage
In activation, players choose Units from their army to use (as many as they want), and they state which opponent will be attacked (just one). Damage is dealt the 5 dice in the game. These are the 4, 6, 8, 12, and 20-sided dice. Used dice are written on the activated cards - gather them.
Assigning Damage
To assign damage, place the dice on the assigned unit without changing the face of the dice. Damage must be assigned in the following order:
1) Melee Damage - 6-, 12-, 20-sided dice deal melee damage. They are assigned to the Leader, the leftmost card in the opponent's army.
2) Ranged Damage - The 4 and 8 sided dice deal ranged damage. They may be assigned to any unit in the opponent's army.
Exploding Dice
After all dice are rolled, reroll any dice that show their maximum value (6 for a 6-sided die, 12 for a 12-sided die, etc.). Add the new numbers to the sum gathered so far.
Example: 6 out of a 6-sided die, rerolled to a 3, adds to 9. 20 out of a 20-sided die, rerolled to an 11, adds to 31.
Continue to reroll dice that show their maximum value and adding the new roll to the total until there are no longer any dice showing their maximum value.
Rerolls
Mana cards from 1 (A) to 5 provide rerolls to the dice used in attack. Each symbol gives the attacking player 1 reroll on any dice - the current value is negated and the new one is considered true. If an exploded die is rerolled only the last value is lost and the accumulated exploding damage is kept (you can reroll to explode again).
Players can add cards with reroll symbols even if unneeded to get the activation value. Rerolls are not affected by elements.
Capture a Trophy
If the calculated sum of the damage matches or exceeds the health of the card attacked (the Roman Numeral), it is captured as a trophy. Players take their trophy and put it aside facedown. They count all their trophies at the end of the game.
Overkill
If the rest of the damage exceeds twice the health of the second card in line, it is captured as well. Range damage could be added to leftover melee when calculating overkill. Range doesn't have overkill on its own.
Example: A Player activates 14 - Temperance. Rolls 10 from the d12 and 4 on the d4. Rolls the exploded range die (d4) and gets a 7. The attacked player has 12 - The Hanged Man as a Leader and 2 - The High Priestess after it. The attacker adds the ranged damage to the melee, capturing the Leader. 17 (10+7) - 12 leaves 5 damage. 2 x 2 (High Priestess value) = 4 which is less than 5 so the second card is killed as well.
VII. The Fool
The Fool has no value, and therefore it interacts differently. It does not fight and cannot 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 just once.
Summoning
A player needs to forfeit their whole turn (all actions) and discard all their Mana cards to summon the Fool. The Unit goes at the back (rightmost position) of the army, as any other card would. Its space is considered empty by opponent players.
Activation
The card cannot be activated in the Activation phase of the turn. The Fool is used when a player is attacked and sustaining damage, after the damage has been calculated and assigned. The player holding the Fool can discard (sacrifice) it to negate all damage done.
Discarding the Fool
In any case, when activated, the Fool goes to the Discard Pile of the Units deck. If there is no more Discard Pile (Shadow gallery is refilled no more) the Fool dies and comes back no more.
Fool's Chance
When a player uses the Fool they get a chance to pick one of the elements. Then they get one Joker at random. If the guess was right the dealt damage goes back to the attacker, spread by the player who used the Fool.
VIII. End of Game
Armageddon Events
There are 4 armageddon events that trigger the final phase of the game. Whenever EITHER of those occurs, the final phase of the game begins.
Capture a XX-die Card (XIX, XX, XXI, XXII) - In an attack, one of the four strongest Units is captured and taken as a trophy.
Summon the Last Card from the Shadow Gallery - A player summons the final, last available unit in the Shadow Gallery for the game.
Losing the Fool During Armageddon - If one of those events had already happened and the Fool dies the attacker gets this token.
Capture the Last Unit in Player's Army - These players aren't "out" of the game and can still summon new Units.
Points from Tokens
The player that triggered the event, takes the corresponding token. Each token gives you 10 points extra when scoring the final results.
End-game Phase
Once any of those occurs Armageddon phase begins and there's 4 rounds left to the game. Place the first rounds counter on 4 and decrease it. At the end of each round, (including the one it was triggered in) the die is decreased by one. If it's at 1, this is the last round, and the game ends after it.
Optional: Counting Sand. When an end game event is triggered, players can choose which die to use as a counter - the bigger the die, the longer the game.
Win Condition
If a player collects all Units from one element in their army they immediately win the game. Other places are decided by counting victory points as normal.
Scoring
Players count the summed value of their trophies, the points from tokens (if any), and half of the value of their current army. The player with the most points wins. Tie-breaker is holding the fool. Second is End-game tokens. Third is trophies count (not summed value).
Optional: Adepts. Before starting the game, players can agree on one of the 4 available game scoring modes:
Warlock - Players count only the value of their trophy decks.
Sorcerer (Standard) - Players add the full value of trophies and half the value of their army.
Patriarch - No trophies are counted, just army points.
Archmage - Players count their full army and trophy decks.
Game Modes
Once you handle the basics of the game, you can try a few different modes, to elaborate the experience.
Necromancers
Score Victory points using the Patriarch rules (previous page) - only army value is counted towards victory. Resurrection costs the same as summoning. Players need to capture opponents' units and resurrect them to score better.
Teamplay
In a 4-player game, form two teams. Each team shares the same army and a player can summon OR activate for their turn, meaning a team can do two attacks or summons in the same round. Teams alternate turns, changing the first team to play at the end of a round. The player from a team that was last to play in the previous is first in the next round.
Power Mongers
Instead of upgrading dice, throw more of the same. V, V and V on different cards, will provide 3 6-sided dice. Two separate Xs give two 12-sided dice. You do not roll the 8 sided, and the 20 is used only when activating XIX, XX, XXI or XXII.
Magic Skills
A fan of the game, and our friend, Erik Slimařík from Czech Republic has created a list of unique abilities for each Tarot unit card for the game, based on their classical meaning. Stay tuned for a full list of skills that could change a game dramatically when used.
Play the game online, contact us, ask a question, find merchandise, follow our social media network by scanning the QR code on the back cover.
Game design: Mihail Ivanov. Game art: Dilyana Bozhinova. Rulebook design: Victoria Micheva. Illustrations: Yulia Kostadinova.
www.arcana-magica.com ©Copyright 89 Visions, 2020
Reference Sheet
Game Setup (p. 4-5)
- Separate units from 0-14 on one side and from 15-22 on the other.
- Shuffle the two decks and take 5 cards from the low values at random.
- Add them to the high values decks.
- Shuffle both piles again.
- Put the low value cards on top of the high values.
- Give each player 4 Mana cards as their first hand (p. 7).
- Determine first player by rolling a die or determining who had a prophetic dream last.
- Set 4 (5 in a 4 player game) unit cards.
- Place a 4-sided die on the first player token.
- Players cannot attack an opponent with less than 3 cards in their army for the first 4 rounds (p. 5).
Actions (p. 7-8)
- Move - moving the leftmost (first) card to the rightmost position (last) - (p. 8)
- Activation - players use units from their army to attack. Mana cards are used for full value when matching the Unit's element.
- Summoning - adding a card to army. Mana cards are used for full value when matching the Unit's element.
- Discard - keep or discard cards.
End of Round (p. 9)
- Refill shadow gallery - discard the unit from first position (if any), move others to the left. Fill in the empty spaces with new units.
- Refill players' hands to 4 cards.
- Switch first player.
- Decrease game end counter (if present).
Armageddon Events (p. 13)
- Summon Last Unit From The Whole Units Deck.
- Capture A d20 card (19, 20, 21 or 22).
- Capture Last Card In Opponent's Army.
- Attack and kill the Fool during Armageddon.
After any of those occurs 4 rounds are left to the game. Use the first 4 rounds counter. After the end of the last round - count Victory points. Each token brings 10 Victory points to the player holding it (p.15).
Win Condition (p. 14)
If a player gathers all Units from one element in their army they immediately win the game.
Scoring (p. 15)
Players count the value of the trophies they have captured. Then, they add the halved (rounded down) value of their armies + any points from tokens that they have (each with a value of 10).
Automa
Setup
Shuffle the Automa deck and pull out 2 cards at random without looking at them. Shuffle the others and place them facedown. The Automa player takes turns as any other player would - just flip the top card and follow the actions. After completing all the actions discard the card.
Whenever the Automa deck runs out, shuffle the discarded cards with the 2 you left out, take out again 2 at random, shuffle the rest and continue playing.
Automa Cards
The Automa deck consists of cards with 4 actions on them. They are similar to those of the players, as follows:
- Move - the Automa players move as any other, shifting its Leader to the last position.
- Summon - the Automa takes the mentioned by value card in its army Highest and lowest mean value, this includes the Fool which has a value of 0. Positions are left or right, and random means throwing a 4 sided-die to get the position of the summoned card. If an element is unavailable - summon a random card.
- Attack - Automa activates the cards described on the top line. Then it draws cards from the Mana deck, calculating their value, trying to equal or better the needed result. If it does, it makes max damage for the combined dice of the activated Units. Damage is spread aiming for highest card capture.
- Discard - Automa takes and discards the mentioned number of mana cards.
Additional Rules
The Fool - if the Automa has the Fool and less or 3 cards - it always uses it. If it has more than 3 cards it picks a Joker at random, if it's Fire or Water, it uses the Fool, otherwise it keeps it.
Summon - if Automa has 7 cards in its Army it takes its lowest card as a Trophy and summons the highest from the Shadow Gallery.
Attack - Automa makes a ranged attack to the lowest value Unit in opponent's army if the current attack cannot damage the Leader.
Ace of any element is an automatic hit.