Drawing Dead Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Gameplay Overview
  • Winning and Losing
  • Component List
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Deal Phase
  • Enemy Phase
  • Draw Phase
  • Player Phase
    • Using Drawn Cards
    • Activating Character Abilities
  • Cleanup Phase
• Damage, Defeating Enemies, and Character Death
  • Defeating Enemies and Claiming Rewards
  • Character Death
• Gates
• The Bank
• Leveling Up
• Using Suit Change and +1/-1 Tokens
• Keyword Index
• Iconography Index
• FAQ and Errata

Gameplay Overview

Drawing Dead is a 1-2 player, hand-crafting roguelike game that takes 45 minutes to play. In this game players choose a character then spend rounds manipulating hands of cards in order to activate their character's abilities, which will allow them to interact with enemies, unlock gates, and battle the bosses behind each gate with the goal of escaping Purgatory before they run out of the pieces of their soul.

Winning and Losing

Players win by unlocking 3 gates and defeating the boss behind each. Players lose if they run out of cards in the soul deck and cannot deal another hand, or if any player's character dies twice.

Component List

52x Soul deck cards

4x Dual-sided character cards

8x Dual-sided level-up cards

16x Character ability cards

20x Enemy minion cards

12x Dual-sided gate/enemy boss cards (4x Lvl 1, 4x Lvl 2, 4x Lvl 3)

2x Quick reference cards

2x Penance tokens (cardboard punch-out)

Damage counters (cardboard punch-out)

+/-1 tokens (cardboard punch-out)

Suit change tokens (cardboard punch-out)

Setup

1. Choose from one of the playable characters. Place the character card, radiant-side up, in front of you. Place the character's 4 abilities (numbered 1-4) to the right of the character card. Place the character's Lvl 2 and Lvl 3 upgrade cards to the side. Place a penance token in front of each player.

2. Shuffle the 52-card soul deck and place it above the character cards.

3. Choose a difficulty. Separate the gate/boss cards by level and then randomly choose from each level in accordance with the difficulty table below. Place the gate/boss cards on top of each other, gate-side up. Gate 1 goes on top of Gate 2, and Gate 2 goes on top of Gate 3.

   	Peaceful	Easy	Standard	Hard	Infernal
   Gate 1 Lvl	1	1	1	2	2
   Gate 2 Lvl	1	2	2	2	3
   Gate 3 Lvl	2	2	3	3	3

4. Shuffle the minion deck and place it above the soul deck. Each gate card specifies a number of minions that are active while players are attempting to pass said gate. Flip that many cards off the top of the minion deck.

5. If playing with two players, each player draws a card from the soul deck. The higher card goes first. Then reshuffle all drawn cards into the soul deck.

6. You're ready to play!

Gameplay

Gameplay in Drawing Dead occurs over rounds that repeat until the player(s) either win or lose the game. Players win by opening all three gates and defeating the boss behind each. Players lose if either there are too few cards in the soul deck to complete a dealing or draw phase, or if any player's character dies twice.

Rounds proceed in the following phase order: Deal -> Enemy -> Draw -> Player -> Cleanup. If playing with multiple players, each player takes turns being the active character for a round. The active character is in charge of carrying out each phase, and some enemy abilities specifically affect the active character, while others affect all characters.

Deal Phase

At the start of each round, deal the top 6 cards of the soul deck into the river. If there are fewer than 6 cards remaining in the soul deck, deal as many as are available, then shuffle the discard pile to create a new soul deck and deal any remaining cards. If there are not enough cards left in the soul deck and discard to deal out, the players lose the game.

After dealing the 6 river cards, proceed to the enemy phase.

Enemy Phase

During the enemy phase, enemies will attempt to use the river cards in order to activate their abilities. Players will always be facing at least one minion, and throughout the game will face three bosses. Both minions and bosses behave the same, and have cards formatted with the following information: HP, Name, Type, Passive Effect, Weak Ability (with its activation requirement), Strong Ability (with its activation requirement), and Reward.

During each enemy phase, the enemies follow this logic:

1. Check enemy abilities. Enemies (minions and bosses are both considered enemies) have a strong ability and a weak ability. Each ability has an activation requirement that depends on the 6 cards in the river. Unless otherwise noted, each enemy will only activate up to 1 ability per enemy phase. Enemy ability activation proceeds as follows: a. If it meets the requirements, the enemy always activates its strong ability. b. If it cannot activate its strong ability, an enemy tries to activate its weak ability. Some weak abilities have a requirement of None. This means they will always activate if the enemy does not activate their strong ability. c. If neither ability requirement is met, the enemy does not perform any ability that round.
2. If there are multiple enemies, players may choose the order in which enemies activate their abilities. All enemies 'lock in' their activation before any abilities resolve.
3. Resolve abilities. a. Most enemy abilities deal damage. Damage on characters is tracked by placing a number of damage tokens on the character card equal to the damage dealt. b. Some abilities have keywords. Refer to the keyword index section or the quick reference cards for more information. c. As with the enemy ability activation, if there are multiple enemies the player can decide the order in which those enemies activate their abilities.
4. After all enemies have resolved their abilities, proceed to the draw phase.

Draw Phase

The active character draws the top 3 cards of the soul deck. As with the dealing phase, if players cannot draw 3 cards, shuffle the discard pile to refill the soul deck then draw to 3 cards. If there are not enough cards left to draw, the players lose the game.

Player Phase

During the player phase, the active character must use their 3 cards, each in a different way, after which they will activate one of their character's abilities.

Using Drawn Cards

The three ways to use a drawn card are:

1. Play a card into the river. This increases the number of cards in the river from 6 to 7.
2. Play a card as an action. Each card from the soul deck has a suit, a number, and an action text box in the center of the card. The player performs the action in the center of the card, and then discards the card from their hand.
3. Place a card at a gate or in the bank. See Gates and Bank sections for more information.

Players may choose the order in which they use their 3 cards. For example, a player can play a card into the river and then play an action that alters that card.

Activating Character Abilities

After the Active Character plays the 3 cards from their hand, they choose one of their four abilities to activate.

1. Choose which ability to activate. Place the penance token on that ability card. a. If the penance token is already on that ability card, take 1 dmg and put the top 2 cards of the soul deck into the lost pile.
2. Choose up to 5 cards from the river that will be used to satisfy activation requirements. a. Most abilities have multiple options for activations, with increasingly difficult requirements leading to increasingly powerful results. For example, an ability called Overpower can be activated by a tiny straight (3 in a row) for 3 damage, a small straight (4 in a row) for 4 damage, or a straight (5 in a row) for 3 damage and target 2 enemies — but the character takes 1 damage unless the ability defeats an enemy.
3. All cards not chosen are sent to the lost pile.
4. Resolve the ability, choosing targets, dealing damage, and resolving any other effects. a. If enemies are defeated, claim their rewards. See defeating enemies for more information.
5. All cards chosen for the ability are sent to the discard pile.
6. Proceed to the cleanup phase.

Cleanup Phase

During the cleanup phase, the game resets in preparation for the next round. Conduct the following steps.

1. If a boss was defeated, discard it and reveal the next gate.
2. If one or minions were defeated, replace them from the top of the minion deck until the number of minions in play is equal to the number of minions indicated on the gate card.
3. If the requirements to unlock a gate have been met, discard the cards used to unlock the gate and then flip the gate card over to reveal its corresponding boss.
4. If playing with more than 1 player, the other player becomes the active character, and starts a new round.

Damage, Defeating Enemies, and Character Death

Whenever an enemy or character sustains damage, place a number of damage tokens on them equal to the damage sustained.

Defeating Enemies and Claiming Rewards

• When an enemy sustains damage equal to or greater than their total HP, that enemy is defeated. Discard it, and claim the rewards listed in the Reward box on the enemy card.
• If the defeated enemy is a minion, you also reveal the top card of the soul deck and either place it on a gate or in the bank. See Gates and Bank sections for more information.
• If the defeated enemy is a boss, all characters level up, and the next gate is revealed during the cleanup phase.

Character Death

When a character sustains damage equal to or greater than their total HP, that character dies. At the end of the current phase, remove all their damage. If their character is on their radiant side, place the top 6 cards of the soul deck into the lost pile and then flip the character over to their infernal side. If the character is already on their infernal side (i.e. they have already died once this game), the game is over and the players lose.

Gates

The goal of Drawing Dead is to unlock gates. Players do this by placing cards at gates during the player phase and whenever minions are defeated. Each gate has an unlock requirement, which is met when the requisite combination of cards is placed at the gate. On the back of each gate card is a boss. These enemies are more powerful than minions, but defeating them progresses the players to the next gate, and players will level up in addition to any boss-specific rewards. See the leveling up section for more details.

The Bank

During the player phase, if players do not wish to place a card at a gate, they may instead place that card in the bank. The bank can hold up to 3 cards, and if a 4th card would be placed in the bank, players can choose and discard any card from the bank to replace it with the new card.

During a player's turn, as many times as they would like, they may discard one of the 3 cards from their hand and then draw any card from the bank.

Leveling Up

Players level up to level 2 after defeating their first boss, and to level 3 after defeating their second boss. To level up, take the respective level up card from beside their player card, and place it below their abilities. The Level 2 card goes between abilities 1 and 2, and the Level 3 card goes between abilities 3 and 4. Level Up cards are dual sided, and each side contains a different pair of enhancements for the character's abilities. Players choose which side of the Level Up card to use.

Using Suit Change and +1/-1 Tokens

Some rewards and abilities grant suit change and +1/-1 tokens. Place these tokens below your character card. During your character's turn, you may place any number of these tokens on river cards to change their suit or alter their card value.

Keyword Index

Bank X: reveal the top X cards of the soul deck and place them in the bank. Must still follow normal rules of a maximum of 3 cards in the bank.

Challenge (Rime Ability): Place a card used to activate this ability on an enemy. At the start of their next turn, reveal the top card of the soul deck. If it is lower than the card on that enemy, they take 2 damage. Then discard both cards.

Gate X: reveal the top X cards of the soul deck and place any number of them at a gate. Discard the rest.

Haunt (Ferhity Ability): Place a token on an enemy. Whenever that enemy takes 1 or more damage, Recycle 1.

Loot X: Draw X cards from the top of the soul deck, then choose and discard X cards from hand.

Recycle X: Shuffle the lost pile and then place the top X cards of the lost pile into the discard pile.

Shred X: place the top X cards of the soul deck into the lost pile.

Tamper X: Draw X cards from the top of the soul deck and replace any number of river cards with the drawn cards. Discard the rest.

Iconography Index

• Cards with the same number (set)
• Cards in sequential order (straight)
• Cards with the same suit (flush)
• Infernal cards (Flame/Fork)
• Radiant cards (Bolt/Wings)

FAQ and Errata

This is a living document. FAQ and errata will be added here over time.