Re;MATCH: Marble Puzzle Fighter Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Set Up
• Objective
• How to Play
• Structure of a Turn
  • Start of Your Turn
  • During Your Turn
  • End of Your Turn
• Making an Attack
• Resolving an Attack
• Common Attack Effects
• Breaking Button Health Dials
• While a Button Is Broken
  • Rules for using Short Circuit Marbles
• Repairing Broken Buttons
• F.A.Q.s
• Balance Changelog
  • V1.1
  • V1.2
  • V1.3
  • V1.4
  • V1.5
  • V2.0
  • V2.1
  • V2.2
  • V2.3
  • V2.4
  • V2.5

Set Up

1. Place the arcade cabinet (aka the Tray) in the middle of the table between both players.
2. Mix the bag of marbles, then pour it all into the marble tower.
   • There are 11 Red, 11 Yellow, and 11 Blue marbles.
   • Games will come with a 12th extra marble of each color just in case.
3. Place the stage board in between both players.
4. Set the Red, Yellow, and Blue Fans in the middle of the stage board.
5. Give both players 4 Arcade Credits.
6. Give both players a Red, Yellow, and Blue button health dial.
   • Each dial starts at 10 HP.
7. Each player selects their character and takes out all of that character's components.
   • Place your character's Standee on the stage board on your left.
   • Place your character's screen insert onto the marble tower's face plate.
   • Place your character's player board in front of you.
   • Place your character's unique components in front of you, following your character's specific set up instructions.
   • Determine the player that goes first. The player who has most recently played with marbles goes first by default.
   • The second player may Destroy up to 2 marbles before the first player's turn. (Destroy lets you remove any marble from the tray and return it to the tower.)

Objective

Force your opponent to pay credit(s) by dealing damage to their health dials and breaking them. If they can't afford to pay the credit(s) needed to continue, you win!

How to Play

In Re;MATCH, players take alternating turns. On your turn, you will execute a single attack, then end your turn.

You execute an attack by clearing connected matching marbles from the tray.

Play continues until a player is unable to pay a credit to continue the match.

Structure of a Turn

Start of Your Turn

1. Trigger any start of turn effects unique to your character.
2. If you have a broken button health dial, you may flip it over to become active with its current HP.

During Your Turn

1. Declare the attack you want to use from your player board (Ex, "I'll use my Red - 2 ability").
2. Clear the necessary number of connected and matching marbles for your attack.
3. Resolve your attack exactly as written from top to bottom.
4. If you had a matching fan at the start of the turn, you also resolve your attack's kicker ability.

End of Your Turn

1. Resolve any end of turn effects unique to your character.

Making an Attack

Each character has a move list on their player board with 9 attacks.

Attacks are split into 3 colors, and either requires 1, 2, or 4 marbles. In order to use an attack, you will:

• Clear the number of marbles of that attack's color.
• The marbles must be connected orthogonally, not diagonally.
• Only the 5 rows fully exposed can be cleared from.
• You can only clear from the 2 lanes closest to you, not all 3 lanes.
  • This means only the center lane is shared by both players.

When clearing more than 2 marbles, you must draw an unbroken chain between all of the marbles without backtracking.

This means when clearing 4 marbles, every Tetris shape is allowed EXCEPT the T shape.

Resolving an Attack

If a short circuit marble is cleared, resolve the healing from a short circuit before any player's effects are resolved (See Rules for Short Circuit Marbles).

Attacks resolve from top to bottom.

If you have a fan matching the attack's color BEFORE pulling marbles for the attack, then you also resolve the attack's Kicker effect after the attack.

If the Kicker has the "Before or After" icon, then you can resolve the Kicker before or after the main Attack Effect.

Common Attack Effects

• Deal X Damage - Choose one single Button health dial to deal X damage to.
  • You cannot damage a Button that is already broken.
  • Take X Damage has the "taker" choose where the damage goes.
• Take X Damage - Choose one of your Button health dials to deal X damage to.
  • When you trigger an effect to TAKE damage, YOU choose which button takes the damage.
• Deal X Damage to All Buttons - Deal the damage to all opponent's Buttons.
  • Broken buttons do not take damage.
• Take X Fan - Take the Fan of the indicated color.
  • You can take a fan that is cheering for your opponent directly from them.
  • You get an attack's kicker if you have a matching Fan at the START of your turn.
• Take Any Fan - Take any 1 Fan of your choice.
• Destroy X Marbles - Remove up to X marbles from anywhere on the tray.
  • Choose up to X marbles to destroy either 1 at a time, or X marbles simultaneously.
  • You can destroy newly revealed marbles if you choose to destroy 1 at a time.
  • Return the destroyed marbles back to the tower.

Breaking Button Health Dials

The goal of dealing damage to a Button is to make it reach 0 HP and Break it.

When your button is Broken, it is flipped over to its broken side. You must then pay 1 Arcade Credit to continue the game. If you already have a currently Broken Button and this is the SECOND Button to be broken, you must pay 2 Arcade Credits instead of just 1.

If you cannot afford to pay the needed Credit(s), you lose the game!

After paying the needed Credit(s), you restore 1 HP to ALL of your Buttons for each Credit paid. This means the button that was just broken will go to 1 HP instead of remaining at 0 HP.

If 2 buttons were simultaneously broken from an effect that deals damage to multiple buttons, you pay 1 coin for the first button and 2 coins for the second button, resulting in 3 coins paid in total, which then restores 3 HP to all of your buttons.

While a Button Is Broken

While a Button is Broken, you cannot press it, therefore, you cannot use attacks of that Button's color. For example, if your Blue Button is Broken, you cannot use Blue attacks.

However, just because you cannot use Blue Attacks, does not mean Blue Marbles are useless for you. Instead, those marbles are now Short Circuit marbles!

Short Circuit marbles allow you to bridge the gap between your other marbles, kind of like a neutral connector marble.

For example, while your Blue Button is broken, you can connect normally disconnected red marbles with blue marbles between them.

Rules for using Short Circuit Marbles

• The Short Circuit marbles are cleared IN ADDITION to your attack's marbles, and do not count towards the number of marbles needed for your attack.
  • Short Circuit marbles are Neutral. Clearing 2 Red marbles and 2 Blue Short Circuit marbles still only triggers a Red-2 attack, NOT a Red-4 attack.
• Just like when clearing 4 marbles, you cannot back track when drawing the chain of marbles.
• You must START and END on the attack color's marble, not a Short Circuit marble.
  • So if you are using a Red-4 attack, you must start and end on a Red marble.
• When clearing several marbles, it is recommended to pull from the top most row first, then work your way down, to avoid mistakes.
• You Heal 2 HP for every short circuit marble used to the corresponding broken button.
• Using short circuit marbles does not count as "Clearing" those marbles and does not trigger effects that activate when you "Clear" those marbles.

The more Short Circuit marbles you clear, the more HP you restore to the broken button. In the above example, because you cleared 2 Blue Short Circuit Marbles, your Blue Broken Button restores 4 HP.

Repairing Broken Buttons

• When a Broken Button reaches 9 or 10 HP, it is immediately flipped over and becomes active again.
  • Broken Buttons cannot take damage while they are broken!
• At the start of your turn, you may flip over a Broken Button at its current HP, making it active again at its current HP.
  • This is risky, because this button is now easier to break again, but has 2 advantages.
    • You regain access to the corresponding color of attacks again.
    • If a second button breaks while you still have a broken button, you have to pay 2 Credits instead of just 1 Credit.

F.A.Q.s

Q: Does using short circuit marbles count as "Clearing" marbles?

• No, using short circuit marbles never counts as "clearing" marbles, so effects that care about you clearing a marble from a row (Chef's spirits, Dancer's sticks) are not triggered by used short circuit marbles.

Q: Where can I give feedback about character balance?

• (Publisher's Discord server.)

Q: If a player short circuits and trips at the same time, which resolves first?

• Heals from short circuiting resolve before any effects from a player character resolves.

Q: What happens if I cannot take a valid move because of broken buttons?

• You MUST flip over a broken button in order to make a valid move, otherwise you forfeit the game.

Q: What happens if I must trip and the only colors in that row are Broken Dials.

• If your only valid move requires you to flip over a broken button, you MUST flip over a broken button in order to make a valid move, otherwise you forfeit the game.

Q: When destroying a marble, can I destroy marbles in my opponent's exclusive column?

• Yes, you can destroy any marble on the board when using an effect that destroys marbles.

Q: Can a healing ability restore HP to broken buttons?

• Yes, they can target any button, including broken ones.

Q: If I have 2 broken buttons and your opponent uses the Trickster Blue-4 on the last remaining button, what happens?

• The non-Trickster player must flip a broken button at the start of their turn to allow themself to take an action. If they do not, they lose.

Q: If Psychic's red 4 would trigger one of Trickster's face down cards, when does the card get flipped over? Should we wait until both attacks have resolved, or after the damage from the first attack?

• Trickster's face down cards are flipped over immediately whenever you use an attack that matches that box's color. The effect of the Trick Card however always resolves after your attack fully finishes resolving.

Q: If I have 4 discarded cards, does Trickster's yellow 2 deal one instance of 4 damage, or 4 instances of 1 damage? i.e. can I spread the damage between multiple buttons?

• It's one instance of 4 damage, so you can not spread it around.

Q: If an attack deals additional damage due to a condition in the attack, is the extra damage a separate instance of damage or just 1 instance of damage? (ie. Chef Blue-4)

• Almost all effects in the game are a single instance of damage. The only time you have multiple instances of damage in a single turn is with damage from things outside of your attack, like a DJ beat.

Q: If an attack would cause both players to lose the game at the same time, like Firefighter Yellow-2, what happens?

• If both players lose at the same time due to broken dials and being unable to pay their tokens, the player who performed the attack that caused both players to lose will win the game.

Q: When an effect makes a player pay a credit (like Dancer's Red-4), does the player who paid the credit restore 1 HP to all of their buttons like when they have a button broken?

• No, they do not heal HP to their buttons. They just pay the credit with no upside. (Note: the V2.3 changelog below states, for Dancer's Red-4, that the opponent still heals HP from paying the credit; the two entries are transcribed as printed.)

Balance Changelog

V1.1

Chef changes:

• Yellow-2 now summons by default, and the kicker heals 2 instead.

Firefighter changes:

• Yellow 1 now only heals 1, but also has the option of dealing 2 damage instead of healing.
• Blue 2 no longer allows you to take any fan, instead lets you destroy 2 marbles.
• Blue 1 now has you take 1 damage to all instead of just 1 damage.

V1.2

Psychic Changes:

• Red 4 says "your opponent skips their next turn" for better clarity.
• Red 4 no longer lets you set +1 tarot card, instead gains 3 focus instead of 2.

V1.3

Psychic Changes:

• Blue 1 no longer gains you any 1 fan. Instead it lets you set +1 Tarot card immediately, and it's kicker now heals 1.

Timing changes / clarifications:

• Psychic's Tarot cards trigger immediately when the prediction is correct, and happens BEFORE their opponent's attack resolves.
• EXAMPLE: Psychic places down Yellow tarot card, and opponent uses a Yellow attack, Psychic flips his tarot card immediately, then takes the yellow fan and 2 focus, THEN opponent uses their yellow attack. If this attack takes a fan, the opponent can take the yellow fan back from the Psychic. Additionally, kickers are resolved if you had the fan at the START of the turn. Having it taken by the Psychic does not prevent you from using that kicker.
• Trickster's Trick Cards trigger AFTER an opponent's attack finishes resolving.

V1.4

Psychic Changes:

• Yellow 1 now causes you to take 1 damage to all buttons, and gives you any 1 fan if you have no fans.
• Yellow 2 kicker now just increases the damage by 1 instead of giving you 2 focus.
• Yellow 4 is now exactly the same as Firefighter's Yellow 4.
• Blue 4 now forces opponent to outright pay 1 credit if they have a broken button.

V1.5

Firefighter Changes:

• Slight side buff to Red 2, flipping your axe's current mode.
• Blue 4 buff to heal 2 as a minimum.

Chef changes:

• Blue 4 rework to just destroy and deal damage without caring about the colors.
• Blue 4 kicker now summons both spirits instead of just 1.

V2.0

CORE RULE CHANGE!!!

• When you pay credits after a button is broken, you restore 1 HP to ALL of your buttons PER CREDIT paid, not just 1 HP to the button that was just broken.

V2.1

Chef Changes:

• You can stack spirits in the same row now. This allows you to place a new spirit in the same row as a spirit you are about to dismiss and just removes a small restriction that wasn't really needed previously.

Psychic Changes:

• Yellow 2 deals 1/1/1 damage to yourself.

V2.2

Firefighter Changes:

• Buff to Red 4, ironblood cost decreased from 3 to 2.
• Buff to Blue 4, change extra heal 2 to take any fan.
• Nerf to Red 4 & Yellow 4 kickers, ironblood decreased from 3 to 2.
• Nerf to Yellow 2 Kicker, damage decreased from X to X-1.

Duelist Changes:

• Nerf to Red 2, damage decreased from 3 to 2.
• Change to Mana Fusion card, restores 4 HP instead of take any fan.

Psychic Changes:

• Nerf to Yellow 2, You take X-3 1/1/1 damage instead of just a flat 1/1/1 damage.
• Nerf to Red 4, damage decreased from 3 to 2.

VTuber Changes:

• Swapped Yellow 4 and Blue 4 effects.

V2.3

Chef Changes:

• Buff to Red 1 Kicker, destroy 2 instead of 1.
• Change to Blue 1 Kicker, now take any fan instead of destroy 1.
• Change to Yellow 1 Kicker, now Destroy 1 and Deal 1 instead of take any fan.
• Buff to Yellow 4, Deals 2/2/2 flat, regardless of spirits, and summons both spirits instead of taking any fan.

Duelist Changes:

• Change to 1 marble kickers, discount only the next card by 2, not all cards by 1.
• Nerf to 4 marble attacks, mana gain decreased by 1 but mana discount on next card increased by 1.
• Buff to Red 2 kicker, takes any fan instead of gain 2 mana.
• Nerf to Spell Card "Cold Snap", start of turn marble destroy decreased by 1.
• Nerf to Spell Card "Transmute", start of turn marble destroy decreased by 1.
• Nerf to Spell Card "Primer", replaced RELOAD effect with Discarding up to 2 Cards.
• Nerf to Spell Card "Triple Barrel", removed RELOAD effect.
• Buff to Spell Card "Step Blaze", removed marble destroy but lets you deal +2 dmg by trashing a red card.
• Nerf to Spell Card "Hellfire", damage decreased by 1.

Dancer Changes:

• Clarification added to Red 4, opponent still heals HP from paying the credit.
• Change to Blue 2, instead of dealing damage, destroys marbles (more in line with all other blues), and also prevents destruction by your opponent for 1 turn to let you properly set up better.

VTuber Changes:

• OVERLOAD card wording clarified.
• When you spend CHARGE to Short Circuit, those Short Circuit marbles will now heal 1 hp each instead of none.

V2.4

Duelist Changes:

• Rework to Spell Card "Transmute", changed to "Solar Charge", now lets you recover cards to restore HP.
• Nerf to Blue 2 attack, destroys only 1 marble instead of 2.
• Nerf to Yellow 2 attack, discards only 2 cards instead of 3.

V2.5

Duelist Changes:

• Buff to "Solar Charge", making it easier to hit healing minimums.

VTuber Changes:

• Nerf to OVERLOAD card. Your tokens can still be removed by opponent's destroying marbles in your AMP tokens rows.