Shred of Redemption Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Game Components
• Game Flow
  • 1. History Step
  • 2. Reflection Step
  • 3. Redemption Step
  • 4. Reckoning Step

Game Overview

You will pick out 5 random dice representing the misdeeds committed by the protagonist. You will then pick out cards representing the protagonist's actions later in life taken in an effort to make up for these misdeeds. These cards will determine which tokens you will be able to place into your bag.

You will then roll the dice and place them in a row – thus forming the exact set of Vice you will need to match with the corresponding set of Virtues on your tokens (the pairings are shown on the Reference sheet).

You will then pull tokens from your bag to create a sequence that exactly matches the symbols on the rolled dice. You must match both the symbols and their location to achieve a winning game state. The bag will also contain "negative" tokens called Regret – you must also ensure there are none of these in your formation.

You have several abilities to aid you in your task:

• Each token in the formation can be either used or discarded to trigger effects. These effects can manipulate dice, grant you additional tokens, get rid of Regret or change the positions of tokens in the formation. The effect of each token is described on the Reference sheet.
• You also have 5 cards that can either be used for their unique ability or discarded to get more tokens in your formation.

Once a winning combination is achieved you will reveal the last obstacle – a Reckoning card, that will introduce the one last complication to overcome. If, after the Reckoning card has been revealed, you manage to restore the exact match of the formation with the dice results – you win and obtain salvation. If you run out of options to achieve the exact match – you fail, and the protagonist faces death full of shame and regret.

Game Components

1. Vice Dice: these represent the protagonist's activity in early life. Each vice die has a Dominant Vice most closely associated with the activity it represents (e.g., Wrath is the dominant Vice for War). Each die has the Dominant vice on 3 of its faces, other 3 vices on other 3 faces and 2 vices are not represented. For a full breakdown of vices, see the vice dice breakdown sheet.
   • 4 dice for each of 6 vice = 24 dice
2. Tokens: you place the tokens into your bag and use them to match the symbols rolled on the dice. Tokens fall broadly into two types:
   • Regret tokens: are negative – they have no abilities and must be removed in order to achieve winning game state.
   • Virtue tokens (double sided) are positive and come in 6 types, with each Virtue countering a specific Vice found on the vice dice. Each token has two sides – "Fresh" (with a colour background) and "Used" (blank background).
     • In addition to serving as matches for the Vices you rolled, these tokens each have a different ability that you can use.
     • These abilities help you achieve the winning game state by adding new tokens, exchanging existing ones, removing regret, moving tokens around, controlling dice etc.
     • Abilities are described on the Reference Sheet.
     • You can either Use a token, triggering a weaker ability but keeping the token in play (flipping it from Fresh to Used side) or Discard it, triggering a stronger ability, but removing the token from the formation. You can also Use an already Used token, but then you must discard it.
   • 12 regret tokens + (6x6 = 36) virtue tokens = 48 tokens total.
3. Redemption Cards: these cards represent the activities you took on to atone for the misdeeds of your past. They have two functions.

Game Flow

1. History Step

The game starts with all the dice placed in the bag. Repeat the following steps 5 times:

• Take a random die from the bag and place it in front of you.
  • This will create the dice formation to match later in the game.
• Take two cards from the Redemption deck and pick one to keep, discarding the other.
  • Consider which Virtue tokens you will need most, based on which vice dice you have already pulled (and which Vice appear on these) as well as the effect described on the bottom of the card.
    • (e.g., if you already have 2 yellow Wealth dice in your formation – chances are you will need an ability to turn tokens into Charity to counteract Greed that will likely appear on the Wealth dice)
• At the end of this step, you will have five dice and five cards in front of you.

2. Reflection Step

• Empty the bag and move the dice to the side of the play area.
• Build your token bag.
  • Start with 6 regret tokens and 1 Virtue token of each kind (Kindness, Charity, Learning, Restraint, Diligence, Humility).
  • Add all the tokens indicated on the top parts of the Redemption cards that you have selected.
• Roll every die you have picked one at a time and place these in a row. The roll results dictate the sequence of Vice you need to match.
• Shuffle the bag well and pull tokens to make up your starting formation until you have 5 Virtue tokens in the formation (so if you pull 2 regrets during this step – you will have a total of 7 tokens). This is your starting formation.

3. Redemption Step

• Your goal is to achieve a winning game state by meeting two requirements:
  • There are no Regret tokens in the token formation
  • The first five virtue tokens in the formation match exactly to the vice showing on the dice as shown on the Token Reference sheet.
    • Virtue Tokens do not need to be Fresh to match a Vice, they can be Used.
• To achieve this, you can Use or Discard tokens to activate their abilities
  • See the Reference Sheet for description of these effects.
  • Using a token flips it from Fresh to Used side (or if the token is already Used – discards it from the formation.
  • Discarding a token immediately removes it from the formation and places it to the side to the token supply.
• You can also use the Redemption cards you have selected to achieve your goal.
  • The bottom part of the card lists an effect. You can discard the Redemption card to trigger this effect.
  • You can also discard any Redemption card to add a Regret token to the bag and draw 2 new tokens to add to the formation.
• There is no limit to how many tokens there can be in the formation.
• The leftmost token in the formation is an absolute limit – there can be no tokens to the left of the first die in the Vice formation.
• New tokens drawn from the bag are added to the rightmost end of the formation.
• If any effect causes there to be an empty space in the formation – finish resolving the effect and before taking the next action – shift the formation so that any tokens "slide" left to fill empty spaces. The formation should have no blank spaces before you take your next action.

4. Reckoning Step

• You worked hard for it and redemption is at hand, but an unexpected last obstacle arises to challenge your progress! Draw a Reckoning card.
• The Reckoning card will introduce a last complication, changing the state of your token and/or dice formation.
• You then proceed to continue using your remaining token and card abilities to bring the game back to the winning state (no Regrets and matching Virtues/Vice)
• If you run out of options to bring the game to the winning state you lose, failing to overcome the final obstacle.
• If you manage to bring the game to the winning state, you win and the protagonist dies peacefully knowing that you were able to do enough good to make up for the misdeeds of the past.