Not dead just yet.

I seemed to have vanished momentarily.  Figuring out just how my schedule works (work, life, etc.) took a while.  For now at least, I have to post infrequently to this blog.  I will continue to post, particularly FissureVerse because that's my top priority, but I cannot guarantee any sort of schedule.

So expect lots of popping in and out of existence.

FissureVerse - Seven Cards Get Art

Thanks to Georgi Slavov and Maurice Mosqua for letting me use their art!

Click to see!

Over half done with the Location cards now! Things are really starting to fill out.

For Carnival, I went with this piece because of the color and the foreboding look.  It's not just an everyday earth-based carnival, but rather the kind of grimdark feel I intended.  The 'carnival' becomes half-metaphor with this art, or stretches what a carnival can be.  The building here looks like a tower, but could pass for a ride.

War Machines is meant to be Green's copy of Fortress of Noise, done in their own style.  Fortress of Noise will be something like a Death Star, so War Machines should give off the vibe of a Red card, but with a sleeker, shinier look.

Denial finally matches with the flavor text I used.  Since Denial has always been a pain to fully match with (considering it is a strange word for a location), it took quite a while to find the art that evokes the feel I'm going for.  To me, the art and the flavor text tell a story now, and Solidity is really coming in to their own as a particularly devious villain.

Interesting that I always find so many cards for Blue so fast.  Emptiness is the good guys, if any of the four factions can be considered good at all, so I guess artists like drawing heroes more than villains...

Respectators has been this concept for a while now: a group of people watching a battle from afar.  I found similar artwork by another artist but could not get permission to use it.  This art works just as well (in fact, it might even work better because you can see the battlefield below).  I considered some flavor text, since spectators usually make lots of noise, but these people are more likely to watch in respectful silence.

The golem art reminds me a bit of those rock creatures from Tera, which is certainly not a bad game to evoke.  I knew I needed something one would consider slow, and using plant life would probably have been a little too close to Ents.  A big heavy rock creature works well.  I also changed the special rules to add that you cannot Reinforce with Slowpokes when first in Turn Order.  I'm thinking Slowpokes will be difficult to balance because the number of players really dictates how likely the special rules will come into play.  In a two player game, you can't use Slowpokes half the time; in a four player game, only one quarter.

Nomads may be too powerful; I may need to drop that violent 5 down a bit, seeing as the special rules text probably isn't the end of the world for Red, should they lose the card.  But in any case, the idea behind Nomads is of a race that wanders between planes of existence--here and the afterlife, for instance.  So killing them doesn't really kill, since they can come back, and instead they just discover what the afterlife plane is like, which makes True Converts of them.  For the art, I always wanted a creepy vibe, and this fits perfectly.

I consider quite a few Emptiness cards to be somewhat 'generic defenders', like Steadfast Clan or Walkers, and Tearmen is along those same lines.  They are one tribe among many that are being slaughtered by Solidity, and they've risen to defend themselves.  But while I want most of those tribes to be human-like for the purposes of relate-ability, I'm looking for some twists on the form.  This art works well because of the almost demonic horns and face markings, but she still looks both forlorn and stoic, which is just the expression I'm going for with these kinds of Emptiness cards.

Latchkey - Interface

After quite the long break from Latchkey, I'm giving it a reboot.  Now that I know a bit more about how to get things properly programmed, I'm starting from scratch and reworking many of the kinks.  I'm also rethinking the basic design of it, and I'm going to carefully consider each design choice, beginning with the user interface:

A more streamlined look.

I've tried to streamline the user interface to give it a less complicated and less intimidating look.  Now there's only three windows: one for chat, one for the main window, and one for directions.  I still feel that directional text is too important to get jumbled in with the main action window, and chat would be cumbersome there, as well.  But player actions, various descriptions, realtime text, and error messages are all being condensed into the main action text field.

I've also tried to get closer to a classic look by removing the basic Flash textfield borders and creating a text-based border.

One problem I've discovered is the way things stretch when you maximize the window, distorting the placement of the textfields, so I'm going to lock the window to 1024x768 (which is far larger than old games anyway), which gives plenty of room so things don't seem cramped, but still gives off (hopefully) the feel of those old text adventures.

Latchkey attempt number two begins...

I'm back

Hectic month with moving and such, but that's all done now.  I'm going to get back to at least a semi-regular posting schedule again, as things are starting to settle down.

I've got a slew of projects to get on, so the blog may be scattershot for a while (as it should be).  I'm restarting Latchkey, and continuing work on FissureVerse, so at minimum you've got those to look forward to.  I think I also promised a while ago that I'd begin showing some work on a tabletop RPG I've been designing, so there may or may not be something presentable for that.  Other little projects here or there may pop up when I'm in the mood, like working on those DOOM levels or making some corrections to Dominion expansions.

All in all, lots of work to do!

Flash Game Mini-Review: Dangerous Dungeons

I waited quite a while to review this game, mainly because I don't like to give positive reviews of games I haven't beaten.  Dangerous Dungeons probably should have been an exception.

It took me ages to beat the last level, but in a good way.  Dangerous Dungeons is a frustrating, challenging pixelated puzzle platformer that would feel right at home on an eight- or sixteen-bit system.  Not only does it evoke the graphics of that era, but the challenge, gameplay, and even music, as well.

It's a simple game, in terms of story: get the loot in the dangerous dungeons.  It's also a simple game in terms of controls: left, right, and Z to jump.

But using just those simple mechanics, it really shines in the level design.  Every level is unique, and the difficulty ramps up perfectly.  My only real complaint is that there aren't enough levels--there's 34, but it seems to go by too quick.  I very much hope for a sequel that is simply more of the same.

Simple, yet challenging.

There's a Story Mode and a Time Attack Mode, which are fairly self-explanatory.  You have unlimited lives and unlimited time in both, but there are achievements for beating Time Attack in ten or fewer lives, and in thirty minutes or less.  Regular Story Mode was so brutal, I don't think I'll ever be able to beat Time Attack.  You can also enable checkpoints if you like, though I never tried; I assume it's for the levels that are longer than a single screen, like the four boss battles or the three secret levels.

As a minor complaint, it would have been nicer to have the Level Select be a menu or something other than a long corridor.  While it's nice to see your progress in a straight line, I took so many sessions to beat the last level, I got sick of running a mile before trying again.

But overall, Dangerous Dungeons is a thorough challenge for those who enjoy the likes of old school platformers and want a taste of new nostalgia.

You can play Dangerous Dungeons here.

Update: Dangerous Christmas is an ice-themed level pack!

Job is a funny word. Job job job job job. Job job. Job.

I've got myself a full-time regular job now, which means this blog will take a back seat for awhile, at least until I get adjusted to the hours and figure out where my free time is.  So that means posts will be sporadic.  I doubt I'll be able to do once-a-week posts, at least until life clears up a bit.  We'll see how things work out.

I'm a big boy now.

FissureVerse - Four Cards get art

Thanks to Soup-plz, Luis Angel "MetaShinryu" Payano, and Joakim Olofsson for the art!  The artist list on the sidebar is getting large and unwieldy, so I may have to find another place to put it.  I don't want to bury it very deeply, so perhaps I'll make a new tab for credits or something.

Click for bigger!

Vista of the Infinite and Forsaken look pretty opposite.  One has a lone figure, relaxing, looking up into the sky; the other has a lone figure, on guard, looking down into some terrible pit.  For Vista of the Infinite, I think I shrank the flavor text a hair, but is otherwise unchanged.  For Forsaken, I don't think I changed anything at all.  The art I used for Forsaken could have been used for Trenches of Otherworldy Sorrow, and I debated a bit with it.  I think Trenches will be harder ultimately to find a perfect match for, but this art really said 'Forsaken' to me.

In an effort to put more non-human entities on Crusader cards, I picked these two pieces.  Creatures was always meant to be... creatures... and for Of the Sea, I'd kinda played around with the idea of mermaids, but I like this better (actually, look close, there is a mermaid in it).

Neither card gets flavor text; Of the Sea has no room, and I felt that the creature in Creatures was fairly dumbstruck.  Cropped out of the picture was a woman or girl, so it had a very similar idea behind it as the art for Of the Sea.

I switched the Reason and Water stats for Of The Sea, both to keep in more in line with Blue's theme, and also, a water-based creature should be best in water, eh?

Oh, hey! Emptiness cards are half-done!

FissureVerse - Nine cards get art, and a Location Diagram

Thanks to Alberto Vangelista and Chibionpu for letting me use their awesome art!

Click to make all big and stuff.

Locations are filling out nicely.

A Child's Imagination removed the actual child itself from the picture, so I decided to remove the mention of the child from the flavor text, as well.  I think this new flavor text makes The Infinite more sinister, and less stupid.  The art itself is of course very much what I was going for, giving off vibes of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Mario games (fun fact: Alice was where Miyamoto got the idea of mushrooms making Mario get bigger! But I digress.)

The Crystalline Tower was always a tough one, because I had such an exact idea of what I wanted it to be, so I was never satisfied with art that looked kind-of-sort-of like what I had in mind.  But upon finding this art, I decided it would be better than my original vision.  It pays to welcome the new!  It looks more solitary and haunting in this image, but the blue bands give a technological feel.  I shortened the flavor text in hopes to reflect the new mood of the card.

Treetomb was similarly tough, because I had a hard time straying too far from my original placeholder art, but when something new works, it works.  The knight in the middle helps set it off as a haunted, lonely place.  In this instance, I expanded the flavor text instead of shortening it, partly because The Infinite is supposed to be a wordy bunch, and partly because I was trying to capture something more than I previously did.  I do kind of think the flavor text clashes with the art a bit, but I can always change the flavor text when inspiration strikes.

With The Fishes, initially, was a flat, calm sea, while Path of the Righteous was a roiling wave.  I like With The Fishes this way better, because I think The Noise would rather dump a person in an ocean like this, rather than the mobster cement shoes way.  Even so, I kept the flavor text the same, because that's just who they are.

The running theme here is "I changed my mind on what the card should look like."

Stalkers was originally a person in a gas mask, and I searched hard for a great image similar to the placeholder art, but I ultimately picked this because I like how it doesn't show a Stalker, it shows a victim.  Look closely at the picture and you can see the red dots of laser sights covering the guy; the Stalkers are outside the picture, about to make a kill.  With that comes new flavor text in that spirit: brutal and demotivating.

Fountain was initially inspired by the Fountain of Youth, though of course that's not quite what it means.  By having a noun be the name of the Frenzy, I arted myself into a corner, finding it hard to find something like a fountain that wasn't.  Then I found this, and it works excellently.  I decided to go with no flavor text, after trying a few things, because I think really explosive images like this don't need any extra words; the art speaks for itself.  There's triumph and power in the art, and anything I tried to say distracted from the art.  This art also works well because I know a lot of the Frenzies are going to end up being dark cards, so having a bright one like this helps to draw people to Frenzies a little more often.

Tames, similarly, needs no flavor text.  I think the woman or nature spirit here wouldn't say anything, she would just create and dance.  I recall a sunrise or sunset symphony in the book The Phantom Tollbooth, where an orchestra played instruments, but all was silent, and they controlled the colors of the sky instead.  This gives off a beautifully similar feel.

With Bravery, I had a lot of choices to make for the artwork.  Of course in this card, the brave individual is the girl on the right, but I could have easily made this Deceptive instead, and had the focus be on the creature on the left; or I could have made this a card of Emptiness or The Noise, to boot.  Many times when I have these kinds of options, it comes down to the mechanics of the card and how well they are represented in the art.  Here, I think, Bravery is represented best.  The flavor text was just me being goofy, using the opening to DragonStrike as a quote.  Sometimes you gotta break up the seriousness with a joke!

The Cracked was yet another I kept hemming and hawing about with art.  I kept wanting the term "cracked" to mean "crazy", but ultimately I think a broken-down robot fits quite well with the mechanics of this card, as well.  A robot isn't likely to be converted by Fear, or could be reprogrammed to get back into the game if captured.  I chose no flavor text because this guy to me looks like he's all bite and no bark.

Lastly, I add this picture to the instructions.  I need to start putting in stuff like that again, so I'll be adding more diagrams to the instructions soon enough, as well as putting the examples back in.

Flash Game Mini-Review: Hexad

Oh, god, the music! It's so catchy! It burns! It burrrns!

Hexad is a quick little puzzle game where you click on groups of hexes to remove them from the screen.  If, in doing so, you separate the connected hexes into groups, the smaller groups all disappear.  The goal is to make all the hexes disappear given a limited number of clicks.  Some hexes can't be clicked on, so you have to find a way to put those into a small group to make them disappear.

I don't know why, but this level killed me.

Each level offers at least four ways to beat it, since you can click on each of the four colors as your last move, and you get a mark for completing the level and ending on that color.  My minor complaint about that is that in some levels you can win two ways just by repeating your previous moves verbatim but switching the order of the last two hexes you click on, so there's not always too much challenge in discovering a completely new sequence of moves.  However, you also get more stars for beating a level under the maximum number of moves (although I think you might also get three stars just by beating a level with all four colors last).

It's a fun little minimalist game that has some challenging replayability to each level (if beating a level once isn't challenging enough for you), but the biggest draw for me is the music.

I don't know what that tune is, if I've heard it before or what, but my god does it ever get stuck in your head.  When you click off the game, the music pauses, which is a blessing, because if it didn't, I'd be listening to it until I went crazy.  They must have tested this game without that and sent half their tester to the nuthouse.

Now that I think about it, it sounds like the Super MarioLand music somewhere.

You can play Hexad here.

Do do do do, do do do do...

I take it back! You can do other stuff and listen at once! I'm doing it now!

Wah doot doot, wah doot doot...

HELP!

[Error: no title]

It's been a pretty long haul getting lots of FissureVerse stuff moving along.  I basically spent each week thinking "this will be the week where I can't get anything done", but then I get great responses from artists and can post some art (and make other adjustments to the cards and rules).  This week I finally got nothing.

Notice there is no paper in the typewriter. That's metaphorical of something.

Now I think I'm a little burnt out with FissureVerse, and of course I've been itching to get back into Latchkey ever since I set it aside.  It always one of those things where you change your mind the moment you've made a decision.

So this week I guess my post is just this update.  The schedule for me is: next week I'll make at least one post (if I still have no work on FissureVerse to report, I may do a game review), but I'm off on an adventure the week after so no post for that week.

When I get back, I may settle down and start cranking on Latchkey again.  I'm reconsidering a lot of things I was doing (including making the interface less than six big blocks), so the project may get restarted, which, on the whole, is probably a good decision, so I can use proper programming practices from the get-go.  I will likely also reconsider some mechanics.  But I guess that remains to be seen.

FissureVerse - Symbols, Frenzy Bluff Attacks, and New Cards

First: six cards get new art!  Thanks to Mariel, cubehero, and Saana Viinikka for the art!  All of them are awesome people and awesome artists!

Click to read the macabre!

I'm so happy to be getting more art for Frenzies and The Noise! Of all the different categories of cards, they've been lagging behind the most, but all of these catch the darker, more brutal tone of these kinds of cards.

For the flavor text of Coded, I considered writing "Never give up, never surrender!" in binary or hex, but neither come out looking interesting, so I decided a more Infinite-esque quip would do better.

For Twister, it's got a bit of a similar theme to Solidity's Turbulent, but I tried what I could to break it off from being identical.  In lieu of flavor text, I decided to make the special rules a little twistery.

I might have considered flavor text for The Cursed, but trying to get the special rules text to be logical enough without being awkwardly verbose was a challenge enough in itself.  Besides, I think this guy looks sufficiently dark and brooding to warrant a more silent card.

Typically when I find a great piece of art, I go down the list and see what could be a potential match.  For the last piece of art above, I was hemming and hawing over a bunch of different cards, like Brainwash or Corruption or Decomposing, but when my eye glanced over Through the Mud (a card my eyes usually glance over, as I never expect to find art for it), the name jumped out at me.  I did not expect to find such great art for Through the Mud so fast.  It looks like he's draining her energy or strength, which works in a wonderful way, taking the metaphoric visual of dragging someone through the mud and making a more literal and macabre act out of it.

I also like how I'm now tying cards together.  I like to think that The Derelict live on Grime, or possibly the Plains of Filth (maybe Sewerlife coexists with them), but now I've gone a step further in cohesion to give flavor text from other Crusaders.  I had done it with Trail of Emptiness (giving it a Song of the Walkers), and I hope to do it with more, as I can find places for them.

Click for more macabre and sadness.

Brim of Despair gets a nice revamp.  I changed the flavor text to be more disturbing, and in line with how Solidity acts.  They aren't the jokey type like The Noise is, so I removed the old mixed up quote I had and replaced it with this new text.  I think it works in that brutal, Stockholm Syndrome way Solidity likes to operate.

Limbo Rock gets to keep its old flavor text, but I think I've found just the right art to capture what I was getting at.  I think of Limbo Rock as being something of a holy site or pilgrimage site, but I always thought it would be tough to find art that's just right.  Luckily, like Through the Mud, I found the art long before I expected.

If you haven't noticed on the cards, I've also added symbols to them all.  I wanted to make sure colorblind players could distinguish factions and turn order, and I think I found a good way to do it.  I'll try my best to refer to each faction by name, rather than color now.

The symbol of The Infinite is, most logically, an infinity sign.  The symbol for The Noise is a heartbeat/pulse/sound wave.  I think those two work the best in terms of making a literal translation of their names.

Of course, Solidity and Emptiness were tougher.  What was I going to do to show Solidity? A cube? So I went with something that shows their personality and place in the cosmos: a spiky crown.  They are the rulers of the universe, the movers and shakers, and the King rules from his throne on Capitalia, with the Bishop of Hatred whispering in his ear, his legion of Thunderheads striking fear in the hearts of the people.

For Emptiness, the obvious thought is to have no symbol, but of course that's just unsymmetrical.  So I went with a leaf or feather, because they are tribal, nature-type people.

You can see these symbols on the Location cards inside the colored dots for turn order, and you can see them on the bottom of each Crusader card.  I used to have a tilde there, and I still do for Rogations, but I figured that was a good space-saving spot to put those symbols, so when you're counting up cards at the end you can quickly spot the symbol on an outer edge.

Of course, once again this only effects cards with art and cards that will get art (I am so bad at organizing templates and such).

Lastly, a new change that affects the rules: you can now not only Bluff Attack a Conditional Rogation, but you can also Bluff Attack a Frenzy.  I altered the way the rules work a tad so you get a choice of rewards for doing so, and if the Opponent wasn't bluffing, they get a few options to rectify the situation.

It's been a few posts since I actually linked to the drive, so here it is.

I do want to make a change to the goal of the game, or at least how points are potentially scored, since doing a bit of calculating leads me to believe the factions are imbalanced.  I almost want to hold off on that though, until I get some playtests and get a bit of a gauge on win ratios.  A heck of a lot of factors can go into this kind of thing.

FissureVerse - More on Rogations, because I'm nuts.

Let's start with the card art this time:

Click to see bigger!

I decided to put this guy by OTKMan1995 on Echoes, because... because!  Echoes, despite having great attributes, always felt like a weak card to me, perhaps because of the name.  But with this art, I feel like it's now a must-have in Solidity's deck.

Click to embiggen!

The art by TheMichaelMacRae for Battlefield looks like a movie.  The only change I made to the flavor text was an exclamation point.  You'd think in the heat of battle, you'd be shouting, not growling, eh?

Anyways: quite a few changes to the rules.  I've updated the language to keep vocabulary correct, but I've also added rules so you can gain tokens from Rogations, and you can now Bluff Conditional Rogations.  You can also call a Rogation's Bluff as a Crusade Action.  (I made it a Crusade Action because it costs Tokens to perform).

I'm sure I'm missing something in the rest of the rules, too, especially since I had to add a whole bunch of rules and clarifications which I thought were already in there.

I've also gone through and added the Faction label on all Crusaders at the bottom of each card.  This will help colorblind people easily differentiate between Factions.  I'll have to fix Locations, as well, so each colored dot somehow says something more.  I'm thinking of the Faction letters within the dots, like S for Solidity in Yellow... but I feel like that might look off.  Oof--I just realized I need to make the Special Color Text something else as well...

In the same spot as the Faction labels on Crusaders, I've added the type of Rogation to each Rogation, so now there is absolutely no guesswork as to whether a Rogation is Immediate, Lasting, or Conditional.  It also looks better than bolding the first few words of each Rogation.

Now I wonder if at some point I'll come up with different styles of Frenzies...

FissureVerse: 8 Cards Get Art!

I added eight more cards with art.  Thanks to jjpeabody, Gij Arentz, Andrew Chen, and Clément Galtier for letting me use their art!

First, four new Crusaders! One of each!

Click to enlarge!

Returned is a reference to returning from the dead.  As you can see by the flavor text, what lies beyond isn't precisely heavenly.

Turbulent is meant to be the big storm, not the plane, of course.  Then again, it's not the storm as much as it is what lies hidden within the storm.

Nightcaps has been a tough one to find art for.  Nightcaps was meant to be only half a reference to the garment, and half a reference to the fungus.  But ultimately, the term would have to be completely abstracted out and become a whole new beast.  So I found this creature, and I think it works well.  I'm also glad I'm finding more non-human characters to push the look and feel and tone of the game to a more sci-fi theme.

Addicts, I decided, would be a warrior.  I had considered the art on this card to be for Servants of the Noise, as well, but ultimately picked this because I think given the special rules and the attributes, it just fits much better.

Next, four locations! (Not one of each.)

I like the contrast between these four cards: Cremation and Paradise are lonely and haunting, while Haven and Waterfall are bright and cozy.  I think all of them capture very well exactly what I was going for, so flavor text didn't need to change any to go with them.

FissureVerse - Rogations will be the death of me.

I centered all the Location text, just for a little consistency.

I also clarified Rogations once more, and Bolded the text at the beginning of each Rogation to indicate what kind of Rogation it is.  Immediate Rogations start with "Immediately", Lasting Rogations start with "This Round...", and Conditional Rogations start with "The next time...".  Hopefully that's a good enough indicator of how it's played, without needing to make new symbols.

Of course, I only did this with Rogations that currently have art on them, so the old ones with "ART TBD" aren't fixed.  As I add art to them I'll fix them.

I also finally did the fix that showed how much of a derp I am, and bordered all the cards.  Now it should be much easier to cut out the cards along the borders.  That is, for only the cards with art... man, my workflow is stupid.  Locations were already bordered, as well as Frenzies, though Frenzies got a new border to be in line with the rest of the cards.

Also, two more Location cards get artwork!  Thanks to Clément Galtier and SnowSkadi for the art!

Click me!

By coincidence, these cards are opposites, but I like how they seem to be parallel universe mirror images.  The Aetherworld flavor text was a fortune cookie.  I'm still considering whether to use flavor text for House of Solidity, or leave it as the blank Yellow card, to suggest either that the House of Solidity is holy and you must remain silent in it, or that it is such foreboding place you'd be too scared to make a noise near it (look at them crossbows).

FissureVerse: Rogations Rules clarified and fixed.

I've altered the Rogations rules text in the instructions.  The full text is below, but the gist is that it's just a careful expansion of the rules I had posted, spelled out in greater detail in hopes of being clearer, and on par with the Frenzy and Crusade explanations.  I also changed the way you can take back your unrevealed Rogations, so it plays a little more like Frenzies, but with a bit of an extra penalty for retracting a revealed Rogation.

I'm also seriously considering adding some extra symbol to Rogation cards to let the player know what kind of Rogation it is (since I split them into Immediate, Lasting, and Conditional).  Perhaps the symbol will be in the middle of the card with the Crusader requirements.

ROGATIONS

Rogations are special cards which you may play out of Turn Order.  However, you can only play Rogations between Player Turns, or immediately before the first Player's turn, or immediately after the last Player's Turn.

Each Player may only play one Rogation at a time, and may only play one Rogation per Round.  If a Player has one Rogation currently in play, that Player may not play another Rogation until the first is Resolved.  Other Players, however, may play a Rogation of their own whether other Players have Rogations in play or not.

To play a Rogation, you must announce between Player Turns that you have a Rogation to play (or during a Turn, you announce that at the end of the current Turn you have a Rogation to play).  This prevents the next Player from starting their Turn early, before you have a chance to perform your Rogation.

If multiple players announce their intention to play Rogations between the same phase, precedence is determined by Turn Order: the Player who goes first in Turn Order plays their Rogation first.  A Player who wants to play a Rogation but is superseded by another Player may decide to not play their Rogation at that time--or might even be prevented from playing theirs!

After use or completion, Rogations are discarded into the appropriate Player's Discard Pile.  Rogations stay in play until their effect is complete.  Leave all Rogations in sight of all players to reference until the Rogation is discarded.

Rogations usually require a minimum number of your Crusaders to be in the Field of Play to use.  Sometimes there is a straightforward minimum number, other times there are special requirements explained on the card.  For instance, Whispers requires you to have fewer Crusaders in the Field of Play than any of your Opponents.

If two or more Rogations are played that contradict each other, the first played takes precedence.

When Rogations contradict Location cards, Location cards take precedence.  However, you may sacrifice one of your Crusaders in your hand or in the Field of Play to the Vortex to override the Location's rule and allow the contradicting Rogation to take precedence.

There are three informal Rogation types: Immediate, Lasting, and Conditional.  Each plays slightly differently, but all Rogations are simple enough to follow.

Rogation i.) Immediate

Some Rogations have an immediate effect.  Sometimes, the Rogation's first word is "Immediately", letting you know that the effect will occur without pause.

To play an Immediate Rogation, simply reveal it from your hand if you meet the minimum Crusder requirements, and follow the instructions on the card.  Discard the Rogation when you are done.

Rogation ii.) Lasting

Lasting Rogations act similarly to Immediate Rogations, except that they remain in the Field of Play for a limited amount of time.

Like Immediate Rogations, you may play Lasting Rogations immediately from your hand when you meet the minimum Crusader requirement, but do not Discard them immediately.  Lasting Rogations will give a time frame, usually until the end of the Round.  This makes it especially useful to play Lasting Rogations at the beginning of the Round, to make sure they last as long as possible.  Remember: a new Round doesn't begin until a new Location card is revealed!

Rogation iii.) Conditional

Conditional Rogations play differently from Immediate and Lasting Rogations.  These Rogations only have an effect when some extra condition is met.  Conditional Rogations usually start with "The next time..." to indicate its latent effect.

You do not play Conditional Rogations from your hand, but rather you place them in the Field of Play first, until the condition is met.  You do *not* have to meet the minimum number of Crusaders in the Field of Play when you put the Rogation into the Field of Play, nor do you have to announce your intention.  Instead, you must meet the minimum number of Crusaders in your Field of Play and announce your intention to play the Rogation *when the other condition is met*.

For instance, suppose you have Burial Rites in your hand.  You can place it in the Field of Play any time.  The condition for Burial Rites is "The next time one of your Crusaders is killed...", and the minimum Crusader requirements is 1.  So, the next time one of your Crusaders is killed, and you *still have one Crusader in the Field of Play*, Burial Rites takes effect.  If you only had one Crusader in the Field of Play, and it was killed, you now have zero Crusaders in the Field of Play, so Burial Rites cannot not go into effect.

If you are placing a Conditional Rogation in the Field of Play, you may place the Rogation facedown.  You may reveal it anytime before it takes effect, or at the moment when the Rogation goes into effect.  You do not have to reveal the Rogation as soon as it meets the requirements to become active; you can instead continue to leave it facedown for as long as you like.  However, for the Rogation to have an effect, it must meet both the requirements specified on the Rogation, and be faceup.

If you have placed a Conditional Rogation into the Field of Play and decide you wish to get rid of it, you may Discard it at anytime; however, you must spend one Token to do so. If you do not have any Tokens, you cannot remove the Rogation from the Field of Play.

You can, however, at any time, swap a facedown Rogation with another Rogation from your hand without penalty.  The Rogation you no longer wish to use simply goes back into your hand, replacing the new Rogation which you have placed in the Field of Play.  You cannot swap faceup Rogations.

FissureVerse - Minor fixes, and two cards

I centered all the Rogation text.  While I was at it I lowered the cost of Rapture to 0 (from 1).  Tithe's text was fixed to say "Directly Refill" instead of just "Refill".  I also changed Whispers so you must only have fewer Crusaders in the Field of Play than one of your opponents, not all of them, because otherwise in four-player games, it would be exceptionally difficult to play this.

A couple other minor adjustments:  I gave Green's Flesh bold red text because it matters in every crusade (which I had apparently done before, according to the instruction manual, but I guess something got lost in translation), and I gave Seedling an extra +1 to Reason to make it balance along the same lines as Starving (which is its opposite).

Lastly (but not leastly!), I finally got some art for a Red card and a Frenzy!  Thanks to JoJoe for the art!

Click to enlarge!

FissureVerse: Rogation Fixes & Rules Doc

The instruction manual has been added to the drive.

It's currently missing pictures and the Sample Game, but I think for the most part it's complete.  Now that it's in there, I'll update that file rather than posting complete rulesets as a post on this blog.

The Rogation rule change has been added in the instructions, so it's as up-to-date as it can be.  Also, I updated the Whispers Rogation to properly mention the specific requirements on the card itself, to align with the new rules.

Hopefully the Rogation rules aren't too confusing; I may have to split up the Rogation rules into sections like I did with all the other Actions.

But anyway, that's for readers and players to let me know.  So be one!  Play FissureVerse all complete and stuff!

FissureVerse: Yellow Crusaders

Yellow Crusaders have been uploaded to the drive.

Quite a few cards got rebalanced, though none really got their rules changed.  Fevers, Bishop of Hatred, King, and Cargo Vessel got nerfed.  Apparitions, Turbulent, and Ambassador got a boost.  I did not realize Yellow was so out of alignment (I think) with the other cards.  Like I mentioned last time, Propagandists has taken the place of Irregularity.

But, with this set, all the cards are now available for download.  Of course, art will still take ages, but all the cards are at least there, balanced (supposedly), and you can play the game completely, including with the new rules from a couple posts back.  I'll be adding that Rogation change, adding some diagrams, and then posting the rules in a PDF format to the drive.  I'll also be making a few more minor corrections to cards which have already been given art (like centering the text), but beyond that, playtesting is required now before any new balancing can happen.  I can only guess so much!

FissureVerse - Red Crusaders

The Red Player's Crusaders have been added to the drive.

Apart from the usual rebalancing, I clarified Scatterbrains, since I caught an instance where there may be confusion.  Since Scatterbrains can split one Crusade against two opponents, suppose Scatterbrains split its Crusade against two different players?  If Scatterbrains were trying to convert by Reason, and Scatterbrains were Truly Converted by both Opponents, where does Scatterbrains go?  I made it so the original player of Scatterbrains gets to decide.

I've also switch Yellow's Irregularity with Red's Propagandists, because thematically Red wouldn't propagandize, but Yellow would.  Irregularity fits nicely with Red, so everything's alright there.

FissureVerse: Green Cards

The full Green Cards pdf has been added to the drive.

The first major issue was changing the rules for Changeling, since I realized it was utterly broken and no player would ever put it in their deck as it was.  Now the player has an option whether to change with an opponent, rather than being forced to for an even swap.  I also balanced the numbers for it to make it more even.  I think the special rules don't make things any easier or harder.

Fireflies, Lidless, Quarantined, and Trailblazers were reworded.  I clarified in Quarantined that it doesn't matter who is the offense in the crusade for the special rules to apply.  Lugubrious and Numerologist, being red text cards, had to be rebalanced to be in line with other red text cards.

Tricksters got a slight addition and rebalancing partly for the sake of clarification.  Since Tricksters copies an Opponent's Frenzy, would Tricksters itself become a Zealot?  That hurts things for the Trickster if, say, it's going against Quarantined (assuming for the sake of argument that another player already had control of one of those two cards).  So I made it more versatile so the player gets to decide what it is.

FissureVerse: Rogations

I've posted a full set of Rogations to the drive.

Besides wording issues to match the new rules, I also changed "Mercy" to "Beg Mercy", because that's more along the line of what it is.  "Mercy" would be slightly different, and I may add that in the future.  I also changed Raindance's Crusader requirement from 1 to 2, and changed Phantasmagoria from having more Crusaders than an opponent to just having one.  Whispers still requires you to have fewer cards than your opponent, but that's the only one now.

I think what I'll do with Rogations is have them require a specific amount of Crusaders, but generally not "less than" or "more than." In special instances like with Whispers, I'll give it an asterisk and put special rules on the card, like I did with Wedding.  That should clean up the rules a lot and make things are less confusing.

However, what I will add to the Rogation rules is the ability to place them facedown.  Cards that have an immediate effect (Prayer) or cards that have an effect for the rest of the round (Wedding) must be placed faceup, but cards that only have an effect later (and cards that begins with "The next time...") may be placed facedown, and then revealed when the have an effect.  I like that, but I also like to keep it so that's an option for players, not a requirement like it is with Frenzies.  So a Player might choose to lay Sermon faceup anyway, for instance.  Either way can mess with the other Players, so I think that works out well.

FissureVerse: Locations

Locations have been uploaded to the drive.  A lot of them have been clarified to refer to the Direct version of actions, since the new rules give different types.  For instance, The Signpost used to say "You may not Frenzy."  Now it's more specific to what I originally meant, and says "You may not Directly Frenzy."  So you can still Replace a Frenzy or Unfrenzy, you just can't place a Frenzy card on a Devotee to turn it into a Zealot.

Similarly, Bottom of the Universe, Cremation, Haven, and Plains of Filth have been clarified with the "Direct" wording.  I'll probably need to redo the cards that already have art (at least to center the text), but later.

Cosmic Disruption has been clarified, hopefully the text is more clear about what it means.

I also noticed something strange last week when I was making Blue cards: the previously made Blue cards made solid contact with each other when put in a word document, but the "ART TBD" cards had a pixel or two of white space between.  I couldn't figure it out, but the same thing happened to the Frenzies, and then with the Locations.  The Locations were easier to notice, however: the new "ART TBD" cards are being exported from Inkscape at 180 DPI, while the previous cards are 200 DPI, leading to a little error in translation.  It's fine for now, I just have to remember to double check new cards I make with proper art to make sure they're in 200 DPI.

FissureVerse: Frenzies

The full set of Frenzies has been uploaded to the drive.  It is easily printable as a PDF, just like the Blue player set.  Of course it's extremely important to put the Frenzies up, since they are a huge part of the game with absolutely no placeholder art in them yet.  It's hard to playtest a game when a major mechanic is missing.

I've rebalanced Academic, Bravery, Paranoia, and Rabies so each negative attribute is only -1 instead of -2.  Before, the total for the change in each case was -4, while now it's only -1.  That's makes a huge difference, and I think players are much more likely to choose those Frenzies in their deck now.

Fountain, Overhill, and Secrets have been rebalanced as well, so each attribute negative is -2, instead of -3.  As well, the fourth attribute that had been unchanged in each case is also -2.  So for those you take a -2 to every attribute, but you can't be converted/killed by a specific attribute.  I wonder how balanced that is.  I think they're more balanced than they were before, but whether they're still too imbalanced will have to be discovered.

FissureVerse: Blue Set

While I'm slowly working on finding placeholder art, I think it's important to move along the cards in other respects to let players play with a full, balanced set (at least as balanced as I can get until playtesting proves otherwise).

So for now, I've added the full set of Blue cards in the Google Drive folder as a PDF for easy printing.  I'll add all the rest soon.

The only difference from previous cards in Blue is that Respectators has had in Water attribute boosted to be more in line with similar cards.

FissureVerse: The Rules v2.0

Here are the new rules for FissureVerse, missing pictures and examples, but otherwise decently complete.  I've been waiting on posting them until the placeholder art is complete and a full set of cards is available for download, but that's coming so slow I'd rather just post the rules as is so I can perhaps get a little bit of feedback from any readers.  Even without diagrams as a guide, it's useful to know where the language is tricky and things are confusing.

FISSUREVERSE
A Customizable Card Game for 2-4 Players

Instructions

The races of the universe have argued for billions of years.  Composed intellectuals deduced the Infinite; they understand the logic of the cosmos.  Believers of the Noise are loud like their gods, and will prove to you what the afterlife holds with their swords.  The monarchs, movers, and shakers of galaxies reign under Solidity, and convert through fear and fire and authority.  The peaceful, zen-tribes of Emptiness are lately awakening to defend their sects and their right to exist and live in peace.  It is time for the four bickering factions of the universe to end their petty squabbles, and declare a crusade.  Who do you support?

STARTER SET COMPONENTS
1 Book of Instructions
48 Location cards
24 Rogation cards
24 Frenzy cards
24 Blue Crusader cards
24 Green Crusader cards
24 Red Crusader cards
24 Yellow Crusader cards
96 Tokens (1 Sheet)

GOAL

The goal of the game is to Convert or Kill all other Player's Crusaders.  The last Player to have Crusaders in their Deck, Hand, and/or Field of Play is the victor.

HOUSE RULE - TIMED GAMES: Set a timer for how long you would like the game to last, either by setting a certain number of minutes or hours to play, or a specified number of turns.  When time runs out, play stops after the current Round is complete.  Then, each Player counts up the number of Crusaders in their Deck and Fearful Pile that they have Converted from other Players.  Players receive one point for each Convert.  Players also receive one point for each Killed Crusader of another color in the Vortex.  So in three- and four-player games, multiple players will receive points for the same killed Crusader.  For instance, Red, Green, and Yellow would each get a point for a killed Blue Crusader, regardless of who did the killing.

GAME LAYOUT

Each Player has their own Draw Pile, Discard Pile, and Fearful Pile.

The Location Cards are placed face-down in the Location Draw Pile, and as each is revealed it gets discarded face-up in the Location Discard Pile.

There is also a Vortex pile for killed Crusaders, though the pile is empty at the start of the game.

Make a pile of Tokens that are easily accessible to all Players.  Each Player will gain and return Tokens throughout the game.  If the pile of Tokens runs out, use any replacement such as coins.  Tokens are infinite and cannot be depeleted.

Be sure there is plenty of room for the Field of Play, where all players place Crusaders, Frenzies, and Rogation cards throughout the game.  Make sure all players can reach and view the Field of Play.

Lay out all cards and piles as you feel is easiest to manage.  So many piles can seem confusing at first, so consider spreading things out as much as you can to avoid confusion.

DECK CONSTRUCTION

Construct your deck using a combination of Rogations, Frenzies, and Crusaders.  You must abide by the following rules of deck construction:

1. You must have at least one Crusader in your Deck.
2. Only one color of Crusader may be used in a your Deck.
3. Competing Players may not use decks of the same color of Crusader.
4. You may have any number of Frenzies and Rogations in your deck, including none at all.
5. Each card in your deck must be unique; there may be no duplicate cards.

BEGINNER SUGGESTION:  To get started right away without constructing a customized Deck, simply choose a color to play, then use the 24 cards of that color from this Starter Set.  Next, randomly deal yourself 12 Frenzies and 12 Rogations from this Starter Set.  Shuffle them all together, and you've got your Deck ready to play!

GAME SETUP

Shuffle the Location Cards and place them facedown into the Location Draw Pile.

Each player chooses what color they wish to play as.  Since two players cannot be the same color, it is useful for advanced Players who construct their own Decks to have multiple sets, so they can play as any color if the need arises.

Each Player shuffles their Deck of combined Crusaders, Frenzies, and/or Rogations, then places it facedown.  These facedown piles are the players' Draw Piles.

Each player draws seven cards from their Draw Pile.  When each player is ready, the game begins.

PLAYING THE GAME

Each Round consists of two Phases: the Location Phase, and the Action Phase.  After all Players have taken their Turn during the Action Phase, a new Round begins.

THE LOCATION PHASE

"The universe is unstable, but it is predictable.  When the Vortex sweeps you off your world, it may set you down on favorable soil.  We use this to our advantage.  Knowledge is the greatest tool for all goals."
    ~ Servants of the Infinite

Flip over a new Location card and place it in the Location Discard Pile. The revealed Location card tells the Players the turn order for the Action Phase, as well as supplies any additional rules that are in play during that round.  Special Rules on Location Cards take precedence over all other rules, even if they contradict rules on other cards or in these instructions.

SUGGESTION FOR BEGINNERS: Ignore the special rules on Location Cards during play.  When all players feel comfortable with the basic rules of the game, start a new game and play with the additional Location card rules.

If the last Location card is drawn and discarded, then at the end of the Round, pick up the Location Discard Pile, shuffle it, and place it facedown to create a new Location Draw Pile, and resume the game.

THE ACTION PHASE

During the Action Phase, Players perform actions according to the Turn Order indicated on the Location card.  During the Action phase, you may pick one of four actions to perform: Reinforce, Frenzy, Crusade, or Refill.

Action a.) REINFORCE

"I fight well with a sword.  We fight better with two."
    ~ Servants of the Noise

Reinforcing is like moving troops into position:  you decide which troops to send to the battlefield and which to send home.  If you decide to Reinforce on your Turn, you may either Directly Reinforce, or Withdraw Enforcements.

Reinforce i.) Direct Reinforcement

You may place one or two Crusaders from your hand faceup onto the Field of Play.  You may have a maximum of four Crusaders in the Field of Play at one time, so if you have four Crusaders in the Field of Play, you cannot add more with Direct Reinforcement.

If you have no Crusaders in the Field of Play at the beginning of your Turn, you MUST Directly Reinforce, and may not perform another Action.  If you have no Crusaders in hand to Directly Reinforce with, you MUST discard your current hand, and continue to draw from your Draw Pile until you draw a Crusader.  When you do, you Directly Reinforce with that Crusader, and discard the rest of the cards you drew.  If you draw through your entire Draw Pile without finding a Crusader, you must shuffle your Discard Pile, place it facedown to turn it into your new Draw Pile, and continue to draw until a Crusader is found.  If, after all this, no Crusader is found, you have lost the game, and cannot continue to play.

At the beginning of the game, all players MUST Directly Reinforce on their first turn, as they have no cards in play.

When you Reinforce Directly, you gain one Token.

Reinforce ii.) Withdraw Enforcements

You may remove one Crusader out of the Field of Play, and put it into your Discard Pile, along with any attached Frenzies.  You may ONLY take cards out of the Field of Play if you have the maximum number of Crusader already in the Field of Play (normally four).  You may NOT take another player's cards from the Field of Play.

Action b.) FRENZY

"Peace and docility is the natural way to live.  Rebellion and piracy is the exception.  We live in exceptional times."
    ~ Servants of Emptiness

Frenzying allows you to take your Crusaders in your Field of Play and alter their attributes.  While the Crusader itself is always faceup, your Frenzy Card is placed facedown, so the altered attributes are hidden from other players.  If you choose to Frenzy during your Turn, you may Directly Frenzy, Refrenzy, or Unfrenzy.

Frenzy i.) Direct Frenzy

You may place one Frenzy from your hand facedown near one of your Devotees in the Field of Play.  The Frenzied Devotee becomes a Zealot.  You can Bluff by placing a Rogation or Crusader card facedown near a Devotee instead of a Frenzy.  Bluffs have no effect on a Zealot, other than being called a Zealot instead of a Devotee.  A Zealot may only have one Frenzy attached at a time.

When you Frenzy Directly, you gain one Token.

Frenzy ii.) Refrenzy

You may replace an unrevealed (facedown) Frenzy from the Field of Play with another in your hand.  The Frenzy you replaced may go back into your hand, or may be Discarded.  You may not Refrenzy a revealed (faceup) Frenzy.

When you Refrenzy, you gain one Token.

Frenzy iii.) Unfrenzy

You may discard a revealed Frenzy from the Field of Play.

Additional Frenzy Rules

Any Crusader with a Frenzy or bluff near it, whether revealed or unrevealed, is always considered a Zealot, and not a Devotee.

When a Zealot is Converted or Killed, attached Frenzy cards go back in the original Player's Discard Pile.

Action c.) CRUSADE

"We do not crusade because we are right.  We crusade because you are wrong."
    ~ Servants of Solidity

Crusading is the heart of the game, and the primary means of interaction with other players.

You may attempt to Convert or Kill an Opponent's Crusader, if you have enough Tokens.

To Crusade, you become the Offensive Player (the player who is performing the Crusade).  You use one of your Crusaders in the Field of Play to encounter any Opponent's Crusader in the Field of Play.  You declare which of your own Crusaders you will use, which Opponents' Crusader you are Crusading against, and whether you will attempt to Convert by Reason or Fire, or attempt to Kill your Opponent's Crusader.  After the declaration, any unrevealed Frenzy cards on all of the engaged cards are revealed and remain in Play.

The number of Tokens you must pay is equal to the value of the attribute you are using.  If the Crusader you are using is a Devotee, you pay only what the Crusader attribute says (and any Special Rules on the Crusader itself).  If the Crusader is a Zealot, you must add the value of the Crusader with the value of the Frenzy, and pay that amount.  If the total value is zero or a negative number, you must pay exactly one Token.  Other cards which alter attributes, such as Location Cards or Rogation Cards with Special Rules, or other Crusaders in the Field of Play, do not count toward the total payment.

Crusaders with Special Rules on them trump the Rules in these Instructions.  But the Special Rules on Location Cards and Rogations trump Crusader Special Rules.  If two Crusaders are engaged that have conflicting Special Rules, precedence is determined by Turn Order:  the Special Rules on the Crusader of the Player who goes first overrides the other Player's Crusader's Special Rules.

Crusade i.) Convert by Reason

If Converting by Reason, the Players compare the Reason attributes from the selected cards, factoring in changes made by Frenzies or other cards, if applicable.  If the Reason Attribute of one card is higher than the other, but less than 3 higher, the Crusader with the lower value has been Converted, and the winner takes the loser's card and puts it in their Discard Pile.  The winner's new card is a True Convert.  Otherwise, both cards remain in the Field of Play. 

Once shuffled back into a player's Draw Pile, a True Convert can be used as if it were a player's own color Crusader.

Crusaders which have been Truly Converted to another player can be reconverted by the original player, or can be converted by another player.  It absolutely all ways, they simply act as if they were the current player's Crusader.

Crusade ii.) Convert by Fire

If Converting by Fire, the Offense compares its Fire Attribute with the Opponent's Water Attribute.  If the Offense's Fire Attribute is greater than the Defense's Water Attribute, but less than 3 higher, the Offense wins.  The Offense claims the Convert, and the Convert goes into the Offense player's Fearful Pile.  If the Fire Attribute is more than 3 higher than the Water Attribute, the Defensive card is killed, and the Defensive card is sent to the Vortex.  If the Defensive card's Water Attribute is equal to or greater than the Offense's Fire, then the Defense may either immediately draw 2 cards from their Draw Pile, or immediately Directly Reinforce with one card (they may not go beyond the maximum).

Crusade iii.) Kill

If the Player chooses to Kill the Opponent's Crusader, Sword attributes are compared.  If equal, both Crusaders are Killed, and go to the Vortex.  Otherwise, the Crusader with the higher Sword value wins, and loser goes to the Vortex.

Action d.) REFILL

Refill i.) Direct Refill

You may Draw cards from your Draw Pile until you have seven cards in hand.  If you already have seven or more cards in your hand, you may not Directly Refill.

Refill ii.) Discard

You may discard any number of cards from your hand.

ROGATIONS

At any time between Player Turns (or before the first Player's Turn, or after the last Player's Turn), you may play one Rogation from your hand and follow the rules on the card.  Each Player may only play one Rogation per Round.  To play a Rogation, you must announce that you have a Rogation to play to prevent the next Player from taking their turn early.  If multiple players announce their intention to play Rogations between the same phase, precedence is determined by Turn Order: the Player who goes first in Turn Order plays their Rogation first.  A Player who wants to play a Rogation but is superseded by another Player may decide to not play their Rogation at that time--or might even be prevented from playing theirs!

After use or completion, Rogations are discarded into the appropriate Player's Discard Pile.  Rogations stay in play until their effect is complete.  Leave all Rogations in sight of all players to reference until the Rogation is discarded.

Pay attention to each Rogation's effect! Some Rogations have an immediate effect, such as Rally (Draw 3 Cards), some Rogations are in play until particular conditions are met, such as Psalms (the next time the player defends in a Crusade), and some Rogations last until the end of the round, such as Burial Rites.  Be careful!  A new round doesn't start until a Location is revealed!

Rogations usually require a minimum number of your Crusaders to be in the Field of Play to use.  Sometimes there is a straightforward minimum number, other times you must simply have more or less than each of your opponents (individually).

If two or more Rogations are played that contradict each other, the first played takes precedence.

When Rogations contradict Location cards, Location cards take precedence.  However, you may sacrifice one of your Crusaders in your hand or in the Field of Play to the Vortex to override the Location's rule and allow the contradicting Rogation to take precedence.

SPECIAL COLOR TEXT

Many cards have special rules to follow when playing them.  While most Crusader cards are self-contained, and only affect themselves, there are some Crusaders which can affect other cards or aspects of the game.

Blue's Starving and Seedling have GREEN TEXT.  Green text signifies that the player should pay attention to it when Refilling.

The following cards have RED TEXT: Blue's Respectators and Naomi; Green's Numerologist, Fireflies, Lugubrious, and Flesh; Red's Sewerlife and Lifters; and Yellow's Thunderheads and Irregularity.  Red text signifies that the player should pay attention to its effects during a Crusade, even if that card is not being used during the Crusade.  Red text cards should be taken into account whether the card is part of the Offense or Defense.

ENDGAME

Once play ends and a winner in determined, Converted and Killed Crusaders are given back to the appropriate player.

GLOSSARY

An ACTION is what the player gets to do during his or her Turn.  Crusade, Frenzy, Refill, and Reinforce are types of Actions.

A BEGINNER SUGGESTION is a helpful tip for Players who have never played FissureVerse before.  These suggestions simplify parts of the game to make for a smoother and more straightforward experience.

A CRUSADE is a form of Action, where the Player may attempt to Convert or Kill another player's Crusader with one of their own.

A CRUSADER is a Blue, Green, Red, or Yellow card with the word "Crusader" at the bottom.  Crusaders are the backbone of the Player's Deck:  the alien races that subscribe to a set of beliefs, represented by their given color.

A DECK is the set of Crusaders, Frenzies, and/or Rogations that a player has constructed to play with.

A DEVOTEE is a Crusader in the Field of Play that does not have a Frenzy attached.

A DISCARD PILE is a pile that a Player discards cards into, faceup.

A DRAW PILE is a facedown pile where a player draws cards from.  A player's Draw Pile typically contains a mix of Crusaders, Frenzies, and Rogations.  When a player runs out of cards in the Draw Pile, that player's Discard Pile is shuffled and placed facedown to create a new Draw Pile.

A FEARFUL CONVERT is a Crusader that has been placed in any player's Fearful Pile.

A FEARFUL PILE is a designated pile of cards which players add Fearfully Converted Crusaders to throughout the game.

The FIELD OF PLAY is where players place and use their Crusaders and Frenzies in preparation for a Crusade.  Players also place Rogations in the Field of Play when they are used.

A FRENZY Card is a pink and orange card with the word "Frenzy" on the bottom.  Frenzies are placed facedown near a Devotee to alter the way the Devotee plays.  A Devotee with a Frenzy attached is called a Zealot.  Frenzies are typically revealed when a player's card Crusades or is Crusaded against.  FRENZY, as a verb, is also an Action.  A Frenzy Action includes placing a Frenzy Card facedown near a Devotee in the Field of Play, or replacing an unrevealed Frenzy Card on a Zealot, or removing a revealed Frenzy Card from a Zealot.

A HAND is the set of cards a Player physically holds in their hand; the Player keeps these cards hidden from other players.

A HOUSE RULE is an optional rule that Players can decide to use, but are not mandatory (and may contradict other established rules).  Players should discuss which House Rules to follow before play begins.

A LOCATION is a card with special backing that says "Location".  Location Cards determine the turn order for that Round, and sometimes alter a rule for that Round.

The LOCATION DISCARD PILE is a face-up pile where Locations are discarded at the end of a Round.

The LOCATION DRAW PILE is a facedown pile where Locations are drawn from.  New Locations are drawn at the beginning of every Round.

REFILL is an Action.  A Player who Refills either draws cards from their Draw Pile until they have seven cards in hand, or discards any number of cards from their hand into their Discard Pile.

REINFORCEMENT is an Action.  When a Player Reinforces, they either take a Crusader or two from their hand and place them in the Field of Play, or remove a Crusader from the Field of Play.

A ROGATION is a card that is purple on the top, black on the bottom, with the word "Rogation" on the bottom.  Rogations are typically played from a player's hand and sometimes placed in the Field in Play.  Rogations can be played at any time, but certain requirements must usually be met before they have an effect.

A ROUND is a unit of play, beginning when a Location is revealed, and ending when that Location is discarded.

SPECIAL RULES are Rules found on cards, either Rogations, Crusaders, Frenzies, or Locations.  When Special Rules contradict each other, Location Card Special Rules take precedence, followed by Rogations, then Frenzies, the Crusaders, then the basic rules in these Instructions.

A TOKEN is a small round pip, typically gained when Frenzying or Reinforcing, and lost when Crusading.

A TRUE CONVERT is a Crusader that is in another player's Draw Pile or Discard Pile.

A TURN is a single player's Action Phase. TURN ORDER is represented by the colored dots on a Location card.

The VORTEX is a common face-up pile where Killed Crusaders from all players are placed.

A ZEALOT is a Crusader that has had a Frenzy placed near it, which often alters the way the card is played.