THE BASICS
In the worlds of Sanctuary, all conflict is resolved through the Rite of the Dragon—a ritualized form of combat where combatants draw upon mana and play cards representing their actions. This isn’t about hit points or resources—it’s about Stress, the mental and physical strain of battle.
YOUR CHARACTER
Mana Values (15 points total)
Distribute 15 points across the five colors of mana however you like. Each point lets you include one card of that color in your deck. You can have 0 in any color.
White: Protection, healing, order
Blue: Control, manipulation, foresight
Red: Aggression, chaos, high risk/reward
Black: Sacrifice, debuffs, punishment
Green: Growth, persistence, natural power
Your Aspect (Pick One)
Your Aspect is like your class—it determines your playstyle and gives you 5 unique cards. Choose one:
Fang: Heavy hitters who deal massive damage
Claw: Fast, agile fighters with card advantage
Scale: Defenders who protect allies
Breath: Ranged supporters with tactical options
Your Deck
10 cards from your Aspect (fixed) 15 cards chosen based on your Mana Values (customizable during downtime)
Use the Cards tab to look at all the available cards, and the Decks tab to build a deck with them!
Glory
Eventually, you will recieve points of Glory, which you can spend to either upgrade one of the cards in your deck to its Glorified form, or to add extra Graces or Sacred Rites to your hand.
With enough glory, you could get 31 cards in your deck!
Stress & Tolerance
Stress is the resource you spend and accumulate during combat. Your Stress Cap (Tolerance) is 10 by default; this will likely change in playtesting.
When your Stress reaches your cap, you’re defeated and out of the fight. After each <???>, your Stress resets to 0.
COMBAT FLOW
STARTING COMBAT
Engage - To participate in combat, you must Engage:
- Pay 1 Stress
- Draw 4 cards from your deck
- Your hand is visible to everyone
- You’re now a valid target for enemies
Note: You can choose NOT to Engage.
TURN STRUCTURE
Turn Order: Alternates between PCs and enemies. The same side only takes consecutive turns if the other side has nobody left to act.
On Your Turn:
Optional: Refresh (once per turn)
- Pay 1 Stress
- Discard your entire hand
- Draw 4 new cards
Play One Card (called a “Rite”)
- Choose a card from your hand
- Resolve its effect
- Discard it
- Your turn ends (unless the card says “This doesn’t end your turn”)
ROUND END
Once everyone (PCs and enemies) has taken a turn, the round ends and a new one begins.
KEY MECHANICS
STRESS & DEFENSE
Damage = Stress Increase When you’re hit by an attack, your Stress goes up. Reach your cap = defeated.
Defense reduces incoming damage before it increases your Stress Defense persists between rounds The Defense Cap is usually 10 (Scale Aspect’s will be 12 instead!)
Recover Some cards let you Recover, lowering your Stress. You can’t Recover if you’ve already been defeated.
CARD TYPES
- Strike X: Deal X damage to a target (enemy by default, unless specified)
- Defend X: Give a target X Defense
- Enchantments: Ongoing effects that last the entire combat
-
Fiends: Summoned creatures with their own Stress pool and card hand
- Act when you act (they get to play a card on your turn, doesn’t cost your action)
- Can be targeted by attacks
- Can’t Refresh
- Destroyed at end of combat
STATUS CARDS
- Bad Shit That Clogs Your Deck!
- Curse: While in hand, your cards are half as effective
- Poison: When drawn, take 2 Stress, draw 1 more card, then shuffle Poison back into your deck
- Exposure: While in hand, you take double damage
- Wound: Does nothing, just wastes space in your hand
Status cards are shuffled randomly into your deck when added.
EXAMPLE TURN
Duŝkomira is fighting a fiend. She has 3/10 Stress, 2 Defense, and these cards in hand: Bash (Strike 3), Block (Defend 3), Wind Up (Strike 1, next attack +2 damage), Second Wind (Recover 2, Draw 1)
Duŝkomira’s turn:
She considers Refreshing but her hand is good, so she keeps it.
She plays Wind Up (Strike 1) - deals 1 damage to the fiend.
Wind Up says “This doesn’t end your turn” so she can play another card!
She plays Bash (Strike 3) - but it gets the +2 bonus from Wind Up, so deals 5 damage total!
Her turn ends, and she discards both cards.
TIPS FOR NEW PLAYERS
- Manage Your Stress
- Engaging costs 0, Refreshing costs 1
- You have ~8-9 Refreshes before defeat with base 10 Tolerance
- Don’t Refresh if your hand is still good!
- Hands Are Public
- Everyone sees what everyone has
- Coordinate with allies!
- Enemies can see your options too
- Defense Stacks
- Building up Defense over multiple turns is valid
- But remember the cap
- Fiends Are Fierce
- Summoning a Fiend gives you an extra action every turn
- But they have Stress and can be killed
- Protect your Fiends!
- Status Cards Are Dangerous
- Drawing Poison can spiral out of control
- Exposure makes you fragile
- Curses cut your damage in half
- Try to remove them ASAP
DEFEAT & RECOVERY
When Your Stress Capped Out
- You can’t act for the rest of this combat
- You need a moment with an ally to “realign yourself” narratively
When You’re Defeated:
- All participants face whatever consequences were the stakes of the Rite!
Rite Ends:
- Stress resets to zero
- All Enchantments end
- All Fiends are destroyed
BUILDING YOUR DECK
During Downtime:
- You can swap out your colored cards (the 15 based on Mana Values).
- You can’t change your Mana Values or Aspect cards without the Dragon’s permission.
- Getting the Dragon’s permission won’t be extraordinarily difficult, though!
- But you will have to be willing to prove yourself, in some capacity.
- As you level up your Aspect, you gain Glory to buy new cards and abilities.