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Card stats

A number of attributes and stats have been name-dropped in previous articles. Here, I will attempt to consolidate them all into an example card.

Everyone's favourite card - a creature.

Creatures fall into two categories:

• Minion
• Warrior

Minions are support creatures. They are tend to be terrible in combat, although they can enter a fight. Their abilities provide bonuses or options outside the combat of the game, such as additional element gathering and spell casting.

Warriors are destined for combat.

Each creature has statistics:

• Attack
• Defence
• Endurance
• Health
• Speed

Attack is the offensive capability of the creature in combat. This is compared to enemy defence values when attempting to deal damage. Each fire token on a creature increases its attack by 1 point.

Defence is the resistance a creature has in combat. This can simply be armour or perhaps a high prowess to avoid or parry an attack. Defence is compared to an attacker's attack value when calculating damage. Each frost token on a creature increases its defence by 1 point. If a creature has both fire and frost tokens, it suffers 1 point loss of speed per 'paired' tokens.

Endurance is a barrier against fatigue. A creature can resist fatigue points up to its endurance value. Any point above this value is added to the damage total during combat to check exhaustion.

Health is a creatures ability to absorb fatigue and damage. If a creature is dealt damage (plus fatigue > endurance) totalling equal or more than its health, it s exhausted and turned on its side.

Speed determines how fast a creature can act. Faster creatures fight first in combat and can avoid certain abilities.

List of attributes to date:

• Champion: may fight in a challenge.
• Multi-attack (x): may perform up to x additional attacks during a cycle of combat.

Combat calculation

Within the combat procedure, a number of quick calculations take place.

First, the cards act in order of speed. The fastest card performs its first attack. This is calculated by comparing its attack value to the targeted defending card's defence value. Not all cards are able to hurt others, but by simply being involved in the fight, the enemy has to exert itself to overcome you, thus exhausting itself.

• If the attack value is greater, a point of damage is applied.
• If the values are the same, the slow combatant is at advantage. This means if you are attacking a card that has yet to perform, it is not hit. If you are attacking a card that has already performed, it is hit.
• If the attack value is lower, no damage is applied.

In all cases, a point of fatigue is added to the attacker and defender, unless the defender has 0 defence value.

This process is repeated for each card in order of speed until all cards have acted once. Any cards with abilities, such as multi-attack, can attack again afterwards, within the same cycle. Defenders do not gain fatigue points for additional attacks made against them.

If any card has a total fatigue plus damage count higher than its health, then it is exhausted, turned on its side and removed from combat.

This concludes a cycle of combat. If both sides wish to remain in combat and there's at least 1 card active on both sides, morale is checked.

Morale simply decides if both sides are willing to continue fighting - irrespective of the player's decision.

To check morale, count the number of exhausts on each side. The player with more exhausts is subject to the check. Total the total difference between exhausts, add 1 to the total if the player~(s) have humility, or deduct 1 if they player(s) have pride. If this total exceeds the number of cards remaining in the fight on that player's side, they must withdraw.

Card combat system

Nine Worlds runs combat by way of exhaustion rather than elimination. During combat, opposing forces fight to overwhelm each other, exhausting cards that are beaten. Combat is as much a test of endurance as it is martial prowess.

When two players/sides perform combat, the cards involved in the fight are placed together on an area of the table, facing each other. This helps separate active cards from those outside the combat.

To determine which cards are involved, the attacking player(s) first puts their cards forward. The defender(s) then responds by putting forward their defending cards. Once combatants are set, the attacking player chooses whether to fight a skirmish or pose a challenge.

In order to pose a challenge, the attacker(s) must nominate either a creature with the attribute champion or an Avatar to fight the challenge. The defending player(s) can accept or decline the challenge. If accepting, a single champion or Avatar must be nominated. If declining the challenge, a single champion or Avatar must be marked with humility.

A challenge takes place before the main combat. The two cards involved in the duel are placed face-to-face and a combat cycle is performed between them. The winner of the duel is marked with pride.

Combat procedure

The defender(s) chooses to place their cards against the attacking cards. More than one card may defend against an attacking card, but any attacking card left without a defender can then be assigned against a defender. Ganging-up works both ways.

Once all cards are placed in such a way that they can fight, a combat cycle is performed.

A combat cycle involves a single run of calculations. Each grouping of cards is addressed once per cycle. Each card can receive temporary exhaustion during combat, falling into two subsets: fatigue and damage.

• Fatigue is applied when a card attacks. Some cards can attack multiple times within a cycle, each applying fatigue.
• Damage is applied when a card is successfully hit.

If a card receives a combined fatigue and damage total that meets or exceed its health, it is exhausted. The card is turned on its side and removed from combat.

Combat cycles are repeated until one side withdraws or has exhausted all its cards. Challenges are only ever fought once, before main combat.

Combat attack calculation will receive its own article, as it is likely to evolve as it is tested.

Elements, tokens, creatures

Element tokens are a measure of power. The tokens are obtained through spells, conquest, events, sacrifice and gathering. There are four elements, as described here.

When element tokens are gained, they are placed in front of the owning player in a pool. They can be spent directly from this pool to empower cards.

In the Replenish phase of a turn, the active player can return tokens to their pool that have been placed on other cards. After this, they may be distributed again. This process can be performed every turn, but only in the Replenish phase.

What tokens actually do is defined, uniquely, on each card if relevant. Element tokens can be placed on a card if it has no effect listed on the card, as it will gain a default bonus regardless.

Default bonuses for element tokens on creatures:

Fire tokens focus the aggression of a creature. The creature's attack is increased by the number of fire tokens placed on it.

Air tokens increase the speed of a creature by one point per token.

Rain tokens can absorb damage dealt to a creature. Each token removed can prevent a point of damage.

Frost tokens increase the resilience of a creature. The creature's deference is increased by the number of frost tokens placed on it.

When an element token is spent, it is removed from play, not returned to a player's pool.

Cards costs and empowering

All cards are free to place into the void. However, when they resolve, certain costs and requirements must be adhered to if present on the card.

Empower is an attribute that allows a resolving card to be boosted. To empower a card, one or more element tokens can be placed onto the card. This may increase the damage of a spell, or increase the strength of a warrior as it enters play.

Sacrifice allows existing creatures to be killed in order to boost a resolving card. For example, a summoning ritual may allow stronger elementals to come into play if creatures are sacrificed to boost the ritual.

Replace requires a certain card to already be in play. If a suitable card is available to replace, that card is spent. For an example, an existing village is required in order to play a town or an occupied village. Some replace cards override the spent effect of the replaced card. In the above examples, a town card may return a village card to its owners hand if it is empowered.

How do I play cards and use decks?

As an introduction to this topic, check out the elements, card type and play procedure topics first.

To recap:

Most of the objects involved in Nine Worlds are cards. Some other props are required to record values and primaries - counters, dice and models are perfect for this. Whatever players are happy to make us of. The emphasis of the game is on the cards.

Cards that are not in play start in a deck. Decks placed on the table are referred to as libraries. Players do not own or control libraries, they are common pools of cards that can be drawn from by any player when a procedure allows it.

There are several types of card, with each super-type belonging in its own library. Some libraries are used at game creation and then removed, such as the Avatars. Others remain in the game for its duration - everything else.

Libraries can be interacted with in a few ways:

• Draw one or more cards: each time a card is drawn, the top card of the pile is taken by the player.
• Search for a card: Pick up the library and look through it for the desired card. Then shuffle the library.
• Shuffle library.
• Place into library: Place the card(s) on top / on the bottom of the library, as specified.
• Shuffle into library: Place the card(s) on top of the library and then shuffle the library.

Cards can exist in other places:

• A player's hand is one or more cards held by the player, hidden from other players. They are not in-play, but can be drawn from when allowed to play a card.
• A world (or realm) is part of the play area that permanent cards are placed into. Cards in play areas can be interacted with, although various restrictions apply, such as the requirement to be in the same world (of which there may be up to nine!).
• The void, or Ginnungagap, is a temporary place that cards are placed when attempting to play them. This area is used to allow other players to respond to the play attempt. Once the card is resolved, it is taken from the void and put into play.

As such, cards have a number of states:

• In a library
• In a hand
• Within the void
• In play
• Spent

Spent cards are those that have expired, been destroyed, or a one-off effect that's concluded. Spent cards are placed next to their parent library, face-up and are shuffled into the library when no more cards can be drawn from it (empty).

Some spent cards override this procedure and will be placed somewhere else, such as certain creatures that are instead placed in Hel or Valhalla when killed.

Playing cards

To play a card, it is either taken from a player's hand and placed into the void, or is drawn from a library and placed into the void. When in the void, the card is usually placed face-up (there are exceptions) for all players to see.

Once placed in the void, initiative is temporarily given to another player, to whoever is sat clockwise from the active player. That player may chose to respond and play a single card into the void, potentially targeting cards in the void, as long as the card has the attribute: fast.

Once the player with initiative either passes or has played a card, the cycle is repeated until the active player regains initiative. The active player may then play one further card before resolving the void.

Each card played into the void must be placed on top of the previous card. When cards have stopped being played, each card in the void pile is resolved one at a time, from the most recent to the first played.