ABOUT THE GAME | Rocketradertcg

The Objective

The Objective of a game of the Rocketrader TCG is to obtain five

Sublucium cards. Once either player obtains five, the game is

instantly over. There is a little bit more nuance to this, but that

will be covered in a later chapter.

Setting Everything Up

Both players must carry out these instructions.

Shuffle your deck, making CERTAIN to remove Sublucium Cards and set them aside for now.
Set your deck down as a draw pile.
Set aside spaces for a row for your creatures, a row for ongoing item cards, a pile for active Sublucium, a pile for used Sublucium, and a discard pile. I promise, these concepts will be addressed later on.
Draw five cards for your hand. If those cards do not contain a Creature card, reshuffle all of your cards and redraw.
Flip a coin to decide turn order. If you do not have a coin, use some equivelant that will decide the order randomly.
The winner of the coin toss begins the first turn!

How do I play?

Playing the game is simple, but it requires a bit of explanation.

Here's what we'll cover in this guide:

-The Objective

-Setting Everything Up

-Card Types

-Gameplay Mechanics

-Turn Action Order

Card Types

There are three main card types in this game.

Creature Cards

Creature Cards are the cards that do probably the most heavy lifting in the entire game. You may put one in the Creature Row per turn. Once a creature is there, you may use up to one ability with a blue name on that card once per turn. The icon to the right of these abilities indicate what it will cost. There is no limit to how many creatures can use an ability in a single turn. The bottom left contains a creature's health points. It is recommended to keep track of this with one of the tokens included with a deck purchase, but this is not a requirement. Once a creature's health points reach zero, discard it.

Item Cards

Item Cards are cards that accomplish a single action, and then are discarded. Sometimes this action takes more than one turn, in which case the item is put into the Item Row until the action is complete.

Sublucium Cards

Sublucium Cards are very special. In order to obtain them, you must have five energy, a mechanic that will be covered in a later section. To do this, set your energy supply to zero and put a Sublucium Card in the Active Sublucium pile. Sublucium can be used to accomplish certain Creature actions, in which case it is put into the Used pile. Each turn, you may put one Used Sublucium back into the Active pile. Having five of these cards in the Active pile means victory for you!

Gameplay Mechanics

There are only a couple of things to cover here.

Energy

Energy is awarded when certain actions are accomplished. You may have up to five at any given time. It is recommended to use the tokens included with a starter deck purchase to keep track of this, but you can really do this in any way you'd like. Energy mostly serves as the cost for things like Sublucium and Creature actions.

Creature Duels

You may have noticed the phrase "initiate a duel" pop up a lot on creature cards. What does this mean, exactly?

In order to even initiate a duel with an opposing creature, you must first check the icon in the top right corners of both creatures. If your creature's Style is good against or the same as the opposing creature's,

you may start a duel. For reference, Attack is good against Special which is good against Defense which is good against Attack.

If you creature's Style is good against the opposing creature's Style, deal a single health point of damage to the opposing creature unless either card specifies otherwise. If the Styles are the same, play rock-paper-scissors. If someone wins, that person carries out the above rules on the opposing Creature. If it is a tie, both Creatures receive a single health point of damage, negating any abilities or potential item actions.

Turn your sideways cards upright.
Resolve anything from previous turns. (Ongoing creature abilities, item effects, etc)
Remove item cards from play.
Return one sublucium in your “used” pile to your “active” pile, if able.
You may play up two cards: two creatures, two items, or one of each. Item cards either go to the item row or are immediately resolved, depending on their ability.
You may discard one item card in exchange for energy, if you are able. Some cards cannot be used this way.
You may use creatures in any way indicated on the cards as many times as you like, once per creature.
If able, you may expend your energy supply in order to gain sublucium. Obtaining one is the default, though this can be altered with creature abilities.
Draw a card. This ends your turn.

Welp, that should be it! Please do not hesitate to contact me, in person or otherwise, if you have any questions about the rules.