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Dragonbound How to Play | Grinning Demon Games Dragonbound

Dragonbound

Soulshards: Deck Builder Game

THE GAME

Ancient orbs of power are awakening across the realm. Dragon clans race to recruit the strongest dragons before the world changes forever. Dragonbound is a deckbuilder game for 2-4 players where you each play the part of an ancient dragon working to protect your eggs taking turns using a shared deck of cards to recruit the largest clan of dragons.

THE CARDS

There are 3 types of cards used to play the game, eggs, dragons, and orbs of power. Each card functions in a different way and has traits that define how you use it.

  • Eggs: Each player begins with an identical set of eggs in their personal deck. Eggs are used to recruit dragons, and their only trait is command. Command is used to recruit dragons and pay for certain effects.
  • Dragons: Dragons begin in the dragon deck and are collected by players during the game. Dragons have effects to help you obtain more dragons and hinder your opponents. Each dragon has 3 traits - size, nature, and command. Size determines how much command is needed to recruit the dragon and when it can be played. Nature determines which effects trigger as dragons are played into a stack.
  • Orbs of Power: Orbs begin in the orb deck. Each orb has a special unique effect that modifies the game as they appear and when too many orbs appear, the game ends.

THE DRAGON DECK

The dragon deck contains 90 cards that players make use of during the game. This deck is comprised of:

  • 18 size 5 and 6 dragons, Each nature contains 3 unique dragons of each size.
  • 72 size 1-4 dragons, Each nature contains 3 dragons with 2 copies in each size.

NATURES

Each dragon has 1 of 3 natures that define the type of power it has. The nature determines when certain effects occur during the game.

Physical Magical Spiritual

SETUP

  1. 1) Each player takes 1 set of eggs to form their initial deck. This is 1 Oversized Egg, 6 Hatchling Eggs, and 1 Cracked Egg. Each player shuffles their deck and places it face down in front of them.
  2. 2) Shuffle the dragon and orb decks and place them separately in the center of the table face-down.
  3. 3) Place cards from the dragon deck near the dragon deck one at a time face-up until you have placed 6. This is called “The Wilds”. Ignore any “appear” effects of these dragons during setup. If more than 2 size 6 would be placed, shuffle any further size 6 back into the dragon deck instead.
  4. 4) Randomly determine a player to take the first turn. Give them a token to remember that they went first.
  5. 5) Each player draws 4 cards from their deck to their hand. Players should keep their hand concealed from other players.

DISCARDING CARDS

Each player makes their own discard pile in front of them and the dragon deck has its own discard pile near it.

STACKS

Stacks represent your dragon clans. You may play dragons into stacks. You normally may not have more than 2 stacks at once. You may never have more than 1 dragon of any given size in a stack, and effects that would break this rule do not occur. Dragons placed into stacks remain in play until discarded and may repeatedly trigger powerful stack effects as your clan grows.

When you begin a stack, place the dragon face-up in front of you. You may build onto an existing stack by placing another dragon on top of an existing stack so the effect of the dragon below it can still be seen. When playing a dragon, it must be a smaller size than the previous dragon unless it has Slide.

When you play a dragon onto an existing stack, each other dragon in that stack that has the same nature as the new dragon triggers their stack effect.

GAMEPLAY

If at any time you need to draw a card when there are no cards in your deck, shuffle your discard pile and it becomes your deck. Players take turns clockwise around the table performing the following phases in order. If a dragon is needed for the wilds and the dragon deck is empty, shuffle the dragon deck discard to become the dragon deck.

Play phase: You may do each of these in any order any number of times.

  1. 1) Release: Discard all dragons in one of your stacks. If there were 2 or more dragons, you may send 1 egg from your hand to your den. You cannot release a stack if any dragons where added to it this turn.
  2. 2) Command: Place a card from your hand into your discard to gain command equal to its command trait. If it has a “command” trigger effect, gain the effect.
  3. 3) Stack: Place a dragon from your hand to create a new stack or add it to an existing stack. This may trigger “stack” effects from dragons in the stack and the dragon played.
  4. 4) Recruit: Spend command to recruit a dragon from the wilds. The command cost of each dragon is equal to the size of the dragon. When you recruit a dragon, play it to a stack stunned. You cannot recruit a dragon that you cannot play to a stack.

Reset phase:

  1. 1) Draw cards from your deck until you are holding 4 cards.
  2. 2) Remove stun from all of your dragons and lose all command you have not spent.

Dragon deck phase:

  1. 1) Fill the Wilds: Place cards from the top of the dragon deck into the wilds face up until it contains 6 dragons. If a size 6 would be placed while there are already 2 size 6 in the wilds, instead shuffle it and the dragon deck discard into the dragon deck.
  2. 2) Orb Interference: For each orb that is revealed as this step begins, discard 1 card from the top of the dragon deck, 1 at a time.

TRIGGERS

Each dragon may have effects that trigger on a specified condition. Conditions may be when played to a stack, used for command, discarded, or added to the wilds. Each time the listed condition occurs, apply the effect of the dragon. You may always choose to not use a command, discarded, or stack effect you could trigger. Some effects may have multiple trigger options. Effects that say move or place do not cause stack or discarded effects to occur.

If multiple effects would occur at the same time, the turn player completes all of their effects first, then other players complete their effects clockwise around the table. If a player has multiple effects at once, they complete those effects in any order they choose. If a discard trigger occurs in the wilds because of a player’s effect, the effect is gained by that player. If not from a player’s effect, the effect is gained by the player whose turn it is. Once an effect is triggered, it will complete, even if the card is discarded.

Appear Command Discarded Stack

EFFECTS

There are many types of effects that can occur. If an effect says you may do something to cause something else to happen, you may only use the effect if it is possible to complete the second part. Effects must be fully completed before the next effect takes place. The following words may be used with specific meaning:

  • Den: Set a specified card aside near you into your den. That card is no longer part of the game until counting your score.
  • Discard: Move a specified dragon into the discard pile of the player who recruited it or of the dragon deck if not recruited. However this occurs, trigger any discarded effects the card has. When a card is placed into a discard pile, that is different and does not count as being discarded.
  • Slide: Dragons must normally be played in order of size. Slide allows playing a dragon into a stack where its size was skipped.
  • Stun: Dragons loses all trigger effects while stunned. Track that a dragon is stunned by turning the card sideways.
  • Sacrifice: Discard 1 card either from your hand or in one of your stacks. Dragons You cannot sacrifice the dragon that triggered the effect.

WINNING

The end of game triggers when a number of orbs have been revealed equal to 1 + the number of players. Then the game ends immediately before the player who took the first turn begins their next turn.

Each player determines their score at the end of the game by adding the total size of all dragons they have obtained. The player who has the highest score wins. In the event multiple players have the same score, the player among them who had the least number of dragons wins.

Any time a size 6 dragon is discarded from the wilds or dragon deck or sent to a den, place the top card of the orb deck face up near the orb deck and that orb effect takes place for the rest of the game. If a size 6 dragon is discarded from a hand, stack, or player’s deck, the player who has it rolls a dice and place an orb if an even number is rolled.





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