Chapter 4: Turn Order
Draw Speaking Stone Cards
On their turn each player draws 1 Speaking Stone for themselves and 2 for every character they control. This becomes the player’s max hand size. These cards will be used to activate the character’s offensive and defensive abilities. A player’s max hand size does not change if one of their characters is incapacitated.
The Speaking Stone Deck is a static deck that acts as a community pool of resources during the game. There are 7 different elements of resources, and each element has 4 different values that are specified by stars. Each star represents 1 of that resource. There is also one infinite Speaking Stone card for each element. Infinite cards can be used for any amount of resources but can only activate 1 ability.
Activate a Character
Once a player activates a character the player may perform the following three actions in ANY order before activating another character: [Fuse] an ability, Move, and [Standard Attack]/Ability.
[Fuse] an Ability
A player may [Fuse] a defensive ability to their character which makes the ability passive (always active) while it is fused. An ability that can be fused will have the keyword [Fuse] in front of the description. To fuse any ability, the player must announce the ability being activated and place the Speaking Stone(s) of the correct element up to or exceeding the cost of the ability next to the character’s dashboard.
If a speaking stone of an exceeding amount is used; the extra amount may not be used towards another ability. Next, the player places a plastic peg into the hole next to the fused ability. A player may fuse as many abilities to their characters as they wish, as long as they have the available Speaking Stones. If a fused ability is removed or broken, the peg is removed from the dashboard and the Speaking Stones are discarded. Speaking Stones used for [Fuse] abilities count towards the player’s hand size. Players must decide how much of their hand size they want to devote to defensive vs offensive abilities.
Movement
A player may move a character up to, but not exceeding the movement value of the character. Character movement is orthogonal. Movement may be taken forward, backward, left or right, but not diagonally. A character may pass through ally characters, but not through opposing characters. A character may not land on a character, but may land on incapacitated characters. (Characters that have a HP value of zero.)
Once a character has completed their movement action the character may not move again even if the character has remaining movement.
[Standard Attack] or Ability
Once a character is within range (RNG) of an opposing character; the character may perform a [Standard Attack], or special ability listed on their ability cards. NOTE: Some abilities may allow attacking regardless of range.
[Standard Attack]
A character may perform a [Standard Attack] on an opposing character or target within weapon range (RNG). A player does not need any resources to perform this action. Determine range the same way as movement by counting the spaces on the game board without moving diagonally. When a [Standard Attack] is performed, the attacking character’s ATK is used to determine potential damage (before defending character’s armor value is taken into account). The damage type (Physical or Spirit) depends on the character’s class. Every time a [Standard Attack] is performed, the attacking player rolls for a critical attack chance (CRT). Example: If a character’s CRT is 20, a roll of 1-20 will be a critical attack. A successful CRT doubles the ATK value for that attack. When a [Standard Attack] is performed, the [Standard Attack]/Ability action is complete for the character’s turn. A character may not perform a [Standard Attack] and a special ability on the same turn even if the required resources are available.
Character Abilities
A character may perform a special ability listed on their offensive ability card, or a non [Fuse] ability from their defensive ability card if the player has the necessary Speaking Stones. The player must announce the ability being used, and place the Speaking Stone(s) of the correct element up to or exceeding the cost of the ability on the game board. Then the player discards the Speaking Stones onto the discard pile faceup. When a special ability is performed, the [Standard Attack]/Ability action is complete for the character’s turn. Character abilities use a keyword system to keep the gameplay easy to understand. [Keywords] are bracketed and bolded. You can find a listing of the various keywords in Chapter 7.
When using a character’s ability the player follows the order of the presented [Keywords] to determine the order of rolls. An example is below.
[Standard Attack], [On 1-50] adds [Burn]. In this example the first keyword [Standard Attack] would be resolved first. Like all [Standard Attack]s the player would roll for the character’s critical attack chance (CRT). Once the CRT roll has been completed the player would roll both D10 again for the [On 1-50]. If the roll was successful (a roll of 1-50 for success) the attack would also add [Burn] to the target. If the roll was unsuccessful only the damage would be applied and not [Burn].
Break [Fuse] Abilities
Once a player has finished all of their character’s turns, any active [Fuse] abilities may be ‘broken’ or removed from the player’s characters. When a [Fuse] ability is broken, the resource cards used for the ability are immediately discarded faceup into the discard pile, and the peg is removed from the character’s dashboard. A player may choose to break [Fuse] abilities if the effect from the ability is no longer useful, or if the player desires to free up hand space.
Discard
At the end of a player’s turn, the player discards any unwanted resources (Speaking Stone Cards) from their hand. A player will not want to keep resources in their hand that are not needed for their character’s abilities. A player must discard until he/she has reached their maximum hand size or less. NOTE: Resource cards dedicated to [Fuse] abilities count towards the player’s hand size. Some character abilities allow for a greater player hand size.
End of Turn/Alternating Turns
After the first player has completed their turn, one player from the opposing team will begin their turn. Turns alternate between teams until every player has taken their turn. Once every player has completed their turn a round is complete and the first player begins the next round.
If a player from either team is eliminated during a 2v2 or 3v3 game, turns are still alternated between teams. This prevents more than three characters per team from activating each turn.
Ending the Game
The game ends when all the characters from one side are incapacitated.