Overview
Voltrine is a two-player duel card game focused on hidden information, positioning, and political intrigue.
Objective
Win the game by eliminating your opponent's protagonists or forcing their downfall through conspiracies and strategic play.
Game Material
Card Hierarchy
Each number defeats only the number directly below it. A card does not defeat lower numbers beyond the immediate one.
13
12
11
2
1
13
1 defeats 13 — creating a cyclic dominance where no card is truly supreme.
Play Areas
Each player has three personal zones, plus a shared zone. Each personal zone can contain a maximum of 3 cards.
The Court
Home of your Protagonists — the heart of your power. Protect them at all costs.
Max 3 cards
The Walls
Your Protectors stand guard here, defending your Protagonists from direct attacks.
Max 3 cards
The Backstage
Your Conspirators lurk in the shadows, ready to launch schemes against your opponent.
Max 3 cardsThe Gardens
A shared discard area where strategic placement can earn bonus actions.
7
3
7
8
9
Adjacent same-number cards form a pair — a free bonus action.
Hand Limit
At the end of your turn, if you have more than 3 cards in hand, you must discard down to exactly 3. Discarded cards go to The Gardens.
Actions
Base Action
Each player may perform 1 action per turn.
- Each action type can only be used once per turn
- Spend bonus actions to perform additional actions
Bonus Actions
Each player starts with 3 bonus actions.
- Capped at 3 total
- Not regenerated each turn
- Regained through The Gardens or overthrowing opponents
Available Actions
Draw
Draw 3 cards from the deck.
Place
Place 1 to 3 cards into your zones (Court, Walls, or Backstage).
Redeploy
Transfer 1 to 3 cards from Protectors, Conspirators, or Gardens to any zone except Protagonists. Swap cards if destination is full.
Reorder
Flip hand, protagonists, and conspirators face down, then reorder protagonists freely.
Launch Conspiracy
Initiate a conspiracy phase using your conspirators.
Conspiracy Phase
A conspiracy unfolds in three phases — declare, react, resolve.
-
1
1. Declare
The active player spends their base action to launch a conspiracy, putting their conspirators into play.
-
2
2. Opponent reacts
The opponent may react by spending a bonus action — place cards, redeploy, reorder, or invoke the Peace Treaty decree.
-
3
3. Resolve
The attacker spends their conspirators one by one, choosing an action from the list below for each.
Available resolve actions
Reaction
When a player launches a conspiracy, the opponent may react if they have at least one bonus action. They may place cards, reorder, or do nothing.
The Gardens Bonus
When discarding to The Gardens, completing a sequence or a pair grants you one additional action. Cards must be adjacent, whether horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
6
6
Pair
Two cards of the same number
+1
3
4
5
Sequence
Three consecutive numbers. Sequences can be formed left to right, right to left, top to bottom, and bottom to top. Values are cyclic (13 wraps to 1): 13, 1, 2 and 12, 13, 1 are valid sequences.
+1Predispositions
Each card belongs to a group. The balance of visible cards on the board determines a predominant predisposition that alters the rules of play.
Balance of Power
The predominant group is calculated from all face-up cards of both players. Cards placed in a zone matching their group count triple. The group with the highest weight becomes predominant.
Protagonist
The first dispatch or redeploy action each turn is free — it does not cost a bonus action. The second one costs a bonus action as usual.
Free dispatchProtector
Dispatched protectors enter the field face-down (hidden). When a protector is overthrown, its owner gains one additional bonus action.
Hidden entryConspirator
At the start of every turn, the current player receives one reveal token. Additionally, you may spend reveal tokens to flip opponent's face-down cards face-up.
+1 reveal tokenOutcast
When the Outcast predisposition becomes dominant, the player draws cards until they have 6 in hand.
Draw up to 6Reveal Tokens
Each player starts with 3 reveal tokens. Spend one as a free action on your turn to flip one of your own face-down cards face-up. When conspirator is predominant, tokens can also target opponent's cards. Tokens can be regained through the conspirator predisposition, which grants one token at the start of every turn.
Predispositions are an advanced mechanic. When creating a casual game, you can disable them for a simpler experience.
Ultimate Decrees
Each player has access to three powerful special moves. Each decree can only be used once per game, and they are free actions — they do not consume a bonus action.
Total War
Sacrifice one or more of your own protectors to overthrow the same number of opponent cards. Opponent protectors are removed first, then conspirators if no protectors remain.
Peace Treaty
Declare a truce that blocks the opponent from confronting your protagonists for the remainder of this conspiracy phase.
Infiltration
Sacrifice one of your own protagonists to reveal all hidden opponent protagonists. Beware — this counts as a protagonist death and can cause your own defeat.
Ultimate decrees are powerful but risky. Each can only be used once per player per game. Use them wisely.
Hero
An optional rule, toggleable per game. Each player may promote one of their Protagonists into a single Hero — a champion that intercepts conspiracies and dominates whole ranges of values, but whose fall ends the game instantly.
Creating a Hero
Performed via the Create Hero action — a paid action (main or bonus). Can also be triggered as a reply to a conspiracy. Once a Hero is created, no new Hero can ever be made, even if it dies.
- The Heroes rule is enabled for this game.
- You control at least 2 Protagonists in your Court.
- You have not already created a Hero this game (limit is permanent).
Hero Properties
Unprotected
A Hero cannot be shielded by Protectors. It must defend itself.
Locked in Place
A Hero cannot be moved, swapped, redeployed, or reordered once placed.
Heavy Predisposition
A face-up Hero counts toward its predisposition group with a weight of 5. A face-down Hero is excluded.
One per Game
Once your Hero dies, no replacement may be created — your champion is gone for good.
Confronting the Hero
A conspirator may directly target the opponent's Hero via the Face Hero action (blocked by Peace Treaty). Combat follows the normal rules — Enhance and Impersonate apply — but the Hero's value V dominates a range of natural printed values.
Eligibility — Range of Dominance
A Hero of value V dominates the natural (printed) values V−1, V, and V+1 (cyclic). The 6 cards covering those values cannot even be played against the Hero — the action is refused. The other 20 cards must be brought to a final applied power of V+1 via Enhance and/or Impersonate.
Hero Interception
When the opponent targets one of your hidden assets, you may choose to intercept with your Hero. The action pauses while you decide. Intercept eligible targets:
- Face Protagonist — block an incoming attack on one of your Protagonists.
- Overthrow Protector — block an attack on one of your Protectors.
- Infiltration decree — cancel the entire Infiltration effect; no Protagonist is revealed.
If the attacker's natural value is in your Hero's dominated range, the Hero wins by eligibility. Otherwise, normal combat resolution applies.
If your Hero is defeated in combat, you lose the game immediately — regardless of remaining Protagonists or dead-protagonist count.
The Heroes rule is optional and can be toggled per game when creating a match. Seasons may also enable or disable Heroes as a default setting.
Victory Conditions
Elimination
Your opponent has lost 3 protagonists throughout the game.
Domination
Your opponent has no protagonists remaining in play.
Glossary
Quick reference of key terms used across the rules.
- Court
- The zone where your Protagonists stand. Losing all of them ends the game.
- Walls
- The zone hosting your Protectors — the frontline defense against opponent conspirators.
- Backstage
- Your hidden zone for Conspirators, used to launch conspiracies against the opponent.
- Garden
- Shared 3×3 grid acting as the discard pile. Adjacent patterns reward bonus actions.
- Protagonist
- Your key characters in the Court. Lose three and you lose the game.
- Protector
- Frontline cards that absorb conspirator attacks before the Protagonists.
- Conspirator
- Hidden agents used to launch conspiracies, reveal info, or overthrow enemies.
- Outcast
- A card that does not belong to any of the three main groups — triggers special draw rules.
- Bonus Action
- Extra action points, capped at 3, spent to perform more than one action per turn.
- Reveal Token
- A free action consumable that flips a face-down card face-up. Starts at 3 per player.
- Predisposition
- The current dominant group on the board, which alters specific rules while active.
- Ultimate Decree
- A powerful one-shot special move. Each player has three, each usable once per game.
- Hero
- Optional rule. A promoted Protagonist that dominates a 3-value range. Cannot be protected, cannot be moved, cannot be replaced. If it dies, you lose immediately.