Visual Tutorial

1

Your Board & Victory

Protectors

Conspirators

Protagonists

Hand

Cards are neutral by nature: they take the role of the zone where you play them (Protagonist, Protector, or Conspirator) and can change roles during the game.

Protagonists are the heart of each player. Lose them, and you lose the game. There are three ways to win:

Eliminate 3 of your opponent's protagonists throughout the game
Leave your opponent with no protagonists on the board
Your opponent runs out of time (ranked and timed matches)

2

Game Start

5

9

1

Protagonists

1

Each player draws 3 cards from the shared deck
Choose one of your 3 cards as your first protagonist
Place it face-down to hide its identity, or face-up for a chance to start
Among the face-up protagonists, the lowest number goes first. Here we pick the Slave (1) face-up to maximize our chances of playing first

3

Playing Your Turn

Each turn, you play one action for free
Each action can only be played once per turn
+ Spend Bonus Actions to play additional actions

Draw Take 3 cards from the deck

Logistic

Dispatch Place up to 3 cards from hand to zones

Logistic Defensive

Redeploy Move up to 3 cards between zones

Logistic Defensive

Reorder Shuffle your cards face-down

Defensive

Conspire Attack with your conspirators

Offensive Defensive

3 Bonus Actions

Each player starts the game with 3 Bonus Actions (3 max)
Spend one to play an extra action this turn
Ways to earn more:
- Defeating an opponent's protagonist
- Making pairs or series in the garden

3 Reveal Tokens

Each player starts the game with 3 Reveal Tokens (3 max)
Spend one to flip one of your hidden cards face-up
Can only be used during your own turn
Revealing cards shifts the Balance of Power in your favor (see the Predispositions step)

End Turn When you have no more actions to play, press End Turn to let your opponent play

4

Playing Cards

Dispatch

Protectors

Conspirators

Protagonists

Hand

Place up to 3 cards from your hand into any zone: protectors, conspirators, or protagonists
Dispatched protagonists and conspirators enter face-down. Protectors, however, arrive face-up
Each zone holds a maximum of 3 cards

Redeploy

Protectors

Conspirators

Protagonists

Hand

Gardens

Move up to 3 cards between your protectors, conspirators, and gardens
Protagonists and hand cannot be redeployed
Cards keep their face-up or face-down status when moved, except in the gardens where cards are always face-up

5

Conspiracy

1 Declare

You announce a conspiracy. You need at least one conspirator on your board

2 Opponent Reacts

Your opponent may spend a Bonus Action to react before your conspiracy resolves

Dispatch, redeploy, or reorder
Activate the Peace Treaty

Only the Peace Treaty and reveal tokens cost no Bonus Action. Without a Bonus Action, the opponent can do nothing else.

3 Spend Conspirators

For each conspirator you spend, pick one action. The conspirator is revealed and discarded

Reveal the hand or the conspirators Attack a Protector or a Protagonist Craft a gear

You must spend at least one conspirator, and you may spend as many as you have

Once you have spent at least one conspirator, you can call off to keep your remaining conspirators

Confrontations

Face Protagonist

Your conspirator challenges an enemy protagonist: a card only beats the number directly below it

Conspirators

9

Protagonists

8

9 beats 8: your conspirator wins, the protagonist is eliminated

Conspirators

3

Protagonists

3

3 ties with 3: the attack fails, but the protagonist is revealed

Overthrow Protector

Your conspirator challenges an enemy protector. Same rule: a card only beats the number directly below it

Conspirators

9

Protectors

5

Protagonists

9 cannot beat 5: the conspirator is lost

Protectors shield the protagonist in the same position: you must overthrow the protector before you can reach the protagonist behind it

Card Hierarchy

15

14

13

2

1

15

Each card only beats the number directly below it: 15 beats 14, 14 beats 13, and so on down to 2 beating 1
The exception: 1 defeats 15
Any other matchup: the attack fails (on a tie, the target is revealed)

The Workshop

Spend a conspirator to craft a piece of gear into your reserve (3 pieces max). Equipping it onto a conspirator is then free. Gear is always visible to the opponent and is consumed in combat.

Poison

A combat modifier from -2 to +2, chosen when crafted. Poisons stack on the same conspirator up to ±6 total.

-2 -1 +1 +2

Disguise

Usurps the power of a face-up opponent card, chosen when crafted. Your conspirator fights with that stolen power instead of its own.

3

8

8

Mask

Placed on one of your own cards, only during your normal turn. It blocks revelation by Reveal Token and by the Infiltration decree, but not by Reveal Hand, Reveal Conspirators, or combat.

Call Off

After spending at least one conspirator, you can call off to end the conspiracy and keep your remaining conspirators for a future turn.

6

Predispositions

Each card bears a predisposition, shown by the icon in its top-left corner. The group with the most visible cards on the board becomes dominant and changes the rules for both players.

A predisposition is not a role: a card with the Protagonist predisposition can still become a Protector or a Conspirator.

Cards in their matching zone count 3x toward dominance

Protagonist Dispatch and Redeploy become free actions (once per turn)

Protector Dispatched protectors enter hidden; Reorder becomes a free action (once per turn); if your protector is overthrown, you gain +1 Bonus Action

Conspirator Conspire becomes a free action (once per turn); you can use Reveal Tokens to flip opponent's cards

7

Ultimate Decrees

Each player can use each decree once per game. All decrees are free actions.

Total War

Requires all 3 protagonists on the board

Sacrifice your own protectors: for each one, overthrow an opponent's protector. If they have none left, overthrow a conspirator instead.

Peace Treaty

Only during opponent's conspiracy. Requires 0 protectors or 0 conspirators on your board.

Blocks all protagonist confrontations for the rest of this conspiracy phase.

Infiltration

Requires at least 2 protagonists on the board

Sacrifice one of your own protagonists to reveal all hidden enemy protagonists.

Careful: sacrificing a protagonist can cause your own defeat!

8

Hero

When the Heroes rule is active, each player may promote one of their protagonists into a Hero: an unprotected champion that dominates a range of card values, intercepts attacks, and can even strike during your conspiracies. If your Hero falls, you lose the game instantly. Up to 3 Heroes per game, one at a time.

Create Hero

Heroes rule on, ≥2 protagonists, no Hero in play, fewer than 3 Heroes fielded

Pay one action (main or bonus) to move one of your protagonists into the Hero zone. The Hero keeps its face-up or face-down state. A threatened Hero can be replaced via Relieve Hero, up to 3 Heroes per game.

Range of Dominance

Cards of value V-3 through V+3 (cyclic) cannot face a Hero of value V

A Hero of value V is untouchable by 14 cards (the two copies of each value from V-3 to V+3). Any other card must reach a final power of V+1 via Poison or Disguise to defeat it.

Interception

Triggered when opponent attacks a hidden asset

Your Hero may intercept Face Protagonist, Overthrow Protector, or Infiltration. If the attacker's value is in the dominated range, the Hero wins automatically and you remove one of their protagonists.

Careful: if your Hero is defeated, you lose immediately, regardless of remaining protagonists!

9

Winning the Game

Elimination

Domination

You win when your opponent loses 3 protagonists total, or when they have no protagonists left on the board. With Heroes enabled, defeating the opponent's Hero also wins the game instantly. Watch out: some actions can cause your own defeat!

10

Ready to Play!

You now know the basics of Voltrine. Jump into a game or read the full rules for advanced strategies.

Try the interactive tutorial Play Now Read Full Rules

Your Board & Victory

Game Start

Playing Your Turn

Playing Cards

Dispatch

Redeploy

Reorder

Conspiracy

Intelligence

Confrontations

The Workshop

Predispositions

Ultimate Decrees

Hero

Winning the Game

Ready to Play!