Visual Tutorial | Strategic Card Game

1

Your Board & Victory

Protectors

Conspirators

Protagonists

Hand

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
This protagonist enters play face-up — visible to both players
The player with the lowest protagonist number goes first — here we pick the Slave (1) 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 Step 11)

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

4

Dispatch

Protectors

Conspirators

Protagonists

Hand

Place up to 3 cards from your hand into any zone — protectors, conspirators, or protagonists
Dispatched cards always enter face-down — only you can see them
Each zone holds a maximum of 3 cards

5

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

6

Reorder

Protagonists

5

9

13

Protagonists

Reorder flips all cards face-down in your protagonists, conspirators, and hand zones
Only the protagonists are randomly rearranged — the opponent no longer knows which card is where
This is your main defense: it prevents the opponent from knowing where to strike and with what power

7

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 cards to reinforce zones
Redeploy cards between zones
Reorder to shuffle and hide cards
Activate Peace Treaty to block confrontations

If the opponent has no Bonus Action, they cannot react

3 Spend Conspirators

For each conspirator you spend, pick one action — the conspirator is revealed and discarded

Reveal Hand Reveal Conspirators Overthrow Protector Face Protagonist Enhance Impersonate

You must spend at least one conspirator — 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

8

Intelligence

Sacrifice a conspirator to spy on your opponent — uncover their hidden cards and gain the intel you need to strike.

Reveal Hand

Reveal Conspirators

Reveal Hand — forces the opponent to show all cards in their hand to you
Reveal Conspirators — forces the opponent to flip all their conspirators face-up
Both actions give you valuable information to plan your next moves

9

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 attacker always loses a tie

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

13 > 12 > 11 > 10 > … > 2 > 1 1 > 13

Each card only beats the number directly below it — 13 beats 12, 12 beats 11, and so on down to 2 beating 1
The exception: 1 defeats 13
Any other matchup: the attacker always loses

10

Conspiracy Tactics

Before striking, you can spend conspirators to tip the odds in your favor.

Enhance

Spend a conspirator to shift the power of your next confrontation by -2, -1, +1, or +2. Multiple enhancements stack — the modifier resets after your next fight.

-2 -1 +1 +2

Impersonate

Spend a conspirator to copy the power of any face-up enemy protector or protagonist. Your next confrontation uses that stolen power instead of your conspirator's own.

3

8

8

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.

11

Predispositions

Each card belongs to a group. The group with the most visible cards on the board becomes dominant and changes the rules for both players.

Cards in their matching zone count 3x toward dominance

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

Protector Dispatched protectors enter hidden; if your protector is overthrown, you gain +1 Bonus Action

Conspirator At end of turn, your opponent gains +1 Reveal Token; you can use Reveal Tokens to flip opponent's cards

Outcast Draw fills your hand up to 6 cards instead of the normal amount

12

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!

13

Winning the Game

Elimination

Domination

You win when your opponent loses 3 protagonists total, or when they have no protagonists left on the board. Watch out — some actions can cause your own defeat!

14

Ready to Play!

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

Play Now Read Full Rules