Objective
Collect Leyline cards into your Study to unlock Minor and Major abilities. At end of game, the player with the most total cards in their Study wins.
The Leyline Deck
The Leyline deck stays face-up throughout the game so the next card to be drawn is visible to all players. Cards added to the grid are briefly visible (Element side up) before being placed inert. What you remember about the grid is the central skill of the game.
Turn Structure
Each turn has three phases:
- Phase 1: Elemental abilities activate.
- Phase 2: Activate up to 3 cards. Collect any element with 2+ activated this turn.
- Phase 3 (after refill): Optionally place Binding Spell Tokens. Each placement is paid (discard an element from your Study), free from your own Spent Element marker, or free from the Token Pool.
Between Phase 2 and Phase 3, the active player refills any empty grid slots one card at a time, choosing which empty slot each new card fills. Token placement happens after refill, so you can place tokens on cards that were just refilled.
Activation and Collection
The active player may activate up to 3 Leylines from the grid by flipping cards from the inert side to the Element side. Passing is a valid choice. Click an already-activated card to deactivate it and refund the activation.
At the end of Phase 2, for each element among the activated cards: if 2 or more cards of that element are activated, all activated cards of that element are collected into the Study. Cards whose element has fewer than 2 activations flip back to inert.
Binding Spell Tokens
Druids lock elements under a spell of binding. A Leyline with tokens on it may only be activated by a player who has collected at least as many elements of the same type as tokens of that type on the card.
Example: a card with two Wind tokens and one Fire token may only be activated by a player who has collected at least two Wind and one Fire.
Placing Tokens
In Phase 3, you may place any number of Binding Spell Tokens. Each placement uses one of three sources:
- From the supply (paid): discard one element from your Study to take a matching token from the supply. The discarded element becomes a permanent Spent Element marker in your area.
- From your Spent Element marker (free): if returned tokens are stacked on your marker, place one for free.
- From the Token Pool (free): if there are matching tokens in the shared Token Pool and you have a matching Spent Element marker, take one and place it for free.
Token Return
When the card under a Binding Spell Token is collected, the token is removed from the board. The active player may move any matching tokens onto their own Spent Element markers (a matching marker is required to claim). Any tokens the active player does not or cannot claim go to the shared Token Pool in the center of the table. Pool tokens stay in play until any player with a matching marker takes one on their own turn.
Single-player note: in this build you are the only player. Freed tokens you have a matching marker for are auto-claimed to your marker. The rest go to your Token Pool and become claimable as soon as you place a matching marker.
Refill
When cards leave the grid, removals resolve first as a single cleanup. The active player then refills the empty slots from the top of the Leyline deck, one card at a time. Click an empty slot to place the next card from the deck there.
Powers
At 2 collected of an element, the Minor power button unlocks. At 5, the Major button unlocks. Hover any unlocked button to see the power text. Click an unlocked button for instructions on how to use it at the table.
Game End
The game ends when a card would be refilled and the Leyline deck is empty. Whoever has the most total cards in their Study wins. Ties share the victory.