Relic Run is a cooperative fantasy deck-builder card game for 1–4 players. Players control heroes who fight together against groups of enemies. Each hero has a personal deck of 10 cards, equipment, and health. Each hero has their own pool of Action Points (AP) to play cards.

The game is played in battles (scenarios). The core loop is the battle system described below.

Key Design Pillars

Each hero has HP (varies per hero), a deck of 10 cards (shuffled at game start), Equipment slots (Left Hand, Right Hand, Armor, Trinket), and a hand of up to 5 cards drawn each round.

Shared Activation Deck

All enemy types share a single activation deck. At round start, 1 card is drawn per living enemy type (not per individual). These are revealed to all players.

The battlefield has 6 zones arranged vertically — 3 per side:

The Flank Bridge

Player Flank and Enemy Flank are connected by a shortcut — they are only 1 boundary apart for reach/distance purposes. This creates an alternate, shorter attack path.

Zone Effects

Zone effects are defined per scenario. Effects include:

• Armor (+2 Armor): Granted to each hero in the zone at round start. Resets each round.
• Bulwark (+1 Bulwark): Added to every enemy in that zone. Permanent, not consumed.
• Incoming damage (+1 Damage from enemies): Every enemy attack vs. targets in that zone deals +1.
• Outgoing damage (+1 Damage per attack): Every hero attack from that zone deals +1 per hit.
• Reach (+1 Reach): Added to every entity in that zone.

Distance is measured in zone boundaries crossed. The battlefield has two paths: the linear chain and the Flank Bridge. Distance uses the shorter of the two.

Base Distance Table

Empty Zone Rule

Card Anatomy

Every card has a Name, an AP Cost (0–2), a Play Effect (triggered when played from hand), and a Discard Effect (triggered when discarded via the DISCARD action). A card never triggers both effects.

Card Zones (Per Hero)

When the deck is empty and a draw is needed, shuffle the discard pile into a new deck. The Burn Pile holds permanently destroyed cards — never retrieved.

Zone-Locked Cards

Every card has required zones — it can only be played when the hero is in one of its listed zones. If the hero is not in a required zone, the card is greyed out. Moving to a different zone changes which cards are playable.

AP is a per-hero resource. Each hero generates and spends their own AP independently. Heroes cannot share AP.

AP Generation

AP Spending

Cards have variable costs: 0 AP (free setup/combo cards), 1 AP (standard), or 2 AP (power plays). Moving does NOT cost AP (only cards). Discarding does NOT cost AP. Unspent AP is lost at end of round.

Attack Resolution (Player → Enemy)

1. Reach check: Is the target within weapon reach (including zone/card bonuses)?
2. Damage per hit: Weapon damage + card bonuses + zone bonuses.
3. Apply Bulwark: Reduce each hit's normal damage by target's Bulwark (min 0). Crit bypasses Bulwark.
4. Resolve against HP: Remaining damage goes directly to HP (enemies have no Armor pool).
5. Check death: HP ≤ 0 → enemy removed.

Bulwark

Block Resolution

Drag a Block card onto yourself or a same-zone ally. Armor equipment value × number of blocks is added to the target's Armor pool. Multiple blocks stack.

Enemy Attack Resolution

1. Activation determines the action.
2. Apply targeting priority.
3. Calculate damage: base + temp bonus + zone bonus on target's zone.
4. Guard check: If target is in Player Backline and a Frontline hero has Armor > 0, the player chooses how much Armor to intercept with.
5. Remaining normal damage → target's Armor → HP.
6. Crit always bypasses Guard and Armor entirely — straight to HP.
7. Card burn on hit: If HP damage is dealt, target burns 1 card (player chooses from discard).
8. Wounds: If ability has wound property and HP damage was dealt, place wound cards into target's discard.

Guard Mechanic

Card Burn on Hit

When a hero takes any HP damage from a hit, they must burn 1 card. The player chooses from their discard pile (unburnable cards like Wounds excluded). If no burnable cards in discard, a random card is burned from the deck. One card per hit, regardless of damage amount.

Wounds

Wound cards are placed into a hero's discard pile by certain enemy abilities (drawn from a shared supply of 10). Wounds are unburnable. When drawn into hand, the hero takes 2 HP damage and the wound is destroyed (returned to supply).

Heroes move between zones during the Player Phase. Movement costs 1 card per zone boundary crossed (not AP):

Sacrificed cards go to the Played Area with no effects — just consumed. Moving does not clear Armor. A hero can move and still play other cards in the same round.

Some cards grant free movement as part of their effect — no card sacrifice required (e.g., Quick Shot, Longshot).

Targeting Priority

1. Must be in reach — based on enemy's reach and distance table.
2. Apply priority rule — e.g., "lowest HP" or "highest HP" among valid targets.
3. Tie-breaker — target the hero with higher weapon damage.
4. Second tie-breaker — random.
5. Fallback — if no valid target, execute fallback action.

Spawning Rules

• New enemies placed face-down (inactive, untargetable, don't count for reach).
• Flipped face-up at next round start.
• Per-round spawn cap: Only 1 enemy per type per activation round. Extras execute fallback.
• Zone cap: Max 4 active enemies per zone. If full, fallback instead.

Initiative Order