Rules

Shifters CDG

The year is 2020 CE. At a University Research Lab, a group of physicists have discovered the secrets of time travel. Some of the group are using their newfound technology for the purposes of study and personal enrichment. Some, purely for greed. Others still are deciding that they can use the technology to right the wrongs of the past. Together, these people are known as Shifters.

Introduction

In Shifters TCG, you race against your opponent(s) to achieve goals in time. Whether you are shifting through time for the purposes of enlightenment or personal gain, your actions have consequences on the timeline. Use your wits, resources and allies to make sure these consequences are in your favor!

Card Types

Shifters - Each player has one Shifter per game. The player represents this character. Each Shifter has four attributes: Knowledge, Honor, Stealth, and Shifting Ability.

Knowledge, Honor and and Stealth represent a Shifter's ability to maneuver through situations in time and are used in achieving goals.

Shifiting ability represents a Shifter's ability to cope with time sickness (caused by the disorientation of time travel) and represents how many times they can move between different eras each turn.

Each Shifter also has an Objective that dictates when a player has won the game.

Locations - Locations represent a place in time and space. A location contains two unloaded keywords: an era (Modern, Future, Pre-historic, Renaissance, etc.) and a physical location (Egypt, USA, etc.) Through various game play, a location can be replaced by an alternate version of that location. In this event, place the altered version on top of the original location. The original location may later be "restored" by other game play.

Locations have Player Text and Opposition Text. The Player Text contains information about the location and era that the location represents, as well as Game Text that applies only to the player it is facing. The Player Text faces the player that played that location. The Opposition Text is for the other player and has Game Text that applies to that player.

NOTE: You may not alter a location to be the same altered version of that location.

Support Personnel - these are characters that Shifters encounter in their travels. They take orders from you and may navigate the time stream with you in order to help achieve your Objective. Support Personnel may be native to an era or location. In that event, they must be played to that era/location. Support Personnel have a Time Particle cost that must be paid when they enter play. Like Shifters, Support Personnel have Knowledge, Honor and Stealth. However, they may only move between eras once per turn, and only if accompanied by a Shifter.

NOTE: You may stock additional Shifters in your deck and play them as Support Personnel. When playing a Shifter as a Support Personnel, use their Shifting Ability as their Time Particle cost, and ignore their Objective text. Like other Support Personnel, these Personnel can only move between Eras once per turn.

Support Cards - Support Cards are similar to Support Personnel and represent objects that may help your Shifter achieve his or her Objective.

Shifts - These are cards that represent your Shifters goals. Shifts contain a Time Particle number in their lower right corner that denote your Shifters ability to perform tasks within the time stream (like recruiting Support Personnel). Shifts are placed underneath a Shifter and concealed from your opponent(s) until they are completed. Only the Time Particle number should be exposed. Once a Shift is completed it may be revealed and set aside (in the Completion Area). Completed Shifts may provide your Shifter with additional benefits.

Reactions - These are cards that can be played at any time in response to an action specified on each Reaction.

Confrontations - These cards are used during the Confront Step of the Play Phase. They have a Time Particle cost that must be paid to be played.

Setup Phase

To determine which player goes first, each player shuffles his/her Time Deck and cuts the deck, then reveals the cut card. Compare the highest attribute/cost numbers on the cards. If there is none, the number is zero. If tied, re-cut and compare attributes/cost until there is not a tie. The player with the highest number goes first, the next highest number goes next and so on.

The first player then deploys an unconverted location from his/her draw deck, then a Shifter, and then a Shift, which is placed beneath the Shifter without revealing the card to his/her opponent(s).

The next player then deploys his/her unaltered location*, Shifter and Shift.

Setup continues for each player.

*Two or more players may play the same location. In the event that two or more players have deployed the same unaltered location, each player who played that location uses the text for the player and may not use the opposition text; the opposition text only applies to players that did not play that location. If a location is altered, the player that created the alteration then gets the player text, while their opponent(s) get the opposition text.

Players shuffle their Time Decks.

Each player then draws seven cards from their draw decks. Once per game, a player may choose to draw a new starting hand; in order to do so, they must discard one card from their original hand. Then they shuffle the remaining six cards into his/her deck and draw a new seven cards.

Play Phase

Each player's turn consists of the following steps:

1) Markers
2) Deploy
3) Move
4) Confront
5) Resolve
6) Draw

1) Many of the Shifts in Shifters CDG rely on the passage of time. To denote the passage of time, you may place one card from the top of your Time Deck adjacent to any card that mentions the passage of time.

EXAMPLE: "Take Advantage - The Gold Rush of 1849" requires that your Shifter be present at an unaltered North American location in the Victorian Era for two fulls turns. If your Shifter is present at a North American location in the Victorian Era during your Markers Step, you may place a card adjacent to that location to note that your Shifter has been there for one turn.

NOTE: A "turn" is marked by the Markers Step. Therefore, if you deployed a Support Personnel on your previous turn, he has been "present" at his location for a full turn at the beginning of the Marker Step of your next turn.

2) During the Deploy step, you first deploy Shift cards (if you want to). A player is allowed to deploy one Shift per turn.

NOTE: A Shifter's Shifting Ability number does not contribute to the number of Time Particles a player commands.

Next, you deploy an unaltered Location card (if you want to). A player is allowed to deploy one unaltered Location card per turn.

Last, you may deploy any Support Cards from your hand. Each Support Card displays a cost in the upper left corner. In order to deploy a Support Card, a player must spend the equivalent number of Time Particles. Support Cards have an icon in the upper left corner that denotes the uniqueness of that object or Personnel. The number of blips represents how many times you may have that character in play. No blips means that the object or Personnel is not unique, and you may have as many of them in play as you like.

3) Shifters and support personnel may move between two locations once per turn, and only if those two locations are in the same era. In addition, Shifters can move between two Eras as many times as their Shifting ability allows. For example, if your Shifter has a shifting ability of 3, he may move from the Present Era, to the Renaissance Era; then move from the Renaissance Era to the Medieval Era; then move from the Medieval Era to the Modern Era.

When Shifting, cards must be moved between the same regions in time. For example, a Shifter may Shift from Europe in the Present Era to Europe in the Renaissance Era; a Shifter may NOT Shift from Europe in the Present Era to North America in the Renaissance Era.

Support personnel and other support cards can only move between two Eras once per turn and must be accompanied by a Shifter. Support Personnel can move between two locations in the same Era once per turn without accompaniment.

4) You may initiate a confrontation using any Confrontation cards in hand. Confrontation cards allow characters to interact with opposing characters and potentially eliminate them or send them to alternate locations/times. Eliminated characters/objects are placed in that player's Discard pile.

NOTE: Cards that are not played to a location (such as Confrontations and Reactions) are placed in your Discard pile after being used.

5) Before ending your turn, you may reveal any Shifts that you have completed. If you are able to do so, you may place the Shift in your Completion Area and use the Completion text provided by that Shift. Only Shifts that have been placed in your Completion Area may be used to satisfy the Objective of a Shifter. Shifts in the Completion Area still contribute their Time Particles to their owners. All markers needed to complete the shift must be placed underneath their owner's draw deck. If there are more markers than were necessary to complete the Shift, randomly select the cards to be placed underneath the draw deck.

If any other cards relying on the passage of time may be resolved, repeat the same procedure for these cards.

6) To end your turn, you take any cards that have been used as Markers into hand. They no longer act as Markers. You may then draw as many cards as you have Time Particles remaining*, and then draw one more card. If you have more than seven cards in your hand at the end of your turn, you must place one card beneath your draw deck. Repeat this process until you have seven cards in your hand.

If at any time a player has no cards left in his/her Time Deck, they are "out of time" and lose the game.

*A player does not need to draw as many cards as his/her remaining time particles. If a player has time particles remaining at the end of a turn, they vanish.

Play then moves to the next player (and so on, in clockwise order). The game is over when a player is able to meet the Objective of their Shifter.