Denizens of Tartarus

In this Death Match, play cards in order to manipulate the deck and win three different modules.

Designer(s): e_is_cool, elara Match Type: DM (for 2 players)
Featured in: The Genius: Heaven and Hell

Final Match 2: Denizens of Tartarus

The most wicked of sinners are brought to Tartarus, where they suffer eternally. Suffer with them, or make your final stand.


SUMMARY

Players have a hand of cards and a shared deck. Players play cards to modules in order to manipulate the deck and win the modules. The first player to win three of the seven modules wins the FM.


RULES

This game uses a shared deck of 25 cards, with numbers from 1-5, and colors (red, yellow, green, blue, purple).

As the player who lost FM1, Zero will decide who is Player 1 and who is Player 2, at the beginning of the FM, before viewing the starting configurations. She will also determine who is on the left and who is on the right side of the gamestate update display.

In this game, each player has a hand of 3 cards, with the remaining 19 cards being in the deck.

The set of starting hands and the deck order is called a starting configuration. In a starting configuration, players are guaranteed to have cards of value 1, 2, 3, and for all of them to be different colors. At the beginning of the FM, 4 starting configurations (labeled ABCD) are presented to the players. Player 2 will ban one of them, then Player 1 will ban one of them, then Player 2 will ban one of them. The remaining starting configuration will be used for the FM.

This game involves seven distinct modules. A player wins the FM if at the end of their turn they have won three modules. On a player's turn, they may play one card from their hand to a module.

Prior to Player 1's first turn, Player 2 may declare a module that Player 1 cannot use. After this, players alternate turns, with Player 1 going first and Player 2 going second.

Each module has some way to gain points for that module, and a threshold of points that when reached, results in a player winning a module. Once a module has been won, it becomes inactive and players can no longer play on that module.

When there are 5 or more modules remaining, you cannot play on your most recent module or your opponent's most recent module.

When there are 3 or 4 modules remaining, you cannot play on your most recent module.

At the end of your turn, you will draw a card from the deck, then discard the card you used that turn to the bottom of the deck. The default option for drawing cards is to draw the very top card of the deck. Each module also offers an alternate option (called the module option) for drawing cards, which you may use instead if you played on that module.


MODULES

Balance - Sisyphus

There are two sides of a scale. When you play a card here, your side of the scale's weight is increased by the number of the card.

Whenever a player gains a point on another module, whoever has more weight gains a point on this module, and the balance is reset. If it's a tie, neither player gains a point.


You win this module if you have 5 points.


Module Draw Option:

You may instead draw the Nth topmost card, where N is the number you played.


Order - Ixion

This module's color starts at Red, then cycles to Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple then back to Red. Each player has 5 lights on this module, corresponding to the five colors. When you play a card of the same color as the module, the corresponding color lights up for you. When you play a card, the module's color shifts to the next color (even if the card doesn't match).


Gain a point if you have 4 lights on, then turn off all your lights.


You win this module if you have 2 points.


Module Draw Option:

You may instead draw the topmost card that matches your played card's color. If there is no card in the deck that satisfies this condition, you cannot choose this draw option.


Matching - Tantalus

You gain a point if you play the exact card this module shows. Whenever a player scores a point here, the card changes to the card at the bottom of the deck (before any cards are discarded). At the beginning of the game, this card is the bottom card of the deck.


You win this module if you have 3 points.


Module Draw Option:

You may instead draw any of the N topmost cards, where N is the number you played.

Set - Phlegyas

You can play a card here if it's a different color and number to all other cards played here. You are not allowed to play a card here if it matches in either color or number to a card already played here.


When 4 cards have been played to this module, whoever has the higher sum of values of their cards in this module gains a point. If it's a tie, whoever plays the fifth card gains a point.


When a player gains a point, the cards here are reset.


You win this module if you have 2 points.


Module Draw Option:

You may instead draw the topmost card that doesn't have the same color or number as your played card.

Stones - Tityos

This module starts with 6 stones of each color. You can play a card here to remove a number of stones equal to the card number, of the color of the card. You are allowed to play a card that's greater than the number of stones that can be removed; doing so will remove all remaining stones.


Gain a point if you remove the final stone of a particular color.


You win this module if you have 3 points.


Module Draw Option:

You may instead choose to discard an additional card from your hand, then draw the topmost 2 cards in the deck.

Pair - The Danaïdes

Each player has 5 lights on this module, labeled from 0 to 4. When you play a card here, a light lights up for you if the difference between the pair of unplayed cards in your hand matches.


Gain a point if you have 4 lights on, then turn off all your lights.


You win this module if you have 2 points.


Module Draw Option:

You may instead draw the middlemost card of the deck.

Shuffle - Ocnus

The deck will be split into (approximate) thirds: piles consisting of the top 6 cards, bottom 6 cards, and the rest of the deck in the middle. You can rearrange these piles in whatever way you want.


You gain a token for the number of cards on either the very top or bottom of a pile that match in either color or number to the card you played.


You gain a point when you have 5 tokens, which then removes all your tokens.


You win this module if you have 4 points.


Module Draw Option:

You may instead choose to draw the topmost card first, then rearrange the deck afterwards. This means you don't draw a card at the end of your turn, and instead it is immediately before you shuffle the deck for this module. The token scoring happens before this draw.


SPIRITS

There are two ways to invoke a spirit in this FM. You may only invoke at most one spirit per turn.


> Blocking Invocation:

> When there are still 7 modules left, at the end of your turn, you may name an additional module your opponent cannot play on. Each player can only invoke this once per module (combined between normal and attuned).

> Attuned: You can do this even when there are only 6 modules left.

Mulligan Invocation:

> At the end of your turn (after you draw a card), discard one card from your hand then draw that many cards from the top of the deck.

> Attuned: You may discard any amount of cards (in any order).


TIMING

In the ban phase, players have 60 seconds to decide what configuration to ban.

Players have 90 seconds per turn, with 5 minutes of reserve time. If you run out of reserve time, you lose the FM.


SPREADSHEET

Here's a spreadsheet template you may make a copy of and use for practice if you'd like. The actual match will be hosted using this spreadsheet template.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BWkxuPWXWJkzoFpHyqVAfmA6sg4mGAkM_7scbVWsCws/view


There is conditional formatting on the sheet; writing any color colors a cell automatically. Ctrl + Shift + V (paste text) is extremely helpful when hosting the game. Feel free to ask for help with getting it to work.


EXAMPLE

This is a possible game partway finished (everything here was arbitrarily decided and is probably not representative of how a game might go):


In this current state:

  • Player 2 has won Stones.
  • Player 1's most recent move was on Balance (so it's grey), and Player 2's most recent move was on Pair (so it's grey).

It is Player 1's turn (this is not written explicitly in the template).

Player 1 decides to play Y5 on Set. This is the fourth card played to Set, so we check the sums of the cards both players played. Player 1 has a larger sum (12 to 2), so they earn a point. This also triggers Balance, which gives a point to Player 2.


Player 1 normally would draw the Yellow 1. However, they use Set's Module Draw Option to draw the Green 2 instead.


The board state now looks like this:



Player 2 decides to play Blue 5 on Shuffle. They receive 2 tokens (from Green 5 and Yellow 5), and do not yet earn a point.


They decide to shuffle the three piles into the order Bottom, Top, Middle, and then draw. This gives them the Green 3, and the board state now looks like this:

Tags

Cards    (The game involves cards of any kind.)

Strategy    (The game tests the players' strategic & tactical abilities.)

Turn-based    (The game involves players taking turns one after another.)