Summary: In this Main Match, manipulate your tableaux with runes to gain blessings.
Designer(s): e_is_cool, summitwei
Featured in: The Genius: Heaven and Hell
Match Type: MM (for 5 players)
Main Match 10: Pantheic Runes
Heaven is empty now… or is it?
In this game, players manipulate ritual tableaux and use them to gain deific blessings.
OVERVIEW
There are three runes in this game: +, o, and x. A tableau is a 2x2 grid where each cell is either filled with one rune or is empty (sometimes denoted as .). Players receive tableaux at the temple.
Players also have some amount of mana, which starts at 3, and adjustment tokens, of which they start out with 0. Using mana and adjustment tokens, players can perform actions to manipulate their tableaux.
Afterwards, they can perform rituals with their tableaux to obtain rewards and possibly receive blessings from deities–powerful abilities that disrupt some of the general rules in the next several sections.
This game lasts for six rounds, with one pregame phase. The specific blessings will be revealed after this pregame phase, at the start of Round 1.
TABLEAUX + TEMPLE
Players initially start with three tableaux:
+ + o o x x
+ + o o x x
You can obtain more tableaux through the temple. Each round, some number of tableaux are revealed. Each player may select one tableau to obtain. You obtain a tableau at the end of the round if no other player also selects it.
Unused tableaux carry over between rounds.
At the end of each round, players are told which tableaux they received.
ACTIONS
Actions are used to manipulate tableaux. All actions are performed live and in real-time; in other words, you perform an action and, upon processing, are immediately updated on the result, assuming you have enough mana. There are three actions that you can perform:
The combination rules are as follows:
For example, here are two tableaux and their combination:
o x x + + o
+ . + o . o
This combining operation has the property that it is both associative and commutative. The proof is left as an exercise for the reader.
RITUALS + BLESSINGS
Every round, you may submit any number of your tableaux to perform rituals. You may only submit tableaux for which all cells are filled with a rune (there are no empty cells).
Upon performing a ritual, you receive some basic effects, and some rituals may attract the attention of a deity, who may grant you a blessing. This also uses up the submitted tableau.
Basic Effects
+: Next round, you can take an extra tableau from the temple.
o: Gain 1 mana.
x: Gain an adjustment token.
You gain an effect if the submitted tableaux contains the rune. Having multiple runes in a single tableaux doesn’t trigger the effect multiple times, but you can get the effect twice from two separate rituals in the same round.
For example, if you submitted the following two tableaux:
o o + x
o x o +
You would gain 2 mana and 2 adjustment tokens and be able to take 1 additional tableau from the temple.
Deific Blessings
There are 13 blessings from deities. Each deity has some set of rituals that will earn their favor, which may result in receiving a blessing. Blessings are permanent effects; recasting a ritual for a deity does not have any additional effect.
The specific blessings will be revealed in 24 hours at the start of Round 1.
SCORING
You receive 1 point for every blessing you obtain. In addition, if you are the sole first player to receive a blessing, you gain an additional point.
The player with the most points wins and receives a Token of Life. If this is a tie, then the player who performed the most rituals wins. If this is still a tie, then we consider the most recent time the players weren't tied.
The EC is the player with the fewest points; the tiebreaker is the same as with the winner.
At the end of the episode, there will be 4 players in Hell.
BLESSINGS
Zeus
Rituals:
```
+ o x + o x
+ o x + o x
```
If you have performed all three of the above rituals, gain Blessing of Zeus.
Blessing of Zeus: Gain 4 additional points.
Hera
Ritual:
```
x o
+ +
```
Performing this ritual grants you the Blessing of Hera.
Blessing of Hera: For every future round, you can take one additional tableau from the temple.
Poseidon
Ritual:
```
+ + + o
o + + +
```
Performing either ritual grants you the Blessing of Poseidon.
Blessing of Poseidon: Next round, you gain infinite mana, but can only use each action at most three times. You then permanently have no mana.
Demeter
Ritual:
```
x + + x
+ o x o
```
Performing either ritual grants you the Blessing of Demeter.
Blessing of Demeter: When you obtain this blessing, you gain a one time use ability: Create a tableau. Give it to every player.
Apollo
Ritual:
```
o +
o x
```
Performing this ritual grants you the Blessing of Apollo.
Blessing of Apollo: Gain 1 mana at the beginning of every round.
Artemis
Ritual:
```
o o o + o x
+ x + x + x
```
Performing any of these rituals grants you the Blessing of Artemis.
Blessing of Artemis: When you gain this blessing, select a rune pattern; for this round, any invocation of it will fail, using up the runes. If a player attempts to invoke such a pattern they will be privately informed that it failed.
Ares
Ritual:
```
+ + + +
x + + x
```
Performing either ritual grants you the Blessing of Ares.
Blessing of Ares: Gain priority when selecting patterns from the temple. Specifically, if you select a tableau on the same turn that someone else selects it, and they do not have the Blessing of Ares, you receive the tableau rather than neither player receiving it.
Athena
Ritual:
```
o x x o o o
o + o + x +
```
Performing either ritual grants you the Blessing of Athena.
Blessing of Athena: Learn the ritual for the Blessing of Dionysus.
Hephaestus
Ritual:
```
+ x
o x
```
Performing this ritual grants you the Blessing of Hephaestus.
Blessing of Hephaestus: Gain an adjustment token at the beginning of each round; the adjust action only costs 1 mana for you.
Aphrodite
Ritual:
```
o x x o o o x x
x o o x x x o o
```
Performing any of these rituals grants you the Blessing of Aphrodite.
Blessing of Aphrodite: At the end of the game, if exactly one other player received this Blessing by invoking the same ritual as you, gain 2 additional points.
Hermes
Ritual:
```
x + + o o x
o x x + + o
```
Performing any of these rituals grants you the Blessing of Hermes.
Blessing of Hermes: You cannot be the Elimination Candidate. This means even if you are the player with the fewest points, you will not be the EC. This ability is ignored if all non-immune players have it.
Dionysus
Ritual: UNKNOWN
Performing ????? grants you the Blessing of Dionysus.
Blessing of Dionysus: You may no longer perform Combine actions with another player. Combine also now costs 1 mana for you and gives you two copies of the result.
Hestia
Ritual:
Any tableau that uses all three runes at least once, which also does not satisfy any of the above rituals, is sufficient for Hestia.
If you have performed three rituals for Hestia, gain the Blessing of Hestia.
Blessing of Hestia: This blessing has no effect.
Semi-live MM