Res Arcana

Setup: display five Places of Power and two monuments, with the remaining monuments in a deck. Give each player one of every essence. Players examine eight artifacts and two mages, shuffle their artifacts and draw three, then choose one mage. Choose magic items in reverse player order. The rulebook also provides first-game presets.

Each round has Collect, Actions, and Victory steps. Resolve your Collect abilities and optionally retrieve essences from components. You may choose separately for different components, but taking any essences from one component means taking all of them.

Starting with the First Player, take one action per turn: pay to place an artifact from hand; claim a monument or Place of Power; discard one card for one Gold or two non-Gold essences; use a power; or pass.

Every monument costs four Gold. You may claim a face-up monument or the top card of its deck, replenishing a face-up vacancy if possible. Claimed monuments and Places of Power cannot be taken by rivals. Newly placed components enter straightened.

To use a power, pay its entire cost before applying its effect. Turned components normally cannot use powers. A power without a turning cost may be used again on a later action. Abilities continue to apply, while React powers depend on their trigger and payable cost.

Keep your essence pool separate from essences on components. Costs normally use the pool; essences on components may support later collection or scoring. Discarding removes an artifact from hand; destroying removes one from play to your discards and returns its essences to the supply.

Life loss takes Life from your pool. For each missing Life, lose two other essences if possible. An applicable React power can ignore that loss. Players who have already passed ignore Life loss.

Passing ends your actions for the round. The first player to pass takes the First Player token. Every passing player swaps their magic item for a different available item and draws one card if possible. When you need to draw from an empty personal deck, shuffle your discards to rebuild it.

After everyone passes, check points. If anyone has at least ten, the highest score wins. Break ties by essences in the pool, counting Gold twice; remaining ties share victory. The First Player token is one point, and turned components still score. Otherwise reset components and begin another round.

Coral Castle and Sorcerer’s Bestiary have powers that can trigger a victory check during a round. Reaching ten does not otherwise end play immediately. Golden Statue can provide temporary points through its React power at a victory check, even after its owner passes; those points last only for that check.