Rule Book

Here are the official rules, as of September 6, 2023

Pieces is a game where you collect cards and put them together into the best deck you can. Half of winning is building you deck right. Pieces can be played with two to three players, or even four if you are okay with a chaotic game experience!

### **Collection requirements**:

* 50 cards
	+ Must include at least one standard piece
	+ You can’t have more than five of a specific card with the same name, with the exception of a few pieces with powers saying otherwise, like “Electomagnetic,” of which you may have seven, and food, which have no limit.
	+ Must include at least 10 orange "food deck" cards, and at least 10 blue "piece deck" cards.
	+ You may only have one star card in a deck.
* The board connected with the most recent set (currently Forest Fire).
* Each player must have a game token. You can use whatever you want.
	+ If you somehow have an oversized board, you don’t need one of these. Just use your actual cards.

### Set up:

* Separate everyone’s decks into normal cards and food cards. These are your two “decks” or “draw piles.” Normal cards (Pieces cards, Beta Cards, and Alpha cards) have blue backs. Food cards have orange backs.
* Shuffle both decks, but keep them separate.
* Everyone draws five cards from your normal deck and one food card.
* Lay out the board. Lay down face-up one standard piece as your “current” or “active” piece. If you don’t have one, just try again.
* You must lay down all of your other standard pieces (up to a maximum of five) in your reserve.
* Choose randomly who goes first. Play continues clockwise.
* The first player cannot move or attack on his or her first turn. The second player (with 3+ players) cannot attack. The third player in (with four players) cannot move.
* Place your game token on any platform space on the board. This represents your currently working piece, since the cards don’t fit on the board squares. The first player chooses first.

### On your turn:

* Begin your turn by drawing one card from the piece deck.
* You may do any of the following:
	+ Level up any piece. You can’t level up a brand new piece that you put down this turn (your first turn counts for this). You can’t level up the same piece twice in one turn.
	+ Place one food in the food reserve.
	+ Use as many powers as you want. Some are “automatic use.” Some are “manual use.” You can differentiate them by their text. An example of automatic use is "This piece takes 20 less damage from all attacks." Manual use abilities have effects like, "once during each turn, you may draw one card."
	+ Move up to two spaces on the board (you can’t be in the same space as another piece.)
	+ Attach one alpha card to one of your pieces, which gives the piece an extra attack. A piece may only have one. Alpha cards may have a rule box restricting which pieces they can be attached to.
	+ Attach one beta card to one of your pieces, which gives the piece and extra power (both manual and automatic). A piece may only have one. Beta cards also often have rule boxes.
	+ Use a beta power attached to one of your pieces (if it is manual use). You can only use it one time.
	+ Place as many standard pieces into your reserve as you want. Whenever you do, draw one card from the food deck.
	+ You may discard one food from your food reserve to switch your current piece with a reserve piece (once per turn).
* Once you begin to attack, your turn is over and you can’t do anything more.
	+ Choose which attack on your current piece you would like to use. These attacks generally deal damage. If there is an alpha card attached to your current piece, you may use that attack. These generally deal with knocking other pieces around.
	+ You may only use attack if you have enough food in your food bank for that attack. If it is not the  symbol, you must have a specific kind of food. The attack affects all pieces in the eight squares around it (unless otherwise specified, as in the case of Icele's Glide).
* Finally, if you end your turn on the lodestone, draw a food card.

### During someone else’s turn and related events:

* If any pieces ever leave the board, deal 50 damage to them. Then at the beginning of your next turn, return the piece to any platform space. If you returned your piece to the board on your current turn, you cant move onto the lodestone. This is to prevent one player from permanently controlling the lodestone.
* If one of your pieces health is reduced to zero or below (no matter how it got there), it is defeated and can no longer fight. Four important things happen
	+ Put the piece and all of its alpha cards, beta cards, and previous levels (i.e. Seedapeck in Icele’s case) into the DISCARD pile.
	+ Remove your game piece from the board, as if that piece had been knocked off (only if the knocked out piece is your current piece; this is because reserve pieces are not on the board at all).
	+ Put food from your food bank into the DISCARD pile equal to the level of the piece (i.e. 1 food for a standard piece, 2 for the next level, etc.). This represents the food that the piece would have eaten.
	+ Put the top card of either pile face up into the LOST pile (also referred to as losses pile or trash pile). This is your penalty for letting one of your pieces get defeated.

### The end of the game:

* When you have six cards in your lost pile, you are out of the game.
* If you have no pieces left, you are also out of the game.
* The last person remaining in the game wins.
* In the case that either of someone’s deck runs out of cards, the game ends immediatly. The person with the fewest lost cards is the winner. If no one has any lost cards yet, keep playing until someone does. In the case of a tie, the person with the most pieces (current and reserve) wins. If it is STILL a tie, you share the win.