Table of Contents
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What's on a Card
Introduction
Re;ACT is a 1 vs 1 dueling game where you step into the shoes of a master Artist.
Each Artist has been blessed with incredible magical powers based on their unique art form. While some use their powers to enhance their craft, others abuse them for self gain.
Conflict is inevitable. Choose your Artist and prove your worth in Re;ACT - The Arts of War!
Overview
To win the game, be the first to deal 3 damage to your opponent.
To deal damage, you'll need to play Action cards and Ability cards. Some cards deal damage, while others help you maneuver around the board.
There are 2 main types of Card Effects: Intentions, which can only be played on your turn to start a React Chain, and Reactions, which can be played on any player's turn to build up a React Chain.
The React Chain resolves in reverse order (first in, last out). The resolution cannot be interrupted once it begins. Carefully play your cards to dodge incoming attacks and outmaneuver your opponent into landing your own strikes to win!
Setting up the Game
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Both players select a different Artist to play as.
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(For your first game, we recommend Calligrapher vs Dancer.)
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Place the Field (2a), React Chain (2b), and Masterpiece (2c) boards between the players.
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Place the 5 React Chain tokens on the React Chain board.
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Set your Artist's 3 Masterpiece cards to the side of the Masterpiece board.
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Place your Artist's Character Token on your starting zone (marked by a star on the board).
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The Deluxe Edition comes with Acrylic Standees to use instead.
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Place your Artist's various unique components (Ability Cards, Tokens, Summons, etc) in front of you.
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Follow any unique Setup instructions on your Artist's Reference Sheet.
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The player who last created a piece of art goes first as the starting Turn Player.
9. If your Artist has an Action Card deck, shuffle it and set it within reach, and then draw 4 cards.
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Artists without a deck skip this step.
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For your first game, we recommend starting your hand with 1 of each of your Artist's 4 unique Action Cards instead of drawing 4 random Action Cards.
What makes an Artist?
Each of the playable characters in Re;ACT is called an Artist. Each Artist has their own unique play style and comes with their own unique components inside their own tuck box.
This will always include:
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Artist Reference Sheet
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Artist Ability Card
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A set of 3 Masterpiece Cards
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Artist Character Token
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Artist Acrylic Standee (Deluxe Edition only)
And will usually include:
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A deck of Action Cards
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Additional Ability Cards
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Artist specific tokens
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Artist specific summons
Each Artist's Reference Sheet has:
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The Passive section details the Artist's unique abilities that are always in effect.
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The Playstyle section summarizes how the character plays. (This has no effect on gameplay.)
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The Setup section gives additional instructions to follow when Setting up the Game.
What's on a Card?
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Card Type:
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Cards with left justified names are Action Cards.
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Cards with right justified names are Ability Cards.
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Each Action Card is either an Intention or Reaction.
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Ability cards can have multiple Intentions or Reactions.
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Card Name
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Card Artist
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Effect Cost
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At the top of each effect is a space for that effect's Cost.
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Costs must be paid IMMEDIATELY when the card is played.
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If the cost cannot be paid, the card cannot be played.
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To Target a Zone, place the React Chain Token on the targeted zone.
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To Choose a Direction, turn the React Chain Token to the desired direction.
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Not all effects have a cost. These can be played without any conditions.
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Card Effect
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Describes what happens when this effect resolves.
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Effects are always resolved in the order it is written.
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Resolve as much of the effect as you can. If any part of an effect cannot be resolved, it is ignored. It does not prevent the rest of the effect from resolving.
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Card ID & Deck Quantity
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(x/30) indicates how many copies of this card there are in the deck of 30 cards.
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Action Cards VS Ability Cards
Both Action Cards (cards you draw from your deck) and Ability Cards (cards that start in front of you) have Intention and Reaction effects that can be played in the same exact way. Their only difference is that Action Cards are single use, while Ability Cards are reusable.
Cards from your hand are Action Cards. These are discarded after they are resolved and cannot be played again.
Cards sitting in front of you are Ability cards. These are returned to you after they are resolved and can be played again as long as their costs can be paid.
HOW TO PLAY THE GAME!
Re;ACT is played in turns. During a turn, only the Turn Player can play Intentions, while both players can play Reactions. A turn enters the End Phase when the Turn Player decides to no longer play any more Intentions.
The game continues until a player wins by dealing 3 damage to their opponent's Artist!
Each turn has 4 Phases
If you have Start of Turn Effects, they resolve before entering the Masterpiece Phase.
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Masterpiece Phase:
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The Turn Player Progresses their Masterpiece.
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The Masterpiece Phase is skipped for the first turn of the game.
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Draw Phase:
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BOTH players draw 1 card from their deck.
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You cannot draw a card if you are already at your hand limit of 6 cards.
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Main Phase:
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The Turn Player plays Intentions.
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Both players can play Reactions.
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THE PHASE DOES NOT END after a single React Chain resolves.
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The Turn Player can keep playing Intentions to start new React Chains.
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The turn only ends once the Turn Player decides to stop playing Intentions.
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End Phase:
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Refresh ALL Artists and Summons on the field.
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Your opponent becomes the Turn Player for the next turn.
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1. Masterpiece Phase
Starting from the second turn onwards, the Turn Player will Progress their Masterpiece during this phase. Your Masterpiece Cards are like a super meter that charges up during the game. Once completed, it will Ascend your Artist, granting you access to a finishing move or immediately providing a powerful buff.
Every Artist always has 3 Masterpiece Cards that line up to form a connected piece of art, like the Tagger's shown below:
Progressing your Masterpiece means adding one of your 3 Masterpiece (MP) Cards to the Masterpiece Zone. There are only 5 spaces in the Masterpiece Zone for both players to share, so placing your MP cards carefully to block your opponent while setting up your own is key to victory!
Once all 3 of your MP Cards are in the Masterpiece Zone in the correct order (lining up to form a connected piece of art), you have completed your Masterpiece!
When you complete your Masterpiece:
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Ascend your Artist by flipping over your Artist's Ability Card.
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Remove all of your MP cards from the Masterpiece Zone.
If you are already ascended when you complete your masterpiece, do not remove your MP cards from the Masterpiece zone. Instead they simply stay in the Masterpiece zone until you have descended. When you descend, if your MP Cards are still connected in the correct order, immediately re-ascend your character and remove all MP cards.
Masterpiece Progression Rules:
When there is empty space in the Masterpiece Zone:
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Place one of your Masterpiece Cards into an empty space.
If all 3 of your Masterpiece Cards have already been placed:
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You may swap any 2 spaces in the Masterpiece Zone.
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You can swap 2 cards, or 1 card and an empty space.
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If there are no empty spaces:
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You may replace an opponent's Masterpiece Card with your own.
In addition to Progressing at the start of each turn, all Artists have access to an effect that will allow them to Progress an additional time each turn, typically as an alternative to using a stronger ability instead.
For example, the Calligrapher has 2 Intention abilities that she can use, but since they both require her to Exhaust herself, she can only pick 1 to use during her turn.
Knowing when to use your weaker ability to speed up your masterpiece's progression is key to victory!
Masterpiece cards are flipped over to their grayscale sides to track damage. There is no mechanical difference between a flipped and unflipped masterpiece card.
2. Draw Phase
During every Draw Phase, BOTH PLAYERS draw 1 card!
This includes the first turn of the game. You start the game with 4 cards, and you'll draw your 5th card on the first Draw Phase of the game.
A few rules regarding drawing:
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Your maximum hand size is 6.
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If you already have 6 cards in hand, drawing is ignored.
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If your deck is empty when you draw, you immediately lose the game.
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When the order of drawing matters, the Turn Player draws first.
If your Artist does not have a deck of Action Cards, check their Reference Sheet to see what you would do instead when you are supposed to draw.
3. Main Phase
The primary way players interact is by playing Action Cards and Ability Cards during the Main Phase.
The Turn Player can play Intentions. There is no limit to the number of cards you can play or effects you can activate during a turn.
Both players can play Reactions in response to an Intention or another Reaction.
If an effect has a cost (written in the colored bar above the card effect), that cost must be paid up front when the card is played. This means costs are paid before the chain actually resolves.
Most costs force you to choose your card's target or direction. These cannot be changed once chosen, so its possible to target the zone of an enemy Artist for an attack, only to have yourself swapped into that targeted zone by your opponent's reaction and end up hitting yourself instead!
Some common costs are:
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Target a Zone - Place the React Chain Token on the targeted zone.
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Choose a Direction - Turn the React Chain Token to the desired direction.
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Exhaust Me - Exhaust the corresponding Artist or Summon of the ability card. You cannot exhaust something twice!
Playing Reactions builds the React Chain. The React Chain begins to resolve once it hits 5 cards, or when both players no longer wishes to play any more Reactions.
The Main Phase DOES NOT END after a single React Chain. The Turn Player can keep playing new Intentions to start new React Chains. The Main Phase only ends after the Turn Player declares they are done playing Intentions.
3.1 - Playing Intentions
To play an Intention, place an Action Card or Ability Card with a Intention effect into the blue "1" space of the React Chain.
If a card has more than 1 Intention, declare which Intention you are playing.
If the effect has a cost, that cost must be paid IMMEDIATELY. If the cost cannot be paid, the card cannot be played.
Only the Turn Player can play Intentions, and only while the React Chain is empty.
Playing an Intention will begin a React Chain, giving your opponent the opportunity to play an Reaction.
Example: You play your blue Sealbrush Spirit's ability card for it's (B) Intention ability.
This intention has 2 Costs:
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EXHAUST ME: Rotate (or flip) your Sealbrush Spirit to indicate they are Exhausted.
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TARGET AN ADJACENT ZONE: Move the blue "1" React Chain token to your desired target zone.
When this intention resolves, it will deal 1 damage to the target zone since your Sealbrush Spirit is already inked.
Your opponent now gets the opportunity to play a Reaction or pass it up.
3.2 - Playing Reactions
Immediately after a player plays an Intention or Reaction, that player's opponent has the opportunity to React or pass
To React, place an Action Card or Ability Card with a Reaction effect into the next available Red "2, 3, 4 or 5" space of the React Chain.
If a card has more than 1 Reaction, declare which Reaction you are playing.
If the effect has a cost, that cost must be paid IMMEDIATELY. If the cost cannot be paid, the card cannot be played.
You can only play a Reaction when:
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Your opponent has just played a card to the React Chain.
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Your opponent has just passed the opportunity to play a Reaction.
Example: Your opponent plays a Reaction: the "Pivoting Step" Action Card.
This Reaction has no cost, so it enters the React Chain without any additional steps.
When this Reaction resolves, the Dancer will be able to swap spaces with the Sealbrush Spirit. This is bad for you, since your Spirit will end up in the targetted space of it's attack! When your Spirit's Intention resolves, it will damage itself!
You now get the opportunity to play a Reaction, or pass it up.
3.3 - Building the React Chain
The React Chain continues to build until either
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Both players pass the opportunity to play a reaction back to back.
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The React Chain reaches 5 cards.
Example: You play a Reaction: the "Flowing Ink" Action Card.
This Reaction has 1 Cost:
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CHOOSE A DIRECTION: Rotate the "3" React Chain token to the chosen direction.
When this Reaction resolves, you will move all inked Artists or Summons 1 space in that chosen direction, allowing you to move your inked Sealbrush Spirit away from the Dancer, preventing him from being able to swap with it!
Your opponent now gets the opportunity to play a Reaction or pass it up. The Dancer decides to pass. You then decide to pass the opportunity to play a Reaction as well.
Since both players passes back to back, the React Chain begins to resolve.
3.4 - Resolving the React Chain
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When the React Chain resolves, it resolves in descending order, 5 to 1.
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While the React Chain is resolving, it cannot be interrupted by new cards.
Passive effects can trigger during the resolution of the React Chain and resolve immediately.
Some examples include:
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An Artist or Summon entering a Tagger Zone Tile.
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The Dancer placing a third Scale token in a zone.
Example: Since both players have passed the opportunity to play Reactions, the React Chain beings resolving.
The React Chain resolves in reverse order:
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Flowing Ink: The Calligrapher adds an Ink to her Spirit, then moves it 1 space in the chosen direct (left)
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Pivoting Step: The Dancer has no adjacent Artist or Summon, so his reaction effect resolves without any valid targets and does nothing.
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Sealbrush Spirit (B): The Spirit is Inked, thus the target zone takes 1 damage. Since the Dancer is in the target zone, he takes 1 damage.
3.5 - Understanding the React Chain
The React Chain is the absolute core of Re;ACT. Understanding it properly is key to mastering and enjoying Re;ACT.
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A React Chain is always started by an Intention.
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Reactions can only be played in response to an Intention or another Reaction.
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Intentions cannot be played as Reactions and Reactions cannot be played as Intentions.
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The React Chain resolves once both players have passed on the opportunity to React back to back.
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The React Chain resolves in descending order (5 -> 4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 1).
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The React Chain cannot be interrupted once it begins resolving.
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No new cards can be played once the React Chain begins resolving.
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Artist passives can still trigger during the React Chain's resolution.
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Example: when a 3rd Scale Token is placed in a zone, the Dancer's passive to summon a Dancing fish in that zone immediately resolves before the React Chain continues resolving.
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While your initial impression might be to use Reactions to only respond to your opponent's cards, playing Reactions to your own effects to build a React Chain is just as important!
React Chain Flowchart
The flow of reactions follows only 3 simple rules:
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Anytime your opponent plays a card, you have the opportunity to React.
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Anytime your opponent passes the opportunity to React, you have the opportunity to React.
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If you pass the opportunity to React right after your opponent passed, the React Chain resolves.
If the React Chain hits 5 cards, no more Reactions can be played and it immediately begins resolving!
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4. End Phase
Once the Turn Player decides to not play any more Intentions, the turn enters the End Phase. (Please note, your Artist being Exhausted has no correlation with your ability to play cards.)
All Artists and Summons are refreshed for BOTH players during the End Phase.
Some Artists might also have additional End of Turn effects. Make sure to read your Artist's passive carefully to take note of any special steps they must take during the End Phase.
Ending the Game
The game ends immediately when one player has dealt 3 damage to their opponent's Artist.
Additionally, if a player runs out of cards in their deck and needs to draw, they lose immediately. Artists who do not use a deck of cards ignore this rule.
Rules for Resolving Effects
The effects on cards are always resolved exactly as written, but there are a few general rules that are always assumed.
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Effects are always resolved in the order they are written.
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This applies to "Choose X effects to resolve:" style abilities as well.
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Effects are never optional unless it specifically says "may" or "up to".
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Even if an effect can not be resolved, it can still be played.
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If one part of a card's effect(s) cannot be resolved, it is ignored and the rest of the card still resolves.
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If all parts of a card's effect(s) cannot be resolved, the card simply resolves by doing nothing.
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When a passive effect triggers, it immediately resolves.
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You can choose to fail an effect on purpose by declaring an invalid target.
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Ex 1: Choose to move in a direction that is blocked and the movement fails.
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Ex 2: Choose to attack an empty zone and damage nothing.
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Ex 3: Choose to summon in an occupied zone and summon nothing.
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Rules for Summons
Summon Health:
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Every summon has only 1 HP.
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When a summons' HP is reduced to 0, it is removed from the board.
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A removed summon returns to your pool of available summons and can be re-summoned in the future.
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Losing a summon does not deal damage to your Artist's HP.
Summoning:
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A Summons are always refreshed when first summoned.
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A new Summon can be exhausted on the same turn to activate an ability.
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Attempting to summon in an occupied simply fails and does nothing.
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Attempting to summon when you have no available summons simply fails and does nothing.
Rules for Movement
Moving Summons and Artists:
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Movement effects that move a unit 1 space simply moves that unit 1 space in any direction.
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Movement is ALWAYS orthogonal and NEVER diagonal.
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Attempting to move into an occupied zone simply fails and does nothing.
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Attempting to move off of the board simply fails and does nothing.
Jump is a unique keyword for certain Artists that is a special form of movement:
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When an Artist or Summon Jumps in a direction, they move in that direction until they enter an empty zone, skipping over all zones that were occupied by other units.
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Jumping in a direction where there is an adjacent empty zone simply moves you 1 space like a normal movement.
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Jumping in a direction where there are no empty zones simply fails and does nothing.
Questions? Feedback? Want to help?
If you have feedback, complaints, or suggestions of any kind, please join the Brother Ming Games discord and tag Brother Ming in the Re;ACT text channel!
Glossary
Ability Cards:
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Every Artist and Summon has a matching Ability Card to list their abilities.
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Some Artists will also have additional Ability Cards that are not tied to a single Artist or Summon that they simply always have access to. (Ex: Calligrapher's Sheathing Respite).
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Once an Ability Card resolves, it is returned to you and can be reused.
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Ability Cards are never discarded.
Action Card:
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Cards you draw from your deck and keep in your hand are called Action Cards.
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You cannot have more than 6 Action Cards in your hand at any time.
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Drawing simply fails if you have 6 Action Cards in hand.
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Once an Action Card has resolved, it is discarded to your discard zone.
Adjacent:
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Adjacency is ALWAYS orthogonal and NEVER diagonal.
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Movement and attacks are always orthogonal by default unless otherwise stated by that character.
Artists:
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Artists are the characters you can play as.
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Each Artist is represented by a corresponding token on the board.
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Acrylic standee in the deluxe edition.
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Block Tokens:
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Block tokens are a unique mechanic used by some characters that can be placed into a zone by that character's abilities.
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Block tokens stay in the zone they are placed in until that zone takes damage (negating the damage), or until the turn ends.
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Block tokens are NOT placed onto an Artist or Summon and do not follow them when they move.
Damage (Artist):
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When your Artist takes damage, flip 1 of your 3 Masterpiece Cards facedown.
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You lose after all 3 masterpiece cards are flipped face down.
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Face down masterpiece cards behave the same as face up ones.
Damage (Summons):
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Every summon has only 1 HP.
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When a summons' HP is reduced to 0, it is removed from the board.
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A removed summon returns to your pool of available summons and can be re-summoned in the future.
Deck:
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Most Artists comes with a pre-built deck of 30 Action Cards
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If your deck is empty when you draw, you immediately lose the game.
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Some Artists do not have a deck and ignore this rule.
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Draw:
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When you draw a card, add it to your hand.
- If you already have 6 cards in hand, you cannot draw. Draw effects will simply fail.
- If you draw but your deck is empty, you immediately lose the game.
Discard Zone:
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This is where all of your discarded Action Cards are placed.
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The Discard Zone is always face up and both players can look through it at anytime.
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Ability Cards are never placed in the Discard Zone as they are never discarded.
Exhaust:
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To exhaust an Artist or Summon, turn their acrylic standee sideways.
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If using tokens, flip their token facedown.
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An artist or Summon that is already exhausted cannot be exhausted again to pay the cost on an card.
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All exhausted units are refreshed at the end of each turn.
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If you try to exhaust an Artist or Summon that is already exhausted, nothing happens.
Hand:
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Your hand of Action Cards drawn from your deck.
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Both players simultaneously draw a card at the start of each turn.
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Your max hand size is 6. You cannot draw any cards while you already have 6 cards.
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Artists without a deck do not have a hand and ignore this rule.
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Jump:
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Jump is a unique keyword for certain characters that is a special form of movement:
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"When an Artist or Summon Jumps in a direction, they move in that direction until they enter an empty zone, skipping over all zones that are occupied by other Artists or Summons."
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Jumping in a direction where there are no empty zones will simply fail and do nothing. It is the same as moving towards an occupied zone or into a wall.
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A Jump can move past more than 1 consecutive occupied zone.
Masterpiece Cards:
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Every Artist has 3 Masterpiece Cards that combine to form one large art piece.
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When you complete your masterpiece, you'll Ascend your Artist by flipping over their ability card and removing all of the Masterpiece Cards from the Masterpiece Zone.
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When you take damage, you'll flip a Masterpiece Card over. This is ONLY to track damage, and has no mechanical influence on how the Masterpiece Cards work.
Masterpiece Zone:
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There are 5 slots on the Masterpiece Zone.
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Each slot in the Masterpiece Zone can only hold 1 Masterpiece Card.
Move / Movement:
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You can attempt to move in any direction when moving.
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Sometimes, the direction of movement is decided as a cost for the effect.
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If you would move off the board or into an occupied Zone, the movement simply fails.
Progressing your Masterpiece:
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To Progress your MP, place 1 one of your 3 MP cards into an empty MP zone.
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If there are no empty MP zones, then you can replace a placed MP card with your own.
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If you have no MP cards to place, then you can swap the contents of any 2 MP zones.
React Chain Tokens:
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There are 5 slots on the React Chain and 5 React Chain tokens.
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Each token has a pointed arrow in order to indicate Direction and can be placed on a zone in the board to indicate a Target Zone.
Reference Sheet:
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This shows your Artist's Passive abilities and a Playstyle summary.
Refresh:
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An Artist or Summon is refreshed if it is upright (not turned sideways).
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You can only Exhaust Artists and Summons that are Refreshed.
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You can only Refresh Artists and Summons that are Exhausted.
Standee:
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Standees represent your Artist and their Summons on the board in the Deluxe edition of the game.
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In the base/retail version of the game, tokens are used instead of standees.
Start of Turn effects:
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Any effect that states it occurs at the start of each turn will resolve before the masterpiece phase. Start of turn means the first thing that happens that turn.
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If both players have an start of turn effect that need to resolve, the turn player resolves them first.
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If an effect starts at the start of your turn instead of each turn, it only happens at the start of your turns, not at the start of your opponent's turns.
Summons:
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Summons refer to units that your Artist can summon.
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Summons are represented by a corresponding character token on the board.
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Acrylic standees in the deluxe edition.
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Summons are always summoned refreshed and their Ability Cards can be used on the turn they are summoned.
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Every summon has only 1 HP.
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When a summons' HP is reduced to 0, it is removed from the board.
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A removed Summon can still be re-summoned later in the game.
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If you resolve a summoning effect but all of your Summons are already on the board, the summoning effect simply fails and does nothing.
Swap:
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An effect to swap 2 Artists or Summons will switch the positions of those 2 Artists or Summons.
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Tokens that normally moves with their Artist or Summon (EX: Ink Tokens) will move with those tokens during a swap as well.
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Swapping into a zone tile is considered entering that zone for effects that trigger when an Artist or Summon enters that zone (EX: Tagger Murals).
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If a swap would result in an invalid board state, the swap effect fails to resolve. (EX: Trying to swap with a Painter with an Armament that would end up outside of the board due to the swap.)
Ties:
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In a few rare cases, it is possible for a single action to deal damage to both Artists at the same time. (Ex: Sculptor's Expending the Expendable action card.) This kind of damage is always simultaneous, and therefore can trigger ties.
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There are no tie breakers. If a single effect would deal the final damage to both players at the same time, the game results in a tie.
Tokens:
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Many Artists have tokens associated with their passives.
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If a placed token is later removed, it is returned to you and can be used again.
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You cannot place more tokens than you have in total.
Zone:
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Only one (1) unit (an Artist or Summon) can be in a zone.
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Movement into an occupied zone fails and is ignored.
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Summoning into an occupied zone fails and is ignored.
Zone Tiles:
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Some Artists have a special component known as a Zone Tile.
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Each Zone can only have 1 Zone Tile.
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If one Artist's Zone Tile is in a Zone, a different Artist's Zone Tile can not move into or occupy that Zone.