24 Trading Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Basics
  • Directive
  • Character
  • Equipment
  • Agenda
  • Event
  • Character States and Location
  • Play Diagram
  • The Three Types of Skill
  • Time
  • Playing Cards and Abilities
  • War Number
  • Traits
  • Keywords
  • Decks
• Game Rules
  • Start of the Game
  • Turn Sequence
    • 1. Start Phase
    • 2. Maneuver Phase
    • 3. Main Phase
    • 4. Mission Phase
  • Attempting a Mission
  • And That's It!
• Basic Training
• Sequence of Play
• Mission Sequence
• 24 TCG Glossary and Additional Rules

The Basics

Object. The object of the game is to score 24 points, usually by completing "missions" with your characters.

Card Types. There are five card types in the 24 TCG: directive, character, equipment, agenda, and event.

Directive

You begin the game with a directive in play face up on the table in front of you. It is not considered part of your 24-card deck. Your directive tells you what side you're playing (CTU or Insurgents) and often has an ability that gives you a focus for your deck.

Alignments: CTU and Insurgents.

Card Elements: A. Title • B. Game Text • C. Alignment

Character

A character has a title, a subtitle, a cost, an alignment, a specialty, game text, and two attributes. Skill is a measure of a character's ability and is the primary factor in determining success or failure in missions. Health is a measure of how many wounds a character can take before being killed.

Card Elements: A. Title (and Subtitle) • B. Cost • C. Alignment • D. Specialty • E. Skill • F. Health • G. Traits, Keywords, and Game Text • H. War Number

Equipment

Equipment plays on a character and boosts that character's attributes or grants him additional abilities. Equipment is discarded when the character it is played on is removed from play.

Card Elements: A. Title • B. Cost • C. Skill • D. Health • E. Traits, Keywords, and Game Text • F. War Number

Agenda

Agendas are a special type of card, with turn numbers printed on their edges. You put an agenda into play with its highest turn number face up. Each turn, you rotate your agendas 90 degrees to the next lowest number. When an agenda turns right side up, you may use its text (though you are not required to) and discard the agenda. You can only play one agenda per turn.

Card Elements: A. Title • B. Cost • C. Time Track • D. Traits and Game Text • E. War Number

Event

Events represent actions that happen immediately. After you pay an event's cost and follow its instructions, place it in the discard pile.

Card Elements: A. Title • B. Cost • C. Keywords, and Game Text • D. War Number

Character States and Location

Characters come into play ready. Some actions (like attempting a mission or paying for some abilities) will require you to set that character by turning him 90 degrees sideways. At the start of each of your turns (and at other times, as designated by certain cards), you reset all your characters, by turning your set character(s) to the ready position.

The world of 24 is a dangerous place. As a result, characters will often become wounded. When the game instructs you to wound a character, place a wound token on that character. If your character ever has a number of wounds equal to or greater than his Health, that character is killed (placed in your discard pile).

Finally, characters in play are always located either in your Briefing Room or the Field. Each location can be represented by a row of characters on the table in front of you, with the Briefing Room being nearer to you than the Field (see diagram on pg 9).

Play Diagram

During a typical game, the table should look something like this.

(Diagram on page 9 of the printed rules; image only, not reproduced.)

The Three Types of Skill

Each character has a Skill value found above his Health. Next to that number is one of three skill designators: Combat, Politics, or Intel. All cards and rules that reference Skill reference this number. However, if a card or rule references Combat, Politics, or Intel, it only applies to characters with that skill designator. Bonuses to one Skill type do not apply to a character with another Skill type.

For instance, if a character has Politics 3 and you play a card that gives him +1 Skill, he now has Politics 4 (and Skill of 4). If you played a card that gave him +1 Combat, it would have no effect on either his Politics or his Skill.

Time

In the 24 TCG, as in the show (and real life), you have a limited amount of Time to perform all the actions you want to perform. This is represented in the game as a resource pool that replenishes itself and gets larger every turn.

On each player's first turn, he has 2 Time to play cards and abilities. You can use tokens, dice, or pen and paper to keep track of your available Time. This number increases by 1 on each of the first player's turns. Thus, the sequence is:

• Player 1, Turn 1: 2 Time
• Player 2, Turn 1: 2 Time
• Player 1, Turn 2: 3 Time
• Player 2, Turn 2: 3 Time
• Player 1, Turn 3: 4 Time, and so on.

Any points that are unused at the end of your turn can be saved to pay for actions on your opponent's turn. Time does not accumulate from turn to turn. Even if you have 1 Time left at the end of your first turn (and the end of your opponent's first turn), you will only have 3 Time at the start of your second turn. You do not add 3 to the 1 Time you have remaining; it is simply lost.

Playing Cards and Abilities

Most cards have a cost of 1 or more Time (though some cost 0). To play a card, pay for the cost using Time from your pool. You cannot play a card that costs more than the Time currently in your Time pool.

Characters, agendas, and equipment stay in play until they are removed by another card effect or by a rule of the game that removes them (such as an agenda resolving or a character being killed). When you play an event, you use its game text and place it in your discard pile.

Some agendas require other cards to be in play. For instance, an agenda that says "Requires: 2 Analysts," means you must have two Analyst characters in play to play the card. You do not need the Analysts in play when the agenda resolves, and you cannot use your opponent's Analysts to meet this requirement.

Events and cards with abilities printed on them have a usage designator that tells you when you can play them. There are three types of these designators:

• Main events and abilities can only be played during your Main phase.
• Mission events and abilities can only be played during a mission attempt.
• React events and abilities can be played in response to an in-game event and typically tell you when you can play them.

Some cards also have additional costs or requirements that must be met to play them. For events, you must meet these requirements to play them. For abilities on other cards, you must meet these requirements to use the abilities. Some examples:

• Main 0: There are no requirements to play this action.
• Main 1: You must pay 1 Time.
• Main 0, Locate an Agent: You must have an Agent in play.
• Main 0, an Agent: Perform the indicated action (set, wound, sacrifice, etc.) on one of your Agents.
• Main 0, Locate Intel 3: You must have a character with Intel of 3 or higher in play to play this action.
• Main 0, Lose 2 points: You must lose 2 points to play this action.
• Main 0, : Perform the indicated action (set, wound, sacrifice, etc.) on this card (found only on characters and equipment).
• Main 0, this character: Perform the indicated action (set, wound, sacrifice, etc.) on the character this equipment is located (found only on equipment).

Only your cards can meet additional costs. For example, if a cost is "Set an Agent," you can't set an opponent's Agent to pay the cost.

War Number

Each non-directive card has a "war number" in its lower-right corner. Ranging from +0 to +3, this number is usually used during missions (see pg 17) to provide a Skill bonus to your character.

Traits

Traits are boldface text that have an effect on gameplay. The current traits are:

• Lethal. This character deals an extra wound during missions, even if he would normally deal zero (such as if he loses a mission).
• Focused. When this character comes into play, you may advance one of your agendas (turn it 90 degrees forward).
• Expert. When this character scores one or more points as the result of a mission attempt, he scores an additional point.
• Adept. Characters opposing this character in a mission must play their war cards face up.
• Unique. A player can only have one copy of this equipment in play at a time.
• Deadline. Found only on agendas, this means that you execute the agenda's text when the agenda resolves.

Agendas in future sets will have other traits that have other effects.

Keywords

Some characters have one or more keywords that represent other aspects of their personalities or their affiliation to a certain character or cause. Examples include President and Drazen. These have no automatic effect on gameplay but other cards may refer to them. In general, if you see a term on a card and it is not a trait (all of which are listed above), then it's a keyword.

All equipment cards have a keyword, representing what kind of equipment it is: Item, Weapon, Phone, etc. A character can only attach one piece of equipment with a given keyword. In other words, he can't have two Items or two Weapons, but he could have one of each.

All events have one of three keywords: Tactics, Intrigue, or Ops. These have no inherent effect on the game, but other cards may refer to them.

Decks

Each deck consists of 25 cards: a directive card, which starts in play, and a 24-card deck. If you are playing a CTU directive, you can only stock CTU characters in your deck. If you are playing an Insurgent directive, you can only stock Insurgent characters in your deck. You can play any equipment, agendas, and events in any deck, though several of those cards require you to have a CTU or Insurgent character in play.

You cannot have more than two cards with the same title in your deck, even if they have different subtitles.

If your deck ever runs out of cards, shuffle your discard pile immediately. It becomes your new deck.

Game Rules

Start of the Game

Each player reveals his directive and shuffles his 24-card deck. Randomly determine who will go first. Then each player draws 5 cards to form his opening hand. If a player doesn't like his opening hand, he can shuffle it back into his deck and draw a new hand of 5 cards. He must keep that hand.

Turn Sequence

The turn is divided into four phases:

1. Start Phase
2. Maneuver Phase
3. Main Phase
4. Mission Phase

1. Start Phase

First, fill your Time pool to its full value: 2 for your first turn, 3 for your second, 4 for your third, etc.

Reset all of your characters.

Draw 2 cards. Exception: If you are the first player, you do not draw 2 cards on your first turn.

Advance all your agendas by turning them 90 degrees clockwise. If any agendas would resolve at this time (by reaching their final position), you can play their game text, in any order you like. Whether or not you play their game text, you must discard them.

2. Maneuver Phase

One at a time, you may move your characters from the Briefing Room to the Field or vice versa. There is no cost to this. Only characters in the Field can attempt missions, but only characters in the Briefing Room can support missions or heal themselves (explained below).

3. Main Phase

Take the following actions in any order, as often as you want (as long as you have the Time to pay for them):

• Play a character to your Briefing Room.
• Play equipment on a character in play.
• Play an agenda (once per turn).
• Play an event or ability with the Main designator.
• Pay 1 Time and discard a card from your hand to heal (remove a wound from) your character in the Briefing Room with the same title.

You cannot bring a character or agenda into play if you already have a character or agenda with the same title in play. Finally, you can only play a Main ability on your directive once per turn.

4. Mission Phase

This is where the action of the 24 TCG happens! In this phase, you attempt missions with your characters in the effort to score points by overcoming your opponent's defenses.

Attempting a Mission

Declare a mission attempt by setting one of your ready characters in the Field. A character cannot attempt a mission more than once per turn, even if he somehow resets during the turn. The opponent can choose to block with one of his ready characters (in his Field or his Briefing Room), setting his blocking character.

If the mission is blocked ("opposed"), the attacking player has the first option of playing a war card from his hand. He can take any card in his hand and play it face down on the table. The defending player can then play a war card, even if the attacking player chose not to.

Now, starting with the attacking player, players can take turns playing Mission actions (events or abilities with the Mission designator). If a player passes, his opponent can still play a Mission action; a player can play a Mission action later in the mission attempt even if he passed earlier (unless both players pass consecutively). If an attacking character is unopposed (there is no defender), the attacker may still play Mission actions.

After both players pass consecutively, the war cards are revealed (and discarded) and their war number is added to the character's Skill. If the attacking character is unopposed at this time, then all bonuses from war cards are nullified, but other bonuses to Skill (from abilities or events) still apply, and the attacking character scores points equal to his Skill.

If the mission is opposed, the character with the higher Skill number wins the mission and inflicts one wound to the opposing character (in case of a tie, both characters receive one wound). Any character with wounds equal to or greater than his Health is killed (placed in its owner's discard pile).

If the attacker won the mission, the attacker scores points equal to the difference between his Skill and the defender's. The defending player can set characters in his Briefing Room to reduce the points scored by 1 (to a minimum of 0) for each set character. This is called supporting.

When one player reaches 24 points, that player wins the game.

And That's It!

These rules teach you the basics of the 24 TCG. For more comprehensive rules, frequently asked questions, tournament information, forums, and more, please feel free to contact us!

Basic Training

• A deck consists of 25 cards: one directive and a mix of 24 character, equipment, agenda, and event cards.
• You cannot have more than two copies of a card with the same title in your deck.
• Directive and character cards come in one of two factions: CTU and Insurgents. You cannot mix the two in the same deck.
• Characters come into play ready. When you use one for a specific purpose, you set the character by turning him 90 degrees sideways. At the start of each of your turns, you reset (turn back to ready) all your set characters.
• You need to score 24 points to win the game. You primarily accomplish this by sending your characters on mission attempts.
• The Briefing Room is where characters usually go when they come into play. The Field is where they go when they want to declare a mission, the most common way of scoring points.
• There are four phases to the game:
  • Start Phase. Reset your characters and draw two cards.
  • Maneuver Phase. Move characters between your Field and Briefing Room.
  • Main Phase. Play characters, equipment, one agenda, and Main events.
  • Mission Phase. Send your characters on missions against your opponent.
• Each character has a Skill (in one of three flavors: Combat, Politics, and Intel) and a Health number.
• Skill represents the number of points your character scores when you succeed in a mission and also the survivability of your character during an opposed mission.
• Health is the number of wounds your character can take before being killed.

Sequence of Play

1. Start Phase
   • Refill your Time pool
   • Reset all your characters.
   • Draw 2 cards (unless you are the first player at the start of the game)
   • Advance your agendas
   • Resolve completed agendas (optional)
2. Maneuver Phase
   • Move characters between the Briefing Room and the Field
3. Main Phase (in any order, all optional)
   • Play a character to your Briefing Room
   • Play equipment on a character in play
   • Play an agenda (once per turn)
   • Play a Main event or ability
   • Pay 1 Time and discard a character to heal that character
4. Mission Phase
   • Declare a mission attempt with one of your characters (optional)
   • Continue declaring missions one at a time until you choose to pass

Mission Sequence

1. Active player declares mission attempt and sets the attacking character. That player is now the attacker.
2. Defending player chooses whether or not to defend. That player is now the defender.
3. If defending player defends:
   • a. Defender sets one defending character.
   • b. Attacker plays a war card face down (optional).
   • c. Defender plays a war card face down (optional).
   • d. Attacker plays a Mission event or ability or passes.
   • e. Defender plays a Mission event or ability or passes.
   • f. Repeat steps d. and e. until both players pass consecutively.
   • g. If there is now no attacking character, go to step 5; if there is no defending character, discard war cards and go to step 4.c.
   • h. Reveal war cards and add their war numbers to each character's Skill. Discard war cards.
   • i. If the attacking character has more Skill than the defending character, the attacker scores points equal to the difference in Skills (+1 if the attacker has Expert, -1 for each character the defender sets to support in the Briefing Room).
   • j. Assign wounds
     • i. The side with the higher Skill deals one wound to the side with the lower. Both characters are wounded in case of a tie.
     • ii. Characters with Lethal deal one wound to the opposing character.
     • iii. Each character with wounds equal to or greater than his Health is discarded.
4. If defending player does not defend:
   • a. Attacker plays a Mission event or ability or passes.
   • b. Repeat step a. until attacker passes.

24 TCG Glossary and Additional Rules

• Ability. An ability is game text found on a card in play (not an event) with a cost (before a colon) and effect (after a colon). Characters, equipment, directives, and agendas can all have abilities.
• Action. Using an event (card type) or ability (activated text found on a card in play). Mission attempts and playing a war card are not actions. Static game text (such as "While you have 0 Time, Jack Bauer gets +1 Combat") is not an action. Cards only perform the actions printed on them. In other words, if Jack Bauer has game text that says "Restricted 1: Wound target character," then Jack Bauer wounds the target. If he had an equipment with the same text, then the equipment (not Jack) wounds the target. If he had a Combat of 3 and you played an event with the text "Restricted 1, Combat 3: Wound target character," then the event (not Jack) wounds the target. This is generally only important when cards refer to what other cards do. For instance, if you had a card that said "Gain 1 Time when your Agent wounds another character," you would only be able to use its text if the Agent's text caused the wound, not if an equipment or event did so (but see "Wounding during a mission").
• Advance (an agenda). To rotate an agenda 90 degrees toward completion.
• Attacker. The character attempting the mission.
• Block. To set a character after an opponent has declared a mission attempt to oppose that mission. The setting character becomes the defender.
• Choices. If a card gives you a choice of actions, such as "set a character or discard one card," you must take one you can fulfill, if possible. In the above example, if you had no cards in your hand, you would have to set a character; if you had no ready characters, you would have to discard a card.
• Cost. Anything before the colon (:) in an event or ability is the cost of that ability. You must meet these costs (either in Time, discarding, setting, sacrificing, etc.) before playing the event or ability. You cannot use your opponent's cards or Time to pay for your cards. Some cards allow you to play a card outside of the normal sequence of play or from a different place than your hand. The default on these cards is that you pay full cost for them, as if you were playing them from your hand normally, unless specified otherwise (with words like "for free" or "reduce its cost by 2").