KamiMaï

KamiMaï Rulebook

Table of Contents

Presentation and Goal

You play one or more apprentice sorcerers in a cooperative game: you win together or lose together. On your turn, you draw cards from the magical Grimoire to cast spells in order to defeat the KamiMaï and allow the group to escape the World of Nightmares.

If the Grimoire collapses, the group loses 1 Energy Point. If you lose your last Energy Point, you lose the game and are trapped forever in the World of Nightmares.

Components

48 Element cards
8 Grimoire Guardian cards
8 Creature cards
1 KamiMaï notepad
1 felt mat

Setup

Take the notepad and choose the KamiMaï you want to face:
- 1 – Easy
- 2 – Intermediate
- 3 – Difficult
Place the felt mat in the centre of the table.
Shuffle the Element, Grimoire Guardian and Creature cards together to make a deck called the Grimoire.
Place the Grimoire on the mat as follows:
1. Place the deck of cards upright in the middle of the mat.
2. With one hand, open one of the sides of the deck, keeping the deck balanced with your other hand.
3. Gently spread the two sides of the deck apart while keeping it balanced.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the Grimoire is well open and balanced on the mat.

Warm-up (optional)

Before the game begins, you may, in turn, draw one or several cards from the Grimoire at the sides or in the centre to test its balance. Once everyone has had the opportunity, shuffle all the cards together and put the Grimoire back in place.

Set-up for 3 invokers

The printed diagram is labelled Mise en place à 3 invocateurs/invocatrices ("Set-up for 3 invokers"). It shows the layout with the Grimoire on the felt mat, a discard pile (Défausse), a Reserve zone (Zone de Réserve), and the KamiMaï notepad, with dashed card-placement slots around the play area. The diagram carries no further text.

Glossary

Invoker – the term for the players.
Activator – the term for the active invoker, i.e. the player whose turn it is.
KamiMaï – the spirit that gives life to the paper. In our story, it is the spirit of the Guardian of Nightmares that took refuge in an old Grimoire.
Reserve – the set of cards one invoker keeps from one turn to the next. The Reserve may hold a maximum of 4 cards.

KamiMaï is a cooperative game. Every decision must be made after consultation between all the invokers. In case of disagreement, the activator takes the decision they feel is best suited.

Sequence of Play

Choose at random who starts the game. The invoker whose turn it is is called the activator. On their turn, the activator must carry out the following phases, in order:

Define a targeted zone
Draw cards from the Grimoire
Cast spells
Store or discard cards

1. Define a targeted zone

If no zone of the KamiMaï is targeted, scratch an arrow pointing to the zone of your choice. If a zone is already targeted and not finished, you must continue on that zone.

Note box: Against the Level 1 KamiMaï, you must always start with the zone that already has its arrow scratched.

2. Draw cards from the Grimoire (mandatory action)

The activator must draw at least 1 card from the Grimoire, using one hand only and keeping the Grimoire balanced while the drawn card or cards are in contact with it. If the Grimoire collapses, refer to page 9.

Note box: You may move around the table to inspect the Grimoire from all angles, without touching it, in order to decide where to draw.

Note box: It is forbidden to draw all the cards of the Grimoire.

3. Cast spells

The activator, in this order:

lays out face up in front of them the cards they drew, and adds any cards from their Reserve;
applies the effects of the curse of the targeted zone, if there are any (see p. 11);
may cast or initiate spells, and use Creature cards to activate their power (see Creature powers, p. 13).

The activator may cast or initiate the spells present in the targeted zone, in the order of their choice, in two ways:

Individual spell: the activator discards 4 identical Element cards.
Collective spell: the activator must hold at least 1 Element card of the colour of the spell they want to cast. The other invokers then give them Element cards to complete the spell. The Element cards used are discarded, then the matching spell in the targeted zone is scratched.
Team spell: see p. 10.

Note box: A spell is always made of 4 identical Element cards.

Note box: When a spell is cast, scratch the corresponding zone on the KamiMaï.

The activator:

may cast or initiate as many spells as they wish;
must move on to the next phase (Phase 4, Store or discard cards, p. 7) when:
- they can or want no longer cast or initiate spells, or
- all the spells of the targeted zone are scratched. In that case, scratch the heart of the targeted zone to seal it.

4. Store or discard cards

During this phase, the activator:

may keep only 4 cards of their choice in their Reserve for their next turn. Excess cards are discarded;
must keep the Guardian cards.

Example of a turn

Jennifer is the activator. She drew 2 Fire cards and 1 Water card. She had 3 Water cards in her Reserve. The targeted zone needs a Fire spell and a Water spell to be defeated. The Earth spell and the Air spell were cast previously.

Jennifer first casts a Water spell alone by discarding her 4 Water cards (individual spell). She then decides to initiate a Fire spell by discarding one of her Fire cards. Romane has 1 Fire card, Lison has 1, and Cédric has none. Jennifer decides, with their agreement, to use the 2 Fire cards of Romane and the one of Lison to complete the Fire spell with the 4 required cards.

Transcriber's note: the printed caption says "Romane possède 1 carte Feu" (Romane has 1 Fire card), but the illustration shows Romane with 2 Fire cards, and the printed sentence that follows says "les 2 cartes Feu de Romane" (the 2 Fire cards of Romane). The text above follows the printed caption as printed; the illustration and the following sentence both indicate 2.

Jennifer has therefore cast the last 2 spells of the targeted zone, so she can scratch the heart of this zone to seal it. She must then move on to Phase 4 of her turn.

Team spells

These are special spells whose colour is not defined in advance, and which require every invoker to take part by discarding at least one card of the Element required.

The team must agree on the colour of the spell at the moment it is cast. The activator must initiate it with one of their cards, as for collective spells. Each other invoker must also hold and discard an Element card of the colour requested.

Note box – number of invokers:

5 invokers: only 4 invokers take part, each discarding one of their cards.
3 invokers: one invoker discards 2 of the required Element cards, and the others discard 1 card each.
2 invokers: each invoker discards 2 of the required Element cards.

Example of a team spell: Romane decides to cast the team spell of the targeted zone. As activator, she looks at the Reserves of the invokers and decides to initiate an Earth spell. Cédric, Jennifer and Lison each have an Earth card in their Reserve and discard it. The spell is therefore valid, because it is made of 4 Earth cards, one discarded by each invoker.

Grimoire Guardian effects

When at least one Guardian card is drawn by the activator, check whether the targeted zone has a curse, a blessing, or no effect.

No effect: nothing happens.
Blessing: you do not lose a Point of Energy when the Grimoire collapses.
Curse:
- Lose (scratch) 1 Energy Point for each Guardian card drawn.
- Each invoker immediately discards one Element or Creature card of their choice for each Guardian card drawn. Example: Yannick draws 6 cards from the Grimoire, 2 of which are Guardian cards. Each invoker must discard 2 cards from their Reserve, including Yannick, who takes these cards from his Reserve and/or from the cards drawn.
- The invokers discard all the cards matching the colour of the Guardian cards drawn. Example: Yannick draws 6 cards from the Grimoire, including 1 blue Guardian card and 1 red Guardian card. All Water and Fire Element cards must be discarded, whether they are among the drawn cards or in the Reserves of the invokers.

Guardian cards: how they constrain drawing

Guardian cards must be kept at the end of a turn. They take up one of the 4 card places of the invokers' Reserve. They are never discarded by a curse effect. Only the Keyring Sprite (Lutin Porte-clé, see p. 14) has this power.

Guardians force the activator to draw cards in a particular way:

Blue Guardian: draw using only the thumb (1st finger) and the middle finger (3rd finger) of the hand of your choice.
Grey Guardian: draw using only the thumb (1st finger) and the ring finger (4th finger) of the hand of your choice.
Red Guardian: draw using only the thumb (1st finger) and the little finger (5th finger) of the hand of your choice.
Green Guardian: draw with the non-dominant hand (left hand for right-handed players, right hand for left-handed players).

Note box: If an invoker has several Guardians, they choose which one applies to how they draw during their turn.

Note box: If an invoker has 4 Guardian cards, their turn proceeds normally, but they cannot keep any Element or Creature cards in their Reserve during Phase 4 (Store or discard cards).

Creature effects

Creature cards may be kept in the invokers' Reserve of 4 cards. They can only be played during Phase 3 (Cast or initiate spells). Once played, they are discarded.

The Water Fairy (La Fée de l'Eau): corresponds to 1, 2 or 3 Water Element cards.
The Earth Fairy (La Fée de la Terre): corresponds to 1, 2 or 3 Earth Element cards.
The Air Fairy (La Fée de l'Air): corresponds to 1, 2 or 3 Air Element cards.
The Fire Fairy (La Fée du Feu): corresponds to 1, 2 or 3 Fire Element cards.
The Sacred Wolf (Le Loup Sacré): corresponds to 1 or 2 Element cards of your choice, but of the same colour.

Creature powers

The Keyring Sprite (Le Lutin Porte-clé): allows you to discard all the Guardian cards present in the Reserves of each invoker, as well as among the cards drawn by the activator.
The Draconic Dragonflies (Les Libellules Draconiques): do this effect twice. The invoker of your choice gives a card to the invoker of their choice. You may choose yourself. After the card transfers, one or more invokers may find themselves with more than 4 cards in their Reserve. They must go back down to 4 cards at the end of their next turn.
The Sneaky Mouse (La Souris Chapardeuse): choose one or more invokers who may take an Element or Creature card of their choice from the discard pile. You may choose yourself.

The Fairies and the Sacred Wolf can be used to cast a spell, initiate it, or complete a spell initiated by the activator. An invoker may therefore play this card during the activator's phase to complete an initiated spell.

The Keyring Sprite, the Draconic Dragonflies and the Sneaky Mouse can only be played by the activator who owns them.

Difficulty levels

Easy mode: add 1 Energy Point to the team at the start of the game by drawing the 6th Energy Point on the KamiMaï sheet.
Normal mode: no change to the rules.
Hard mode: if the Grimoire collapses between two invokers' turns, the group loses 1 Energy Point, and all the cards of the discard pile are shuffled together with the cards that fell onto the mat to form a new Grimoire.
Adventure mode: chain the 3 different KamiMaï, from Level 1 to Level 3. You keep your Energy Points from one KamiMaï to the next, plus 2. Adventure mode can be played in Easy, Normal or Hard mode.

Ending the turn

Once the activator has completed Phase 4, it is the next invoker clockwise who becomes the activator.

End of the game

Victory: if all the zones of the KamiMaï are sealed, the Grimoire Guardian is defeated! If you still have Energy left, you manage to create a magic portal and return to school. You win the game!
Defeat: if you lose all your Energy Points, you remain trapped in the World of Nightmares... The game is lost!

If the Grimoire collapses

During Phase 2 (Draw cards from the Grimoire), or within the 3 seconds following the draw

Proceed in this order:

The group loses 1 Energy Point (scratch 1 Energy Point on the notepad).
The activator:
- keeps the cards they drew;
- skips Phase 3 (Cast spells) and cannot cast a spell or play a Creature card during their turn;
- may keep or discard cards, respecting the rules of Phase 4 (Store or discard cards).
All the cards of the discard pile are shuffled together with the cards that fell onto the mat, then put back to form a new Grimoire (see Set-up, p. 3).

Outside the activator's draw phase

If the Grimoire collapses while the activator has begun Phase 3 (Cast spells), or between two invokers' turns, proceed in this order:

The group does not lose any Energy Point.
The activator continues their turn normally.
At the end of Phase 4, take the cards that fell onto the mat, shuffle them and form a new Grimoire. In this case, do not shuffle the discard pile together with the cards of the Grimoire that collapsed.

Variant: 1 invoker

Your Reserve is 6 cards.
Remove the Draconic Dragonflies (Libellules Draconiques) from the Grimoire.
All spells become individual spells.

Rules summary

(The printed rules summary, page 16.)

Activator's turn

Define a targeted zone.
Draw cards from the Grimoire – mandatory action.
Cast spells – apply the effects of the curse of the zone before casting or initiating spells or playing Creature cards.
Store and discard cards – keep only 4 cards, and keep the Guardian cards in priority.

Blessing

Do not lose an Energy Point when the Grimoire collapses.

Curses

Lose 1 Energy Point per Guardian card drawn.
Each invoker discards one card per Guardian card drawn.
Discard all the cards in play of the colour of the Guardian card or cards drawn.

End of the game

You win if you seal all the zones of the KamiMaï.
You lose if all your Energy Points are scratched off.