Redemption Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Turn Outline
• Diagram of a Card
• Card Types
• Additional Card Types
• Unique Cards vs. Generic Cards
• Player's Card Arrangement
• Beginning a Game
• Pre-Game Phase
• Draw Phase
• Upkeep and Preparation Phase
• Battle Phase
• Initiative
• Battle Resolution
• Discard Phase
• Additional Resources
• Targeting and Modifying Abilities
• Other Card Information
• List of Effects in Abilities
• Glossary of Key Terms

Turn Outline

Draw Phase: Draw 3 cards from the top of your deck.

Upkeep Phase: Update any turn counters and fulfill any other abilities that specifically trigger during your upkeep.

Preparation Phase: Take any of several actions to prepare for battle, such as putting characters or Fortresses into your territory, activating an Artifact, playing a Dominant and more!

Battle Phase: Begin the Battle Phase by announcing the beginning of the Battle Phase and putting a Hero into the Field of Battle to attack and begin a battle. The opponent may respond by blocking with an Evil Character.

Discard Phase: Take any of several actions to reduce your hand down to 8 or fewer cards, such as putting characters or Fortresses into your territory, putting Artifacts face down from hand, playing a Dominant, or even discarding cards from hand if you cannot or do not desire to do anything else. Once you are down to 8 or fewer cards, you can pass the turn to the next player.

Diagram of a Card

The printed card diagram labels the following parts of a card:

• Numbers: Strength (*/) and Toughness (/*).
• Card Title.
• Brigade(s) and Card Icon.
• Class (Warrior, Weapon, Territory or None).
• Illustration.
• Cloud Icon (if applicable).
• Identifiers.
• Special Ability.
• Scripture Text.
• Reference.
• Set Icon & Card Number.
• Artist.

Classes: Some cards have a class symbol below the card icon, which can allow the card to function slightly differently to those without a class symbol.

• Warrior: This symbol is only present on characters and means the character can be equipped with a weapon.
• Weapon: This symbol is only present on Enhancements and means the Enhancement can be equipped to a warrior.
• Territory: This symbol on an Enhancement means it can be played in territory during your Preparation or Discard Phase. This symbol on a character means that the character's special ability activates when it is put in a territory.

Card Types

Lost Souls: Lost Souls represent figures in the Bible that are neither following nor opposing God, but rather need to be saved from sin and death.

Heroes: Heroes represent figures in the Bible who follow and serve God and His plan. You use Heroes to try and rescue Lost Souls from the opponent.

Evil Characters: Evil Characters are the evil figures in the Bible that you will use to try and block the opponent from rescuing your Lost Souls.

Good Enhancements: Good Enhancements are played in battle on Heroes of a matching brigade to help defeat Evil Characters and rescue Lost Souls.

Evil Enhancements: Evil Enhancements are played in battle on Evil Characters of a matching brigade to help defeat Heroes and stop your opponent from rescuing Lost Souls.

Good Dominants: Good Dominants are very powerful cards that are used to help support your Heroes and the goal of rescuing Lost Souls. Good Dominants can be used at any time any other ability is not happening.

Evil Dominants: Evil Dominants are very powerful cards that are used to help support your Evil Characters and the goal of stopping your opponent from rescuing Lost Souls. Evil Dominants can be used at any time any other ability is not happening.

Artifacts: Artifacts are put in your territory in the Artifact pile. You may have only one Artifact face up and active on the Artifact pile. Other inactive Artifacts may be put face down beneath the active Artifact. Artifacts give you either an immediate benefit or an ongoing effect.

Additional Card Types

Fortresses: Fortresses are put in your territory and take effect immediately when played. Fortresses are divided into two categories: Good Fortresses and Evil Fortresses.

• Good Fortresses: Good Fortresses are denoted by the lighter background around the card icon and help support you and your ability to rescue.
• Evil Fortresses: Evil Fortresses are denoted by the darker background around the card icon and help support you and your ability to block.

Sites: Sites are put in your territory. Sites may be occupied by 1 Lost Soul to restrict Heroes that do not have access to that Site from rescuing that Lost Soul, but the Lost Soul remains there until rescued or removed by an ability. Unoccupied Sites may be added to battle from territory at any time you control a Hero in battle and no other abilities are happening. Heroes can have access to an occupied Site by matching one of its brigades, or by a Site matching one of its brigades being in battle. Sites are divided into two categories: Rainbow and Non-Rainbow.

• Rainbow Sites: Rainbow Sites have the rainbow background in the icon box and are considered every brigade of Sites. The special ability on rainbow Sites only activates when they are put into battle.
• Non-Rainbow Sites: Non-Rainbow Sites can be one or more brigades but not all brigades. The special ability on non-rainbow Sites activates when they are played.

Some cards may have more than one type. They can only be played as one type at a time.

Unique Cards vs. Generic Cards

Redemption cards broadly fall under two categories: Unique and Generic.

Unique: Unique cards represent the same person, place, specific group or item. All Artifacts, Dominants and Fortresses are considered unique. Many, but not all characters are considered unique. You are limited to controlling 1 of any unique card at a time. Unique characters also are restricted from entering a battle more than once per turn, and a unique character cannot be in a battle against another version of that unique character.

Generic: Generic cards represent a broad group of people in a common location. All Enhancements, Lost Souls and Sites are considered generic. Players can control any number of a generic card.

Player's Card Arrangement

In Play Locations

• Field of Play: The Field of Play contains all cards in the Field of Battle and both players' territories.
• Field of Battle: The Field of Battle is where battles between characters take place.
• Territory: The territory is where you put cards that you play outside of battle. It includes your characters, Fortresses, unoccupied Sites, the Land of Bondage, the Artifact pile and any cards placed in territory.
• Artifact pile: The Artifact pile is where you may store and activate your Artifacts.
• Land of Bondage: The Land of Bondage is where you put Lost Souls, as well as Sites that are occupied by Lost Souls.

Out of Play Locations

• Hand (not pictured): The hand is where you keep cards that you have yet to play.
• Land of Redemption: This location holds all of your Redeemed Souls.
• Deck: The deck is the starting location for all cards that are not in your Reserve.
• Discard pile: This pile contains your cards that are discarded by ability or game rule.
• Reserve: The Reserve is a location outside of the deck where some cards start the game, but are inaccessible during before the second round of the game.
• Banish pile (not pictured): This pile contains your cards that are banished. It is often face down underneath and perpendicular to the discard pile.
• Set-Aside Area (not pictured): This area contains your cards that are set-aside.

Beginning a Game

To begin, each player will need a legally constructed deck, such as a starter deck, or if you would like to build your own deck, please refer to the deck building rules found in the deck building rules document, which you can find using the QR code at the end of this document.

There are a couple of special rules for the first round of the game that are useful to keep in mind when choosing who takes the first turn.

Special rules for the first round of the game:

• Cards can be added to the Reserve but not removed until the end of the first round of the game.
• The player who takes the first turn does not draw during the draw phase of their first turn but has the first chance to rescue a Lost Soul. The player who goes second draws 3 cards during the draw phase of their first turn.

Pre-Game Phase

At the start of a game you draw 8 cards. Anytime you draw a Lost Soul, you will put the Lost Soul in your Land of Bondage and draw 1 card for each Lost Soul drawn.

When the drawn Lost Souls have been played and each player has 8 cards in hand, players will need to use a random method (such as a coin flip or dice roll) to determine which player will choose who will take the first turn of the game.

After it has been determined who will take the first turn, each player has the option to reveal any number of star cards from hand and activate their star abilities, starting with the first player and continuing clockwise until all players have completed their star abilities.

After the star abilities have been completed, each player can activate the special abilities on the Lost Souls drawn in the opening draw, again starting with the first player and continuing clockwise. After Lost Soul abilities are completed for each player the first player begins the first turn.

Draw Phase

At the beginning of your Draw Phase, you will draw 3 cards (except the first player's first turn). Remember, anytime you draw a Lost Soul it is immediately placed in your Land of Bondage and you draw a card to replace it. After you have drawn all necessary replacements, you may reveal any star cards among the cards just drawn and activate their star abilities, then activate any Lost Souls put in play from the draw.

Upkeep and Preparation Phase

After the draw phase, you complete any upkeep abilities in the Upkeep Phase before moving to the Preparation Phase. During the Preparation Phase, you may perform any of these actions in any order you choose.

The following actions may be performed once in your Preparation Phase:

• Play a territory class Enhancement.
• Activate an Artifact on your Artifact pile.
• Activate an Artifact on each other location you control that can hold an Artifact.

The following actions may be performed any number of times in your Preparation Phase:

• Play a character from your hand.
• Play a Fortress from your hand.
• Play a Site from your hand.
• Move a character you control into or out of a Fortress you control.
• Put a Lost Soul not already occupying a Site in an unoccupied Site.
• Deactivate an Artifact on each location you control where you have not performed the once per Preparation Phase activation. Deactivating an Artifact returns it face down to your Artifact pile.
• Put an Artifact from your hand face down in your Artifact pile.
• Equip a weapon from hand to your warrior of a matching brigade.
• Play a Dominant from your hand.

Once you have taken all of the Preparation Phase actions you wish to perform, you may begin the Battle Phase.

Battle Phase

Once both players agree to move to the Battle Phase you may move a Hero into the Field of Battle to attack which begins a battle. There are 2 types of battles:

• Rescue Attempt: While there are Lost Souls in the opponent's Land of Bondage that a Hero in battle can rescue, the battle is a rescue attempt.

  In a rescue attempt, the defending player may elect to block you with an Evil Character from hand or territory to try and stop you from rescuing, or they can elect not to block and surrender a Lost Soul for you to rescue.

• Battle Challenge: While there are no Lost Souls in the opponent's Land of Bondage that a Hero in battle can rescue, the battle is a battle challenge.

  In a battle challenge, the defending player may elect to accept it by blocking you with an Evil Character, or they may decline it by electing not to block.

If access to Lost Souls to rescue changes, a battle can change between a battle challenge and a rescue attempt, and vice versa.

Whenever a card is played in battle, its ability will activate. Some of these abilities are optional and include the word "may", while others are mandatory and must be performed each time the card enters battle.

During battle, players play Enhancements on the characters in battle by following the rules of initiative. The following situations outline the rules of initiative to determine which player has the opportunity to play an Enhancement in battle. Initiative changes as the following situations change. (Dominants can be played at any time there is not another ability taking place and do not need to follow the rules of initiative.)

• One side is losing, one side is winning: If one side has both strength less than the opponent's toughness, and toughness less than or equal to the opponent's strength, that side is losing and has initiative. If one side is losing, the other side is winning.
• Stalemate: If both sides have toughness greater than the opponent's strength, neither side is winning, and they are in a stalemate. The player who did not play the last card in battle has initiative.
• Mutual Destruction: If both sides have strength equal to or higher than the opponent's toughness then both sides would be in danger of being defeated and are in what is known as mutual destruction. The player who did not play the last card in battle has initiative.

Initiative

The player who has initiative may play an Enhancement on a character in battle that matches at least one of its brigades. You can determine which player has initiative using the this chart.

Initiative Table

If your character is:	This player has initiative:	If they do not play an Enhancement:
Losing	You	Do not pass initiative. Resolve the battle.
In a stalemate	Whoever did not play the last card in battle	Pass initiative
In a mutual destruction	Whoever did not play the last card in battle	Pass initiative
Winning	Opponent	Do not pass initiative. Resolve the battle.

Special Initiative: This is a form of initiative granted when a special ability on a card would remove all characters from your side of battle. When a special ability controlled by an opponent would remove the only character (or all characters) you control in battle, the removing ability is paused, and you get one chance to respond by playing an Enhancement that can interrupt or negate the card causing special initiative.

Note: If at any point an Enhancement in battle does not have a character of a matching brigade in battle to use it, the Enhancement is immediately discarded.

Battle Resolution

Once all players decline to play any further cards in a battle or an end the battle effect occurs, the battle ends and you move to battle resolution.

Battles can end in the following situations:

• One side is defeated, one side wins: In this case one side is losing either due to having no character in battle to continue the fight, or due to electing to not play an Enhancement while their side is losing by the numbers.

  If the rescuing side wins: Surviving characters return to their territories. The defending player surrenders a Lost Soul of their choice to become a Redeemed Soul for the rescuing player and it is put in their Land of Redemption.

  If the blocking side wins: Surviving characters return to their territories. No Lost Soul is rescued.

• Mutual Destruction: There are 2 cases of mutual destruction.

  Mutual Destruction by numbers: The characters on both sides are losing by the numbers. However, just as Christ died to save us, in mutual destruction by the numbers the Hero(es) will rescue a Lost Soul from the opponent. The defending player surrenders a Lost Soul of their choice to become a Redeemed Soul for the rescuing player and it is put in their Land of Redemption.

  Mutual Destruction by mutual removal: In this case an ability removes all characters on both sides of the battle from the battle. If a battle that was a rescue ends in this situation, the rescue attempt fails and no Lost Soul is rescued.

• Stalemate: In this instance neither side is losing by the numbers. No Lost Soul is rescued, and characters are returned to their territories.

In all cases once the battle ends, all defeated characters and Enhancements played during battle will be put in their owner's discard pile.

Once the steps of battle resolution complete the Battle Phase completes.

Discard Phase

Once the Battle Phase completes, you begin the Discard Phase. During this phase you must reduce your hand to have 8 or fewer cards. You may perform any of these post-battle actions as many times as you wish in any order you choose to help in this endeavor.

• Play a character from your hand.
• Play a Fortress from your hand.
• Equip a weapon from hand to your warrior of a matching brigade.
• Play a territory class Enhancement from your hand (if you have not played one by game rule this turn).
• Play a Dominant from your hand.
• Discard a card from your hand.

After you have completed these actions and your hand contains 8 or fewer cards the turn passes to the next player.

The game continues in the above fashion until one player reaches 5 Redeemed Souls.

Additional Resources

By clicking or scanning the QR code below, you can find some additional resources (such as the official Redemption Discord, the deck building rules document, and the Redemption Exegesis Guide) that are available to help you out in your journey of playing the game.

Targeting and Modifying Abilities

Note: Players cannot activate one or more instant effects in the special ability on the same card more than 4 times in a turn.

Ability Targeting

Abilities usually target other cards or players; however, the following abilities are very common in Redemption and also target abilities on cards allowing them to be unaffected by things like protect abilities. The following abilities always target both cards and abilities:

• Interrupt: Interrupt abilities put effects of interrupted cards on pause while another action is carried out.
• Prevent: Prevent abilities stop future effects on prevented cards from taking place.
• Negate: Negate is a combination of interrupt and prevent. Negate abilities pause the effect of negated cards and stop the effect of negated cards from occurring.

Modifiers

Certain terms that appear in the special ability of a card are considered as modifiers rather than an ability of the card. Since modifiers are not themselves an ability, but rather change how abilities function, they cannot be interrupted, prevented or negated. The following terms are the modifiers in Redemption:

• Cannot be Interrupted: An ability with this modifier cannot be interrupted or negated after the card is played, but can be prevented beforehand.
• Cannot be Prevented: An ability with this modifier cannot be prevented by an ability beforehand, but can be interrupted or negated after the card is played.
• Cannot be Negated: An ability with this modifier cannot be interrupted or prevented or negated by any ability at any time.
• Instead: Instead modifiers allow a player to perform an action to replace an action that would happen otherwise.
• Limit: A limit modifier modifies an ability, placing limits on how often the ability can be used or capping a variable defined in the identifier. Once an ability has reached the usage limit, it cannot be used until the limit is reset.
• Regardless: An ability with this modifier can include among its possible targets any cards that normally could not be targeted due to the condition that is mentioned.

Targeting Modified Abilities

	No Modifier	Cannot Be Negated	Cannot Be Prevented	Cannot Be Interrupted
Negate active before	Affected	Not Affected	Not Affected	Affected
Negate active after	Affected	Not Affected	Affected	Not Affected
Interrupt activated before	Not Affected	Not Affected	Not Affected	Not Affected
Interrupt activated after	Affected	Not Affected	Affected	Not Affected
Prevent activated before	Affected	Not Affected

Other Card Information

Unity

The Unity clause is formatted "Unity: [Card Set] (Criteria)" and means "If all of your [Card Set] are [Criteria]", and is only met if there is at least 1 card in [Card Set]. A card that contains Unity in the identifier line must meet the Unity clause of the card for the special ability on that card to activate. A card with Unity that does not meet the requirements of the Unity clause when played will have no effect.

Cloud Cards

A card that has the cloud icon on the left side of the card, above the ability and identifiers but below the classes, is a cloud card.

Star Cards and Abilities

A star icon (represented by the Star of David) is present in the special ability box on some cards and denotes the star ability of that card. If a card is drawn by game rule (in the opening hand or the draw 3 at the start of a turn), after replacing any Lost Souls, you may elect to activate any star abilities on cards from that draw by revealing the star cards you wish to use and carrying out the star abilities in an order of your choice. Star abilities happen before activating the Lost Soul abilities from that draw.

Unless an ability removes it, a star card remains in hand after revealing it to use the star ability.

List of Effects in Abilities

These are basic definitions of terms and abilities. Combinations of multiple abilities can cause things to function differently than their default mode. For further clarity please visit the REG.

• Activate an ability: Activate an ability effects activate an ability at a time it cannot normally be activated.
• Activate an Artifact: Activate an Artifact effects activate an Artifact in a location you control during a phase other than the Preparation Phase or an additional time during the Preparation Phase.
• Add to battle: Add to battle effects move a card into battle from a different location.
• Band: Band effects bring a character into battle to join forces with the characters already in battle.
• Banish (remove from the game): Banish effects move a card from a location to its owner's banish pile.
• Bounce (return to hand): Bounce effects move a card from a location to its owner's hand.
• Capture: Capture effects turn a character into a captured character and puts them in a Land of Bondage. Captured humans are treated as meek Lost Souls.
• Change of hand size: Change hand size effects alter the number of cards a player can hold in hand at the end of their turn.
• Choose opponent: Choose opponent effects bring a character of your choice in your opponent's territory into battle for your opponent to use. This character will replace all other characters your opponent currently controls in battle and return them to their territories.
• Convert: Convert effects change one or more characteristics of a card. Changes can include to a different alignment, different card type, brigade, or to a character's meek side.

Glossary of Key Terms

For a full explanation of any of these key terms please refer to the REG.

• Activate: The special ability on a card activates when it is played, with some exceptions for cards played in a territory. It activates the order written on the card, unless otherwise specified in the Ability Activation Order in the REG.

• Active Player: The active player is the player whose turn it is.

• Advantage: A player has advantage if they have more cards of the specified type or in the specified location. When determining advantage do not include Lost Souls or Redeemed Souls unless the ability is specifically looking at them.

• After Battle: Effects that trigger after battle happen at the end of the battle resolution step.

• Alignment: There are 3 alignments in Redemption: Good, Evil, and Neutral. Good and Evil are considered opposite alignments.

• Alone: A character is considered alone if there are no other characters on the same side of that battle.

• Attack: A character attacks when it enters battle before any opposing character enters battle. This is usually a Hero.

• Attacking: Any Hero that is in a standard battle is considered attacking.

• Battle: Battle refers to the current battle that is ongoing.