Rule Masters Core Rules

Framing:
In Rule Masters, Players are trying to destroy their opponent's Ruler while keeping theirs safe.
To do this the must play cards and declare effects to destroy their opponent's Units opening their opponent's Ruler to direct attack.
If they destroy their opponent's Ruler, they Win!
However, the mysterious cards of Rule Masters have no written rules text other than their name and card type!
All effects come from your imagination and intuition, and are either agreed upon with your opponent, or challenged and ruled upon by the all-knowing Arbiter.
Just remember the golden rule: All effects must cost something.

The core rules are the base rules of the game. Cards and effects may override these rules if the Arbiter thinks it makes sense.
The core rules are as follows:

Each player has a deck of 20 cards. This deck is hidden information. 
They also have a discard pile. This starts empty but is public information.
They also have 1 Ruler card which represents them. This starts the game on the table. 
Players lose if their Ruler is destroyed.
They also have a Hand. These are cards they hold, and can play cards from. This is private information.
There is no maxiumum hand size.

Playing Cards:
Players can play cards on their turn to create effects, while no other effects or actions are currently in the middle of resolving.
A cost of 1 runestone or some other fitting cost must be paid to Play out of turn or in response to an effect.
When a player plays a card, they can play it in one of two ways: Invoking, or Binding.

Invoking:
When a player Invokes a card, it means the card will be making an Immediate or Temporary effect.
If Immediate it will create an effect as it is played, before immediately going to the discard pile. This means Invoked cards are always discarded as part of their cost.
As a Temporary effect, the card will remain in play for a limited amount of time (normally until end of combat, end of turn, or beginning of player's next turn).
Players can Invoke as many times as they have cards to Invoke.
Spells are the most common card type to be Invoked.
Units, Items, and Locations can also be invoked for fitting one-off effects.
A player can also choose to spend a Seal in order to "Ultra Invoke" a card for much stronger effects than a normal Invoke effect.
Players can also play additional Costs as they Invoke, (like runestones, discarding additional cards, sacrificing non-exhausted cards in play, activating cards etc) to get a more powerful effect.
Invoked cards can't be Activated.
Invoked cards can't typically directly attack (though they can be used for other offensive effects!)

Binding:
When a player Binds a card, it means that card will be staying in play permanently, until destroyed in combat or by some card effect.
When a card is Bound if it is a Location card, it is can placed directly on the table, or in an existing Location.
Units, Items, and Location cards are typically Bound.
Spell cards can also be Bound as "Enchantments" enchanting other cards, or the table itself.
In order to Bind a card, a player must spend a Seal, and place it on the card to mark it as Bound.
Players get 1 Seal per turn which can be used to Bind any card. (Players can only ever have 1 unspent Seal at a time.)
Players may create effects to "Special Bind" letting them bind a single card of a specific type without sending a Seal.
An example of a Special Bind could be Activating a "Beach" Location card to Special Bind a nautical themed card. This could be used to Special Bind "Shark Boxer".
When a card is bound, its player may choose to give it a constant passive effect immediately at the cost of giving up the ability to create additional effects with it.

Card Types: Rule Masters has Unit, Ruler, Item, Location, and Spell cards.

Unit: Unit cards represent agents that can fight for, work for, and generally do the bidding of, their Player.
When Units are Bound they can be played to an existing Location of their owner's control, or directly to the table.
Unit are generally the only card type capable of Activating to Attack other cards.
Units are also capable of Activating or being Fueled to create Effects, to Move, Equip items, or perform other actions you can think of.
When Units lose fights they are destroyed and go to the discard pile. 
When Units survive fights or are targeted by effects they can take Damage which can weaken them or destroy them.
When Invoked Units should do something representive of the Units nature.

Ruler: An Ruler is essentially a special type of Unit that represents the player in the game of Rule Masters.
Each Player starts the game with their Ruler in play.
Like Units, Rulers are stationed in Locations.
Rulers can perform any action a Unit could.
Rulers have the attributes and capabilities of an average adult human.
Rulers have the durability of an average adult human.
When destroyed, their Player loses the game.
Rulers can only be attacked if their player controls no other Units.
Effects created with rulers should be limited to the basic actions all units could do, but can also take into account the color and icon representing the ruler for the purpose of thematic fit.

Item: Item cards represent items that can Equipped to, Fueled, and Activated by other cards to provide various Effects.
When Items are Bound they can be played to an existing Location of their owner's control, or directly to the table.
Items can also be equipped to other cards by Attaching to them.
When Items are Bound they may be equipped to a card you control for free.
Afterwards Equipping to a new card may should require an Activation, Fueling, or some other cost or effect.
Items intended to Curse can also be equipped to enemy Cards.
Items are capable of Activating or Fueling for Effects.
Items can only be equipped to 1 card at a time.
Cards can equip multiple Items at once. The limit to this is what makes sense.
Items can confer benefits and drawbacks to their wielder.
When their wielder is destroyed or otherwise leaves play, Items are dropped in the Location their wielder was in.
In the case of an attacking card being destroyed in combat, the Items are dropped in the place they were attacking from, not the place they were invading.
When Invoked Units should do something representive of the Item's nature.

Location: Location cards represent locations on the battlfield which Rulers, Units, and Items can inhabit. 
Locations are a bit better at creating resources with their effects than the other card types.
Location cards host Units, Rulers, and Items and modify the effectiveness of cards stationed in them in thematic and logical ways. 
When Location cards are Bound, you can Station any number of existing cards not you control that are not currently stationed in the newly Bound Location. 
Location cards can be Activated or Fueled to produce effects.
When Invoked Locations should do something related to their theme.

Spell: Spell cards represent mystic spells cast by the Player, their Rulers, or magically inclined Units.
Spell can often have slightly more powerful Invoking effects than the other card types.
A relatively common pattern is for a Spell card to create a Temporary enhancement for an upcoming combat, or until the end of the turn.
They can also be Bound as Enchantments.
When Bound as Enchantments they attach to other cards, Locations, or the table itself.
Enchantments are discarded if the card or game element they are attached to leaves play.
Enchantments can be Activated or Fueled to produce effects.

Token: Tokens are a special card type that don't exist on any physical card, but instead are a subtype for cards created by effects during play. 
Thus you can have Unit Tokens, Item Tokens, Location Tokens, and Spell Tokens.
Tokens act essentially the same as a card would. 
Tokens are often Special Bound as part of their creation, though there are also effects which make temporary tokens.
The main exception is if a token would leave play by going to a hand, deck or discard pile they should be removed from the game.
Tokens can be represented by anything that can visibly be put in a Ready and Exhausted state.

Counter: Counters are markers that go on cards that represent various changes in status in the card. Eg damage counters.

Activation
Bound Cards in play on the battlefield are in the upright Ready state by default. 
Ready cards can be Activated by Exhausting them (shown by turning them horizontally.) This puts them in the Exhausted state.
Activating a card can be done by Units to attack another card (as long as it isn't the first turn of the game).
Activating any card (including Units) can be done to create an Effect.
Players can activate their cards to attack or create effects during their turn while no other effects or actions are currently in the middle of resolving.
A cost of 1 runestone or some other fitting cost must be paid to Activate out of turn or in response to an effect.
Players can also activate their cards at anytime as part of paying costs for other actions or effects.
Similar to Invoking, a player may Activate as many times as they have Ready cards to Activate.

Example Activations:
A unit activates to move from one Location to another.
An item activates to equip itself to a Unit.
Flamingo Outlaw is activated to fire its guns at a unit to place 1 damage counter on it.
Hall of Mirrors is activated to prevent the next attack made by an opponent's unit.
Factory is activated, and 2 runestones are paid to draw a card.
Might is activated, and 1 runestone is spent to permanently enhance the enchanted unit with that runestone.
Holy Grail is activated to heal 1 damage off of a unit.

Note: Invoked cards can't be activated. Only bound cards in play can be activated.
Note for Arbiter: These are just examples - don't reference these example activations in your rulings.

Fueling
Similar to Invoking, and Activation, cards can be Fueled to create effects.
To Fuel a card, name a card, and pay some additional cost without activating the named card.
Once Fueled a player may then declare an effect.

Like playing cards, and activations, a player can Fuel during their turn while no other effects or actions are currently in the middle of resolving.
A cost of 1 runestone or some other fitting cost must be paid to Fuel out of turn or in response to an effect.

Invoking, Activating, or Fueling
When figuring out if an effect is an Invoke Effect, and Activation Effect, or a Fuel effect, evaluate the following in order:
Is the player playing the named card for a one-off effect? It's Invoking.
Is the player Activating and thus exhausting a bound card to create an effect? That's Activating.
Is the player creating the effect by any other cost? That's Fueling.

Play Structure:

At the start of the game the players determine who goes first. That player becomes First Player. The other becomes Second Player, and starts the game with 1 runestone.

Then each player shuffles their deck, and may offer their opponent to cut the deck.

They then enter the Setup Phase
In the setup phase both players do the following steps. Each of them doing each step at the same time, before moving on.
1: they each draw 5 cards.
2: they each look at their hands. They may choose to mulligan it by shuffling it back into their deck and drawing 5 new cards. Each time they do this, their opponent gets 1 Runestone.
3: they each may pick 2 cards with different card types their hand and put it onto the table face down (eg a Location and a Unit, or a Spell and and Item).
4: they then each reveal their Cards by flipping them face up, placing a Seal on each.
5: they then each take their Ruler card and place in on the table, into their Location if they have one.
6: they then take their non-location card and put it to play in the Location, or equipped/enchanted to another card.
7: the First Player then starts their turn
Players generally may not Activate or play additional cards during setup.

The Turn:

During their turn, a player is known as the Active Player and follows the following steps:

1: Ready Phase: Ready all their cards on the battlefield, turning them vertically allowing them to be activated again.

2: Get Stuff Phase: Players get resources in the following order:
    1: Rune Step: Gain 1 Runestone from the Bank
    2: Seal Step: If you don't already have an unspent Seal, take 1 Seal from the bank. 
    3: Draw Step: Draw 1 Card from the top of their deck. If they can't draw a card because none are left in their deck they lose.

3: Main Phase: The Active player can Bind and Invoke as many cards as they have Seals and Cards to play, make as many Activations as they have cards to activate, and Fuel as often as they have resources to spend.
The Active Player can Bind, Invoke, Activate, and Fuel as long as the there are no effects or actions currently resolving.
Any player may Invoke, Activate, or Fuel in response to yet-to-resolve effects and actions by paying 1 runestone, or some fitting cost.
Binding out of turn, or in response this way requires some type of additional and exceptional/thematic effect.
As long as it is not the very first turn of the game, an Active Player may activate a Unit to attack another card. This is a Combat Activation.
When a Player performs a Combat Activation they Activate exactly 1 Unit and target exactly 1 other card with their Attack. This begins Combat.
A Card can only Attack a Ruler if that Ruler has no allied Units in play.
Usually only Units or Rulers engage in Combat. Items and Locations typically do damage via Activation Effects instead of Combat.
The turn only ends when both players choose to take no more actions.

4: End Phase. Sometimes special effects happen here. Sometimes effects end.
Double check cards in play that don't have seals - usually this is when they are destroyed.
Play then passes to the next player's turn.

Nonactive Player
When a player isn't the Active Player, they can only take an action by paying a runestone, or some fitting cost.

Combat:
When a card attacks another card, the players must consult the Arbiter to determine the result.
Combats take place in the Location that is hosting the Defender. 
If the Defender is not in a Location then they are fighting directly on the empty battlefield which can be visualized as a flat plane.

The following are the standard possible results of combat between Units:
Defender killed/destroyed: attacker wins combat.
Attacker killed/destroyed: defender wins combat.
Attacker repelled: attacker damaged. Result when the defender had an advantage, but couldn't finish off the attacker.
Attacker repelled: defender damaged. Result for when the attacker had an advantage, but couldn't finish off the defender. 
Attacker repelled: both damaged. Result of an evenly matched fight where both cards managed to pierce their opponent's defenses.
Attacker repelled: neither damaged. Result of an evenly matched fight where neither card could get past their opponent's defenses.

Winning combat means destroying the opposing main combatant. If neither is destroyed, the attacker is repelled and neither side wins combat, even if only one side takes damage.
Destruction is a normal outcome of a decisive fight and does not require prior damage or reaching a fixed damage threshold. Damage-only survival is for close fights, desperate close calls, or a concrete inability to finish the opponent. A surviving victor may still take damage.

When a card attacks a Location, the standard possible results are the same:
Location destroyed.
Attacker killed/destroyed.
Attack repelled: neither killed/destroyed.

Cards that survive combat can potentially sustain Damage as a result of combat especially in close matches/hard fought battles.
Location cards aren't typically sentient, and so usually can't fight back. Results are more based on if the attacker has the strength/capability to sufficiently damage the Location.
Combat is meant to be taken 1 at a time with 1 Attacker and 1 Defender. 
Units can "team up" by performing Activations to bestow increased strength to their allies, or to hamper their opponents.
You shouldn't be declaring attacks with multiple cards at the same time. 

When combat is over, check if there are any cards in play without seals that should be destroyed.


Creating Effects
Players are encouraged to come up with effects for their cards based on vibes, reason, and trading card game anime logic. 
They should clearly state how the card is being played (Bind/Invoke), any costs being paid, and the specific intended gameplay result of the effect.
Eg: "I play Fireball targeting my opponent's Dino Samurai" is wrong because we don't know what the result is, or how the card is being played.
"I Invoke Fireball to destroy my opponent's Dino Samurai" is pretty good. We're still not including a stated cost, but it could be implicity assumed that the cost is simply Invoking the card.
After the effect is stated, if the opponent agrees then the effect happens. 
The opponent may also ask for a bribe of runestones from the bank, or require their opponent to pay some cost to let the effect pass, or even negotiate for a slightly different effect.
This is a negotiation, but the player creating the effect is under no obligation of accepting negotiations.
If the Players can't reach an agreement a Player can bring the rule to Arbitration by raising an Objection to the Arbiter.

Objections
Objections to effects should be stated in the form of "Objection! My opponent <insert description of effect/play here>".
In an Objection the player issuing the Objection is the Plantiff and the player who's effect is being challenged is the Defendant.
The plaintiff may only include the cost and intended effect in the objection, they may NOT argue their case, or mention their preferred effect.
The Plantiff might be asked to specify more information by the Arbiter.
The Arbiter will then make a ruling.
If the Objection is overruled, then the effect happens. The Defendant then chooses whether to gain 1 Runestone from the Bank, or force the Plantiff to pay 1 Runestone to the bank.
If the Arbiter upholds the Objection thus Vetoing the effect, the effect doesn't happen, and all costs paid to create the proposed effect remain paid.
Once an effect and cost is established as fair, it shouldn't be challenged for a specific card again that game unless their is good reason.


Destroyed
When cards are Destroyed they are sent to the discard pile, can't be activated, and typically have no further result on the game.
Some effects may interact with the discard pile however.


Runestones
Runestones are a currency which may be spent as a cost to: 
    perform actions out-of-turn or in response
    perform Fuel actions
    enhance a card for a single Combat by placing the Runestone on it when that Combat begins (called Boosting). The enhancement lasts only for that Combat, and the Runestone is then spent. Boosting can be done out-of-turn and/or in response, without paying an out-of-turn fee.
        these enhancements can be made permanent with effects.
    create stronger than normal effects. The more runestones, the stronger the effect.

Runestones are stored in the bank and can be earned by players in a few ways:
    Players gain 1 Runestone on each of their turns during the Rune Step.
    The Second Player starts the game with a Runestone.
    As the result of an effect.
    
A player may also ask their opponent for permission to take 1 or more runestones as a bribe to let an effect pass instead of going to the arbiter. These bribes are paid by the bank.
A play could also ask their opponent to pay 1 or more runestones to the bank to let an effect pass instead of going to the arbiter.


Damage
Cards can receive Damage as the result of surviving tough combats or from harmful effects.
Damage can is represented by placing Damage counter on a card each time they are damaged.
Damage remains until an effect removes it (called healing) or the card is destroyed.
Damage can reduce the survivability and capabiliies of cards. This can make them easier to be destroyed/killed by combat and effects.
The more damage counters, the more severe this effect.
When dealing damage with effects, 1 is normal for cheap effects, 2 is for moderate effects, 3 is for strong effects. Anything more is exceptional.


The Stack: Since players can Play, Activate, and Fuel cards to create effects in response to other effects, the Stack exists to determine the order that effects happen. 
When an Effect happens, it goes on the Stack, and then a player may "in response" play another card or attempt to create an appropriate effect via Activations or Fuels. 
This goes back and forth until no more responses are played. 
Then the effects resolve in a last in first out order like a stack of plates.
Note: Players may argue that some effects or actions are particularly quick, meaning only really fast effects or plays may be made "in response". This could also influence the order of the Stack.
Note: This means that effects which Exhaust cards are a bit weak, because cards can Activate "in response" to use an ability before being impacted by the Exhausting effect.
