How to Play
The Rules of the Tavern
Runefall Rivals is a fast, chess-like collectible card battler. There is no mana or energy — you and your opponent alternate single-card moves, reacting to each other in real time, until one hero falls. Matches last 5–10 minutes.
The Basics
The goal is simple: reduce the enemy hero to 0 health. The first to do so wins.
The Move & React Flow
Cards resolve immediately, but strikes create a brief reaction window — this is the heart of the game.
- 1. Your move — play a cardOn your turn, play one card. Attacks, spells, and strikers that deal damage create a PENDING strike against the enemy.
- 2. Opponent reactsBefore the strike lands, the defender may react: play a Warden to soak it, an Interrupt/Root to cancel your card, or take the hit.
- 3. Swift grants a bonus moveIf your card (or your chain) is Swift, you get another move immediately — strike again, set up, or counter.
- 4. Pass to BraceIf you can't or won't play, brace. You gain 3 Brace armor (soaks 3 damage) and 2 life, then your move ends.
You may chain up to 3 consecutive Swift moves before initiative is forced to pass — so a single turn can explode into a multi-card combo.
Rounds, Brace, Cycle & Fatigue
A round is one normal move from each player. The round boundary matters.
Anatomy of a Card
Every card shares the same forged frame. Here is what each part means — using a real card from the set.
Deal 4 damage. Swift.
“He did not run. He arrived.”
Berserker's Charge — a real card from the Alpha set.
The outer band and set rune carry the card's rarity color — rarer cards are stronger and grant more champion tokens:
Card Types
Every card belongs to one of these types. Creatures are temporary — they do their job and leave the board.
A direct strike that deals damage to the enemy hero. Creates a pending strike the opponent may react to.
One-off magical effects: direct damage, afflictions, cleansing, equipment destruction, and card draw.
A temporary attacker. Deals its strike damage, then leaves the board. Does not persist between moves.
A temporary defender. Played as a reaction to soak incoming damage, then leaves the board.
Equips to one of three slots — Weapon, Armor, or Trinket — and grants a persistent bonus while attached.
Utility plays: draw cards, buff your next strike, set up combos. Often Swift.
Cancel the enemy's last card outright. Limited by reaction fatigue — at most 2 cancel-reactions per round.
Cancel the enemy's last creature — even a blocking warden — but the effect may be broken by a Break-Root. Harder to remove than an Interrupt.
Negates a Root that is targeting one of your cards, freeing your play to resolve.
Examples from the card pool:
Striker: 4 damage. Swift.
Warden: soak 3. Heal 1.
Weapon: your strikes deal +1.
Deal 3. If chained after Ignite: deal 5. Ignite.
Interrupt: cancel the enemy's last card.
Root: cancel the enemy's last creature. May be broken.
Break: negate a root that targets your card.
Afflict the enemy: 2 damage for 3 turns.
Combo Tags
Some cards carry a combo tag that changes how they play within a single move.
Equipment
Equipment attaches to one of three slots and stays until destroyed or replaced.
Defenses
Incoming damage is reduced in a fixed order: Brace first, then Armor, then Shield, then health.
Card Effects
The building blocks every card is made from.
Deals damage to the enemy hero (reduced by Brace, Armor, and Shield in that order).
A warden's soak — absorbs pending strike damage as a reaction.
Restores your health, up to your hero's maximum.
Add cards to your hand (hand size caps at 7).
Damages the afflicted hero at the end of each round. True damage — bypasses Armor and Shield.
Removes all of your active afflictions.
Destroys the enemy's most valuable equipped item.
Some powerful cards cost your own health (e.g. Blood Pact, Ritual Scarring).
Ignite cards escalate when chained after another Ignite within the same move, dealing bonus damage.
Icon Legend
A quick reference for every flat glyph you'll see across the tavern — and what each one means.
Interrupts, Roots & Break-Roots
Cancel-reactions are powerful but limited.
Ultimate Tokens & Ultimates
Each hero collects faction tokens over the match — gather 10 and consume them to unleash a game-swinging ultimate.
Factions & Ultimate Tokens
The factions of Runefall, each with its own playstyle — and the faction tokens its Champion cards grant toward your ultimate.
Brutal, relentless aggression. Champion cards grant Rage tokens toward your hero's ultimate.
Chain Ignite cards within a single move to escalate their damage. Champion cards grant Flame tokens toward your hero's ultimate.
Druidic healing and mighty creatures. Champion cards grant Growth tokens toward your hero's ultimate.
Corrupt cards trigger bonus effects when the enemy is hurt. Champion cards grant Blight tokens toward your hero's ultimate.
Equipment and stalwart defense. Champion cards grant Forge tokens toward your hero's ultimate.
Those who inscribe the runes that power all magic. Neutral cards can be played by any hero.
Multicolor Alliances: ten legendary heroes each bind two factions — the Ashbound, the Bloodgrove, the Spellforge, the Rotgarden, and more. Their cards blend both parent colors, and each may build decks from either parent faction plus the alliance's own exclusive Epics and Legendaries.
Deckbuilding
You bring a 40-card deck built around your hero.
Only the five starter heroes come with a premade deck. Every other hero borrows a compatible faction starter deck — their own faction's, either parent faction's for alliance heroes, or any faction's for the First Runewright — or builds a deck from scratch.
When your deck runs out, your graveyard reshuffles into a new library — there is no fatigue damage in Runefall Rivals.
Game Modes
Three ways to play.
Ready to enter the tavern?
Pick your hero, build your deck, and put these rules into practice.