Pyrelight

A Card Game about building a fire and appeasing your gods. I created the entire game myself, including art for the various cards.

Inspired by other card games where you do not literally 'build' something, Pyrelight is a game about building a pyre. During play, there are 3 types of cards you can obtain: Wood, Offerings, and Metals. There are 2 other types of cards used by players: Whims and Punishments.

Before starting the game, shuffle all Lumber, Offering and Metal cards together and place them face down. This forms the Resource Deck. Each player is then dealt 6 cards from the Resource Deck; Afterwards, draw another 6 cards and place them face up. This becomes the Draw Pile from which players may obtain Resource Cards from.

Then, shuffle all the Whim cards and take the top 10 Whims. This is the Whim deck. Finally, shuffle all the Punishment cards and set them aside. This becomes the Punishment deck.

Lumber is a common card, and you need to use two lumber to start a pyre. In subsequent rounds, you need to supply your pyre with one lumber to keep it burning. Otherwise, your fire will be extinguished and you will face consequences at the beginning of the next turn in the form of Punishment Cards.

Offerings are the players' key to winning, as they earn points (equal to the number on the top right of an Offering card) whenever they burn an offering at their own pyre. However, offerings do not need to be burnt at a player's own fire; This allows them to sabotage other players by using their pyres to burn offerings with negative values.

Metals are rare cards and cause a lit pyre to have extra effects; Using a Metal to create a blue pyre will expand the Draw Pile by 2 as long as it is lit. This effect is permanent until the pyre is extinguished or another metal is used to change the pyre again.

Whims are a special card drawn at the beginning of each round. Each Whim has an effect - potentially good or bad - that applies to all players until the next Whim is drawn. The Whims also act as a form of timekeeping; Once a new round begins but there are no more Whims to draw, the game is over and points are calculated.

Punishments are only drawn by players before their turn if they begin a round (besides the first round) without a lit pyre. Most Punishments have negative effects that apply only to the player that drew them. Afterwards, drawn Punishment cards are usually returned to the deck, which is then shuffled and the player's turn may begin.

In Pyrelight, the oldest player starts first and turn order passes clockwise. One round begins with the first player's turn and ends with the last player's turn. During a single round, each player has one turn. During this one turn, each player has two moves. With each move, they can: Play 1 Lumber from their hand; Discard 1 Card from their hand and replace it with another resource card (taken either from the Resource Deck or the Draw Pile); Start a pyre, if the player has no pyre; Play 1 Metal/Offering to a lit pyre.

At the end of the game - when the Whim deck has been exhausted - players tabulate their points based on the value of all their sacrificed offerings. The player with the most points wins!

Further information about the game can be seen via the rulesheet displayed in the gallery.