Galdor’s Grip

source: itch.io

INTRODUCTION

A demented telepath has invaded your mind with intentions of releasing an ancient evil you locked away in your psyche long ago. Visit your most potent reminiscences and utilize their abilities to reorient your mind to your advantage. Channel enough power from surrounding manifestations to permanently trap the intruder within an illusory prison while evading any mental threats capable of stopping you.

COMPONENTS

18 PnP cards (fronts & backs) on six pages for double-sided/duplex printing.

OVERVIEW

Galdor’s Grip is a solo fantasy card game played entirely in your hands. Cycle through the deck, utilizing player actions and card abilities to strategically manipulate the order and orientation of the cards. Complete scoring objectives to earn at least nine points (⭐️) required to win the game, while avoiding any scenarios that result in a loss.

CARD ANATOMY

Active Side — Every card has two possible orientations; right-side up or upside-side down. The left side of a card is always considered its active side and represents the card’s active value, symbols, and abilities. Note: Names [A] and Attributes [B] are always active regardless of orientation.

  • A. Name — Some cards refer to other cards by their names.
  • B. Deck Construction Attributes — Every card has one or more deck construction attributes used to mix and match cards from the Core Set with cards from other sets to create new deck setups! Also, some cards refer to other cards by their attributes; these are always active regardless of a card’s orientation. Learn more about Deck Construction and what each attribute means in the Setup section below.
  • C. Values — Every card has a value in it’s top-left corner. Some cards also have an upside-down value in their bottom-right corner. The values are used to determine how many cards will move to the bottom of the deck each turn and also count toward some scoring objectives.
  • Wildcards — If a card’s active value is a Wildcard (*), you may designate its value (ranging from 1 to 6) every time you interact with it (e.g. as a moving option, toward a scoring objective).
  • D. Rotation Eligibility — Cards with a Rotate symbol ( ) along with a preview of the other side’s value can be rotated whenever they are the top card of the deck (and when moving to the bottom of the deck along with Deeproot Depths). If a card does not have this symbol, this means that the player cannot rotate that card unless a certain ability or event occurs that allows them to do so.
  • E. Abilities — These are special effects or behaviors that offer scoring objectives, alter the normal rules of play, or change the game’s state. Abilities trigger in response to certain events. An ability’s trigger event appears in a black bar above its textbox. There are five different trigger events in this game:
    • Start of Game — After setup, but before your first turn. This event trigger was first introduced in the 3rd expansion.
    • On Top of Deck — Whenever the ability’s card is the top card of the deck.
    • Moving to Bottom of Deck — Whenever the ability’s card is moving to the bottom of the deck. Note: The card does not also need to be the top card of the deck for this event.
    • Anywhere in Deck — At any time regardless of where the ability’s card is at in the deck.
    • End of Game — At the end of the game triggered by the rotated Galdor’s Grip ability.
  • F. Power — Some cards provide Power (represented by a ⭐️ symbol) directly. Each gained ⭐️ counts toward the nine ⭐️ threshold required to win the game.

SETUP

Deck Construction — You can mix and match any non-essential Core Set card that doesn’t have a Puzzle Piece ( ) attribute with any card from other sets as long as your deck contains 18 cards.

For reference, the Core Set comes with a distribution of 12, 6, 5, 4, and 14 cards. Note: Many of the cards have several of these attributes.

  • Cards with a Puzzle Piece are considered “essential” and must always be included in the deck. All other cards are considered “non-essential”.
  • Cards with a Skull can immediately lose you the game.
  • Cards with an Illusory Prison lead toward the game’s win condition.
  • Cards with an Edited Page alter the default rules of the game.
  • Cards with a Star can score you points either directly from shown ⭐️ or by completing their scoring objectives.
  • Cards with a Forked Path are double-sided. During setup, choose which side will start face up. Cards with this attribute were first introduced in the 3rd expansion.

There are many methods to building a new deck, but here are a few of the most popular ones:

  • a. Manually swap out any non-essential cards for an equal number of specific expansion set cards.
  • b. Shuffle the six non-essential cards face down. Draw three cards and combine them with three specific expansion set cards along with the 12 essential cards to form the 18-card deck.
  • c. [Suggested] Shuffle the six non-essential cards and all expansion cards face down together. Then, draw six cards (with or without looking at them) and combine them with the 12 essential cards to form the 18-card deck. Set the other unused cards aside out of play.

Game Difficulty — The maximum ⭐️ you can gain with the Core Set is 15. This maximum will change as you mix and match expansion cards, but the deck will always maintain a minimum of 10 ⭐️ from the essential scoring cards (e.g. Binding Stones, Figments of Feragot). While the default ⭐️ threshold required to win the game is nine, you may increase or decrease this threshold as desired. Once you’re ready, try to complete the “Allstar” challenge by gaining all available ⭐️ in a game.

Rotate each card of the deck so that it’s in its starting upright orientation. Shuffle the deck face down, making sure that all cards stay in their proper starting orientation. Abilities with the X |Start of Game| event trigger at this time before your first turn.

TURNS

The game is played over a series of turns. Each turn consists of two phases: Encounter and Explore. Encounter interacts with the top card of the deck and Explore moves a certain number of cards to the bottom of the deck. During each phase, you will resolve all corresponding effects and events and make decisions based on the options available. During play, you may check the composition and order of the deck and inspect any faceup cards at any time. You cannot peek at facedown cards (unless using the Feragot’s Fortress ability).

You may rotate a card with a Rotate symbol () whenever it’s the top card of the deck at any time during a turn.

Note: Whenever multiple abilities trigger during the same event, you get to decide the order in which they resolve; use this to your advantage!

ENCOUNTER

Start each turn by “encountering” the top card of the deck. If it’s facedown, flip it face up. Abilities with the X |On Top of Deck| event trigger during this phase. Note: If any of those abilities have the phrase “end this turn” in them, the Explore phase (see below) is skipped that turn.

Encountering Figments of Feragot

  • 1st Encounter: Since the card was facedown and needed to be flipped face up this turn, nothing happens.
  • 2nd Encounter: Since the card was faceup on a prior turn, rotate it to its “dangerous” side to gain ⭐️!
  • 3rd Encounter: Since this card’s “dangerous” side was active on a prior turn, you immediately lose the game!

EXPLORE

End each turn by moving cards to the bottom of the deck to “explore” more of it. First, choose a value based on up to two available options:

  • a. The top card’s active value. Note: If the top card has a Rotate symbol ( ), it can be rotated so its other value becomes the active one.
  • b. The next card’s active value. This option is only available when the next card is faceup and has a value in its top-left corner.

Reminder: The top or next card in the deck with a wildcard value (*) can be designated as any value between 1- 6. Tip: It’s a valid strategy to rotate the top card of the deck, but then choose the next card’s value.

After you’ve chosen a value, count exactly that many cards from the top of the deck (including the top card itself) and move them to the bottom of the deck, maintaining their current orientation and order with one exception; you may change the position of the top card of the deck anywhere within the stack of cards being moved. Abilities with the X |Moving to Bottom of Deck| event trigger during this part of this phase even if those corresponding cards are not the top card of the deck/stack.

Tip: It’s helpful to first count off the total number of cards to move with your thumb, then transfer the whole stack of cards to the bottom of the deck.

END OF GAME

The game ends immediately once any of the following conditions are met:

LOSE

  • If you don’t have any available moving options (e.g. the top card of the deck has no active value and the next card has no active value or is facedown). Note: This scenario is impossible in the Core Set, but is possible with certain expansion cards (e.g. Orzumal’s Eye from the 2nd expansion)
  • If you encounter the same Figment of Feragot on top of the deck for a 3rd time (triggering its upside-down orientation ability).
  • If you encounter the already rotated Galdor’s Grip on top of the deck (triggering its upside-down orientation ability) to end the game, but you have not gained at least nine ⭐️*.

WIN

  • If you encounter the already rotated Galdor’s Grip on top of the deck (triggering its upside-down orientation ability) to end the game, and you have gained at least nine ⭐️*.

*Note: All abilities with the X |End of Game| event trigger when the game ends from the rotated Galdor’s Grip ability. Add up all active ⭐️ shown on the cards and all ⭐️ gained from those abilities to determine whether you reached the required nine ⭐️ threshold or not.

F.A.Q.

What does “rotate” mean in the context of this game?

It means to rotate the card 180° degrees from its current orientation. And, if a card that’s already been rotated upside-down has an ability that rotates it again, it’ll rotate back to its original orientation.

Does Frenzied Flame’s ability skip that turn’s Explore phase? If yes, what’s the point of its Wildcard if I can’t ever Explore when it’s the top card of the deck?

Yes. Its wildcard value (*) can be used as one of the other cards’ moving options during the Explore phase when it’s the next card in the deck and count toward some scoring objectives.

If a wildcard value (*) is between two Binding Stones at the end of the game, can I designate it as two different values to fulfill both Binding Stones’ scoring objective?

Yes, you can designate its value for each separate scoring objective. This means it could also be yet another different value as part of a sequence for The Veiled Stair.

What counts as a valid sequence of three for The Veiled Stair’s ability?

A sequence of three adjacent card values in ascending or descending order. For example, a 3,*(as a 4),5 or 3,2,1 are both valid sequences of three.

CREDITS

Basic Game Rules Version 5.2 (May 2023)

Game Design: Gregg Jewell

Graphic Design: Gregg Jewell

Art: Midjourney AI v3, Gregg Jewell

Playtesters: Rich Dodgin, Edwin Zea, Igor Zuber, David Gregg, Noah McSpadden, Rubens Caruso Jr, Eric Miller