Overview
Riftforce is a 2 player game. You face up head to head, turn after turn.
If a player reaches 12 points the end of the game is triggered. Finally the player with the most points win (of course).
The game starts with the guild selection and with players taking turns.
Guild Selection
The base game contains 10 guilds. Each guild has a unique ability you can activate on your turn. One guild is assigned randomly to every player. From the remaining 8 guilds, one is discarded. From the remaining 7 cards the players draft guilds until every player has 4 guilds.
For each guild, 4 elementals with 5 life points, 3 elementals with 6 life points, and 2 elementals with 7 life points are shuffled and 7 cards are drawn to start the game.
Turn Overview
On your turn you perform 1 action. You can choose from these 3 possible actions:
- Play Cards
- Activate
- Check & Draw
After that your opponent takes a turn, also choosing one action and then it comes back to you.
Possible Actions
Play
Play up to 3 elementals from your hand to locations on your side of the Rift. They must either all show the same symbol or all show the same number.
You can play these elementals either
- individually to three adjacent locations (1 elemental per location)
- together in an order of your choice all to the same location
Note that the outermost locations on both ends are not considered adjacent to each other.
Activate
Select 1 elemental from your hand, show it face up and discard it your discard pile.
Activate up to 3 elementals that either
- all show the same number
- all show the same symbol
as the just discarded elemental.
The elementals you activate can be at any location and do not have to be adjacent to each other.
When you activate an elemental, it uses the ability described on its guild’s summoner. You must resolve all steps of the ability in order from top to bottom as much as you can.
When elementals change their position through abilities they are placed at the last position of the new location.
With most abilities you will place damage on the „first enemy”. This is the elemental closest to the location.
When you activate an elemental, resolve its ability completely and then check if you destroyed any elementals before activating your next elemental.
If the damage total on an elemental is equal to or higher than its number, that elemental is destroyed (discarded to the players discard pile). You gain 1 Riftforce for each destroyed enemy.
If an ability places more damage on an elemental than is needed to destroy it, the excess damage is not carried over to the next elemental.
Check & Draw
You can only choose this action if you have less than 7 elementals in your hand.
Check if you control any of the locations. You control a location if at least 1 of your elementals and no enemy is present there.
You gain 1 Riftforce for each controlled location.
If you choose this action only you can gain Riftforce even if your opponent controls locations at that moment.
Now draw elementals from your draw pile until you have 7 elementals in your hand.
GAME END
As soon as a player reaches 12 Riftforce the game end is triggered.
After finishing the action completely, the opponent gets a last action if the player triggering the game end is the starting player. That way both of you get the same amount of actions.
