DA RULES – GAME Rules
Official Rules · First Edition

Game Rules

A card game of wit, strategy, and swordsmanship — match suits, play alchemy, and survive the melee.

Battles

Deal Seven (7) Cards to each player. Start a Battle dealer-clockwise.

Ending a Battle: A Battle ends when one player has no remaining cards. Call "Heckle" with 1 remaining card.

On your turn, choose one of the following actions:

  • Match the current Suit or Icon
  • Play an Alchemy card (Camineer, Flunge) to pick the suit
  • Play a Role card (see Card Types below)

Role Cards by type:

  • Redirect: Traverse, Cownter
  • Attack: Lunge, Flunge
  • Defend: Camineer, Parry
🃏

Match Suit & Match Icon

Play by matching the current Suit (shape) or by matching the Icon (the illustrated figure on the card).

Gold
Pink
Blue
Green
📋

Card Types & Effects

Card Role Effect
Match Suit-1 Play and match the current suit.
Traverse-2 Redirect (skip) — Skips the next player's turn.
Lunge-1 Attack (draw 2–2) — Next player draws 2 cards; stacks with further Lunges.
Parry-X Defend (block 1 penalty) — Blocks 1 draw from 1 attack.
Flunge-1 Attack (draw 4–2) — Next player draws 4 cards; also lets you pick the suit (–3).
Camineer Alchemy (pick the suit) — Declare any suit; the game continues in that suit.
Cownter-1 Redirect (reverse) — Reverses the direction of play.
Match Icon-2 Match the icon regardless of suit; play 2 cards to use.
🗡

Melee Play (Jump-In)

Out of turn: You can play an identical card if you can beat the player whose turn it is. Play resumes from the melee spot, in the direction it would have.

⚖ Each Card Counts

Lunge / Flunge penalties accumulate across melee plays.

🔄 Cownters Reverse

Cownters reverse from the jump-in point, not the original direction.

🃏 Identical Cards

Identical cards can be played together in the same melee move.

▶ Resuming Play

After a melee, play continues from the melee spot in the current direction.

🏰

Campaigns

Start a Campaign with 10 Florins (coins) for each player.

Starting Florins:
F
× 10

After a Battle, losers pay taxes to the winner:

  • One Florin, each, to the winner — then…
  • One additional Florin for each Moon # on the table

Moon Phase Tax Modifiers:

🌑
0
+0 Florin
🌒
1
+1 Florin
🌓
2
+2 Florin
🌔
3
+3 Florin
Serf Status: A player becomes a "Serf" when they go broke. They can play but cannot win battles nor taxes. (Battle play continues even if a Serf has no remaining cards.)
End a Campaign when a second player becomes a Serf.