Introduction
Buried Bluffs is a tile placement game combined with TCG-style effects. You and 1-3 Opponents are Archaeologists that have arrived at a hot new Dig Site, hoping for the find of the century…or are you really hoping? Each of you has a set of artifacts you’ve brought from home, so it isn’t a matter of if you’ll hit paydirt, but rather, which of you will do it first!
But as luck would have it, unlike every other site, this one has a real artifact, whose sinister energy just might bring what you bury to life…
Win by controlling the most Cards next to the Malevolent Relic at the end of a turn, even as your Buried Bluffs come alive, and the Dig Site descends into chaos!
Setup
First, take the 3 Starting Cards, shuffle them, and place them in a line in the middle of the play area face-down. This is the start of your Dig Site.
Next, each Archaeologist chooses a prebuilt deck of 20 Cards.
Note: Each Deck has a different back, and some backs even have effects!
For example, the 3 Starting Cards are completely unaffected by other Effects.
Each deck uses different mechanics, so you may want to look through their front sides quickly before you start. You can learn as you go too, it’s up to you.
Once you choose a Deck, shuffle it, and draw a hand of 3 Cards.
Click any of the card backs above to open a gallery of every card in that deck!
Taking a Turn
Each turn, you take 1 single action, that triggers a series of other actions - that's it!
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Take a Card from your hand, and place it face-down on the field.
If your hand is empty, you Draw 1 now, but end your turn without placing a Card right after. For more on this, see Decking Out!
After placing a Card for turn, do the following:-
Flip every Card that's Next to the one you placed:
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Each Card Back has 4 shovel icons that point to the Cards it'll Flip!
For each Card that was flipped DOWN this way, regardless of whose Cards they are, YOU Draw 1!
Next, every Card that was flipped UP this way triggers its Effect, one at a time!
Do those like this:
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For each Starter Card that was flipped UP, Trigger its Effect, and resolve it now.
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For each of YOUR Cards that was flipped UP, trigger their Effects, and resolve them now.
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For each Opponents' Card that was flipped UP, its owner triggers its Effect, and resolves it now. Opponents resolve their cards in Turn Order.
Also note that if a Card isn't on the field when it's its turn to resolve, it doesn't!
Check out the Turn Example for a run through of some possible turns.
Winning the Game
As you may remember from setup, the Dig Site begins with 3 randomized Starter Cards, shown face-up below. The main win condition of Buried Bluffs is written on Malevolent Relic!
Note that although Starter Cards are unaffected by other Cards' Effects, they still get flipped when Cards are placed next to them for turn. Effects only apply if they're showing, so if Relic is flipped face-down, it won't win the game that turn!
For example, if Green places their card as shown in the above, they'll win at the end of that turn!
Let's Get Digging!
That's all there is to Buried Bluffs! If you have any more questions, check out the FAQ.
If you have a question that's not there, there are links there to ask for help.
Thanks for learning Buried Bluffs!
- Chris Lin