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How to Play Kyoukai
Introduction - Summary and Winning
Kyoukai's field is a 5 x 5 Diamond of zones, with cards played at a 45 degree angle.
In Kyoukai, every card is a Gate you open on the field.
Each deck has an Entrant Gate representing you, a Deck of 40 Gates, and a Spirit Deck.
Start the game by drawing a hand of 5 Gates from your Deck.
Draw 1 more as each turn starts, except this first one.
Your Entrant starts the game in the corner of the field closest to you, and your field grows from there!
Manage your Units and Gates in hand to approach your Opponent's Entrant, and deal 20 to them to Win!
That's because although you can Open as many Gates as you want from your hand or Spirit Deck each turn, you can only Open them Rested, into zones bordering your Ready Gates already on the field - such as your Entrant.
As the game starts, you can only open Gates into these green zones.
Make sure any Gate you open from your hand is Rested like this (turned so that its Resting Arrow points towards you), showing that it can't use its Gate Action yet!
After you Open a Gate with Stats in its top corner like Wandering Lion or Childhood Guardian, it stays in play Rested until the start of the next turn, when each of your Gates are Readied.
After you open a Gate without Stats like Punch or Block, it's discarded.
Use Gate Actions
During your turn, in addition to Opening Gates from your hand, you may also use the Gate Actions of any of your Ready Gates on the field.
Do this by:
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Resting the Gate whose action you're using.
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Moving that Gate according to its Movement Stat.
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Attacking a bordering Zone, or using its Skill.
Kyoukai movement is very similar to the Strategy RPG's that inspired it!
Imagine choosing a Unit, Moving it within its Range, then choosing an action from the remaining options in its menu.
These are the zones within the attack range of the Lion. It could also attack the green spaces by taking its Attack Action without Moving (but it cannot use its Movement Action after doing so.)
These are the zones within the Lion's movement range.
Calculating Damage
Any Gate with Stats that isn't your Entrant will have 1 Life - with damage dealt to a gate being reduced by the Defense of the Gate in that zone. In other words, dealing 6 to a Gate with 6 defense will leave the damaged gate in play, but dealing 7 will Discard it.
Sequences
If you've played Yugioh, this is the Chain Link system.
If you've played Magic the Gathering, this is the Stack, but without interrupting - once any effect resolves, you can no longer add to it, and it must finish resolving.
Punch and Wandering Lion, and its Skill, Primal Instinct, all can only be used as Spell Speed 1, or at Sorcery Speed.
Hunting Eagle can only be opened as Spell Speed 1, or at Sorcery Speed, but its Skill, Rapid Instinct, can be used as either Spell Speed 1 or 2, or at Sorcery or Instant Speed.
Block can also be opened at either Spell Speed 1 or 2, or at Sorcery or Instant speed.
The diagram below shows the flow of the Sequence System - each time you do any of the following, your Opponent can respond with their Fast Gate or Fast Skill, and if they don't, you can. Each Fast Gate or Skill also restarts this process, and it only ends when both players choose not to respond to a single effect.
At that time, all effects resolve backwards - first in, last out.
Field Setup
As the game progresses, you'll need space on the table for the following areas and piles:
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Your Deck and Spirit Deck.
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Your Discard and Shattered Piles (these start empty, until Gates are sent there).
Final Thoughts
You can use the menu above to check out more detailed explanations of each part of Kyoukai introduced in this Quickstart guide, and you can find even further clarification in the FAQ section.
If you still have questions after that, please reach out on the Kyoukai Patreon Discord, or you can reach me directly at ChrisLin@AlabasterGoldfish.com as well, and I'll try to get back to you soon.
Without further ado,
Let's Open the Gate!
いっしょうに、境界を開く！
- Chris Lin
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