This is a card game that someone I live with owns. I found it compelling even tho I've never actually played Touhou, though I have only had the opportunity to play with the minimum number of players (4). I am motivated to mod it to see how the mechanics for the game play out with more people and to give others the chance to try the game out. I will be scanning and using the much prettier real cards for the real game (relative to the sample cards scattered throughout this post) provided that there's enough interest for it to run.
[Game 1] 1. JDGA 2. piegirln 3. GuyInFreezer 4. Gammagooey 5. Blackberry 6. Mewtaph
-- Danmaku!! Game Rules
To win, players need to stay alive long enough to defeat certain other players per their individual goal. The game ends as soon as at least one player meets their goal. If everyone dies simultaneously, the game is a draw.
Players begin with 4 life by default. They may lose life by (a) being successfully attacked by another player, (b) indirect effect, or (c) paying life to activate an effect. One can pay life so long as they are not reduced below 0 life.
When a player loses life for any reason, they draw one card for each life lost.
When a player's life reaches 0, they are not defeated immediately; players have the opportunity to play certain Reaction cards, such as 1Up. If there are any ongoing Action cards, players may continue to respond to that Action or any other cards played, even if their current life is 0. Once all players have indicated that they have no responses to the ongoing Action card, all players at 0 life are simultaneously defeated, and cannot gain life thereafter. Defeated players are not considered active, do not take turns, and are not counted when determining distance from one player to another. Once a player is defeated, that player discards all cards in hand and Item cards in play. Then their role card is revealed.
Some cards and abilities allow a player to attack another player. Unless the defending player avoids the attack, the defending player loses 1 life. Players cannot attack themselves.
Each player has a certain
- Each player is randomly assigned a Role.
- Each player is randomly assigned two Character choices and chooses one to play as; the other is discarded.
- Characters are simultaneously revealed, as is the Heroine's Role card. Each player begins with 4 life, except for the Heroine, who has 5.
- Each player draws cards from the Main Deck equal to their max hand size. The default max hand size is 4 cards. (The Heroine's default max hand size is 5 cards.)
- Play begins with the Heroine's turn.
- Start of Turn: Any effects for that player that last "until your next turn" end. Limits on how many cards of certain types a player can play reset at the start of their turn.
- Incident Step:
- At the beginning of the Incident Step, if there is no incident card in play, put the top card of the Incident Deck into play.
- Whether or not a New Incident card was played this turn, the current player then performs and actions listed that take place during the Incident step.
- If the current Incident card is resolved during the Incident Step, do not play a new Incident card until the next player's Incident step.
- At the beginning of the Incident Step, if there is no incident card in play, put the top card of the Incident Deck into play.
- Draw Step: The current player draws for the turn. By default, players draw two cards per turn from the Main Deck.
- Main Step: Most interaction happens on the main step.
- Players can play Action cards or Item cards only on their own Main Step.
- There is no limit to the number of cards a player can play on their turn, with two exceptions:
- By default, players can only play one Danmaku card per round.
- Players can only ever activate one Spell Card per round. This includes activating your own Spell Card, or another player's Spell Card. There are no effects that increase this.
- By default, players can only play one Danmaku card per round.
- Players can play Action cards or Item cards only on their own Main Step.
- Discard Step: During each player's discard step, ALL players discard down to their max hand size. This is the only time players must discard due to max hand size.
- Then it's the next player's turn.
Roles are kind of like alignments in mafia; they determine your goal (win condition) independently of your Character.
The number of players determines which Roles are handed out.
- 4 players:1 Heroine, 2 Stage Bosses, 1 Winter role {Extra Boss, Phantom Boss}
- 5 players:1 Heroine, 1 Spring role {Partner, Partner, Ex Midboss}, 3 Autumn roles {Stage Boss, Stage Boss, Stage Boss, Challenger, Anti-Heroine, Final Boss}, 1 Winter role {Extra Boss, Phantom Boss}
- 6 players:1 Heroine, 1 Spring role {Partner, Partner, Ex Midboss}, 3 Autumn roles {Stage Boss, Stage Boss, Stage Boss, Challenger, Anti-Heroine, Final Boss}, 1 Winter role {Extra Boss, Phantom Boss}
- 7 players:1 Heroine, 2 Spring roles {Partner, Partner, Ex Midboss, One True Partner}, 3 Autumn roles {Stage Boss, Stage Boss, Stage Boss, Challenger, Anti-Heroine, Final Boss}, 1 Winter role {Extra Boss, Phantom Boss}
- 8 players:1 Heroine, 1 Rival, 2 Spring roles {Partner, Partner, Ex Midboss, One True Partner}, 3 Autumn roles {Stage Boss, Stage Boss, Stage Boss, Challenger, Anti-Heroine, Final Boss}, 1 Winter role {Extra Boss, Phantom Boss}
One's character in Danmaku!! is comparable to one's
Each character has:
- A name, picture, subtitle, and season.
- A passive Ability (top panel) that is always in effect.
- A Spell Card (bottom panel), which must be activated by invocation. When activated, all of the Spell Card's effects are performed in order. Spell Cards may be actions (in which case they must be activated during the player's main step) or reactions (the specific spell card will state when the Spell Card can be activated).
The Main Deck contains cards that make up a player's hand and that are played to perform actions in the game.
Incident cards are drawn throughout the game and provide a constant change to the game's rules as long as they are in play. A new Incident is drawn when at the start of the Incident Step, no Incident is in play. The effects of an Incident last until the Incident is resolved.
Some Incidents resolve after "Collecting" a certain number of particular cards from the Main Deck. Cards that match what is being collected (e.g. Autumn cards) are placed into a separate collection pile until enough are collected to resolve the Incident. The collection pile is then shuffled back into the discard pile.
If a player's turn is skipped, all phases are skipped except for the Start of the Turn phase. Players cannot have two turns skipped in a row; the effect is ignored completely in this case and their turn is taken as normal.
If a card is canceled by another card, none of its effects are resolved.