Althera — Card Game
Five houses. One vacant throne. One crown.
Althera is a competitive duelling card game for two to five players. Each player leads one of five noble houses with a 24-card deck, and wins by owning the most cards when the last turn ends — or by eliminating every rival before then. The core is accumulation: the card that wins a round absorbs the value of the card it beat, so every duel escalates round after round until one side can no longer answer.
Rulebook (v2), game design document and a printed prototype for playtesting.
- Accumulation as tensionThe value in play grows every round, so duels escalate naturally without extra rules.
- The deck is the scoreNo score track: the state of the game is always readable from the size of each deck.
- Emergent diplomacyWaiting players can intervene in other duels, so alliances form and break on their own at four or five players.
- Decision over luckEvery random element — the die, the redraw — sits inside a choice the player makes.
- Self-regulatingEvery advantage has a real cost, so the game balances itself without an arbiter.
Althera is a kingdom of men — no mythical peoples, no creatures from other worlds, only houses, armies, faith and ambition. When the last king died without an heir, the Crown fell silent and each great house read that silence as a right. The throne is still empty.
Fortezza CremisiChampion · Kael
Corona AureaChampion · Alaric
Ordine CelesteChampion · Seyra
Casata della QuerciaChampion · Brynn
Corte PurpureaChampion · OpheyaEvery house plays with identical mechanics and its own identity: crest, colour palette and dedicated artwork. The card back is shared, so a captured card cannot be told apart once it is face down in your deck.
The Champion (61) is the strongest card in each deck, one copy per house. The Guardian (23) and the Captain (37) are also named characters unique to each house. Prototype art, generated with AI.
- Per player:one 24-card house deck (18 score + 6 special) and a standard six-sided die in the house colour.
- Shared:one initiative token, the crown.
A normal d6, read with the same values as the score cards.
| Value | Copies | Card |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | × 4 | Commoners |
| 5 | × 3 | Vanguard |
| 9 | × 3 | Marksman |
| 15 | × 3 | Cavalry |
| 23 | × 2 | Guardian |
| 37 | × 2 | Captain |
| 61 | × 1 | Champion |
| Card | Copies | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| ShieldOpen / answer | × 1 | Cancels every enemy special for the whole duel. Played as an opening it hands the attack to the opponent. |
| OvertakeAnswer only | × 1 | Worth +1 over the enemy value in play: wins the round outright. |
| AlterationAnswer only | × 2 | Applies +50% or −50% (rounded up) to the value in play and takes possession of the field. |
| OracleOpen / field | × 2 | Roll your die: the value is added to the field and you take possession. As an opening, it becomes your field value. |
No two values in the set add up to a third one, which makes a tie during accumulation almost impossible by design.
- Set up.Shuffle, draw five, agree on 3, 5 or 10 turns; the highest roll takes the initiative token. Before a duel you may redraw, but each attempt costs a card: five becomes four, then three.
- Challenge.The token holder declares first, then clockwise. Separate pairs duel in parallel; a turn ends when everyone has faced everyone once.
- Open and answer.You play three of your five cards. The higher value on the field wins the round; on equal values, whoever played last wins.
- Absorb.The losing card is absorbed and its value is added to the winning card, which stays active on the field.
- Capture.After three cards each, whoever owns the active card wins the duel and captures every score card the opponent played. Values reset, captures go into the winner’s deck, both draw five.
R2A adds 2 and attacks with 26, B plays 37 → B wins, now worth 63.
R3A plays 9, lower than 63 → B takes the duel at 72.
After the duel every card returns to its printed value.
A special card always goes to the player who did not benefit from it, whoever wins the duel. Using one arms an opponent.
Before answering, roll your die. On a 5–6 you lose the cards on the field but keep your hand, and the duel ends. On a 1–4 you must play the three rounds out.
Waiting players may play a special into someone else’s duel once a score card is on the field, and draw a card straight away. Never with score cards, never twice in the same duel.
- Elimination.A player whose deck can no longer supply a full hand of five is out; their remaining cards go to the winner of the last duel.
- Immediate victory.Eliminate every opponent before the final turn.
- Victory on cards.After the last turn, the most cards in deck and hand wins.
- Tie-break.Tied players take back their original decks and play one extra duel; the others may still intervene with specials.
- In playtest.Rules are at version 2 of the rulebook and still being tuned at the table.
- Physical prototype.All 55 cards printed at poker size (63 × 88 mm), boxed with a card tray and a feedback QR code for playtesters.
- Standard components.Beyond the cards, each player needs only a normal d6 and the table shares one token.
Illustrations, graphic design and packaging in this prototype were generated with AI to validate the game quickly. The design of the game — rules, systems, balancing and setting — is my own work.
Publishers and editors interested in Althera can reach me through the contact page.
- Format
- Physical card game
- Players
- 2 – 5
- Match
- 3 / 5 / 10 turns
- Play time
- 25 – 130 min
- Age
- 12+
- Deck
- 24 cards
- Card set
- 55 cards
- Card size
- 63 × 88 mm
- Extras
- d6 + token
- Role
- Game designer
- Art
- AI-assisted
- Status
- In playtest
