Rescues: Your Hero (cross icon card) rescues a Lost Soul if the Hero crosses the Field of Battle to reach the Lost Soul in your opponent’s Land of Bondage. Sometimes a Hero is unopposed, but usually your Hero must defeat an opposing Evil Character (dragon icon card) in the Field of Battle. The Evil Character is defeated if one of these happens:

• Your Hero’s strength (*/) is greater than or equal to the blocking Evil Character’s toughness (/*), or
• Your Hero ignores the blocking Evil Character, or
• The blocking Evil Character is removed from battle (by being converted, discarded, removed from the game, captured, returned to territory, etc.)

Your Hero is made stronger with good enhancements (Bible icon cards). Your opponent’s Evil Character is made stronger with evil enhancements (skull icon cards).The brigade color of the enhancement must match the brigade color of the character using the enhancement. When the Evil Character(s) in battle is defeated, your opponent must surrender a Lost Soul from his Land of Bondage. Then that Lost Soul goes to your Land of Redemption. The rescue attempt is successful, and the Lost Soul is now called a Redeemed Soul. However, if you do not defeat the blocking Evil Character(s), your rescue attempt fails. You are permitted a maximum of one rescue attempt per turn unless a card states otherwise.

Winning: You keep score by the number of Redeemed Souls found in your Land of Redemption. The player with the most Redeemed Souls wins. A game usually ends when one player has rescued five (5) Lost Souls.

New Players

The two decks included with each starter deck set are ready to play. One player should use one Deck (ie G) and the other player should use other Deck (ie H). We strongly recommend that you play a few games with these basic decks before adding cards. This rulebook introduces many card titles, game terms and definitions. Game terms are italicized throughout the rulebook. They can be found in the GLOSSARY OF TERMS. Card titles are in italicized and bold font. Once you have learned how to play the game, you can begin to build your own decks. Additional game cards can be found in the booster packs. Rules for deck construction follow the GLOSSARY OF TERMS. Some rules and definitions are needed only if you are using certain cards from booster packs. These are highlighted in gray throughout this rulebook. If you are new to Redemption, skip over the rules in gray until you are comfortable with the starter deck cards and have added cards from booster packs.

Beginning a Game

Begin by thoroughly shuffling your deck. Your opponent(s) may also shuffle your deck. After completing your shuffle, cut your opponent’s deck by leaving at least five (5) cards in the smaller pile. When more than two people are playing, each player will cut the deck of the player to his left. Each player draws eight (8) cards to form a starting hand. Rules for drawing cards:

• Cards are always drawn from the top of the player’s own draw pile and placed in the player’s hand.
• Each time you draw a Lost Soul at any time in the game, it is immediately placed in your Land of Bondage and replaced by drawing another card.
• You may not look at cards in any draw pile or discard pile (other than the top card of the discard pile) unless a special ability on a card allows a player to search a deck. The deck is always reshuffled when this occurs unless a card states otherwise.

The player who draws the most Lost Soul cards decides who will take the first turn. If two or more players draw the same number of Lost Soul cards, roll a die (or use some other random method) to determine who will choose the player to take the first turn. The player selected to go first will begin his first turn. (See DIAGRAM OF A TURN). The person to the player’s left takes the next turn. A round is completed when each player finishes one turn.

ADVANCED GAMES: Begin Redemption with a legal deck. (See DECK BUILDING RULES). Counters will also be necessary (coins, chips, dice, etc.). You will use counters for numbering, marking a card’s ability or signaling changes throughout the game.

Diagram of a Turn

1. Draw Phase: You draw three (3) cards and add them to your hand.

2. Upkeep Phase: You must change counters if needed.

3. Preparation Phase: You may perform any number of these actions in any

    order. Actions may be repeated unless a limit is stipulated:

a) Place a character (cross or dragon icon) into your territory.

b) Place an artifact face down in your artifact pile.

c) Activate an artifact by placing an artifact face up on your artifact pile (limit

    once per turn).

d) Place a site into your territory.

e) Place a Lost Soul into a site.

f ) Set aside a character.

g) Return a character from your set-aside area and place it back into your

    territory.

h) Place a weapon-class enhancement on a warrior-class character in your

   territory.

i) Place a fortress on the table as described on the fortress. At this time its

   special ability becomes active.

j) Place or remove a card in a fortress as described on the fortress.

4. Battle Phase:  Follow these steps in order:

a) You may begin a rescue attempt or battle challenge by placing a Hero into

    the Field of Battle. If you make a rescue attempt or battle challenge, go to

    step b. Otherwise, skip to the Discard Phase.

b) Your opponent may block your Hero by placing an Evil Character into the

    Field of Battle.

c) Check for initiative. The player with initiative may play an enhancement (or

    pass if allowed). Repeat this step as necessary.

d) Resolve the rescue attempt or battle challenge.

5. Discard Phase: You may perform any number of these actions in any order.

    Actions may be repeated:

a) Place a character (cross or dragon icon) into your territory.

b) Place an artifact face down in your artifact pile.

c) Place a site into your territory.

d) Set aside a character.

e) Place a weapon-class enhancement on a warrior-class character in your

    territory.

f ) Place a fortress on the table. At this time its special ability becomes active.

When you have performed all of these actions that you wish, you must decrease your hand to eight (8) cards or less. Discard cards from your hand if necessary. This ends your turn.

Winning the Game

When one player has rescued 5 Lost Souls and has placed these Redeemed Souls into his Land of Redemption, that player wins the game. NOTE: When the 5th Lost Soul is rescued, any Lost Souls that are rescued simultaneously using the New Jerusalem dominant or the Lost Souls card are included in the score. Also, players can play to additional rescues if they choose. For example, in Type II Tournament Rules a game is won by 7 rescues.

Optional Advanced Rules

These rules may or may not be used at the discretion of the players. However, everyone must agree prior to play which optional rules, if any, are to be used.

1) Name-on-Name Bonus: If an enhancement is played on a character, and the title of the enhancement contains the name of that character,  then the enhancement is worth double its abilities (*/*) value. Only the abilities (*/*) in the icon box of the enhancement double. The special ability of the enhancement remains the same. For example, a player making a rescue attempt with Ruth (a 6/4 character) could play Devotion of Ruth (a 2/1 enhancement) to strengthen Ruth and increase her abilities to 10/6 instead of 8/5.  NOTE: The Name-on-Name Bonus rule is used in most official Redemption Fellowship Tournaments.