Published by Bambus
Designed by Wolfgang Werner
Distributed from The Rules Bank by Mike Siggins
The sun and the moon cults are trying to collect souls. They must also collect santuaries to house their souls.
28 cards-14 of the Sun cult, and 14 of the moon cult
Note:
On the 5 souls card, the designation Fegefeuer (Purgatory) is written. This is in error. It is really a 5 souls card
Divide into two teams. Partners sit opposite one another. Shuffle all the cards together and dealt them evenly to all players. Declare one of the teams to be the sun cult, and the other to be the moon cult.
The player to the left of the dealer begins. He must either play a card of his appropriate cult, or request another player to play a card on his behalf. If he chooses another player, that player must have a card of the chooser's cult, and must play a card.
The card played is placed in front of the player who requested that it be played as if he had played it himself.
Once four cards have been played, the winner of the trick is determined.
That player collects the cards for his cult and leads the next trick.
The card rankings are very unusual and work as follows:
Purgatory (Fegefeuer): This is the highest card in the game. If played on a trick, it does not entirely win the trick, however. The cards of the trick are set aside. The winner of the NEXT trick will take those cards. The player who played Purgatory leads the next trick.
If two Purgatory cards are played on a trick, the first Purgatory played is considered to be the winner.
Clerics (With pictures): There are 5 cleric cards for each cult. These are ranked 1-5. The 1 cleric is the highest, and 5 the lowest. The highest-ranking cleric played wins the trick. If two clerics of equal rank come out, the first one played wins the trick.
Clerics are below the purgatory card, but above soul cards in ranking.
Clerics are worth 1 soul point each when scoring occurs. ( Note the single candle on each card as a reminder.)
Souls (cards with candles): Soul cards are of very low rank, below clerics. Soul cards are of equal value as regards winning tricks. So, if four Soul cards are played to a trick, the first one played will win the trick.
Soul cards are worth as many souls as the number of candles on the card.
Sanctuaries (buildings and altars): These cards are the lowest value card. They, like soul cards have no implied ranking, but will lose to any other type of card played. And if for some bizarre reason four sanctuary cards are played, the first one led will win the trick.
After 7 tricks have been played, the round is scored. Each team's total score is the total number of souls collected (clerics counting as 1 soul each) times the number of multipliers of sanctuaries captured.
If the team fails to capture any sanctuaries, their score is 0.
Example
The side of light takes two tricks with 7 souls (sun), 3 souls (moon), obelisk (sun), temple (moon), Adept (sun), 4 souls (moon), Hierarch (sun), and novice (moon). This set nets them ( 7 + 3 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 4 + 1 + 1 ) x 3 = 51 points.
Keep playing rounds until one team gains 1000 points. (Variants: play to a different number of souls, values of 333, 666, and 999 are suggested.)
Each player plays for himself. Two players are declared rival cults of the Sun god, and one player is the lone Moon cult.
Deal out four hands. Each player takes one hand. The fourth hand is called the New Moon and is laid face up on the table.
On a player's turn, he may request the New Moon to play a card for him, in which case he chooses which card the New Moon plays. The player who is playing the solo member of the moon cult decides what card the New Moon plays on its turn.
Each player keeps his own tricks and score. If the New Moon takes a trick, it is scored seperately. Play until one player (this could be the New Moon) has reached 1000 points.