A totem to represent the golem, a deck of cards, and scrap paper and writing utensils for each player. For the golem, the item must have an identifiable "front." A wargame figurine or even a sticky note with an arrow drawn on it will do.
Setup
From the deck of cards, the following cards are used: ace through ten of hearts and diamonds (called "charms"), ace through six of clubs and spades (called "curses"), and the four kings (called "artifacts").
Shuffle the cards and deal them out, face up, in a 6-by-6 grid. Each card represents a "district." One of the players, chosen at random, places the golem on any district, oriented in any orthogonal direction. Both players secretly write down the card names of two different, non-artifact districts to represent "voids."
Play
Each turn consists of the following phases: (1) allocation, (2) orientation, (3) movement, (4) harvesting, and (5) regeneration.
Allocation
Players have 20 units to allocate per turn. These units are allocated to four phases: orientation, movement, harvesting, and regeneration.
At least one unit must be allocated to each of these phases. Players may otherwise allocate their units as they choose. Players secretly write down the number of units they are allocating to each phase for that turn.
Orientation
Players reveal the number of units they have allocated to orientation. The player who allocated the most units may rotate the golem, on its current district, to any of the four cardinal points, including the point it is already facing. If the players allocated the same number of units to orientation, the golem rotates 90 degrees clockwise.
Movement
Players reveal the number of units they have allocated to movement. The player who allocated the most units may move the golem one, two, or three districts from its starting position.
The player must move the golem in a straight line in the direction it is currently oriented. Harvested districts do NOT count toward movement; the golem passes over harvested districts as if they did not exist.
The playing grid wraps around (e.g., if the golem is moved off the right side of the grid, it appears in the first district in the same row on the left side). Wraparound movement is otherwise counted the same as regular movement.
If the players allocated the same number of units to movement, the golem moves one district.
Harvesting
Players reveal the number of units they have allocated to harvesting. If the golem landed on a void, that fact is revealed, the person who allocated the most units to harvesting earns no points, and the rules for voids are followed.
If the district contains a charm, the person who allocated the most units to harvesting earns points equal to the face value of the card.
If the district contains a curse, the person who allocated the most units loses points equal to the face value of the card. Aces count as ones.
If the district contains an artifact, the person who allocated the most units scores no points but gains control of that artifact. Once a district has been harvested, flip the card over to signify that it has already been harvested.
If the players allocated the same number of units to harvesting, the sector remains unharvested.
Regeneration
Players reveal the number of units they have allocated to regeneration. The player who allocated the most units earns bonus allocation units equal to half the number of units he or she allocated to regeneration, rounded down. These bonus allocation units may be used only in the following turn.
If the players allocated the same number of units, neither player earns bonus allocation units.
NOTE: These rules continue on page 2.
