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In Genius Invokation TCG, a legal deck has 30 cards.
(At 30 cards, the voices are easy to ignore. Anymore, and you will start to forget. Any less, and the game is over before it begins.)
(Every story contains a sliver of the truth.)
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A legal deck has 30 cards. 3 of those cards are character cards.
(A tarot may start with three cards of the Major Arcana. The order is important to memorise.)
You have: The Driver. This card will deal a bulk of the damage to your opponent’s card. This is the one to pay the most attention to. This is the one that will die first if you are not careful. This card is the one you cannot afford to lose.
(You have: The Present. This is who you are now. Most people carry cards of themselves to remind themselves of who they are now. Only a fool would carry a card of someone else.
It would be too much to lose if you forgot.
[Those two boys from Liyue carry each other. They will remind the other of who they are.])
You have: The Back-up. This card is your other source of damage. They are not as important as the Driver. They are the one card that could save you or raze you. It is not a terrible thing if they die first. It is a terrible thing if they are the second to die.
(You have: The Past. This is you from something long gone. This is who you used to be. This is a reminder that you must move on from whatever personal tragedy befell you, oh so long ago.
It is okay to forget this one – it does not matter when all the cards are on the table.
[The General Mahamatra will not let go of one particular card. He will not forget.])
You have: The Support. This card will heal you. This card will buff you. This card is the shield. This card will not mean much if it is the first to go. This card will mean everything if it is the last one remaining.
(You have: The Future. This is who you will become in due time. This is what will happen once you forget the past and forget the present. This future is false – or real, depending on how much you listen to them.
You cannot forget your fate – it is something they have deigned, long ago.
[The Astrologist knows exactly what her fate is saying. But this is something she already knew.])
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You will receive a playing field. There is nothing special about the wood or felt used to make it. Do not worry about the relative fragility of it.
(Not to discredit the strength of wood and cloth. They are only susceptible to blades and force.)
There is nothing special about the playing field.
(Do you explain the dice, when they appear? There are only 8 that appear when you roll. For some reason, they will grow and disappear – like they are not real. The playing field makes dice at the will of the player. They only ask for one thing.
To listen.)
Elemental dice have 8 sides, one for each element. Anemo, Geo, Electro, Dendro, Hydro, Pyro, Cryo, Omni. These are the elements for the game. These elements are recognisable. These elements are familiar.
(Omni does not exist in Teyvat. Omni is an extant energy. It is the divine brought to Teyvat.
You are not meant to know of this one.)
You will roll eight dice. You will get to roll twice.
(The last time someone got this wrong, they were given no second chances.)
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To begin, you are allowed to draw five cards. You may exchange them for different cards from your deck if they are not to your liking.
(This is a trick: you should not be able to pick and choose your fate.
[They say there is an old god sleeping under the desert sand. It’s been there for over a millennia.])
All five cards will be action cards. The actions you take are entirely to your own discretion. There are three categories of action cards. Take well to remember what they do.
You have: Equipment cards. These are weapons. These are Artifacts. These are things to apply to your character cards. They will provide boons. They will provide safety.
(You have: A memory – stolen. A weapon – raised. These are weapons of war. You have seen them in books before. These weapons are familiar. They are easy to ignore.
Your safety is not guaranteed when a weapon is placed in unsteady hands.
[The Wolf Boy does not know the number of claymores that mean safety.])
You have: Event cards. This is a moment, frozen in time. This will give you a boon in an instant. They will flash by, there and gone before you realised what had happened. This is a gift. It will never be a curse.
(You have: A moment in time, immortalised forever. Some things should have been left alone. Some things should have been forgotten. There are things that should have been left dead.
There are things that should be forgotten. The game will not let you forget them.
[For the Uncrowned King of Mondstadt, the story of pixies guiding stars should not have been a familiar one.])
You have: Support cards. These are familiar faces. These are people you have met; you have seen. Their boons will last a few rounds. Their boons need some time to activate. Some require patience. Some can only be used once a round. Be selective in what you choose.
(You have: familiar faces that should not be here. Some of these people should only be strangers. Some of these people should never been exposed to this game.
What the game consumes, the game learns.
[When a Chef from Liyue flips a card and sees her father, she has a faint moment of shock.])
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All cards are kept in a Casket of Tomes. The name means nothing – it is simply a brilliance of Sumerian engineering and design. It will hold your cards, and pings other players with them. It is nothing special.
(They do not speak of the first Casket.
[All stories have a sliver of truth to them.])
The box can hold as many cards as one can conceivably collect. The box is designed that way. They are many cards to collect. It is a simple thing.
(The first Casket held too much. There is no such person known as the Crocodile King – a farce of Inazuman Imagination – but there is a dead god under the sands of the desert.
[Every story will have the truth hidden within its pretty words.])
You may exchange lucky coins for cards. The exchange is simple, and easy, and painless. There are many cards for sale. Make your choice wisely.
(The first Casket did not stop the voices. There is no such boy who finds a Casket in an attic, but the first Casket held something terrible within it’s maws. There is no benevolent legendary TCG player.
[Within each story, the truth is caged within words.])
Do not think of the relative fragility of a box made of wood, made to hold cards.
(Do not discredit the strength of wood. It is only susceptible to fire.)
(In the desert, there is dry grass, and dry wood. Fire is easy to create there.)
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In Genius Invokation TCG, a legal deck has 30 cards. Three of those are Characters, and the rest are Actions. This game will give you 8 dice to begin.
This game is easy – and the cards are all out on the table for you. There is no need to look into this further.
(All stories will have some semblance of the truth in them.)
(No one will tell you about the first Casket of Tomes.)