The CantifoldCARDS

This is the Cantifold’s multiverse contest. Trifecta remains the Penultimate Dawn game of Rahim’s triangle. Cantifold Cards is larger: eighteen world-folds, splash from later books and chapbooks, and hinges drawn from every shelf.

Matches last eight Measures. Three hinges open. The player with the most Claim at the last Measure wins. Leading two hinges is the main line (+3). Destiny is halved if you lead none. Yielding a clash you could have fought gives the opponent Claim on that ground.

Ink

• You start with 4 Ink and a hand of 5. Later Measures: +1 Ink and draw 1.
• Unfold once per Measure for +2 Ink. Settle if you already have enough.
• Ink is what you spend to play. There is no Thirst here — that cost lives in Trifecta.

Commit and Contest

• Play up to two cards: Vessels, people, and creatures occupy hinges. Relics attach. Inscriptions rewrite a hinge. Songs are one-time magic.
• Once per Measure you may Contest a hinge both sides occupy. Both name a lead, then reveal. Compare Will. The winner Claims that ground, then Scatters or Freezes the loser.
• Frozen pieces remain but cannot lead.

Resonance, Discord, and mixed worlds

• Resonance — a piece whose book matches the hinge’s world has +1 Will. Middlespace makes everyone Resonant.
• Discord — playing off-world raises Discord. At 2+, non-Resonant pieces have −1 Will.
• Fold — at the end, +1 Claim per hinge you occupy with two or more books. Pure decks fight with Resonance. Mixed decks score the mix itself.

Factions and folds

A faction is your playable team and deck. Its fold is the story world its cards come from. A mixed deck can include cards from other folds; each card keeps its original world for Resonance.

The eighteen factions

• The Company — Beandom songs and footnotes.
• The Box — Canticle melody and inscriptions.
• The Board — Chess Quest clashes and the living board.
• The Last Assignment — Freeze and Scatter; keep the cherub.
• The Cycle — Dawn as one fold, not Trifecta’s five factions.
• The Wish Office — Death/Wish and Launch Time relics.
• The Wavelengths — Wandaful: color as a door.
• The Brand — Wizard’s Brand: fire that binds.
• Beneath the Scourges — Blights as law.
• The Sanctuary — The Tribunal: judgment under Shran.
• The Shaft — Shafted: portals that open on the clock.
• The Household — Necromancy as unfinished business.
• The Sight — Death Seer: premonition.
• The Toss — Coin luck with a condition.
• The Gift — Starformer’s Gift: power that will not go back.
• The Corps — Lovestruck: the bond itself.
• The Slash — Elected: the vote as theater.
• The Offer — Prometheus Returns: borrowed fire.

Build a mixed 12 to splash Jackdaw into Heaven, or Wally into the bean fields. At least six cards, including your Vessel, must be from your chosen fold.