City of Ruins is a solo game playable with ordinary playing cards, together with three dice and a token, usually a pawn. Black cards represent rooms, which are added one at a time using special "docking" requirements. Red cards represent either treasures or monsters: even-numbered cards are treasures and odd-numbered cards are monsters.
In addition, rooms, treasures and monsters are classified as either Physical or Psychic. Clubs and Hearts are Physical, while Spades and Diamonds are Psychic. Two of the dice are used as point trackers for Physical and Psychic attributes.
To win the game you must explore each room and defeat each monster without running out of either attribute.
Each card has a description given in the Card Guide. Here are examples to give an idea of the flavor:
"4: Room of Eerie Whistling: The walls are covered in what looks like ancient paper wasp nests. Wind blows out of the holes in keening chords."
"9: Cloaked Man: A human in a black cloak. The cloak bursts apart, for it is actually the wing covers of a huge insect. The head unfolds as two spiky legs, and a glow-eyed face with huge mandibles raises up with a horrible hissing noise."
"8: Grimoire of Abjuration: A text to rebuke evil spirits in the strongest terms possible."
The Rules and Card Guide will be given in the Files section.
—description from publisher