Each player receives a 36 card deck, constructed from 3 each of 12 different ceremony cards (there are 16 different ceremonies in the base game).
Each player has a player board with spaces for four ceremonies. Their play area consists of the four spaces of their board, and the two nearest spaces on their left and right neighbors (for a total of 8 spaces). On a turn, they may draw a card, start a ceremony on personal player board, as long as there is not a ceremony of that type on in their play area; or play a card from their hand into any ceremony in their play area. Once started, a ceremony in your player grants a special ability until it is completed.
Ceremonies are complete after the fourth card is played to it, with the player claiming a victory point tile, and putting out a game end token if none is available. When all of the game end tokens have been put out the game ends. The player who has collected the most Victory Points is the winner.
-description from publisher
- Digestible rules with five simple actions
- Strong card interaction and player-to-player disruption
- Open, expandable system with potential for new ceremonies
- Quicker playtime (30-45 minutes) with good scale to 2-4 players
- High production quality (cards, boards, tokens) and clear artwork
- Good accessibility; suitable for lighter/introvert audiences
- Good replayability due to tile variability (16 tiles, 10 used per game)
- Lacks a strong engine-building arc or cascading scoring
- No heavy depth; could feel light for some players
- No acrylic end-game markers without Kickstarter edition
- Resource generation and scoring through evolving ceremonies, with inter-player interaction and disruption.
- A mythic ceremonial setting inspired by Kokopelli folklore, presented in a stylized, festival-like atmosphere.
- Light flavor text conveyed through cards and ceremony actions; minimal overarching narrative.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card-driven engine/hand management — A large deck provides actions; players draft and play cards into ceremony slots to activate powers.
- Ceremony slots and tile-based scoring — Place cards into five slots to trigger scoring tokens per ceremony; some slots interact with opponents.
- endgame triggers — Game ends when all endgame tokens are placed or a player exhausts their deck.
- Hand limit and draw actions — Players start with five cards and draw/discard to maintain hand size.
- Token-based scoring — Point tokens are awarded per ceremony based on card types and completed sets.
- Two-actions-per-turn — On a turn, players may take two actions; increases pace and decision density.
- Wild cards and interaction — Certain cards act as wilds; players can affect other players' ceremonies to gain points.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the rules themselves are extremely basic but it is all about how these cards interact with one another
- the fact that there is a nice steady stream of points and a nice trickle rather than a big chunky endgame swing
- i love the way this system is so open it's so bad bones
- the game is boiled down into five extremely simple actions
- this is a lovely family weight plus game