Titania Ascending is live
Titania Ascending is a 1-6 players drafting and map-writing game in which you play as an advisor of Queen Titania, tasked with finding six sacred stones so magic can come back to Earth and your Queen can claim her rightful throne on this planet. The campaign for the game went live on Kickstarter on November 2 and will run for another 17 days.
The game is played in two phases, each featuring a win/loss condition. In the first phase, Divination, your aim is to recruit six hallowed units. In the second phase, Ascension, you must capture the six ancient citadels to recover the sacred stones. As a player, you have a 6x6 grid map that you will fill with symbols during the Divination phase, and that you will progressively shade during the Ascension phase.
In each round, you must select a pair of Vision card and rune token on display (there are always three of them available) and “record” the symbols shown on the card on your map, obeying the pattern into which they are arranged. You can freely flip, rotate or mirror the pattern, but all symbols must be drawn on free spaces of the map. The rune token shows a unit symbol and a number, and merely “twists” the symbols shown on the card (if there are dragons on the card, they will turn into the specified number, if there are wild symbols, they will turn into the specified unit). If the space you draw a unit or number in shows a crown, then you have chosen a hallowed unit to claim a citadel later on (the hallowed unit can be a number, in which case it is to be interpreted as a pack of dragons). There is one crown per column, so the goal is to choose a hallowed unit for all six columns.
If the space features a Hammer, you will recruit the unit you drew as an aide. If you ever entirely fill a row or a column, you earn a “boon”. These boons will be used to activate the power of your aides. If you happen to not be able to record in full any of the three Vision cards available, you have to pass, which concludes the phase. Otherwise, you discard all Vision cards on display, draw three new ones to replace them, and keep going. If, by the end of the Divination phase, you did not recruit six hallowed units, the game is lost.
In the next phase, the Ascension, you still play with Vision cards, but you now use their backs, which show a pattern you must shade on your own map. Here again, each round, you must select one of the three available Vision card/rune token pairs, and obey it by shading the pattern shown on the card, meeting the conditions stated by the Vision card. Then, if the symbol on the rune token matches that of one of your available hallowed units (or if the number matches that of one of your pack of dragons), you can use this unit to claim a citadel. All units can only be used once. Once all six citadels have been claimed, you win the game! However, if during your turn, you cannot fulfill any Vision card and there are still citadels left to claim, then you instantly lose.
To increase the difficulty of the game, you may gradually add Fate cards of increasing challenge. They act as surprise events that take effect immediately.