Age of Primes is an episodic card game about different factions vying for influence on a distant planet called Skellium. As a player, you take on the role of a Prime - a hero or leader - to fight for your House and gain prestige.
You can play Age of Primes in a head-to-head duel, or with a whole group of players. You can even play casually with your friends or competitively in tournaments.
This rule book will help you get started playing Age of Primes.
The rules are very easy; the best way to learn is by playing the game. Like any other card game, Age of Primes is easy to learn, but difficult to master!
Components
Setup
Look through your deck and find the Prime card that you'd like to use as your Persona, and set it face-down on the table.
Shuffle the rest of your deck and allow your opponent to cut it.
Then draw your opening hand of five cards. After you decide who is going first, each player reveals their Persona.
Game Play
Players take turns as the active player, moving clockwise around the table. Each turn consists of several phases:
Start Phase
At the start of each turn, the player does the following steps in order:
First, any abilities that say, "When you start your turn", will trigger.
Next, the active player refreshes all Followers and Primes in their party.
Finally, the active player draws a card from the top of their deck. (If you go first, don't draw a card during your first turn).
Middle Phase
During the middle of the turn, the active player can do any of the following things in any order:
Play a card (if that player hasn't played a card yet this tu
Activate an ability of a Follower or Prime (if that Follow or Prime is refreshed).
Initiate a duel (if the players' Champion is refreshed and player hasn't dueled yet this turn).
End Phase
Once a player decides that they are finished with their turn, perform the following steps in order:
Any abilities that say, "When you end your turn", will trigger.
The active player discards down to their maximum hand size, if necessary. (By default, a player's maximum hand size is seven cards).
All damage is removed from Followers in play. Then the turn ends and the next turn begins.
Choosing your Persona
When you start a game of Age of Primes, you select a Prime from your deck to represent you as your Persona. Your Persona can't be defeated, so it will stay in play for the whole game (and you can't switch Personas).
In this episode, there are three different Houses and each offers three different Primes.
Your Persona will determine a lot about your strategy and your path to victory. Every Prime is different!
Your House
In Age of Primes, you play as the leader of a House - a mighty organization pursuing glory, influence and control over the colony.
There are three Houses in Episode 1: the criminal underworld of the House of Wren, the bureaucratic leadership of the Macedon Central Council, and the ambitious scientists of
Every Prime has several abilities listed on their card. (See Taren Blaine's Abilities).
-
Passive Abilities
Some of the Prime abilities are passive abilities, which means that they are always active. They do not require activation in order to function.
These abilities are always watching the game for a given condition in which it can trigger. These ablities can trigger several times a turn. (See Taren's first ability).
-
Activated Abilities
Some Prime abilities can be activated for immediate effects. These abilities are indicated by the 'Exhaust' symbol: 
Activating these abilities requires you to exhaust the Prime. (Cards can be turned sideways to show that they are exhausted).
You can't activate these abilities if the Prime is already exhausted. These abilities can only be activated during your turn.
-
Prestige Thresholds
Some Prime abilities require the game to have progressed to a minimum threshold of Prestige before they can be used. If a passive ability has a Prestige Threshold, it will not trigger until after that threshold has been passed.
It is important to note that Prestige Threshold considers all player's prestige score -- even an enemy player's score -- to determine if the necessary amount of Prestige has been accumulated.
If any player has earned the required amount of prestige, or more, then your ability is enabled.
Prestige
Prestige is a measure of how much power or influence your House has accumulated throughout the game.
Prestige can be gained from many different sources, but the most consistent method is going to be using your Prime's abilities. The first player to reach 25 Prestige wins the game.
About your Party
Your party is a group of Characters (Primes and Followers) that you have recruited to join your House. These Characters are then placed in play on the field. (See the illustration below to better understand your party's layout).
-
Primes
Your party begins with your Persona. As you recruit additional Primes, they will join your Persona in the bottom of your party (as shown). You can have any number of Primes in your party, but you will always have a Persona. (Personas can't be defeated or changed).
-
Followers
As you play the game, you will recruit Followers to join your party. You can have a maximum of five Followers and they will reside in your party with your Primes. Follower will have abilities similar to Primes (as described before).
-
Unique Characters
Some Primes and Followers represent Unique Characters from the Age of Primes story. You can't have more than one Unique Character with the same name in your party at once.
If you recruit a new Unique Character with the same name as one that's already in your party, the new Unique Character will replace (see Replace on next page) the old one.
Put the old Unique Character into your Trash. Unique Characters have the diamond symbol before their name.
-
Recruiting
Playing a Follower or Primes (except your Persona) from anywhere is called Recruiting. Recruited Characters enters the field exhausted. (This prevents them from using abilities that require them to exhaust, such as activating Prime abilities or initiating duels).
The order of Followers in your party is very important. When you recruit a Follower, you choose to add them to either the front or back of the party. Once you recruit a Follower, you can't move it to a different place in your party, so make sure you choose where to recruit your Followers wisely!
-
Replacing
Once you have five Followers in your party, in order to recruit another, you first need to chose a Follower in your party to replace. When you recruit your new Follower, put it into your party in the same place as the Follower it's replacing. Simultaneously, put the old Follower into your Trash.
If your party is has five Followers, you can't recruit Token Followers (these tokens are not created by the game and do not trigger abilities for recruiting, defeating or entering the trash pile).. Therefore Tokens can't replace other Followers (even other Tokens!).
Dueling
The Follower at the front of your party is called your Champion. Your Champion's job is to fight enemy Champions and protect the rest of your party.
On your turn, your Champion can initiate a duel with an enemy Champion. Each Champion in the duel will deal damage equal to its Might to the other Champion.
If either Follower takes damage equal to or greater than its own Might, that Follower is defeated (put into the Trash). A Follower's Might score can be found in the upper right corner of its card. (
If there are no Followers in an enemy's party, your Champion can duel the enemy Persona. Your Champion will deal damage to that Prime equal to its Might.
Actions
In addition to Primes and Followers, you also can play Action cards, which represent one-time events and secret agendas to interfere with your opponents and advance your cause.
Hidden
Some cards in Age of Primes have the Hidden mechanic (See Overrule to right). Cards with Hidden are played face-down in a special zone called your hideout.
Hidden cards will stay face-down in your hideout until some condition is met. Once you've met the condition, you can turn the card face-up to perform its effects. Turning a Hidden card face-up is always optional, and you'll often want to wait for the right moment to reveal it.
Building your First Deck
In Age of Primes, it's up to you to prepare your deck before you sit down to play.
If this is your first time playing, we recommend using one of the pre-constructed theme decks included in your standard game carton, but you can also build your own deck out of the cards you own.
There are a few important rules for building your deck:
-
Your House
When you chose your Persona at the beginning of the game, also chose your House. You may not include any cards from other Houses.
However, many cards are Neutral and can be used in any deck. Neutral cards have a gray banner and do not have a house icon.
-
Deck Size
Your deck must be at least 40 cards (including your Persona). no maximum deck size.
-
Maximum Card Count
You may include a maximum of 3 copies of any particular card. (Name of card counts, in the future, different cards will have the same name!)
-
Extra Primes
Your deck must contain at least one Prime, but you can play more if you'd like.
Building your Collection
Decks and booster packs in Age of Primes aren't randomized--when you open a pack, you know exactly what you're getting. Each episode contains a number of theme decks, rare boosters, and premium packs.
-
Theme Decks
Theme Decks are pre-constructed decks that contain one copy of each rare and three copies of each common. The decks are designed to provide all of the cards required for casual game play.
You can see if a card is rare or common by looking at the text in the lower right corner. Rare cards will also have an outline around the text box the same color as its house!
-
Rare Boosters
A Rare Booster is a pack that will contain two copies of each rare from a given deck. This allows competitive players to acquire a complete set of their best cards. A Rare Booster is available for each Theme Deck.
-
Premium Packs
For the competitive collector who can't get enough Age of Primes, our Premium Packs includes powerful cards that can't be found anywhere else.
Premium Packs also include special collector's items, such as alternate arts or even foil versions of your favorite cards.
End of the Game
The game ends when any player reaches 25 Prestige. If one player has more Prestige than anyone else, that player wins the game.
If there is a tie for the highest Prestige, the game continues until the tie is broken.
Continue Reading
