How to Play Crisis within Time
Learn the basics in 5 minutes. Command your deck, roll the dice pool, and outlast your rivals.
The game in four steps
The short version. The full setup, the round and every icon are further down this page.
Pick your deck
Select your Elseborn box. Take your 50 HP tracker, place your 3 Hero Ability cards face down, and shuffle your 30-card Action Deck.
Play and target
Play an Action Card from your hand, name an opponent as your target and announce your attack. Your opponent can play a counter-card or brace for the roll.
Roll the dice pool
Roll the number of dice shown on your played card. Calculate hits against defense values and apply direct damage to the target's HP tracker.
Switch sides or outlast
In Arena mode, form temporary pacts with your tablemates, or betray them the moment they show weakness. In Alliance mode, fight alongside your ally and lead your team to victory. But whatever the mode, never forget the goal: be the last one standing.
Three modes,
one box
The mode is decided before the first card is dealt. Nothing else about the setup changes.
Duel
Two players, one fight per round. The cleanest way to learn the game and the hardest place to hide.
Arena
Free-for-all. Anyone can start a fight with anyone, and the player in front is rarely the one who stays there.
Alliance
Teams. Once per game you can call for help. Your ally adds a card to your side, but you do not get to choose which one.
Setting up
Six steps, the same in every mode. Two minutes once you have done it before.
Pick an Elseborn box
One character each. Whoever is teaching should take the one they know.
Set your hitpoints to 50
The HP tracker in the box holds the number. Everyone starts level.
Take five Hero Abilities, keep three
They stay face down in front of you for the whole game. Nobody else knows which three you kept.
Build a deck of thirty
Every blue and yellow card from your box goes in, then fill up to thirty with the rest.
Shuffle and draw
Your opening hand is one card more than the number of players at the table.
Decide who starts
The player who time-travelled most recently. If you cannot agree on that, roll, and the lowest roll starts.
The round
Three phases, in order, every time. The whole game is this loop until one player is left standing.
Initialization
Placement
Resolve
Three kinds
of card
Every card in your hand is an attack, a defense and a measure of your luck at the same time. What changes is when you are allowed to play it.
Action
The large diamond is the Pool: how many dice you roll when the card resolves. This is the card you lead with.
Instant
Carries a Pool and a Modifier. Played during Placement, on top of whatever is already on the table.
Ability
The three Hero Abilities you kept at setup. They sit face down all game and activate during Placement.
What the icons do
Eight effects. Learn these and you have learned the game.
Now pick who you are
Ten Elseborn, each with its own way of winning. The pack you choose decides how many of them sit on your table.
