Strong Star Rules

Here's how to play Strong Star!
Video: https://youtu.be/bYzDfeYBk3U?si=s20-aVM3LyqvPEqS

2 - 6 Players
15 - 25 Minutes 

 

Goal:
Be the last player standing! So, make everyone else lose to win!
If a player has no Stars in their Leader Star Slot, or if a player tries to draw a card and their deck is empty, they lose

Pregame:
Strong Star could be considered an LCG if that means anything to you, so if that helps you in anyway then good, otherwise don't worry about it

Before the start of the game all players must have deck of 10 cards:

• The deck must include 1, 2, or 3 Star cards
• There cannot be any duplicate cards in any player's deck

The play area is set as follows:

• In front of every player there are 6 card slots in a 2 by 3 grid, their deck, and their own discard pile
• Among the top row of card slots is the Leader Star Slot in the upper left
• The 2 card slots to the right of the Leader Star Slot are both regular Star Slots
• The bottom row of card slots are all Equipment Slots for the Stars directly above them

Setup:

1. Each player selects 1 to 3 star cards from their deck to start on field, 1 of which must be in the Leader Star Slot
2. Each player then shuffles their deck and draws 3 cards
3. Choose a player to go first

Phases In a Turn:

1. The Draw Phase: You must draw a card
2. The Play Phase: You may play any amount of cards from your hand, and activate any and all of your Equipment on the board
3. The Attack Phase: You may attack opposing Stars

When Drawing a Card:
Take from your deck and put it into your hand
If your deck is empty and you attempt to draw a card, you lose the game
If your deck is empty and it is currently your turn, you enter into an Adrenaline Rush

When Playing a Card:
If it is a Star card it goes into the left most unoccupied Star Slot
If it is a Groove card, its effect activates, and then it goes into your discard pile
If it is an Equipment card it goes into any Equipment Slot replacing any other equipment that was there, Equipment cards that were replaced are put into the discard pile
Some Equipment have an On Replacement Effect, when it's replaced, the On Replacement Effect triggers

Instant Grooves:
On some Groove Cards there is the word instant, this means it is an Instant Groove and can be played at any time during any turn

When Activating Equipment:
Some Equipment have Charge, and are called Charge Equipment
Charge Equipment start with a number of Charges equal to the amount stated on the card (be sure to track these somehow, like with dice, tokens, or face down cards that weren't being used by any player) 
Each time you activate a Charge Equipment’s effect, it loses 1 Charge
You cannot activate a Charge Equipment that has 0 Charge
A Charge Equipment cannot go below 0 Charge
Charge Equipment can only be used on your turn

Attacking:
Attacking is skipped in the first round of play
When attacking, use 1 of your Stars' attacks to use against an enemy Star
If in an Adrenaline Rush you may attack with each of your Stars once
When a Star’s health reaches 0 or less, the Star is killed, when this happens, put it into the discard pile, and all Stars to the right of it move left 1 Star Slot

Leader Star Slots:
Star cards in the Leader Star Slot have their leader ability activated
Leader abilities have priority over equipment effects
Any Equipment under an empty Star Slot is considered equipped to the Leader Star Slot
If there is no Star in your Leader Star Slot you are out of the game

Health:
Health refers to the amount of total damage required to kill a Star
Remaining Health refers to the amount of damage that needs to be dealt to kill a star
Healing damage means adding back to the Remaining Health, but not above the Health
Equipment that adds Health to a Star also heals the Star by that amount, and when the Equipment is unequipped, the Star takes damage by that amount