R.I.P. Market

1. What Is This Game?

R.I.P. Market is a round-based card battle royale for 2–10 players (best with 4–8). Every round, each player draws a card — from the deck or from the face-up Market — and plays exactly one card. Cards are numbered 2 to 8, and the number is your score... usually. Every card also carries a special effect, and the rule of thumb is:

At the end of each round, the player with the lowest score takes 1 damage. Run out of health and you die — but death is not the end. You return as a Ghost, armed with a hand of Shadow Cards, and spend the rest of the game blessing and cursing the living. The last player alive wins.

2. Components

• The Living Deck (64 cards) — numbered cards (2–8) with effects: score manipulation, market tampering, rule flips, and deception. This is the central draw deck.
• The Shadow Deck (32 cards) — unnumbered blessing/curse cards used only by Ghosts. Every Shadow Card targets a specific living player and always has counterplay.
• The Market — a row of face-up Living cards any player may buy from on their turn.
• Health trackers — dice, coins, or tokens to track each player's HP (2 per player).
• First Player token — marks who leads the round (a coin works fine).

3. Setup

1. Shuffle the Living Deck and place it face-down in the center of the table.
2. Shuffle the Shadow Deck and place it face-down to the side, within reach of everyone.
3. Flip the top cards of the Living Deck face-up in a row to form the Market: 3 cards for 2–6 players, 4 cards for 7–10 players.
4. Deal 3 cards from the Living Deck to each player. This is their starting hand.
5. Give each player 2 HP.
6. Choose a starting player at random and give them the First Player token.

4. Structure of a Round

A round is one full pass around the table. Players act one at a time, in turn order, starting with the First Player and proceeding clockwise. When every living player has played one card, the round ends and scores are settled.

Hand Limit

There is no hand limit for living players. Hoarding cards is a legitimate strategy — but you still only ever play one card per round, and a big hand doesn't score points by itself.

5. End of Round — Scoring & Damage

Once every living player has played a card, resolve the round in this exact order:

1. Apply ongoing effects. Rule flips, board-wide modifiers, and Shadow Card conditions are all applied now. Each player's final score = base value of their played card ± all active modifiers.
2. Find the lowest final score. That player takes 1 damage.
3. Find the highest final score. That player takes the First Player token and acts first next round.
4. Clean up. All played Living cards go to the Living discard pile. All Shadow Cards expire and go to the Shadow discard pile. Any "this round" effects end.

6. Death, Ghosts & the Shadow Deck

Elimination is never elimination. When a player drops to 0 HP:

1. Discard their entire hand to the Living discard pile.
2. They draw 2 Shadow Cards from the Shadow Deck. They are now a Ghost.
3. Ghosts keep their seat and their place in the turn order.

How Shadow Cards Work

• Shadow Cards target the card a living player plays this round. Their conditions are checked when that card is played and at round resolution (e.g. Possession: "If the attached card has an Even base value, it loses 3 value").
• Shadow Cards can be curses (penalties) or blessings (bonuses with strings attached). A Ghost may target any living player — friend, foe, or kingmaker.
• Counterplay is mandatory by design: every Shadow Card has a condition the victim can play around (play an odd card, play a low card, exorcise it with a Living card effect, etc.). Attached Shadow Cards are played face-up — the victim always knows what's haunting them before they choose their card.
• Shadow Cards expire at the end of the round and go to the Shadow discard pile.

Winning the Game

The moment only one living player remains, the game ends immediately — that player wins. Finish the current turn only; do not finish the round.

7. Anatomy of a Card

Element	Meaning
Value (2–8)	Living cards only. The base score the card contributes when played. Shadow Cards have no value.
Rules text	The card's effect. Resolved immediately when played, or at the timing the text describes. Text always overrides the core rules.
RULE FLIP / RULE SHIFT	Cards with these keywords change the fundamental rules of the round (e.g. Low Tide makes the lowest score win). If multiple rule changes conflict, the most recently played one wins.
Base value	The printed number, before any modifiers. Effects that say "base value" (e.g. Heavy Taxes) look at the printed number only.
Final score	Base value after all buffs, debuffs, Shadow conditions, and rule flips are applied.

Effect Resolution Order

1. When a card is played: resolve its "when played" text immediately, in turn order.
2. Continuous effects apply in the order they entered play; when they conflict, the most recently played effect wins.
3. At round end: apply board-wide modifiers first, then attached Shadow Card conditions, then rule flips, then compare final scores.

8. Edge Cases & FAQ

Question	Ruling
What if the Living Deck runs out?	Immediately reshuffle the Living discard pile to form a new deck. The Market stays as-is.
Can I choose not to play a card?	No. Every living player must acquire and play exactly one card each round. If your hand is somehow empty, you must draw from the deck and play what you drew.
Can card text break the core rules?	Yes — printed card text always beats the rulebook. When two cards conflict, the most recently played one wins.
Can a Ghost be forced to play a Shadow Card?	No — playing a Shadow Card is optional, but Ghosts still draw one each turn (up to the 2-card limit).
Can a Ghost win the game?	No. Ghosts are spite and kingmaker mechanics only.
What happens if a card replaces a card already in play?	The original goes to the discard pile and the replacement resolves its full printed text immediately.
Two rule flips in the same round (e.g. Low Tide then Earthquake)?	The most recently played rule change wins. Earthquake wipes everything — cards become plain numbers.
Does damage from round resolution "pass" if the lowest player is protected?	Only if a card says so (e.g. Deflection). Otherwise the damage simply lands where it lands.
Can I look through the Market before deciding to draw or buy?	Yes — the Market is face-up and public at all times. What's in your hand is private.

9. Scaling by Player Count

Players	Adjustments
2–3	Start with 3 HP each (longer duels). Market of 3 cards. In a 2-player game, when one player dies the game ends as normal — or keep playing with the Ghost rules for a "haunting the winner" epilogue round.
4–6 (standard)	Rules as written. 2 HP, Market of 3 cards.
7–10	Market of 4 cards. The standard 64-card Living Deck is built for this range — no changes needed. Ghost cap rises to 3 Shadow Cards in hand so the growing Ghost population doesn't stall.

10. A Worked Round

11. Full Card Reference

Rendered live from cards.json (… designs). This section always matches the current card database — print it as a reference appendix. The ×N badge is the number of copies in a full deck (…).

Living Deck

Shadow Deck