Hero Realms

To set up Hero Realms, each player chooses a hero pack, which includes a unique hero card (displaying their starting health and special abilities) and a personal starting deck of ten cards. Players also receive health tokens to track their life points. A central market is created by shuffling the main deck and dealing five cards face-up. Additionally, a stack of 'Fire Gem' cards and 'Scout' cards are placed nearby as basic purchase options. Each player shuffles their personal deck, draws a starting hand of five cards (or three for the first player), and the game is ready to begin.

The primary objective of Hero Realms is to be the last player standing. Players achieve this by reducing their opponents' health to zero through combat damage. Each hero starts with a specific amount of health, and players must manage their own health while aggressively attacking others to eliminate them from the game.

A player's turn consists of several phases. First, the player draws cards up to their hand limit (usually five). Then, they play cards from their hand to generate gold (for buying new cards) and combat points (for attacking opponents or their champions). Actions and champions played may have special abilities that trigger immediately or persist. After playing cards, the player can use their accumulated gold to buy cards from the central market or basic stacks, adding them to their discard pile. Combat points are then used to attack opponents' champions or directly attack an opponent's hero. Finally, all played and unspent cards are moved to the discard pile, and any exhausted champions are prepared for the next turn.

Scoring in Hero Realms is straightforward: it's all about reducing your opponents' health. Each player starts with a set amount of health, typically tracked with tokens. When a player takes damage from combat, their health is reduced. If a player's health drops to zero or below, they are eliminated from the game. There are no victory points or other complex scoring mechanisms; survival is the sole measure of success.

The game concludes immediately when only one player remains with any health points. That player is declared the winner. In games with more than two players, this means eliminating all other opponents. The game can be quite dynamic, with sudden shifts in power and quick eliminations.