Okay, I've got it. It's a little
Everyone: lies! complicated but bear with me.
Ideally, it's a 3-4+ player game. 2 wouldn't be fun at all. The more, the merrier, although with more players, you may need more equipment (cards, dice).
Players take turns navigating around a scaled down and not-accurate-at-all rendition of Kattelox, or a similar island with labyrinthine ruins.
The ruin is divided into 5 colours/sections/areas. 4 'ruin' areas where most of the action takes place, and the outer 'green' area represents the island overworld and is largely safe but terribly boring and uneventful. In the example board, each 'ruin' section has 16 tiles (16x4 = 64), and the overworld has 50. There are also 3 entrances into the central ruins - two on the sides equally close to the town, and one at the bottom, the benefit of which tends to be situational.
The outer green area has no cards, no battles or events or items, and is simply the area between the ruin entrances and the town. There are four 'R' tiles in the corners, signifying allowing another movement roll if one lands on it to make progress through this area slightly faster. Turns spent in the outer green area instead of in the ruins are effectively wasted, as they have little benefit except as a means to stay safe en route to and from the town.
Each 'ruin' section has a random quarter of a larger single set of play cards. These play cards consist of
Battle cards - Reaverbots, Bosses, Rivals;
Item cards - Refractors, Health Items, Weapons; and
Event cards - which trigger some gameplay or statistic effect.
Players start in the town and are assigned a d4 as a 'weapon die' (mechanic explained below) and 5HP. On their turn, roll a d6 (or a d4) for movement. On any turn, players can move forward or backward from their standing position the number of squares equal to their roll. At intersections, players can choose which path to take except turning around. Players cannot turn around for any reason once moving unless they hit a dead end (at which point players turn around and continue their turn; players do not stop at a dead end unless they would normally finish on the last square).
Once players have exhausted their movement allotment, a certain number of cards are drawn from the area's card pile. While most squares will only result in a single card, there are x2 and x3 multiplier tiles in the ruins - one of each in each of the 4 sections - that call for 2, or 3 cards (respectively) when landed on.
Once the cards are drawn, but before they're shown, the player has the opportunity to use any items in their inventory (as many as they wish). Then the cards are revealed. Any event cards are acted on first, then any battle cards, and finally item cards are collected at the end.
During a battle, the HP of all drawn battle cards are added together into a single large number. The player must roll their weapon dice; if the weapon dice's combined number is higher, the player wins the fight. If the number is lower, the player loses. If the number is equal, the player must roll again.
If a player wins a fight, they get 100 zenny for each HP of the defeated enemies (6HP = 600z, for instance), and the battle cards go into the discard pile. If a player loses, the player loses 1HP per battle card, and forfeits the right to claim any drawn item cards; both battle cards and item cards get sent to the bottom of the area's deck in a random order.
If a player loses all their health, they forfeit all items currently in their inventory (they get sent to the discard pile) and the player is immediately relocated to the town and sold 3HP (costing 600z, if the player has less than this, their entire amount).
Players can, at any time, make their way back to town to sell items (for the amounts shown on the card), purchase items (for double the amount shown, and the town must possess the card), purchase HP (200z per HP, up to a maximum of 10 at any given time), sell dice (die's maximum value x 100z), or purchase new weapon dice (die's maximum value x 1000z; player cannot own more than 3 dice, nor the maximum value for all dice combined exceed '50').
Players can conduct as much buying and selling as they wish during a single turn. Business is to occur at the beginning of one's turn before rolling/moving, not upon arrival.
Weapon dice represent the player's "attack strength" in battle. A player can have up to 3 dice (with a max combined roll totaling up to 50). Buying additional, stronger dice from the town is key to winning the game, as the game's boss fights and higher end reaverbots cannot be tackled with the initial weapon die you're provided. Dice can be purchased from the town at a cost of (max roll) * 1000z; for instance, a d2 (a coin) would cost 2,000z, a d6 would cost 6,000z, and a d20 would cost 20,000z.
Towns (and by extension, players) should supply a healthy quantity of various sided dice for the game - d2s/coins, d4s, d6s, d10s or d12s, and d20s are recommended to have. When using coins, 'heads' is to be considered a '1', and 'tails' is to be considered a '2'.
Weapon dice should not be confused for the movement die, which will remain a single d4 or d6 in ordinary situations throughout the game.
Players can sell or trade items, money, and weapon dice between each other at any time. HP cannot be traded. Prices need to be negotiated between the two parties and are not set in stone. As with the town, all business must occur at the beginning of one's turn, before moving.
If the player is in a town, and buys goods, they can immediately trade/resell the goods to another player. Likewise, they can immediately sell goods to the town that they acquire from other players.
If a player lands on a tile currently occupied by another player, a duel between them will take place, unless BOTH players agree to pass. During a duel, players are permitted to wager/bet money or items. Once wagers are agreed on, both players' weapon dice are rolled; the player with the higher sum wins and gets the wagered possessions, and the player with the lower sum loses and is damaged 1HP. After the duel, the player's turn continues normally, drawing cards, etc.
The game is won when someone finally beats Juno, the hardest battle card in the game at 35HP. The rest of the players are ranked by their zenny + item value amounts at the end of the game.
Examples of cards:
A typical battle card with 6HP. These battle cards make up more than half of the deck of cards. Values would range from 1HP for guaranteed fights to an upper reasonable limit of 15-18HP or so.
Boss cards. Basically unique, high value battle cards. Only a handful in the deck. HP ranges from 15 to 32HP, and Juno getting 35HP.
An event card. These are a minority, around 10% or so.
Item cards. These take up about 30%
