OffTrack

Goal

Harvest the front of a collapsing branch. The high score wins each round and the match, unless the table plays for the low score. 2–4 players. Hand of 5. Three rounds.

The table

Prime starts with 4 character cards and never collapses. The character deck is one copy of each figure, unless the table plays a double deck. Each era runs −2, −1, 0, +1, +1, +2, +3, +4, +5. Action cards have their own deck. Branches are fuses: the moment one branch itself holds 7 cards, that branch collapses. You score only its harvest edge. The other cards are boxed until the next round. The empty branch stays. Two shorter branches are never harvested together. A second branch that also reaches 7 on the same turn waits until your next turn. At most two branches, unless the house rules say otherwise.

You add cards at the newest end. The harvest edge is the oldest end, unless a Paradox Loop has flipped that line.

Your turn

Do one:

1. Append a character to Prime or a branch that is not quarantined. Older cards on that line with a lower point value are collected into your score. If the new card shares an era with the card beside it, and the line is at least 3 long, the harvest edge slides to sit just before the new card.
2. Cycle. Discard one or more cards (or none, if your hand is empty) and draw back to 5. You may cycle only once in a row. Play a character before you cycle again.

After an append or a cycle, draw back to 5. Then you may draw an action. Play it now, hold it until your next turn, or take no action. A held action comes up before you append or cycle. You may discard a revealed action instead of playing it. Discarding a held action lets the turn continue. Discarding one drawn at the end of the turn ends it. A house rule, Every turn, draws that action for you. You still play it or discard it.

Action cards

Hold an action to play it at the start of your next turn, before you append or cycle. That is the useful window for Paradox Loop: it lasts only for the rest of the turn you play it.

• The Shear. Choose a card. Every card past it becomes a new branch. If no branch can open, you score the first card past your target and box the rest of that tail.
• Mend. Score the front card of a branch, then move the rest, in order, onto another open line. It cannot join onto a branch if that line would reach 7. Prime can take the rest and does not collapse. The empty branch stays.
• Quantum Shunt. Move one card onto the end of a different timeline.
• Recall. Move one card to the harvest edge of its own line, then collect every other card on that line with a lower point value.
• Paradox Loop. Flip which end you add to, and which end scores, for the rest of your turn. Hold it if you want the flip in place before you append.
• Redeem. Choose a line that has a negative card. Every negative character on that line becomes its positive value for the rest of the round.
• Quarantine. Seal a timeline against appends, shunts, shears, and collapses until your next turn. Quarantine on Prime is a skip when no other line is open.
• Breach. On an open branch of at least 2 cards, score the front card and leave the rest. A sealed line is opened and does not also score that card. Prime cannot be breached unless it is sealed.

End

When the character deck and discard are both empty, finish the turn order and score the round. Every character then returns: hands, timelines, the box, and score piles. The next round deals a fresh deck. An empty action deck does not end the game. Cards still in hands or on timelines score nothing that round. Equal scores tie the round. The match goes to the best total of the round scores. Equal match totals tie.