# Operating the Cinder Vault Instructions for a fifth player, a rotating Dungeon caller, and the optional Dungeon Director variant. ## Recommended first test: deterministic automa The balance baseline uses no hidden Dungeon decisions. A fifth player may narrate and operate it, or the adventurers may rotate the caller role. The caller reads cards, moves counters, rolls the Dungeon d20, and applies the protocol below; the caller does not choose a nastier legal line. If there is no fifth player, the adventurer immediately clockwise from the Focus adventurer operates the Dungeon for that turn. If that would be the Focus adventurer, use the next player clockwise. Rotate freely if somebody is resolving a complicated stack, but never change the prescribed result. ## Before the game Create a working copy of the [`playtest-session-template.md`](playtest-session-template.md) notebook. It follows the script below phase by phase and keeps round-one ambush damage, automa ambiguities, deck contributions, and the final debrief in one record. 1. Put the four Rooms in their fixed order and the two boss phases beneath the final Room. 2. Shuffle the Encounter cards within their four minimum-stage chapters. Make stage 1 the Encounter library, keep stages 2–4 face down in the Chapter zone, then place the top two stage-1 cards face up in Reserve, oldest left. 3. Create four tapped Depth land tokens under Dungeon control and put the trackers where every player can read them. 4. Read the shared-life, vitality-gate, collective-blocking, and Dungeon-roll rules aloud. 5. Tell the party that Reserve is public information. The operator never sees adventurer hands. ## The operator's script Say these lines in order each Dungeon turn: 1. **“The Dungeon readies.”** Untap and resolve upkeep abilities. On the first Dungeon turn of the round, create one tapped Depth land token; it enters without being played. 2. **“The seal opens.”** Only if Sealed: reveal and set up the next stage, then shuffle its chapter and put that chapter on top of the Encounter library. 3. **“The vault chooses its focus.”** Roll the Dungeon d20, name the initiative position and adventurer, then read the current Room's lair result. 4. **“The vault remembers.”** Draw the top Encounter face up into Reserve. 5. **“The oldest threat moves.”** Cast the leftmost legal Reserve card. Announce every target and mode before passing priority. 6. **“The denizens attack.”** Skip this line on the first Dungeon turn of the round. On the second, turn every able Dungeon creature toward Focus. 7. **“The vault closes.”** Resolve end-step text and discard Reserve down to four, oldest first. This consistent narration is functional: it gives the stack-comfortable pilot a clear response window and prevents the operator from skipping a step. ## Focus and target selection During setup, set Focus to Lead. The single Dungeon d20 replaces Focus using the current initiative order: - 1–5: position one - 6–10: position two - 11–15: position three - 16–20: position four The roll never changes because of target legality, and Focus remains until the next Focus roll. When a specific Dungeon spell or ability cannot legally target Focus, try the remaining adventurers clockwise in initiative order without rerolling. Dungeon attacks still go to Focus even when a spell or ability could not target that player. Encounter cards use one of these printed target labels: - **Commander:** a legal designated commander controlled by Focus; otherwise use Anchor. - **Anchor:** Focus's legal nonland permanent with greatest mana value. - **Vanguard:** the party's legal creature with greatest power. - **Focus Vanguard:** Focus's legal noncommander creature with greatest power. - **Focus's two Vanguards:** Focus's two legal creatures with greatest power, choosing two whenever able. - **Party nonlegendary Vanguard choice:** choose the party's nonlegendary creature with greatest power. This is a choice rather than a target only when the Encounter text says “choose.” - **Engine:** the party's legal permanent with a repeatable activated or triggered ability, then greatest mana value. - **Supply:** the party's legal artifact or enchantment with greatest mana value. - **Weak point:** Focus's legal permanent with lowest mana value. Break target ties in this order: nontoken before token, higher printed mana value, English card name alphabetically, then earlier initiative position. ## Modes, costs, and sacrifices When the Dungeon controls an object: - “May” means yes unless doing so directly reduces Dungeon Vitality, destroys Vhal-Kez, or sacrifices the active Room objective. - Choose the first legal printed mode unless the Encounter metadata names a mode protocol. - Use the printed automa value for X. Without one, X is zero. - The Dungeon never pays optional mana or life. It pays mandatory nonmana costs if able, using a token first and then its lowest-mana-value permanent. - When it must discard, discard the oldest legal Reserve card. - When it must sacrifice, sacrifice the lowest-mana-value token, then the lowest-mana-value nontoken. Break ties alphabetically. - If the primary instruction has no legal object, use the card's printed fallback. If neither can happen, leave the card in Reserve and cast the next oldest castable card. - A card marked `second-dungeon-turn` is not castable during the first Dungeon turn. Leave it in Reserve and use the next oldest castable card. Cards without a deterministic legal action are metadata errors. Record them; do not improvise a stronger substitute. ## Dungeon attacking All ready Dungeon creatures attack Focus during the second Dungeon turn of the round. The first Dungeon turn has no combat. The operator does not hold a creature back unless it has defender, “can't attack,” or a printed automa rule that says it remains on guard. A creature cast in the first Dungeon turn may attack in the second; one cast in the second needs haste. The party declares blocks with any untapped creatures it controls. The operator assigns combat damage for Dungeon creatures using normal lethal-first rules. When multiple legal damage assignments are equivalent, assign toward the blocker with greatest power, then a commander, then alphabetical name. ## Dungeon blocking The fifth player or automa controls Dungeon blockers on adventurer turns: 1. Order ready blockers by descending power, toughness, mana value, nontoken before token, then English name. Process them in that order. 2. Block the greatest-power attacker the blocker can destroy. 3. Otherwise block the greatest-power attacker it can legally block. 4. Prefer a commander when attacker power is tied. 5. Assign at most one blocker per attacker until each legal attacker has one; then double-block the greatest-power remaining attacker. 6. A creature that can block an additional attacker follows the same list again. After collective blocks against Dungeon attackers are declared, order the blockers on each attacker by greatest power, then commander, then English name, and announce the order before passing priority. Dungeon creatures assign lethal damage in that order. The attacking player never selects the Dungeon's blocks. This protocol is public and may be planned around. ## Reserve and stack handling Reserve is a face-up ordered hand with a cleanup limit of four. Add new cards on the right. Cast or discard from the left unless a card says otherwise. Four is the cleanup limit, not a hard maximum. Put overflow to the right. If two or more cards enter simultaneously, put them at the right in English-name order. During cleanup discard from the left until four remain. - The normal automa casts exactly one Encounter per Dungeon turn. - A card above the current stage is not castable. Leave it in place and use the next oldest card whose minimum stage has been reached. - A countered permanent or Tactic goes to the Dungeon graveyard normally. - A Dungeon card returned to hand enters the right side of Reserve. - Arcane Denial and other Dungeon draws add face-up Reserve cards; they are not cast immediately. - If an adventurer casts a Dungeon-owned Encounter, that adventurer makes its legal choices. Ownership does not change. - The operator does not conceal, reorder, or selectively forget Reserve cards. Depths are ordinary colorless land tokens with “{T}: Add {C}.” The Dungeon never activates that ability and has no mana pool. Other cards may count, destroy, exile, bounce, or otherwise affect a Depth normally; a Depth token that leaves the battlefield ceases to exist normally. ## Room and gate handling When damage reaches a vitality floor, stop at the printed number, place Sealed, and complete the Room transition immediately. Do not carry excess damage into the next stage. The next Dungeon turn opens the way before rolling Focus. Never let a removal spell target a Room, gate, tracker, or Sealed. Vhal-Kez is the interactable boss object; Heartbound converts the first removal or lethal event each expedition round into 8 gated Vitality loss and a tap. Reset its marker when Lead rotates. When Crown Unbound replaces Bound Warden, set the old phase aside as a scenario action, clear its damage and counters, detach attached objects, and put the new phase onto the battlefield untapped as a new object. It cannot attack during that Dungeon turn unless it gains haste. Auras go to their owners' graveyards as normal state-based actions; Equipment stays on the battlefield. ## With a dedicated fifth player For the first test, the fifth player is a **Dungeon Steward** and follows the same deterministic rules. They can provide descriptions, voices, and tactical warnings, but not new mechanics. Their aim is a legible challenge, not a surprise rules contest. After at least one baseline game, the group may try **Dungeon Director** mode: - The Director may choose any castable Reserve card instead of the oldest. - The Director chooses legal targets, attacks, blocks, modes, and sacrifices. - The Director never sees adventurer hands and cannot reorder the Encounter deck. - The Director begins with three Omen markers. Before the draw step, one Omen may put one Reserve card on the bottom of the Encounter deck and draw a replacement. Spend each Omen once. - No invented creatures, extra casts, changed numbers, or midgame difficulty adjustments are allowed. Log Director games separately. They are expected to be harder and are not the baseline used to tune Room or Encounter numbers. ## End-of-game log Record at minimum: - Doom and Party Life at the end. - The round each vitality gate was reached. - The first meaningful D20 turn and one signature contribution for each deck. - Every dead Reserve card, ambiguous target, unclear block, or emergency ruling. - How many Encounter spells Mathise answered or reused. - Whether Delina borrowed or copied a Monster. - How many Dragon Spirits Vrondiss created and used. - Whether Wyll's myriad, melee, and Veteran Soldier scaling felt materially weaker against one opponent. - A 1–5 score for clarity, agency, character identity, and difficulty, plus a 1–5 burden score where lower is better.