"It is the near future; Earth. Years ago, scientists successfully constructed the Belief Engine, a machine that warps reality based on peoples’ strongly held beliefs. The machine was turned on for testing, but it proved too sensitive: widespread belief in the depravity of man and fears of social collapse suddenly took on the full force of objective fact, and science skepticism rendered the Engine’s creators helpless to intervene. Without resort to a shared external reality, civilization crumbled like a sand castle in the tide.
“From the ruins have now arisen cults led by charismatic, messianic figures possessed of seemingly divine powers derived from the still-functioning Engine. You are one such a figure—the true one, the Messiah. It is God’s will that you build temples and marshal followers, then mold their beliefs to perform miracles and destroy your rivals. They’ll be doing the same, but don’t worry–God is on your side…”
How it’s played
Rounds go player by player, with each individual player turn broken up into phases:
- Beginning (reset any praying followers to active status; recruit followers and build temples; draw back up to 6 cards);
- Action (move units, have followers on temples pray to produce belief, use belief to perform miracles);
- Combat (adjacent enemy units attack one another according to deterministic rules);
- End (discard down to 3 cards, loot any empty enemy temple you have units left adjacent to, make sure you have enough units left to support the continued functioning of your own temples).
Each round ends with the Market, in which players make secret bids on an assortment of 5-7 miracle cards. Bidders get to spend their bid on up to 2 cards, with high bidders buying first. Purchased cards are placed into each player’s discard pile, eventually to be cycled back into their decks Dominion-style.
A player wins by slaying an enemy messiah, by reducing an enemy to less than 4 followers, by capturing an enemy’s holy city, or by reducing an enemy to less than 8 miracle cards.