How to play Ruins

Ruins is a climbing card game by John D. Clair in which rival expeditions race to excavate a lost world. Each round you try to play every ruin card out of your hand before your opponents do: someone leads a set of matching ruins, and each player in turn must play the same number of ruins at an equal or higher rank — or pass. Going out early is worth victory points; being the last one holding cards costs you one.

The twist is Clair's signature card-crafting. The ruin cards live in transparent sleeves, and whenever you play ruins you may permanently upgrade them — spend lit torches to slide discovery cards into the sleeve for new powers, or add one of your two claim cards so the ruin returns to you round after round. Every game the shared deck grows stronger and more personal, and the ruins you invest in keep paying you back.

Never played a climbing game? The core loop is simple: someone leads a set of cards, each player after them must beat it with the same number of cards or pass, and the last one standing leads next. Ruins builds two ideas onto that chassis — your cards improve permanently as the game goes on, and points only ever come from emptying your hand before the others.

What's in the box, and what each piece does at the table:

• 50 ruin cards (5 each of ranks 1–10) — the cards you play, follow with, and shed. Double-sided: a day side ☀ and a night side ☾ with a different rank and often a discovery effect. They live inside transparent sleeves so they can be upgraded.
• 60 card sleeves (includes 10 spares) — every ruin sits in one; upgrades are slid into the sleeve on top of the card, which is how improvements become permanent.
• 39 discovery cards (13 top, 13 middle, 13 bottom position) — transparent power cards you buy with torches and sleeve onto a ruin you just played: extra ranks, wild rank, extra ruin, draws, forced draws, or torch relights. Their color tells you which of the three sleeve positions they occupy — a ruin fits at most one of each.
• 10 claim cards (2 per player, in your color) — transparent ownership markers. Sleeve one onto a ruin you play (free) and from then on, whoever is dealt that ruin at the start of a round must hand it to you. One use each per game.
• 15 torch tokens (3 per player) — your crafting currency. Flip lit → extinguished to pay for discoveries; everyone relights them at the end of each round, and some discoveries relight them mid-round.
• 4 market tokens — sit above the row of face-up discoveries and set each one's torch price; discoveries slide toward the cheaper end as the market refills.
• 1 scoreboard + 5 score markers — the VP track (0–10) plus the chart of going-out awards at the top (1st place earns the most). Flip it to the side matching your player count.
• 1 scoring tile (2–3 players) — covers the scoreboard's award chart with the correct values for small tables.
• 1 round marker — counts rounds 1–4; if nobody has won when it leaves round 4, the Showdown decides the game.
• 5 player aids — turn-order and icon reminders for each player.

A game lasts at most 4 rounds (plus, sometimes, a final Showdown). Every round has the same rhythm — get 9 ruins, race to play them all, score by finishing order. Here's a round from the top:

1. Flip one ruin to night (optional). Each player may secretly flip 1 ruin in hand from day ☀ to night ☾ — permanently. Do it to build a set (turn a lonely 6 into a second 4) or because you want the night side's discovery effect on that card forever. It keeps every upgrade it already carries.
2. Lead. The first player plays any single ruin or set of same-rank ruins — say, a pair of 4s. The lead sets the count everyone must match for this exchange.
3. Follow or pass, around the table. Each player in turn must play exactly as many ruins at an equal or higher rank, or pass. Passing is safe — you stay in the round and act again next turn. Matching the previous rank exactly skips the next player. When everyone but one player has passed in a row, the pile is discarded and the last player to play leads fresh.
4. Craft when you play. Whenever you play ruins — never on a pass — you may upgrade them: flip lit torches to sleeve market discoveries into them (up to 3 per ruin, one per position), and/or add a claim for free so the ruin returns to you every round. Upgrades are forever, and their effects work for whoever plays the card later. Legality is judged after crafting, so you may play a "wrong" card and immediately craft it legal.
5. Go out. Play your last ruin and immediately score the award for your finishing position (the scoreboard shows the values — going out 1st is worth the most, 5 VP on the standard chart). Everyone else keeps playing; the last player still holding cards ends the round and loses 1 VP.

A quick exchange, played out. Ana leads a pair of 4s. Beto answers with two 7s and flips a torch to sleeve a +2 discovery into one of them — that card is now a 9 for the rest of the game. Carla passes, saving her pair of 10s for a lead she controls. Diego plays his own two 7s: equal rank, so Ana's turn is skipped. Beto and Carla both pass — Diego was the last to play, so the pile is discarded and he leads whatever he likes.

Then the round resets: torches relight, all ruins — upgrades included — shuffle back together, everyone gets a new hand of 9, claimed ruins go home to their owners, and the player with the fewest VP leads the next round.

There are two ways to win, and both demand going out first:

• Instant win — if you start a round with 9 or 10 VP and are the first to go out that round, you win immediately; the others don't even finish the round. Note the cap: you can never hold more than 10 VP, so at the top of the track only going out first matters.
• The Showdown — if nobody has won by the end of round 4, the player who went out first in round 4 and the opponent (or tied opponents) with the most VP play one final round. Whoever goes out first in the Showdown wins, regardless of score.

Strategically, VP get you to the finish line but never across it — you must convert a strong scoring position into one last fast exit. Invest torches in ruins you claim so your best cards return every round, and remember that upgrades stay in the shared deck: a monster you build but don't claim can come back in a rival's hand.