Description

In Cradle: Creator's Challenge, you are a Creator. In the name of competition, you and your rival will conjure a world unlike any ever before conceived. Sweeping plains, rugged mountains and deep oceans spring into existence at your command, twisting and crashing into your rival's lands in a colossal battle of will. Then—by your grace—the world will be filled with life; be it by brawn or brain, your creations will vie for dominance. Fanged monstrosities, indomitable swordsmen, educated scholars, suave traders... Anything you can imagine, you may create; the Challenge will support their method of battle with a single system of resolution.

The Challenge is between two Creators, each with uniform tools at their disposal. Play is divided into two Phases: In Phase I, Creators alternate playing Tiled Cards to create a map, and use octagonal Origin Points to set where their Creations spawn from. In Phase II, Body & Soul Cards are paired together to make 3 Creations per team. After their Creator describes them, pawns are placed on the map to represent them. As pawns are moved around the map, they will come into conflict with Rival Creations. Conflict is resolved by rolling 1 to 3 six-sided dice. A continually exchanged Event Card assigned to each Creation provides aid or presents challenges as the game unfolds, typically by modifying the number of dice rolled.

By rolling successfully, Creations will lose Heart. When Heart is reduced to zero, the Creations is removed from the map. Origin Points have no Heart and are removed from the map when rolled against successfully, but are much harder to succeed against. The game is over when one side has lost both Origin Points or all 3 Creations. That side loses.