How to buy trading cards

The Ethernomicon website uses Metamask, an extension that lets your browser interact with the Ethereum blockchain. If you need to install Metamask, visit https://metamask.io/ and follow the instructions to install and start interacting with the blockchain.

Once setup, you should have the Metamask fox logo in the top right of your browser - click on it to login and setup your wallet if you haven’t already done so. You will also need to get some 'Ether', usually by visiting a crypto currency exchange (e.g. coinbase, coinjar etc.) - see how to buy Ether.

When you purchase a pack of Ethernomicon Trading Cards a Metamask pop up box should appear with default values of what you need to pay. You can tweak the gas price to make your transaction go faster if you're in a hurry. (For more information on the current gas price have a look at ether gas station).

Buying cards requires two steps; first you need to place an order, and then you will need to collect the cards once they're created. (Assuming you're buying cards from our website, the site takes care of this for you - it will show an 'order' button, which then changes to 'pending' and finally 'collect' about 30 seconds later when your cards are ready).

The Ethernomicon Pre-Sale will begin in late October, prior to the first release (planned for December, and which includes basic game play). The pre-sale will have 64 card types, which will be enough to play the basic game. Of these, 16 card types won’t ever be released again...

Game Play

Ethernomicon is a deck based game, where players play increasingly powerful sets of cards that build on previously played cards.

The foundation card is a Location - an area of arcane power - which provides a number of "Mythos Points" used to play other cards (Monsters, Investigators and Items) in the same round. Locations also have "Mystery", representing how hard they are to investigate, and 'aspects' that buff monsters with matching aspects.

Game Play has four phases, each of which is simultaneous.

1. Both players simultaneously reveal a location and up to one Monster, Investigator and Item with a combined cost up to the Mythos Points of the Location.
2. Investigators examine enemy locations. They roll an eight sided die for every point of 'investigate' they have, with a success on a roll of 6-8. Every success decreases the "Mystery" of the target location by one - if it goes to zero the Location is removed.
3. Monsters attack investigators. Any new monsters (only) do psychic damage, rolling their mental attack against ALL investigators' sanity. (effectively a burst attack for new monsters.) Any investigators who drop to zero sanity or below go mad, and become cultists working for the opposing player. Then Monsters physically attack any surviving investigators one on one, damaging the investigator's health.
4. Finally, Investigators counter-attack, using their own 'attack' skill against a Monster's health.

The basic game lasts seven rounds, and each round allows a location of one greater cost (for instance San Francisco has a cost of one so it can be played in the first round, while R'lyeh has a cost of seven, and can only be played in the last round.

Strategy revolves around a broad choice as to whether to concentrate on attacking enemy locations, monsters or investigators, whether to focus on weak pyschic attacks with a chance of bringing the enemy over to your own side, or stronger physical attacks. Most important is building combination decks where the aspects of locations buff monsters, and the skills of investigators align with the item cards played.