Dominion is a game of building a deck of cards. Each player has their own deck, their own
discard pile, their own hand of cards and play area. Players start with a weak initial deck and
gradually acquire better cards over the course of the game.
Players take turns. Each turn has three phases: Action, then Buy, then Clean-up, which you can
remember as ABC. In the Action phase, you can play one Action card from your hand; in the Buy
phase, you can play any number of Treasure cards and then buy one card to add to your deck;
and in Clean-up you sweep up all of your cards from play and from your hand and discard them,
then draw a new hand of 5 cards, shuffling as needed.
The game ends after 3 piles are empty or the Province pile is empty; then players count up the
on all of their cards, and the player with the most wins.
In your Action phase, you can play one Action card from your hand. Those are cards that say
"Action" on the bottom, and by default have a white banner (some are other colors due to
additional types). Playing an Action card has three steps: announcing it; moving it to the "in
play" area - the table space in front of you; and following the instructions on it, in order, top to
bottom. If the card has a dividing line (e.g. Moat), you stop there; instructions below the line
happen at some other time (indicated). If you cannot do everything a card tells you to do, you
do as much as you can; you can still play a card even if you know you will not be able to do
everything it tells you to.
Some cards give "+1 Action." This increases how many Action cards you can play in a turn. The
increase happens right then, but you do not play the next Action card until completely finishing
the first one. Some cards give "+2 Actions"; that means you can play two more Action cards that
turn.
So, for example, if you play Militia, which does not give +Actions, you resolve Militia and are
done with your Action phase. But you could instead play a Market, then another Market, then a
Militia; each Market gives you +1 Action, which lets you keep playing Actions.
Using up your Actions is optional; you can have an Action card left in hand that you can play,
and decide not to play it.
Card name
+1 Action Instructions Dividing line
to follow
Happens at a
different time
Action type
4
