A strategic trading card game set in the infinite corridors of the Backrooms. Navigate the levels. Manage your Sanity. Survive what lives in the many rooms. Build a deck. Survive. Or don't.
// INCIDENT REPORTS — FEATURED CARDS
// RESTRICTED — FACILITY ARCHIVE
SEARCH THE COMPLETE INCIDENT LOG. ALL ENTITIES. ALL LOCATIONS. ALL HAZARDS.
// PROCUREMENT TERMINAL — OPEN ACCESS
Every pack is a new level. What will you find inside?
// FACILITY MANUAL — SURVIVAL PROTOCOL
STUDY THIS DOCUMENT. YOUR SANITY DEPENDS ON IT.
Liminal TCG is a strategic trading card game set in the infinite, humming corridors of the Backrooms. Players build decks from four card types; Rooms, Entities, Items, and Events. Compete to outlast one another by making your opponents go insane while navigating a shared, constantly changing field.
The game is built around a central shared field that all players interact with simultaneously. Every Room and Entity on the field affects everyone unless you own it. Knowing when to play your cards, when to remove what's on the field, and how to protect your Sanity is the core of survival.
Every player constructs their own deck of exactly 50 cards before the game begins. The recommended composition is a starting point. Experienced players may adjust within the legal limits.
Each deck is subject to strict limits on card copies. These exist to prevent any single card from dominating a game and to enforce variety in your strategy.
You must have a minimum of 5 cards of any one type in your deck. You cannot build a deck that excludes a type entirely below this threshold.
All players share a single central field. There is no separation between player zones for field cards — Rooms and Entities affect every wanderer present unless ownership rules apply.
The player who places a card onto the shared field is its owner. Ownership matters in two ways: owners are immune to their own card's passive penalties (such as Sanity gained per turn), and on their ownership phase, the owner effect takes place.
The shared Room slot must never be empty. If there is no current Room card in play at any point, immediately place the Frontrooms card into the Room slot. The Frontrooms card is a neutral, effect-free room that exists outside all player decks.
Follow these steps in order before the first turn begins.
If all players decide to do a different sanity than 30, then all players must agree upon an starting sanity value.
Each player separates their deck by card type. Rooms and Events are placed together into one pile. Entities form a second pile. Items form a third pile. Each pile is shuffled separately.
All players roll a die. The player with the highest result goes first. Ties are rerolled between the tied players. Turn order proceeds clockwise from the first player.
Each player draws their starting hand: 4 Room/Event cards, 2 Entity cards, and 2 Item cards. The Frontrooms card is placed in the Room slot to begin.
Each player's turn proceeds through eight phases in strict order. You must complete one phase before moving to the next.
Activate the effect of the current Room card in the shared Room slot unless you are its owner. If you own the current Room, the effects do not happen to you.
Draw one card from any of your three decks (Room/Event, Entity, or Item). Choose freely based on what your hand needs.
You may pay the removal cost of the current Room card to remove it from the field. If removed, the Frontrooms card replaces it unless another Room is immediately played. You are not required to move.
You may pay the removal cost of the current Entity in the shared Entity slot to remove it from the field. You are not required to do so.
You may play any number of cards from your hand onto the field by paying their play costs. You may place a Room, an Entity, Items into your Item slots, or an Event into the Event slot. Costs may not be reduced below 0.
Activate the effect of the current Entity in the shared Entity slot unless you are its owner. If you own the current Entity, the effects do not happen to you.
Activate all ownership effects of every card currently on the field that you own. This phase is skipped entirely on the very first player's turn of the game.
Declare your turn is over. If you have zero cards in hand at this moment, you may draw one extra card before passing. The player to your left now begins their turn.
There are four card types in Liminal TCG, each with a distinct set of features printed on the card face.
Rooms occupy the single shared Room slot. Every player is subject to a Room's effects unless they own it. Rooms define the environment all wanderers currently inhabit.
Entities occupy the single shared Entity slot. Like Rooms, they affect all players who don't own them. They are removed during the Combat Phase.
Items occupy personal Item slots and each player has two. They are the only cards that can be activated outside of your turn, making them the primary tool of reactive play.
Events are powerful, time-limited cards that reshape the game state for all players. They sit in the single shared Event slot and expire after their round count elapses. Decks may contain a maximum of 5 Events, and no two can share a name.
The game ends the moment any of the following conditions are met. Check for end conditions at the end of every phase.
When only one player remains below the Sanity threshold agreed upon at the start of the game (Or the default), that player wins. All other players have been eliminated by Sanity loss.
Certain cards contain explicit win conditions in their text. If a card specifies that a particular player has won, that condition is resolved immediately regardless of Sanity totals.
If all players exhaust their decks (all three piles reach zero cards), the game ends immediately. The player with the fewest cards in their discard pile wins. In a tie, figure it out
The following rules clarify edge cases and interactions that will come up during play. When in doubt, refer here first.
// PERSONNEL FILE — OPEN RECORD
Liminal TCG was born from a simple obsession: the eerie familiarity of places that feel both known and impossible. We are a small, independent studio of designers, artists, and game theorists who found each other in the humming dark of the internet.
We believe the best games create atmosphere as much as they create mechanics. Every card in Liminal is designed to make you feel something: unsettled, strategic, and strangely at home.
// THE TEAM
// CORE DIRECTIVES