The Great Pond is a world of myths, mystery, political intrigue and turmoil, ageless myths and budding legends, and of course, the magically-inclined fish called whiskers! In the Whiskers universe, species of koi and catfish experienced rapid evolution many centuries ago after a world-changing magic spell was cast to return life to the world. At that time, a global catastrophe had nearly wiped away nearly all the living things in the world, but one very old wizard still lived. That wizard sacrificed himself to bring life back to the barren world, creating the whiskers and imbuing them with some of his magical powers in the process. After generations of building, the whiskers have blossomed into several different cultures, societies, and nations.

To begin, each player becomes an adventuring fish-person, known as a Whisker, living in the world of The Great Pond. Players represent themselves with one of several CHAMPIONS, each representing powerful, famous, infamous, or otherwise well-known whiskers of the pond. Whiskers themselves are huge fans of the game Last Fish! and often play to settle disputes, place bets, win glory, or otherwise pass the time. The game itself is based around some of the spells, skills, items, and locations that might be encountered during one’s travels through The Great Pond.

The game uses two main decks, the Draw Deck and the Encounter Deck. The cards in the Encounter Deck represent random events that a CHAMPION might face when adventuring in the world of The Great Pond. They have the unique ability to affect a myriad of players all at once, and their effects are not always good. ENCOUNTER cards include events like monster attacks, finding items, exploring locations, etc. that can drastically alter the game at any moment.

Each CHAMPION, all of whom start with 3 HEARTS (health points – represented by 3 HEART cards), draw from both decks at the beginning of their turns. To win, you have to reduce the HP of all other CHAMPIONS to 0.

To decide who goes first, play rock-paper-scissors (or whatever else you can think of)! The winner chooses their CHAMPION card first, and then the next player, and so on. Each player sets (3) HEART cards next to their CHAMPION then draws (5) cards from the Draw Deck.
If either the Draw Deck or the Encounter Deck run out of cards then shuffle and flip the respective Discard Pile face down and proceed using that as the new deck to draw from. Any card mentioning the Discard Pile is referring specifically to the Draw Deck’s Discard Pile.

Note: Players cannot play ATTACK or CURSE cards on their first turn (ie: on the first player's first turn, second player's first turn, etc.).

Every turn, each player faces a number of choices available to them. Turns follow a clear order for actions, which must be obeyed at all times and is outlined below:

1) DRAW a card from the Draw Deck and add it to your hand, then…

2) DISCOVER a card from the Encounter Deck and follow its effect, then set it face up in the Encounter Discard Pile. Next…

3) The CURRENT PLAYER can choose 1 of 2 main actions per turn (after they are done following the effect of the ENCOUNTER card they drew), they can either:
3a) DRAW until their hand has 5 cards in it; if they already have 5 or more cards, they DRAW (1). After drawing, they end their turn immediately OR…
3b) Do any or all of the following actions in whatever order they prefer:
-Use as many SPELLS as they want…
-Use as many INSTANTS they want…
-Play one CURSE card…
-Choose between equipping an ITEM card to their CHAMPION OR playing an ATTACK card targeting an opposing player.

4) END YOUR TURN. Notify the other players that your turn is over. Then, the turn order moves clockwise, so next is the player to the left of the last.

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