Play around a table takes place using Custom Cards and Tokens downloaded from this web site, printed, and cut out. The game designers hope to have Custom Cards and Tokens available for purchase in game shops.

To create custom cards, it is important that they are all one-sided and have identical backsides so that the opponents in a DBC cannot easily guess what action an opponent is going to take, or how many points their opponent is bidding on an Action. The front-side of the cards contain the actual play data.

Tokens, rather than cards, are used to represent the Stat Points that Actors may bid on Actions and Abilities. Because round tokens are difficult to print and cut out, it is recommended instead that either poker chips or folded & cut paper props are used.

Poker Chips
Three colors of chips are recommended, like white, blue and red, with white representing 1 stat point, blue representing 2 stat points, and red representing 3 stat points. To prepare the chips for play, write the first letter of each Stat on one side of one white chip, repeat this for the blue and red chips. The stat letters are only written on one side so that the Bid can be hidden from other players. Although they will know the value being bid by seeing the different color chips, players may make change at any time from the pile of extra chips, for example, changing a red 3 stat chip into 3 white chips, or one blue and one white, and, don't forget that all Actors start with 3 blank (white) chips that can be used to bluff. Blank chips have no value except to fool another player into believing an Actor has bid more on an action than they actually have.

The nine stat letters are shown below. After preparing white, blue and red chips for each, you should have 27 total chips with a total value of 6 of each stat point, plus enough blank chips that each actor has a value of 3 in various color combinations. Repeat the process of writing the stat letters on the back of chips until you have enough for the number of Actors and their power level, represented by the amount of Build Points they have invested in their Stats.

• S - Strength
• A - Agility
• F - Fitness
• R - Reason
• Q - Quickness
• K - Knowledge
• W - Willpower
• I - Intuition
• P - Presence

Folded and Cut Paper
If you lack access to poker chips, you can also just fold paper into squares and then cut along the fold lines to create square cutouts that the stat letters can be written on.

Stat Cards
Optionally, you can do away with Stat Tokens altogether and use stat cards. Downloadable versions are available to be printed and cut out below. Using this play option somewhat changes the nature of the game in that other players cannot distinguish how much is being bid on actions, since the Stat Cards are indistinguishable from other cards in the Action Stack.

Card Stacks

Card Stacks: refer to a stack of cards created by a player that are specific to the Actor they are controlling and go on a specific place on the game table or mat. Some are placed face-down on the table, and some must sometimes be in a specific order. The types or Card Stacks are:

• Actor Hand: the Hand is a Stack of cards containing all of the cards that represent the Actor Sheet EXCEPT their Stat points. This includes Abilities, Conditions & Complications, Equipment, Spells, etc. This should generally be built by each player at the start of the game session and kept together with a rubber band between game sessions to save time.
• Action Stack: a stack of cards representing an Action a player intends to Declare (see Action Sequence procedure). Action Stacks are usually placed on the table furthest away from the player, with other Stacks placed behind it in a column. Action Stacks MUST be placed face-down in the specific top-down order of: Action or Ability Card, then Optional Cards like Equipment or Location, and finally Stat tokens are placed on top of the card stack. Although the Stat Bid must always be on top of the card Stack, Stat Tokens are only ever revealed last, after all cards in the Stack have been revealed. This is normally only important when cards and tokens are being revealed with an Observe Foe Action. When an Actor has more than one Action declared, place the additional Action Stacks to the right of the first one.
• Reaction Stack: in combat, a player may place one or more Defensive Reaction cards like Dodge or Parry in this stack to “Ready” them in case the situation that triggers them takes place in the game. Reaction cards are placed face down until the condition that triggers them takes place. Any number of Stat Tokens may also go on top of a Reaction Stack to bid on the Reaction card(s) there.
• Active Card Stack: are placed face-up and slightly offset vertically so that the name of the Active card can be seen by all players at the table. These are usually placed behind the Action Stack on the table. They represent Abilities, Equipment, or Conditions/Complications that have previously come into effect, usually, but not always, as a result of a prior Action that was Declared and Resolved.
• Spent Stack: Stat Tokens that were bid on Actions that have been resolved go in this stack. These are placed face up and kept near the Actor Hand so that they don't get mixed with other Tokens, since they will be added back to the Actor Hand once that Actor performs a Pause Action.

Card Layout

Card Stacks for each Actor in an Action Sequence should be placed on the gaming table in two rows using the layout shown below:

	ACTION CARDS
	ACTIVE CARDS

Card & Token Piles: unlike card Stack, Card & Token Piles are placed in a common area on the game table from which any player may draw cards to make their Actor Hand or to create a Stack. The Card Piles are:

• Stat Tokens: this is where Stat Points lost by Actors in a Combat Action Sequence go are discarded to represent damage they have taken
• Action Cards: all of the Common Actions an Actor may choose to take
• Equipment Cards: Weapons, Armor and other Gear that may become active in an Action Sequence
• Conditions/Complications: all of the Conditions and Complications that may need to be applied to any of the Actors in an Action Sequence
• Discard Pile: Stat Tokens removed from an Actor's Hand as a result of Damage are placed in the Discard Pile.

• Actions– in advance of playing the game, at least 2 duplicate cards for each Common Action should be printed, as well as several blank Action cards that game participants can write on the name rare Actions that they may use in addition to Common Actions that all Actors have access to.
• Stat Points – a collection of cards for each of the 9 Actor Stats of the Trine in various denominations, like “1 Str,” “3 Str,” “5 Str,” or “1 INT,” “3 INT,” “5 INT,” so that the opposing player or GM cannot easily guess how much their opponent is bidding on an Action by just looking a how many cards have been piled on an Action Stack. These are only needed if tokens will not be used (see above).
• Abilities*– because Ability points can and should also be added to Actions to boost the Action Score or Action Difficulty, at least 2 duplicate cards of each common ability from the Abilities articles should be printed, as well as several blank Ability cards for participants to use for rare or unique abilities Actors in the game session may have.
• Complications– in the same way as Action and Ability cards above are printed, cards for each common Complication should printed with at least 2 duplicates so the same Complication can be applied to both Goodness and Badness simultaneously if the game circumstance calls for that during a DBC.
• Equipment– these should be printed in the same way as Action, Ability, and Complication cards described above for the Equipment that is likely to be used in DBC's by the Actors in the game session.
• Blanks – all Actors begin the game with 3 blank tokens in their Actor Hand (or cards faces if tokens won't be used) . Blank tokens may be used to bluff opponents into believing an Actor has bid more on an Action Stack than they actually have, by making the stack of tokens taller. Unlike other cards, blank tokens are returned to the Actor's Hand when the Action Stack they are in is resolved; they do not go to the Spent Pile. Note that blank cards also reduce the effectiveness of Observe Foe, as blank tokens are discovered instead of the Action, Stat Bid, etc. Blank tokens may also be converted into blank cards and used for misdirection by using them to create a fake Action Stack and then declaring that on the Phase Timeline.

Once all of these card or token types have been printed and cut out into individual cards and tokens in sufficient quantity from PDF templates, you're ready to play ND1 with just these and Actor Sheets left to keep track of with pencil & paper.

Below are template images of card backs and faces intended to be printed double-sided and then cut out into individual cards to facilitate the game. See Printing for help with creating cards from the PDF files linked below.