Updated Rules

I will make this prettier later. But until then, here's the "concise" version.

---------------------FFTCG---------------------------

Objective: To control 4 Relic cards.

Defeat: You have no cards in your hand or deck (or you are the player that DOESN'T control 4 Relic cards.
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Card Types:

Character
-Characters used to battle. When all of your characters in a battle are discarded, you lose the
battle and your opponent gets the relic.

Equipment
-Cards used to augment characters, these are physically attached to the characters and are commonly only usable by certain types of characters.

Item
-One use cards that effect your battlefield in some way.

Spell
-One use cards that effect your battlefield in some way. Limited to characters with the Black, White, or Summon skill.

Relic
-Powerful equipment that also counts as your victory total. They are kept in a sideboard once
acquired to be used as if they were equipment from your hand. These have no requirements.

Location
-Cards that effect the battlefield in some way, these are chosen prior to battle, and had different
qualifications for leaders in your party.

Leader Card
-Card you attach to your party leader. When your Leader's class or descriptors match that of the
location, you may use the leader abilities on the card.
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Areas:

Deck
-Where your items, spells, and equipment go. They are drawn to your hand.

Character Deck
-Where your characters go, they aren't draw to your hand, but to your reserves.

Hand
-Where your drawn items, spells and equipment go.

Reserves
-A facedown pile that holds characters ready to be put into play.

Discard pile
-Cards that have been used or defeated go here, it's common to have effects that return cards from this pile.

Doom pile
-Where cards go to die. It is very, very, uncommon for cards to return from this pile.
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Card States:

*Down* -Whenever you see the down arrow on a card, that refers to "down". To down a card, you turn it 90 degrees clockwise, this shows the card has been used and can't be used for *down* abilities until the card is *Up*, which means it goes back to the upright position. Certain card effects will *Up* cards prematurely, but they will *up* naturally when both players consecutively pass during battle.
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(To start the game)
-Put your characters in one deck and shuffle, your opponent does the same.
-Put all of your equipment, spells, summons, and items in another deck and shuffle, draw 3 of these cards, this is your hand. Your opponent does the same.
-Place your 5 location/relic cards in the center of the table. Your opponent does the same.

(THE MINIMUM DECK SIZE IS 30 CARDS, THE MAXIMUM IS 50. EACH DECK MUST HAVE THE SAME AMOUNT OF CARDS)

(YOU MAY HAVE UP TO 3 OF EACH CARD)

*Relic Phase*
-1P chooses a location from the location pile.
-Both draw 6 characters from the character deck (seperate from your hand)
-1P plays a character as the leader, attaching leader card
-2P plays a character as the leader, attaching leader card
-1P plays characters face-down (up to 5 more, in 2 rows of 3, put remainder face-down in reserves)
-2P plays characters face-down (up to 5 more, in 2 rows of 3, put remainder face-down in reserves)
-1P reveals characters (for every character less than 6, they draw 2 cards)
-2P reveals characters(for every character less than 6, they draw 2 cards)
:location effect goes off
-Both draw characters face-down to the reserves until they have 3 in the reserves, then discard any extras.

*Battle Phase*
-1P uses an action or passes.
-2P uses an action or passes.
...until... both pass.
Then *UP* all characters and start again...

Actions available to use are:

Fight: *down* a character to have it attack an adjacent character, if your character's attack is
equal or higher than the opposing characters defense, the opposing character is considered "defeated" and discarded.

Cast/Use: Use a Spell or Item card from your hand. A spell will generally require a character with
the "Black" "White" or "Summon" skill to be cast, the cost will described on the card. (Usually just *down*)

Move: *down* character and move it to either row in any position. (note the max amount is 3 in the front and 3 in the back)

Reinforce: Play a character from your reserves, equipment card from your hand, or Relic from your sideboard to play. (Regarding characters, this is only usable if there are less than 6 characters in your party)

Recruit: Discard 3 cards from your hand to draw one character and put it face-down in your reserves(after the battle starts, there is no limit to the reserves) BTW, you can also look at your reserves at any time.

Appoint: Discard 3 cards from your hand to choose a character you control and attach the leader card to him. This character becomes your leader.

Retreat: Return all of your characters to your reserves. You lose the battle.

Pass: Draw 1 card.

-When the last character of 1 player has been discarded, that player loses. (If both players lose all of their characters in the same action, the battle is a draw and the location goes back in the
location pile.

*Resolution Phase*
-The winning player chooses up to 3 characters in his party and puts them in his reserves, the rest
are discarded.
-Both players discard any of their cards in hand, and draws up to 3 cards.
-Both players put their entire discard pile into their doom pile.
-Play starts again from the *Relic Phase* with 2P taking the place of 1P. (and 1P, and 2P, and so on)

-When one player controls 4 Relics, that player immediately wins.
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Skill cheatsheet:

Black: Character may use black magic; While standing, character is immune to opponent's Black magic.

White: Character may use white magic; While standing, character is immune to opponent's White Magic.

Ranged: This character's Fight action may target characters up to 2 rows away. This character may also counter Ranged attacks if they have something that grants the ability.

Steal: After the character defeats another character, the defeated character's controller must choose and discard a card from their hand.

Counter: While defending, the character deals their attack to the attackers defense simultaniously, the attacker is discarded if your attack is equal to, or higher than their defense. This does NOT nullify the Fight action.

Jump: When character comes into play from the reserves, it may immediately *down* to perform a Fight action against any character with its printed attack total, Jump cannot be countered.

Throw: Discard an equipment card from your hand to make a ranged attack against an opposing character using your characters printed ATT total. If the character is defeated it is doomed instead of discarded.

Leader: Characters ability may only be performed if it is the leader of your party.

Common: You may have 6 of this card in your deck.

Rare: You may have 1 of this card in your deck.

..whew.

If you have any questions, or think I may have missed something, leave a comment.