Welcome to the Terminal
Iacta (“It Is Thrown”) is a dice-placement Trading Card Game.
2063
Officially, it's called the Vancouver-Delta-Lynden Metroplex Region. But everyone who actually lives there calls it The Terminal. A concrete jungle running from Point Roberts and Vancouver along the Fraser River, sputtering off east into the half-built sprawl of Lynden and Abbotsford.
Built during the late 2020s through the 2050s under the Pacific Marshall Plan, the region was thought up as part of a joint U.S.–Canadian economic zone following a short, brutal water war. A way to show that there was no bad blood between the two nations. But when the drought around the Colorado receded and political regimes shifted, funding vanished.
Today, legal governance is virtually nonexistent anywhere but on paper. The joint maritime task force exists only to protect deep-water container shipping, and to keep the city in good enough condition for trade to continue, leaving the streets, utilities, and clinics to private muscle and cartels. With the government out of the picture, public welfare was left to whoever had the money and power to provide it.
The Syndicates
Decks in Iacta are built around factions called 'Syndicates'. Any Iacta deck will have a Major Syndicate, with support from a secondary Splash Syndicate, backed up by Neutral cards.
Speed Freaks SF
Born from privatized transport networks during the fuel spikes of the '50s. Hooked on industrial-grade stimulants once prescribed to keep drivers awake on endless shifts, they took to organized crime when the companies that employed them shut down.
The House HO
Headquartered at the Brighton Park Casino along the Renfrew Strip. When national banks abandoned the region, The House stepped in with credit lines, debt holding, and private enforcers. Almost nothing moves through the commercial corridors without them taking their cut.
Bruisers BR
Formed from the remnants of construction unions stiffed when the government stepped out without paying the bill. Based out of decommissioned factories in Point Roberts, they still keep the Terminal West in working order.
Spacers SP
A group of sedative junkies gathered in religious reverence around the Hollowed Man, a catatonic, lesion-covered prophet who has not left the concrete alcove that has become his shrine in years.
Occultists OC
An off-grid cadre of astrologists and esoteric radicals migrated from the south. Operating out of an old shop somewhere in Abbotsford, their parlor tricks are often good enough to pass as real magic.
Getting Started
Ready to start throwing dice? Read the Quick Guide for a condensed version of the official rules, or browse the complete set in the Card Gallery.