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Center & Circle Playbook ... Walkthrough ... Game
Life~Meaning ... Consciousness ... Creating Consciousness ... Quantum Biology ... Orch-OR ... TAME ... Proteins

Overview

Players: 3–5 Play Time: 90–120 minutes Age: 14+

Life Builds Meaning is a three-Act tabletop game about survival, connection, and legacy. Players begin as fragile patterns competing for stability. Each player starts as a simple pattern trying to survive. Over three acts, the game moves from competitive survival to collaborative legacy. What you do early shapes what you can contribute later — and the final score belongs to everyone. Over time they form relationships, build shared systems, and ultimately face escalating crises together.

Early selfish strength can become late weakness. Early sacrifice can become structural resilience.

The system becomes the organism.

THE THREE ACTS

Act One asks: How much do I take? Persist (Layers 1-4, competitive) You are a pattern fighting entropy. Players compete for Energy tokens, Stability cards, and Repair actions. The goal is to stay coherent while others drift. Players can block, undercut, and outmaneuver each other. Nobody shares. The act ends when every player has survived a set number of entropy events.

Act Two asks: How much do I trust? Act Two: Connect (Layers 5-8, mixed) Nervous systems emerge. Players can now trade, form alliances, and share prediction cards — but betrayal is still possible. Social bonds are built on a shared board. Institutions start forming. The tension is trust: cooperating makes everyone stronger but exposes you to being undercut. The act ends when a collective coherence threshold is reached.

Act Three asks: Was it enough? Act Three: Leave Something Behind (Layers 9-10, fully collaborative) All players are now elders. Personal scoring stops. The group works together against the game itself — entropy events escalate, and the board must be stabilized for a next generation. Final score is collective: what did you build, what did you repair, what did you pass on?

The game can end in collective success or collective collapse.

There is no single winner. The final score belongs to the group.

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Components

5 Pattern Boards
1 Civilization Board (double-sided; inactive in Act One)
40 Energy Cards
30 Entropy Cards (Act One)
25 Repair Cards
15 Block Cards
20 Social Entropy Cards (Act Two)
20 Crisis Cards (Act Three)
40 Coherence Tokens
25 Legacy Cards
15 Trust Fracture Markers
1 Entropy Track Marker

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Pattern Board

Each player tracks four attributes. If any attribute reaches 0, the player enters Fragmented State.

Tracks

Regulation

Represents stability and stress tolerance.

If Regulation ≥4: reduce incoming Entropy damage by 1.
If Regulation ≤1: take +1 damage from each Entropy event.

Prediction

Represents foresight and modeling.

If Prediction ≥4: look at the top Entropy/Crisis card before it resolves.
In Acts Two and Three, you may reveal that card to others.

Belonging

Represents social integration.

In Act Two: determines number of trades per turn.
In Act Three: each 2 Belonging converts 1 personal Coherence into 2 shared Coherence.

Purpose

Represents long-term orientation.

When you voluntarily sacrifice resources for group benefit, gain 1 Legacy Card if Purpose ≥3.
In Act Three, each Legacy card may be spent to prevent or reduce Crisis damage.

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Fragmented State

When any track reaches 0:

Reduce hand size by 1.
Entropy damage against you increases by 1.
You cannot gain Legacy Cards.

You may recover by raising the track above 0 through Repair.

No player is eliminated.

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Setup

Each player selects a Pattern Archetype.
All tracks begin at 3, except one chosen specialty track begins at 4.
Shuffle Act One deck (Energy, Repair, Block combined).
Place 5 Energy cards face-up in the Energy Market row.
Shuffle Entropy Deck separately.
Set Entropy Marker to 0.

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Act Structure

The game consists of three Acts:

Act One – Persist
Act Two – Connect
Act Three – Leave Something Behind

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Act One – Persist

Competitive survival phase.

Goal

Survive 6 Entropy Rounds.

Turn Structure

On your turn:

Draw 2 cards.
Play up to 3 cards.
Take 1 Energy card from the Market (optional).

Card Types

Energy Cards

Fuel actions. Cost: free to take from Market. Use to:

Increase a track (+1 Energy per increase).
Activate certain Repair cards.
Pay costs on advanced abilities.

Repair Cards

Restore 1–2 points to a track. Some may target another player.

Block Cards

Moderate disruption. Examples:

Reserve Market – Place marker on an Energy card. Only you may take it next turn.
Redirect Entropy – Move 1 damage from you to another player.
Lock Track – Target player cannot raise chosen track next turn.
Market Disruption – Shuffle Market row.

Block cards cannot destroy a player.

Entropy Cards

Resolved at end of round for all players. Examples:

Resource Loss – Each player discards 1 card.
Instability – All players lose 1 Regulation.
Drift – Lowest Prediction loses 2.

After each Entropy resolution, advance Entropy Track by 1.

End of Act One

When Entropy Track reaches 6:

Flip Civilization Board face-up.
Each player contributes 1 Coherence to shared pool.
Discard remaining Block cards from hands.
Begin Act Two.

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Act Two – Connect

Mixed cooperation and competition.

New Elements

Social Entropy Deck replaces Entropy Deck.
Civilization Board activates.
Trust Fracture markers introduced.

Civilization Board Tracks

Infrastructure
Knowledge
Social Cohesion
Stewardship

All begin at 2.

Turn Changes

Players may trade cards up to Belonging value per turn.

If a player breaks a declared trade agreement, place 1 Trust Fracture marker.

If Trust Fractures ≥5 at any time:

Increase all future Crisis damage by +1 in Act Three.

Social Entropy Examples

Alliance Strain – All players with Belonging ≤2 lose 1.
Institutional Decay – Infrastructure −1.
Polarization – If any betrayal occurred this round, Social Cohesion −2.

Collective Threshold

When total Civilization track sum reaches 12:

All personal Coherence tokens move to center.
Personal scoring ends.
Replace Social Entropy Deck with Crisis Deck.
Begin Act Three.

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Act Three – Leave Something Behind

Fully cooperative phase.

Structure

5 Crisis Rounds.

Each round:

Reveal 1 Crisis Card.
Players may play Legacy cards or contribute Coherence to mitigate damage.
Apply unresolved damage to Civilization Board.

Crisis Examples

System Collapse – Lose 2 Infrastructure and 1 Knowledge.
Cascading Failure – Reduce lowest Civilization track by 3.
Generational Drift – If Stewardship ≤2, lose game immediately.

Legacy Cards

Examples:

Sacrifice – Prevent all damage to one track.
Teach Forward – Restore 2 Knowledge.
Institution Builder – Raise Infrastructure by 2.
Reconciliation – Remove 2 Trust Fractures.

Legacy cards are public and single-use.

Conversion Rule

For every 2 Belonging: You may convert 1 personal Coherence into 2 shared Coherence.

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Victory and Collapse

After 5 Crisis Rounds:

If no Civilization track is at 0:

Collective Success.
Score equals total Civilization track sum.

If any Civilization track reaches 0:

Collective Collapse.
The system failed to stabilize.

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Example 3-Player Walkthrough

Act One

Anna focuses on Energy and raises Regulation to 5. Ben builds Prediction and peeks at Entropy cards. Clara hoards Energy but neglects Belonging.

Entropy Round 4 hits all players with −2 Regulation. Anna survives easily. Clara enters Fragmented State.

Act One ends at Entropy 6.

Act Two

Civilization Board activates.

Ben warns group of Social Entropy targeting Knowledge. Anna trades Energy to Clara to restore Belonging. Clara betrays one trade to gain advantage, adding 1 Trust Fracture.

Civilization reaches threshold of 12.

Act Three

Crisis 1: System Collapse. Anna spends Legacy Sacrifice. Ben converts Coherence using Belonging. Clara has no Legacy cards and contributes little.

Final Civilization sum = 14.

Collective Success.

Players reflect that Clara’s early hoarding limited her Act Three impact.

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Life~Meaning Game