How to play Masters
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The game

Two sides, Ember and Frost, play on a board ten files wide (A through J) and twelve ranks tall (1 through 12). Ember moves first. You win the moment all three of your opponent's leadership pieces (their general, puppeteer, and witch) are captured or claimed.

A turn carries one or both of a piece move and a claim action (see Puppeteer claim below). You build the turn locally: clicking a destination stages a move (the source dims, the destination shows a ghost), and the Claim button enters a target-pick mode that stages a claim. Undo clears what you have staged; End turn submits the whole assembled turn at once. There are no take-backs once a turn is committed.

A turn must carry at least one of {move, claim}. You cannot stage more than one of each. A piece move follows the rules of its type, you cannot move through your own pieces (with two exceptions, called out below), and you capture an enemy piece by ending your move on its square.

Pieces

The diagrams below show each piece in the center of a mini-board. Highlighted squares are the legal destinations for that piece from that square. Translucent silhouettes are empty squares the piece could move to; bracketed squares are where the piece can capture.

Special interactions

Cardinal aura

A cardinal projects an aura over the eight squares immediately around it. Any piece on a square inside that aura cannot be captured or claimed, regardless of side (the aura is color-blind). The cardinal does not protect itself. Opposing cardinals will shield each other if they end up adjacent.

Visual marker. On the live board, a small gold dot sits at the bottom-center of any occupied square that is currently under a cardinal's aura. Empty squares are protected too (a piece moving in becomes shielded), but the dot is only painted when there is something on the square to protect.

Puppeteer claim

Your puppeteer can claim an enemy piece that shares its rank or file, as long as no piece sits between them and the target is not aura-protected. The claim is part of your staged turn: it can layer on top of a piece move, stand alone as a claim-only turn (the board does not change), or target the same piece you are then moving.

If your puppeteer already holds a piece, claiming a different target replaces the existing claim (the old piece is released, the new one is taken), all on the same turn.

Eligibility is normally checked against the post-move state. If you stage a claim and then a piece move that puts your puppeteer somewhere it can no longer see the target, the turn is rejected outright and you pick again. The client warns you about this before submission so you can fix whichever half was the mistake.

One exception: if your claim's target is the same square your moving piece starts from, eligibility is checked pre-move (the puppeteer can still see the piece from its current position). You then move that piece on the same turn with full claimer privileges, including capturing across sides. A piece you just newly claimed can be moved on the same turn under this rule.

Claims release automatically when line-of-sight is broken later (by either side's movement, or by a piece drifting into the path). A claimed leadership piece counts as captured for the win check, but stays physically on the board until it is actually captured.

When a claim is established or re-targeted, the room's chat shows a quiet system line ("Ember puppeteer claimed control of Frost's horseman.") so the opponent and any spectators see what happened.

Visual markers. When you press Claim or Switch claim, every eligible target is outlined with a dashed ring in your color. After you pick one, that square shows a small dot of your color with a soft halo around it (the "queued" look) until you press End turn and the claim commits. Use Undo to drop a staged claim before committing. Once committed, the dot drops the halo and matches the style of any active claim. A piece that is currently claimed (in either direction) shows a dot at the bottom-center of its square in the claimer's color: your color if your puppeteer is holding it, the opponent's color if theirs is.

The mini-board below shows a puppeteer at the center. The dashed rings are the squares it could currently claim (the archer at A4 along the rank, the scout at D6 along the file). The horseman at D7 is behind a friendly sentinel, so line-of-sight is broken and it is not eligible. The cardinal at F6 is off the rank/file entirely.

Once a claim is committed, the claimed piece looks like this (the small dot in the bottom-center indicates who is holding it):

Witch inheritance

Whenever one of your pieces is captured, your witch is offered that piece's moveset. You accept or decline on the next turn. If both your general and your puppeteer are captured (or claimed), the witch is forced to inherit the next leadership moveset she is offered; the offer cannot be declined.

The witch starts with no moves of her own. Until she has inherited at least one moveset she is unable to move.

Visual marker. Once the witch has accepted an inheritance, a small tinted icon of the inherited piece appears in the bottom-right corner of her square. The corner badge updates whenever she accepts a new offer, so you can always tell at a glance which moveset she currently has. Her main silhouette never changes — it is always the witch.

Scout promotion

A scout that ends its turn on the opponent's home rank (rank 12 for Ember, rank 1 for Frost) is immediately promoted. You choose one of: dragon, sentinel, archer, or horseman. The scout becomes that piece for the rest of the game.

Resign and draw

Either seated player can resign at any point during the game, ending it as a loss. Either player can offer a draw; if the other accepts, the game ends drawn. The engine does not auto-detect stalemate.