Slipstream TCG THE RULEBOOK

Slipstream race-official issue

FULL RULES

READ FAST. RULE HARD. KEEP THE CHAOS MOVING.

This is the table-side version of Slipstream: big calls up front, exact wording inside the panels, and enough edge-case backup that the race does not grind to a halt.

Back To Archive Open Chapters
Rule call CARD TEXT WINS
Read mode 12 CHAPTERS
Judge note PAY COSTS FIRST

How to use this page

  • Start with the one-line summary.
  • Use the rule panels for exact wording.
  • Hit the ruling strips when the table gets weird.
READ!

Contents spread

Pick the ruling lane.

The page reads like a comic, but every chapter is built to answer a real table argument quickly.

01Golden Rules 02Setup 03Zones 04Turn Structure 05Fuel 06Movement 07Actions 08Card Types 09Reactions 10Resolution 11Winning 12Glossary

Chapter 01

Golden Rules

When anything gets muddy, these are the defaults that hold the race together.

Back To Cards Jump To Glossary

The five calls that beat panic

  1. Card text always wins. Direct card wording overrides general rules.
  2. Resolve written order. Do the instructions top to bottom unless the card says otherwise.
  3. Check legality first. If you cannot declare it legally, you cannot start it.
  4. Pay in full up front. No partial payments and no partial resolutions.
  5. Specific beats implied. Explicit card text beats assumed offense, defense, timing, or range.

Race ruling

Default judge posture

Use the card first, then the chapter rule, then the ambiguity defaults. If the card tells you exactly what to do, stop there.

RULING!

Example

If a card says “move 3, then hit everyone within 2 behind you,” the movement happens first. The hit check uses the new position.

Fast reference

Illegal action
Cannot be declared at all.
Unpaid cost
Action never starts.
Contradicting card
Card text wins.

Chapter 02

Setup

Get the build legal, pick the racers, choose one shared Track Card, and start clean.

Table setup sequence

  1. Choose 1 Driver and 1 Vehicle.
  2. Shuffle the 40-card main deck.
  3. Draw 7 cards.
  4. Choose or randomize 1 shared Track Card outside every player deck.
  5. Set all racers to position 0 unless the table agrees otherwise.
  6. Use the Track Card's Finish Places value as the finish threshold.
  7. Roll d20 for turn order, highest first, then clockwise.
  8. Resolve any opening-hand “play immediately” cards before turn one starts.

Deck construction

Main deck
Exactly 40 cards.
Mix
Fuel, Items, and Utilities in any ratio.
Champion limit
Only 1 Champion across Driver, Vehicle, and deck combined.

Duplicate limits

  • Common Up to 4 copies
  • Uncommon Up to 3 copies
  • Rare Up to 2 copies
  • Mythic / Mythical Up to 1 copy
  • Champion Up to 1 copy

Variant ruling

Different variants of the same base card still count as duplicates of that same card for deckbuilding.

Shared Track Card

  • Its global effect remains active for the entire race.
  • Each racer resolves each gate once when crossing that gate's Place value.
  • If one movement crosses multiple gates, resolve them in ascending order.
  • Moving backwards and crossing the same gate again does not retrigger it.

Chapter 03

Zones

Know where every card lives, what can be used there, and when it slides forward.

Deck

Face-down draw pile for your 40-card main deck.

Hand

You may hold more than 7 during your turn, then discard down to 7 at end of turn. Cards in hand are not defensive reactions unless a card explicitly allows it.

Fuel Zone

Holds your placed Fuel cards. Default cap is 8 Fuel cards unless a card says otherwise.

Primary Item Slot

Face-up active Item. This is the first placed Item that resolves or gets removed.

Pocket Item Slot

Face-down reserve Item. Its owner may inspect it at any time; opponents may not unless a card allows it.

Discard + Track

Used Items, Utilities, burnt Fuel, and discarded cards go to discard. The position track holds your race place.

Pocket-to-primary

The slide rule never waits

If the Primary Item leaves play for any reason, the Pocket Item immediately slides into the Primary Item Slot if one exists there.

What counts as leaving play?

Used, discarded, destroyed, suppressed out of play, or otherwise removed all trigger the slide.

Chapter 04

Turn Structure

Every turn has a clear rhythm: start clean, move, act, then hand the chaos to the next driver.

  1. 1Resolve start-of-turn effects
  2. 2Draw 1 card
  3. 3Play any immediate card
  4. 4Untilt Fuel used on previous turns
  5. 5Place 1 Fuel card if legal
  6. 6Roll d6 and apply movement
  7. 7Enter the Main Action Window
  8. 8Discard down to 7 and end turn

Main Action Window

  • Place Fuel if you have not already placed Fuel this turn.
  • Place Items into open slots.
  • Use legal Item effects.
  • Play Utilities.
  • Activate Driver abilities.
  • Burn Fuel to discard the Primary Item if a rule or card allows it.

Important turn defaults

Fuel placement
Once per turn by default.
Item slots
1 primary face-up, 1 pocket face-down.
Hand limit
Only checked at end of turn.

Chapter 05

Fuel

Fuel powers the race, but only the actual Fuel cards in your Fuel Zone count unless a card says otherwise.

Tilt vs burn

  • Tilt rotates a Fuel card sideways to show it was used this turn.
  • Burn permanently discards a Fuel card from the Fuel Zone.
  • “Burn Fuel” means burn Fuel cards from the Fuel Zone unless card text explicitly says otherwise.

Cost check

No half-paying a move

If a player cannot fully pay a Fuel cost, the action is illegal. Costs are checked before the action is declared.

TIMING!

Fuel points and temporary fuel

  • Some Fuel cards can provide multiple fuel points while still taking 1 Fuel slot.
  • Temporary fuel must be stated clearly by the card and lasts only for that turn unless the card says otherwise.
  • Temporary fuel is not automatically a Fuel card.

Super Fuel ruling

If a card like Super Fuel is a Utility and not explicitly a Fuel card, it cannot be burned as Fuel.

Chapter 06

Movement

Movement changes the board immediately, and the race state updates before the next line of text resolves.

Default movement formula

Formula
d6 + Driver Speed + Vehicle Speed + applicable modifiers
Track math
Positions are integers only.
Move up to X
Choose any whole number from 0 to X.

Board-state rules

  • Movement happens immediately.
  • Passing and landing are different checks.
  • If an effect moves multiple players at once, treat it as simultaneous unless card text says otherwise.
  • Movement can trigger movement-based text when the trigger condition is met.

Passed vs landed

Moving from 10 to 18 means you passed 11 through 17 and landed on 18. Those are not the same rule checks.

Crossing track gates

A racer crosses a gate when movement takes them from below its Place value to that value or beyond. Track completed gates separately for each racer.

Ahead and behind

Unless a card says otherwise, ahead and behind are measured from the acting player’s current position.

Chapter 07

Actions

An action is only legal if the timing, costs, targets, and declared mode all line up before it starts.

Legal declaration checklist

  1. The card or ability is playable in the current timing window.
  2. All costs can be paid in full.
  3. All required targets are legal at declaration.
  4. Any required mode or branch is chosen at declaration.

Play vs place

These are not the same thing

Place means put a card into a board slot or zone. Play means resolve a card or effect. “Play immediately” does not automatically override normal placement restrictions.

Item use procedure

  1. Declare the Item.
  2. Declare which mode or text is being used.
  3. Choose all required targets.
  4. Open the reaction window.
  5. Resolve dodge or defensive outcomes.
  6. Resolve the effect in written order.
  7. Discard or remove the Item if required.
  8. If Primary leaves play, slide the Pocket Item forward.

Outside-turn limit

You cannot freely use Items during another player’s turn. You only get to do it during a legal reaction window.

Chapter 08

Card Types

Items, Drivers, Vehicles, and Utilities each have different timing and board roles. Don’t treat them like the same thing.

Items

  • Items can function offensively, defensively, both, or neither depending on their text.
  • A newly placed Item usually cannot be used offensively until a later turn unless card text says otherwise.
  • A newly placed Item may still be used defensively before your next turn if its text legally functions as a defense.

Driver abilities

  • Driver abilities are activated abilities unless card text says otherwise.
  • They normally require burning Fuel from the Fuel Zone.
  • They normally only work during your Main Action Window unless the card explicitly allows reaction timing.

Vehicles

  • Vehicles provide persistent board presence.
  • Passive abilities normally belong to Vehicles unless a card explicitly says otherwise.

Utilities

  • Utilities are played through their own text rather than placed into Item slots unless a Utility says otherwise.
  • Boost, Fuel, Defensive, Item, Position, and Meta are descriptive categories only.
  • Card text controls what the Utility actually does.

Chapter 09

Reactions

This is the defensive chapter: when the window opens, what counts as a legal answer, and how dodge differs from every other stop sign.

When a reaction window opens

  • When another player targets you.
  • When another player affects your card.
  • When the table is affected in a way that allows legal defensive interaction.
  • When a player otherwise has a legal timing response.

What counts as a legal reaction

  • Dodge the effect.
  • Negate it.
  • Suppress it.
  • Reflect it.
  • Reduce it.
  • Move, escape, or change the board state in a way the card text permits.

Dodge roll

Default dodge math

The default dodge roll is d20 + total Handling. If the effect is undodgeable, a normal dodge roll cannot avoid it.

SCAN!

Different defensive outcomes

  • Dodge: the effect does nothing to that player unless the card says otherwise.
  • Negate: the effect does not resolve as normal.
  • Suppress: the effect is stopped from functioning before normal resolution.
  • Reflect: the effect is redirected to a new legal target if the reflecting card says so.
  • Out of range: only matters if the effect actually checks that part at resolution.

Chapter 10

Resolution

Targets lock when declared, chained answers can keep stacking, and state-based checks happen where the text tells you to look.

Targeting rules

  • If a target was legal when declared, it remains the declared target unless the effect explicitly changes that.
  • Multi-target effects resolve per target.
  • If a later part of an effect loses legality, earlier resolved parts stay resolved and the later part fizzles.
  • Movement during the reaction window can change later splash or radius checks if those checks happen at resolution.

Range and direction

  • A target must be in range at declaration if range is required.
  • “Within X places” is measured from the player, object, or target named by the card.
  • “Players passed” means players whose positions were crossed during the movement path.

Chains and simultaneous triggers

  • Responses can be chained if a legal response exists.
  • Declaration order is the recommended default chain order.
  • Simultaneous triggers are separate: active player resolves theirs first, then each other player in clockwise order.

Conflict layer

When effects collide

Use this priority: Suppression, then Override, then Reflection, then normal resolution.

WHAM!

Target-lock example

If a card says “target first place,” and first place changes during the reaction window, the originally declared first-place target remains the target unless the card explicitly retargets.

Chapter 11

Winning

Crossing the finish is not the same as locking the win. Stay there until your next turn starts.

Finish-line rule

  1. Reach or exceed the finish threshold.
  2. Stay treated as being at the finish.
  3. Wait until your next turn begins.
  4. If you are still at or beyond the threshold then, you win.
  5. If you were moved back below it first, you have not won yet.

Multiple finishers

Multiple players can sit at or beyond the finish line at once. The first player to remain there until the start of their next turn wins.

Negative position modes

  • Burnout: cannot go below 0; extra negative movement is ignored.
  • False Start: cannot go below 0; extra negative movement becomes penalties.
  • Handicap: cannot go below 0; extra negative movement grants compensation.
  • Bagging: negative positions are allowed.

Table default

Choose track mode before play

If you are using a negative-position variant, agree it before the game begins and use it consistently for the whole race.

Chapter 12

Glossary + Ambiguity Defaults

The quick-reference finish: core terms, tie-break defaults, and what to do when the card text still leaves smoke in the air.

Ambiguity defaults

  1. Card text always wins.
  2. Legality is checked before declaration.
  3. Costs are fully paid first.
  4. Effects resolve in written order.
  5. Original declared targets stay locked unless a card says otherwise.
  6. Multi-target effects resolve per target.
  7. Movement updates the board immediately.
  8. Passed and landed are not the same.
  9. Chains use declaration order by default.
  10. If a tie must be broken, the effect controller chooses; otherwise the active player chooses.

Judge shortcut

What makes most sense

When the page does not explicitly cover something, follow the golden rules, keep the action legal, and choose the interpretation that preserves explicit card text over implied behavior.

Burn

Permanently discard a Fuel card from the Fuel Zone.

Tilt

Rotate a Fuel card sideways to mark use this turn.

Primary Item

The face-up Item in the active slot.

Pocket Item

The face-down Item in the reserve slot.

Passing

Crossing spaces during movement.

Landing

Your final position after movement.

Dodge

Avoid a dodgeable effect so it does nothing to that player unless the card says otherwise.

Reflect

Redirect an effect to another legal target if the reflecting card says so.

Suppress

Stop an effect from functioning.

Immediate play

A card that must resolve right away when drawn or instructed.

Active Player

The player whose turn it is right now.

Temporary Fuel

A temporary resource created by a card, not automatically a Fuel card.

Prevented

An Item or ability would affect a Driver, but does not because it was dodged, ignored, negated, redirected away, cancelled, shielded, or otherwise stopped. It can be Prevented for one Driver while affecting others.

Ignore

The effect is Prevented for you. Other targets can still be affected.

Dodge roll

A defensive roll made to prevent an Item from affecting a Driver.

Negate

Cancel an Item or ability entirely before it resolves further.

Redirect

Change the target of an Item or ability. The original target is Prevented if the effect no longer affects them.

Movement Roll

The raw movement die result before Speed and card effects.

Basic Movement

Normal Movement Phase movement after Driver Speed, Vehicle Speed, and Basic Movement modifiers.

Bonus Movement

Extra movement granted outside Basic Movement.

Total Movement

All places gained or lost during a turn, including Basic Movement and Bonus Movement.

Item Zone

The Primary Item Slot and Pocket Item Slot together.