Each area on a card has a particular use.

∙ Name: What the card is called.

∙ Self-Worth Points: Up to three point values in circles. Each Character’s Self-Worth score is the sum of the point values currently showing in its stack.

∙ Story Icons: Up to three icons that have no effect on their own, but which may trigger or interact with the effects of other cards.

∙ Deck Icon: The small dragon on every card indicates it is from Gloom of Thrones, to help you sort it out from your other Gloom games if you wish.

∙ Effects: Special rules that do whatever they say. There are three categories of effects: immediate, ongoing, and response. See “Effect Categories” for more information.

∙ Flavor Text: Delightful or dreadful bits of story and commentary that provide entertaining ambiance. Flavor text is distinguished from effect text with italics.

∙ Portrait: A disturbing, entertaining, or comic image, delightful to behold. Some illustrations make it easy to tell cards apart by type. For example, Modifiers never have illustrations, so it’s easy to tell what they are. Other pictures make it easy to tell living Characters from dead ones: All Untimely Deaths bear the same image, of a skull with eye stones, so any Character showing that signature picture at the top of its stack must be dead.