Players have a number of choices they can make before the game actually begins. These choices can be bewildering to players who don’t even know what the game is about yet. We give recommendations that you should follow when setting up the game for people who are new to Cerebria.

Each player chooses one of their team’s Spirits to play for the duration of the game. Unchosen Spirits can be left in the box.

Take the board and figure corresponding to your chosen Spirit.

All Spirit boards have the same Actions on the A side. The B side gives each Spirit a unique set of Spirit Actions, which are explained in the Appendix. Everyone should play with the same side, A or B.

NOTE: The side of the Team board does not have to match the side of the Spirit board. For example, you can use B-side Spirits with the A-side Team boards, if you wish.

BASIC GAME: Use the A side in the basic game. These are the Actions that are explained in the main part of this rulebook.

Place your Action Tracker token on your Spirit board, as shown. This is where it will be at the beginning of each of your turns.

Take 2 Essence and 4 Willpower from the general supply. Place these on your Spirit board to denote that they are available for you to spend.

VIBE TOKENS: These tokens are used to denote which of your 5 Spirit Actions have been unlocked or upgraded. You start the game with 4 wild Vibe tokens, and you can use them to unlock or upgrade any Actions you wish.

BASIC GAME: Each player should place a wild Vibe token on the Move, Invoke, Quell, and Fortify Actions. This denotes that you have these 4 Actions unlocked.

Experienced players do not have to make final decisions about their 4 initial Vibe tokens until just before the first player’s turn.