Prep Your Ride Before the Race
Car
Rules Sheet
BACKDROP
Tak never stood out much. Between an after-school gig at a gas
station and early-morning deliveries for his dads tofu shop, Tak
never had time to be noticed until a bright yellow RX-7 refused
to let him pass during one of his delivery runs on Akina Mountain.
Little did Tak know that the driver was one of the Red Suns
hottest street racers, and when he out-maneuvered the RX-7 in
his beat-up 86 Toyota leaving it in the dust, he set himself up as
the new driver to beat.
With everyone around Tak into street racing, and with his natural
ability behind the wheel, he cant escape challenge after challenge.
And with victory following victory, Tak finds himself hooked by the
thrill of the race.
Welcome to Initial D, where street racing teams battle over
glory, passion, pain and revenge on the road and off. Now the race
is in your hands!
Game Race Card
Maneuver
Layout Card(s)
Car
Card
Car Mod(s) Car Mod(s) Car Mod(s)
Discard Deck
How to Win
The Initial D CCG is a 2-player race with two ways to win.
1. You win the match after winning two consecutive stages in
which you started as the lead car. This means you have suc-
cessfully pulled away from your opponent, who wont be able
to catch you before the finish line.
2. If neither car pulls ahead to win, then the winner is whoever
wins the final stage of the race.
Game Elements
Your starter deck contains a car, a modification for your car,
3 race cards, and 50 maneuvers. Remove the maneuvers from
the rest of your cards and shuffle them these maneuvers
will be your deck.
Initial D is a collectible card game. Although your starter deck will
be fun to play, you can buy additional booster packs to increase
the number of cards that you have. Then, you can build your own
customized deck that fits your style of play, and experiment with
different combinations of cards that will lead to game-winning
combinations. Once you do, you will be able to take your killer ride
out and beat your friends down the mountain!
First, you need to pick your car. For your first game, that will be the car
in your starter deck. Each car has a Cost (1), Power rating (2), Traction
rating (3), and a maximum number of modifications (4) that you can add
to it. Some cars also have special abilities (5). In the text area, you can
see what type of drivetrain the car uses: F/R is rear-wheel drive, 4WD
is four-wheel drive, and F/F is front-wheel drive.
RX-7 FD Type R
7 5
2 3
5 D R I V E : F/R
Turbo. +3 Style. 1
14
4
5
153 216
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Mods
Next, choose modifications (mods) for your car. Your starter deck
comes with a mod that works well for your car, and in the future youll
want to choose a full set of mods that help you overcome the challenges
of the road and your opponent. Your car cant have more mods than its
maximum number of mods. It cant have more than one mod of the same
type, either (mod types are in bold at the top of the text box), so it can
only have one set of Tires, or one Turbo. Some cars already have a mod
type installed (like the Turbo that comes installed in the RX-7) and can-
not have another mod of that type, although these built-in mods do not
count against your maximum number.
You should choose mods that will help your car and your overall strate-
gy. You can even choose mod cards that let you join one of the racing
teams from the Initial D series, or have one of the characters from the
series as your driver. These Team and Driver mods give you special abil-
ities and access to special maneuvers that the other players cant use.
Each mod has a cost. The total cost of your car plus mods determines
who starts the race in front (see Start Your Engines, below)
Turbo Kit
TURBO
+2 Power.
The Attesa E TS System gives it stable traction
4 even when giving it the gas. He can use the
turbo as much as he wants to. a Night Kid
191 216
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Race Cards
A race card determines where the race takes place and what stages the
race includes. After choosing a car and your mods, choose three race
cards as your home tracks that play to your cars strengths. Whoever
is challenged gets to use one of his race cards (chosen randomly by the
other player) as the race track for that game. (See Start Your Engines
below.)
Each race consists of three or four stages. There are three stage types:
straight, curved (1), and filled with obstacles (2). Every stage includes a
mix of these three types, but the stage type identifies the most common
challenge for that stage. For example, a straight stage may include turns
and obstacles, but will be dominated by straight-aways.
Usui Downhill Battle
1 Hairpin
C-121 Finish
2
The trailing car has
1 strength to all
maneuvers.
Start
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Deck
Now that youre done customizing your car, its time to build a
deck. Your deck must have at least 50 cards (not counting your
car, mods, and races these cards stay off to the side and are
never part of your deck) and may not include more than three
copies of any card. For your first game, just use the rest of the
cards in your starter deck. When you build your own deck, you will
want to use a mix of maneuvers that work for your car and your
strategy for winning the race.
Start Your Engines 3, 2, 1
When starting a race, the more expensive car (including all mod-
ifications) is the challenger. The challenger randomly chooses a
race from the other drivers three race cards. All unused race
cards are put aside they wont be used this game.
Lead Car
The challenger starts the first stage as the trailing car. The less
expensive car is the lead car. During each stage of the race, the
trailing car will be trying to pass the lead car to take over the front
position while the lead car tries to stay in front. The car that wins
a stage becomes the lead car for the next stage. Remember that
to count toward the two consecutive stages victory condition, a
car has to start as the lead car in each stage.
The Race Theyre Off
At the beginning of each stage, each player draws 7 cards. The
lead car draws one additional card. The player with the higher
Style also draws one additional card. A cars Style begins at 0,
but some cars and modifications give bonuses to Style. The most
crowd-pleasing maneuvers that you play during the race also give
Style points. If the cars are tied for Style, neither driver draws an
additional card.
The driver of the lead car plays the first Maneuver card for a
stage from his or her hand, and then the trailing driver plays a
Maneuver card. Play goes back and forth between the drivers,
each playing a Maneuver card until one of them cannot play (or
chooses not to play) a maneuver. Whichever player plays the last
maneuver in a stage wins that stage and is the lead car for the
next stage.
The driver that wins a stage may keep any cards in his or her hand
for next stage, but the loser must discard any cards remaining in
his or her hand. Each card kept reduces the number of cards you
draw next stage by one (you draw until you have 7 total cards,
plus any extras from the lead or from Style). After deciding
whether to keep any cards, the drivers begin the next stage.
Maneuvers
All Maneuver cards are one of 3 types: speed maneuvers,
turn maneuvers, and tactics maneuvers. The strength of each
maneuver is based on the stage type certain maneuvers are
effective on curves, others on straightaways. To find your
maneuvers strength (1), find the type of stage at the bottom of
the maneuver the number next to the stage symbol is the
maneuvers strength. For example, the Tight Twin Drift maneuver
has a strength of 5 in a straight stage, 8 in the curves, and 5
during an obstacle stage.
When you play a maneuver, tell your opponent the type and
strength of the maneuver, as well as any special effects of the
maneuver which appear in the text area of the card.
In order to play each maneuver, you must meet the requirements
of the maneuver (see Requirements below), and your maneuver
must be able to counter the strength of your opponents last
maneuver (see Countering below). The first maneuver of a stage
does not have to counter anything, so that car just has to meet
the maneuver requirements in order to perform that maneuver.
Requirements
Your car (including bonuses and penalties from mods and
maneuvers) must have a Power or Traction equal or higher than
the requirement of the maneuver (2) to play the maneuver with-
out discarding. For example, you must have a Traction of 8 or
higher to play Tight Twin Drift without discarding.
If your car does not meet the requirements for a maneuver card,
you may discard from your hand, temporarily increasing your cars
Power or Traction by one for each discard, in order to meet the
Requirement. This increase only applies for the maneuver youre playing.
If you cannot discard enough cards to meet the requirement, you cannot
play the maneuver. For example, if your cars Traction is only 6, you would
have to discard two cards from your hand to play Tight Twin Drift.
Some cards have special requirements at the top of their text box such
as Lead car only or You may only play this maneuver if you have a Turbo
mod. You may not play a maneuver if you do not meet the special
requirements of that maneuver.
Full Throttle
Tight Twin Drift
4
4 6
7 9
Requires 5 121 216 7
Into the RailRequires 8 133 216
SPEED MANEUVER
On the technical courses where the
straights are short, the car which is more
aggressive might be faster even though TURN MANEUVER
it has less power. Ry R Y A N D K.T. O N LY.
4
Thats their signature Parallel Drift.
They cant be more than inches apart!
7 2
5
3 a Red Sun
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4
3 5 8 5
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Requires 7 114 216
2
TA C T I C S M A N E U V E R
If Into The Rail counters a turn
maneuver in a curve stage, your
opponent must discard 2 cards
randomly from his or her hand.
1
4 6 4
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Countering
Each maneuver has a counter rating (3) against each of the three types
of maneuver. Your maneuver must have a counter rating (found in the
upper left of the card) of the right type equal or higher than your oppo-
nents last maneuver strength to play your maneuver without discarding.
For example, Tight Twin Drift has a 6 tactics counter, a 9 turn counter,
and a 7 speed counter. It can counter speed maneuvers up to strength
7, turn maneuvers up to strength 9, and tactics maneuvers up to
strength 6 without discarding.
If the counter of your maneuver is less than your opponents maneuver
strength, you may discard from your hand, temporarily increasing the
appropriate counter of your maneuver card by one for each discard, in
order to meet your opponents maneuver strength. This increase only
applies for the maneuver youre playing. If you cannot discard enough
cards to raise your counter to equal your opponents strength, you can-
not play the maneuver. For example, if your opponents last maneuver in
a straight stage was Pure Power (a speed maneuver with strength 8 in
straight stages), you would have to discard one card to play Tight Twin
Drift as your next maneuver to raise your speed counter from 7 to 8.
Bonuses and Penalties
Some maneuvers stay in play and provide bonuses and penalties to the
cars. The bonuses and penalties continue until the maneuver is discard-
ed by the effects of another maneuver.
CREDITS
Executive Producers . . . . . . . . . . . . Stuart Levy, John Zinser
Game Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Williams
Creative Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mark Jelfo
Digital Prepress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Justin Lawler
Packaging Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dave Agoston
Brand Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maury R. McIntyre
CGI Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yukari Kaneko
Playtesters
Paul Li, Geoffrey Lykken, Jennifer Lykken, Justin Miller, John Lindsay, Alexandre
van Chestein, Jen-Louis Frenette Jr., Francois Dion, Frederic Clement, Dan
Tibbles, Martin Novosel, Thomas Kohler, Brandon Flores, Vaughn Reynolds,
Thomas Ryan, Wendy Wolk, Ted Tschopp, Dave Laufle, Robin Low, Jason Liu,
Charlie Wong, Jules Van Oosterom, Sean Sherman, Shaun Ham, Paul Ewinstein,
Kevin Mullen, Navin Weeraratne
Based on the manga INITIAL D by Shuichi Shigeno originally serialized in the
WEEKLY YOUNG MAGAZINE published by Kodansha, Ltd. INITIAL D TM &
Shuichi Shigeno / Kodansha to max OB PLANNING. All Rights Reserved.
Game Design TM & 2003 AEG/TOKYOPOP. All INITIAL D text copyright in
this English language version other than copyright owned by the original copy-
right-holders is 2003 TOKYOPOP Inc.