GRIDFALL
Set in development

Welcome to
Meridia.

A racing trading card game

The Meridian Cup is back. Nyra Quell arrives from the courier routes to challenge reigning champion Astra Vale. Behind every crew are people who depend on the roads they race. Pick a team. Find your line.

Play the racing demo Meet the five teams
Opening race weekend

Concept artwork. The released set will feature original hand-illustrated artwork. Art and development notice

The Meridian Cup

A team to follow.
A reason to care.

A courier needs a crossing to make a delivery. A workshop needs a route to reach its customers. A family needs a way home. Across Meridia, those everyday journeys depend on the currents beneath the racecourse.

The Cup brings rival crews onto those routes. Their Machines produce different resonance patterns that together can renew a major crossing. They still fight for every position and every championship point. The people watching have a stake beyond the finish line.

What passage changes

The colors mean
someone is racing for you.

Families pass down team loyalties. The same colors appear on a Machine, in a garage and above a market stall. Following a team means following its Drivers and the choices they make for the people behind them.

The Meridian Cup / Team paddock

Find your people. Wear their colors.

Five teams. Five reasons to race. Choose a crew and meet the people, places and Machines behind its colors.

Common Line Union emblem and wordmark in ivory and oxide red

Common Line Union

Common Line Union featured Driver concept art
Nyra Quell · Common Line Union

Outer wards · couriers · neighborhood workshops

Fast enough to belong. Trusted enough to lead.

Nyra wants to prove she belongs. Kira wants her own plan heard. Lucky has to prepare the same Machine for both.

The story behind the colors

The outer wards keep moving through couriers, neighborhood workshops and people helping each other across broken connections. Common Line brings those streets into the Cup. Nyra knows the delivery routes; Kira brings the force to hold a contested line. Their supporters want the places beyond the city’s best-served roads to be seen.

Drivers
Nyra Quell & Kira Mossk
Shared Machine
Slipline Spear
Meet the full crew
Crownward emblem and wordmark in violet, ivory and gold

Crownward

Crownward featured Driver concept art
Astra Vale · Crownward

Established cities · championship institutions

A champion and a timely disagreement.

Astra sets the standard. Cael sees a change coming. Kingmaker must give them room to choose.

The story behind the colors

Crownward carries the confidence of the established championship: royal backing, proven engineering and people who trust the system to keep working. Astra must defend the standard they believe in. Cael reads the currents beneath that success. Their season asks what a champion owes the people well served by the Grid, and those still waiting.

Drivers
Astra Vale & Cael Veyra
Shared Machine
Pearl Rapier
Meet the full crew
Ninefold emblem and wordmark in copper and charcoal

Ninefold

Ninefold featured Driver concept art
Varrik · Ninefold

Difficult crossings · route keepers · recovery crews

Experience meets the hunger for a start.

Varrik wants experience to stay useful. Orren wants the first call. Dowager has to make the choice clear.

The story behind the colors

Beyond the easy crossings are communities whose routes demand local knowledge and years of repair. Ninefold’s story begins with that responsibility. Varrik knows what a race can cost; Orren has worked in route recovery and wants her own chance at the front. They have to carry that experience into a sport that rewards visible results.

Drivers
Varrik & Orren Kade
Shared Machine
Obsidian Reign
Meet the full crew
Sinterline Works emblem and wordmark in cyan and steel

Sinterline Works

Sinterline Works featured Driver concept art
Ilyx Renn · Sinterline Works

Factory districts · parts routes · working garages

What you know. What you are ready to share.

Ilyx hears a change. Sera sees a missing connection. Ghost asks what each can show the other.

The story behind the colors

A factory district needs parts to arrive and finished work to leave. Sinterline connects the spectacle of racing to the workshops that keep Machines and livelihoods running. Ilyx senses instability before the instruments catch it. Sera’s independent-route knowledge asks whose connections are missing from the account.

Drivers
Ilyx Renn & Sera Venn
Shared Machine
Gravemarch
Meet the full crew
Ivaran Relay emblem and wordmark in teal and brass

Ivaran Relay

Ivaran Relay featured Driver concept art
Miri & Ollo · Ivaran Relay

Canopy settlements · shared paths · local consent

A shared rhythm with room to disagree.

Miri and Ollo need two voices in one cockpit. Tarek is finding his own way. Maestro has to hear all three.

The story behind the colors

In the canopy, a crossing passes through someone else’s home. Ivaran’s community story asks who gets a say when a faster route cuts through a living settlement. Miri and Ollo turn mutual dependence into speed; Tarek brings experience from another team. They share a Machine, and a reason to think beyond the shortest line.

Drivers
Miri & Ollo, and Tarek Vey
Shared Machine
Parallax Wraith
Meet the full crew

The places behind
the grandstands.

Start with Nyra’s market streets, then look beyond the circuit. These are the places that make a restored crossing matter.

A crowded multi-level market under an elevated raceway, with steam, lanterns and team graffiti on the pillars

The Vertical Market

Nyra’s entry into the story: deliveries, market stalls and everyday journeys beneath the elevated raceway. When Common Line takes the grid, her courier experience goes with it.

A vast stone bathhouse with a perfectly still pool, faint cyan lines frozen in the stone and offerings at the water's edge

The Dormant Meridian Baths

A public place built around a current that no longer moves. The Cup’s renewal work has a quieter counterpart here: people remembering what a connection once made possible.

Homes carved into towering sandstone cliffs, linked by suspended bridges and cable lifts above a canyon racing route

Keth Cliff Settlements

Homes joined by suspended bridges, lifts and canyon routes. For people living here, passage is a daily necessity before it is a racing line.

An empty late-night restaurant counter with steaming bowls, racing helmets and a Machine glowing in the rain outside

Roadside Team Kitchens

The broadcast ends; the conversation continues. Crews return to small counters with the replay still running and tomorrow’s decisions still unsettled.

The Drivers of the Meridian Cup

The people carrying
the team colors.

Five crews. Ten Driver identities. The team gives each Driver a place in the Cup; their relationships give the season its tension. Nyra is chasing Astra’s standard. Varrik brings the experience of an earlier champion. Their teammates have ambitions and judgments of their own.

Ten Driver identities, eleven people. Discover what each wants from the race. This character-development pass is in review.

Nyra Quell, a Cyran racer
Common Line team markCOMMON LINE UNION · CYRAN

Nyra Quell

Nyra wants the roads she knows to matter on the championship grid. Asking for help is harder than taking the next corner.

Meet the person →
Kira Mossk, a four-eared Ruun racer with rounded ears and brass piercings
Common Line team markCOMMON LINE UNION · RUUN

Kira Mossk

Kira wants the first call on a plan, including a patient one. Her commitment to a contested line comes with a sharp question: do you want her judgment, or just her agreement?

Meet the person →
Astra Vale, a Vask racer
Crownward team markCROWNWARD · VASK

Astra Vale

The reigning champion wants to set a standard worth chasing. Nyra’s challenge brings out a competitive delight that the polished public answers rarely show.

Meet the person →
Cael Veyra character reference
Crownward team markCROWNWARD · Precision

Cael Veyra

Cael wants his judgment wanted in the cockpit. He reads a change early, then risks losing the moment while finding the perfect explanation.

Meet the person →
Varrik, a Korva champion, with the established copper-armored Ninefold Machine
Ninefold team markNINEFOLD · KORVA

Varrik

Varrik wants his experience to keep being useful. The former champion must make room for Orren’s judgment without abandoning the principles that keep him racing.

Meet the person →
Orren Kade, a Keth racing driver, beside the Obsidian Reign
Ninefold team markNINEFOLD · Force

Orren Kade

Orren is trusted to bring difficult runs home. She wants the start, the pace and the chance to show what Ninefold’s recovery specialist can do at the front.

Meet the person →
Ilyx Renn, the original four-eared Ruun racer beside his Sinterline Machine
Sinterline team markSINTERLINE WORKS · RUUN

Ilyx Renn

Ilyx hears a change before he can name it. He wants that warning taken seriously without pretending the first impression is the whole answer.

Meet the person →
Sera Venn, a Cyran racing driver, at a route map beside the Gravemarch
Sinterline team markSINTERLINE WORKS · Deception

Sera Venn

Sera asks who depends on a route before anyone declares it unimportant. Sharing the complete map is harder when being the only one who has it feels so useful.

Meet the person →
Miri and Ollo, two small adult Zeru co-pilots, fully visible beside their twin-hull Machine
Ivaran team markIVARAN RELAY · ZERU

Miri & Ollo

Two adult Zeru, one Driver identity. Miri is learning to leave the first answer open; Ollo wants a calm objection to carry its full weight.

Meet the person →
Tarek Vey, a Keth racer, in Ivaran Relay colors
Ivaran team markIVARAN RELAY · KETH

Tarek Vey

Tarek brings Precision to a new team and a shared twin hull. He wants Ivaran’s way of working to become his own, and has to let someone see him learning it.

Meet the person →

The other side of the radio

Meet the crew chiefs.

Five people holding a crew together. Their choices matter before a Driver ever reaches the grid.

Character-development preview. Full names are retained from the roster; their pairings with the named artwork concepts remain provisional.

Lucky character artwork; full-name pairing remains provisional

Common Line Union

Mara Kest

Lucky concept · Name pairing provisional

Preparation should give Nyra and Kira room to enjoy racing. Lucky can make a repair look manageable while quietly taking on more than one pair of hands can finish.

View crew profile →
Kingmaker character artwork; full-name pairing remains provisional

Crownward

Edris Sol

Kingmaker concept · Name pairing provisional

Kingmaker prepares the Pearl Rapier so two gifted Drivers can make their own decisions. Letting them choose freely is easier than letting go of the credit.

View crew profile →
Dowager character artwork; full-name pairing remains provisional

Ninefold

Dren Vos

Dowager concept · Name pairing provisional

Dowager wants everyone to leave knowing what they agreed to. A better answer is welcome, even when it means changing a difficult call.

View crew profile →
Ghost character artwork; full-name pairing remains provisional

Sinterline Works

Veya Noll

Ghost concept · Name pairing provisional

Ghost wants a recommendation understood well enough to be questioned. The search for the exact answer can leave a teammate waiting in silence.

View crew profile →
Maestro character artwork; full-name pairing remains provisional

Ivaran Relay

Rell Oris

Maestro concept · Name pairing provisional

Maestro wants every crew member understood on their own terms. The test is letting a useful disagreement stay open long enough to hear everyone.

View crew profile →

Swipe to explore · Arrow keys to browse · No autoplay

Built for the crossing

Their teams.
Their Machines.

A team’s approach becomes physical in its Machine. Follow the same five crews from their Drivers to the chassis they share: Crownward’s Pearl Rapier, Common Line’s Slipline Spear and the distinct Ninefold, Sinterline and Ivaran designs.

Pearl Rapier: original Crownward Machine design reference
Crownward team markCrownward

Pearl Rapier

Astra Vale’s signature Machine.

Slipline Spear: original Common Line Union Machine design reference
Common Line team markCommon Line Union

Slipline Spear

Nyra Quell’s signature Machine.

Obsidian Reign: original Ninefold Machine design reference
Ninefold team markNinefold

Obsidian Reign

Ninefold’s copper-armoured Machine.

Gravemarch: original Sinterline Works Machine design reference
Sinterline team markSinterline Works

Gravemarch

Established black-and-cyan split-hull design.

Parallax Wraith: original Ivaran Relay Machine design reference
Ivaran team markIvaran Relay

Parallax Wraith

Established teal twin-hull design.

Pre-production design references. Each team races one shared Machine: five Machines in all, not ten playable Machine cards.

Why the roads need racing

The road beneath
the racecourse.

The Meridians are natural currents that carry weather, seasons, memory, gravity and time through Meridia. Civilization built the Grid to channel them. Its collapse broke connections between places that had depended on each other.

Generations of rebuilding followed. Independent crews and regional racing traditions came before the modern Cup. Today the sport is part of a lived-in world: garages, markets, grandstands and communities still working to reconnect.

A fissureline is a temporary crossing where a current breaks through. Crews read it, race it and learn how it behaves. Major renewal takes multiple Machines; a race winner cannot command the current or decide its future alone.

Every racing Machine carries a Core recovered from a Meridian crossing. Push it harder and it resonates harder: more Drive, more risk. Drivers read the current through Vision, a sense for what a route will do before it does it.

Pick Throttle.
Flip. Pay. Race.

Now take those rivalries onto the table. Choose an Active Driver for your crew, push for position or save Energy, and commit your Throttle in secret. Every player reveals together.

  • Designed for 2–6 players
  • Simultaneous racing
  • No player elimination
  • Cards, counters, a play sheet

  1. Choose your Throttle

    Pick 1–4 in secret. Lower Throttle restores Energy; higher Throttle spends it for more movement.

  2. Reveal and pay

    Everyone reveals together. Gain or spend Energy before anyone moves.

  3. Take the line

    Move in simultaneous steps. Pass through an open line, or contest a position held by a rival.

Pre-production two-player race concept with three Sector cards, two Machine position markers, face-up Active Drivers and Machines, hands, decks, discards, and hidden Throttle cards
Two-player Sprint concept: active race area shown Partial race view. “What’s on the table” below lists the full roster and resource tracking.

An open line

Pass clean.

An open line lets you overtake without a contest. Changing into that line uses a Beat.

A controlled position

Contest the line.

Try to take a position a rival controls, and they can yield or contest. Your cards matter here.

Simplified positions, not a full Sector. Each Beat is chosen together; the track and card effects determine what happens next.

Every line is a choice about the world.

Inside
The shortest, densest current, where the oldest magic bleeds through hardest. Fastest, and the most violent.
Center
The engineered current. Stable, modeled, and trusted by the institutional teams.
Outside
The diffuse edge. Safer on an ordinary day, and closest to forgotten roads.

The game lives in the pass.

Spend more Energy than you have and you Redline: the unpaid amount becomes Instability. Exceed the Machine’s Instability capacity or lose all its Integrity, and it Blows Out. You fall back and recover, then keep racing.

What’s on the table

A Sector is a section of track. A Beat is a simultaneous movement step. A Squeeze narrows three racing lines to two before they reopen.

On each Beat, eligible Machines move together: advance one position or change one adjacent line. Position and Machine state carry into the next Sector, and every cost resolves before a finish is confirmed.

Your roster

Two Drivers, one Pit Chief and one shared Machine. One Driver races each event.

Your Throttle

Four non-collectible cards, numbered 1–4. Choose one in secret and reveal together.

The track

Sector cards show the lines. One position marker per Machine tracks progress.

Machine state

Keep Energy, Instability and Integrity public with simple counters and an included or printable play sheet. No proprietary dashboard is required.

Explore the season’s nine current domains

Nine races.
One season.

Each Meridian Cup race renews a different family of Meridian currents. The domain shapes the course itself, not just the scenery around it.

  1. Flame

    Flame races run hottest where the current runs fastest. Cooling decides them before speed does.

  2. Tide

    Tide routes rise and fall with a current no ocean controls. Miss the window and the line goes under.

  3. Storm

    Storm races run through weather that has not moved in years. Crews read the wind like a track map.

  4. Stone

    Stone ground shifts slowly, then all at once. Heavy Machines finally get to argue with the course.

  5. Growth

    A Growth race may run through fungal industry whose roads rebuild behind the field.

  6. Shadow

    Shadow routes lose the light before they lose the track. Drivers race the line they remember.

  7. Memory

    A Memory race may cross a coastal megacity that briefly reverts to earlier centuries.

  8. Gravity

    Gravity courses climb walls and cross ceilings. A lane change can become a fall.

  9. Time

    Time currents keep the seasons turning. The course can change season between Sectors.

Nine races are on the calendar. Drivers talk about a tenth.

GRIDFALL: REDLINE

Bring two Drivers.
Race one Machine.

Build a crew with two distinct Drivers, one Pit Chief and one Machine. Mix teams and Philosophies. Show both Drivers in your roster, then choose one in secret and reveal together. That Active Driver races the whole event; the other contributes no abilities or specialist effects. Your deck determines what you can do when the clean pass disappears.

Inside the deck

The right card has
a place on the track.

A Maneuver can make space, protect your Machine, or press a rival off the best line. Its value depends on the Sector ahead, the Driver beside you, and the Energy left after Throttle.

These concept cards show earlier prototype text. Rules and values are being reconciled with the current playtest before release.

Read the Wake Precision Maneuver cardInspect card
No Brake Point Force Maneuver cardInspect card
Borrowed Gravity Deception Maneuver cardInspect card

Same rules.
Four treatments.

Standard, SP, Meridian Masterpiece and Unwritten change the art and finish, never the ability. Crown Rare describes a playable card’s functional rarity.

The core playable printing, with the Driver’s Philosophy and ability.

Follow GRIDFALL
Nyra Quell
Nyra Quell Standard concept Driver cardInspect card Nyra Quell SP concept Driver cardInspect card Nyra Quell Meridian Masterpiece concept Driver cardInspect card Nyra Quell Unwritten concept Driver cardInspect card
Kira Mossk
Kira Mossk Standard concept Driver cardInspect card Kira Mossk SP concept Driver cardInspect card Kira Mossk Meridian Masterpiece concept Driver cardInspect card Kira Mossk Unwritten concept Driver cardInspect card

Standard

The core playable printing, with the Driver’s Philosophy and ability.

SP

The same ability in a closer character moment: Nyra reading an opening, Kira bracing through contact.

Meridian Masterpiece

A cinematic full-art treatment. The rules stay the same; the viewpoint changes.

Unwritten

Named for the road nobody has mapped. Built outward from the subject, on its own UW checklist.

Read historical printed card text

These transcriptions describe the original concept printings, not the current demo rules. Open a card to see its separate playtest status. In particular, the printed Instability capacity 4 is historical; P0.1 uses 3. The three Crew Protocols are not playable in this demo.

Read the Wake

Maneuver · Precision · Approach

Clean Pass

Choose a racing line. The first time you complete a Clean Pass in that line this Round, gain 1 Energy and remove 1 Instability.

No Brake Point

Maneuver · Force · Engage

Contact

Play when Contact occurs during a Challenge you initiated. Prevent the Integrity loss to your Machine. After Contact resolves, gain 1 Instability.

Borrowed Gravity

Maneuver · Deception · Race

Movement Beat

Play before an eligible Movement Beat. Change one adjacent racing line. After that Beat resolves, if your Machine is alone in its position, advance one position. Gain 1 Instability.

Nyra Quell

Driver · Cyran · Precision

Line Reader

The first time each Round you complete a Clean Pass, gain 1 Energy.

Kira Mossk

Driver · Ruun · Force

Hold Fast

The first time each Round your Machine loses Integrity from Contact, gain 1 Energy.

Slipline Spear

Machine · Cyran · Precision

Needle Chassis

Prototype values: Integrity 5 · Instability 4 · Handling 2.

Zero Margin

Crew Protocol · Precision · Crown Rare

Crown Protocol

Eligibility: Your Active Driver and Pit Chief are Precision.

Once per race: After Throttle is revealed, reduce your Throttle by 1. Gain Energy as though you revealed the lower value. You may still take the original number of Movement Beats.

Break the Grid

Crew Protocol · Force · Crown Rare

Crown Protocol

Eligibility: Your Active Driver and Pit Chief are Force.

Once per race: When Hard Contact occurs, your Machine does not skip its next eligible Movement Beat. After Contact resolves, gain 2 Instability.

Ghost at the Apex

Crew Protocol · Deception · Crown Rare

Crown Protocol

Eligibility: Your Active Driver and Pit Chief are Deception.

Once per race: When you would enter ENGAGE, move to an eligible open position in an adjacent racing line instead. After that Movement Beat resolves, gain 2 Instability.

Race through
what remains.

GRIDFALL: REDLINE is in development. Follow Meridia’s routes, rivalries and first cards as the tabletop playtest takes shape.

Follow @gridfalltcg on Instagram

GRIDFALL: REDLINE · Concept card

Historical printed text

Current playtest status

Pre-production concept. The released set will feature original hand-illustrated artwork. Rules, names, values and finishes may change.

Open full-size artwork