MORANA › Accessible Design
CLEAR BY DESIGN

Designed to Be Read: Accessibility in MORANA

A game is only as fair as it is legible. If a player has to guess at a color, strain to read a stat, or hold a hidden board in their head, the game has quietly shut some people out. MORANA is designed to do the opposite.

These are the design intentions behind the game. They describe how MORANA is being built for the planned launch, and the aim is simple: everyone at the table reads the same clear information.

Keywords carry names, not just colors

Every ability in MORANA is one of six named keywords: Omen, Vigil, Clash, Ward, Step, and Rooted. Each is written in plain words on the card. Color and iconography are used to reinforce a keyword, never to be the only way to tell it apart. That means no gameplay information depends on distinguishing two colors, which is the single most important thing a card game can do for colorblind players. The full list lives in the glossary.

The rule we hold ourselves to: if removing all color from the card would hide a piece of information, the design is wrong. Meaning is carried by words first.

Almost nothing is hidden

Many card games ask you to track a hidden hand, a face-down graveyard, and a fluctuating resource all at once. MORANA removes most of that load. Both players' defeated cards sit face-up in Nav, your resource is fixed by the turn (you always have as many Embers as the turn number), and scores are on the table for both players to see. There is only one hidden move each turn. Less to remember means the game is easier to follow for everyone, and especially for anyone who finds heavy memory tracking tiring. The terms are defined in the glossary and the flow in how to play.

A board you can read at a glance

The whole game happens across three Sites, resolved left to right, with a small number of cards in play at once. There is no sprawling tableau to parse and no long stack of triggers to untangle. A newcomer can look at the table and understand who is ahead and why, which keeps the game welcoming rather than intimidating.

Plain language on every card

Card text is written to be understood, not decoded. Keywords are real words with consistent meanings, so once you have learned the six, you rarely need to stop and look something up in the middle of a turn. That lowers the reading burden during play and makes the game friendlier to younger players and to anyone learning in a second language.

A gentle on-ramp

You do not have to absorb everything before your first game. The quickstart gets two people playing in minutes, and the depth reveals itself over later games. A shallow learning curve is an accessibility feature too: it means the game is open to people who would bounce off a dense rulebook.

Legible in the hand

Because MORANA is printed to demand as complete sets, the planned production emphasizes clean, high-contrast card faces with readable type and clear stat placement, so the physical cards are easy to read in real light, at a real table.

Frequently asked

Is MORANA friendly for colorblind players?
It is designed to be. Every keyword is identified by a written name, not color alone, so no gameplay information depends on telling two colors apart. Color reinforces meaning, never carries it alone.
Does it require heavy memory or hidden tracking?
No. Almost everything is open: defeated cards face-up, resources fixed by the turn, scores on show. Only one hidden move a turn, so the mental load stays low.
Is it hard to learn?
It starts fast. A first game begins in minutes with the quickstart, and because keywords are plain words on the cards, you rarely stop to look things up mid-turn.
Start with the quickstart The six keywords Full rules

This page describes MORANA's planned design intentions for the First Turning launch and may change before the campaign. It is not a formal accessibility certification.