You can play Trials of MAYA before the Gamefound campaign opens on September 8, 2026. The Tabletop Simulator build is public, both Siege modes are in it, and all of the rulebooks and player aids are integrated so you do not need a second window open.
Here is how to get into a game and what to look at once you are there.
What is Trials of MAYA?
Trials of MAYA is an expandable card-driven arena combat game. It combines three genres: MOBAs, classic 90s tactics games, and TCGs without booster packs. It plays 1 to 4 players in 60 to 180 minutes for ages 14 and up, with nine asymmetric champions fighting on grid arenas.
What you need to run Trials of MAYA on Tabletop Simulator
Tabletop Simulator on Steam, and one other person. That is the whole list. The Trials of MAYA Tabletop Simulator build is a Steam Workshop mod, so subscribing to it makes it available inside the game.
The Trials of MAYA Tabletop Simulator page on Steam is linked from the official page, which is the safest place to grab it since it always points at the maintained version.
Which mode to load first
Load Siege: Skirmish for Vyati, the 1v1, for your first session. Two champions on the board is the fastest way to understand the systems without four players learning simultaneously.
Move to Siege: The Battle for Dhaara, the 2v2, once someone at the table has played before. Team play is more interesting but it is a poor teaching environment.
Every champion has a ready-made starter deck. Use it. Deck construction is genuinely interesting, but building a list before you understand what the cards do is the slowest possible route in.
What to actually test
The point of a Tabletop Simulator session is not to finish a game. It is to find out whether the core decision feels good to you. Four things to try deliberately.
Commit a very low card early. You will act first while everyone is still positioning. Then notice how little energy arrives two rounds later when that card slides off your mat. That squeeze is the Energy Gambit working.
Then bank a high one. Move last, feel exposed, and see what a large energy payout lets you do when it lands.
Push someone into a wall. Push and Pull deal collision damage when the moved unit hits an obstruction. Doing it once tells you more about the arena than reading the terrain rules.
Chip a minion, then kill it. Damaging a minion banks its health chips into your pool. Landing the kill gives you its head token and lets you spend from that pool to respawn it under your control. Try taking the kill immediately, then try chipping first, and see which you prefer.
If those four exchanges are fun, the game is for you. If they are not, you have saved yourself a pledge, which is exactly what the build is for.
Reading the rules efficiently
The build includes the Systems Rulebook, the Game Mode Rulebook, the Reference Rulebook and player aids. For a first game, read the systems rulebook and keep the player aid visible. The reference rulebook is a lookup document, not a read-through.
You can also check public metadata and rulebook links on BoardGameGeek.
After the demo
If you want to go further before backing, build a deck. Each champion has one species and two classes, and only cards sharing one of those traits, plus signature cards naming it, are legal. Decks run 24 to 40 cards with at least ten action cards. The full card list is public, so nothing is hidden from you while you plan.
Then follow or back Trials of MAYA on Gamefound when the campaign opens.