Firstly, thanks for the feedback! Yes, I realised that I might have gotten a bit tunnel-visioned while compiling the ruleset. I plan to provide a "section 0" or "quickstart" chapter at the beginning, explaining the mechanics in a clear way. I guess that would clarify things. My inital intention when intorducing the mechanics slowly in each chapter was to follow a logical order (at least, logical to me :)) -- as a solo player, first you'd need a land, so first I provided the land generation rules, then you'd need a character to play, so next comes the character generation, etc, --this was the pedogogical approach to writing rules, but it seems like people want to just dive in.
Also, your second paragraph means that I wasn't also clear with the card use. I hoped to make die rolls and cards interchangable, so you'd be able to play a card as a non-magic user, instead of playing a card, or manipulating the play deck to make your power available once again, etc. Your character's power (as specified in the player card) can be used # number of times, # being your level. You don't need to use the card IF it is your character card, as you keep it out of the play deck during the game. This means that I'll have to clarify power/spell use. And I feel like I should not be wordy, and try to use as few words as possible, at least in the "section 0" as I described above.
Thanks again for your constructive criticism, much appreciated!