This particular form of the Great Game takes place with a deck of cards. Each player starts with a hand of cards, and at the start of each round may draw more cards from the deck. Each card represents a particular element of the Game that can be played; a new Pawn, an Artefact, a Faction to aid the Pawns or an Action that may be played by the pawns. Every card costs
unplayed cards from the player's hand to play.
The Round has three phases;
During the short SUPPLY phase, every player draws 3 cards and adds them to his hand. Some cards may allow players to draw more cards during the SUPPLY phase.
During the PLACEMENT phase, each player may place as many Pawns, Artefacts or Factions as he can afford. During this round Artefacts (
and only Artefacts) may be traded between Pawns of the same or different players.
During the ACTION phase, each player may play Combat, Intrigue or Puzzle actions, or other Actions in their hand.
At the end of the Round, if any player has more than 10 cards in their hand, they must discard down to 10 cards.
Apart from where indicated on cards, there is one exception to the Round order: if a player's last Pawn is eliminated during the Action Round and they have another Pawn card in their hand and sufficient cards to play it, they may place that Pawn to remain in play.
The order of turns in the Round is arbitrary. Players make take their turns early within each phase, but if they have not taken them already they
must take their turns when it is their turn, or the game will not progress.
e.g. A player gets the following cards in his hand: STOUT CLUB, COMBAT, COMBAT, GRAPPLING HOOK and another STOUT CLUB. He decides to play the Stour Club card:
STOUT CLUB [Artefact] - "Give 'em a good whacking." This rather mundane shaft of wood is very sturdy and can be used both to attack and parry.
+1 to Combat. Cost: 2 Cards.
It costs 2 cards to play, so he discards the GRAPPLING HOOK and other STOUT CLUB cards and adds the Stout Club to his Pawn's inventory, a Warrior with a base of 3 Combat*. His Pawn now has a permanent +1 to Combat checks (so his effective Combat is 4).
* He does not have to show the other cards in his hand to the other players, although he must tell the GM which cards he is discarding.
Feeling stout, the player then wants to attack a rival using the Combat card:
COMBAT - An offensive action. Play this and any other Combat cards (each successive card costs 1 card to play) against a Pawn or Faction. Cost: 2 Cards. Discard after play.
However, he only has two cards in his hand; COMBAT and COMBAT. He would need at least 3 cards to mount the attack, as the COMBAT card costs 2 cards to play.
At the start of the next Round, the player draws 3 new cards and adds them to his deck; STOUT CLUB, INTRIGUE and PUZZLE.
Pawns, Artefacts and Factions are placed
before Actions are taken, so before he can use his Combat action, he has to wait for everyone else to place pieces in the game.
He could potentially add another STOUT CLUB to his inventory, but decides against it in favour of playing his COMBAT cards. The first COMBAT card costs 2 cards to play, so he burns the STOUT CLUB and INTRIGUE cards. This will allow his Warrior pawn to attack with a Combat score of 4. But he has another Combat card, and successive Combat cards only cost 1 card to play, so he burns his PUZZLE card to play it and gain a temporary +1 to his Warrior's Combat score (which is now effectively 5).
He chooses to attack his opponent, whose Wizard only has a Combat of 2. The Wizard's player has the choice to either let the Pawn die or sacrifice 3 cards (5 Combat - 2 Combat = 3) to preserve him. As the Wizard has no other Pawns in play, he chooses to sacrifice the cards from his hand. The attacking player then discards both of his Combat cards and the Warrior's Combat score goes back down to 4.
The Wizard's player still has 3 cards in his hand, however. He burns 2 cards to play a PUZZLE card, using his Wizard's Puzzle score of 4 to attack the Warrior (whose Puzzle score is 2). The Warrior's player does not have 2 cards to spend, so he has no choice but to sacrifice the Warrior. With no other Pawns, the Warrior's player bows out of the game and forfeits.
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Topic: Pawns of Divinity [Cards/Multiplayer/Roleplay] [Board Two: Stormrivet] (Read 14090 times)