Map:Everybody look at the map. The things that are in your color are your things. Please decide which of your castles is which.
Year 2 - Preparation Phase:The following events happen every preperation phase in the following order -
1: Each duke has the opprotunity to add any card banked as wealth in a keep under his/her control to his/her hand.
Nobody has any banked wealth yet, so lets skip this...2: Each duke is dealt five cards from the deck.
Here we go!Cards Dealt to the Halfpipe Duchy, as played by nuclearwhale:Jack-o-Clubs
Jack-o-Spades
5-o-Hearts
6-o-Clubs
7-o-Spades
Cards Dealt to the Duchy of Talis as played by Taricus:9-o-Diamonds
10-o-Diamonds
4-o-Diamonds
Queen-o-Spades
7-o-Clubs
Cards Dealt to the Duchy of Strognar as played by Pavellius:Black Joker
2-o-Diamonds
Jack-o-Hearts
6-o-Hearts
2-o-Spades
Cards Dealt to The Shalesbury Islands as played by Doubloon-Seven:4-o-Hearts
Jack-o-Diamonds
Queen-o-Clubs
8-o-Spades
8-o-Diamonds
Cards Dealt to The Duchy of Oboson as played by Robson:Ace-o-Hearts
4-o-Spades
10-o-Clubs
7-o-Diamonds
4-o-Clubs
Year 2 - Action Phase:During the Action Phase, Dukes interact with the world, and order their underlings to do the same, by shuffling cards back into the deck.
Types of Characters and Actions -Unlanded Vassel: A Duke may command their unlanded Vassel to spend up to eight months of the year performing actions in his/her service. An unlanded vassal may not be assigned an action with a card that would bring his total working time to over eight months.
Count: A Duke may command their Count to spend all twelve months of the year performing actions in his/her service. A count may not be assigned an action with a card that would bring his total working time to over twelve months.
Duke: A Duke may act on his/her own behalf all year long if they choose to do so. A Duke may undertake an action with a card that would bring his total working time to over twelve months, but the duration of that action will be cut down to in compliance with the laws of time.
Trading Cards for Actions -The suit of a card determines the sort of action it may be used to perform, while the value of a card determines how long (in months) that action is performed for. An action can be almost anything imaginable, so long as it fits under the broad category of the suit of the card used to declare it. Some common and/or particularly significant actions have special rules and mechanics that will be discussed below.
Hearts are used for actions that are refreshing, diplomatic, nurturing, and/or selfless. Examples of actions that are performed by hearts:
-Seeking out an NPC for diplomatic purposes
-Sending resources to another dutchy in need
-Recovering from an injury or non-magical debuff
-Organizing a Feast
Diamonds are used for actions that are adventurous, explorative, educational, and/or commercial. Examples of actions that are performed by diamonds:
-Climbing a mountain
-Seeking out an NPC for commercial purposes
-Gambling
-Questing
-Appraising treasure
-Teaching/Learning
Spades are used for actions that are violent or related to the military. Many actions commonly performed with spades have specific rules discussed below, but here are some examples of freeform actions one might perform with Spades:
-Leading patrols
-Practicing with a weapon
-Drilling one’s troops
-Inspecting one’s defenses
-Organizing a tournament of combat skills
Clubs are used for actions that are tedious, industrious, and/or bureaucratic. Examples of actions that are performed by clubs:
-Writing a long document, such as a novel or biography
-Maintaining a strict exercise routine
-Presiding as judge of the the lesser affairs of peasants
-Auditing household finances
-Repair/Maintenance work
Card Value
Months of Action
Ace - 1 or 12
2 - 2
3 - 3
4 - 4
5 - 5
6 - 6
7 - 7
8 - 8
9 - 9
10 - 10
Jack - 11
Queen - 12
King - 13 (typically for Dukes only)
Joker - Cannot be used for actions under normal circumstances
Some actions will suffer bonuses or penalties based on the amount of time spent on them. It won't be easy to, say, learn a new language in a month, and NPCs might not be too thrilled if you spend an entire year badgering them about trade or diplomacy. On the other hand, it would be serious overkill to spend an entire year counting the populace of a single village.
Special Actions -Construction Work: Use a club to perform this action. Choose a planned construction project at which all required material units are present, and lead the effort to complete it. Penalties given for trying to build a castle, bank, or particularly long road in nine or fewer months, or any other construction in four or fewer. Bonuses given for spending nine or more months building a village, shorter road, quarry, mill, camp, or guild, and for previous attempts at completing the project that ended in (non-critical) failure. Upon completing a Quarry, a luck roll must be made to see if viable stone is struck. You may deposit Material at Construction Sites using the Inventory Management and/or Caravan special actions
Resource Extraction: Use a club to extract food from a mill or material from a quarry. Use a spade to extract might from a camp. Use a diamond to extract chemicals from a guild. Penalties given for spending three or fewer months on resource extraction, and/or for working the same resource site for multiple consecutive years. Bonuses given for spending seven or more months on resource extraction and/or for working a fancy resource site planned with a high card.
Explore: Use a Diamond to perform this action. Start at a castle you control, or any site connected to a castle you control by road, and choose a direction. (either by naming it (ex ‘Northeast’) or drawing a line on a screencap of the map) in which to explore. The distance traveled, sites potentially discovered, and events potentially encountered all increase with the time spent exploring. This is the best way to find new sites at which to build. Each character may only attempt one explore action per action phase.
March: Use a spade to perform this action, and apply the military travel time rules. A character may only perform a march if they have two or more units of might in their inventory. Select an action (other than March) being performed by an allied or friendly character this phase, that takes place in neither their home dutchy nor yours. Assuming your march is not disrupted by a negative event, the action you are supporting gets a +1 to any non-combat roll, +1 combat dice, and a chance to ignore consequences from negative events, critical failures, and/or military defeat. Each character may only attempt one march action per phase.
Supply: Use a heart to perform this action. A character may only provide supply if they have two or more units of food in their inventory. Select an action (other than supply) being performed by an allied or friendly character within your dutchy. Take a penalty for performing this action for an amount of time that is less than the time spent by the action you are supporting. If you succeed, the action you are supporting gets +1 combat dice, +1 to any non-combat roll, and a chance to ignore consequences from negative events, critical failures, and/or military defeat. Each character may only attempt one Supply action per phase.
Refurbish: Use a club to perform this action. A character may only refurbish a site if they have two or more units of material in their inventory. Select a constructed site within your own or a friendly dutchy, and attempt to refurbish and improve it. Take a penalty for spending six or fewer months on a refurbish attempt. If you succeed, the refurbished site provides +2 to any friendly actions performed there until the end of next year’s reaction phase. If you succeed, and the refurbished site can hit to yield resources, the site will hit on any club this year. Each character may only attempt one Refurbish action per phase.
Macro-Research: Use a diamond to perform this action. A character may only attempt Macro-Research if they have two or more units of chemicals in their inventory. Select a friendly guild or castle to perform Macro-research at, and attempt to alchemize a way to undo the shrinking spell placed upon the king. Macro-Research may yield a number of powerful random events that increases with the time spent on the action. These events are biased towards being positive if you roll a pass, and negative if you roll a fail. Repeated success in Macro-Research may bring the kingdom closer to freeing the king and obtaining a co-op victory. Each character may only attempt one Macro-Research action per phase.
Raid: Use a spade to perform this action, applying the military travel time rules and targeting a construction outside of your own dutchy which holds resources and isn’t a bank or a castle. If you succeed, take as many resources from the target construction as you inventory space allows. If the target construction holds might, you must first beat it in combat.
Siege: Use a spade to perform this action, applying the military travel time rules and targeting a construction outside of your own dutchy. If you succeed, the target construction is besieged. Any other action being performed at the besieged site automatically fails. At the end of the fallout phase, if nobody has successfully broken your siege, you may either retreat or assault the besieged site by entering combat with any might stored on site, and any characters trapped there. If you win the assault you may claim the construction, destroy it, and/or take as many resources from it as your inventory space allows.
Challenge: Use a spade to perform this action, targeting an unlanded noble, wandering NPC, besieging force or other threat that you wish to destroy. Take a penalty for spending fewer than three months on this action, but suffer random events as per the military travel time rules for spending more than four. If you succeed, engage the target character in combat.
Babymaking: Use a heart with a value of 9 or higher to perform this action. Only Dukes and Counts may attempt babymaking. If successful, a ‘youthful heir’ resource as added to an empty inventory slot in the Babymaker’s castle. The passage of time and/or parental interaction will turn a ‘youthful heir’ into a ‘mature heir’ who is ready to inherit the castle if needed.
Inventory Management: Use a card of any suit to tinker with your inventory. A character can spend a month or more to exchange resources between their inventory and their castle or their inventory and a non-castle building within their dutchy. A Duke may use this interaction to exchange resources with the castle of one of his/her counts. This action cannot fail.
Caravan: Use a card of any suit to move resources between two constructions, two planned construction sites, or a construction and a planned construction site. If you are neither carrying nor transporting might, then you may make one round trip between two sites in a month, moving one item per each of your empty inventory slots each way. If you are carrying and/or transporting might, use military travel time rules to determine the amount of time it takes to travel each way; You must spend enough time to complete the journey in round trip intervals, and Military travel may draw random events, but otherwise the caravan action cannot fail.
Military Travel Time Rules -Armies are cumbersome and boisterous; prone to slowing one down and attracting attention to oneself. These are the guidelines used by some special actions (and perhaps some freeform actions as well) for traveling with excess might on hand.
It takes an army one month to travel somewhere by following the road.
It takes an army two months to travel a route that is at least 30% road.
It takes an army three months to travel a route that is less than 30% road.
Add an additional month to the travel time if you are covering more than half the distance of the map.
For every two months of travel, a character traveling with an army has a chance of encountering one or more random event, weighted towards the negative. This chance increases with the amount of might in the traveling character’s inventory.
Tips --Remember that any cards you do not use will be discarded. In addition to the rules and events revealed during the first fallout phase, NPCs and Minor Characters will be able to act per the rules of the action phase, using any spare time they have remaining and the entirety of the discard pile in place of their hand. If another player controls one of your counts, and you trust them, it may be wise not to command them during the action phase so that they have their full 12 moths to act during fallout. Also remember that if you don't save a card to discard, one will be discarded randomly for you!
-A Joker has been drawn this year, and there are currently no known means to avoid discarding it! This means that any Global Events or Global Quests that occur during this year's fallout phase will likely be intensified and magical in nature. You may wish to consider not using a jack/queen in hopes of discarding it to trigger such an event.
-This Joker also means that next turn will very likely feature a Providence Phase in place of an action phase. Now might be a good time to explore, and find new sites to plan constructions on, otherwise you might be stuck unable to do much during the Providence Phase.
-It may be wise to deal the Kobolds early. They have a finished camp they can work to gain might, which the players do not yet have. Unless you have a unit of Might in your inventory, you will be on even strength with the Kobold you choose to fight, so ganging up on the little bastards with multiple characters may be prudent.