23 Knives Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Components
  • Reference Card
• Kalends and Curia Assembly
• Setup
• Understanding the Cards
  • Citizen Cards
  • Sway Cards
  • Fate Cards
• Gameplay
  • Turn Structure
  • Locations
  • Issue Cards
• Forum in Detail
  • Playing Fate into the Forum
  • Calling a Vote to Exile
• End of Game
• Variants
  • Tria Ludio (3 players)
  • Simplicitas (beginner)
  • Quid Pro Quo (this for that)
  • Aut Omnia Aut Nihil (all or nothing)
• Clarifications

Overview

In 23 Knives, you take on the role of a Roman citizen with one of three allegiances: a Loyalist to Caesar, a Liberator of Rome, or an Opportunist biding their time. At the end of the game, if there are 23 or more knives in the Curia, Caesar is dead and the Liberator most committed to killing Caesar wins. If there are fewer than 23 knives, the Loyalist most dedicated to saving Caesar wins. Opportunists are those who linger, waiting to shift the fate of Caesar at the last moment, and if they do, they win as a team.

23 Knives is a game of social manipulation. Your Citizen's initial identity is hidden, as is their allegiance, but this will surely change. Your task is to plan ahead while staying flexible—deciding which side to manipulate and strategize against, all the while maneuvering among the tides of Rome and fate itself.

Components

• 1 Game board
• 1 Voting board
• 1 Curia and Kalends
• 1 Dagger
• 31 Citizen cards
• 86 Fate cards
• 68 Sway cards
• 33 Issue Cards
• 8 Reference cards
• 8 Player Pawns
• 8 Voting tokens
• 1 Rulebook

Reference Card

ON YOUR TURN

1. Move: to a new Location
2. Resolve Location's Action: as much as possible (see reverse side)
3. Sway: you may place a Sway card from your hand into the tableau of a colocated player
4. Discard: down to 6 cards
5. If Tribune: resolve an Issue Vote

IMPORTANT TERMS

• Tableau: The space in front of you that includes your Citizen and cards played onto your Citizen. You may look at these cards at any time.
• Burn: Remove a card from the game without revealing it by placing it on the Burned space.
• Citizen: These remain secret and facedown until the Citizen is revealed. Once revealed their ability is active.
• Revealed: A Citizen or Sway that is faceup in a player's tableau.
• Sway: Place a card facedown in another player's tableau. Sway is used to change Citizens from Loyalist to Liberator or vice-versa.

Kalends and Curia Assembly

Assemble the Kalends stairs and the Curia, and attach the 4 columns to the Curia, as shown on the assembly diagram. Place the Kalends stairs on the Kalends track coming out from the Forum, and place the Curia off the edge of the board at the end of the Kalends.

Setup

I. Place the board in the center of the play area and the Kalends stairs on the Kalends track coming out from the Forum in the center of the board. Then place the Curia off the edge of the board at the end of the Kalends. Place the Dagger—according to the player count—into the corresponding space of the Kalends track (if playing with 3 players, see page 12 for two small rules changes).

II. Separate and shuffle the Fate and Sway decks individually and place them on the deck spaces of the Gardens and Baths.

III. Place the top card from both the Fate and Sway decks faceup into the discard space of the Tiber River.

IV. Each player chooses a color, receives the corresponding Reference card, and places their Player pawn on the Temple (when placing your pawn during Setup and throughout the game, be sure to place them in the open area of the Locations and not over the icons). Each player also receives a Voting token.

V. Shuffle the Citizen cards and deal 2 facedown to each player. Players choose 1 to keep facedown in front of them in their tableau and place the others back into the deck, which is then reshuffled and placed nearby.

Advanced Citizens

Citizens with a helmet icon in the bottom left corner are Advanced Citizens. If you are new to the game, you may consider removing these from the game before dealing Citizens to players.

VI. Randomly choose a starting player. Shuffle the Issue cards and give the deck, along with the Voting board, to the player sitting to the right of the starting player. If playing with fewer than 5 players, remove any Issues with a 5+ player icon (5+) in the bottom left corner.

VII. Each player draws 2 Fate and 2 Sway cards (Note: cards in players' hands may not be revealed, but you may freely discuss or lie about what you have. Players have a hand limit of a total of 6 Sway/Fate cards at the end of their turn—this does NOT include cards in their tableaus).

VIII. Play begins with the starting player.

Understanding the Cards

Citizen Cards

Citizen cards provide a starting Allegiance indicated by Laurels, Blood, or an icon of both. They are facedown in front of you in your tableau at the beginning of the game. They are considered to be in your tableau, and not in hand.

Note: You may freely look at cards in your own tableau at any time.

If your Citizen has:

• Laurels: they are a Loyalist who wants to save Caesar.
• Blood: they are a Liberator who wants to liberate Rome from tyranny by killing Caesar.
• Blood + Laurels: they are an Opportunist looking to change Caesar's fate at the last moment.

Each Citizen also has an ability that is tied to their historical persona and changes the game in various ways. These abilities are only active when the Citizen is revealed. Your Citizen card indicates when it may be revealed. Some effects happen immediately upon revealing a Citizen, while others trigger in various ways or may be passive abilities. Citizen abilities take precedence over the basic rules in this rulebook.

Once a Citizen is revealed, it cannot be turned facedown again.

Citizen card anatomy

1. Name
2. Historical Representation
3. Starting Allegiance
4. Reveal Timing
5. Special Ability
6. Historical Context

Example Citizen ability (Servilia) — May Reveal On Your Turn: Instead of playing Fate cards at the Forum, you may swap up to 2 faceup Fate cards in the Forum with 2 from your hand and place them facedown (you may still Call a Vote to Exile).

Sway Cards

Sway cards are how you influence the Allegiances of other players.

There are 2 types of Sway cards: Laurels and Blood. These range from 1 to 2 Laurels or Blood value on each card.

Laurels and Blood counteract each other equally. If you have a majority of Blood, you are a Liberator. If you have a majority of Laurels, you are a Loyalist. If you have an equal amount of each, you are an Opportunist.

When calculating your Allegiance, you must add the Laurels value (the number of Laurels) or Blood value (the number of Blood) on your Citizen together with the Sway cards in your tableau.

When a Sway card is placed into your or another player's tableau, place them from left to right.

Reminder: You may freely look at any cards in your own tableau at any time.

Example: Marcus Junius Brutus begins the game with 1 Laurels on his Citizen card, which means he begins as a Loyalist (1 Laurels value). During the game he is given two Sway cards with Blood on them. This means he is currently Swayed to be a Liberator since he has a total of 1 Blood value (the Laurels and other Blood cancel each other out equally). If Brutus were Swayed with another Blood, he would be neither Loyalist nor Liberator but instead an Opportunist because he has an equal amount of Laurels and Blood.

Example Citizen ability (Brutus) — May Reveal At Any Time: When a colocated player Sways you during the Sway step of their turn, after you view it, you may choose to Burn any card from your hand to discard the Sway instead.

Why Sway?

If you are a Liberator, for example, you may want to Sway other players toward being Liberators to help you get more Knives into the Curia to kill Caesar. However, since only the player who is most dedicated to killing Caesar wins if he dies, you don't want anyone to have a higher value than you. So if you see a player with more Blood, or think they may have more than you, Swaying them with Laurels is how you can reduce their dedication while maintaining their Liberator status. Be careful, though, Swaying players too far may make them Loyalists and they may begin to work against your cause.

Fate Cards

Fate cards are how you either kill or save Julius Caesar, and are generally played while in the Forum.

There are 2 types of Fate cards: Knives and Doves. The Knives range from 1 to 5 Knives on each card (no 4s). The Doves range from 1 to 3 Doves on each card.

Each Knife depicted on a card counts toward the 23 needed to kill Caesar, and each depicted Dove counts against that number. One way to think about a Knife is as a +1 and each Dove as a -1, which is also indicated on the cards (e.g. if there are 31 Knives and 10 Doves, the total number of Knives is actually 21 toward the 23 needed to kill Caesar).

Gameplay

The game plays out continuously as players take turns traveling to different Locations, performing actions, and Swaying Allegiances. Issues are also revealed to change the state of Rome and expose or muddle Allegiances as the game leads toward the resolution of Caesar's fate.

When the Dagger on the Kalends track moves into the Curia, the Knives and Doves are tallied, Citizens and their Sway are revealed, and a winner is declared.

Revealed vs True Allegiances?

Sometimes you may see a card refer to a true or revealed Allegiance. A revealed Allegiance is what is visible to all players based solely on the cards faceup in a player's tableau (Citizen or Sway cards). A true Allegiance counts all the cards in a player's tableau—revealed or unrevealed. Any time a card simply says an Allegiance without the keyword revealed or true, it is referring to a true Allegiance.

For example, if you have a 1 Blood Sway card in your tableau and it is revealed, but your Citizen has 2 Laurels and is unrevealed, you are considered a revealed Liberator, but a true Loyalist. Even if you had any number of unrevealed Blood Sway in your tableau, your revealed Allegiance would still be Liberator.

Turn Structure

I. MOVE: You MUST move to a new Location. When placing your pawn in a new Location, be sure to place it in the open area of the Locations so that you do not cover the icons.

II. ACTIONS: You must resolve the Location's action (to the best of your ability).

III. SWAY: After the Location's action is resolved, you may Sway any one colocated player by placing a Sway card from your hand facedown into their tableau. This is optional; you may choose not to Sway another colocated player during this step. Note: a colocated player refers to any player in the same Location as you.

IV. DISCARD: Discard down to 6 cards (in your hand). Discarded cards are placed into the Tiber River discard faceup. Note: You only discard at the end of your turn. If Citizen abilities or Issues cause you to draw cards, you may end up with more than 6 cards in your hand between turns. Only discard during this step.

V. RESOLVE AN ISSUE: If you have the Issue deck, you are the Tribune and must resolve an Issue Vote. i. Draw 2 Issues, read them aloud, and place them on the spaces of the Voting board (one on red and one on grey). ii. Using their Voting token, each player must secretly Vote for which Issue to resolve. Once all players are ready, call for all players to reveal their votes simultaneously. If there is a tie, you—the Tribune—make the final decision (you may choose either red or grey, regardless of your original Vote). iii. Resolve the instructions on the chosen Issue. Issue effects take precedence over the basic rules in this rulebook. After resolving the Issue, discard it, and then place the unresolved Issue on the bottom of the Issue deck. iv. If there is a Kalends icon on the resolved Issue, advance the Dagger on the Kalends track one space toward the Curia. v. Pass the Issue deck and Voting board to the next player counterclockwise.

Locations

Gardens

Draw 3 Fate cards AND Sway ANY OTHER Citizen (in any Location).

Note: When resolving this Location, you may still resolve the normal Sway step of your turn, which may result in you Swaying twice on your turn.

Baths

Draw 3 Sway cards AND reveal 1 Sway in ANY player's tableau (this may be your own).

Tiber River

Take up to 2 cards from any of the cards in the discard (the cards you take must be revealed to all players publicly).

Temple

Burn a Sway or Fate card from your hand. THEN, choose to either Burn a Sway card from your tableau OR add a Sway card from your hand facedown to your tableau.

Note: Whenever you are instructed to Burn a card, you always place it facedown in the Temple's Burned space.

Forum

Play up to 2 Fate cards into the Forum AND/OR Call a Vote to Exile another Citizen (see Forum in Detail).

Can't Resolve an Action?

Each Location's action must be resolved as much as possible. If you are unable to resolve an action or instruction, you may simply ignore it. For example: if you are at the Gardens, and have no Sway cards to Sway another player, or if an Issue instructs you to discard a Knife card and you have none, you may ignore it.

Out of Cards?

In the rare case that the Gardens or Baths run out of Fate/Sway cards, reshuffle ALL cards from the Tiber River into their decks.

Issue Cards

Issue card anatomy

1. Name
2. Historical Context
3. Effect
4. 5+ Player Icon
5. Kalends Icon

The Issue deck represents a number of moments from the life of Julius Caesar that influenced his reputation among the citizens of the ancient world.

Example Issue effect (Vestal Virgins): Starting with the Tribune and proceeding clockwise, each player may view the Burned cards and choose one to place in their hand.

Issues with the closed-eyes icon: Issues that have this icon call for players to close their eyes and reveal information or their Allegiances to other players in various ways. First, make sure to double check your Allegiance by looking at the Citizen and Sway cards in your tableau. The Tribune then calls for all players to close their eyes. After a few seconds, they call for the players indicated on the Issue to open their eyes and look around to discover their allies, enemies, etc. Once enough time has passed, the Tribune calls for all players to close their eyes and then, finally, for everyone to reopen their eyes.

Forum in Detail

Playing Fate into the Forum

The Forum is made up of the space on which you place your Player pawn as well as 5 connected spaces for Fate cards. Playing Fate cards into the Forum is the primary way to get Knives and Doves into the Curia and determine Caesar's fate.

When playing Fate cards into the Forum, you must place them in the 5 card spaces in the order indicated by the direction of the arrows. Each space indicates how to place the cards. A space with a faceup/facedown icon means you may play the Fate card faceup or facedown. Spaces with a faceup icon indicate a Fate card must be played faceup.

The space in which you place Fate cards must be empty, but if the 5 Forum spaces are filled and you are allowed, or must (because of a resolved Issue) play more Fate cards, any extra cards may be placed faceup or facedown, as indicated by the icon near the 5th space. Additional cards played this way may simply be placed on top of the card in the 5th space.

Example: In previous rounds, players have placed 4 Fate cards into the Forum: only one space remains. The next player that goes to the Forum is allowed to place up to 2 Fate cards so chooses to place the first facedown since it has 3 Knives and they want it to remain a secret. The next card they place may be either faceup or facedown, so they decide to place a Fate card with 1 Dove on it faceup in order to deceive others of their true Allegiance.

Once there are 5 or more Fate cards in the Forum after the end of your turn (if you're the Tribune, after Issues are resolved), flip all Fate in the Forum facedown, shuffle them, and place them into the Curia. Then, advance the Dagger on the Kalends track one space toward the Curia.

Calling a Vote to Exile

When a Vote to Exile is called, the player resolving the action chooses a player's Citizen to be up for Exile. Each player must secretly Vote whether to Exile the Citizen (using the Exile side) or to allow them to Remain (using the Remain side), and once everyone is ready, they simultaneously reveal their Vote. There are 2 possible outcomes:

• If a majority of players Vote to Exile, the Citizen is Exiled: their Citizen and any faceup Sway in their tableau are discarded. The faceup Sway from their tableau is placed in the Tiber River discard and the Citizen is placed faceup in a separate discard pile. The Exiled player may then draw up to their hand limit of 6 from either or both the Gardens or the Baths. Finally, the player then draws 2 new Citizens, chooses 1 to place facedown in their tableau and places the other into the deck, which is then shuffled. Play then continues as normal.
• If a majority of players Vote for the Citizen to Remain, the player who called the Vote to Exile is shamed: their Citizen, as well as all the Sway in their tableau is revealed for all to see. Play then continues as normal.

You may never Call a Vote to Exile yourself, but if your Citizen is Called for Exile, you may Vote against yourself. Ties are determined by the current Tribune.

Exiling on the black spaces of the Kalends track: You may never Call a Vote to Exile while the Dagger is on either of the final 2 black spaces of the Kalends track.

Why Exile?

Sometimes you may see players hoarding Fate cards and suspect them of being an Opportunist, and sometimes another player has revealed themselves as a powerful Liberator with an ability that works against your strategy, or they have a higher value than you. These are examples of why you may want to Call a Vote to Exile another player.

End of Game

Once the Dagger on the Kalends track moves from the last space of the Kalends into the Curia, the game immediately ends and the following occurs:

I. Any Fate cards remaining in the Forum are shuffled, then placed facedown into the Curia.

II. If Citizens have special abilities that resolve at the End of Game, check their timing and resolve appropriately, starting with the Tribune and proceeding clockwise.

III. One at a time, reveal the Fate cards from the Curia, calculating the total by adding Knives and subtracting Doves. If the total is 23 or greater, Caesar is dead. If the total is fewer than 23, Caesar lives.

Reveal the cards slowly—one at a time—while adding and subtracting the total of Knives and Doves to build tension as you reveal the fate of Caesar.

IV. All players reveal their Citizens and the Sway in their tableaus.

V. Now is the time for Opportunists to act: Opportunists may all play any number of Fate cards from their hands. If they can change the Fate of Caesar, they win as a team.

Example: 25 was the final count, so Caesar is dead. If the Opportunists play 3 Doves from their hands, the total is now 22, and they have changed the fate of Caesar and win together. OR if 19 is the final count, Caesar lives, and the Opportunists play 4 or more Knives from their hands, they have changed the fate of Caesar and win together.

VI. If the Opportunists didn't win and Caesar lived, the player with the most total Laurels value wins OR if Opportunists didn't win and Caesar was killed, the player with the most total Blood value wins (remember that Laurels and Blood cancel each other out, so a player with 3 Blood and 1 Laurels has a total Blood value of 2).

If tied, the player with the fewest Laurels/Blood, in relation to the outcome, on their Citizen card wins. If still tied, the tied players share the victory (or at least until one eventually stabs the other in the back).

Example: A total of 28 Knives were counted at the end of the game. The Opportunists only had 4 Doves total in their hands, so they were unable to change the fate of Caesar and he is dead. 2 players are Liberators and only 1 will win: Lucius has 3 Blood on his Citizen, and 4 Laurels and 6 Blood on Sway cards in his tableau, so his total Blood value is 1. Francesca has 1 Blood on her Citizen, and 2 Laurels and 1 Blood on Sway cards in her tableau, so her total Blood value is 2 and she is the winner. If they had an equal amount of Blood value, then Francesca would have won because she had fewer Blood on her Citizen card.

Variants

Sometimes slight changes in gameplay are needed to help those who are new, or in order to create a new experience. Below are a few variants to help you facilitate different experiences.

Tria Ludio (3 players)

When playing with 3 players, use the following small changes:

• Begin the game with a facedown unrevealed Fate card on the last space of the Forum. Each time the Forum is full, after it resolves and the cards are placed into the Curia, and the Dagger advances on the Kalends track, place the top card from the Fate deck facedown into the last space of the Forum; there will only ever be 4 spaces for Fate in the Forum.
• Players are the Tribune for 2 rounds. When you become the Tribune, at the end of your turn when you would normally resolve an Issue Vote, read and place 2 Issues on the Voting board, and then continue the round as normal without a Vote. The next time it is your turn as the Tribune, you hold the Vote on the previously revealed Issues. Once the Issue is resolved, pass the Issue deck counterclockwise as normal.

Simplicitas (beginner)

If it's your first time playing or you are playing with non-gamers, choosing to ignore the abilities of the Citizens will help with the amount of information players need to process.

Quid Pro Quo (this for that)

When another Citizen Calls a Vote to Exile your Citizen, you may take a moment to attempt to bribe the other Citizens at the table by offering cards, promises, future Votes, etc. These deals are non-binding.

Aut Omnia Aut Nihil (all or nothing)

This variant leans into winning as a team, but removes some of the backstabbing and manipulation elements. At End of Game, it is all or nothing. If Caesar dies, all Liberators win; if Caesar lives, all Loyalists win. Opportunists win as normal.

Clarifications

Burn: Remove the card from the game without revealing it by placing it facedown on the Burned space in the Temple.

Colocated: This text indicates or refers to when 2 or more Citizens share a Location.

Cicero: This Citizen's ability allows the player to split their Sway cards however they want into 2 sets as equally as possible and choose one set to claim as their Allegiance (each set may contain Laurels and Blood). This means that they have a single tableau in which to place Sway, but when Allegiances are called for or checked, they have 2 different tableaus of Sway; each of which may contain any type of Sway card. Because of Cicero's ability to have separate sets of Sway, the player will have up to two potential Allegiances when they must reveal or claim an Allegiance. Cicero cannot be an Opportunist; if one set of Sway indicates the player as an Opportunist, it is simply ignored.

Citizen Abilities and Issue Effects: If a Citizen ability and the Issue effects ever conflict, the Citizen ability takes precedence.

Forum Spaces: Some effects on Issues and Citizens may cause cards to be discarded from the Forum, leaving empty spaces. When Fate is played into the Forum, the cards must still be played in the indicated order, filling in any possible empty spaces first.

Immediate Issues: Some Issue use the term "immediately." These Issues ONLY resolve if they win the Vote.

Revealed: The keyword "revealed" refers to any public information. A revealed Loyalist is a player whose revealed Citizen or Sway indicates them a Loyalist (e.g. If you have 1 revealed Laurels Sway, 5 facedown Blood Sway, and your Citizen is unrevealed, you are a revealed Loyalist because of the 1 revealed Laurels Sway).

Sabinus: Sabinus allows you to play Doves onto Knife cards in the Forum. When the Forum is full, all cards—including the Doves—are placed into the Curia as normal.

Sempronia: Sempronia's Sway ability is non-negotiable and must be resolved if a player gives a Fate card. When a player uses Sempronia's ability to Sway, they may Sway them however they choose.

Swaying: When playing Sway cards on other players, they are placed facedown into the player's tableau from left to right. They are hidden from other players, but you may freely look at those in your own tableau. Once in a player's tableau, the Sway is immediately counted toward and affects the Allegiance of that player.

Tableau: When text refers to a tableau, it refers to the space in front of a player. This is the space that contains their Citizen card and any Sway given to that player. The keyword "tableau" also helps differentiate between the cards in a player's hand, which they may play, and cards in their tableau, which they may not play.

Timing: If 2 effects would happen at the same time, resolve them in turn order beginning with the Tribune. Some effects say "immediately," which always resolve before any other conflicting effects would resolve.