Captain's Gambit: Kings of Infinite Space
Captain's Gambit: Kings of Infinite Space Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 4 two-sided Captain sheets
- 1 Round counter
- 2 Loyalty tokens
- 70 Blood tokens
- 30 single Energy tokens
- 20 triple Energy tokens
- 12 unique Captain cards
- 8 Player sheets with health clips
- 4x6 Permit cards
Overview
Your goal in Captain's Gambit is to complete the secret objective of your captain card. To accomplish this, you must declare actions, call bluffs, and persuade your opponents.
You'll choose one action to do each turn. Some example actions include gaining energy, or spending energy to attack and repair.
You can choose a simple action if you wish, or call on one of your two permit cards to do a powerful "permit action" instead. You can't reveal your permits when declaring an action - this means you can pretend to have any card you want!
If another player doesn't believe you actually have that permit, they can make a "bluff call". Whoever loses the bluff call takes damage!
To succeed, you'll have to persuade your friends to focus on others so you can secure victory for yourself. Good luck!
(Designed for 4-8 players aged 13+. Estimated play time is 30-60 min per game, based on experience.)
Winning and Dying
Your win condition depends on your captain card: each captain has a different goal they must reach to win. For example, you might need to kill a specific target, or collect the most blood.
Winning
If at any point your win condition is fully met - for example, if you killed your planned target - then you win! Whenever somebody wins, the game ends for everyone.
Ending the game will often cause other captains to win with you. Feel free to ally with players if you think you can share a victory - or stab them in the back if not. :)
Dying
If at any point your win condition becomes impossible, you die!
For example, this can happen if you marked someone as your assassination target in the Prologue and someone else kills that target.
Having 0 health also makes you die.
If you die, reveal your captain and permit cards (keep your permit cards out of the game) and sit back as a spectator. Chain deaths are common, so pay attention whenever someone dies.
Most of the time, dying means you lose. There are some captains who can still win while dead, though.
Setting Up the Game
- Place all tokens in the center of the table. Distribute the captain sheets within reach of every player.
- Give a player sheet and 2 energy tokens to each player.
- Attach a health clip to your player sheet at "10". That's your starting health - though you can heal above that.
- Construct your permit deck based on the number of players in the game.
| 4 Players | 5-6 Players | 7+ Players |
|---|---|---|
| 2 of each permit card | 3 of each permit card | 4 of each permit card |
- Construct your captain deck based on the number of players in the game.
- 4+ Players: Hamlet, Prospero, Iago, Portia, Puck, Lady Macbeth
- 5+ Players: all previous captains + Cordelia, Brutus
- 6+ Players: all previous captains + Romeo, Juliet*
- 7+ Players: all previous captains + Richard III, Rosalind
*Juliet goes face-down in the center of the table instead of in the deck.
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Shuffle the captain deck as well as the permit deck. Deal 1 captain card and 2 permit cards to each player face-down. You can view your own cards, but don't show them to others.
Put unused permit and captain cards (except for Juliet, if applicable) back in the box without looking at them. You won't need them.
Optional: Players may "mulligan" their permit cards. To do this, put any number of permit cards you don't want into the deck. Then, shuffle that deck and deal back new cards until everyone has 2 permits again.
-
Pass the round counter to whoever most recently watched a play. They are the first player, and play will go clockwise from there.
-
It is now time to read the Prologue script! Romeo, Hamlet, Cordelia and Brutus use the Prologue to secretly plan their strategies. Check Page 11 to do the Prologue and begin the game.
Important Terms
- Captain: Each player is a different captain and has their own way to win the game. Your card stays hidden until otherwise noted.
- Energy: Green tokens. Most actions cost energy. There's no energy cap.
- Permit: There are 6 different types of permit cards. When you attempt a permit action, you're claiming one of your cards is that action.
- Blood: Red tokens. You get one blood when you attack someone with Strike or Barrage, even if it gets shielded.
- Loyalty: Blue tokens. Cordelia and Brutus use these tokens to mark their target during the Prologue of the game.
- Player Sheet: It's a list of every action you can take. This sheet also includes your health bar, which you adjust as you heal or get hurt.
- Bluff: If you don't believe someone actually has the permit card for the action they're trying to do, tell them that you're calling their bluff. Whoever's in the wrong takes 3 damage.
- Reveal: Although captain cards usually stay face-down, some captains can be flipped face-up for a special effect. You usually need to meet certain conditions before revealing.
- Negate: To "negate" is to stop the action from happening. You can declare a Shield permit to Negate a Drain permit.
How to Play
To play your turn, do these three things in order:
- Take one free energy token from the center of the table. If you are the first player, take it from the round counter instead.
- Choose one action to do for your turn. You can do a simple action or a permit action. Give other players a chance to react to your action before you complete it.
- If somebody won, the game ends here. Otherwise, the next player goes. Take heed of the round counter - the game's over at the end of round 12.
Actions
Actions are how you do things in the game.
The player sheet lists out all of the actions you can take. If your action has an energy cost, pay that number of energy tokens to the center of the table. With the exception of Shield - which is a "reaction" - you can only do actions on your turn.
There are two types of actions you can choose from: simple actions and permit actions. You can always carry out a simple action without risk, but permit actions are more powerful in exchange for requiring you to claim ownership of that card.
To do a permit action, just say the name of the action itself. For example, you might say "I'm going to Overcharge".
You don't have to tell the truth.
You don't reveal or spend permit cards when you do permit actions, meaning you can totally lie about what you have. If you look honest enough, you can get away with doing any action you want for the whole game.
You can challenge other people's actions.
If you think someone else is lying about what they have, you can challenge them by making a bluff call. That player can either show you their permit card, making you take 3 damage, or forfeit their action and take 3 damage from you. Energy costs aren't refunded, and blood isn't produced.
Whenever someone's permit card is revealed, perform the following sequence:
- Shuffle the card that you had revealed back into the deck.
- Draw a new permit card face down.
- Finish your declared action after you draw a new permit.
Reactions
Aside from attempting negotiations, threats and misdirections, you can also do the following things on other player's turns:
- Declare Shield in response to Strike or Barrage against any player, including yourself.
- Declare Shield in response to a Drain against yourself.
- Reveal your card, if you are Richard or Rosalind.
- Call bluffs on other people's permits.
There are 2 copies of each permit in 4-player games, 3 copies in 5-6 player games, and 4 copies in 7+ player games. Use these ratios to help you call bluffs!
Ending the Game
The game ends whenever someone wins, everyone dies, or the game reaches the end of the 12th round.
In the rare case that everyone won, the game is declared a comedy.
If everybody lost, the game is declared a tragedy.
Commonly Overlooked Rules
Before you start the game, give this list a quick scan to verify some of the more commonly missed rules.
Setup
- Make sure you have the right number of permits for your player size!
- Romeo and Juliet should see each other during the Prologue.
Main Gameplay
- Permit cards are declared rather than played. For example, if you Overcharge and nobody challenges you, you don't need to touch your permit cards at all.
- Shields don't block bluff damage.
- You still get blood even if your attack is shielded.
- Bluff damage counts as a killing blow. So Hamlet, Portia and Brutus can win through a successful bluff call.
Captain-Specific Tips
- Hamlet: If you're marked by Hamlet, the token doesn't count as blood during the game. (i.e. Barrage, Iago's objective, etc. are not affected by this token.)
- Prospero: You don't have to Reveal as soon as you have 8 energy. If you want to win, you must Reveal by round 11. (Round 12 is too late, since there's no round 13.)
- Iago: You're allowed to tie with others. Dead people's blood can still count for "the most" - be careful.
- Portia: Your own blood does not count, which is fortunate for you. In the case of a tie, you may choose who to kill. Dead people's blood can still count for "the most" - be careful.
- Puck: You should be actively sabotaging everyone else to ensure victory. Killing people is an easy way to sabotage their plans.
- Lady Macbeth: You don't need to Reveal as soon as you have 3 blood. If you want to win, you must Reveal by round 11. (Round 12 is too late, since there's no round 13.)
- Cordelia: You don't need to be alive.
- Brutus: Pretend to be Cordelia.
- Romeo/Juliet: Make sure you see each other during the Prologue. The manner in which you choose to be the "last ones alive" is up to you two, but it's probably through murder.
- Richard III: It's entirely your choice if and when you want to Reveal. You can Reveal the moment someone's confirmed dead.
- Rosalind: Don't forget to use your Reveal ability before someone dies.
Prologue Script
To do the prologue, you can play a recording or read below.
- A recording is on "cloudfallstudios.com/prologue".
- You may scan our QR code to get there.
- You may also instead have someone read the script below, reading the sections that match your playgroup size.
We recommend tapping on the table, or playing music, to mask the sound of people moving around.
The scriptreader should be from outside the game. Or, you can read from behind a screen so you can't peek.
- ALL: Everyone, close your eyes.
- 6+ Players: Romeo, open your eyes. Select another player to be Juliet by gently tapping on them. If you have been selected, open your eyes and swap your captain card with the Juliet card in the center of the table. This is your new role. Both of you: nod at each other, then close your eyes. 3...2...1...
- ALL: Hamlet, open your eyes. Everyone else, raise your hand, palm up. Hamlet, place a red blood token into the hand of any other player, then close your eyes. 3...2...1... Everyone, put your hands back down. If you were given the token, hide it somewhere safe while keeping your eyes closed.
- 5+ Players: Cordelia, open your eyes. Place a blue loyalty token in front of any other player, then close your eyes. 3...2...1....
- 5+ Players: Brutus, open your eyes. Place another blue loyalty token in front of any other player, then close your eyes. 3...2...1...
- ALL: Everyone, open your eyes. It is time to begin.