For a Crown Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
  • For each player
  • For all players (in the center of the table)
• Gameplay Overview
• 1. Recruit
• 2. Reveal
  • Mercenary and Magic Die Effects
  • Event Effects
• Heirloom
• 3. End of the Round
• End of the Game
• Credits

Contents

• 55 Mercenary cards
• 7 Event cards
• 32 Card sleeves (extra copies of each card sleeve were added in case of damages)
• 7 Chests
• 1 Board
• 6 Recruitment cost tiles
• 5 Portrait pawns
• 5 Heirloom tiles
• 60 Ruby tokens
• 30 Coin tokens
• 25 Masked Bandit tokens
• 1 Magic die

To accommodate every type of colorblindness, each player component in the game has a corresponding family crest.

Setup

For each player

1. Choose a family, take the corresponding chest and 5 card sleeves, and place them in front of you.
2. Take your family's Heirloom and 10 Rubies, and place them in your chest. During the game, keep what is in your chest secret.

For all players (in the center of the table)

3. Place the token organizer chest (containing the reserve of Masked Bandits, Coins, and Rubies).
4. Place the board and slide the 1, 3, and 5 Recruitment cost tiles in the inlaid track. Set the 0 Recruitment cost tiles nearby.
5. Form the Royal Square above the board:
   • Sort the Mercenary cards into 5 decks according to their level (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5).
   • Level 1: Sort the cards according to their effects and make 3 stacks, faceup, above the level 1 space.
   • Levels 2, 3, 4 and 5: Shuffle each deck separately, then place them, facedown, above their respective level spaces. Then reveal 2 cards from each deck and place them under it.
6. Take the 2 Starting Event cards and make a shared deck, facedown.
7. Shuffle the other Event cards and make a stack, facedown.

During your first game, place the 7 Event cards in neutral card sleeves (without a family crest on the front) and keep them like this for your future games.

8. Take all the Portrait pawns for families in play and place them randomly in the Gallery. Start with the starting space, then place the others on spaces directly to the left.

Influence. The Gallery represents each player's influence. Whichever Portrait is the further right is the most influential player; while whichever Portrait is the furthest left is the least influential player.

9. Consult the table below: Depending on your influence, take Coins from the reserve and put them in your chest.

Most influential	Least influential	All others
3 Coins	5 Coins	4 Coins

10. Finally, place the magic die near the reserve.

Example: You are Countess Rabbit. Your Portrait is the furthest right in the Gallery, so you are the most influential and start the game with 3 Coins.

Gameplay Overview

The game plays over 4 rounds, each with 3 phases: Recruit, Reveal and End of the Round.

After 4 rounds, the player with the most Rubies in their chest wins the game.

1. Recruit

In order of influence, meaning from most influential to least influential, recruit a Mercenary from the Royal Square following these steps:

1. Choose a Mercenary in a column with a recruitment cost. You may either take a faceup card, or the top card of a deck, facedown.
2. Pay, to the reserve, the recruitment cost of your chosen Mercenary in Coins (and/or Rubies) from your chest. You may always pay 1 Ruby instead of 1 Coin.
3. Then place the Mercenary you just recruited in one of your card sleeves; it will now bear your family crest. Place it, facedown, on the shared deck. If you chose the top card of a deck, look at it secretly, before placing it in one of your card sleeves and placing it on the shared deck.

When all players have recruited a Mercenary, refill the Royal Square. If a deck is empty and there aren't enough cards to refill a column, leave these spaces empty.

Important: complete this phase twice during the first round!

Example: (1) During the first round, you choose to recruit a Mercenary who costs 5 Coins. (2) Since you don't have 5 Coins, you pay for this Mercenary with 3 Coins and 2 Rubies, which you return to the reserve. (3) You place the recruited Mercenary card in one of your card sleeves, then you place it facedown on the shared deck.

2. Reveal

Shuffle the shared deck, then reveal the top card and immediately apply its effect. Reveal the next cards, one at a time, applying each effect until the shared deck is empty.

• When a Mercenary is revealed, the player who recruited it must apply its effect.
• When an Event is revealed, all players affected by the Event must apply its effect.

Mercenary and Magic Die Effects

• Gain 1 Ruby from the reserve and place it in your chest.
• Choose another player. They take 1 Masked Bandit from the reserve and place it in front of them.
• Choose another player. They lose 1 Ruby from their chest and return it to the reserve.
• Roll the magic die and apply the effect shown.
• Gain 1 Coin from the reserve and place it in your chest.
• Move any Portrait to the next free space, in either direction (see example below).

Level 1 cards have two effects separated by a "/". They let you choose which of the effects to apply each round.

Example: (1) Your Mercenary is revealed. They let you move 2 spaces in the Gallery. (2) For your first move, you move Viscount Penguin's Portrait to the left. (3) For your second move, you move your Portrait to the right, becoming more influential.

Event Effects

Burglary — The player(s) with the most Masked Bandits in front of them lose 2 Rubies and return them to the reserve. They then return all their Masked Bandits to the reserve.

Bribery — In influence order, each player may pay as many Coins (and/or Rubies) as they want to return the same number of their Masked Bandits to the reserve.

Helping (Magic) Hand — The least influential player rolls the magic die and applies the effect shown.

Mercenary Mages — In influence order, each player may pay 1 Coin (or 1 Ruby) to roll the magic die and immediately apply the effect shown.

Scandal — Depending on the position of their Portrait in the Gallery, each player loses 2, 1, or 0 Rubies, which they return to the reserve (see example below).

You may always pay a Ruby instead of a Coin, but be careful, because you cannot do the reverse!

Example: (1) The Scandal Event is revealed. (2) Baron Monkey and Duke Flamingo are in the left zone of the Gallery: They each lose 2 Rubies. (3) Viscount Penguin is in the middle zone of the Gallery: He loses 1 Ruby. (4) Marquise Croc and you are in the right zone of the Gallery: You don't lose anything!

Heirloom

If you don't have any Rubies in your chest and you must return one or more to the reserve, two situations are possible:

You still have your Heirloom. Announce to your opponents that you are selling your Heirloom and place it in front of you as a reminder (you can never get it back). Take 10 Rubies from the reserve and place them in your chest. Continue playing normally and pay the required Rubies.

You already sold your Heirloom. You are out of play for the rest of the game. Announce it to your opponents, remove your Portrait from the Gallery, and return any Masked Bandits in front of you to the reserve. Your opponents finish the current round, then the game ends. If cards from your family are revealed, ignore them.

Example: (1) You must pay 1 Ruby, but you don't have any in your chest. (2) You then announce that you are selling your Heirloom and put 10 Rubies in your chest. (3) You pay the required Ruby, and continue the game with 9 Rubies in your chest.

3. End of the Round

To prepare the next round, follow these 3 steps:

• Start a new shared deck by flipping over, facedown, all cards played during the round.
• Draw a new Event card and place it, without revealing it, on top of the new shared deck.
• Slide a 0 Recruitment cost tile into the inlaid track on the board to shift the other tiles to the right, so that the recruitment costs change and new Mercenaries become available.

At the end of the 4th round, ignore this phase and continue directly to the end of the game.

Example: (1) At the end of the 1st round, you slide a 0 Recruitment cost tile into the track. (2) Now you have changed the recruitment costs for the 2nd round.

End of the Game

The game ends after the 4th round, or sooner if a player is out of play.

Apply the final gains and losses in the following order:

• The most influential player gains 1 Ruby.
• The player(s) with the most Coins gain 1 Ruby.
• The player(s) with the most Masked Bandits in front of them lose 1 Ruby.

Finally, reveal the number of Rubies remaining in your chest; your Heirloom counts as 10 Rubies.

The player with the most Rubies wins the game and dons the first crown of the kingdom. In case of tie, the most influential tied player wins the game.

Credits

Designer: Maxime Rambourg Illustrator: Paul Mafayon Credits and thanks: www.rprod.com/en/for-a-crown/credits

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