Game of Thrones: The Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • The Golden Rule
  • House Stark
  • House Lannister
• Component Overview
  • Gold Tokens
  • Power Counters
  • House Banners
  • House Lannister's Draw Deck
  • House Stark's Draw Deck
  • Plot Cards
• Card Anatomy
  • House Symbols
• Card Types
• Game Setup
  • 1. Create Treasury and Power Bank
  • 2. Determine Houses
  • 3. Create Plot Decks
  • 4. Shuffle Draw Decks
  • 5. Draw Setup Hands
  • 6. Place Setup Cards
  • 7. Draw Starting Hand
  • Example of Placing Setup Cards
  • Example Play Area
• Round Sequence
  • Phase 1: Plot
  • Phase 2: Draw
  • Phase 3: Marshalling
    • Playing Cards
    • Income Bonuses
  • Standing and Kneeling
  • Phase 4: Challenges
    • Step 1: Declare Attackers
    • Step 2: Declare Defenders
    • Step 3: Resolve
    • Winning as the Defender
    • Unopposed Challenges
  • Example of a Challenge
  • Phase 5: Dominance
  • Phase 6: Standing
  • Phase 7: Taxation
• Power & Victory
• Other Game Concepts
  • Gold Pools
  • Discard and Dead Piles
  • Unique Cards
    • Duplicates
  • Keywords
    • Limited
    • Renown
    • Stealth
  • Actions
  • Passive Abilities
  • Responses
    • Save Responses
    • Lasting Effects
  • High-claim Military Challenges
  • Plot Draft Variant
• Quick Reference
  • Round Sequence
  • Symbols
  • Challenge Claim Effects
  • Keywords
• Credits

Introduction

Game of Thrones lets two players experience their own battles and courtly intrigues in the lands of Westeros as House Lannister or House Stark. Players first use plot cards to attempt to gain the advantage, then marshall their forces consisting of a variety of characters, locations, and attachments. Each player can then engage his opponent in three types of challenges:

Military

Intrigue

Power

As players win challenges, they claim power for their House. The first player to gain 15 power wins the game.

Gather your wits and muster your armies, for when you play the game of thrones, you win, or you die; there is no middle ground.

The Golden Rule

If the text on any card conflicts with the text in this rulebook, the text on the card takes precedence.

House Stark

The leading house of the North, the Starks reigned as Kings in the North until the Targaryen conquest. Nearly 300 years later, Eddard Stark helped Robert Baratheon overthrow King Aerys Targaryen, known as The Mad King. The Stark sigil is a grey direwolf on an ice-white field. The Stark words are Winter is Coming.

House Lannister

The wealthiest family in Westeros, the Lannisters of Casterly Rock ruled as kings in their realm until the Targaryen conquest. Nearly 300 years later, Robert Baratheon deposed King Aerys Targaryen, seized the Iron Throne for himself, and married Cersei Lannister. The Lannister sigil is a golden lion upon a crimson field. The Lannister words are Hear Me Roar!

Component Overview

Game of Thrones includes the following components.

Gold Tokens

Gold tokens track how much gold each player has in his gold pool. Each gold token represents one gold. Players spend gold to play cards and to pay for certain special abilities throughout the game. There are 26 gold tokens in the game box.

Power Counters

Power counters track how much power each player has gained. Each power counter represents one power. The first player to gain 15 power wins the game. There are 30 power counters in the game box.

House Banners

These large tokens indicate which House a player is controlling. They are also used to store power counters each player gains during the game. There is one banner for House Lannister and one banner for House Stark.

House Lannister's Draw Deck

The House Lannister player uses a set of 50 cards with the Lannister lion sigil on their backs. These cards are shuffled together to form House Lannister's draw deck.

House Stark's Draw Deck

The House Stark player uses a set of 50 cards with the Stark direwolf sigil on their backs. These cards are shuffled together to form House Stark's draw deck.

Plot Cards

Plots are special cards that have an image of the Iron Throne on their backs. In addition to their draw decks, each player also has a unique plot deck consisting of seven cards. There are 32 plots included, but only 14 of them are used each time the game is played—seven for each plot deck (see "Game Setup" for more information).

Card Anatomy

Cards come in these varieties: Stark characters, Stark locations, Stark attachments; Lannister characters, Lannister locations, Lannister attachments; neutral characters, neutral locations, and neutral attachments (cards belonging to no House); and events and plots.

A character, location, or attachment card shows, among other things, its gold cost, its title, its House symbol (if any), and — on characters — its strength, challenge icons, and traits, along with its card ability text and flavor text. Event and plot cards show their own layouts: an event card shows its gold cost, title, and card ability text; a plot card shows its income value, initiative value, claim value, and card ability text.

1. Gold Cost: The amount of gold a player must pay from his gold pool to play this card.

2. Title: The name of the card. A card with a * symbol next to its title is a unique card (see "Unique Cards"). The title bar also indicates the type of card (character, location, attachment, event, or plot).

3. House Symbol: Indicates the House to which this card belongs—House Stark or House Lannister. Neutral cards have no symbol. See also the "House Symbols" sidebar.

4. Strength: A number representing the effectiveness of a character during challenges.

5. Challenges Icons: Indicates the types of challenges this character may participate in as an attacker or defender (military, intrigue, or power).

6. Traits: Descriptive words that do not contain any rules but might be referred to by other cards. Traits always appear in large block text. Examples include Lord, Lady, and Knight.

7. Keywords: Special abilities with specific game rules. They always appear in block italic type. There are three keywords in the game: Limited, Renown, and Stealth (see "Keywords").

8. Card Ability: The rules and abilities unique to this card.

9. Income bonus: A bonus added to the income value on a revealed plot.

10. Flavor Text: Background information or a quote by the character pictured on the card.

11. Income Value: The amount of income the plot provides its owner for the round.

12. Initiative Value: A number that determines which player wins the initiative for the round.

13. Claim Value: Indicates how much damage a player inflicts when he wins a challenge as the attacker.

House Symbols

Some game effects interact with cards that have a specific House symbol. Any card with the Lannister lion symbol in its upper right corner is considered a House Lannister card, while any card with the Stark direwolf symbol in its upper right corner is considered a House Stark card. Cards that have no House symbol are neutral and effects that call for a House Lannister card or House Stark card do not apply to them.

Card Types

There are five card types in the game. The purpose of each is summarized below.

Characters are mainly used as attackers or defenders in challenges against the opposing player. By winning challenges, players can gain power for their House and force their opponent to suffer claim effects (see "Phase 4: Challenges"). Characters can be killed or discarded from play (see "Discard and Dead Piles").

Locations provide players with benefits such as a bonus to income or special abilities that affect characters.

Attachments are played underneath characters (either yours or your opponent's) already in play and modify them with their rules text. Attachments are discarded from play if the character they are attached to leaves play for any reason.

Events are played from a player's hand for their text effect. After an event card effect has been resolved, it is immediately placed into its owner's discard pile.

Plots are special cards that are never shuffled into draw decks; instead, each player has a plot deck consisting of seven plots. Each player chooses and reveals one new plot each round from his plot deck. Plots provide the player with income and a special ability. They also determine who wins the initiative for the round and how much damage a player inflicts when he wins a challenge as the attacker (known as the plot's claim value).

Game Setup

Before each game begins, sort all of the cards into three facedown decks according to their card backs, then follow these setup steps in order:

1. Create Treasury and Power Bank

Place all of the gold tokens in a pile where both players can reach them; this area is called the treasury. Then place all of the power counters in a separate pile; this area is called the power bank.

2. Determine Houses

Determine which player controls House Lannister and which player controls House Stark. This can be done randomly or by player choice.

The player controlling House Lannister takes the House Lannister draw deck, and the player controlling House Stark takes the House Stark draw deck. Each player then takes the appropriate House banner and places it near him.

3. Create Plot Decks

Look through all of the plots and create two plot decks, one for each player, according to the following lists:

House Lannister Plots: Detained, Game of Thrones, Hear Me Roar, Securing the Throne, The Killing Cold, Uneasy Peace, Valar Morghulis

House Stark Plots: Calling the Banners, Crossing the Trident, Hidden in Shadows, Spies in Their Midst, Storm of Swords, The Lion and the Wolf, The Old Gods

Unless playing with the plot draft variant, return all of the other plots to the game box; they will not be used this game (see "Plot Draft Variant").

4. Shuffle Draw Decks

Each player shuffles his draw deck until the cards are sufficiently randomized. It is not necessary to shuffle the plot decks.

5. Draw Setup Hands

Each player draws seven cards from his draw deck to form his setup hand of cards.

If a player does not like his setup hand, he may choose to reshuffle those cards back into his draw deck and draw a new setup hand of seven cards. This is called taking a mulligan. Each player can take one mulligan, and only during this step of the game setup.

6. Place Setup Cards

Each player now has a chance to secretly place setup cards. Each player can place any number of characters and/or locations from his setup hand facedown in his play area respecting the following restrictions:

• The total gold cost of his placed characters and locations in this step cannot exceed five.
• He cannot place more than one card with the Limited keyword in this step (see "Keywords").
• Attachments, events, and duplicates of unique cards cannot be placed during this step (see "Unique Cards").

After both players have secretly placed their setup cards, reveal all of the placed setup cards simultaneously. No card abilities are active during setup.

7. Draw Starting Hand

Each player draws cards from his draw deck until he has seven cards; this forms his starting hand.

The game is now ready to begin.

Example of Placing Setup Cards

The House Stark player's setup hand consists of seven cards: "Arya Stark," "Jon Snow," "Eddard Stark," "Hand of the King," "Not Today," and two copies of "Winterfell Keep." He chooses to place "Arya Stark," "Jon Snow," and one "Winterfell Keep," which together total five gold, the maximum amount he is allowed to place. He cannot place "Hand of the King" or "Not Today" because attachments and events are not allowed to be placed in setup. He also cannot place his second copy of "Winterfell Keep" because it has the Limited keyword and only one Limited card is allowed in setup.

Example Play Area

A player's play area contains, for each House: a treasury and power bank shared by both players; and, per player, a draw deck, a dead pile, a discard pile, cards in play, a revealed plot card, a plot deck, a gold pool, and a House banner with claimed power.

Round Sequence

Game of Thrones takes place over multiple rounds, with each round divided into seven phases. Both players participate in each phase, and after each phase is complete, the players proceed to the next phase in the sequence. After the completion of the seventh phase (Taxation), a new round begins starting with the plot phase.

The seven phases are, in order:

1. Plot
2. Draw
3. Marshalling
4. Challenges
5. Dominance
6. Standing
7. Taxation

Phase 1: Plot

At the beginning of the plot phase, each player decides which plot from his plot deck to reveal for the round. Plots provide a player with income and unique abilities that can change the course of the game.

Each player looks at all of his available plots in his plot deck and secretly chooses one. After both players have decided, they reveal their chosen plots simultaneously.

A player's revealed plot replaces his previous plot, which becomes a used plot. That is, each player has only one revealed plot at a time. A player's used plots are kept underneath his revealed plot and do not return to his plot deck until he reveals his last plot. When a player reveals the last plot in his plot deck, he returns all of his used plots (but not the plot he just revealed) to his plot deck.

After plots are revealed, determine who wins the initiative. The player with the highest total initiative value on his revealed plot wins the initiative. In case of a tie, the tied player with the least amount of power (the total of all the power counters on his House banner and on his characters) wins the initiative. If both players are still tied, the winner must be determined randomly. The player who wins the initiative chooses who becomes the first player for the round.

Finally, all revealed plots with an ability that begins with the phrase "when revealed" resolve. If both revealed plots have "when revealed" abilities, the first player decides the order in which they resolve. Note that many plots do not have a "when revealed" ability and instead have an ability that occurs at a later time, or that lasts for the entire round. After all revealed plots have been resolved, proceed to the draw phase.

Phase 2: Draw

Each player draws two cards from his draw deck and adds them to his hand. If a player has no cards remaining in his draw deck, he does not draw. After both players have drawn cards, proceed to the marshalling phase.

Phase 3: Marshalling

During the marshalling phase, players take turns collecting gold and playing new characters, locations, and attachments from their hands. Certain events can also be played in the marshalling phase.

The first player takes his turn first in this phase, then his opponent takes his turn. The player currently taking his turn is referred to as the active player.

When the active player begins his turn in the marshalling phase, he first determines his income by adding the income value on his revealed plot and any income bonuses provided by his cards in play (see the "Income Bonuses" sidebar). After determining his income, the active player takes that number of gold tokens from the treasury and places them near his House banner. These gold tokens form the active player's gold pool for the entire round.

To play a card from his hand, the active player pays the card's gold cost using gold from his gold pool, then he places the card faceup in his play area. Any gold spent from a player's gold pool is immediately returned to the treasury.

The active player can also attach duplicates to unique cards he already has in play, at no gold cost (see "Unique Cards").

The active player may keep playing cards until he runs out of gold, runs out of cards, or chooses to stop. He may not want to spend all of his gold during the marshalling phase, as gold in a player's gold pool can also be used for other things (see "Gold Pools").

It is important to note that both players can also take other actions during the marshalling phase, such as playing certain events and using abilities on characters and locations already in play. But remember, only the active player can play characters, locations, and attachments.

After both players have finished their turns, proceed to the challenges phase.

Playing Cards

A card is "played" when its owner takes the card from his hand and places it faceup on the table in his play area. When a card is played, its owner must pay the card's gold cost. Characters, locations, and attachments have their gold costs printed on them, and the only time these cards can be played is during the marshalling phase. Events can be played any time their text allows and are free unless their text specifies otherwise. Revealing a plot in the plot phase is always free.

While a card is faceup in a play area, it is "in play" and can be used by its owner. Cards in play can also be affected by other cards in play and by events. Cards in a player's hand, deck, discard pile, and dead pile are not in play. Note that when event cards are played, they are immediately resolved and then discarded.

Income Bonuses

Some cards have a large gold coin imprinted with a number such as "+1" or "+2." This is an income bonus that modifies the income value on a player's revealed plot card. These bonuses apply even if the card is kneeling.

Income is determined at the beginning of the active player's marshalling phase, before any new cards are played. Therefore, any cards played during the marshalling phase that provide income bonuses will not actually add any income until the next round's marshalling phase.

Standing and Kneeling

When a player plays a character, location, or attachment, he places it faceup in his play area in what is called the standing position. Many situations require a player to kneel a card, in which case he rotates the card 90 degrees clockwise; this is known as the kneeling position. Only cards that are standing can kneel. Characters must kneel to particpate in a challenge, and some other cards have abilities that require them to kneel.

Phase 4: Challenges

The challenges phase is the center of conflict in Game of Thrones. During this phase, players can attack each other in a variety of ways in an effort to gain a long-term advantage.

Players take turns initiating challenges in this phase, begining with the first player. The player currently taking his turn is referred to as the active player.

There are three types of challenges:

Military: The attacker's goal in this challenge is to kill the defending player's characters. Only characters with a military icon can participate in military challenges.

Intrigue: The attacker's goal in this challenge is to force the defender to discard cards from his hand. Only characters with an intrigue icon can participate in intrigue challenges.

Power: The attacker's goal in this challenge is to take power counters from the defender's House banner. Only characters with a power icon can participate in power challenges.

The active player may initiate up to one military, one intrigue, and one power challenge, in any order, against his opponent during each challenge phase. Challenges are initiated one at a time, and each challenge must completely resolve before moving on to the next. The active player can choose to not initiate one or more challenge types (usually this is because he lacks characters with appropriate challenge icons).

After the first player has initiated and resolved all of his challenges, his opponent becomes the new active player and may initiate up to three of his own challenges, one of each type, in any order.

Each challenge follows these three steps, in order:

1. Declare attackers.
2. Declare defenders.
3. Resolve.

Before and between each step, players can take actions, such as playing events and using abilities on their cards in play (see "Actions").

Step 1: Declare Attackers

The active player, also called the attacking player announces the type of challenge he is initiating (military, intrigue, or power) by kneeling any number of his standing characters with the corresponding challenge icon and declaring them as attackers. Characters that are already kneeling cannot be declared as attackers. The active player must declare at least one attacking character to initiate a challenge.

Step 2: Declare Defenders

The active player's opponent, also called the defending player now has the option to defend the challenge. To defend, the defending player kneels any number of his standing characters with the corresponding challenge icon. Characters that are already kneeling cannot be declared as defenders. In order for the challenge to be considered defended, at least one eligible defending character must be declared. Defending a challenge is always optional.

Characters who are attacking or defending in a challenge are also referred to as participating characters. If for any reason a participating character is removed from that challenge before the challenge is resolved, that character is no longer considered to be a participating character.

Step 3: Resolve

Add the strengths of all the attacking characters; this sum is the total attacking strength. Then add the strengths of all the defending characters; this sum is the total defending strength. If the total attacking strength is equal to or greater than the total defending strength, the attacking player wins the challenge, and the defending player must suffer the claim effect, which varies depending on the type of challenge:

Military Challenge: The defending player must choose and kill a number of his characters in play equal to the claim value on the attacking player's revealed plot (these do not have to be characters who participated in the challenge). Killed characters are placed in their owner's dead pile.

Intrigue Challenge: The defending player must discard, at random, a number of cards from his hand equal to the claim value on the attacking player's revealed plot.

Power Challenge: The defending player must move a number of power counters from his House banner to the attacking player's House banner equal to the claim value on the attacking player's revealed plot.

When the defending player loses a challenge, he must fulfill the challenge's claim effect as much as possible. For example, if the attacking player wins a power challenge with a claim value of 2, and the defending player has only one power on his House banner, the defending player simply moves his one power counter from his House banner to the attacking player's House banner.

Winning as the Defender

If the defending player wins a challenge no claim effect takes place. He has simply stopped the challenge against his House.

Unopposed Challenges

During the "Resolve" step of any challenge, if the attacker wins the challenge, and the defender had a total defending strength less than 1 (or no defending characters), then the attacker has won an unopposed challenge and claims one bonus power for his House from the power bank. This bonus power is in addition to all other effects of winning a challenge.

After both players have resolved all of their challenges, proceed to the dominance phase.

Example of a Challenge

1. The Lannister player initiates a challenge against the Stark player by kneeling "The Hound" and declaring him as an attacker.

2. The Stark player has two characters with military icons in play, "Jon Snow" and "Stark Escort." He declares both characters as defenders by kneeling them.

3. The Stark player chooses to trigger the response on "Stark Escort" and draws 1 card.

4. The Lannister player decides to play the event "Insidious Ways" which gives "The Hound" +2 strength for the duration of the challenge, taking the Lannister player's total attacking strength up to 5. Both players pass on further actions.

5. The Lannister player wins the challenge as the attacker because his total attacking strength is equal to or greater than the total defending strength. He now resolves the rest of the effect on "Insidious Ways" and draws two cards. The Stark player must now resolve the claim effect of the challenge. Since this was a military challenge, the Stark player must choose and kill a number of his characters equal to the Lannister player's claim value (which in this case is 1). He chooses to kill "Stark Escort" and places the character in his dead pile.

6. Finally, the Stark player triggers the response on "Jon Snow" and stands him. Neither player has any further responses or actions, so the challenge is fully resolved.

Phase 5: Dominance

At the beginning of the dominance phase, each player counts the total combined strength of all of his standing characters, then adds one to this total for each gold in his gold pool. The player with the highest total wins dominance and immediately claims one power for his House from the power bank. Power is awarded for dominance before any player has an opportunity to take actions (such as playing an event that kneels a character).

If there is a tie for the highest value, no player wins dominance.

After the winner of dominance has been determined, players have the opportunity to play events or take other actions, then the game proceeds to the standing phase.

Phase 6: Standing

All players simultaneously stand their kneeling characters, locations, and attachments. Players then have the opportunity to play events or take other actions, then the game proceeds to the taxation phase.

Phase 7: Taxation

All players simultaneously return any unspent gold in their gold pools to the treasury. Players then have the opportunity to play events or take other actions. Then a new round begins with the plot phase.

The game continues in this way until one player is declared the winner. See "Power & Victory" in the next section.

Power & Victory

In Game of Thrones, each player's ultimate goal is to gain 15 power counters. When a player has gained 15 or more total power between his House banner and/or his characters in play, the game ends immediately and that player is the winner. If two or more players reach the victory condition simultaneously, the first player wins.

Some card effects also allow a player to claim power for his House. When a player is instructed to claim one or more power for his House, he simply takes the specified number of power counters from the power bank and places them on his House banner.

Example: The plot "Illyrio's Gift" reads "If you win dominance this round, gain 3 additional power for your House from the power bank." If the player who revealed this plot wins dominance, he would take a total of four power counters from the power bank (one for winning dominance per the normal rules, plus three additional for "Illyrio's Gift") and place them on his House banner.

Other card effects allow a specific character to claim power. This is treated the same as claiming power for your House, except the specified number of power counters are placed on the character instead of on the player's House banner. Power counters on characters do count toward a player's victory. If a character leaves play for any reason, any power counters on that character are returned to the power bank.

Example: The character "Eddard Stark" reads "Response: After you play Eddard Stark, he gains 1 power from the power bank." When the House Stark player plays Eddard Stark, he can immediately trigger this response and take one power counter from the power bank and place it on Eddard Stark.

Other Game Concepts

The following sections explain additional rules.

Gold Pools

Whenever a player plays a card during the marshalling phase, he must pay the gold cost of the card using gold in his own gold pool. Some cards also have effects that require a player to pay gold.

Example: The event "The Lion's Cunning" reads: "Any Phase: Pay 2 gold to choose and kneel a character."

Each gold in a player's gold pool also adds one to the total strength of his standing characters in the dominance phase.

Discard and Dead Piles

Each player must maintain both his own discard pile and his own dead pile. Players may examine the contents of either player's discard or dead piles at any time.

Some game effects force a player to discard a card from his hand. Characters, locations, and attachments can also be discarded from play through various card effects. Each time that happens, the card is placed in the owner's discard pile.

When an event is played, it is placed in its owner's discard pile as soon as the event's effects have been resolved.

Other situations can result in a character being killed. Each time that happens, the killed character is placed in the owner's dead pile.

When a character is killed or discarded from play, any attachments or duplicates that were attached to that character are discarded, and any power on that character is returned to the power bank.

It is important to distinguish between a dead character and a character that has been discarded, especially if the character is unique (see "Unique Cards").

Unique Cards

Some cards have a banner icon (*) next to their title. These cards are unique and represent specific individuals, locations, and objects in Westeros. A player cannot play a unique card if he already has another copy of that same card in play or in his dead pile.

Example: The Stark player has only one character in play, "Eddard Stark," and he loses a challenge as the defender. He fulfills the challenge claim effect by killing Eddard Stark and placing the card in his dead pile. In a later round, the Stark player draws another copy of Eddard Stark from his draw deck. Unfortuntately, he cannot play this second copy of Eddard Stark because the character is unique and is already in his dead pile.

Some unique cards, such as "Littlefinger," appear in both the House Stark and House Lannister decks. The limit on unique cards is applied to each player individually. Therefore, it is permissible for both players to have a "Littlefinger" character in play at the same time, and even for one player to have a "Littlefinger" in play while the other player's "Littlefinger" is in his dead pile.

Duplicates

If a player has a copy of a unique character in his hand, and he also has that character in play, then the player may attach the character in his hand to the character in play as a duplicate. A duplicate can only be attached during the marshalling phase, but the player attaching the duplicate does not pay its gold cost to do so (it is free). When played as a duplicate, the duplicate is placed underneath the card already in play, with just its title showing.

A player can discard a duplicate attached to a unique character in his play area to save it from being killed (see "Save Responses").

There can be more than one duplicate attached to a single character. Although they are attached to a character, duplicates are not treated as attachments and are unaffected by card effects that affect attachments.

Keywords

Keywords are special abilities that can appear on a variety of cards. Keywords always appear near the top of the rules text, on a line by themselves. There are three keywords in the game: Limited, Renown, and Stealth.

Limited

Each player can play only one card with the Limited keyword per round.

Renown

If a player wins a challenge (either as attacker or defender), each of his participating characters with the Renown keyword gains one power from the power bank after the challenge resolves.

Stealth

When a player declares attackers in a challenge (but before defenders are declared), for each of his attacking characters with the Stealth keyword he may choose one of his opponent's characters without Stealth. Any chosen character cannot be declared as a defender during the challenge.

Actions

Each time a player plays a card or uses an ability on a card already in play with a "phase" heading at the beginning of its description, he is taking an action. Responses, which are explained later, do not count as actions. Most events, character abilities, location abilities, and attachment abilities list a specific phase in which their abilities can be triggered, such as "Marshalling," "Challenges," or "Dominance."

Example: The character "Maester Luwin" reads, "Dominance: Kneel Maester Luwin to draw 2 cards." Maester Luwin's ability can only be triggered in the dominance phase of the game.

Other abilities are instead allowed to be triggered in any phase of the game.

Example: The event "The Lion's Cunning" reads, "Any Phase: Pay 2 gold to choose and kneel a character." The House Lannister player can play this event in any phase of the game, provided he has the two gold tokens in his gold pool to pay for the effect.

The effects of each action are completely resolved immediately after they are announced. Once an action has completely resolved, another action may be taken. Note that a player can take actions when his opponent is the active player, provided the event or ability allows for its effect to be executed at that time.

The first player always has the option to take the first action of each phase. After a player's action resolves, he must allow his opponent the opportunity to take an action or pass. He cannot take another action until his opponent has either taken an action or passed.

Passive Abilities

A passive ability is a card effect that takes place automatically. Unlike actions, passive abilities are not optional, they must be resolved anytime their requirements are met. Some passive abilities are automatically initiated at a certain time, while others may be lasting effects (see "Lasting Effects"). A passive ability is signified on a card by its lack of a "phase" or "response" heading at the beginning of the ability's description.

Passive abilities always resolve immediately when their requirements are met, before player actions can take place. (If two or more passive abilities are initiated at the same moment, they are resolved in the order determined by the first player.)

Example: "Varys" reads "After Varys enters play, you must choose and discard 1 Ally character from play." Since this ability is not preceded by any game phase or response heading, it is a passive ability and must be resolved. Since "Varys" himself has the Ally trait, if there are no other Ally characters in play when Varys enters play, he will immediately discard himself.

Responses

Responses are card effects that can be initiated by players in specific circumstances. Characters, locations, attachments, and events can all have response effects, and each is clearly labeled with the "Response:" heading at the beginning of its description. Each response states when it can be used. Responses resolve before the next action may be taken.

Example: The event "A Lannister Pays His Debts" reads, "Response: After you lose a challenge, kneel a House Lannister character you control to choose and kill a participating character." If the Lannister player loses a challenge and wants to play this event in response, he must do so before he takes another action, otherwise he forfeits his chance to play this event in response to losing that challenge.

Save Responses

Normally, when a player takes an action, either through playing a card or choosing to use the ability of a card already in play, the effects of that action are completely resolved before another action can be taken. Exceptions to this are responses that contains the word "save."

Save responses are special effects that interrupt and prevent the killing of a character in play. However, if the effect that caused the character to be killed had a cost, such as paying gold or kneeling a character, that cost must still be paid by the player who initiated the effect.

Example: The event "Not Today" reads, "Response: Save a * character from being killed." If the Lannister player plays the event "A Lannister Pays His Debts" (by kneeling one of House Lannister characters, per that card's text) in an effort to kill Sansa Stark, the Stark player could play "Not Today" to save Sansa from being killed. In such a case, the Lannister player does not get to stand the character he had to kneel to play "A Lannister Pays His Debts" because that is considered a cost to play the card that has already been paid.

Lasting Effects

Most effects last only for the duration of one action (immediately after being triggered), but some effects last for a set period of time, or even indefinitely. Effects that last for longer than a single action are considered lasting effects. Multiple lasting effects may affect the same card at the same time.

Example: The location "Winterfell" reads "Each of your House Stark characters gets +1 strength." As long as Winterfell remains in play, all of that player's House Stark characters benefit from the +1 strength effect at all times.

High-claim Military Challenges

If, during a military challenge, the defending player loses a challenge, and the attacking player has a claim value of 2 or higher, the defending player must kill the required number of different characters, all at once. Thus, the defender cannot choose to kill the same character multiple times, even if that character could be saved.

Plot Draft Variant

This optional game variant allows players to customize their plot decks in order to add new options and excitement to their games. Players should agree on whether or not to use this variant before the game begins.

Follow the game setup instructions as normal, but, instead of returning the unused plots to the game box at the end of step 3, shuffle them facedown to form a draft plot deck. Then follow these steps in order:

1. Deal three plots to each player, facedown, from the draft plot deck.
2. Each player looks at his three dealt plots, secretly chooses one to keep (also known as "drafting" the plot), then passes the other two plots to his opponent. Players should keep their drafted plots facedown and hidden from their opponent.
3. Each player takes the two plots passed to him, examines them, and secretly chooses one to draft. The remaining plot is returned to the box, facedown.
4. Repeat steps 1–3 until the entire draft plot deck is gone and each player has six facedown plots in front of him.

Each player now secretly chooses seven of the 13 plots in front of him; those seven chosen plots form his plot deck for the game. Return all other plots to the game box without looking at them and proceed with the rest of game setup.

Quick Reference

Round Sequence

1. Plot
2. Draw
3. Marshalling
4. Challenges
5. Dominance
6. Standing
7. Taxation

Symbols

Military, Intrigue, Power, House Lannister, House Stark, and Unique (*).

Challenge Claim Effects

Military Challenge: The defending player must choose and kill a number of his characters in play equal to the claim value on the attacking player's revealed plot (these do not have to be characters who participated in the challenge). Killed characters are placed in their owner's dead pile.

Intrigue Challenge: The defending player must discard, at random, a number of cards from his hand equal to the claim value on the attacking player's revealed plot.

Power Challenge: The defending player must move a number of power counters from his House banner to the attacking player's House banner equal to the claim value on the attacking player's revealed plot.

Keywords

Limited: Each player can play only one card with the Limited keyword per round.

Renown: If a player wins a challenge (either as attacker or defender), each of his participating characters with the Renown keyword gains one power from the power bank after the challenge resolves.

Stealth: When a player declares attackers in a challenge (but before defenders are declared), for each of his attacking characters with the Stealth keyword he may choose one of his opponent's characters without Stealth. Any chosen character cannot be declared as a defender during the challenge.

Credits

Original Game Design: Eric M. Lang and Christian T. Petersen

Game Development: Michael Hurley, Nate French, and Lukas Litzsinger

Producers: Michael Hurley and Erik Dahlman

Editing: Adam Baker, David Hansen, and Lukas Litzsinger

Graphic Design: Edge Entertainment with Brian Schomburg and Maxwell Forbes

Image Selection: Michael Hurley and Andrew Navaro

Licensing & Development Coordinator: Deb Beck

Production Manager: Eric Knight

Executive Game Designer: Corey Konieczka

Publisher: Christian T. Petersen

Playtesters: Adam Baker, Erik Dahlman, Adam DeWulf, Nate French, Evan Hall, David Hansen, Tim Huckelbery, Corey Konieczka, Robert Kouba, Lukas Litzsinger, Jacinda Lohman, Damon Stone, and Kevin Tomczyk

Series title, artwork and photographs © 2012 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Game of Thrones is a trademark of Home Box Office, Inc. Rules and game text © 2012 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Fantasy Flight Games, Fantasy Flight Supply, Living Card Game, LCG, the Living Card Game logo, and the FFG logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc.