Reigns: The Council
Reigns: The Council Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- State of the Realm board
- 4 Status tokens
- Scoring tokens, in denominations of 1, 3 and 5
- 24 Secret goal cards
- 256 Proposal cards
Game Setup
Every Reign is divided into rounds. The king or the queen changes at the end of every Reign.
Reign Set Up
- Choose the first Monarch by common agreement, or randomly. All other players are the Advisors. Give the Monarch a crown. If you don't have a crown, any kind of headgear will do.
- Place the State of the Realm board in front of the Monarch.
- Place each Status token on the central space of the appropriate track.
- Place the Scoring tokens in a supply near the board. Whenever a player scores points, they take the appropriate Scoring tokens from the supply.
- Shuffle the Secret Goal cards and deal one to each Advisor. Place any remaining cards face down nearby.
- Shuffle the Proposal cards and separate them in three decks with approximately the same number of cards and place them above the board, with the back of the cards facing up (the side with the person on). Leave space below the board for a discard pile.
- Each Advisor draws 7 cards from the three decks into their hand, keeping them secret from the other players.
The first round can now begin.
Game Round
Follow these steps, in order:
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Each Advisor, in any order, chooses one of their Proposal cards and pitches it to the Monarch by placing it face down on the table between them and the Monarch. It is important that nobody sees the front of the card at this stage.
When pitching a proposal, an Advisor should try and roughly describe the effect the card will have (see the "Pitching a Proposal" box for more details).
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Once all Advisors have made a proposal, the Monarch must decide which proposals they accept or reject. They do this by moving the pitched Proposal cards that they want to accept on the right side of the board, and the rejected ones on the left side of the board.
Note: At least one proposal must be accepted; the Monarch cannot reject all proposals.
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Each Advisor whose proposal was accepted scores 1 point.
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Resolve the effects of the rejected proposals. The Monarch flips these cards over, one after another, in an order they choose. As each card is revealed, the Monarch moves the Status tokens on the board according to the effects stated in the black zone of the card. All rejected Proposal cards are then discarded.
Note: When a token reaches the end of a track (on the - or the +), it cannot move any further and the Reign ends.
-
Resolve the effects of the accepted proposals. This is done in a similar way to the rejected proposals, but this time the Status tokens are moved according to the effects listed in the white zone on the card. All accepted Proposal cards that have been revealed are then kept face down in a pile in front of the Monarch.
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After the effect of all Proposal cards have been resolved, each Advisor draws a new Proposal card from one of the decks and adds it to their hand. If one of the decks runs out of cards, continue with the remaining decks, until all Proposal cards have been drawn. Then shuffle the discard pile and set up three new decks, with approximately the same number of cards.
Pitching a Proposal
As an Advisor, you have to make a proposal that the Monarch might accept so that the Status tokens move towards your Secret goal. This proposal can take any form as long as the Monarch can answer it by "yes" or "no". The icons on the card are here to help you create a proposal, but they are not mandatory. For example, if you are proposing the card shown in the card anatomy box with the flag and the chalice, you might say:
"We've located the place where the holy artifact is hidden my Lord. Unfortunately, it's in the neighbouring country and we need to send a company to retrieve it."
As you make your proposal, you give the Monarch the card, the side with the person up, so the Monarch knows which pillars are affected by your proposal if they accept it, but not in which direction. It means you need to be consistent with the effects your card will have, but it also means you don't have to be completely honest. For example, in the above situation, you might try to hide the negative effect on the Army like this:
"We've located the place where the holy artifact is hidden my Lord. It's going to be a nice vacation for your soldiers. No danger at all!"
Of course, your Monarch will soon learn to stop trusting you if the effects of the cards you propose are clearly opposite to what you say.
Anatomy of a Proposal Card
- Pillars affected, if the card is accepted. Pillars with a dot are affected more strongly. (Shown as icons: cross for Church, person for People, sword for Army, money bag for Wealth.)
- Thematic icons help the advisor in pitching their proposal to the Monarch.
- White zone: Status change if the proposal is accepted.
- Black Zone: Status change if the proposal is rejected.
For the 1st round of each Reign only, the Monarch (who is an inexperienced ruler) may change their mind once after revealing a Proposal card. If they had initially rejected it, and then decide to accept it, apply the effects in the white zone and then place the card in the pile of accepted proposals. If they had initially accepted it, and then choose to reject it, apply the effects in the black zone and then discard the card. This change doesn't affect points scored by Advisors and can lead to a round without any accepted proposals.
End of a Reign
After a Proposal card has been completely resolved, if at least one Status token moves onto one of the end spaces (the - or +), the Monarch is killed and their Reign immediately ends. Any remaining Proposal cards are discarded without effect.
The Advisor whose proposal (whether it was accepted or rejected), triggered the end of the Reign, has to tell the other players the story of how the Monarch died.
A good death story can either be convincing, funny, and/or gruesome.
As a reward for telling the death of the Monarch, the advisor scores 1 point. You can decide collectively to attach a condition to this bonus point, like only give the point if at least another player laughs while listening to the story.
The Reign also ends if, at the end of the round, the Monarch has 12 or more accepted Proposal cards in their pile. They abdicate and leave for a comfy retirement on the Riviera. In this case, the Advisors do not score extra points with their Secret Goals.
End of a Reign Scoring
The Monarch scores 1 point for each accepted Proposal card in their pile. If the Monarch died before being able to reveal Proposal cards he had accepted, they do not score points for them.
If the reign ended by the Monarch dying, each Advisor reveals their Secret goal card. For every Status token in one of the two zones shown on their card, they score points according to the position of the token. A token on the corresponding end space of a track scores 5 points. No points are lost when a token is in the opposite zone.
Example of a successful Secret Goal card scoring: Church 5 points + People 2 points = Total 7 points.
A New Monarch!
When their Reign is over, the outgoing Monarch must choose the next Monarch. No player can be the Monarch more than once during the game. The new Reign begins with all players discarding their Secret Goals and Proposal cards. Then, setup for a new Reign as per the normal setup: shuffling the Secret Goals and dealing one to each Advisor and shuffling the Proposal cards and each Advisor drawing 7 and the opportunity to change any number of them before the first round. All players keep their Scoring tokens earned from one Reign to the next.
The game ends when every player has played the Monarch or when the players agree that it has been long enough and the realm must vanish from history. The winner is the player with the most points at the end. If two or more players have the same score, the winner is the one who had the most memorable Reign and death.
Play the Role!
For the Advisors
You are here to give counsel while pursuing your own agenda.
You can…
- Say whatever it takes to convince the Monarch to go your way while showing allegiance. White lies, bluffing, flattery, it's all up to you.
- Discuss the proposals made by the other Advisors. Don't stay silent!
But remember the Monarch will know quickly if you're a threat to them.
For the Monarch
You are the most powerful person in the room, let the Advisors know that!
You can…
- Interrupt an Advisor.
- Ask for the opinion of another.
- Impose a limit on how much of your valuable time each of them has.
- Feel free to do an introductory speech and to dramatize your demise.
But don't change the rules of the game.