Road to the Palace Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1. Goal of the Game
• 2. Contents
  • Character cards
  • Bribe cards
  • Board cards
• 3. Preparation
  • Return unused stuff to the box
  • Deal the starting set to all players
  • Setup the game area
  • Decide bribes
  • Place the starting discs
  • When playing on 4 players
• 4. Flow of the Game
  • Step 1: Administration part
    • Gaining a mission disc and character card
    • Refilling the character cards
    • Replacing mission discs
  • Special card: Politician
  • Special disc: Purple discs
• 5. Step 2: Evaluation Part
  • Reveal bribes
  • Royal evaluation
  • Mission evaluation
  • Re-order cards
• 6. Final Evaluation
• 7. Hints

1. Goal of the Game

The players are important characters in the Palace, and must try to surpass their rivals in the struggle for influence. You must establish your position among the various powers in the palace, and fulfil the missions that you accept.

Players must also learn how to use the various relations to sabotage for their rivals. If your rivals are spoken badly of, the slightest thing you do will suddenly seem glorious.

During the game, you will receive a lot of character cards and mission discs. Financial, Soldier and Political missions are heavily affected by whether or not you have the support of their respective key persons. If he or she likes you, you will earn a lot from the mission, but if you're disliked or hated, you're in trouble. Not only will you not gain any influence, but you will instead elevate the influence of your rivals!

2. Contents

• 62 Character cards
  • 8 each of Yellow 1 (noble), Red 1 (Soldier), Blue 1 (Priest)
  • 7 each of Black 2 (King), Pink 2 (Queen)
  • 4 each of Yellow 2 (noble), Red 2 (Soldier), Blue 2 (Priest), Black 3 (King), Pink 3 (Queen), Purple 1 (Politician)
• 12 Bribe cards
  • 4 each of Yellow 1, Red 1, Blue 1
• 32 Mission discs
  • 9 each of Yellow (Financial), Red (Military), Blue (Politics)
  • 5 Purple (sneaking)
• 150 points worth of influence points
• 4 board cards
• 1 black starting player pawn

Character cards

1. Colour (card name): King is black, Queen is pink, Noble is yellow, Soldier is red, Priest is blue, Politician is purple. The colours yellow, red and blue also correspond to the mission discs of those colours – the characters of those colours are key persons for those missions.
2. Impression points: A number between 1 and 3, also represented by the stars.
3. Number of cards for 2-3-4 players: The left three numbers depict the maximum number of these cards, and the right three numbers depict the total number of cards. The three numbers are respectively for a 2, 3 or 4 players game.

Bribe cards

They indicate the same things as the character cards (but haven't the total number of cards in the game printed on them). They have a different play timing than the character cards, but are counted as the same: The yellow 1 counts as a Noble 1, the red 1 as a Soldier 1 and the blue 1 as a Priest 1.

Board cards

1. Influence point calculation summary: For when you calculate your total influence points.
2. Disc placement area: Place your earned discs here.
3. and 4. Bribe cards placement: At the start of the game, you place face down bribe cards here to use in the game. The left is for round 1, the right for round 2.

3. Preparation

Return unused stuff to the box

Depending on the number of players, you return a number of components to the box, not to be used in the current game.

• On 2 players
  • Return these character cards: all 3s, 2 each of all 2s, 2 purple 1s, and 4 each of all yellow, red and blue 1s.
  • Return these discs: 4 each of yellow, red and blue, and 3 purple.
• On 3 players
  • Return these character cards: 2 each of all 3s, 1 each of all 2s, 1 purple 1s, and 2 each of all yellow, red and blue 1s.
  • Return these discs: 2 each of kind
• On 4 players
  • Return these character cards: 2 at random
  • Return these discs: none

Translator's/formatter's note: the 3-player disc instruction is cut off in the source ("2 each of kind"). It is transcribed as printed.

Deal the starting set to all players

• 1 board card
• 3 bribe cards (1 of each colour)
• 10 points worth of influence (to be placed face down before each player)

Any remaining board cards and bribe cards are put back in the box, and the rest of the point chips are placed in an appropriate pile.

Note: Players can always check their point chips, but throughout the game, they're supposed to be kept face down. [This is a hidden trackable – translator's note]

Setup the game area

Shuffle the character cards you didn't return to the box, and place out 12 face up cards in a grid 3 cards high and 4 cards wide.

If any purple (politician) cards are drawn here, put it aside for the moment; all open cards should be non-purple. Then reshuffle the deck with the purple cards and place it in a face down pile beside the open cards.

Place the mission discs beside the game field, separated by colour.

The oldest player takes the start player pawn, and begins the first round.

In a 2 player game only, it should be 3 x 3 cards, total of 9 cards.

Decide bribes

Each player chooses which bribes he wants to use. After looking at the open cards, each player chooses 2 of his three bribe cards and put them beneath his board card as shown there. The remaining bribe cards are put back in the box without looking at them.

Players can always look at their own bribe cards, but not those of other players.

Place the starting discs

The player to the right of the start players place the starting mission discs, by taking 1 each of yellow, red and blue, and placing them on the three characters in the leftmost column of the open cards. What disc goes where it up to the player.

When playing on 4 players

One of the purple discs is set aside. It's not taken out of the game, just set aside for the moment.

4. Flow of the Game

The game consists of 2 rounds, and each round consists of the following 2 parts:

• Step 1: Administration part (getting cards and discs)
• Step 2: Evaluation part (gaining points)

After the first round's Administration and Evaluation, the second round's Administration and Evaluation follow, and then it's the final evaluation.

Step 1: Administration part

(Gaining a mission disc and character card → refilling up character cards → placing new mission disc)

The administration part goes clockwise around the table, starting with the starting player.

Gaining a mission disc and character card

First, the turn player selects one of the cards in the leftmost column, and gains that card and mission disc to his personal area: The disc goes to his disc area on his board card. The character card is placed before him, face up.

How to line up the cards

All character cards the player gains are lined up in front of him, in a horizontal row. If he didn't previously have a card of that colour, he just adds it to the row. If he already had a character card (or several) of that colour, the new card is placed on top of the old, slid a bit down so that the number of the card(s) underneath can be seen. This will eventually form "columns" of cards of the same colour. For the sake of these rules, even a lone card is called a "card column".

The cards columns of a player should always be lined up so that the colour with the highest total impression points comes leftmost, and then in descending order to the right. In the case of a tie for total impression points, the column for the card the player just gained should be at the right of the colour that already had that many impression points. Or: a colour who just got a higher total doesn't "overtake" another colour with as many points.

Refilling the character cards

If there now is an empty row among the open cards, 4 cards are drawn from the deck to fill the row, from right to left.

Once the deck runs out, there is no further refill.

In a 2 player game only, 3 cards should be drawn instead of 4.

Replacing mission discs

The turn player now chooses a mission disc from the stock and places it on the leftmost character card in the row he took his card from. If he took the last card in a row and there was no card refill, or if there are no discs left, this step is skipped.

The turn then goes to the player on the left, who selects a character card with a disc, gains them, refills cards and discs.

The Administration part for the first round ends when all discs in the stock are gone (there should be three left on the open cards though). Everyone should get the same amount of turns. The Administration part for the second round ends when all character cards, in the draw pile and on the game area, are gained.

Special card: Politician

When a player gains the purple politician card, it's not lined up together with the others. Instead, it's put face down on the bribe card for the current round.

It's revealed in the Bribe part of Step 2: Evaluation part, and counts as a +1 impression point to that bribe card.

Special disc: Purple discs

When a player gains a purple disc, it's not put together with the rest of the discs, instead it stays on the card where it was, and is put on the player's card row. It counts as an Impression +1 for that colour for all purposes.

If the purple disc was placed on a politician card, however, the disc it put with the others, as the Politician card isn't put in the player's card row.

5. Step 2: Evaluation Part

(Reveal bribes → Royal evaluation → Mission evaluation → Re-order)

Reveal bribes

Players now reveal their bribes for the current round, and add them to their corresponding card column. The bribe cards count as a card of their colour for all purposes, and any Politicians count as a +1 to the colour of the card they were attached to. Each player rearranges his card columns according to the rules.

Royal evaluation

Each player now totals his impression from the royals (King (black) and Queen (pink)) and announces those totals aloud. Don't forget that any purple discs on the King/Queen count as +1 each.

1. The player with highest black total (King) gets the starting player pawn. In case of a tie, it goes to the tied player who sits closest to the current starting player, counted clockwise, and who isn't the current starting player.
2. All players with lowest pink total (Queen) must each pay as many influence points as the number of players in the game, to a special pile. From this pile, all players with highest pink total gain points so that all of them gets as many (any leftovers are returned to the bank).

If just one player has most or least of Queen, that player is the only one to pay / receive the points. If the player(s) who must pay don't have enough chips, he borrows from the bank (to be paid back at the end of the game).

Mission evaluation

All players take their mission discs, separate them by colour, and place them on their corresponding card columns in front of them. Mission discs that don't have a card column to be placed in (purple discs, and discs of a colour of which the player has no cards) stay where they are – on the board card.

1. Each player gains 3 influence points for every non-purple mission disc on their leftmost card column. The mission discs that yielded points are returned to the central play area.
2. Each player gains 1 influence point for every non-purple mission disc on their third column from the left. The mission discs that yielded points are returned to the central play area.
3. Each player gains 1 influence point for every purple disc on their King and Queen columns. Then they return all their purple discs (even those on the board card) to the central play area (purples that were not on a King or Queen aren't worth any points).
4. Each player now pays 1 influence point to the player on his right, for every mission disc that remains in front of him (both those on the board card and those in card columns). Then, all discs are returned to the central play field.

Re-order cards

Players now re-order their card columns according to any changes that happened due to returning purple discs. In case of a tie forming, a card column does not drop below another column with as many points.

If this was the first round, now the second round begins with an Administration part beginning with the (possibly new) starting player. If it was the second round, then the game concludes with a final evaluation.

With four players, add the set-aside purple disc to the central play area now.

6. Final Evaluation

All players now get as many influence points as they have impression points from the King (black). Then, the player with the most influence wins. In case of a tie, closest to the start player (with the start player being closest to himself) is the tie breaker.

7. Hints

There are roughly 3 ways to gain influence points in this game:

1. Points gained from mission discs during the Evaluation part.
2. Points received from the player to your left during Evaluation part.
3. Points received from Queen and King.

Yellow Nobles, red Soldiers and blue Priests should be your top or third best column, and you should have mission discs on these columns. However, what combination of character and mission disc you get isn't up to you.

You'll have to use your bribe cards, and push the others (mostly the player to your right) aside in order to gain points for yourself.

On the other hand, you're in true position to limit the possibilities of the player to your left (next player in turn). You can mess up both his (1) and (2) point gaining possibilities by sneaky planning. Point gaining (3) doesn't have to do with the mission discs, but can be messed with as well.

All discs on your second best column will be minus points, and not only that, they will be given to the player on your right. Ideally, you'd have Nobles, Soldiers or Priests as your strongest column, and have King or Queen as your second strongest column. It's not easy to get there, but do your best.