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Game Rules
Everything you need to know to play Kingless.
SET UP
  • For your first round, remove the King's Crown and Fool's Hat cards from the deck. Place them aside. Shuffle the deck and deal all players 5 cards. Place the remaining deck facedown at the center of your playing surface; this is the draw deck for all players.
  • If there are players with the Fool's Hat and King's Crown cards (awarded from a previous round), resolve their action text.
  • The player with the King's Crown takes the first turn. If no player has the King's Crown, the shortest player takes the first turn in honor of their dwarven heritage.
CARD LAYOUT
  • Card Type: There are 3 types of cards in Kingless - Dwarf, Item, and Event. The card type is shown in the top left of each card. Dwarfs are identified by a and Items by a . Events have no icon.
  • Influence: The influence score is the number in the top right of the card.
  • Card Name: The name can be found in the banner at the top of the card.
  • Action Text: The action text is at the bottom middle of the card.
PLAYING THE GAME
  • At the start of your turn, draw a card.
  • During your turn, you may play any number of Event cards unless the Event card tells you to 'End turn.'
  • When an Event card is played, place it face up in the discard pile, referred to as 'the gutter' in Kingless. Resolve its action text.
  • When a Dwarf or Item card is played, place it face up in front of you, complete its action text, then end your turn.
  • You can elect to end your turn and draw a card.
  • At the end of every turn check how many cards are in your hand.
  • If you have less than 3 cards draw up to 3.
  • If you have more than 8 cards discard your choice of cards to reduce your cards to 8.
  • You can play Stop and Halt cards at any time to cancel the action text of any card.
  • Play continues in a clockwise direction with players taking their turn until the end-game is triggered.
TRIGGERING THE END-GAME
  • The end-game of Kingless can be triggered in two ways:
  • One way is by having a combination of 5 or more Dwarf or Item cards in your play area. The first player to do this will trigger the end-game.
  • The other is by running out of cards in the draw pile; the player who tries to draw a card when there are none left will trigger the end-game.
  • Upon the end-game being triggered, all players get one more turn. The player who triggered the end-game takes the last turn.
WINNING THE GAME
  • Upon completing the last turn, all players tally up their influence totals from cards in their play area. The player who has the highest influence is crowned King and receives the King's Crown card.
  • The player with the lowest influence total becomes the Fool and receives the Fool's Hat card.
  • If there is a tie for first or last place it can be broken by the dwarven game of Sword-Hammer-Axe. Humans typically play it as the less exciting Rock-Paper-Scissors.