The complete text

The rulebook

Every rule, in the order it comes up in play - the authority that settles arguments. If you're learning, start with How to play instead; it's the same game in plain language, and it links back here for the detail.

The game engine plays ruleset r1 - these rules are the ones your matches run on.

A Reign of Kings — Rulebook

The complete rules, in the order they arise during play. Sections are numbered for reference; the Index at the back maps every term to its section.

Card text overrides these rules. When a card's text contradicts a rule, the card wins. A "cannot" beats a "can"/"must", and the first player breaks ties.

Icons: Combat ⚔, Guile 🕷, Sorcery ⭕, Faith ✦ (placeholders for the printed symbols).

1. Overview and Objective

A Reign of Kings is a two-player dueling card game (a multiplayer variant is in preview, §13). Each player leads one of seven factions across a series of rounds.

1.1 Objective. The first player to control 15 or more Influence wins immediately. Influence is the victory currency, tracked with Influence counters on cards you control (chiefly your faction card). You also win if your opponent is eliminated (§12).

1.2 The seven factions are Camelot, The Eleven, Le Fay's Circle, Keepers of the Old Way, The Summer Court, The Winter Court, and Saracen Envoy. Cards may also be Neutral. A faction is a deckbuilding identity; its only dedicated rule is Loyalty (§9.3).

2. Components and Card Anatomy

2.1 Each player provides: 1 faction card, 1 destiny card, a 7-card quest deck, and a draw deck of 60+ cards (units, locations, attachments, deeds). Both players share a treasury of wealth, plus supplies of Influence counters and sorcery emblems. (Your own spendable wealth each round sits in your personal pool — §3.4.)

2.2 The card types (detailed in §10):

Type	Role
Unit	Your force; has Power and struggle icons; attacks and defends.
Location	A support card with no Power or icons; played only in the Kingdom phase.
Attachment	Attaches to a card (a unit by default); enters ready.
Deed	A one-shot event: played for an effect, then discarded; never enters the field.
Quest	Lives in the 7-card quest deck; sets your economy each round.
Destiny	Your single agenda card; never in the field; always-active abilities + deckbuilding rules.

Your faction card (which holds your Influence) is always in play (and cannot leave play); your destiny card is always active from a permanent slot — it is not in play and never enters the field. Neither is played from hand, and neither can be removed from the game. If an effect changes a card's type, the card loses its other types and functions wholly as the new type for that effect's duration; its printed type is unchanged.

2.3 Unit fields: name (and optional subtitle) — two cards with the same name count as the same card for copy limits (§11) and uniqueness (§3.7); wealth cost; Power (the shield); struggle icons (any of ⚔🕷⭕✦); italic attributes (descriptor words other cards reference); a text box; sometimes a • unique mark; sometimes a Loyalty value (1–3).

2.4 Quest stats: Wealth (income), Momentum (first-player race), Spoils (your struggle-win potency), Levy (hand limit). A quest may carry an "Embark:" ability.

2.5 Costs and stats may read as a number, X (variable, §8.7), or – (cannot be played from hand — only put into play or revealed from the secret area, §10.9).

3. Core Concepts

3.1 The field and zones. The field holds your units, locations, and attachments. "In play" = in the field (plus your faction card and active quest). Other zones — none "in play" — are: deck, hand, quest deck, used-quest pile, discard pile (discards & sacrifices), dead pile (killed units), secret area (facedown, via Secret), and out of game.

3.2 Owner vs. controller. The owner is the player whose deck a card came from; the controller commands it now (usually the same player, but effects can transfer control). A card returns to its owner's zones when it leaves play. Influence counts for the card's controller.

3.3 Ready and exhausted. Cards are ready (upright) or exhausted (turned sideways). A card exhausts to pay costs — notably, a unit exhausts to participate in a struggle. Exhausted cards are readied in the Refresh phase (§5.6) or earlier by effects/keywords. Cards enter the field ready.

3.4 Wealth, treasury, and pool. Wealth is money spent to play cards. Each round you move wealth from the shared treasury into your personal pool (§5.3); whatever you don't spend returns to the treasury at Toll — wealth never carries over. (Don't confuse wealth with Influence, the victory currency.)

3.5 Counters vs. emblems. Counters tally totals (wealth, Influence). Emblems mark a card with an ongoing effect: a sorcery emblem (blanks the card it sits on, §3.6) or the Authority emblem (§5.5). When a card leaves play, its counters and emblems return to the supply.

3.6 Blank. A blanked card has its text box treated as empty — it loses its printed abilities and keywords, but keeps its name, type, faction, cost, Power, struggle icons, and attributes. Gained (non-printed) characteristics are not removed by blanking. A sorcery emblem blanks the card it sits on.

3.7 Unique (•) and duplicates. You may own or control only one copy of a unique card with a given name at a time. A second copy you bring out becomes a duplicate, placed under the copy in play — but only if you both own and control the copy in play and the copy going under it. A change of control never converts an opponent-owned card into your duplicate (clarified 2026-07-27); such a collision is prevented instead, at the effect that would have caused it. A duplicate has no characteristics (no Power/icons/text/keywords; it is not an attachment), costs 0, does not use your Restricted allowance, and grants a save (§7.3) that stays with the unique card's owner — if another player takes control of the card, only its owner may use or discard the duplicate. It always goes to its owner's discard pile (never the dead pile). Two different players may each own and control their own copy of the same unique.

3.8 Tokens. A token unit has no physical card; it can act like any unit, but on leaving play it ceases to exist (it goes to no pile and cannot be returned to hand/deck or removed as a card).

4. Setup

Perform once, before Round 1:

Determine the first player at random.
Place your faction card and destiny card faceup, and your 7 quests facedown. Form the shared treasury (wealth) and the supplies of Influence counters and sorcery emblems.
Shuffle your draw deck and draw 7.
Mulligan (optional, once): starting with the first player, set your hand aside, draw a new 7, and shuffle the old hand back.
Place your opening board: starting with the first player, secretly place facedown any units, locations, and attachments — without paying their cost from a pool (you have none yet), but their combined cost must fit an 8-wealth setup budget. What counts toward the 8: each card's printed cost, plus any off-faction Loyalty surcharge, plus 2 for each Secret card you hide facedown (§10.9). You may also place one Restricted card during setup (separate from the per-round limit), and duplicates of your uniques are free.
Reveal simultaneously and put the cards into the field; resolve attachments and duplicates. Setup reveal does not trigger "when this enters play" abilities, but constant abilities are active at once.
Draw back up to 7.

Begin Round 1 at the Quest phase. (At game start, no one holds the Authority emblem — §5.5.)

5. The Round

A round is seven phases, always in order:

1. Quest → 2. Draw → 3. Kingdom → 4. Confrontation → 5. Authority → 6. Refresh → 7. Toll → (repeat)

Kingdom and Confrontation rotate an active-player role through the players (first player first): the active player gains an extra option (play cards in Kingdom, initiate struggles in Confrontation), but otherwise these run as normal action windows in which both players alternate priority, starting with the first player. The other phases resolve for both players together. Action windows (§8.2) open at set points in every phase.

5.1 Quest phase

(Action window.)
Each player secretly selects one quest and places it facedown.
Reveal simultaneously ("Embark"). Each quest becomes its owner's active quest, setting wealth, momentum, spoils, levy. Your previous active quest goes to the used-quest pile.
First player: compare momentum; highest chooses the first player. (Tie: lowest Influence chooses; still tied: at random.)
Resolve "Embark:" abilities in first-player order.
(Action window; phase ends.)

If embarking empties your quest deck, shuffle the used-quest pile back into it. If an effect reveals a quest outside this phase, its Embark ability still fires, but momentum and the first player are not re-determined.

5.2 Draw phase

The phase opens with an action window. Then each player simultaneously draws 2 cards (not in turn order), and a closing action window opens before the phase ends. If you must draw and your draw deck is empty, you are eliminated (§12): an empty draw deck is not refilled — you never shuffle your discard pile into a new deck. (Only the quest deck reshuffles, §10.5.)

5.3 Kingdom phase

The phase opens with an action window and runs as ordinary action windows throughout — priority passes back and forth between the players, starting with the first player (§8.2). The active-player role rotates in turn order (first player first); each active player collects wealth (treasury → pool, equal to their quest's wealth value) and, as the active player, gains the option to play units, locations, and attachments from hand (cost + Loyalty if off-faction, §9.3) and to secret-place cards (§8.6, §10.9) — only the active player plays cards to the field, and locations are played only in this phase. That option aside, it is a normal window: both players take Action abilities / Kingdom actions and pass. When it closes, the next player becomes active.

5.4 Confrontation phase

The phase opens with an action window and proceeds as ordinary action windows throughout (priority alternates between the players, starting with the first player, §8.2). The active-player role rotates in turn order; as the active player you gain the option to initiate struggles — up to one of each of the four types (§6), each resolved fully. That option aside, these are normal windows. When you are done, the next player becomes active.

5.5 Authority phase

Each player's Authority total = Power of their ready units + 1 per wealth in pool + bonuses. (Power is floored at 0, §6.6.)
The highest total claims Authority: that player gains 1 Influence and takes the Authority emblem. Tie for highest: no one claims it, and the emblem becomes unheld (its current holder, if any, loses it).
(Action window; phase ends.)

The Authority emblem grants its holder +1 to their total in every struggle they attack, until another player claims it (or a tie wipes it). At game start no one holds it; while unheld it grants no bonus.

5.6 Refresh phase

Ready all exhausted cards. (Cards under a "does not ready" effect are skipped; a "ready at most N" effect lets the affected player choose which.)
Each player removes one sorcery emblem from a card they control.
(Action window; phase ends.)

5.7 Toll phase

Return all wealth to the treasury (no carry-over).
Reduce your hand to your Levy value, discarding the excess (a player at/below levy discards nothing).
(Action window; then the round ends.)

This is also the end of the round (§8.8 closing order); "until end of round" effects expire here. Begin a new round at the Quest phase.

6. Struggles

A struggle is one attack of one of four types, made by the active player in Confrontation. The initiator is the attacking player; the named opponent is the defending player.

6.1 The four types (effect on an attacker win, with N = the attacker's quest Spoils):

Type	Icon	Attacker-win effect	Who performs it
Combat	⚔	the losing defender kills N of their own units	the defender (chooses which)
Guile	🕷	the losing defender discards N cards at random	the defender
Sorcery	⭕	place N sorcery emblems on the losing defender's field cards (blanking them)	the attacker
Faith	✦	move N Influence from the losing defender's faction card to yours	the attacker

A Faith win moves Influence (it is not a "gain," so "when you gain Influence" effects don't fire). If a spoils can't fully resolve (no legal target, empty hand, etc.), do as much as possible.

6.2 Procedure (steps S.1–S.14, charted in Appendix A):

(S.1–S.3) Declare. Announce the type, the target opponent, and your attackers. You must declare at least one ready unit bearing the struggle's icon; each attacker exhausts. Subtle resolves now (§9.1). You cannot make a struggle with no attackers.
(S.4–S.5) The target becomes the defending player; action window.
(S.6) Declare defenders. The defender may exhaust ready units bearing the icon (not barred by Subtle). (Action window, S.7.)
(S.8) Determine the winner. Total each side's Power. Higher total wins; the attacker wins a tie that is not 0–0; 0–0 has no winner (no spoils, no unopposed). The win margin (§6.4) is fixed here.
(S.9) Responses.
(S.10) Unopposed. If the attacker won and the defending side's total Power is 0, the attacker gains +1 Influence (keyed to 0 defending Power, not "no defenders").
(S.11) Spoils. Attacker win only; apply §6.1 with N = the attacker's quest Spoils.
(S.12) On-win keywords resolve (§9.2), first-player-ordered, each optional.
(S.13–S.14) End. "Until end of struggle" effects expire; control returns to the phase.

6.3 Power totals. Sum the effective Power of each side's participants. The Authority emblem adds +1 to the holder's total when they attack (§5.5). A unit no longer in the field contributes 0.

6.4 Win margin = the winner's total Power minus the loser's total (always ≥ 0), fixed at S.8 (e.g. 7 vs 4 → margin 3). Later Power changes do not alter it. (Compel uses it, §9.2.)

6.5 Participation.

A unit must have the matching icon and be ready to be declared (S.3/S.6); it then exhausts, and that exhaustion is never refunded, whatever the outcome.
A unit added to a struggle by a card effect (outside S.3/S.6) joins its side regardless of icon or ready state, without exhausting, and even if Subtle barred it — those gates apply only to declared units.
A participant that leaves play mid-struggle is removed from its side and contributes 0 Power; the struggle continues even if a side is left empty.

6.6 Power floor. A unit's Power never counts below 0 in any total (struggle or Authority); a unit reduced below 0 contributes 0, never a negative.

7. Leaving Play — Killing, Saving, Removing

7.1 Causes and destinations.

Cause	Goes to	Note
Killed	dead pile	units only (0 Power does not kill a unit on its own — §10.1)
Discarded	discard pile
Sacrificed	discard pile	cannot be saved
Returned to hand / deck	owner's hand / deck
Removed from game	out of game

A card goes to its owner's pile. A token ceases to exist (§3.8). Some cards care about the dead-pile / discard-pile distinction, so it matters which.

7.2 The leave-play sequence. A card about to leave play first enters a Halt (save) window (§8.4); if a save or replacement succeeds, it stays (save) or goes elsewhere (replacement); otherwise it leaves, and its consequences fire simultaneously: counters and sorcery emblems return to supply; duplicates are discarded; attachments are discarded (or returned to hand if Lasting); its lasting effects and struggle participation end. A Response window follows. When one event makes several cards leave at once, they share a single Halt window and a single Response window.

7.3 Saving. A save keeps a card that is about to leave play; it is a Halt ability used in the save window. A duplicate save discards a duplicate to save the card under it; it may be declined, and the opponent may cancel it (the duplicate is still discarded). A save cannot help against a continuous kill condition it doesn't remove (e.g. an effect that keeps killing it while its Power is 0). Sacrifice cannot be saved, and an effect may state a card cannot be saved (which ignores all saves, duplicates included).

7.4 Replacement and prevention. A replacement ("instead") swaps how an event resolves (most recent wins; a canceled event is never replaced). A prevented outcome does not apply but still counts as having occurred where the rules say so (e.g. a unit prevented from a Combat kill still counts as one of the units chosen).

8. Abilities, Windows and Timing

8.1 Kinds of ability.

Static abilities continuously modify the game while the card is in play and unblanked (e.g. "Your Knights get +1 Power.").
State-based rules are automatic, continuous checks with no timing word and no window — they act the instant their condition is true: 15 Influence wins the game, an illegally attached attachment is discarded, a second copy of a unique you control becomes a duplicate.
Activated / triggered abilities carry a bold timing word and are used in a window.

8.2 Action windows and priority. Players act only inside windows. Priority starts with the first player and passes in turn order; either player may take a timing-appropriate action or pass. A window closes only when all players pass consecutively; any action resets the pass count, so you can always respond.

8.3 Timing words.

Action: — any action window (a named phase restricts it to that phase).
Response: — after a stated event resolves.
Disrupt: — while a stated event resolves, to modify it.
Halt: — before a stated event resolves, to cancel it (also how you save, §7.3).
Forced (or "When…") — mandatory; triggers automatically.

8.4 Window order around a triggering event (fixed):

Halt (cancel/save — before) → Disrupt (modify — during) → the event resolves (or its replacement) → Response (after).

Within each window, all Forced abilities resolve first (first player orders any simultaneous ones), then players take optional actions until consecutive passes. A triggered ability resolves once per the occurrence that triggered it — retaking priority does not let you re-fire it against the same event (repeats are governed only by Limit / Max, §9). When one event triggers several conditions at once, they share a single Halt window and a single Response window; a Disrupt, though, targets one condition's resolution, so each may be Disrupted separately.

8.5 Nesting (last-in, first-out). If an action taken inside a window itself creates a new triggering condition, that condition immediately opens and fully resolves its own Halt→Disrupt→resolve→Response sequence before the interrupted resolution continues.

8.6 Play terminology. Play from hand (active player, Kingdom) pays a card's cost to field it. Secret-place puts a Secret card facedown for 2 wealth (§10.9). Put into play fields a card without paying its cost (Loyalty still applies). Reveal from the secret area pays a Secret (X) cost to field it. A Deed is played (any matching window), resolves, and is discarded — it never enters the field (§10.4).

8.7 X. When a card uses X in a cost and/or effect, the controller chooses one value of X at initiation; the same value is used for cost and effect and is fixed for the rest of the resolution. You may not choose an X you cannot pay.

8.8 Closing a phase, struggle, or round (in order): (1) resolve any Halt/Disrupt to the "ends" trigger; (2) all "until end of …" lasting effects expire; (3) all "at end of …" delayed effects resolve (first player orders simultaneous ones). There is no Response to a phase ending.

8.9 Lasting and delayed effects.

A lasting effect is a temporary continuous effect with a stated duration ("until end of this phase / round / struggle"); it applies like a static ability until its duration ends per §8.8.
A delayed effect waits to act at a stated later point ("at the end of this phase / round / struggle…") and resolves automatically when that point is reached, after the matching lasting effects have expired.

8.10 Search and look.

Search a zone: only you look through the entire zone; you are never required to take a card even if a match exists; cards you pass over do not change zones; then shuffle the searched zone (whether or not you found a card).
Look at cards: view them without revealing them to anyone; they stay in their zone, trigger nothing, and you gain no right to take them and cause no shuffle.

8.11 Other timing rules.

Cannot be canceled. An effect may state it cannot be canceled (or "cannot be Halted"); a Halt is not a legal response to it ("cannot" is absolute) — just as "cannot be saved" ignores all save Halts.
Immune. A card "immune to" some effects cannot be targeted or affected by them. Only the card itself is immune (not its attachments, counters, duplicates, or the abilities it generates); immunity blocks effects, not costs (an immune card may still be chosen to pay a cost).
To initiate an ability it must be able to change the game state (a legal target / a real effect must exist). A lasting effect merely expiring, or a constant ability merely ceasing, does not by itself count; for a "may" ability, one possible state-changing choice suffices.
"Then". An instruction split by then ("do X, then do Y") resolves the first part fully before the second; if the first part doesn't happen at all (or only partly), the part after "then" does not resolve.
Self-reference. When a card's text uses its own name, it means only that copy — to affect other copies it must say so ("each other …").

9. Keywords

A card has a keyword by printing or by grant. The same keyword from two sources counts once — except parameterized keywords with different X (e.g. Haste 2 vs Haste 3), which are distinct. Blanking removes printed (not gained) keywords. Losing a declaration keyword (Subtle) after declaring leaves the choice standing; losing an on-win keyword before S.12 means it does not resolve. (Limit X caps an ability's uses, per copy; Max X caps how often a card name is played, per player.)

9.1 Declaration keyword.

Subtle — when this unit is declared as an attacker, you may bar one defender-eligible enemy unit (without Subtle) from defending this struggle.

9.2 On-win keywords (resolve at S.12 for a participating unit on the winning side; each optional):

Keyword	Side	Effect
Glory	either	place 1 Influence on this unit (it counts toward your 15)
Mastery	either	draw 1
Cunning	either	gain 1 wealth
Compel	attacker	exhaust an enemy unit with Power < the win margin (§6.4)
Ravage (X)	attacker	mill X (discard the top X cards of the losing defender's deck)
Prowess	attacker	ready this unit
Wary	defender	ready this unit
Ruthless	attacker	the losing player kills one of their defending units (they choose which)

9.3 Play / passive keywords and Loyalty.

Haste (X) — in Confrontation, pay X to field this from hand. Secret (X) — place facedown for 2 wealth; reveal later for X (§10.9). Scout (X) — on entering, look at the top X and reorder top/bottom. Restricted — only one Restricted card may enter your field per round (+1 at setup), counting every entry (Haste / Secret-reveal / put-into-play). No Attachments — rejects attachments (attribute variants exist; most restrictive wins). Lasting — this attachment returns to hand (not discard) on host-leave (§10.3). Bound — deckbuilding: this card's faction only.
Loyalty (1–3) — playing an off-faction card (faction ≠ your faction card) costs an extra amount equal to its printed Loyalty: whenever it would enter play (Kingdom play, put-into-play, Haste, or Secret reveal), and when an off-faction Deed is played — a deed is paid for and discarded without entering the field, but the off-faction splash still costs its Loyalty. Neutral cards and cards with no Loyalty value cost no surcharge. (At setup, every placement counts its printed cost and any off-faction Loyalty against the 8-wealth budget, and a Secret placement adds 2 more — §4; that budget is a cap, not a payment, so a revealed secret card still spends real wealth for its cost later — §10.9.) A Bound card cannot be off-faction at all.

10. Card Types in Detail

10.1 Units. Enter the field ready, under their controller. Carry Power and struggle icons; exhaust to participate in struggles (§6.5). A unit with 0 Power is not killed on its own — it stays in play with 0 Power, and is killed at 0 Power only if a card effect imposes that. Killed → dead pile; discarded/sacrificed → discard pile.

10.2 Locations. Enter the field ready; played only during the Kingdom phase. Have no Power and no icons — a location never attacks or defends; it helps through its text.

10.3 Attachments. Enter the field ready, attached to a legal target (a unit by default); if no legal target exists they cannot be played. An attachment is controlled by the player who played it, even on an opponent's card, and readies/exhausts independently of its host. When its host leaves play it is discarded — unless it has Lasting, which returns it to its owner's hand. An attachment that becomes illegally attached (host lost a required attribute, gained No Attachments, etc.) is discarded.

10.4 Deeds. Played, not put into the field: pay the cost, the effect resolves, then the card goes to the discard pile (before the Response window). A deed never enters the field. Its timing word (Action / Response / Disrupt / Halt) sets the window it may be played in, whether or not it's your turn. A Halted deed is still "played," its cost stays paid, and it still discards.

10.5 Quests. Your 7-card facedown quest deck; exactly one is active per round, setting that round's wealth / momentum / spoils / levy. The active quest is in play but cannot leave play, except to the used-quest pile when you next embark. When the quest deck empties, the used-quest pile reshuffles back into it.

10.6 Destiny. Your single agenda card. Never in the field; its abilities apply from a permanent slot beside your faction card, faceup from setup. It provides deckbuilding rules and/or always-active constant and triggered abilities (unless explicitly blanked) and cannot be removed from the game.

10.7 Faction card. In play the entire game; cannot leave play. Implicitly unique (one per player). Holds your Influence counters — the bulk of your race to 15. Abilities printed on it work like any in-play ability.

10.8 Token units. A unit with no physical card; it exists only in the field, can be targeted and can attack/defend, but on leaving play ceases to exist (no pile; cannot be returned or removed as a card).

10.9 The secret area. A facedown, out-of-play zone (the Secret keyword's home); you see your own, opponents don't; entry order is fixed. Secret-place (active player, Kingdom): pay 2 wealth to place a Secret card facedown (no per-round limit). Reveal (any action window): pay the card's Secret (X) cost; a unit/location/attachment enters the field faceup, a deed is played faceup (a duplicate of an in-play unique enters as a duplicate; an attachment must immediately find a legal host or is discarded). A card printed with cost "–" can only be revealed from here, never played from hand.

11. Deckbuilding

A legal deck is 1 faction card + 1 destiny card + 7 quest cards + at least 60 draw cards, with at most 3 copies of any one card name. In-faction and Neutral cards are always legal; off-faction cards are legal unless Bound, but pay the Loyalty surcharge in play (§9.3). (An organized-play restricted list — banned/limited cards — may exist; none is active pre-launch. Do not confuse it with the Restricted keyword, §9.3.)

12. Winning and Elimination

You win the instant you control 15 or more Influence (a state-based check, §8.1), or when you are the last player remaining.

Elimination. A player who must draw from an empty deck is eliminated — the draw deck is never reshuffled (only the quest deck reshuffles). Eliminating your opponent wins the game.

Simultaneity. If two players would reach 15 at the same instant, the first player decides who wins. If a single effect would eliminate every remaining player at once, the player with the highest total Influence wins; if that is tied, the tied player who holds the Authority emblem wins; if no tied player holds it, the first player decides who wins. (Multiplayer: if the first player is eliminated, the role passes to the next player in turn order.)

13. Multiplayer (Preview)

The game is designed first for two players; a multiplayer (3+) variant is planned but not finalized. In it, interactions resolve in turn order (first player, then each player in sequence), and a new card type — Ambition, from a separate 12-card Ambition deck — lets players Aid or Defy one another's Ambitions. Until those rules are finalized, play the two-player game above.

Appendix A — Phase and Struggle Timing

Round phases

1 — QUEST          start · AW · choose quests · embark (reveal) → compare momentum →
                       choose first player → resolve "Embark:" · AW · end
2 — DRAW           start · AW · draw 2 (simultaneous) · AW · end
3 — KINGDOM        start · [first player active → collect wealth → play (AW)] → next active → … · end
4 — CONFRONTATION  start · [first player active → may struggle (S.1–S.14) → AW] → next active → … · end
5 — AUTHORITY      start · assert Authority (ready Power + 1/wealth + bonuses; winner +1 Influence + emblem;
                       tie → all lose it) · AW · end
6 — REFRESH        start · ready all exhausted · each player removes one sorcery emblem · AW · end
7 — TOLL           start · return all wealth · discard to Levy · AW · end (= round end) → return to Quest

Struggle timing (S.1–S.14)

S.1  active player initiates a struggle        S.8  compare Power → winner (attacker wins non-0-0;
S.2  active player becomes attacking player          0-0 = no winner); lock win margin
S.3  declare type + target + attackers         S.9  responses
     (≥1; icon + ready → exhaust); Subtle      S.10 unopposed: def Power 0 + attacker win → +1 Influence
S.4  target becomes defending player           S.11 spoils (attacker win; value = quest Spoils)
S.5  action window                             S.12 on-win keywords (first-player bundle; optional)
S.6  defenders declared (icon + ready →        S.13 end struggle ("until end of struggle" expires)
     exhaust)                                   S.14 return to Confrontation loop
S.7  action window

Resolving any condition / ability

declare → check restrictions → pay costs →
    Halt window     (cancel / save — before)        Forced first (first player orders),
    Disrupt window  (modify — during)               then Optional (priority passes;
 ── resolve (or most-recent replacement) ──         window closes on consecutive passes)
    Response window (react — after)
Precedence: card text overrides the rules; "cannot" beats "can"/"must".   First player breaks all ties.

Appendix B — Terminology

Current (0.2.1) vocabulary, with the older terms you may still see on cards or in older documents:

If a card / old doc says…	Read it as…
Gold	Wealth
Initiative	Momentum
Claim	Spoils
Reserve	Levy
Bond	Bound
STR / Strength	Power (POW)
Kneel / Stand	Exhaust / Ready
Token (on a card)	Counter (tally) or Emblem (on-card marker)

The "Power" trap. Unlike some card games, Power here is a unit's combat stat — not the victory currency. The victory currency is Influence (race to 15); Faith is a struggle type; Authority is a phase and an emblem. Keep them straight.

Quick Reference

Win: 15+ Influence, or be the last player standing.

Round: Quest → Draw → Kingdom → Confrontation → Authority → Refresh → Toll.

Phase	Summary
Quest	Select + reveal a quest; highest momentum picks first player.
Draw	Both draw 2 (simultaneously).
Kingdom	Collect wealth; active player plays units/locations/attachments.
Confrontation	Make struggles (one per type); a win applies spoils.
Authority	Highest (ready Power + 1/wealth) gains 1 Influence + the emblem (tie → none).
Refresh	Ready all; remove one sorcery emblem.
Toll	Return all wealth; reduce hand to levy; round ends.

Struggles (effect = your quest's Spoils): Combat ⚔ kill · Guile 🕷 random discard · Sorcery ⭕ blank · Faith ✦ move Influence. Higher Power wins; attacker wins non-0-0 ties; 0–0 = no winner; Power floors at 0; Authority emblem = +1 to your attacks; you must declare ≥1 attacker; exhausting to participate isn't refunded.

Window order: Halt → Disrupt → resolve (or replacement) → Response; Forced before optional; a window closes on consecutive passes; nested triggers resolve LIFO.

Precedence: card text overrides the rules; "cannot" beats "can"/"must"; first player breaks ties.

Index

Term → section.

Action (timing) → §8.3 · Action window / priority → §8.2
Active player → §5.3, §5.4, §6 · Ambition (multiplayer) → §13
Attachments → §10.3; on host-leave → §7.2; No Attachments → §9.3
Attributes → §2.3; blanked → §3.6
Authority (phase) → §5.5 · Authority emblem → §5.5, §6.3, §12
Blank → §3.6 · Bound → §9.3, §11
"Cannot" → §8.11 · Cannot be canceled / saved → §8.11, §7.3
Card types → §2.2, §10 · Card-type change → §2.2
Confrontation phase → §5.4 · Constant (static) abilities → §8.1
Control vs. owner → §3.2 · Counters → §3.5
Deckbuilding → §11 · Deeds → §10.4; timing → §8.3
Delayed effects → §8.9 · Destiny → §10.6 · Disrupt → §8.3, §8.4
Draw phase → §5.2 · Duplicates → §3.7; duplicate save → §7.3
Eliminating a player → §5.2, §12 · Emblems → §3.5
Embark → §5.1 · Entering play → §8.6
Exhaust / Ready → §3.3 · Faction card → §10.7 · Factions → §1.2
Faith → §6.1 · Field & zones → §3.1 · First player → §5.1
Forced abilities → §8.3, §8.4
Glory / Mastery / Cunning / Compel / Ravage / Prowess / Wary / Ruthless → §9.2
Halt → §8.3, §7.3 · Haste → §9.3 · Immune → §8.11
Influence (winning) → §1.1, §12; counters → §3.5
Initiation & legality → §8.11 · Keywords → §9; gain/loss → §9
Kingdom phase → §5.3 · Lasting (keyword) → §9.3, §10.3 · Lasting effects → §8.9
Leaving play → §7 · Levy → §2.4, §5.7 · Locations → §10.2
Look → §8.10 · Loyalty → §9.3, §11 · Max / Limit → §9
Modifiers (effective values) → §6.3, §8.1 · Momentum → §2.4, §5.1
Name (copy-limit / uniqueness unit) → §2.3, §3.7, §11 · Neutral → §1.2, §9.3, §11 · No Attachments → §9.3, §10.3
Power (POW) → §2.3, §6.3; floor → §6.6; 0 Power (not auto-killed) → §10.1
Prevent → §7.4 · Quest phase → §5.1 · Quests (card) → §10.5
Refresh phase → §5.6 · Replacement ("instead") → §7.4 · Response → §8.3, §8.4
Restricted (keyword) → §9.3 · Sacrifice → §7.1, §7.3
Saving → §7.3 · Scout → §9.3 · Search → §8.10
Secret (keyword) / secret area → §9.3, §10.9 · Self-reference → §8.11
Setup → §4 · Simultaneous resolution → §7.2, §8.4
Sorcery emblem → §3.5, §3.6, §5.6, §6.1 · Spoils → §2.4, §6.1
State-based rules → §8.1 · Struggles → §6 · Subtle → §9.1
"Then" → §8.11 · Tokens → §3.8, §10.8 · Toll phase → §5.7
Treasury / pool / wealth → §3.4, §5.3, §5.7 · Unique (•) → §3.7
Units → §10.1 · Unopposed → §6.2 (S.10) · Win margin → §6.4
Winning → §1.1, §12 · X (variable) → §2.5, §8.7 · Zones → §3.1

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