Revised rules for the first game I posted. I plan to go back to making use of this blog, so you should both expect me to update more often and yell at me if I don't.
This is a card game for two to four players. Each of you takes the role of one "virtue" of an evil dragon. As dragons have a different value system than humans, their virtues would seem, to us, sins. The players will each play one of Gluttony, Greed, Wrath or Pride. As dragons eat maidens, Gluttony and Lust coincide, Envy only applies to other dragons, and Sloth wins when you don't play the game--so keep that in mind the next time that you decide what to do at a party.
The Virtues of the Drake
The game is played entirely with communal cards, because all players are ultimately different aspects of the same creature. Your resources comprise:
Three decks of cards
- A deck of Maidens that the nearby townsfolk will feed you (the Dragon) for appeasement.
- A deck of Knights that will attempt (futilely) to protect the (mostly) fair (mostly) Maidens from you (the Dragon)
- A deck of wondrous Treasures carried by the Knights who come to fight you... the Dragon
Four locations, and the cards in them
- The area immediately outside your lair, referred to as "in play" which can have up to one Maiden tied to a stake and one Knight (failing) to protect (usually) her at a time
- A Gullet, which will fill up with delicious Maidens
- A Lair, which you will adorn with the crispy corpses of failed Knights
- A Bed, made up of a pile of Treasures earned by defeating Knights
Four Virtue cards, which you'll pick from to determine your Virtue for the game
To start the game, shuffle all the decks, then place them in a triangle in the center of the table. The area in the middle is "in play", while discards will be placed next to their respective decks outside this area. Shuffle the Virtue cards and hand one to each player (in a two player game, set Pride aside first). Those players will place the cards in front of them; remaining cards should be set, face up, to the side.
Place the top card from the Maidens deck to the right of Gluttony; this forms the Gullet. Likewise, place the top Knight next to Wrath to start the Lair and the top Treasure next to Greed to start the Bed. The Gullet, Lair, and Bed all fill in from left to right; the most recently added card should be place to the right of the last card.
Randomly determine a player to go first, and then rotate clockwise from that player on each turn. A player's turn comprises two phases:
- Playing the top card of a deck of that player's choice. To play a card from a deck, do one of the following
- You may always play a Maiden or a Knight, provided there is no corresponding card in play. Only one Maiden and one Knight may be in play, barring card effects.
- To play a Treasure, flip the top card and compare its Value to the rightmost Knight's Wealth. If the Wealth is equal or higher, the Knight's pockets are not yet exhausted and nothing happens in the Lair. If the Value is higher than the Wealth, you've torn that Knight apart trying to find the Treasure; discard the rightmost Knight from the Lair. Either way, the Treasure goes onto your Bed.
- Performing an action. An action is either:
- Swallowing a Maiden. This can be done automatically, but only if there is no Knight in play to protect the Maiden.
- Breathing fire on a Knight. To do this, compare the Knight's Strength to the Chastity of the righmost Maiden in the Gullet (more Chaste Maidens generate hotter fire). If the Maiden's Chastity is equal or higher, she stays in the Gullet, but if it's less than the Knight's Strength, discard the Maiden. Either way, you still defeat the Knight (you are a Dragon, after all). Move the Knight to the Lair.
- Performing an action that is listed on a card. These will instruct you to do something "as an action.
Continue playing turns in order, until one player wins. Each player is attempting to reach a different win condition:
- Gluttony will win if the Dragon's Gullet ever contains seven Maidens, satisfying its hunger
- Wrath will win if the Dragon's Lair ever contains seven Knights, satisfying its bloodlust
- Greed will win if the Dragon's Bed ever contains seven Treasures, satisfying the Dragon's desire for wealth
- Pride is attempting to stalemate the other Virtues, and will win if any of the decks is ever exhausted before one of the other Virtues wins.
Keep in mind, a Virtue that is not represented by a player can still accidentally win the game.
In the next post, I will detail the stats for each of the cards. Eventually, we'll be posting a PDF of those cards, and if there's enough interest there will be a full-artwork PDF with art by Cappysay available for a small fee. In the meantime, if you'd like to test the game, I recommend writing out the cards on index cards (using different colors for each deck). If you test it, and get back to me with some feedback, I'll credit you when I publish the thing, and may even tribute you in a card when I expand the decks a bit.