Royal-Family

An open source table top games that requires only a normal deck of cards

Players: 2

Setup:

1. Get a normal 52 count card deck. Keep the Jokers in the deck.
2. Each player starts with a castle (Ace card):
   • Player One starts with a black castle placed in front of them (Ace of Spades). This is the $COOLNAME$ family, their crest is the Spade ♠.
   • Player Two starts with a red castle placed in front of them (Ace of Hearts). This is the $COOLNAME$ family, their crest is the Heart ♡.
3. Shuffle the remaining deck.
4. Deal three (3) cards from the top of the deck. Place them between the two the castles and the deck to the side of the three cards as follows:

           Ace 1

DECK | ?1 | ?2 | ?3

           Ace 2

Objective

A player wins when they complete one of the objectives:

• Destroy all opponent castles
• Populate a castle (A) with a full royal family (K, Q, J)

Game Play

Players take turns.

On a player's turn they:

1. Draw: Take one card from any of the three face-up card piles OR the face-down deck.
2. Take One Action, see next section.

Actions

Number Card Actions (2–10):

1. Fortify a castle: If you've drawn a number card that matches the suit of a castle in your possession, you may place it behind that castle (with the number sticking out a bit at the top) to fortify the castle. This will help protect against future attacks.
2. Attack a castle: You must have at least one family member present in your castle to be able to attack. If you do, then if you've drawn a number card that matches the suit of an opponent castle, you can declare an attack on the other player's castle. Hand them the card and have them resolve the attack, see next sub-section.
   • Resolving an Attack: The attacked player resolves the attack. They either:
     • Defend: Use a number card that is currently fortifying the attacked castle to cancel out the attack. The fortification card must be equal or greater than the attack number card.
     • Take Castle Damage: If the player cannot Defend then they place the attack number card to the side of the castle card. The castle now has that number of damage. When a castle take twenty (20) damage it is destroyed.
3. Discard: If the player doesn't want to or can't fortify or attack, they must discard the card. To discard, place the card face up on one of the three piles between the castles.

Royal Family Card Actions (King, Queen, Jack):

1. Place in One of Your Castles: If the card matches the suit of a castle in your possession, you may place it in front of that castle (leave the Ace showing a bit out the top of the face card). That family member adds one of the following benefits:
   • King - "Morale" - When the king is home the whole kingdom gets a morale boost. The defending army fights harder. All of your fortifications gain +2.
   • Queen - "Hospitality" - The Queen knows that even in war you must treat your enemies with respect. She treats the kidnapped royal family members as they deserve; like royalty. You may kidnap up to three opponent family members in each castle instead of just one.
   • Jack - "Cunning" - The prince's youthful cunning nature extends to his war plans. His strategies are flexible and make use of deceitful and creative attacks. You can attack with either suit of the opponent's color. So if the opponent is black and has the spade castle, then the red prince enables the red player to attack with either a spade or a club number card.
2. Kidnap: If the card matches the suit of an opponent castle, you may place it below (not under) one of your castles. You may only kidnap one person per castle (unless you have the Queen).
3. Discard: If you don't want to your can't do the other actions, then you may place the card on one of the three face-up piles between the two castles.

Castle Card Actions (Ace)

Take one of the following actions:

• Build + Extra Turn: If the suit matches the color of your first castle, you may place it next to your first castle. You now have two castles. You can do all the things to the 2nd that you could do to the first. The opponent must now destroy both to win. Then take an extra turn.
• Discard + Extra Turn: If the suit matches your opponent color you discard it. Then take an extra turn. Perhaps this is a good chance to cover that castle up with another card ;) but you don't have to.

Assassin Card Actions (Joker)

• Assassinate: If the opponent has at least one family member in a castle you can play this card to assassinate that person. You must permanently discard both the Joker and the assassinated family member.
• Discard: If the opponent does not have any family members to assassinate then discard the Joker to one of the three face-up piles.

Rules I'm Questioning:

• All number based rules are up for tweaking: 20hp for castles, +2 king bonus, etc.
• Needing at least 1 family member to be able to attack. I wonder if they should need zero instead.
• Attacking requires the suit of the castle you want to attack. I wonder if an attack should be made with the suit that matches the own player's castle. This way the player must choose between fortification and attacking, but then we may need better options for all the other suits.
• At the start both clubs and diamonds can really only be discarded. It's helpful because you can cover up cards that your opponent may want but there may be more interesting options we could think of.
• The jack's benefit becomes less special once the player has two castles