Duel of Nobles

This is a 2 player card game using a standard poker deck. It's very heavily based on an old game I found on BoardGameGeek: Duelling Nobles

The Concept

The game is played with each player having a collection of Nobles who are "duelling" (politically). Losing duels deals damage to their reputation.

By using gold, Nobles can bolster their duelling power with Servants and Supporters - who exactly is supporting them is often kept secret until the moment of a duel!

Materials

• 1 standard deck of cards (with jesters!)

• 4 dice (playable with 2)

• Tokens or paper (to represent Gold and Reputation)

The Cards

The cards will be split into 2 decks:

• The Noble Deck will consist of all the Kings, Queens, and Jacks (shuffled, face down)
  You start the game with 3 nobles in play. More can be purchased, and they can be lost via duels!

• The Main Deck will consist of numbered cards, aces, and 2 Jokers. (All shuffled, face down)
  You'll be drawing these cards each turn, and can pay for more!

The Nobles (Noble deck):

The focus of the game! Nobles start with Reputation, and when they run out they get discarded!

Nobles can have 2 servants and 1 supporter (2 for Jacks) attached to them for duels -- but more on that later!

The Supporters (Main deck):

Numbered cards from 4-10 are Supporters. These are temporary allies that will remain with your nobles for a single round. They add their number to your noble's duelling power.

Supporters of the same suit as your noble will add an extra +2

At the end of each round, all face-up supporters are discarded

The Servants (Main Deck)

Numbered cards 2 and 3 are servants. They're like supporters, but permanent. They don't get discarded if they're face-up at the end of a round!

Like supporters, they add +2 if the same suit as your noble!

The Jokers (Main Deck)

The Jokers are the final word in destroying the reputation of others. They are supporters, but they add +1000 to your noble.

The Aces (Main Deck)

Aces aren't supporters, but special cards you can play on your turn in a duel before attacking.

• Ace of Hearts: Pray - Increase the reputation of ONE noble by 2, or 2 nobles by 1 (can exceed starting reputation)

• Ace of Clubs: Assassinate - Choose one face-up or face-down supporter/servant. Reveal it and discard it.

• Ace of Spades: Spy - Pick one noble, privately view all face-down cards attached to it.
  Return them to their face-down position afterward.

• Ace of Diamonds: Bribe - Take one face up supporter or servant from any noble, attach it to one of yours (following maximum limits for your noble).
  You can't use this card if you don't have room on any of your nobles to attach it!

Playing the Game

Setup

• Separate the Noble Deck (kings, queens, jacks) and Main Deck (all other cards + 2 jokers). Shuffle them both!

• Each player: Draw 3 nobles. Place these in front of you, give them each their starting reputation.

• Each player: Draw 4 cards. From the main deck.

Each Round

Start, Posture, Duel, Cleanup -- Repeat until someone has no nobles!

Start Phase (includes first round)

• Each player draws 2 cards from the Deck

• Each player gains 1 Gold

Posturing Phase

Players take turns doing any of the following actions. Posturing continues until all players pass.

Roll dice to determine who goes first, then take turns clockwise.

• Sell Out: Discard 3 cards of the same suit OR number, get +3 Gold

• Buy Supporters: Spend 1 Gold to draw 1 card from the Main Deck.
  MAX 3 cards / round

• Public Donation: Discard 3 Gold and add +1 Reputation to a noble.

• Pay Dowry: Spend 5 Gold to draw a new Noble and put it into play with its starting reputation.

• Levy Taxes: Remove 1 Reputation from a noble to gain +1 Gold

Throughout this process, you may at any time place servant and supporter cards face down (or face up, if you choose) beneath a noble, up to the maximum number of servants and supporters for that noble type.

Cards that remain face-down from the previous round cannot be removed or swapped.

It must be visible to your opponents the number of cards attached to each noble.

Each noble can have 2 servants and 1 supporter (2 for Jacks), so no card should ever have more than 3 (4 for Jacks) other cards attached to it!

Once everyone's done and the nobles are all backed by their supports, we finally get to the DUEL

Duelling Phase

Order is determined by wealthiest to poorest. The rich go first, ties are broken with dice.

On your turn you may play (and then discard) any aces you have, and then you will chose one of your own nobles to attack one of your opponent's nobles.

The duel goes as follows:

Determine the duelling power of each card:

• Roll the power dice for your nobles (Kings get 2, others get 1)

• Queens get +2 for each other noble on your side

• Add the value of any already-face-up supporters/servants (an additional +2 for each same-suit card!)

• Declare the total value you've summed up, and find out who's winning and by how much!

Whoever is losing will then reveal any face-down cards attached to their noble, in whatever order they prefer, until they are winning, or they've revealed all supporters.

An easy way to keep track of this is do declare how much the winner is "up" by:

Example, let's say after rolling and adding face-up cards, P1 is winning by 4, they declare "up 4".
P2 then reveals a 6, and declares "up 2"
P1 then reveals a 3 of the same suit (5 points total), and declares "up 3"
P2 only has one more card and it's a 2. They must reveal it and concede defeat.

Whichever noble loses a duel loses 1 reputation, and the winning player gains 1 gold.

If the noble is out of reputation, it is discarded immediately with all of its attached cards.

If the noble survives, it keeps all face-up cards until the end of the round (in case more battles follow!)

Ties are awarded to the defender.

On the same turn you may repeat this process a second time with a different noble.

The following rules must be observed on your turn during the Duelling phase:

• Each nobel can only attack once and defend once in a round!
  Optionally use colored indicators to help keep track who has attacked and who has defended!
• You can't repeat a duel within a round. Each duel must be between different nobles.
• You must make at least one attack on your turn (if possible given the previous rule)
• You can at max attack twice on your turn (again, if possible).

Once each player has played out their turn, this phase ends.

Cleanup Phase

After all players have a turn, all face-up Supporters and Jesters are discarded.

Any cards that are still face down stay put, and can't be removed. They will be played in subsequent duel rounds.

Head back to the start phase!

Here's a brief video showing Player 1's turn in the Duel phase. (Player 1 does very poorly this round)

Feel free to pause throughout to make sure you're following!

Video Description:

The table begins with Player 1 and Player 2 each with 3 nobles with full reputation. The nobles have various face-down cards attached.

Player 1's turn begins. They use their Queen of Hearts (1 card) to attack P2's Jack of Clubs (3 cards)

Both players roll. P1 rolls a 2 and P2 rolls a 4. Since P1 is duelling with a Queen, they get +2 for each other noble on their side of the field. As a result, the current score is P1:6 vs P2:4, P1 is "up 2".

P2 reveals a servant card: the 3 of hearts. Score is P1:6 vs P2:7, P2 is "up 1"

P1 reveals the supporter: 8 of diamonds. Score is P1:14 vs P2:7, P1 is "up 7".

P2 reveals the supporter: 6 of clubs. This is the same suit as the noble, so it gets a bonus +2. Score is P1:14 vs P2:15, P2 is "up 1"

P1 has no more cards to reveal and has lost. Their noble loses 1 reputation and P2 gains 1 gold.

...

P1 decides to make a second attack, and pits their Jack of Spades (3 cards) against P2's King of Diamonds (1 card).

Both players roll. P1 rolls a 5 and P2 rolls a 12 (kings get an extra dice). Score is P1:5 vs P2:12, P2 is "up 7"

P1 reveals 2 cards, the servant 3 of diamonds and the supporter 6 of hearts. Score is P1:14 vs P2:12, P1 is "up 2"

P2 reveals a Joker, which is worth 1000. Score is P1:14 vs P2:12+1000, P2 is in the lead.

P1 is forced to reveal their final card which is the 5 of clubs.

P1 has no more cards to reveal, their noble loses 1 reputation and P2 gains 1 gold.

Player 1's turn has concluded. They really got their ass handed to them.

The video ends here. Next would be Player 2's turn. It should be noted that P2 will be able to use the Joker again this round to make an attack, and will be able to kill P1's queen. Predicting and avoiding jokers is key to the duels!

• Card graphics from KIN's Playing Cards
• Font is Grandeur