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Usurp The King

The King may be in trouble. The court that surrounds him contains subjects who seek power. Each player represents a family that will vie for control over the court members. Featuring seven victory conditions, the path to victory may shift as you gain more information about each court members’ motives and those of the other families. Your allegiances will twist and change based on your interests. The King’s subjects are but mere pawns.

Type: Card Game
Playing Time: 15-20 minutes
Number Of Players: 2-5 (Team mode 6&8 players)
Age: 13+
Release Date: June 2021

$24.99

Out of stock

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Usurp the King is a tactical game where you play as one of five dominant families in the Kingdom. Use your influence to back the person that you believe will be in power when the dust settles. As the game evolves, you may find that who you are supporting changes. Daggers, Poisons, Conspiracy, and Bribery are only some of the tools at your disposal.

USURP THE KING is played over two phases. So much can happen in such a short period of time!

INTRIGUE PHASE Place Leverage cards around the courtroom. Giving the appearance of support. But that support might just be a dagger! And that dagger might move before it’s used.

REBELLION PHASE Use the Leverage cards to bribe, conspire, stab, poison, and shift alliances.

SCORING Determine which Court Member becomes King. The family with control is victorious.

  • The King

    If you can keep the King alive and eliminate the threat of the Usurper your family will be the power behind the King.

  • The Usurper - Duke

    Displeased with the King, the Usurper will attempt to turn enough court members against the Crown so that the court will overthrow the King and place the Crown upon the Duke's head.

  • The Heir - Knight

    The heir is loyal to the King. But if some misfortune were to befall his father, the heir would step in to take over.

  • The Bastard - Jester

    The Bastard is loyal to the King and has few aspirations of assuming the throne. Aspirations aside, manipulate the court correctly, and the Jester will wear the crown and be a puppet under your control.

  • Anarchist - The Rogue

    Create enough chaos and death, and the person left standing might be the Rogue. Rising from the carnage may allow the Anarchist to meet her goals.

  • The Queen

    Currently, supportive of her husband... minds can be changed. (Used in games with 3 or more players)

  • The Duchess

    Unhappy with the King the Usurper may find her useful. However, a few coins may change her mind. (Used in games with 3 or more players)

  • The Alchemist

    Lower in the court, the Alchemist is loyal to the King. He can be useful in that his actions take place later than most others. (Used in games with 3 or more players)

  • The Bishop

    The Church and the State have never truly trusted each other. This is true with the bishop and the current King. (Used in games with 4 or more players)

  • The Emissary

    The visitor from a foreign land can never become King but he still holds some sway over the decisions of the court. (Used in games with 4 or more players)

  • The Oracle

    Performing her actions last allows her to see the actions of all of the other court members. (Used in games with 5 players)

  • Dead

    Poison and daggers will have this fatal effect on unprotected court members.

Usurp the King has a hierarchy of seven victory conditions. To win as the Heir, you will need to eliminate (or make sure that someone else does) two other victory conditions (The Usurper’s and the King’s).

The Bastard and the King may both be working towards eliminating the Usurper victory, but they are in no way working TOGETHER!

Each player will choose to play 6 of 10 leverage cards during the Intrigue Phase. All players have the same cards. You start on even footing with your adversaries.

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Each game comes with:

5 Leverage card decks. One for each family.

11 Court Members cards

5 Family turn order cards

10 Tutorial Objective cards

10 Loyalty/Disgruntled tokens

After each player has placed their six cards. Abilities of the cards are resolved in card order (chart to the left). All Spies will act first starting with the Spy that is at location 1 and moving counter-clockwise until all Spies have resolved. Next Agents resolve, then daggers and so on until all cards have resolved.

TEAM PLAY
½ of the players (A players) will take a family player reference card. Their teammate (B players) must sit opposite them across the table. They will take the corresponding duplicate family reference card.
Each of the A players takes Teammates is randomly dealt 5 of the 11 Family Leverage cards. B players takes the remaining 6.

GAMEPLAY
The rules follow the base game rules. Each PLAYER will end up playing 3 cards instead of 6. Turn order is still serpentine.

Communication between players
Players are not allowed to communicate using electronic devices, notes and must communicate in a language that everyone knows (including ASL). Rudimentary signs are allowed but it must be possible for other players to intercept communications. 

REVIEWS

“This is a great quick game that you can play with your friends while you are waiting to get your whole group together. It is aggressive, but the short playtime allows for nasty backstabbing without people being so invested that they get mad.”  – Christopher Smithmyer NRN

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