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

This game is played over two phases:

INTRIGUE PHASE

Players gather information, exert influence, and gather resources. Each member of the court has a role, each player may look at 1 role, put an influence token on a court member and select a Leverage card to add to their hand.

REBELLION PHASE

After each player has taken five turns during the Intrigue phase they keep 5 cards in their hand and set 4 cards aside in their reserve. In order of the Leverage item number, cards will be played to bribe, conspire, poison, stab, and to shift alliances.

SCORING PHASE

One of the unique feature of this game is the 7 different victory condition. Players can change what condition they are attempting to achieve as the game evolves. After all Leverage cards, the winning player will be determined based on the resulting court conditions (which of the following living court members they control).

• The Usurper wins if two other court members are disgruntled and the Usurper has not been bribed.
• The King wins if the King is alive and the Usurper has not won.
• The Heir wins if the King is dead, the Usurper has not won and the Heir is not disgruntled.
• The Bastard wins if the King is dead, the Usurper and the Heir have not won and the Bastard is not disgruntled.
• If none of the above conditions have been met, the player that controls the most undisgruntled court members wins.
• If none of the above conditions have been met, the player that controls the Anarchist wins
• If none of the above conditions have been met, then no player wins (Anarchy).