Down With the King is a political card game

Card game

A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...

 for 2-6 players produced by Avalon Hill

Avalon Hill

Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...

 in 1981

1981 in games

This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and table-top role-playing games published in 1981. For video and console games, see 1981 in video gaming....

.
Each player takes the role of a noble

Nobility

Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

 in the fictional nation of Fandonia during the Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an "Baroque age" (roughly 1600-1750), and by diplomacy, betrayal, and political maneuvering, attempts to depose the current monarch, and place his lackey on the throne.

The game was designed by Glenn Rahman, Kenneth Rahman, and Alan R. Moon

Alan R. Moon

Alan R. Moon is an author of board games, born in Southampton, England, and currently living in the United States. Despite his nationality, he is generally considered to be one of the foremost designers of German-style board games. Many of his games can be seen as board game variations on the...

. It is sometimes described as a "Fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 Political Game", but has no inherently supernatural

Supernatural

The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...

elements.

Each turn consists of a sequence of random events and player actions. Player actions include trying to increase their character's skills, influence, and prestige, gain the loyalty of non-player characters, political offices for characters, destabilize the current king, and interfere with other players' factions trying to do the same. Eventually, when a player feels his faction has enough power, and the current monarch is sufficiently destabilized, they may try to usurp the throne, and replace the monarch with a royal character (or pretender) under their control. A player controlling the monarch for three consecutive turns wins the game.

Besides characters, represented as cards, a player controls a certain number of Influence Points, or IPs, spent as "money" to accomplish actions, and Prestige Points, or PPs, which serve as a limit to the number of characters they can control. The player also has a set of cards and opportunity counters that restrict the actions they can take. Actions include a vast array of options, including Dueling, Assassination, Travel Abroad, Advising the Monarch (requires an office), Escape (from abroad or hiding), Extradite a Wrongdoer (from abroad), Expose a Scandal, Intrigue (try to steal an opponent's card), Recruit a Character, Court Monarch's Favor, Fill a Vacant Office, Recruit by Treachery, Seduce a Character, Hold a Wedding, Consult Prestige Tables, and Solicit Bribes (requires an office). All these actions tend to award or take away PPs and IPs.

External links

• Down with the King Fan site contains the rules and a Windows program for the game, with source code
• Down With the King - Summary Rules notes, and political parties variant