Court Jester

Now that you have a firm grasp of Royal Fortune and the Royal Houses, we can proceed to discuss the trickiest of tricksters, the Court Jester.

For centuries, the Jester, otherwise known as the Joker, was played in poker as what’s called a wildcard. In this status, the Joker traditionally masquerades as a Royal or any Rune. In poker, there may be one Joker, or two or more.

In the medieval era, Royals enjoyed hiring a Court Jester to amuse and entertain their Courts. This became a social tradition. A great deal of power rested on the Jester’s shoulders, being the performer who danced and pranced and joked before Kings and Queens. It may seem a trivial position, but, being that close to Royals and swirling their minds and emotions so was more than a touch influential in the secret doors of history.

In Discordia, each Royal House seeks to bring the Jester into their Court to complete their House. The Jester, they see as a pinnacle of their power: The lavish freedom to dine upon the world’s delicacies while the trickiest of tricksters performs for theirs truly, symbolizing their ultimate ascension.

At least, this is what the Royals tell themselves… In the end, they all agree a Royal Court isn’t complete without a Court Jester. And so… When a game of Royal Fortune begins… the question each and every Lord must ask themselves each and every Eve, is…

Where is the Jester?

Bemuse

Oh, what fun! Skipping and tripping merrily through the countryside! Dancing along the threads of time and destiny till the cows come home! What’s that? A lone Royal across Discordia? Well… If the Jester so pleases, it can snatch the Royal’s attention in a heartbeat, revealing its magic scepter and hypnotizing the Royal near the Jester’s Court. Oh, what fun! Nearly every Royal can do nothing but stand spellbound by the Jester’s phantasmal trickery. Only the Prince of Chaos and Queen of Shadow manage to evade the Jester’s deceits. They’re immune to Bemuse, but this does not deter the Jester. No. Soon enough, another Royal will be foolish enough to show their face, and the Jester will show his then and there! Want to know what else he can do? It’s a sad state of affairs, it is, that the Jester is indeed a despicable cheat! When he sees a lone Royal he can Bemuse, he can act out of turn at any time, hypnotizing it in an instant! Gasp! Treachery! When the Jester Bemuses a Royal, the Jester and Royal stay face-up in a spellbound trance indefinitely. This is, to some, considered a rather… cheap trick… When the Jester returns to his Court, he revels in the thought of more mischief for another seven Eves before he conjures the power to again Bemuse.

Princely Ambition

What sadness the Jester feels at the sight of the handsome Princes vanishing into the halls of power at the Eve’s end… after the show is done and the curtains close… and all the Royals retire to their beds… Oh, what a tragic figure. If only he too could wear the crown one day. What fun he would bring to the land’s rule. This Princely Ambition is no joke. The Jester salivates at the presence of a Prince in his midst. They are, after all, like two peas in a pod, being such wily rogues. When the Prince feels like causing a bit of trouble, the Jester can accompany him in his travels, serving as a kind of sidekick, a duo of deception! When he joins a Prince, the Jester doubles the Prince’s signature attack and bypasses defensive maneuvers, but not passives. Each Prince touches two cards instead of one. What tremendous fun! If you’re curious, this power cannot be combined with a Deuce. That would be, well… Overpowered! And that’s no fun! Now is it?

Court Theatre

How the Queen of Chaos rests her eyes lustfully on the Jester… seeing in his spry, sly movements a delightfully delicious discord! It isn’t a lust for the Jester himself, but what havoc the Jester can wreak. It may be the Jester’s ability to host a Court Theatre is the most havoc of all! When the Queen of Chaos holds both the Ace of Chaos and Four of Chaos, she can cast them alongside the Jester to invite all the Courts to a Court Theatre for the Eve. Suddenly, every card from every other Court is revealed for all to see! For the entire Eve, then, until the Queen’s Lord’s next move, every Court acts with all their cards known. During Theatre, all spells that normally require cards to be hidden can be used regardless of secrecy. The Lord who sent the Queen and Jester forth conceals three of their cards, using the opportunity to gain as much information as possible, and create opportunities for each of the enemy Courts to war against each other. When the Lord moves next Eve, they retract the Queen, Jester, and Runes, and proceed to act.

Smoke and Mirrors

Alright then. If you’re genuinely curious about Royal Fortune and how to play, you must be asking yourself how you deal with the Jester. That’s the problem. He’s highly elusive. It’s exceedingly difficult to capture or kill him. All the Smoke and Mirrors in his arsenal mean he cannot be trifled with by ordinary means. Lone Queens… Lone Princes… They do not suffice to touch the Jester. Ultimately, there exist only seven means to capture or kill the Jester:

The Kings’ War Powers enhance the abilities of the Princes they command. Princes empowered by a War Power can attack a Jester, whether the Jester is hidden or not. Each of the Prince powers that normally couldn’t get anywhere near a Jester can do so during a King’s War Power. This means, if a King has three Princes in his ranks, the Jester better watch out!

Temple Guardian, the House of Shadow’s ultimate magic, casts three hidden cards face-down into the Graveyard. If the Jester is among these hidden cards, the Jester will so be cast out. Notably, Temple Guardian cannot be used against a face-up Jester using Bemuse. To target a face-up Jester, Temple Guardian must be empowered by the Shadow Seven, which destroys every card in the enemy Court.

Golden Apple, the House of Chaos’s most powerful chaos spell, can swap the Jester from an enemy Court into the Court of the Chaos Queen. Like Temple Guardian, Golden Apple cannot be cast on a face-up Jester unless enchanted by the Seven of Chaos, which swaps all seven cards. If doing this, the Queen’s Lord must sacrifice its entire hand in order to acquire the Jester.

Chains of Mithras, the House of Blood’s invocation of the blood god Mithras, allows the Queen of Blood to mind control three targets. Unlike the Aces of the Shadow House and Chaos House, Chains of Mithras can focus face-up or face-down cards. This means Chains can break a Jester’s Bemuse, and even mind control a Royal under the spell of Bemuse. Using enemy abilities controlled by Chains of Mithras, the Queen of Blood can capture or kill the Jester.

Spirit of the Crimson Dragon, the House of Fortune’s dragon magic, summons a powerful draconic spirit to destroy three enemy cards, or seven if empowered by the Seven of Fortune. The Crimson Dragon can be sent to breathe flames upon the Jester’s head wherever it is, whether hidden in a Court, casting a Bemuse, or hosting an Eve of Court Theatre.

Diamond Elegantis is the Queen of Fortune’s Eight spell. If the Queen focuses her spell at a hidden Jester within a Court, she can kill the Jester face-up. With the Prince, she slays a Jester in a Bemuse, and if the Jester is bedazzled by Infinite Love, her Diamond pierces its heart and ends its life there.

Lastly, when beside the King of Chaos, the Prince of Chaos can swap a hidden Jester out of a Court with his empowered Blink Strike, bypassing all the Jester’s Smoke and Mirrors.

These represent the only seven ways to capture or kill a Jester in classic Royal Fortune. In other modifications of the game, there may be other ways to do so. What this means is, if you want to get your hands on the Jester, aside from drawing him from the Twilight or Graveyard, he can only be taken from the hand of an enemy by so.

Note in your study of the game there may come times when you lack the power to thwart a Jester in an enemy Court, and you know or sense that Court is close to a Royal Fortune. If so, it may be in your interest to collude with other Courts to ensure you find ways to deliver them the card or cards they need in order to thwart the Jester before his Court can complete a Royal Fortune, or otherwise coordinate tactics. If you happen to have the one card an enemy needs to stop the Jester and thus prevent defeat, it is perfectly legal to contrive a move to ensure that card falls into their hands, and prevents a Royal Fortune. Just because you cannot yourself stop the Jester at this time, in other words, does not mean you do not possess cards someone else can use to stop him, and which would prevent the defeat of you all.

The game is not a simple exchange of magic and money. The Jester plays a central role. Each Court must have him to make a Royal Fortune, and so each Court must avert the others from capturing him, even if it means collusion.

Laws of War

We set out here to overview Royal Fortune’s Laws of War. Certain parts of the game are relatively straightforward. Other parts require a degree of clarification. We explain in this chapter how the game is played, and how it is won.

To play Royal Fortune, you will need:

– 2-4 Lords
– A 53-card deck of classic playing cards
– A seven-sided Die
– A Dealer
– A Chronicler
– A Logbook
– Preferably a surface
– Currency or other material to bet

Each player who controls a Court is known as a Lord. The Lords of Discordia command the Royals and their Runes, waging magical war to decide the destiny of the realm and declare a victor.

A Dealer shuffles the deck, deals hands, and manages cards. Generally, the Dealer should be the only one who touches another Lord’s Court. There is only one exception to this, and that is when a Lord spies or attacks an enemy and has a chance to view a card or cards, in which case the assailant can view the cards personally. If you don’t trust anyone to do this, the Dealer may show cards in secret, ensuring no one else can see them.

It is an old tradition in card games that players not touch each other’s cards. This is practiced mainly out of superstitious paranoia around the possibility of some form of sleight-of-hand whereby, when a player touches another’s cards, they might somehow slyly view them or otherwise mark them. For this reason, Lords should not touch the cards of others. Instead, a Dealer is hired as an independent contractor entrusted with Courts.

When the Twilight or Graveyard is shuffled, cards are dealt, or cards are selected, slain, stolen, or swapped, the Dealer touches the cards, unless Lords agree to allow each other to handle cards. If you don’t have a third party to act as a Dealer, one of the Lords may be Dealer so long as all agree. Beware that making a Lord the Dealer does carry some risk of potential interference in the game.

A few brief notes on play. When a Lord makes a play that involves the Graveyard in any way, other Lords can ask the Dealer shuffle the Graveyard. In this vein, if a card is face-up in the Graveyard, it is not shuffled into the Graveyard until the Twilight’s last card is drawn and the entire Graveyard is reshuffled into the Twilight.

After a channel spell ends, such as Bemuse, Infinite Love, Bad Voodoo, or others, the Eve after is when both the attacker’s spell begins its cooldown and any card’s power interrupted by the channel begins its cooldown as well. Such cooldowns do not begin until the Eve after a channel spell ends, by whatever means it ends, though once it is used that Eve, it cannot be used again in the same Eve. This dynamic is a reflection of how time is measured in Royal Fortune.

While we’re on the topic of the Dealer, we shall broach the rule of Time Stasis.

Time Stasis is a phrase that can be spoken by any Lord in immediate response to any live action. Upon being spoken, it pauses action for a full minute, giving all an opportunity to think. For instance, if a Lord plays a Royal, and another Lord plays the Jester to Bemuse their Royal, anyone can invoke Time Stasis to pause action then and there, preventing the Jester’s Bemuse from being completed in that instant. This allows each Lord a moment to contemplate possible responses.

A Chronicler serves the role of Discordia’s archivist, who keeps a record of Eves in the Chronicler’s Logbook. It is very important to task a Chronicler with keeping a Logbook, as the game can continue for many Eves and involve many complicated exchanges and maneuvers. Chroniclers observe events and note each Eve.

Ideally, the Dealer and Chronicler should be separate people. Each is tasked with a serious position, carrying unique responsibilities. The Dealer and Chronicler can be the same person, still. If you choose to make the Dealer and Chronicler the same person, this will double their workload and should thus double their fee.

A Chronicler’s Logbook can be either a paper notebook or other record such as a digital device. Whatever the medium used for the Logbook, Lords may, if they desire, take photographs of records or use similar methods to ensure no illegitimate alterations are made to the Log. Powers and traits can only be tracked mentally, without the use of an application. So keep the Logbook safe.

A seven-sided die, called a Discordian Die, is held by the Dealer. The Die is rolled for abilities that involve its use in matters of chance. As in the tradition of cards, we defer to the Dealer being the one to roll the Die to avoid the possibility Lords who roll it may manipulate it. If the Dealer is also a Lord, then the roller of the Die should be whoever casts the card that invokes the Die.

Before the game, all Lords decide what to wager. Each Lord would usually wager the same amount. In cases where individuals think they or their opponents have an edge, they may choose to modify bets to account. Whatever is wagered, all bets are sealed in the Pot and locked. Keep the Pot somewhere safe until the game’s end.

Time in Discordia is measured by Eves. An Eve is a full set of moves by all Lords. Once all Lords act, the Eve ends and a new one begins.

Important note: Cooldowns of moves are measured by the number of full Eves that transpire after the Eve the move is played. For instance, a move with a three Eve cooldown is played on an Eve, then after the Eve ends, three full Eves pass, and on the next Eve, the ability is available again. When we say it takes three Eves, seven Eves, and so forth for a power to recover or recharge, we mean that number of Eves after the Eve of the move. Only after that number of full Eves has transpired is the move able to be played again.

Also, when a card’s power is used, that power remains on cooldown even if the card changes hands. Its cooldown is measured solely by time.

Lords may roll the Die to decide who acts first.

The Dealer shuffles and cuts the deck seven times. Each Lord is dealt a seven-card hand. Once all cards are dealt, the game begins and the first Lord to act chooses their move.

Lords choose three possible moves: Play, draw, or abstain. Play means to play a card face-up. Draw means to draw a single card from the Twilight and discard one of your own. Abstain means to make no act and keep your hand as it is.

Now we will discuss finer points of gameplay.

In Royal Fortune, Lords commonly attack Courts and battle, swap, steal, kill, or destroy cards. When you play a card and focus a Court or Courts, declare your move verbally to clear ambiguity. Once you clearly declare a move or place a card or cards face-up, your move is final. Your move remains final even if your move is illegal and you’re forced to retract your card or cards. Be mindful, then, of your decision to play cards.

Upon an attack, if your attack involves selection of an enemy’s cards, the enemy Lord fans their hand face-down on the table. One way to select cards without touching them is to say a number one to seven, with one being the card on the enemy Lord’s left and seven being the card on their right. If you wish to use other methods, you may do so. Whatever you do, generally, only the Dealer should touch the enemy Lord’s Court.

The Dealer handles all cards involved in an exchange, moving them wherever fate sends them. This also means the Dealer retrieves cards from the Twilight or Graveyard when they’re so chosen.

As play transpires, the objective of the game is to complete a Royal House with its Ace and Court Jester, thus make a Royal Fortune, and show it. Remember the act of showing a Royal Fortune itself counts as a move, so to do so, one cannot show it on the same move as another move. Remember as well not everyone who plays Royal Fortune may necessarily be interested solely in making a Royal Fortune. In fact, some… mischievous types… may be more interested in hindering your quest to! Be sure not to let them get the Jester…

There follow a few clarifications on cards.

Suppose you play a Prince and someone defends with a King. If that King’s defensive ability was, in truth, on cooldown and therefore unplayable, the Prince still plays. The Lord who played the inert King still sacrifices their move, even though the card they played had no actual move.

Likewise, when such a move is played in direct response to another move, the use of an ability consumes the Lord’s move, meaning it counts as their move, whenever their next move would be. If a Lord first to act attacks you, say, and you defend, if you’re in last position that Eve, your defend counts as your move for that Eve. If you use another card to defend in the same Eve, say, then that second move counts as your next Eve’s move.

In other words, whenever an actual move is played, whether on one’s turn, out of turn, or in response to an attack, that move counts as whatever your next turn’s move would be. If you’re attacked three times in a row and you defend three times in a row, this uses three moves.

Take time to understand this.

Suppose, now, you play a King’s War Power and summon three Princes in your Court. If it so happens one of those Princes does not have his power available, the War Power fails, and your move is lost. You do not use the War Power itself, as you did not actually summon the Princes to war. You only lose the move on which you attempted it.

Princes can duo with other Princes to bypass all defense for the attack of one of the Princes. When you play two Princes together, they join each other, do not count as lone Royals, and must each have their power available for the duo to work. In this maneuver, only one of their powers is used. Whether it succeeds or not, each Prince’s power incurs a seven Eve cooldown. Note that bypass all defense means here the move cannot be blocked by King defensives, Bemused by the Jester, or intercepted by Kraken or Infinite Love. Still, passives of cards remain active, such as Jester’s Smoke and Mirrors, which evades most Princes.

On this same token, if you play two Princes and only one of their powers is available, the Prince whose power is able to be used plays, the second Prince must be retracted, and the Prince who plays acts alone, despite trying to act as a duo. This is because only that one Prince had their true power.

There exist three moves in classic Royal Fortune that can be made out of turn. These include Bemuse, Kraken, and Infinite Love. Each of these spells can be cast at any time on a lone Royal, whether it is your turn to act or not, so long as the power is itself able to be used.

This is one of the many elements to bear in mind when you play Royal Fortune. Occasionally, one may see such moves played out of turn. If a lone Royal appears, a Lord who isn’t involved in the exchange at all may pop up with a Jester to Bemuse them out of the blue. The Jester especially is quite treacherous to deal with, then.

Such Royals remain part of the Lord’s seven-card hand, despite being spellbound by an enemy.

Remember, when a move is played out of turn, it counts as the Lord’s next move. So, if they play it on an Eve they haven’t acted yet, they won’t act that Eve, until the next. If they’ve already acted that Eve and they play out of turn, the move counts as their next Eve’s move, and they won’t act then.

For formal clarity: A lone Royal is any Royal who is played alone, without any Royals, Runes, or Jester to accompany them. When a lone Royal is played, it does so in the risk it may be targeted by abilities usable against lone Royals.

In this regard, when a Lord invokes a Royal’s passive, it must play the Royal face-up and place it down. Anyone can invoke Time Stasis once the Royal is played. You cannot play the Royal’s passive face-up for a split second and retract it. All other Lords must agree the passive is legal. When a Royal’s passive is invoked like this, although it does not count as an active move, it does render the lone Royal vulnerable to various intercepts.

There is one critical rule to know. A Lord must, absolutely must always have a seven-card hand, at minimum. This means if a Lord loses a card or cards by any means – any means at all, they must draw and make a seven-card hand. Whenever a Lord draws, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, their draw counts as a move. For example, if a Prince of Shadow casts a hidden card out of a Lord’s Court, the Lord who lost a card must draw on their turn and this draw itself counts as their move. Likewise, if that same Lord is attacked by both a Prince of Shadow and Prince of Blood in the same Eve and loses two cards, the Lord draws two cards, and that draw counts as the Lord’s move.

For those curious about why this design exists, it is because the act of drawing itself is universally a move and carries monumental potential for chaos. A single card can dramatically alter the balance in Discordia, sowing the seeds for magical war.

On the question of drawing, be aware also the physical act of drawing a card from the top of the deck is a move, and that move is final irrespective of whether the player who drew meant to draw, understood the rules, or saw the card. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t see the card. It doesn’t matter if you already spied the card. If you physically touch the top of the deck or otherwise signal a draw to the Dealer, that is a motion to draw.

Motions such as this count as moves. When you make a physical move, that move is final, whether it is legal or illegal. That is your move.

One principle to also be aware of about Runes is that, when a Rune is used for any spell, the Rune itself begins a cooldown in accordance to whatever cooldown is associated with the spell so used. If a Queen uses a Seven, say, the spell she uses causes the Seven itself to begin a recharge when that time comes, and as it recharges, the Queen cannot use that Seven to empower an Ace. She will only be able to do so with a charged Seven.

On the matter of showing cards, you’re free to show your cards to anyone you like, including enemies. You can even discard cards face-up if you wish. You cannot ever show an enemy’s cards, outside the rules of the game.

Cards are not played until they’re formally verbally declared or placed face-up. A number of abilities require cards to be hidden in order for those cards to be attacked. If you’re attacked, you cannot simply show your cards face-up to avoid making them hidden. You must hide the cards able to be hidden and allow the enemy’s attack.

On an adjacent note, a card is dead the moment it touches the Twilight or Graveyard, so long as the Lord who controlled it consigned it there or allowed the Dealer to. It is dead whether it was legal for it to enter the Twilight or Graveyard or not. An exception to this is if an enemy Lord illegally grasps a card without agreement and throws it into the Twilight or Graveyard, in which case the card is not legally dead.

If you accidentally forget how a power works and you discard a card that shouldn’t be discarded, it is still dead when it touches one of those two places. It is not dead if it’s only been handed to the Dealer. It is dead if it reaches a Lord’s hand.

By dead, we of course mean it cannot be legally returned to your hand, no matter what.

As we review and refine the game’s design, we will post periodic revisions in the Revision Log. Here, we will write summaries of alterations made, to honor the interest of Lords in perfect balance.

We also plan to create a card club and host official tournaments in the future, when we’ve collected the necessary capital. Royal Fortune tournaments will have official rules, cash prizes, and unique trophies, for those most skilled players who wish to contend for prestige on the global stage.

We ask readers acknowledge we’ve made our greatest effort to explain the game in its entirety. Regardless, there may persist subtle or strange ambiguities of Law. If you encounter ambiguities in play, inform us promptly and we will correct them. If, for whatever reason, you must litigate issues among yourselves, do so with honor and patience. Trace the lore of the cards, and you will find the answer. If you must devise your own Laws, so be it. Anyone is free to create their own variant of the game.

As a final observation for this chapter, we emphasize to all players Royal Fortune is above all a game of chaos, fun, and banter. We value and respect the pastime of banter in particular. Lords can and do exchange words and cards alike. There is no limit on what a Lord can say in a game, so long as it doesn’t directly contradict the actual Laws.

Furthermore, Lords can choose to collude and form fragile alliances in Discordia. This is not innately illegal unless a venue explicitly declares it criminal. One reason it is not criminal to collude is because it may be practically necessary to join forces in order to prevent powerful Courts from making a Royal Fortune. If other Lords know a mutual enemy is close to making a Royal Fortune, they have no choice but to consider working together to foil and ruin the Court.

This is perfectly legal.

It is not legal, in the version outlined here, to simply arbitrarily trade cards. You cannot, under any circumstances, unilaterally hand a card over. If you wish to collude with a Lord, you may only do so in words and strategy, by planning moves, and by using powers to exchange cards. If, in the course of such events, you personally find the Lords you play with don’t only wish to honorably thwart Royal Fortunes but have an actual illegitimate collusion with no interest whatsoever in battling each other and they may secretly split the Pot, you may rightfully choose not to play with them.

There is a major difference between Lords who scramble in desperation to prevent an enemy from making a Royal Fortune and Lords who actively conspire to swindle their enemies and divide the Pot between them after the game has ended.

Know the contrast.

It is in the nature of the game Lords may be called upon to confront a powerful foe lest everyone at the table lose the Pot to them. It does not mean you must play along with such devices. It’s only that it is acceptable to plan an enemy’s fall.

There is one other reason for this.

Games today are very often designed with a kind of boring, sugarcoated safety in mind. Royal Fortune is anything but. It is a game of dirty tricks and deceit. Lords may indeed conspire in secret, whether their conspiracies be criminal or otherwise. When a Lord becomes too powerful, others may seek their downfall, and so join forces. People lie.

We call this social deduction.

Beyond all this, any Lords may themselves choose their own Laws of War, whether consistent with those written herein or otherwise. This version of the game is not final. Cards themselves can be played any way you wish, with or without clear rules.

If you play Royal Fortune, we invite you to do so with an eternal discipline and open-mindedness. In the classic game formulated here, a clock is not used. Lords act with all the time in the world, taking as long as they like to contemplate their choices.

With how many variables exist, it is a comfortable position to be in to make optimal moves. We suggest all Lords see the value in this approach. While a clock could be used, it would create an artificial constraint that didn’t exist in the same form in the medieval era from which the game and its lore originate. Back then, Kings and Queens took many days or longer to think on their monarchies and their wars. If it takes a Lord as long to make a decision, so be it. Perhaps it is one with dramatic import that transcends money.

Royal Fortune, in its nature as a card game of perpetual chaos and chance, can remain in play for days, weeks, or even months at a time. This is because, even when a Court grows close to a completed Royal House, there exist numerous ways the Court’s House could be disarrayed. If even one card is misplaced or misaligned, it may spell doom for the Lord, perpetuating discord.

If Lords retire for the day or night, they can leave their cards for the next time they play. If you do leave them, be sure they remain in the hands of someone you all trust. A good practice is to privately photograph each of your hands with exact timestamps to prove their contents, in case anyone claims their hand was tampered with. When you return to the game, you can resume on the last Eve.

Upon making a Royal Fortune, the Lord who holds it may only show it when they’re able to move. This means, if you make a Royal Fortune at the outset of an Eve, say, and there’re three Lords left to act, you must keep your Royal Fortune until your next legal move in order to show it down.

Once you show it, you win!

Crime

Crime is the act of playing a card or making a decision that violates the Laws of War. As a simple example of crime, imagine a Prince of Shadow whose Heart of Darkness was cast two Eves ago. The Lord who commands the Prince plays the Prince again, invoking Heart of Darkness.

This is a crime. Now, hear this. Although the Lord in this case has committed a crime, other Lords may or may not realize it is a crime. In the game of Royal Fortune, if the Lord attacked by the Prince of Shadow agrees to forfeit a card in response to the attack, and that card enters the Graveyard, the card is dead and the move is final.

As you can see, just because the Prince of Shadow did not actually have an active Heart of Darkness does not mean the card isn’t dead. The card it cast into the Graveyard is still very much dead, and the move stands. Even if, after the fact, it is proven a crime, the move is still final.

This is, in essence, an instance of a Lord who gets away with a crime. There is no punishment for this act in the original game, once the Lord gets away with it. There is a way to punish crime before the deed is done. This is by pausing the Eve, undertaking an examination of the crime, and finding it to be a crime. If it is duly found to be a crime, the Lord who committed it forfeits their move. By acting with an illegal move, the Lord who commits a crime in effect wastes a move.

Notably, in the example provided, the Prince of Shadow does not actually use a charge of Heart of Darkness, since it was not actually able to use the ability. Its power remains on the same cooldown.

There are a few points of interest. For one, it is possible, therefore, to get away with a crime. It is not that you should do this. Only that you can. Most Lords who play the game seriously, we think, probably will not want to risk losing their move. Some may attempt to engineer events and emotions to make a crime less transparent, and so get away with it. Once more, in the original game published here, there is no retroactive punishment for crime. Once Lords agree to an act’s finality, the move stands and it is recorded in the Logbook.

As such, be sure to take time each Eve to ensure moves are legal. You never know when a Lord may commit a crime whether by intent or by accident. As single moves can easily reshape the course of the game, one crime alone can be devastating. We’ve ourselves observed several crimes in our experimental games designed to test the design. Crime is real. Be on guard.

Discordian Covenant

In their formal talks on Discordia and the Laws of War, the Royal Families decided it is in their mutual interests to decree a Discordian Covenant.

The Discordian Covenant is an agreement among the Royals that, if a Royal is alone within its Court and surrounded only by Runes, it may invoke the Discordian Covenant, cast its Court face-up into the Graveyard, and be dealt a new hand, receiving seven new cards and a new Court. A Covenant can be invoked even when the last living Royal is spellbound face-up. This a Lord may do no more often than every thirty Eves. Once invoked, the Covenant cannot be invoked again until a full thirty Eves have passed.

This Covenant exists for twofold reasons. Firstly, there exist times you get very unlucky and hold a bad hand. If you feel you were particularly misfortunate, you can invoke the Covenant and seek a stronger Court by chance.

Secondly, in our study of the game and its theory, we’ve noticed endgame, especially heads-up i.e. one versus one, can sometimes be characterized by a strong Court that exercises asymmetric power over a weaker Court. Weaker Courts may only have one or two Royals, if that. To preserve perpetual discord, ruined Courts can, once a month in Discordian time, invoke the Covenant and form a new Court. This tactic can also be employed when you calculate the final card an enemy needs is in the Twilight, and you wish to make a last resort attempt to draw the card before them by sacrificing your Court with a Covenant.

Use wisely. Once invoked, the decree is final.

Spoils of War

A Lord who shows a Royal Fortune wins the entire Pot, minus any fees for the Dealer and/or Chronicler if the Pot includes their fees. We suggest 10% fees for roles, with a 20% fee for someone who acts in a dual role. Fees can be included in or separate from the Pot.

Upon winning, take a photograph of the winning hand for your records if you like. Unseal the Pot, secure the bets, and produce a Discordian Declaration Document. Mark it, date it, and sign each of your names and roles for legal purposes.

Once you win Royal Fortune, the three Royals in your Royal House become enchanted with a mysterious ancient magic. According to the wizard Merlin, one of the three Royals can be used as the Mind Card in a special reading of the peculiar tarot system called the Merlin Magic Seven Sigil.

The Merlin Magic Seven Sigil can be read without an enchanted Royal in the Mind Card. If you do have such a Royal, you can use it in a Sigil and, per Merlin, it will greatly enchant the Sigil, revealing the deepest secrets to your question.

For the Spoils of War, then, count both the winnings from the Pot and your chosen Royal card.

Merlin Magic Seven Sigil

Some six months ago, before I committed this game to written word, I had the honor of meeting the great wizard Merlin. Now, I know some of you doubt my tall tales, and would call me a liar. And, as I’ve done elsewhere to those who doubt me, I tell you to kindly fuck off! I will tell my story anyway, whether you people believe me or not.

What you behold in the image above is a photograph I took of a novel system of tarot called the Merlin Magic Seven Sigil. This Sigil was taught to me by Merlin himself. We spoke at great length about it and the magical lore behind it, though I can’t say I remember everything clearly…

I will recount what I can of our encounter. You will recall Merlin is historically described as a plump sort of elderly fellow with a white beard, a blue robe, and a funny hat. Well, this is sort of how he looked. I think… He was quite shocked to see me. You’d have to ask him why, I suppose. But, after he realized he’d seen my type before, we proceeded to converse. Actually, he explained, he was flustered by what he thought was a human wizard summoned to his quarters across the astral plane. Still, he was very cordial, and willing to talk broadly about the universe, or what little he could make sense of it.

See, you have to understand, if you don’t already, in the occultic arts, it isn’t that legendary magi like Merlin know all. It’s the opposite, really. They know so much, they realize they know almost nothing. This is what happens when you open your eye to the true cosmos. Before long, it rearranges your mental sight so drastically and bizarrely, the more knowledge you attain, the cloudier your eye. It isn’t that enlightenment leads to seeing the ‘oneness’ of all or the Akashic Records, or something silly like that. The enlightened see the world as an amorphous kaleidoscope without definite form or meaning. Merlin is no different. He must be the most confused man I’ve ever met.

That said, he told me he called me to his chambers to discuss the advent of a new kind of tarot he’d invented one night when he was… taking a trip somewhere… This he calls his Magic Seven Sigil. And it’s fabulous, if I say so myself.

This is how it works.

Take a card deck of 53 cards, including one Jester. Shuffle and cut it seven times. Merlin explained the Sigil only works at the 7 o’ clock hour, once a week, on Saturday night. For one hour at 7, the Sigil’s magic becomes active, and can be read.

Before you continue, please do note Merlin emphasized in the strongest terms that, like almost anything else in the occult, engaging in such practices may open the door for unknown entities and energies to intercede in your life, including demons and dragons. If you think that’s a joke, well…

I’ve a story to tell you…

So, Merlin said you take the deck, burn a card (don’t literally burn it, it’s a figure of speech), and deal out seven cards as illustrated in the photo.

The top card is the Mind Card.

The center card is the Soul Card.

The bottom card is the Lust Card.

The left card is the Right-hand Card.

The right card is the Left-hand Card.

The bottom two cards are your Foundation.

These seven cards form the Magic Seven Sigil. Merlin suggested they be dealt face-down. He told me the Right-hand Card and Left-hand Card symbolize your light side and dark side, respectively. He also emphasized in the absolute strongest terms that, if you want the reading to be, quote, “supremely legitimate” you should deal the Mind Card at the exact moment the clock strikes 7. You don’t have to do this, but he said to.

Turn over the cards to reveal your fortune.

If used to read yourself, they reveal your past, present, or future nature, dependent on your intent. Of the four Houses, Shadow, Chaos, Blood, and Fortune, each correspond to specific energies, both Royals and Runes. How you interpret each card is up to you.

Myself, I like to think of the Deuces as duality, the Threes as magic three, the Fours as the four directions or a strong foundation, the Fives as the human hand and its power, the Sixes as a mystery card, the Sevens as luck and magic, the Eights as infinity, the Nines as three threes, and the Tens as penultimate powers symbolizing both hands.

As for the Royals… Decide for yourself…

Part of what makes the Magic Seven Sigil so unique and useful is that it can be used to read not only oneself, but others. Anyone you focus can be read by the Sigil directly, anywhere in spacetime. This is what Merlin told me anyhow. Oh and I almost forgot to mention he said you have to call upon a gnome to serve as Gnome Guardian of the Sigil, as gnomes in general know the secrets of the Dragon Ancients and such, and it’s important to have a gnome watch over the ritual. He specified you should use an actual gnome statue or doll to essentially provide a vessel for a gnome spirit. If you think it’s silly you should take it up with Merlin.

So yes. You can use the cards to read other beings, both human and non-human. Merlin went further and said you could use them to read entire energy fields in the universe, such as events, organizations, countries, planets, or galaxies.

Even the entire universe.

As for Royal Fortune, if you win a game legitimately, you can take one of the Royals from your winning hand and use it for your next Magic Seven Sigil, in the Mind Card. It will “greatly enchant” your reading and enhance its power. What it does exactly, and how, I couldn’t ascertain.

There was one thing Merlin told me to tell anyone I mentioned the Sigil to. You must never, ever perform a reading on the same focus more than once a week, ever. He didn’t go into much detail about why this is, only that the Dragon Ancients would be greatly displeased. So, don’t do it, I guess. Once a week on Saturday, Merlin said, and I tend to trust Merlin when it comes to these things.