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Game: Pub:

A GAME OF THRONES LCG Fantasy Flight Games (2008)

Page 1: Rules summary front Page 2: Rules summary back Page 3: Summary other concepts/expert rules Page 4: Play reference 1 front (round sequence) Page 4: Play reference 1 back (keywords) Page 4: Play reference 2 (titles reference)

v1
Feb 2011

Print on card (ensure you are printing at 100% scale) laminate and trim to size.

Locations (parchment pattern around the title) provide your House with benefits. Attachments (chainmail pattern around the title) are played underneath other cards already in play and modify them. They are discarded if the card they are attached to leaves play.

the least amount of claimed power in total (between his House and his characters) wins initiative. If there is still a tie, the tie winner is determined randomly. The player who wins initiative chooses who is the new first player, who will act first during all subsequent phases of the round.

Setup
Place the game board in the play area and place at least 15 Power counters per player in the Throne Room and at least 10 Gold Dragon tokens per player in the Treasury (if either ever run out of counters, add more). Then place the Title figures in their corresponding areas in the Small Council Chamber. Characters, Locations, Attachments, and Events go into your House deck. Your Plot deck is separate and must consist of exactly 7 different plot cards. Randomly determine which player will be the first player. This player now announces which House card and Agenda (if any) he will use. Other players, in clockwise order, do the same. More than one player may play the same House and Agenda. Shuffle your House deck and draw your setup hand of 7 cards. The first player places his setup cards first, followed by other players in clockwise order. You may place up to 5 gold worth of characters and/or location cards from your hand facedown in front of you. You may not place attachments unless they include the Setup keyword; your setup must also include valid targets for such attachments. You may only place one card with the Limited keyword and you may not place duplicates of unique cards. Cards affiliated with a House other than the House you are playing cost 2 additional gold to play. After all players have placed their setup cards, all the cards are simultaneously revealed (cards are considered neither played nor put into play when revealed during setup, and do not trigger card effects). No actions may be taken during the setup phase. All players draw cards until they have 7 cards in their hands once more. The game is now ready to begin.

Events (bird pattern to the left of their text) are played from your hand, resolved, then immediately placed into your discard pile. They are always neutral. Plots are kept in a separate plot deck; each player selects a single plot card to use for each round. Agendas are permanent modifiers kept beside your House card. During setup, you may choose a single agenda and its effects for the entire game. They can never be removed and are not considered in play. Title Reference cards (red back) are a reference for the six titles in the game. A card may also be identified by a Crest: Holy Learned , Noble , and War . ,

Step 2: Select Titles (3 and 4 players) Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player selects one of the titles from the Small Council Chamber to use for the rest of that round, and places that title figure on or near his House card. Titles not chosen are not used that round.
Titles are not considered to be in play, and their effects cannot be canceled.

2. Draw
Players draw 2 cards from their House deck and add them to their hand. If you have no cards in your House deck, you may not draw.

Income Bonuses and Penalties These modify the income value on your revealed plot card, even when kneeling. Initiative Bonuses These raise the initiative value on your revealed plot, even when kneeling. Your total initiative is the sum of your revealed plot cards initiative and all initiative bonuses from cards you control. Influence When an event or triggered ability requires you to kneel influence, you must kneel characters or locations that provide at least that much total influence. Any overpaid influence you kneel is lost.

3. MARSHALLING
The player currently marshalling cards is the active player, and completes all his marshalling before the next player clockwise. Only one player can marshal cards (ie, play cards from his hand by paying the cards gold cost) at a time, but other players can still take Marshalling: or Any Phase: actions as usual. On your turn, first determine your income by adding the income on your revealed plot card to any income bonuses on cards in play that you control. Take that number of gold tokens from the Treasury, and place them near your House card as your gold pool. Now play cards from your hand and pay their gold cost from your gold pool to the Treasury. You may keep playing cards until you either run out of gold, run out of cards to play, or choose to stop. Any card that you want to play from your hand by paying its gold cost must be played during your turn. You may also attach duplicates to your unique cards, at no gold cost. To play a Character, Location, or Attachment affiliated with a different House, pay a gold penalty by increasing the gold cost to play that card by 2. You pay no gold penalty when playing neutral cards. A card put into play by an effect bypasses all restrictions, including paying any gold cost or penalty. After all players have finished marshalling, proceed to the challenges phase.

Round Sequence
Each game rounds has 7 phases, most of which are played simultaneously by all players. However in the Marshalling and Challenges phases, players act separately, beginning with the first player and proceeding clockwise around the table.

1. PLOT
Step 1: Choose and Reveal Plot Cards Each player chooses and reveals one plot card from his plot deck.
When you reveal a plot card, move it from your plot deck to a revealed state, placing it on top of any previously revealed plot cards (used plots). If this was the last card in your deck, return all your previously played plots (except the one just revealed) to your deck after your revealed plot has taken effect. Determine who wins the initiative. The player with the highest total initiative (the sum of his plot cards initiative and any initiative bonuses on cards he controls) wins initiative. In a tie, the tied player with

Cards
There are 8 different types of cards: House, Characters, Locations, Attachments, Events, Plots, Agendas, and Titles Reference cards. Each player chooses to play one of the 6 Great Houses, as represented by his House card. Other cards affiliated with a House have the same shield and background color. Cards with no shields and a tan background are neutral. Characters participate in challenges when in play by either attacking or defending. They are the only cards with Strength (STR).

Kneeling and Standing When cards enter the game, they are placed faceup in front of the player who played them, in the standing position. When a card has been used for something it is rotated 90 clockwise into the kneeling position. Only standing cards may be used for actions that require kneeling.

4. CHALLENGES
The player currently initiating challenging cards is the active player, and completes all his challenges before the next player in clockwise order. During a players Challenge phase, he may initiate one of each type of challengemilitary, intrigue, and poweragainst any opponent, in any order. Challenges are completely resolved one at a time.

Defender Wins? If the defender wins, no claim effect takes place. (Card effects that are triggered by a player winning a challenge or losing a challenge can still be triggered.) Participating Characters Characters either attacking or defending in the current challenge are considered to be participating in that challenge. If for any reason a character is removed from that challenge before challenge resolution, that character is no longer considered to be participating. Unopposed Challenges During the Resolve step, if the attacker wins the challenge, and the defender had a total STR of 0 (or no defending characters), then the attacker claims 1 bonus power for his House from the power pool, in addition to all other effects of winning a challenge.
After all players have made their challenges, proceed to the dominance phase.

Game Variants
Three Players Multiplayer title cards are not returned to the title pool until the end of a game round in which the title pool is empty. Therefore, in the first game round, the players each select one of the 6 titles, leaving 3 titles unclaimed. The selected titles are not returned at the end of the first round, and in the second round the players will choose from the 3 titles they did not select in the first round (replacing the previously selected titles.)
Then, at the end of the second round, all 6 titles are returned to the pool for possible selection in the third round.

Resolving Challenges
Before and between (but not during) each step, players may play cards and use abilities that are playable during the Challenges phase.

Step 1: Declare attackers Declare the type of challenge being initiated (military, intrigue, or power), and which player you are challenging. Then declare attackers by kneeling any number of your characters that have the corresponding challenge icon (or are enabled to participate by some card effect).
Already kneeling characters may not be declared as attackers. You must declare at least one attacking character to initiate a challenge.

Two Players Multiplayer titles are not used. Bypass Step 2 (Select Titles) of the Plot phase, and proceed to the Draw phase after both plot cards have resolved. Two on Two Variant Multiplayer titles are not used. Play with 2 teams of 2 players each, with partners sitting across from one another. The first team to score 30 power, in any combination, wins the game.
For the purpose of resolving card effects, the other player on your team is considered your partner, but not your opponent. Any card that refers to you only affects you, any card that affects an opponent or all opponents can only affect the players on the other team, and any card that affects all players affects you, your partner, and your opponents. You cannot initiate a challenge against your partner.

5. Dominance
All players count the total combined STR of all of their standing characters, adding 1 to this total for each gold token in their gold pool. The player with the highest value wins dominance and immediately claims 1 power for his House. This is awarded before any player has an opportunity to take actions. On a tie, no player wins dominance.

Step 2: Declare defenders The opponent you are challenging now has the option to kneel any number of his characters that have the corresponding challenge icon (or are enabled to participate by some card effect) as defenders against your challenge.
Already kneeling characters may not be declared as defenders. Your opponent must declare at least one defending character in order to be considered defending against a challenge.

6. STANDING
All players simultaneously stand their kneeling Characters, Locations, and Attachments.

Step 3: Resolve The total STR of the attacking characters is the total attacking STR. The total STR of the defending characters is the total defending STR.
The player whose side has the highest total STR wins the challenge. Tied STR goes to the attacker, as long as the attacker has at least 1 total STR on his side. If the attacker wins, the following effect happens, depending on the type of challenge: Military Challenge: The defender must choose and kill a number of his characters in play equal to the claim value on the attackers revealed plot card (they do not have to be participants in the challenge). Killed characters are placed in their owners dead pile. Intrigue Challenge: The defender must discard, at random, cards from his hand equal to the claim value of the attackers revealed plot card. Power Challenge: The defender takes a number of power counters from his House card equal to the claim value on the attackers revealed plot card, and places them on the attackers House card.

7. TAXATION
All players simultaneously move any unspent gold tokens in their gold pool back to the treasury. At the end of the round, all titles are returned to the Small Council Chamber. A new round then begins.

Littlefinger Variant Multiplayer titles are used. Players can also use their gold to influence the actions of the other players in the game. Gold can be offered and exchanged between players, for any reason, during any phase other than the Marshalling phase.
The only catch is that money must always be paid in advance of the desired action (or inaction). Players can negotiate deals at any time, but it should not be employed as a tactic to stall and slow down the game, or to intentionally irritate another player. Players can (and will!) back out of deals, even after money has changed hands. So proceed with caution!

Power and Victory

The game is immediately over when one player has claimed 15 or more total power between his House and/or characters in play. That player wins the game. If players reach victory simultaneously, the first player chooses which of these players wins the game. When you are instructed to claim X power for your House, take X counters from the power pool in the Throne Room and place them on your House card. When a card effect allows a character to claim X power, take X counters from the Power pool and place them on the character card. This counts towards your 15 power victory total, but does not count as power on your House. If a character leaves play for any reason, power on that character is returned to the Power pool.

Deck Construction Rules

Your plot deck must contain exactly 7 cards, and may not contain any duplicate plot cards. Your House deck must contain at least 60 cards, and may not contain more than 3 copies of a card. Your plot deck and your House deck may not contain any card that contains the words House X only, unless House X is the House you are playing (ie, on your House card).

Expert Rules
Playing Cards You are only allowed to play Characters, Locations, and Attachments from your hand by paying their gold cost during your turn of the Marshalling phase.

A passive ability is a card effect that takes place automatically, without action from any player. Some are automatically initiated at a certain time; others may be lasting effects. Actions and passive abilities are not interchangeable: If a card has a passive ability, resolving that ability is not considered taking an action by the player. Passive abiities are always resolved before player actions may take place. If two or more passive abilities are initiated at the same moment, they are resolved in the order determined by the first player.

Other Game Concepts

Unique Cards Unique cards have a banner icon ( ) next to their title; each player may only have one copy in play. You may not play or take control of a unique card if there is a copy of that card in your dead pile, or if your opponent has taken control of another copy of that unique card from you. Duplicates If you have a duplicate (another card of the same name) of a unique card in your hand but you already control and own a version of that card in play, you may attach the duplicate from your hand to the unique card in play, for no gold cost, during your marshalling. Place the duplicate under the version already in play. (You control a card you have played as long as no opponent has taken control of that card through the use of an effect. A card you own is one you brought to the game.)
If one of your unique cards is about to be killed, discarded from play, or returned to your hand or deck, as a triggered Response: effect, you may discard an attached duplicate to save the unique card. Duplicates, once they have been played, are not considered attachments; although they are attached to a character, they are not affected by effects that specifically affect attachments. Duplicates have no text, titles, or traits. Duplicates may only be played on unique cards that you control and own. A card attached in this way is thus only considered to be a duplicate card while it is actually in play and attached to a version of itself. You may have more than one duplicate attached to a single card.

Event cards may be played, and card abilities may be used, at any time during the phase stated in their text. If a card ability states Any Phase: then the ability may be used during any phase of the game.

In Play & Removed from the Game All non-plot cards in the game are considered in play except for cards in your House deck, cards in your discard and dead piles, your agenda, any card that has been removed from the game, and cards in hand.
Cards removed from the game are completely removed from the playing area, and have no further interaction with that game.

Responses Some card abilities, instead of listing the phase in which they may be used, have a Response: label. These abilities may only be used specifically when the card in question states they may be used. Responses resolve before the next action may be taken.
Response opportunities always begin with the player to the left of the player who initiated the action to which a player wishes to respond, and proceed clockwise from that player.

The Draw Cap No player can draw more than 3 additional cards per round, regardless of card effects. Only effects with the word draw are considered under this restriction. Drawing Multiple Cards When a player draws multiple cards, he is considered to be drawing them one at a time, not all at once. Shuffling After a Search If a player searches any deck for any reason, he must shuffle the deck to the satisfaction of his opponent(s) upon completion of the search. Duration of Reveal Whenever cards are revealed, they remain revealed until they arrive at their final destination. High-claim Military Challenges If, during a military challenge, the defending player loses, and the attacking player has a claim of 2 or higher, the defending player must kill the required number of different characters all at once. Actions and Passive Abilities Taking an action is defined as playing a card or using the ability of a card already in play (responses do not count as actions).
Immediately after they are announced, action effects are completely resolved; then another action may be taken. You may take actions during any players turn as long as your card allows for its effect to be executed at that time. The first player always has the option to take the first action of each phase (but is not allowed to play a Character, Attachment, or Location card during the Marshalling phase, unless it is his turn). After a players action resolves, he must allow each opponent (in clockwise order) the opportunity to take an action or pass. A player may not take another action until all opponents have taken an action or passed.

Save/Cancel Responses Normally, when a player takes an action, either through playing a card or choosing to trigger the ability of a card already in play, the effects of that action are completely resolved before another action can be taken. The exception to this is a response action that contains the words cancel or save.
Cancel responses are special effects that interrupt an action and prevent its effects from resolving. However, any costs of the canceled action must still be paid. Save responses are special effects that interrupt and prevent the killing or discarding of a card in play. However, any costs of the killing/discarding action must still be paid.

Multiple Character Versions Different versions of unique cards (ie, cards with the same name but different stats and effects) are considered to be the same unique card (and thus only one version may be in play on your side at any one time). If you are playing with multiple versions of a unique card, and have the option to play a different version as a duplicate, only the abilities of the first card played (ie, the card on top) are in effect. You cannot switch a card with its duplicate. Multi-house Cards Multi-house cards have 2 (or more) House shields printed on them. They are considered to be affiliated with 2 or more Houses, as indicated by their shields, for all game purposes.

Lasting Effects Most effects last only for the duration of one action (immediately after being triggered), but some effects last for a set period of time, or even indefinitely. Effects that last for longer than a single action are considered lasting effects.
Multiple lasting effects may affect the same card at the same time. The order in which the lasting effects take place is irrelevant, since the net sum of all lasting effects is applied to the character. If a characters STR is ever lower than 0 after all effects are applied, its STR is rounded up to 0. Any time a new modifier is added to the mix, reevaluate to net sum from scratch before applying it to the base STR.

Round Sequence 1. PLOT

Step 1: Choose and Reveal Plot Cards Each player chooses and reveals one plot card from his plot deck.
The player with the highest total initiative (sum of your plot cards initiative and any initiative bonuses on cards you control) wins initiative and chooses the first player.

Step 1: Declare attackers Declare the type of challenge (military, intrigue, or power), and which player you are challenging. Declare attackers by kneeling at least one of your standing characters with the correct challenge icon. Step 2: Declare defenders The challenged opponent may kneel at least one standing character with the correct challenge icon as defenders against your challenge. Step 3: Resolve The player with the highest total STR wins. Ties go to the attacker (must have 1 STR).
Attacker wins: Military: Defender chooses and kill a number of his characters in play equal to the claim value on the attackers revealed plot card. Intrigue: Defender discards, at random, cards from his hand equal to the claim value of the attackers revealed plot card. Power: Defender gives the attacker power equal to the claim value on the attackers revealed plot card. If the defender had a total STR of 0 (or no defending characters), the attacker also claims 1 bonus power from the power pool. Defender wins: no claim effect.

Step 2: Select Titles (3 and 4 players) Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player selects a title from the Small Council Chamber.

2. Draw
Players draw 2 cards from their House deck and add them to their hand.

3. MARSHALLING
The active player completes all marshalling before the next player clockwise. On your turn, first determine your income (add the income on your revealed plot card to any income bonuses on cards you control) and take that number of gold tokens from the Treasury. Now play cards from your hand, paying their gold cost until you either run out of gold, run out of cards to play, or stop. You may also attach duplicates to your unique cards, at no gold cost. A Character, Location, or Attachment of a different House costs its gold cost +2. A card that has been used is rotated 90 and is kneeling. Only standing cards may be used for actions that require kneeling.

5. Dominance
All players count the total combined STR of all of their standing characters, adding 1 for each of their gold tokens. Player with the highest value is dominant and immediately claims 1 power.

4. CHALLENGES
The active player completes all challenges before the next player clockwise. Initiate one of each type of challenge against any opponent, in any order. Before, between, but not during each step, players may play cards and use abilities playable during the Challenges phase.

6. STANDING
All players simultaneously stand kneeling Characters, Locations, and Attachments.

7. TAXATION
All players simultaneously move unspent gold tokens back to the treasury. Return all titles to the Small Council Chamber.

Keywords
Deadly During a challenge, if the attacking player controls the most participating Deadly characters, the defending player must choose and kill a participating defending character after the challenge resolves. Deathbound These cards are placed in the dead pile whenever they would otherwise be placed in the discard pile from play. Deathbound Event cards are placed in the dead pile only after they are successfully played from their owners hand. If the effects of an Deathbound Event are canceled, it is placed in its owners discard pile. Immunity This card ignores the effects of card types to which it is immune. A card cannot be chosen as the target of any effect to which it is immune. Limited You may play only one Limited card (of any type) per round. A Limited Response: action is not the same thing; each player cannot trigger more than one Limited Response: per round. No Attachments This card may not have any attachments on it at any time. Duplicates are not considered to be attachments. Renown If you win a challenge (as attacker or defender), each of your participating characters with Renown claims 1 power after the challenge resolves. Stealth For each of your attacking characters with Stealth, you may choose, before defenders are declared, a character without Stealth on the defending side who may not then defend during this challenge. Setup Cards may be played during setup.

House Specific Keywords

Ambush You may put an Ambush card into play from your hand as an Any Phase: action, by paying its gold cost with influence. Infamy When you claim power or move power to your House, you may place it on any card with Infamy instead of placing it on your House. Power on a card with Infamy does count towards your victory total, regardless of the cards type. Intimidate While a character with Intimidate is attacking, characters with a lower STR than that character do not count their STR for that challenge. Stalwart When a Stalwart card is killed or discarded from play, it is placed on the top of its owners deck instead of being placed in the dead or discard pile. Vengeful After you lose a challenge as the defender, you may stand any number of Vengeful cards that you control. Vigilant After you win a challenge as the attacker, you may stand any number of Vigilant cards that you control.

the Multiplayer titles

Supports If your title supports another title, you cannot initiate challenges against the player holding it.
When a player you support is attacked by another player, if the defending player declares no defenders, you may declare any number of your own eligible characters as defenders to that challenge. You are considered the winner or loser of the challenge, but the original target of the challenge is still responsible for any claim that would need to be resolved. Stealth, if applicable, must be declared against characters controlled by the player who is the original target of the attack. On the board, a title is positioned clockwise from the title it supports, and a curved arrow points to the supported title.

Hand of the King

Use once, at any time throughout the round, to produce 2 influence. Supports Master of Whispers. Opposes Master of Coin.

Master of Laws
Draw an additional card when you draw cards during the draw phase. This does not count towards your draw cap for the round. Supports Hand of the King. Opposes Master of Whispers.

Lord Commander of the Kingsguard

Add 3 to your sides total STR in any challenge in which you have at least one participating character. Special ability: When an opponent is attacked by another opponent in a challenge and decides not to declare any defenders, you can make yourself the target of the attack. The attacker cannot back out of the challenge; any characters he declared as attackers now attack you. If you win, you move 1 power from the attackers House to your own. If you lose, you must satisfy the attackers claim. You cannot use this ability if you are not a legal target for the declared attack.

Opposes If your title opposes another title, you are rewarded for winning a challenge against the player holding it.
If you win a challenge against a player with a title that you oppose, you claim 1 power for your House in addition to any other power you might claim for winning that challenge. You cannot claim more than one power per round in this manner. On the board, a title is positioned opposite the title it opposes, and a dark arrow points to the opposed title.

Master of Whispers
Add 3 to your sides total STR in any challenge in which you have at least one participating character. Supports Master of Coin. Opposes Master of Laws, Crown Regent.

Crown Regent
Add 3 to your sides total STR in any challenge in which you have at least one participating character. Special ability: After a player initiates a challenge and declares a target and attackers, you may make that player choose a new legal target. If there are no other legal targets, the attack goes through against the original target. Players can never choose to attack themselves.

Master of Coin
When you count income during the Marshalling phase, add 2 to your total income. Supports Master of Laws. Opposes Hand of the King.