Oath Campaign: Clockwork Demo Rules

v0.1 Draft Rules, June 2024

Richard Wilkins & Elizabeth Davidson

Introduction
In a solo or multiplayer, players can compete against an automated opponent called “The Servant”. The Servant
will have an Order deck that controls its actions on their turn, otherwise they will compete and cooperate with the
human players just like a regular player in a game of Oath.

IMPORTANT: This mini demo is very modular. It does NOT represent what the final solo game, co-operative
game, or indeed multiplayer game with clockwork opponents, will ultimately look like. The aim of this modular
demo is to give you a sense of how a clockwork opponent might run. The demo module, without its supporting
modules, may well feel imbalanced or deliver an uncompetitive opponent. That’s okay. This is a demonstration of
a mechanism, not a fully developed end-to-end solo/co-op/clockwork solution. The rules herein are in no way
final. All graphic design is provisional and uses placeholder artwork.

Components
4 Mood cards 1 Servant player board overlay
14 Order cards 4 Debt to the Townsfolk tokens

Setup changes:
1. Setup the game as per the Law of Oath, either for a single player or for 2-3 players playing competitively,
with the following exceptions (references refer to the main Law of Oath):

● You may choose the Servant to take on the role of the Chancellor, Citizen or Exile (setup points 7 to
9).

● The Servant does not use a Supply token. Instead, place the Servant player board overlay over the
left-hand section of their player board, covering the action player aid with the Servant’s Moon and Star
actions reference (setup point 10).

● If you are playing solo, place 2 cards in each discard pile, instead of 1 (setup point 19).

● Draw the Servant’s 3 cards first, irrespective of turn order. The Servant does not discard any cards, so
she places all three of her starting cards as a stack of face down advisors next to the Servant board
(setup point 20).

● The Servant will place her pawn on the first unoccupied [by a Player Pawn] faceup site in the topmost
row, starting with the Cradle, then the Provinces, then the Hinterland. If there is no unoccupied faceup
site in the top row, check the second row, starting again with the Cradle. If all sites are occupied, she
will place her Pawn in the top Cradle site (setup point 23).

2. Shuffle the 14 Order cards and place them in a face-down deck next to the Servant board.

3. Place the 4 Mood cards into a face-up stack, with the card matching the current Goal Reference on top.

4. Place the Debt to the Townsfolk tokens in the Shared Bank.

1
The Servant
● The Servant does not need to spend or gain any supply; i.e. treat the Servant as if she has an
infinite supply.
● If any Site, Relic, Denizen or Banner says that the Servant “may” choose to do something, she will
not.
● If any Site, Relic, Denizen or Banner says that the Servant must choose between two or more
options (e.g. the Wake instruction on the Banner of the People’s Favor), she will always choose the
first listed option she is able.
● The Servant will perform all ‘When Played’ effects as normal.
● The Servant has an unlimited stack of face-down advisors in her player area. This stack does not
contribute towards her 3 advisor limit; rather, the Servant’s faceup advisors will be limited to 3.
● If the Servant ever has a choice of suits, or a choice of Denizens of different suits, use the line
of suits along the bottom of the current Order card to break the tie, by always selecting the suit that
is leftmost in that line, of those that she has to choose between. Each time she must choose, once
again start with the leftmost valid choice.

Mood Cards
● Whenever an opponent [to the Servant] player reveals and plays (not discards) a new Vision card to their
player board (excluding the Conspiracy), change the topmost Mood card to match the revealed Vision.

5.5 CAMPAIGN
5.5.2 Step 2: Collect Dice Pools
The Servant always attacks with the maximum number of dice (i.e. the number of warbands on her board).
Remember: when Campaigning, the Servant must always include the current site as a target if the defender
rules the site.
5.5.3 Step 3: Use Battle Plans
The Servant uses all battle plans she rules that have no cost, unless they present a choice. Each battle plan
she rules that has a cost, or presents a choice (e.g. Warning Signals), instead gives her one extra defense die
if it is grey/blue, and one extra attack die if it is grey/red.
5.5.5 Step 5: Roll Attack
If the Servant must sacrifice warbands to win a battle, then she will do so. If she wins, she will deploy 1
warband in order to rule a site, if able.
5.5.7.III Banish Pawn and Burn Favor
If an action says she should target a player pawn and the Servant is victorious, move the pawn to the site with
fewest denizens matching the player's advisers, with the player who drew the Order card breaking ties
between such sites.

New Minor Actions:

6.9 TALK TO THE TOWNSFOLK - only available in the solo game.
If you do not already have a Debt to the Townsfolk token, take a Debt to the Townsfolk token and either:
a) Gain 2 Secrets, or
b) Burn 2 Secrets. Draw the Vision closest to the top of the World Deck. Play or discard it as if you had just
Searched.

On the Servant’s Turn

Step 1) Wake Phase
● Choose one player to draw the top card of the Order deck. If the players cannot decide, the Chancellor
must decide. If the Servant is playing as the Chancellor, then the player to the immediate left of the
Servant decides.
2
 ● An Order consists of five lines: the top action, which is always Moon or Star, followed by a set of 3 actions,
each of which can be “boosted” by a trigger suit, and then the bottom action which is always the REAP
action.

Step 2) Act Phase:

● Start by completing the top action, which is either the MOON or the STAR action.

● Then, complete the 3 sets of actions on the Order card, from top to bottom, and left to right. You may use
the Servant’s Supply Marker if you wish, to track which action you are completing.
After completing each action, and before stepping down to the next, check the additional “boosted” action
(to the right) with a triggering suit, as follows:

❖ if the Servant has access to a faceup Advisor or a Denizen card matching the triggering suit (i.e.
she rules the site, or her pawn is at the site) that has no Favor/Secret on it:

➢ place one of her Secrets on a Denizen the Servant has access to that has no token on it
(starting with faceup Advisors, then Denizens at her current site, and then from top to bottom
in each region, left to right starting at her current region and looping from Hinterland to
Cradle, looking for Denizens at other sites she has access to);

➢ if she has no Secrets available to spend, use one of the Servant’s Favors instead;

➢ act out the triggered boosted action before proceeding to the next action on the Order card;

➢ if the Servant has no Secrets/Favor, the action will NOT trigger.

❖ If the Servant does not have access to the triggering suit, but instead has a matching suit on her
topmost Mood card, and that suit does not already have a Favor/Secret on it on, then trigger the
boosted action as above, again covering the suit with a Secret, or with one of the Servant’s Favors if
she has no Secrets. The boosted action will not trigger if she has no Secrets/Favor.

Note: if an Order card refers to a “player” and there is a choice of viable player, it is always the player who
was chosen to draw the Order card.

● Finally, the last step is to perform the REAP action to complete the Order card.

● Once all actions have been completed, discard the Order card to the top of a face-up discard pile, unless
the card also has the “RESET DECK” instruction, in which case continue to discard the card, but then also
shuffle the updated discard pile, face-down, back into the draw deck.

Step 3) Rest Phase:

● Once the Servant has completed her turn, move any Favors on her topmost Mood card to the Favor
Banks matching the suit each is covering, and move any secrets back to the Servant board. Complete the
remainder of the regular Rest Phase as normal.

The Servant Actions

3
 If a Servant’s action ever has no effect, she will gain 1 Favor from the Favor Bank leftmost in the row of suits at
the bottom of the current Order card that she is able to. If a BOOSTED action is triggered by a matching suit, but
has no effect, she will gain 1 Favor plus 1 Favor for every faceup Advisor she has that matches the triggering suit,
from the matching Favor Bank if able. If a boosted action is not triggered, no Favor is gained.

MOON: The Moon is a custom action that is dependent on the Servant’s current Mood card. Refer to the
player board for the Servant to determine what it does, cross-referencing to the Servant’s topmost Mood
card.

STAR: The Star is a custom action that is dependent on the current Oathkeeper goal. Refer to the player
board for the Servant to determine what it does, cross-referencing to the current Oathkeeper goal,
irrespective of who is Oathkeeper.

ADVISOR:
❖ Step 1: If the Servant’s stack of Advisors is empty: draw the top 3 cards from the World deck,
discarding any Visions, and place the remaining cards face-down to create a new stack of
Advisors for the Servant.

❖ Step 2: Turn the top card of the Servant’s stack of Advisors face up. Play it to the Servant’s site
(and gain 1 Favor from the Favor Bank matching that card’s suit) if she must (ie. it is Site restricted
or she already has 3 face-up Advisors), or if she can and already has an Advisor of the same suit;
otherwise it is played next to the Servant board as a face-up Advisor. She will discard it if there is
no capacity, taking 1 Favor (from the suit’s favor bank) instead.

CAMPAIGN:
➢ Unless an action specifies a target, when the Servant Campaigns, she will target her current site
only.
➢ The Servant will only campaign if the number of her attack dice is larger or equal in size to the
defending force plus defending dice (ignore defender’s Battle plans).
➢ If targeting the current site and it is not ruled or is already ruled by the Servant, and if it
currently has less than 3 Warbands, move a Warband here from the Servant’s board if she is able.
The Servant will take control of a site in this manner if it is not ruled, without having to attack the
bandits.
➢ If a targeted site is ruled by an opponent player:

○ the Servant will first , if there is a Denizen free at the site to muster with and she has a
Favor to pay for it,
○ and then Campaign against the site, placing one Warband there if she succeeds.
➢ If targeting a relic or banner and it cannot be targeted for any reason, she will target the
controlling player’s pawn instead.

➢ If she could not Campaign for any reason, she will instead.

KILL: Kill an opponent player’s Warband at this site. If there is none, kill one on an opponent player’s
board.

MUSTER: The Servant will place a Favor on a Denizen at her site, choosing any available Denizen

4
whose suit is leftmost in the row of suits at the bottom of the current Order card, and gain 2 warbands.

RECOVER: The Servant will Recover in two steps, as follows:

Step 1) First determine the target.

If the Recover action does not specify a target, then the Servant will recover in this priority, for the
first thing she can afford to recover:
➢ Darkest Secret if a revealed Vision/Oathkeeper Requires it and she does not already hold it
➢ People’s Favor if a revealed Vision/Oathkeeper requires it and she does not already hold it
➢ Darkest Secret if she does not already hold it
➢ People’s Favor if she does not already hold it
➢ A Relic (anywhere on the map)
If the Recover action specifies a target, then the Servant will recover this target if able.

Step 2) Recover the target.

When targeting a Relic:

➢ the Servant will first Travel to the nearest site where there is a Relic they can afford to Recover;
“nearest” is defined as the site that has the lowest Supply cost to move to, with ties being decided
by the Player who drew the Order card.
➢ Any Relics recovered by the Servant are placed face-up next to the Servant board, and their
effects will apply.

When targeting a Banner:

➢ the Servant will first Travel to the site of the player holding the banner;
➢ the Servant will use the minimum number of Favors/Secrets necessary;
➢ if the banner cannot be recovered, she will , targeting the banner instead.
The Servant will only target a banner she already holds, if the action specifically targets that banner.

SEARCH: the Search action will indicate whether she is drawing from the World Deck or from the current
region's Discard. If the Discard is empty, use the World Deck instead. Draw cards as normal, but keep
them face-down at all times.

If the Servant draws the Conspiracy Vision:

❖ She will Travel to the nearest site (“nearest” means the site that would have the lowest Supply cost
to Travel to, with ties being decided by the player who drew the Order Card) that contains the
Pawn of a Player holding a banner or relic and for which she has at least one matching advisor. If
there is none, then she will not Travel and cannot take a banner/relic.
❖ The player who drew the Order Card must then decide which available banner/relic is given to the
Servant.
❖ The Servant will burn 1 Secret if she can, and only if she was able to take a banner/relic.
❖ The Conspiracy is removed from the game.

If the Servant draws a Vision:

❖ The Servant will place it faceup on her player board, together with any existing Visions, and
discard all Denizens drawn. IMPORTANT: an Exile Servant can hold multiple Visions, and any one
of them can be fulfilled to win the game.

5
 ❖ If the Servant is a Chancellor/Citizen, it is instead played as a facedown Advisor next to their
player board, but without it counting towards their Advisor limit.

If the Servant does not draw a Vision:

❖ If there is no capacity at her current site, then:
➢ a random Denizen will be selected from those drawn, discarding the rest, and the selected
Denizen is placed on top of the Servant’s face-down advisor stack.
❖ If there is capacity at her current site, then:
➢ Shuffle the drawn Denizens, keeping them face-down.
➢ Flip a random Denizen from those drawn. If it can be played at the current site, play it and
discard the rest. If it cannot be played at the current site, flip a second Denizen from those
drawn. If it can be played at the current site, play it and discard the rest in a random order.
If it cannot be played at the current site, place the third Denizen unseen and facedown on
top of the Servant’s face-down advisor stack, and discard the first two in a random order.
Remember, when anyone plays a Denizen to a site, they gain 1 Favor, so the Servant
must do the same.

TRADE: If the Servant has a faceup advisor matching an empty Denizen at her site and has two or more
Favor, she will place 2 Favor on this Denizen and gain 1 Secret per matching advisor. Otherwise, the
Servant will place one Secret on a Denizen at her site, choosing any available Denizen whose suit
matches the most of her faceup advisors (which could be zero) , and gain 1 Favor plus one per matching advisor.

TRAVEL: move the Servant's pawn orthogonally to the adjacent site in the direction indicated. She will
loop from top to bottom, and bottom to top, and will loop from left to right and right to left; when moving
from the bottom-most site in the Provinces or Hinterland to the Cradle, she will always move to the
top-most site in the Cradle.

REAP:
❖ If the Servant has 6+ Favour, she will place 3 in the priority Favor Bank and take a Secret.
❖ Discard the top card of the World Deck without looking at it. If it is a Vision, treat it as if the Servant
had just Searched.

Writing the Chronicle

Apply the following changes to writing the Chronicle:
8.1 If the Servant won:
● She will choose a random Oathkeeper goal, even if that is the same as the current one.
8.3.1 Skip this step if the Servant won.
8.4 If the Servant won the game, in the event of a tie between suits, decide between them randomly.

RW07062024-3