Blood & Fortune
Blood & Fortune Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Summary
Blood & Fortune is a tense, competitive card game of negotiation, deduction, and betrayal. You must offer influence in order to gain influence while trying to deduce who is winning and avoid helping them further. Giving too much influence too early, or withholding it too long, might cost you the game. More importantly, only the strongest and most recent alliances will triumph. Optional Role Cards and Special Actions provide variety, depth, and a touch of misfortune. Now, bring your friends close and your enemies closer to see who will prevail through Blood & Fortune!
Goal
The player with the most influence over the course of 3 rounds wins the game.
Components
- 2 Rulebooks (English and Japanese)
- 30 Influence Cards: 3 Single Cards and 2 Double Cards per player
- 6 House Cards
- 8 Score Cards, which include Special Actions
- 1 Ring Card
- 15 Role Cards
- 12 Role Reference Cards (E. and J.)
Game Setup
Decide whether or not to use the role cards or special actions (or both). Each player randomly draws 1 house card and 1 score card. Place them (see component 7 on the Components page) on the table in front of you; this is your player area. Gather the 5 influence cards that match your house card to your hand. The player who most recently touched a sword becomes the first player, placing the ring card in their player area. From now on "In turn order" means "Starting with the first player and continuing clockwise."
Secrecy and Negotiation
From now on you may make promises, break promises, and lie about any of the cards, at any time. Players are encouraged to talk freely, give advice to others, accuse others of helping the lead player, form alliances, etc. However, you may not show influence cards or role cards to any other player until the end of the round (except when offering cards).
Role Cards
Players draw role cards at the beginning of each round and RESOLVE ROLES in order at the end of the round. You may OFFER ROLE CARDS to other players. Only some of the role cards are dealt each round. Someone will know which role card you have, and you will know which role card someone else has. At the beginning of each round:
- Shuffle all the role cards and place the cards in a deck in the middle of the table.
- In turn order, deal 2 role cards to each player.
- After reading them, place 1 of the role cards face down in front of you for others to take, and return the other to the deck without revealing it.
- In turn order, take 1 role card from any other player, and add it to your hand.
Special Actions
Each score card has a different special action. You may use your special action once per round (a maximum of 3 times per game) and at any time during the OFFER INFLUENCE stage - but only after you have received an influence card in your player area. To use the special action, partially cover the score card with the influence card next to it. This will remind you that you have used your special action. Once your score exceeds 15 you must turn your score card over and may no longer use the special action.
Play
Each round of the game involves 4 stages. Starting with the first player, players will take turns to OFFER cards to one another. Then, all players RESOLVE their role cards. And finally, all players REVEAL and SCORE their influence.
The game ends after 3 rounds.
The round stages are:
- OFFER INFLUENCE
- RESOLVE ROLES
- REVEAL INFLUENCE
- SCORE INFLUENCE
Offer Influence
Offer any 2 cards from your hand, face down, to another player.
The recipient, after looking at the cards, selects 1 card to keep and returns the other to your hand.
The recipient places the selected influence card face down to the right of the cards in their player area (see component 8).
Play continues clockwise, to the left, until all players have taken 3 turns.
If you only have 1 card in your hand, you must offer that card. If only 1 card is offered, it must be selected. If you have no cards in your hand, you miss a turn. The cards in your player area must always be ordered from left to right with newer cards placed on the right. You may look at any of your cards in your hand or your own player area, without revealing them, at any time.
After the last player has completed their 3rd turn, RESOLVE ROLES if in play, otherwise skip ahead to REVEAL INFLUENCE.
Offer Role Cards
You may offer role cards when offering cards. Either 1 or 2 of the cards you offer may be a role card, but you must always offer 2 cards when possible. As explained below, offering a role card doesn't mean you will miss out on gaining influence. When a role card is selected:
- The receiving player adds the selected role card to their hand.
- If 2 cards were offered, the second card is returned as normal.
- In return, the receiving player must then give any 1 influence card from their hand to the offering player. If the receiving player has no influence cards no card is given. The offering player must place it, face down, to the right of the cards in their player area.
Resolve Roles
The first player calls out the role cards in ascending order, starting with 1. When your card is called out, place it in front of you face up, read the card aloud, and resolve it before calling out the next card. If no player has that role card in hand, call out the next role card. Whenever a role card conflicts with the rules, the card takes precedence. After all the role cards in play have been resolved, REVEAL INFLUENCE.
Reveal Influence
Discard any remaining influence cards in your hand. Then, without changing the order of the cards, reveal all the influence cards in your player area by turning them face up. Discard all double influence cards from your player area except for the one received most recently, the one furthest to the right (see component 9). Then, SCORE INFLUENCE.
Score Influence
Your total influence for this round is based on the face up cards remaining in play. Single cards are worth 1 influence and double cards are worth 2. Add the influence on your cards in the player areas of all other players AND the influence on all the cards in your own player area.
The player with the highest round score wins this round. If 2 or more players are tied for highest round score, the player with the ring card wins the round. If none of the tied players have the ring card, the player closest to the player with the ring card in turn order wins the round.
Add your round score to your score cards.
Printed illustration (component 9): a score card with the round marker on the 18 space, captioned "This score card marks 18 points."
New Round Setup
After the 1st and 2nd round, gather the 5 influence cards that match your house card to your hand. When playing with role cards, gather all the role cards and deal ROLE CARDS. The winner of the last round must take the ring card and becomes the first player for the new round.
Winning
After 3 rounds have been played, the game ends. The player with the highest total influence accumulated over the course of the game wins. If at the end of the game there is a tie for the highest total score, no player wins.
Role Cards
The role cards are numbered 1 to 15. Each role card's printed text:
- Take any player's role card.
- If only one player has your influence cards at the end of the round, swap round scores with them.
- REFUSE THIS CARD when offered 2 cards. All players must immediately take 1 more turn.
- Offer any 1 card from your hand to another player.
- Draw 1 influence card from any player's hand to your player area.
- Discard any 1 card from anyone's hand or player area.
- Keep up to 2 double influence cards in your player area when you reveal your cards.
- Swap any 2 cards from anyone's hand or player area.
- Reverse the order of the cards in any player area.
- Decide whether all influence cards become either single or double.
- Draw a new role card and resolve immediately.
- All players must discard 1 card from their hand or player area.
- CHOOSE THIS CARD. Discard all your influence cards in other player areas.
- The player with the lowest total score, after scoring, gains 3 influence.
- After scoring, each player's total score is halved and rounded down.
Role card 1 is titled INSIDIOUS in the printed component illustration.
Ring Card
Ring: Win the round if in a tie with another player for the highest score for this round.
Score Cards
Each score card has a different special action, printed on the card. Score cards marked with the asterisk symbol require role cards to be in play. Score card 7 in the component illustration reads: "Reject both cards and offer any 1 card from your hand instead."