Give It to the King! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Set Up
• Before Each Day
• When It's Your Turn
• Moving Along
  • Leaping Messengers
  • The Big Jump
  • Reveal a Message
  • First on the Red Carpet
  • Blame the Captain
  • Pass the Captain Marker
• How to Reach the King
  • 1. Leap into the Throne Room
  • 2. Get an Audience
• Scoring Messages
• Before the Next Day
  • 1. Restore Used Messages
  • 2. Get a New Message
• End of the Game
• Rules for 2 or 3 Players
• Message Effect Descriptions
  • Add to Roll
  • Re-Roll
  • Keep the Die
  • Stop Rolling

Contents

• 4-pc. corridor board
• 20 messages
• 1 Captain marker
• 1 King figurine
• 4 Messenger figurines
• 4 Messenger portraits
• One 6-sided die
• 20 coins of 1 gold
• 7 coins of 5 gold
• 4 coins of 10 gold

Set Up

• Assemble the corridor board in the middle of the table.
• Place the King figure in the Throne Room at the end of the red carpet.
• Each player selects a Messenger figurine and its identifying portrait.
• Randomly choose a player to be Captain and give that player the Captain marker.
• Stack 5 single coins near the Messenger Starting Spots to create the Day Coins stack.
• Give each player 5 gold and pile the remaining gold near the King.
• Shuffle all the messages and stack them face-down near the Messenger Starting Spots.
• Give each player 2 messages face-down.

About Messages: You may look at yours but keep them face-down until you are ready to use them. A message may be saved for the King or turned face-up en route to influence the race.

Before Each Day

1. Ready the Messengers. For the first day, choose Starting Spots randomly. On other days, the Messengers are backed up on the corridor track in the same order they were in when the previous day ended.

2. Take Today's Coin. The player whose Messenger is furthest from the King takes 1 gold coin from the Day Coins stack. This player also takes the first turn of the day. Thereafter, turns are taken clockwise. Taking the last Day Coin signals the start of the final round of the game.

When It's Your Turn

• Step 1: Roll the die.
• Step 2: Any player may now reveal a message (optional) but only the first one turned over takes effect – so be quick!
• Step 3: Move ANY Messenger the value of the die roll, taking into account any message just revealed.

Keep rolling and moving (Steps 1-2-3) until one of the following occurs:

1. you move your own Messenger;
2. a card tells you to stop;
3. a Messenger is moved into the Throne Room;
4. no movement is possible.

• Step 4: Pass the die to the next player and continue taking turns until a Messenger reaches the King. This ends the day.

Moving Along

Leaping Messengers

All Messengers move down the corridor towards the Throne Room (never backwards) by the number of spaces – occupied or empty – as shown on the die. With each die roll, one of the Messengers must leap over one or more Messengers and finish its move on an empty space. This means the Messenger in the lead cannot move until another Messenger leaps in front of him. If you roll a 1, you must perform The Big Jump (see below). Continue to roll and leap Messengers until you move your own Messenger, then pass the die to the next player. If you move a Messenger into the Throne Room, the day is over.

[Diagram: corridor board with Blue, Red, Green and Yellow Messengers and open spots A, B and C.]

In the example above: The Blue Player has rolled a 4. She now has 3 options:

1. Move her own Blue Messenger to open spot A and pass the die.
2. Move the Red Messenger to open spot B and roll again.
3. Move the Green Messenger to the open spot C and roll again.

• (x) Moving the Yellow Messenger is not possible since it is in the lead.

The Big Jump

When you roll a 1, you must move the Messenger in last place to the front of the line, landing on the open space directly in front of the Messenger in first place. If your own Messenger makes The Big Jump, your turn is over – pass the die to the next player. If The Big Jump moves a Messenger into the Throne Room, the day is over.

[Diagram: corridor board showing open spot A.]

In the example above: The Blue Player has rolled a 1. She must move the Messenger who is in last place to the open spot A. And, since this is her Messenger, she must pass the die.

Reveal a Message

After each die roll, any player may flip over and reveal one face-down message to trigger its special effect. Only the first message revealed can take effect. Messages played too late are turned back face-down.

If players reveal messages at the same time, the Captain decides which one takes effect. The others are turned face-down again.

If the active player moves a Messenger and then another player reveals a message, the Messenger is returned to its previous position before the message takes effect. The active player is not required to move the same Messenger again.

Once revealed, a message remains face-up and its effect cannot be used again during the current day.

Message Powers are detailed on the back page (see Message Effect Descriptions below).

First on the Red Carpet

Once per day, the first Messenger to land anywhere on the Red Carpet wins 2 gold for that Messenger's player. This gold comes from the King's supply.

Blame the Captain

If no movement is possible after rolling the die, pass the die. The Captain of the Messengers takes the blame and must pay 1 gold coin to the King.

If this causes 1 or more players to become wealthier than the current Captain, there will be a new Captain – see: Pass the Captain Marker.

[Diagram: corridor board showing the Green Messenger as Captain and a Blue roll of 2.]

In the example above: The Green Player is currently the Captain and The Blue Player has rolled a 2. Since no leaping is possible, she must pass the die and the Green Player must pay 1 gold to the King.

Players are not required to play a message to keep the Messengers leaping but the Captain may do so to avoid paying the King. Also, any player may reveal an ADD TO ROLL message to change the die outcome – to create blame or avoid it.

Pass the Captain Marker

The Captain is the player who has the most gold at any given time during the game. As soon as another player has MORE gold than the current Captain, they receive the Captain marker and become the new Captain.

If you are the Captain:

• A. When another player has more gold than you, pass the Captain marker to that player.
• B. If multiple players are tied for the most gold, you choose who gets the Captain marker.

How to Reach the King

1. Leap into the Throne Room

The day ends when a Messenger leaps into the Throne Room – with or without the help of a revealed message. In any event, the final result must be the exact number needed to reach the King. If it's too high, you must Blame the Captain.

[Diagram: corridor board showing the Blue Messenger approaching the Throne Room.]

In the example above: The Blue Messenger can reach the Throne Room 3 ways:

1. A normal leap – if a 6 is rolled on the dice.
2. The Big Jump – if a 1 is rolled.
3. By Message Assistance – if an ADD TO ROLL card is revealed that adds to the dice roll and makes the total 6.

2. Get an Audience

If your Messenger reaches the #1 spot on the Red Carpet, he must wait for an audience with the King. At the beginning of your next turn, your Messenger will walk into the Throne Room – no rolling required – and this ends the day.

In this example: The Green Messenger will reach the King on the Green Player's next turn.

Scoring Messages

The Messenger who reaches the King delivers all his/her face-down messages. The King does not take face-up messages.

The King pays to the player the gold amount indicated on each message delivered and these messages are placed on the King's discard pile.

In this example: King pays 3 gold when this message is delivered.

All undelivered messages remain with the players.

Pass the Captain marker if there is a new gold leader.

Before the Next Day

1. Restore Used Messages

You can pay to turn revealed messages face-down again. The cost is 1 gold per message. You can choose to carry a mix of face-up and face-down messages.

2. Get a New Message

Each player draws one new message and adds it face-down to any undelivered messages from previous days.

When the message draw pile runs out, shuffle all the messages delivered to the King to create a new message draw pile.

End of the Game

The game ends after the 5th day has been scored. The player with the most gold wins. If there is a tie, the Captain wins.

Rules for 2 or 3 Players

Use all 4 Messengers on the corridor board as per the standard rules. However, the non-player Messengers are considered to be "trainees" and serve only as pieces to move and leap over.

Players may move a trainee like any other Messenger.

Trainees never receive gold, never carry messages, nor do they roll the die. A trainee cannot walk in to get an audience.

If a trainee is the first Messenger to land on the Red Carpet, the active player receives 1 gold. Additionally, the Captain of the Messengers receives 1 gold. The gold comes from the King's supply.

If the active player leaps a trainee into the Throne Room, all the other players pay 1 gold to the King. This ends the day.

Message Effect Descriptions

There are 4 types of messages, each with its own hand symbol.

Text on the scrolls is purely for thematic effect.

Add to Roll

The active player adds the value shown on the hand to the die roll before moving a Messenger. If this results in no possible legal move, Blame the Captain as usual.

Re-Roll

The active player ignores the die result and rolls again before moving a Messenger.

Keep the Die

If the active player moves their own Messenger, they do not pass the die. This message can also be used to negate passing the die when the Captain gets blamed.

Stop Rolling

The active player moves according to the current die-roll and then passes the die to the next player, even if his turn would not normally have ended.

Strategy tip: any message revealed prevents another one from coming into play. Additionally, it is often desirable to "lock in" the die roll result with Keep the Die or Stop Rolling, as this guarantees that the active player will move one of the Messengers using the current value on the die.