House of Borgia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Components Setup
• Gameplay
• Phase 1: Bidding and Action
  • Making a Bid
  • Taking an Action
• Phase 2: Calling a Bluff
  • Fate Symbols
• Phase 3: Rallying Influence
• End of the Round
• Game End and Scoring
  • Remaining Dice
  • Burned by a Rumor
• Play Variants
  • Two-Players: “Shadow Puppets”
  • “Flame of Thy Tongue”
  • “Poisoned Dice”

Overview

Players are each secretly assigned a Cardinal puppet. Their goal is to have their Cardinal gain the most influence by the end of the game, but without it being known who your puppet is. Players use dice to decide their actions, and if they are skillful liars they can take actions that would otherwise be unavailable. If caught in a lie, a player will lose one of their dice. The game is played until one of the players is powerless (without dice), and at that point the Cardinal with the most influence becomes the newly elected pope and the player who puppets him wins the game!

• 6 Puppet Cards
• 6 Rumor Cards
• 6 Cardinal Mats
• 24 Dice
• 6 Screens
• 1 Antipope Marker
• 60 Influence Tokens

Components Setup

1. Shuffle the Puppet Cards and deal one face down to each player. Players look at the card, but will keep these secret until the end of the game. Place the unused cards in the box, unseen.
2. Shuffle the 6 Cardinal Mats and place them in a vertical “ladder”, face down (the side with the logo facing up). Once all are placed, flip all mats to the Cardinal sides.
3. Place the white and black Influence Tokens at the top of the ladder of Cardinal Mats, and separate into two piles.
4. Place 2 white Influence Tokens into the “collection plate” on each mat.
5. Give each player dice and a screen. For 2 players, each player gets 6 dice. 3-4 players: each player gets 5 dice. 5-6 players: each player gets 4 dice. Placed the unused dice and screens back into the box.
6. Place the 6 Rumor Cards and the Antipope Marker along the side of the Cardinal Mat ladder.

Gameplay

To determine the starting player, all players roll their dice. The player that roles the most “Fate” symbols will make the first bid of the game. If there are ties, reroll amonst the tying players until one player wins.

The game is played in a series of rounds, which will last until one player has no dice left. Each round has the following three phases:

1. Bidding and Action
2. Calling a Bluff
3. Rallying Influence

Phase 1: Bidding and Action

In this phase, Players are bidding on the number of action symbols shown on all of the dice in the game. The dice have five action symbols, plus a “Fate” symbol, which counts as any symbol. If a player makes a successful bid, then they may take that action.

At the start of the round, all players roll their dice and hide them behind their screen. Then bidding will begin with the starting player.

Making a Bid

A bid is a guess at the number of action symbols that are rolled. For example, a player might bid, “two Bribes,” “five Judgements,” or “seven Poisons.” In the case of “two Bribes,” the player is betting that out of the all of the dice rolled in the game there are at least two Bribe symbols. Then, the next clockwise player may call their bluff (see Phase 2: Calling a Bluff, page 6). If they do not call a bluff and allow it then the player gets to perform the action that they bid.

After the action is performed, then the next clockwise player makes a new bid. They MUST increase the number, but may choose any action. If the first bid was “two Bribes,” the next player may then bid “three Poisons.” The number can be any amount higher than the previous bid, for instance jumping to “eight Poisons” is allowed. Play then follows as before, with players having the option to call a bluff or allow the player to take that action.

This continues until a player calls a bluff, in which play moves to the Calling a Bluff phase.

Example of increasing bids (Increasing Number):

• First Bid: Two Bribes
• Second Bid: Three Poisons
• Third Bid: Four Rumors
• Fourth Bid: Seven Bribes

An important note: Fate is NOT an action and cannot be declared as a bid.

Taking an Action

The actions that a player may take are as follows:

• BRIBE - Move one of the Cardinal Mats to the very top or the very bottom of the ladder. A Cardinal has to be moved, so one at the top cannot “move” to the top.
• POISON - Remove 2 Influence Token from a Cardinal Mat(s) and place them back in the influence pile. This may be 2 tokens from one Cardinal, or 1 token from two different Cardinals.
• JUDGEMENT - Move 2 Influence Tokens between Cardinal Mats. You may move 2 cubes from one Cardinal to another or 1 cube from two different Cardinals to two other Cardinals, BUT not a combination of both. However, a Cardinal who lost Influence during an action cannot regain Influence on that same action.
• ACCUSATION - Accuse a Cardinal of being the “Antipope.” Place the Antipope Marker on a Cardinal Mat. This Cardinal cannot gain or lose Influence. However, they may still be moved in a “Bribe.”
• RUMOR - Start a rumor about a player’s motives. Place or move a Rumor card in front of another player. A player may only have one Rumor in front of them. If you place a Rumor in front of a character that already has one, return the old one to the center. A player may also never remove a Rumor in front of themselves, nor give themself a Rumor.

Phase 2: Calling a Bluff

If the next player calls a bluff, then all players must reveal their dice from behind their screens. The total symbols of that action are added up.

• If the player is found to be bluffing (symbols are less than the bid), they lose a die (return to the box) and are not allowed to take the action.
• If the player is found to the telling the truth (symbols are equal to or more than the bid) then they may take their action and their caller loses a die. After either case, the game continues to the next phase, Rallying Influence.

Fate Symbols

If any “Fate” symbols are revealled, they count as a wild symbol of any action. For example, on a bid of “Seven Accusations,” the next player calls a bluff and the dice are revealled to show 4 Accusations and 3 Fates. This results in a truthful bid.

Phase 3: Rallying Influence

After the Bidding and Action and Calling a Bluff phase, the Conclave will rally their influence for thier favorite Cardinals. White Influence Tokens represent 1 and black tokens represent 5. The Cardinal Mats gain influence based on their position in the ladder and number of players:

• 2-4 players: 1st= 3 influence, 2nd= 2, 3rd= 1
• 5-6 players: 1st= 3, 2nd= 2, 3rd= 2, 4th= 1

If one of the Cardinals has the Antipope Marker he does not gain Influence that round.

End of the Round

After Rallying Influence, if all players have at least one die then the game continues with another round. The player who just lost a die in the previous round starts the next bidding phase. If one player is without dice then the game is over and the Conclave is now ready to vote for the next Pope.

Game End and Scoring

All players now reveal their secret Puppet Card. The Cardinal that has recieved the most Influence is elected the next Pope, and the player who puppets that Cardinal wins the game. If two or more Cardinals are tied for the most, the Cardinal closest to the top of the ladder wins. If the winning Cardinal is not the puppet of any of the players, then nobody wins the game.

Remaining Dice

For every remaining die a player has at the end of the game, add 2 more Influence tokens to their Cardinal.

Burned by a Rumor

If at the end of the game a player has a Rumor Card that matches their Puppet Card they are eliminated from the game, no matter what their Cardinal’s total Influence is. Their Cardinal Mat is removed from the ladder.

Play Variants

Two-Players: “Shadow Puppets”

For a two-player game, both players are dealt two secret Puppet Cards. During the game for “Rumor” actions, players can have up to two Rumor Cards, however players cannot give their own puppets’ rumors to their opponent. At the end of the game when players reveal their Puppet Cards, first give the Remaining Dice bonus to both Cardinals. If a Rumor Card matches any of the Puppet Cards, remove that Cardinal from the ladder. If both Rumor Cards match, the player is eliminated. The Cardinal then with the highest Influence is the new Pope.

“Flame of Thy Tongue”

Instead of a correctly assigned Rumor eliminating a player the game, their Cardinal loses as many Influence as there are players in the game.

“Poisoned Dice”

Instead of a correctly assigned Rumor eliminating a player from the game, their dice are worth -2 Influence at the end of the game.