The King's Dilemma FAQ
191 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Overview and Getting Started
- Does the prologue demo carry into the main campaign, or is it a one-off?
- When is Envelope 00 opened, and where do its cards go?
- What is the difference between a dilemma, a game, and the whole campaign?
- Can the campaign be restarted or replayed from the beginning?
- Is The King's Dilemma a legacy game or a campaign game?
General
- Can The King's Dilemma be played with two players?
- Do later printings include the errata from the first edition?
- What happens if a player misses a session or rejoins mid-campaign?
- Can the prologue demo be added to a campaign that has already started?
- Does winning a game and naming the next king give any in-game benefit?
- What information is secret in The King's Dilemma?
- Can players join, be swapped out, or leave a campaign, and must the player count stay the same?
Dilemma Card System
- When do Trigger cards go back into the Dilemma deck?
- If a second Joust event appears while one is already in play, do you trash the first?
- How do you resolve a dilemma card with no front text that asks you to choose an experiment?
- What if a Story card with a lower number is drawn in the middle of a game?
- If a Resource marker is pushed past the end of its track and later has to move back, do you remember the overshoot?
- If two or more players tie for the most Power on a won War card, who gets the bonus?
- When you open a new envelope, do you shuffle only the new dilemma cards or the whole Dilemma deck?
- On a War card, does exactly 10 Power win the battle?
- Why hasn't a storyline appeared after many games?
- What can you do if the Dilemma deck is empty and a storyline never started?
- Does Stability move when a Resource moves outside a dilemma, for example from an event card?
- Are the top six Time Counter spaces filled before any card goes on the skull spaces?
- Are Story cards removed from the deck or the game when a storyline reaches its conclusion?
- What happens to an event's trigger card when the event resolves, and what if a second copy turns up?
- What happens if a storyline gets another Story card after its Ending card is out?
- Does the Dilemma deck reset between rounds, or do new cards keep getting added to it?
Components and Kinds of Cards
- Where does a newly opened Story card go, and what happens to the card it covers?
- Does card C.34.0.B grant the Embrace Immortality achievement, and how much Prestige does Help the People give?
- How are ties handled when a War event punishes the players who paid the least Power?
- Does an Ending card's ! ability stay in effect for the rest of the campaign, and can its signer switch it off?
- For ! cards such as C.35.0.F and H.08.0.F, does the effect apply only to the signer or to every player?
- Which number on a Story card matters in play: the top-left number or the reference code at the bottom?
- What happens if the coin or power tokens run out?
- How many of each Story card number can a storyline have?
- Why do some Story cards have no signing slot?
- What is the value of the medium-size Coins and Power tokens?
- Is the Realm board written on, or only used as a play surface?
Game Setup
- What does House Olwyn's third achievement require: Welfare or Influence?
- Are House achievements secret, and can other players see them?
- Do legacy setup adjustments move Stability, flip Resource markers, or add Momentum?
- Does a Story card's Knowledge-goes-up coin bonus apply during setup?
- Which Chronicle sticker is covered when a row is full?
- Does a Chronicle sticker stop applying once all its aging boxes are ticked?
- When a Story card and a Chronicle sticker both assign the same Open Agenda token at setup, which one wins?
- How many Open Agenda tokens can one player hold, and what happens to extras?
- Can one player hold both a positive and a negative Open Agenda for the same Resource?
- Can House Olwyn's start-of-game ability give a player a third positive Open Agenda token?
- When can you open the ?? envelope you found under the game box?
- Once the ?? envelope is opened, does its event stay in play in later games?
- When is a House achievement reward applied: at the start of each later game (star), or once when unlocked (arrow)?
- How much Power and Coins does each player start a later game with?
- Do the Leader and Moderator tokens carry over from the previous game?
- Do Chronicle stickers added in one game become Open Agendas in that same game?
- Which Chronicle sticker counts as the newest for Open Agendas when stickers in a row tie on aging?
- Does a Chronicle sticker's age change its effect, or only which sticker is replaced?
- Are any Open Agenda tokens assigned in the first game of a campaign?
- Does a House's once-per-game ability reset each game, or is it limited to once per campaign?
- Does a House ability that triggers at the start of the game fire before or after setup?
- Can a new destination be chosen while the last one is still underway?
- Do Story card effects that trigger when signed or played happen again at the setup of later games?
- What do the legacy mark spots on a Story card mean?
- How are ties on Prestige broken, including in the first game when no one has Prestige yet?
- Do the Resource and Stability markers reset between sessions?
- How much Power goes into the Balance at the start of each game?
- Which Houses have mutually exclusive narrative achievements?
- Do Legacy setup effects happen before Secret Agendas are chosen?
- Do positive and negative Open Agendas cancel out for an achievement that needs 2 or more Open Agenda points?
- Do the coloured spaces on the board count toward Secret Agenda ranges?
- For the Allwed Balance achievement, must the Balance token sit exactly on the space at 9?
- In what order is legacy setup resolved, and where do Story card start-of-game powers fit?
- When are the aging marks added to Chronicle stickers?
Playing the Game
- Is there a rule for when to open the ??? envelope?
- On the Coin event card, when a player passes for Power, does the Coin come from the general pool or their own reserve?
- Can other players see your Power and Coins behind your House screen?
- When an envelope is opened, where do its cards go?
- Where does a new Story card go when a card with the same symbol is already on the board?
- Do Dilemma cards for a finished storyline stay in the Dilemma deck?
- When the War event gives Leader to several top bidders, who becomes Leader?
- Do the War event's bonus or penalty apply to every tied player, or only the Leader?
- When are the Power tokens on the War card removed?
- How often does a house ability marked '!' trigger once it is unlocked?
- Can players argue over whether a narrative house achievement was reached?
- When does The Scarlet Hunger card leave play?
- How long does the City of Tents 2-coin passing ability last, and does it apply to every player?
- Do you get a house achievement's benefit only after every box is ticked?
- For House Tiryll's achievement, does 'the bottom end of the resource track' mean only the very bottom space?
- Can House Tiryll's bottom-of-track achievement pay out once per resource, or only once in the whole game?
- Does a house achievement that says 'lowest on the track' need every resource to be low?
- Does the Stability track keep moving once it reaches an extreme?
- Can one player hold both a positive and a negative open agenda on the same resource?
- How often can House Blodyn's declare-equality ability be used?
- Do house achievements that count open agenda points use the total, including story-card bonuses?
Phases of the Round
- If the Leader is on the winning side and winning-side players tie for most Power, who keeps the Leader token?
- If the Leader is on the losing side and winning-side players are tied for most Power, who gets the Leader token?
- Who becomes Leader after a vote, and what happens when votes are tied?
- How does the Leader token move during a vote?
- Where does voting end, and can the Leader add Power after it ends?
- What can a player do on a later turn of a vote?
- When the Moderator breaks a tie, does the Moderator take the Leader token?
- Can players bargain for the Leader token?
- Is there always a Moderator, and when does the Moderator token change hands?
- Can the current Moderator pass and keep the Moderator token?
- Can the Moderator bid just enough to force a tie and keep the Moderator token in the same vote?
- Does the Moderator still vote on dilemmas after taking the Moderator token?
- Can the Moderator break a tie against the side they originally voted for?
- Can you bribe the Moderator to break a tie?
- Is a bargain binding if no coins change hands?
- Can two players strike a new deal that adds to an agreement they already made?
- Can two players cancel a binding agreement if both want to?
- Can you bargain away Power, Prestige or Crave, or trade the Leader or Moderator token?
- If a player has already been paid to take an action, can they accept a second payment for the same action?
- Can a player who passed in the Voting Phase still offer coins to influence the vote?
- Can you pay another player to change how they vote after they have placed Power?
- When can players bargain over Chronicle stickers, signings and Story card bonuses?
- Can you buy the right to sign a card or sticker from the Leader?
- Can the Leader give signing rights to another player, and is that binding?
- When a new envelope calls for a card to be signed, who signs it?
- When the signer of card 49 gives Power to the Moderator, where do the matching coins come from?
- On story card G.49.0.F, can any player or only the signer use the declare-pass-and-gather-power ability?
- If a resource is already at the end of its track and a dilemma pushes it further, does the Stability marker still move the full amount?
- Does the Stability marker move when a resource changes outside a dilemma outcome?
- How does a Momentum marker change the movement of a resource?
- When an Event card moves a resource in its Momentum direction, does the Momentum effect apply as it does for a Dilemma?
- If a resource is already at the top of its track, does a when-it-goes-up effect still trigger?
- In what order are two resource changes on one Dilemma card resolved?
- When all stickers in a row are equally aged, which one does a new sticker replace?
- When two players tie for first or last on an event, who gets the benefit or penalty?
- Who gets the Majority Signer Bonus on an ending card?
- Does an ending card stay out after a narrative achievement card is played?
- Can the same envelope be opened twice in one campaign?
- Which cards does the War with Mhuir event shuffle into the Dilemma deck?
- Does House Allwed's achievement give it leftover Balance Power if Allwed did not pass and gather, and what if nobody passed?
- Does Allwed take leftover Power when there are fewer Power tokens than passers?
- What happens to Power that cannot be split evenly among passing players?
- Does House Tork's Power bonus apply to a player who becomes Leader after the vote is decided?
- For House Wylio's coin achievement, is the coin discarded when your side wins the vote, or only when you personally are Leader?
- What do you do if the demo scenario runs out of Dilemma cards before the game ends?
- After opening a new envelope, do you discard the unused Dilemma cards or shuffle the new ones into the deck?
- If the Stability marker ends the king's reign and the dilemma shows a skull, which resolves first: abdication or death?
- If the Leader spends 2 Power to skip their first voting turn, do they still get another turn?
- After one Pass for Power action, can you invest Power on several enabling cards at once?
- Are votes revealed simultaneously or in turn order?
- If a card adds Power to the winning side but no player on that side invested any, who gets the Leader token?
- Does putting Power on a War card count as a third option next to pass for power and pass to become Moderator?
Ending the Game
- Can a finished campaign be replayed or restarted?
- Are Prestige and Crave both positive points?
- Which Prestige and Crave table on page 33 is the correct one?
- In end-game scoring, does a tie skip the next place?
- If several players tie for the lowest result, do they all finish last?
- Are leftover Coins worth points at game end, and which scoring column do they go in?
- Can a Secret Agenda's coin score go below zero?
- How is the Extremist Secret Agenda scored, and can it reach 17 points?
- Do resources sitting on the shaded boundary rows count toward a Secret Agenda's range?
- How do you score the Greedy Secret Agenda?
- When do you get the reward on the back of a Secret Agenda sheet for playing that agenda repeatedly?
- Do tied Resources count for a House achievement that needs the highest or the lowest Resource?
- For a House achievement, does 'lowest' mean lowest among the Resources, or the bottom space of the track?
- Does the middle area of the Stability Track for a House achievement include the shaded 5 and 13 spaces?
- If two players tie on Prestige for an end-of-game achievement, who wins the tie?
- When players tie for the most remaining Power, do the next places still score?
- Who names the next King, and who decides when the top players tie?
- How is a tie broken at the Grand Finale when two Houses end level?
- Does an Event card count toward the six Dilemma cards before skulls can end the game?
- Do skulls on the early Dilemma cards end the game, and when does the King die?
- Does every game end with the King abdicating or dying?
- If Stability and the King's death both trigger the end at once, which one applies?
- Where do Trigger (lightning) cards and other Event-area cards go during Final Cleanup?
- What happens to story cards after a story ending card is played?
- Where are Cohesion and Dissent values tracked for the campaign ending?
- Is an Open Agenda token that no player was assigned worth points at game end?
- Why doesn't Morale lose a point at level 8 in the page 32 Open Agenda example?
- Do Power or Coins left on an ongoing Event card carry over to the next game?
- When an ending card ranks the player with the most Agenda Points last, how do the other players move?
- When is the one-time Prestige or Crave bonus from a House alignment paid?
- On the final battle card, is the stated number of actions a total for each player or per action?
- In the final battle, can a player who chooses neutral still take part?
- If a game ends after only a few Dilemmas, do you need to play extra cards to catch up?
- On the linked Morale and Knowledge Open Agenda card, do both players score when either one scores?
- On The Crimson King card, do you tick its boxes when the condition happens or at the start of each game?
- What happens when a resource with a negative Chronicle sticker is the lowest at game end?
Campaign World and Realm Chronicles
- When a Chronicle row is full, which sticker does a new one cover?
- Do Chronicle stickers stop applying once all three tick marks are filled?
- Where do you attach a new Chronicle sticker on the Realm board?
- When do the large Mystery stickers appear, and which one follows a story ending card?
- For House Gamam's personal achievement, are Open Agenda Victory Points added across all Open Agendas?
- Can House Wylio use a coin as power, and what happens when the vote is won?
- Does a narrative achievement go to a House that was not in play when the achievement happened?