Paladin
Paladin Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal
Win the most points of valour (points de bravoure).
Contents
- 42 Paladin cards
- 18 Quest cards, divided into two decks (King and Queen)
- 25 tokens in five different colours
Setup
Each player chooses a colour and takes the tokens of that colour.
Shuffle the Quest cards with a King back and place the deck face down on the table. Then shuffle the Quest cards with a Queen back and place that deck face down on top of the King-back deck.
Take from the top of this combined deck as many Quest cards as there are players, and lay them face up in a row. Each Quest card has a "valour" value shown by swords, ranging from 1 to 6. The strongest Quest cards are the ones with a King back.
Paladin Cards
The cards in this deck represent paladins of different strength (0 to 9). Some paladins have a special value, shown by a sword in the bottom right corner of the card and a number printed in red. Stronger paladins beat weaker ones, with one exception: the 0 beats the strongest paladin, the 9, but is normally beaten by all the others.
Course of the Game
The game is played in several rounds, depending on the number of players.
At the start of the first round, the bravest player is the first dealer.
Dealing the Cards
The dealer shuffles the Paladin deck and deals the cards face down to the players, one at a time, clockwise, until each player has a hand of four cards if 3 are playing, five cards if 4 are playing, or six cards if 5 are playing. The remaining cards are set aside to form a stock (talon).
The dealer chooses who will be the first player (the dealer may choose anyone, including themselves).
Placing the Heroes
The first player plays a Paladin card, face down, facing one Quest card, then marks it with one of their tokens. This card becomes the hero (héros) of the chosen quest.
Each player in turn, clockwise, must play a card next to a different quest, until every quest has a hero.
Placing the Other Cards
From this point on, the player whose turn it is may, before playing their card, secretly look at one of the cards already on the table.
Cards are played one after another in front of each quest, after the hero, but no player may have two paladins facing the same quest.
Play continues in this way until every player has played all of their cards except one.
It is now time to see who has won each quest.
Resolving the Quests
Reveal face up the hero of the first quest. The owner of the second card placed on that quest may (translator's note: after possibly looking at their card again if their memory fails):
- Reveal their card in an attempt to beat the hero. The card must be stronger or, in case of a tie, be red (remember that the 0 beats the 9). The defeated paladin is discarded, face down, under the Paladin deck, and the winner becomes the new hero of that quest.
- Take the Paladin card back into hand, even if it is stronger than the current hero, without showing its value to the others.
- Discard the Paladin card by placing it face down under the stock of Paladin cards, without showing its value to the others.
The same procedure is followed for the following Paladin cards on that quest.
The Quest card goes to the owner of the last hero in play. That player places these two cards (the Quest and the Paladin) in front of them, face up.
The same procedure is followed for every quest. Then the round is over.
Scoring
Each player scores one point of valour for each sword on the Quest cards they have won, plus one point for each Paladin card that has a red number and a sword.
New Round
The player with the most points becomes the dealer for the next round. In case of a tie, the dealer is the player who started first in the last round.
The dealer places new Quest cards face up in the middle of the table, always in a number equal to the number of players.
Then the dealer deals Paladin cards one at a time to all players, without shuffling the deck, until each player has a full hand of 4, 5 or 6 cards (depending on the number of players).
Finally, the dealer chooses the first player of the new round.
End of the Game
The game ends when there are not enough Quest cards for a new round. The winner is the player with the most points of valour. In case of a tie, the winner is the player who played first in the last round.