The Princess Bride: A Battle of Wits Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• How to Play
  • Contents and Bidding
  • Sicilian Cards
  • The Dealer's Reveal
• Bid Resolution
• Drinking
• Winning
• Variants
  • More than one winner? Inconceivable!
  • Alternate Setup
  • Team Play
  • Luckless
  • Odorless and Tasteless
• Summary of Play
  • Setup
  • Play
  • Resolution

Contents

• A. 70 Character Wine/Poison cards
• B. 12 Sicilian Wine/Poison cards
• C. 10 Character cards
• D. 10 Goblet cards
• E. 1 Time card

Character Wine/Poison cards: 7 per character/player, numbered 1-7 (even numbers are wine, odd numbers are poison). The Character icon (the Man in Black's mask) matches those on the player's Character card.

Sicilian Wine/Poison cards: numbered 1-9, with 2 each of numbers 3-5. The 8 and 9 cards provide special abilities.

Character cards have a winningly positive front and a tragically poisoned back.

Goblet cards are lettered A through J.

The Time card has a day side and a night side.

Setup

4 player game setup

1. Set one Goblet card per player in an alphabetical row in the center of the table.
2. Each player chooses one Character card and sets it on the table in front of him or her, poisoned side down.
3. Players take their character's Wine/Poison cards into their hand. For two to five players, take all seven cards. For six or more players, take the five cards numbered three to seven. (Note: the Summary of Play's setup line gives the player-count split as "2-6 players" and "7-10 players" instead; the printed Setup section is transcribed here as-is.)
4. The first dealer is the player wearing the darkest clothes. When playing several games, the role of dealer moves one player clockwise each game.
5. Set the Time card day-side-up within reach of the dealer.
6. The dealer shuffles all of the Sicilian cards and deals one Sicilian card face-down to each player, which they take into their hand.
7. Return the remaining Goblet, Character, and Wine/Poison cards to the box. Set the remaining Sicilian cards aside for use in subsequent games.
8. Players in a two to five player game will now hold 8 cards in their hands: seven with their character's icon, and one with the Sicilian icon. In a game of six or more players they will hold 6 cards.
9. The player to the left of the dealer goes first.

How to Play

Contents and Bidding

Starting with the player to the left of the dealer and moving clockwise, players take turns placing one of their cards either above or below one of the goblets on the table.

Playing a card face-down above a goblet (marked Contents) puts that amount of wine or poison into that goblet. The type of card with the highest total sum of numbers (whether poison or wine) will determine the goblet's final contents.

Playing a card face-down below a goblet (marked Bids) is a Bid to drink from that goblet at the end of the game. The player with the highest total, adding together all of the numbers on that player's cards below that goblet, will win the Bid.

Each player in turn places either a Wine card or a Sicilian card. When placing above or below a goblet, place each card slightly further from the goblet than the last, so the character icons on all cards can be seen.

Play continues clockwise around the table, with each player placing one card each turn.

Illustration captions: "Play a card face-down here to add to your Bid to drink from goblet B at the end of the game." "Play a card face-down here to change the contents of goblet B. Add an amount of wine or poison."

Sicilian Cards

Sicilian cards are not related to Characters, so most Sicilian cards can only be placed in the Contents of a goblet. They cannot be placed below a goblet to Bid.

There are two Sicilian cards with special abilities described on them. These cards can be played either in the Contents of a goblet (so that the poison or wine number in the corner is the effect of the card) or face-up in front of the player (so that the ability is the effect). If the card is played in a goblet, the player does not also receive the special ability. The abilities are Immunity and Switch, and a description is written on each card.

Immunity - A player is immune to the player's own poison cards. Other players' poison cards still have an effect, as do all players' wine cards.

Switch - Switch the Bids below two goblets. The stacks of Bid cards are moved as a whole, without rearranging any of the cards in the stacks.

The Dealer's Reveal

Following every play by the dealer, the dealer flips the Time card. Whenever the Time card is flipped to the day side, reveal the face-down Contents card closest to each goblet (but leave it in the same location). Up to three Contents cards per goblet will be revealed this way each game (or two cards in a game of seven to ten players).

Illustration caption: "The 4 Wine and 5 Poison cards have been revealed."

Bid Resolution

Once all cards have been played, flip each stack of Bids face-up, keeping the same orientation to the goblets (so that the closest card to the goblet remains closest).

Compare the players' Bid amounts for each goblet; the player with the highest total Bid wins that goblet. Ties go to the player with a Bid card closest to the goblet.

After resolving a Bid, compress the stack and place one of the winner's cards on top of the pile.

When all Bids are resolved, any player who won several goblets must choose one. Between several players with multiple goblet options, the player with the alphabetically first goblet among them picks first (the player with goblets A and E chooses before the player with goblets B and C). After a player has selected a goblet, the rest of that player's goblets each go to the next highest bidder without a goblet.

If there are any unselected goblets, they are chosen by the players who did not win any Bids, in clockwise order starting to the left of the dealer.

Example:

• Goblet A goes to Buttercup with 7.
• Goblet B goes to the Man in Black with 7.
• Goblet C is won by Prince Humperdinck because, while Inigo also has 6, Humperdinck is closest to the goblet.
• Goblet D is won by Humperdinck also. He chooses goblet D, leaving C for Inigo.

Drinking

When each player has one goblet, flip the cards above the goblets face-up (keeping the same orientation to the goblets so that the closest card to the goblet remains closest). Reveal one goblet at a time to determine if the player drinking that goblet has been poisoned.

Add the numbers on the wine cards and compare the total to that of the poison cards. If there is more wine, the character lives; if there is more poison, the character dies and flips their character card to the poisoned side (and needs a miracle pill).

If the wine and poison totals are the same, the Contents card closest to the goblet breaks the tie and determines the Contents.

Examples:

• Goblet A contains mostly wine (14 wine to 12 poison).
• Goblet B contains mostly wine (8 wine to 2 poison).
• Goblet C contains mostly poison (8 wine to 8 poison; ties go to the card closest to the goblet, which is poison).
• Goblet D contains mostly poison (10 wine to 13 poison).

Winning

Any player whose character did not die from poison is a winner. If there is only one survivor, that person is "no one to be trifled with".

Variants

More than one winner? Inconceivable!

If your group feels that more than one winner leaves you at an impasse and you want to determine a single winner, there are a few options available:

A. Several games can be played to determine an overall winner using a best-of-three or best-of-five arrangement (as any players who were only "mostly dead" can be revived to blave again). (Printed as "to blave" in the source.)

B. If you want to eliminate players, you can simply play again until none survive. Or, separate survivor and "mostly dead" games can be played concurrently, so eliminated players can still play. For the "mostly dead" game, use a coin or extra card for the Time token, and deal Sicilian cards from those remaining after dealing the survivor game.

C. If a single winner is desired from a single game and more than one player survives, players can compare the total Contents of their goblets by adding all of the wine and subtracting the poison. The player with the highest total is then the winner.

Alternate Setup

Once you know how to play the game, and if you have a large enough table, you may want to play with one goblet in front of each player. Play is the same, but it gives you more opportunities to say "Clearly I cannot choose the wine in front of you!"

Team Play

Split the players into two teams:

• Man in Black, Buttercup, Inigo Montoya, Fezzik, Miracle Max
• Prince Humperdinck, Count Rugen, Vizzini, Yellin, Albino

Play as usual, but try not to poison your teammates. The team with the most survivors at the end wins.

Luckless

If you want to remove the element of luck, simply play without the Sicilian cards.

Odorless and Tasteless

If you'd rather not know anything about the Contents other than what you can glean from the other players, play without the Time token (and don't reveal any Contents before drinking).

Summary of Play

Setup

1. One goblet per player in row on table.
2. Character cards in front of players.
3. Character Wine/Poison cards in players' hands (2-6 players: cards 1-7, 7-10 players: cards 3-7).
4. 1 Sicilian card to each player's hand.
5. Time card, day-side-up in front of dealer.

Play

1. Starting to the left of the dealer, each player places 1 card per turn, either in Contents (above goblet) or as a Bid (below goblet).
2. Dealer's Turn: flip the Time card; when the Time card is flipped to day, reveal the Contents card closest to each goblet.
3. Play all cards out.

Resolution

1. Reveal all Bids (not Contents); for each goblet, sum player cards; highest sum wins, tie goes to card closest to goblet.
2. Starting with goblet A and moving up, winners of multiple goblets choose a single goblet; others go to next highest bidder without goblet.
3. Starting to the left of the dealer, players without goblets now choose from remaining goblets.
4. Starting with goblet A, reveal all Contents; sum wine cards, sum poison cards, highest sum determines whether there is wine or poison in the goblet; tie goes to the card closest to the goblet.
5. Characters who drank from a poisoned goblet flip their character card to dead.