King's Road

King's Road is a traditional two player game, popular in the court of Ma'trine. It has been played for around a century, developing from earlier simple dice games.

The Board

A King's Road board is in its most basic form a simple ring, divided into twenty four segments. Boards vary in quality and decoration; some of the most sumptuous are made of marble or jade with gold and silver tokens. More average boards are made of wood, varnished and with lines either burned into the wood or gilded on. Many boards are hinged, with a hollow interior chamber where game pieces can be stored.

The Pieces

The player tokens are traditionally pieces of wood varnished red and blue. Money tokens vary, but are often thin pieces of metal (in the earliest form of the game, they were offcuts from factories)

Rules

In King's Road, each player starts with a player token and eight money tokens. The goal of the game is to be the last person to possess a money token. Players traverse the board, attempting to avoid landing on their opposition's bandits, who make a player discard money tokens. For the first round, each player rolls a die and moves the indicated number of positions. They cannot make any other actions until round two. In round two, and at the start of each subsequent round, a player can choose to sacrifice a money token to create a bandit tile wherever they wish. The money token is placed on the board to represent this. Whether or not they choose to expend a token, they then roll the die and move. Throughout the game players must therefore judge the value of creating a bandit in comparison to hoarding their money.

Short Rules

* A board with twenty four places is used. * A six sided die is used to roll. * Each player begins with eight money tokens. * Players can hire bandits by expending a money token. * Once used to hire bandits, a money token cannot be refunded. * If a player lands on a bandit hired by the other player, they lose a token. * Your own bandits do not affect you. * The first person to run out of tokens loses.

History

Old Gold Road is one of the earliest recorded versions, which used only dice. In Old Gold Road rolling a six or a one counted as being attacked by bandits. The first person to be attacked eight times lost. This form was likely developed by the people of Cienne during the height of trade with Azareshir, when caravans would travel between the two nations regularly. The form using a board was invented around a hundred years ago, when the traditionally lower class game was adopted by the court of Ma'trine. King's Road has since become extremely popular and is often viewed as a game for cultured ladies. Groups of noble ladies will bet small amounts of money on the results of games while they imbibe liqueurs and gossip. It is often played after dinner in the drawing room, while the men of a dinner party smoke and talk in the dining room.