Dynasties

The Kingdom of Fiumri is famous for its internal conflict between royal families. Dynasties was inspired by Three Dragon Ante, but has changed over the centuries to become its own game.
Cards represent Nobles from four various royal lineages. Use cards (Nobles) to up the Stakes and have the highest combined value Family. Collect as much Gold as possible.
The Game stops during the Conclusion phase if one Player goes Broke and the Legaqcy is paid to whoever has the most Gold in their Treasury (in addition to their current Treasury).

Treasury

Players invest the equivalent of 50 units, whether that is copper, silver, gold or Platinum. During the game, regardless of real currency, all units are referred to as Gold.

Legacy

Prior to the game, players can negotiate a Legacy. This is a separate amount agreed upon between Players, in addition to the Treasury but kept separate. The total Legacy is awarded to the Winner of the game.
In case of ties, the Legacy is split equally between those Winners.

Starting Hand

Deal out four cards (Nobles) from the Noble Deck to each player.

Game Phases

1. Enquire Prospects Phase: If a Player has one or no cards in their hand, flip the top card of the Noble Deck. They pay that amount of Gold into the Stakes and then take enough cards so that they have four in their hand in total.


2. Tribute Phase: Each player places a Noble face down as their Tribute. The Nobles are then revealed and whoever has the highest Tribute value is the First Player for the Turn.
   The value of the highest Tribute is the amount of Gold each player must put into the Stakes. Where tied for highest, the second highest Tribute wins first play, but the highest value in Gold is still played into the Stakes.
   The Tribute Cards are put into the Tribute Zone.


3. Raising the Family Phase:
   • Starting with the First Player, each Player will play a Noble face up in front of them.
   • The First Player’s Noble will always activate its Lineage Power. Subsequent players’ Nobles will only activate their Lineage Power if their value is equal or lower than the last player’s Noble.
   • Play then proceeds left of the Current Player.
   • After each Player has played a Noble in a Turn, whoever had played the highest Noble this Turn starts again, playing another Noble.
   • After three Turns, once all Players have three Nobles in their Family, proceed to the Conclusion Phase.


4. Conclusion Phase: After each Player has played three Nobles, tally the total values of each Player’s Family.
   Where applicable, Players add a +3 bonus for each Noble of the Current Dynasty, and a +10 bonus for each Coronation Card (refer to the Coronation below for further information).
   Whoever has the highest total, wins the Stakes.
   In case of a tie, continue another single Turn of Rasing the Family.


5. Into the Grave Phase: All Nobles and Tribute Cards played are then put into the discard pile (Graveyard), except for the latest Coronation Card (see further below for rules regarding this card).


6. Draw & Retirement Phase: After the Conclusion Phase, starting with the player who has the most Nobles in their hand, or if tied, won the Stakes, each Player draws one Noble for free from the Noble Deck.
   Duringt after drawing a player has more than 6 Nobles in their hand, they immediately discard down to 6 Nobles, placing the rest in the Graveyard.


7. End of Game: If any player is Broke at the end of the Conclusion Phase (i.e. has no more gold in their Treasury), the game ends and the person with the most Gold in their Treasury also wins the Legacy. Otherwise, return to the Tribute Phase.
   All Players keep whatever Gold is left in their own Treasury.

Lineage Powers

Each Lineage has its own power when activated:

Coronation

The Coronation Card / Noble plays as a “1” for all purposes (meaning it will always activate its Lineage Power), but when counting the total during the Conclusion phase, adds a bonus of +10 (for a total of 11) to the Player's Family total.
In addition:

• When the Coronation is played, any Kings (Nobles with a value of "13") currently in any Family are removed and put into the Graveyard.


• The Lineage corresponding to the Coronation Card becomes the Current Dynasty, meaning that any Noble of that Lineage adds a +3 to the total Family Value during the Conclusion Phase. This applies to any such Nobles that any player has in play!
  The +3 Current Dynasty bonus is effect is ongoing until the end of the game or until another Coronation is played or is removed.

The Coronation Card is not put into the discard pile but placed in the Tribute Zone. It will not be discarded until it is replaced by a new Coronation Card that is placed in the Tribute Zone, or is removed by a Conclave (see below).

Conclave

When a Player’s Family has at least 3 of the same valued Noble, this is called a Conclave. That player may immediately chose up to 2 cards from the Tribute Zone and also takes the middle valued Noble’s amount in Gold from the Stakes.
Note that if a Coronation Card is taken from the Tribute Zone, there will no longer be a Current Dynasty in play.
E.g. If the Conclave consists of three “4” Nobles of any Lineage, then they take 4 Gold from the Stakes. They then choose two cards in the Tribute Zone to put in their hand, which could include a Coronation Card.

Pureblood Family

When any Player’s Family has at least three of the same Family, this is a called Pureblood Family. Each other player must immediately give that Player Gold equal to the middle value of the Pureblood Family.
E.g. a player has 3 Coppe Nobles of "2", "6" and "13". Each other player would give 6 Gold to that Player.

Other Notes

• Players cannot look through a Graveyard.


• At the end of a game, players convert their Gold back into whatever currency was agreed upon at the start of the game.


• The terms of"Noble" and "Cards" is interchangable and mean the same thing.


• If a Player needs to draw from the Noble Deck but it is empty, immediately shuffle the Graveyard to form a new Noble Deck.


• It is possible for a Players to have less than three Nobles in his family during the Conclusion phase, as a result of a Coronation killing off all Kings.