The Game of Imp

Played across the entirety of Människar and even in Preomona and Brandjorden, Imp is a card game that simulates the grand struggle between kings and emperors. The goal being to emerge as the greater ruler by accumulating enough wealth, army, piety or by killing the enemy king.

Mechanics 

Cards can represent wealth, glory, piety or be characters, which may be supernatural or not. WEALTH is measured by gold coins or treasure; ARMY by soldiers, knights; PIETY by priests, cultists, supernatural beings and gods; Characters can be members of society, like thieves; World Cards encompass special effects of grand scale. 

Players start with 8 cards in hand and each turn can:

- discard one card in their turn, facing up.

- play a card from their hand to the opponent, later discarding it.

At the beginning of their turn, players draw one card, they keep drawing until it reaches 8. A player can hold any number of cards, but must end their turn with 7 in hand.

Players may eventually draw a king, which is necessary to win. A player can never hold two kings in hand and must discard the spare to the discard pile. The deck is reshuffled upon exhaustion from the discard pile so both players can eventually get a king. Whenever a card of effect is played, the opponent isn't forced to show his counter-card (i.e, player A plays a thief against player B, player B can declare possession of his King, but isn't forced to show it, upon which no player takes a penalty. Challenging a player to show his counter-card results in player A suffering the penalty instead).

• The assassin can kill the enemy king. A player plays the assassin against his opponent, who might pay 1 gold (bribe) to simply declare he doesn't have the king, upon which the assassin is discarded. If challenge, the player holding the king loses; if they indeed didn't have the king, the player using the assassin loses all their WEALTH and the assassin is taken off the game. If they don't, the assassin is taken off the game permanently. The player upon who the assassin is played must pay 1 gold. If challenged, the player with the assassin loses.
• The thief takes all the coin in the opponent's hand IF they don't have the KING.
• Holding a KING prevents you from getting robbed, losing army and makes winning possible, but also liable to defeat.
• Priest and Cultists can be played to demilitarize the opponent - the strongest ARMY card from the opponent is discarded as well as the priest.
• At any turn, a player holding Arior may accuse the other of holding the Imp, if correct, the Imp is discarded face up, if wrong, the accuser loses all Piety cards. This requires a challenge.
• Holding the Imp gives a player the ability to force the opponent to discard random cards from their hand, every turn. However, if the opponent holds Exodus, the player holding the Imp is defeated.
• No player can win with the Imp in hand.
• The Imp can only be discarded at will if the player has no priests/cultists in hand.
• The Världsmord makes both players discard their hands and draw new ones.
• The Linking makes both players exchange one card each, hidden.
• The Sun forces both players to reveal their hands.
• If the deck is reshuffled thrice, the player with the most WEALTH wins. If tied, the player with the most ARMY. If tied, the one holding the most PIETY.

A player wins when:

• they hold a King and amassed 5 WEALTH
• they hold a King and amassed 6 ARMY
• they hold a King and amassed 3 PIETY (Overlord + 2 priests/cultists)
• they kill the enemy King

Cards

15 gold coins (1 WEALTH)

2 treasure (2)

1 hoard (3)

10 militia (1 ARMY)

4 men-at-arms (2)

1 knight (3)

3 priests (1 PIETY)

3 cultists

2 assassins

2 kings

3 thieves

1 Imp

1 Exodus (Overlord)

1 Arior (Overlord)

1 Världsmord

1 Sun

1 Linking