ROYAL ASSASSIN
SETUP
SOLITAIRE
By Mark R. Brown
THE STORY
Your father, the king, united four small fiefdoms
into a mighty kingdom. Now that he is dead, the
former royal families of those fiefdoms are
plotting to take over the throne that is rightfully
yours. You are outnumbered, but in your
struggle to defeat them you have a powerful
ally: your court jester, the Joker, who as your
father's friend and advisor was always much
more than he appeared to be. He is highly
skilled at court intrigue, and can help set them
all against one another so that you can retain
your throne. He is your secret weapon - your
Royal Assassin!
GAMEPLAY
Use a deck of 53 cards, including 1 Joker.
Numbered cards 2-10 are worth their face value.
Royal cards are worth 11-13. Aces are worth 11.
Keep the Joker in reserve face-up and shuffle
the rest, then place the deck face-down on the
table. This is your stockpile.
Turn cards face-up one at a time, placing
numbered cards (including Aces) into a face-up
reserve pile. Put any Royal cards you encounter
face-up into four columns by suit.
When you play a Royal card, look at the next
number card that you turn up from the stockpile;
if its number is equal to or less than the number
of Royal cards you have face-up, you're done
with the setup. Ignore Aces. You will have 2-10
Royal cards face-up when you are done.
legal plays remain.
pile and using it as your stockpile until no more
Continue to play by turning over your reserve
discard pile, too.
When the column is killed, the Joker goes to the
and defending cards already on the column.
Place the new Pretender beneath any attacking
defending points.
when attacking points are exactly equal to
Only remove and discard cards from a column
they immediately revert to 1.
Aces are worth 11 when first played after which
number of Royals (4) is reached.
During the Setup, just turn cards over until a set
up.
deck and can only be played when they come
Play with both Jokers. They are shuffled into the
ALTERNATE RULES
never the reserve pile.
Turn cards face-up one at a time from the
stockpile onto the reserve pile.
When you turn up a Royal, add it to its suit
column.
When you turn up a number card, you can use it
to attack the topmost Royal (Pretender) in any
column of the opposing color. To kill a
Pretender you must successfully attack it with
cards equaling or exceeding its value.
Once attacked, a Pretender can defend by
pulling a card of its own suit from the top of the
reserve pile, if there is one. This is repeated as
long as the total of its defending cards is less
than or equal to the total of your attacking cards.
You can also continue an attack using a card
from the top of the reserve pile, but only if no
Pretender can first use that card for defense. An
attack must always be begun from the stockpile,
throne.
are of equal value then the Joker takes the
ruler in your stead. If the remaining Pretenders
entourage wins and becomes the kingdom's
greatest strength, highest rank, or greatest
If you lose, the Pretender in play with the
without killing all the Royals in play, you lose.
If you run completely through the stockpile
the stockpile).
win (even if there are still unexposed Royals in
If you kill all of the exposed Royals in play you
ENDGAME
You may attack a column with only one
opposite color suit at a time. You also may not
attack two columns with the same suit.
When a Pretender is killed, it and all attacking
and defending cards on it are placed in the face-
down discard pile. Any Royals and attacking or
defending cards beneath the Pretender remain in
play and the topmost Royal thus exposed (if
any) becomes the new Pretender for that suit.
Whenever any combination of attacking and
defending cards on a Pretender have an equal
value, or whenever the total of all defending
cards is greater than that of all attacking cards,
those cards are placed in the discard pile.
If a number card turned up from the stockpile
can't be used to attack, it is placed on top of the
reserve pile.
If a Pretender is under attack and a new Royal
of the same suit is turned up from the stockpile,
column until the column it is on is destroyed.
die. The Joker cannot be moved to another
is killed, all other Royals in that column also
already in play. If the Pretender in that column
(Royal Assassin) above that column if it is not
more than one Royal, you may place your Joker
against a Pretender in a column that contains
At any time when you have attack cards played
THE JOKER
Pretender can be resumed.
then be killed before the attack on the previous
attack, becoming the new Pretender. It must
it is placed on that column and interrupts the