Game Rules

Rules for Round Table

Players begin the game with two decks of cards - one, called the Main Deck, contains all of the player’s regular cards – Knights, Titles, Equipment, Quests, and Redirects. The other is called the Demesne Deck and contains all of the player’s lands (called demesnes, a medieval word meaning “holding”). Players maintain these decks separately. The player is allowed to customize the Main and Demesne decks - they are not required (or expected) to use all the cards that came in their base pack. A third deck, called the Regions Deck is a shared resource between both players. During their turn, players can draw cards from either their Main deck or their Demesne deck. Players can then bring cards from their hand into the play area (called “playing a card”), which brings that card under their control. Players are required to discard down to 10 cards at the end of every Season.

There are seven basic types of cards:

1. Demesnes

   Demesnes are lands that the player controls that give them resources to recruit Knights, Titles, and Equipment as well as activate Quests and Redirects.

   The basic Demesne is a Farm, which can be upgraded to a Manor, Large Manor, Keep, and Castle in that order. Only a Manor can be upgraded to a Large Manor, a Keep to a Castle, etc. Each card contains text to remind players.

   Each Demesne has a Resource Point (RP) value. Resource points for all Demesnes under a player’s control are added together to arrive at the total RP the player has to recruit or play Knights, Titles, and Equipment. Quests and Redirects are played during the Summer Season but use Resource Points to play them as well.

   Resource Points are cumulative, so if a player has a Farm, a Manor, and a Large Manor in play, they have 7 total RP, not just the 4 RP from the Large Manor.

2. Knights

   Knights constitute the main army for each player. Players recruit Knights by using Resource Points from their Demesnes. Knights have two primary attributes – Influence and Resistance – which are used to either conquer or help defend a Region from conquest.

   Knights can be brought into play if the player has sufficient Resource Point capacity. The capacity is the total number of points the player has from their controlled Demesnes; the allocated RP are those used by the currently in-play cards. If there is sufficient capacity, the player may bring that card into play. For example, if the player has a total capacity of 20 RP and has 6 RP allocated, then they could play any Knight requiring up to 14 RP. Most players denote this by rotating or otherwise indicating their Demesnes are being used to pay for upkeep.

   Some Knights are also Monarchs. These are a special subclass of Knights but this does not affect their classification as Knights.

3. Equipment

   Equipment is used to increase the Influence and/or Resistance of a knight. It can only be paired with an individual Knight. Some Equipment adds Influence points, some add Resistance, and some add to both. Fae (magical) Equipment is better than its non-magical equivalent. Equipment counts toward the allocated RP.

   There are 4 different types of Equipment: Mounts, Armor, Shields, and Weapons. Knights may only have one of each type equipped at any time.

4. Quests

   Quests are cards played on Knights that cause them to be unavailable for Campaigning. To show that a Knight is engaged in questing, they are flipped over or rotated 90°.

5. Redirects

   Redirects allow a player to “counter” a Quest card played by an opponent or reassign a Knight to a attacking a new Region.

6. Titles

   Titles are special endowments that can be granted upon an individual Knight. These Titles add to the Knight’s Influence and/or Resistance. The same Title cannot be granted multiple times upon the same Knight (i.e., you can’t make the same knight a Baron or a Round Table Knight more than once), but different Titles can be bestowed and the effects are cumulative (i.e., a Knight can be both a Round Table Knight and a Duke). Titles require upkeep from RP. Titles are treated like equipment - they can be moved from one Knight to another during the Spring season, they can stay in play even if the Knight they were with leaves play, and they can be returned to your hand.

7. Regions

   Regions are the areas of Britain each player tries to control. The number of regions for a game can be varied to change the time required for the game. A minimum of 5 regions are required for a game; there is no predetermined maximum although they must all be unique. Players should decide before play begins how many Regions they will be playing with for that game.

   Each region has a value in Renown points. At the end of the game, the player who has the most Renown is crowned Supreme Monarch and wins the game.

Terms and Terminology

Active indicates a Knight that is face-up/oriented normally and available to participate in campaigning.

Engaged indicates a Knight that is ineligible for participating in Campaigning. When engaging a Knight, players typically flip the card over or rotate it 90°.

Renown denotes the amount of influence a Region possesses. The player capturing the regions with the most total Renown wins the game.

Reset returns a Knight to the original orientation (by flipping it back over or rotating it back upright), making them available again. During the Autumn Season of a player’s turn, Knights are reset back to a face-up position or original orientation (unless a card dictates otherwise).

Resource Points (RP) are used to determine the amount of money or power a player wields. The capacity of RP is the sum of the Demesnes under a player’s control. The allocated RP is how much is being used to maintain the cards under the player’s control.

Spent Pile is a face-up pile of cards that were played. This is for Knights, Quests, Redirects, Equipment, and Titles that are used during play or discarded from a player's hand.

Vassal means a Knight that is in play, under your control. Your opponent's Knights in play are their vassals.

Task is an activity that Knights can engage in - attacking a Region or going on a Quest.

Description of Cards

There are 3 main card layouts used in Round Table TCG.

Main Cards

The first is for the cards in the Main Deck. These cards, whether Knights, Equipment, Titles, Quests, or Redirects, are laid out similarly:

Card Title: This is the name of the card.

Card Type: This defines the type. These are the types listed above. Some cards, like the example above, have subtypes. See the Knight Subtypes section below for more information.

Artwork: A pretty picture of the card.

Card Text: Basic information about the card’s effects in play, if any.

Influence: The “attack strength” or “power” of a card. Not all cards have an Influence value. Influence is used to capture regions. For Titles and Equipment, this will be a modifier to a Knight’s base Influence.

Resource Points: The number of Resource Points from Demesnes a player needs available to bring the card into play.

Resistance: The “defense” of a card. Resistance is used to resist another player’s attack on a region. For Titles and Equipment, this will be a modifier to a Knight’s base Resistance.

Artist: The artist who created the original work. If none is listed, Nimue Innovation Studios is the owner of the work.

Quests and Redirects

Two significantly different Main Card categories are Quests and Redirects. They have many of the same attributes as the other Main Deck cards, but the cost for playing them is calculated differently.

There are 3 different costs for Quests and Redirects - 1:3, 1:4, and 1:5. These are calculated costs based on the Resistance of the Knight they're targeting. With 1:3, for every 3 points of Resistance the Knight has (including Equipment and Titles and abilities that may affect them), the Quest or Redirect will cost 1 RP. If that Quest or Redirect says 1:5, then it equates to 1 RP for every 5 points of Resistance.

That cost is rounded up in all cases, meaning that a 1:5 Quest will cost 3 if the Knight's resistance is 5 (the first RP pays for 1-5, the second RP pays for 6-10, the third RP pays for 11-15 Resistance).

Demesne Card

The second card type is the Demesne card. Its layout is as follows:

Card Title: This is the name of the card.

Card Type: This defines the type.

Artwork: A pretty picture of the card.

Card Text: Basic information about the card’s effects in play, if any.

Resource Points: This indicates the number of Resource Points that are generated by this Demesne. The Resource Points for all the Demesnes a player controls are added together - they are cumulative.

Artist: The artist who created the original work. If none is listed, Nimue Innovation Studios is the owner of the work.

Region Card

The third and final type is the Region card. Its layout is as follows:

Region Name: This is the name of the Region.

Artwork: A pretty picture of the card.

Resistance Points: The “defense” of a Region. Higher Resistance Points indicate that a Region is more difficult for a player to conquer.

Renown: The number of Renown Points earned by the player who conquers the Region.

Knight Subtypes

There are three main subtypes for Knights that you should understand. They are:

• Monarch: This indicates that the Knight is a powerful lord or lady.
• Round Table: This Knight is a member of the Round Table and provides +1 Influence to other engaged (attacking or questing) vassal Round Table Knights. This effect can be cumulative (if you have three Round Table Knights, each Knight gains +2 Influence when attacking a Region).
• Grail Knight: This Knight is a member of the Grail Temple and provides +1 Resistance to other engaged (attacking or questing) vassal Grail Knights. This effect can be cumulative (if you have three Grail Knights, each Knight gains +2 Resistance when attacking a Region). They are also Round Table Knights and apply and receive the same benefit to other Round Table Knights that Knights of that subtype provide (+1 Influence to other attacking vassal Round Table Knights).

Knight Abilities

Some Knights have innate abilities and some Titles, Equipment, and other cards can grant abilities to Knights. These abilities will only affect Knights in play under your control (your vassals) unless otherwise stated by the card text.

The current set of abilities and their effects are:

• Leader: When this Knight is your vassal, your other engaged (attacking or questing) Knights gain +1 Influence and +1 Resistance (shortened to +1/+1). This does not apply to the Leader themselves - it only applies to your other Knights.
• Strategist: When this Knight is your vassal, your other engaged (attacking or questing) Knights gain +1 Resistance (shortened to +0/+1). This does not apply to the Strategist themselves - it only applies to your other Knights.
• Tactician: When this Knight is your vassal, your other engaged (attacking or questing) Knights gain +1 Influence (shortened to +1/+0). This does not apply to the Tactician themselves - it only applies to your other Knights.
• Grail Knight: The Knight of the Grail Temple card can grant this Title to a non-Grail Knight. This has the same effect as Grail Knight in the Knight Subtypes section above. A Knight can be invested as a Grail Knight only once.
• Round Table Knight: The Knight of the Round Table card can grant this Title to a non-Round Table Knight. This has the same effect as Round Table Knight in the Knight Subtypes section above. A Knight can be invested as a Grail Knight only once.

Game Field

There are many ways that players like to arrange their play area. We don't recommend or require any particular way of arranging your play area, bu a typical play area may look something like this:

In this example, the Demesnes are on the left-hand side of the play field for the player and their Knights, Titles, and Equipment are in the middle. There are 3 Regions in play between the players and here the players are both attacking the middle Region, Anglia.

On the right are the Main deck and the Demesne deck with the spent/discard pile next to the Main deck. The remaining Regions in this example are to the left of the play area, as is the turn-keeper.

Before Play Begins

Each player should make a deck consisting of no less than 60 cards of which no fewer than 40 are their main deck and the remaining cards are their demesnes (holdings). These decks are maintained separately and are not shuffled together.

At the beginning of the game:

1. Each player separates their Main deck from their Demesne deck
2. Players determine who will go first. Players can use whatever method they desire to determine this (high roll, flip a coin, rock/paper/scissors, etc.). This first player is the “active” player.
3. Each player pulls a Farm from their Demesne deck and puts the Farm into play.
4. Each player separately shuffles their Demesne and Main decks.
5. Each player draws as many cards as they desire from their Demesne deck. They may draw from one to ten cards.
6. Each player then draws from their Main deck the number of cards needed to reach ten cards in their hand. For example, if a player draws three Demesne cards they will draw seven cards from their Main deck.
7. The active player then begins their turn in the Spring Season (discussed below).

Any player can "mulligan", or shuffle their drawn cards back into the appropriate deck and re-draw up to 10 cards. Players can mulligan only once.

Basic Game Play

Play consists of rounds where all players are allowed to take action. A game round consists of four seasons. Play in each season continues clockwise from the active player. At the end of any season, if a player has more than 10 cards in their hand, they must discard down to 10.

The seasons of each round are:

Spring Season (Recruiting)

The Active Player may bring Knights, Equipment, and Title cards into play under their control.

Players may bring at most one Demesne into play under their control during the Spring season. Players may only play upgraded Demesnes if they have the appropriate Demesne available. For instance, they can only play a Keep if there is a Large Manor that has not already been upgraded.

A player may only have cards in play whose Resource Point total is less than or equal to the total number of resource points a player has from their demesnes.

Players may move Equipment between Knights during Spring. Titles can be put in play even if no Knights are available. Titles may be moved between Knights provided that only one Title of any name is associated with the Knight (e.g., a Knight can only be granted Duke once). Knights may also be equipped with one of each subtype of equipment.

For example, if Agricol has a Good Sword (a weapon), he cannot also be equipped with an Exquisite Morningstar (also a weapon) but could be equipped with a Rouncy (a mount). Knights can have one of each type of Equipment (Weapon, Armor, Shield, or Mount) and Equipment can be moved between Knights as often as desired during the Spring Season.

When the Active Player is done with their desired activities, the Active Player "passes" and play moves clockwise. Each player in turn can do any of the above. When all players "pass" on performing more actions, the season ends.

Summer Season (Campaigning)

Campaigning is broken into several steps that allow each player to take actions and allow their opponent to respond to those actions. In cases where a player can and does respond, each player will alternate turns taking actions until both “pass” or choose to do nothing. Once that happens, all cards are resolved in the order they were played, and play proceeds to the next step.

Campaigning

1. Declare Campaigns Step
   • The active player may take one or more of the following actions:
     • Declare Knights as attacking a region by moving the card to that region. The Knight is now considered Committed.
     • Add additional knights to an existing attack (but they cannot move a knight already Committed).
2. Play Quests
   • Players must spend available RP to play Quests or Redirects.
     • The cost of a Quest is based on the Resistance of the Knight being quested; each card has a ratio of RP to Resistance in the upper left. Please see description of Quests and Redirects for more information about determining that cost.
   • Quested Knights are still shown as engaged and removed from the attack, then moved back to the controller's area.
   • Players should track how many RP were spent to play the Quest - this information is required during the Autumn season.
   • See Special Rule on Quests and Redirects below for limitations
3. Play Redirects
   • Redirects can be played on any Knight.
     • The cost of a Redirect is based on the Resistance of the Knight being quested; each card has a ratio of RP to Resistance in the upper left. Please see description of Quests and Redirects for more information about determining that cost.
   • Redirected Knights must be Committed to a new task (see Terminology for more information), whether attacking a different Region or joining a Quest. Knights cannot be Redirected to join a Quest played on an opponent's Knight.
   • See Special Rule on Quests and Redirects below for limitations
4. Play any other card that explicitly states it can be played in this step.
5. Once a player completes their actions, gameplay moves to the next player restarting with the Declare Campaigns step above.

Once all players have completed their actions (declaring attackers, playing quests and redirects, etc.), the players move to the Autumn Season.

Autumn Season (Resolution)

Resolving Attacks

1. Each player attacking a Region determines the sum of their Knights' Influence.
2. Players subtract from their total Influence the sum of their opponents' Resistance.
3. Each player compares their remaining Influence against the Resistance of the Region. If only one player's remaining Influence exceeds the Region's Resistance, the Region is captured.
4. If the remaining Influence for both armies exceeds the Region's Resistance, the player with the higher total captures the Region only if their remaining Influence exceeds their opponent's remaining Influence by an amount equal to or higher than the Renown of the Region. If both totals are equal to each other or the difference between the players is less than the Renown of the Region, the attack is a draw and the Region stays independent.
   • • Example: Player A has 12 Influence remaining and Player B has 10 Influence remaining. If the Region possesses 2 or less Renown, Player A captures it. But if the region possesses 3 or more Renown, Player A can't capture it because they only have 2 more remaining Influence than Player B.
5. If the remaining Influence for both players is less than the Region's Resistance, the Region remains independent.
6. Captured Regions are removed from the game area between both players and placed in the capturing player's space.
7. Repeat these steps for each Region separately.

If there were any captured Regions, a new Region is placed into play from the Regions deck to bring the total back to 3 (if possible). When all Regions from the Region deck are conquered, the game is over and a winner is determined.

Resolving Quests and Redirects

1. Knights that were quested are reset to their original orientation
2. For each Knight reset, its controller must draw one card for each Resource Point used to Quest the Knight.
3. For each additional Knight who joined the Quest, its controller must draw one card for each Resource Point used to play the original Quest.
   • For example, if the Bone-Snapper Quest is played on a Knight for 4 Resource Points and two additional Knights are Redirected to join that Quest, the controller of the Knight must draw 4 cards for each Knight participating, meaning that player draws 12 total cards.
   • (The Resource Points expended for the Redirects are not considered for this effect.)
4. All RP spent by players to play Quests or Redirects is reset during this season.

Resetting Support

The Active Player may also pull as many of their cards in play (other than Demesnes) as desired back into their hand. If there are any Knights removed this way from play that have Titles associated with them, those Titles remain in play, similar to Equipment. Any unremoved Equipment is unpaired but remains on the playing field (and must still be supported with RP).

We recommend that players double-check that only the RP needed to pay for cards in play is engaged.

The remaining players do the same in clockwise order after the Active Player does this or passes.

Winter Season (Resetting)

At the beginning of the Winter season, the Active Player shifts to the next clockwise player.

The Active Player must draw a card from either their Demesne deck or their Main deck. If one deck is exhausted the player must draw from the other. If no cards are available in either deck, the game ends and a winner is determined. This is repeated for all other players until all players pass.

Future Rounds

Rounds go back to the Spring Season and continue until the final Region is conquered or both a player’s Main and Demesne decks are exhausted. In either case, players determine the winner based on the Renown earned from captured Regions. See Winning the Game section below.

Winning the Game

Play ends when one of three conditions occurs:

1. The final Region is conquered by a player
2. A player has no more cards to draw from either their Main or Demesne decks and they must draw a card
3. Players know in advance the total Renown available and one player has captured more than half of the total

Once one of these is met, the players will calculate the total Renown they earned from their captured Regions. The player who has the highest Renown is crowned the Supreme Monarch and winner of the game.

If the total Renown is tied, the game is a tie.

Special Rules

Special Rule on Knights

There are two kinds of Knights in Round Table – generic Knights (Knight Mercenary, Knight Errant, Knight Bachelor, Knight Vassal, and Knight Lord) and named Knights (such as Gawain, Arthur, and Lancelot).

If a player recruits a named Knight with the same name as a Knight already in play under either player’s control, both Knights are removed from play and placed in the Spent Pile. This is the game equivalent of that Knight getting "fed up with the both of you" and walking away from both armies. Any Titles and Equipment used by those Knights become unpaired; it can be paired with another Knight during that controller's Spring Phase.

Special Rule on Quests and Redirects

NB: This rule is under evaluation and may be removed in a future edition of the rules

There is a limitation on Quests and Redirects. Only one of each named Quest or Redirect can be played during the Summer/Campaign Season. If during the Summer/Campaign Season, a player uses The Green Knight Quest on a Knight, no other player can use The Green Knight Quest for the remainder of the season.

Similarly, if one player used Royal Command to reset one of their Knights, other players could not use it to reset one of theirs.

This restriction is removed at the end of the Summer season.

The Cardinal Rule

There is a cardinal rule for Round Table:

The text on a card may contradict the game rules. In these cases, the card text supersedes the rules in this booklet.

If you have any questions about game play or a specific card, there is a Wiki available online that describes game play and card rulings. Please check the main website and click Support.

Constructing Decks

Players may find while playing that they wish they had more of a particular kind of card or fewer (or none) of another. Players are free to use the cards from their collection to build their own decks. Players may include up to four of any Knight, Equipment, Title, Quest, or Redirect in their decks.

The main deck can be of any size provided that it is a minimum of 40 cards. There is no minimum size for the Demesne deck. However, the total of the Main deck and the Demesne deck must be at least 60 cards. There are no maximum sizes imposed for either deck.

Players will decide at the beginning of the game which Regions will be used. They may use any number of cards from either player’s Region deck - or a blend of both player's decks - provided that the minimum number of 5 Regions are used for the game.

Tournament Play

Round Table tournaments typically consist of Swiss-style (3 or more matches against semi-random opponents). The top 4 finishers after those matches advance to the finals where they play in single elimination until one winner is determined. Each round typically lasts 1 hour and is a best-of-three match (whoever wins 2 of the games wins the match).

All tournament play uses the rules around deck construction and play as described in the special rules section above.

Three main formats use the constructed Swiss-style tournament structure. It is used for competitive play tournaments and organizers should familiarize themselves with the formats and the Regions used in each. The constructed competitive formats are:

• Constructed - Cornwall - Competitive
  • This format uses 5 specific Regions - Lyonesse, Tintagel, Devon, Totnes, Taunton
  • Constructed decks - 60 card minimum, 40 or more in the Main Deck, remainder in Demesne Deck
  • Best of 3 games
  • 1 hour per round, Swiss style format
• Constructed - East Anglia - Competitive
  • This format uses 5 specific Regions - Essex, Hertford, Anglia, Huntington, Silchester
  • Constructed decks - 60 card minimum, 40 or more in the Main Deck, remainder in Demesne Deck
  • Best of 3 games
  • 1 hour per round, Swiss style format
• Constructed - Wales - Competitive
  • This format uses 5 specific Regions - Galvoie, Cardigan, Cameliard, Estragales, Escavalon
  • Constructed decks - 60 card minimum, 40 or more in the Main Deck, remainder in Demesne Deck
  • Best of 3 games
  • 1 hour per round, Swiss style format

Another competitive format available to players is the limited format. This uses a single unopened Starter Deck and players will use the Swiss-style format as above.

• Limited - Competitive
  • Players use unopened Starter Decks
  • Players select one deck’s set of Regions to play with
  • Best of 3 games
  • 1 hour per round, Swiss style format

Other formats have been identified for casual and limited (non-constructed) play.

• Constructed - Casual
  • Constructed decks - 60 card minimum, 40 or more in the Main Deck, remainder in Demesne Deck
  • Best of 3 games
  • 1 hour per round, round robin style
• Limited - Casual
  • Players use one unopened Starter Deck
  • Players select one deck’s set of Regions to play with
  • Best of 3 games
  • 1 hour per round, Swiss style format

Finally, there are two more formats available - Grand Melee Competitive and Casual. These use the Regions not used in the other three competitive formats. These formats will take considerable time and arrangements should be carefully considered before undertaking this format. That said, it can be a lot of fun, especially with since there are more than 2 players participating in each game.

• Constructed - Wessex Grand Melee - Competitive
  • This format uses 15 specific Regions - Dorset, Rydychan, Southports, Wuerensis, Salisbury, Clarence, Hampshire, Somerset, Gloucester, Tribruit, Camelot
  • 7 Regions are in play instead of the usual 3
  • Constructed decks - 60 card minimum, 40 or more in the Main Deck, remainder in Demesne Deck
  • One Game, multiple players (up to 10)
  • Play continues until a winner is declared (special tie-break rules may apply)
• Constructed - Wessex Grand Melee - Casual
  • This format uses 15 specific Regions - Dorset, Rydychan, Southports, Wuerensis, Salisbury, Clarence, Hampshire, Somerset, Gloucester, Tribruit, Camelot
  • 7 Regions are in play instead of the usual 3
  • Constructed decks - 60 card minimum, 40 or more in the Main Deck, remainder in Demesne Deck
  • One Game, multiple players (up to 10)
  • Play continues until a winner is declared (special tie-break rules may apply)

Example of Game Play

To be redone.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Here are some commonly asked questions and the answers. If you have questions about the rules, please reach out to contact@nimuestudios.com or ask in our Discord.

Q - What happens if I play a Quest on a Knight that is already on a Quest?

A - The old Quest is discarded and the new Quest becomes the Knight's active Quest. Only RP associated with the new Quest is used during resolution in Autumn. Note that any RP spent on the original Quest is still engaged until resolution in Autumn.

Q - Do abilities like Leader, Tactician, or Strategist "stack" (i.e., if a Knight has Leader and gains it again, does it give +2/+2)?

A - No. Once a Knight has an ability, they have that ability. Adding Equipment or Titles to add the ability again has no effect.

Q - Can a Knight be Redirected to participate in a Quest my opponent's Knight is on?

A - No. Only active Quests in your play area are valid targets for a Redirect (beyond Redirecting to attack a Region).

Q - Can you play Equipment or Titles even if there are no Knights in play?

A - Yes, you certainly can. You still need to pay the RP to keep them in play, but you are welcome to do so.

Q - If I play a named Knight that my opponent already has in play, do I get the RP back since it failed?

A - No, because you spent the RP to attempt to recruit them. You don't get the RP you spend back until resolution in Autumn.

Q - What is the cost for Quests and Redirects?

A - Those different ratios mean you have to calculate the cost based on the Resistance of the targeted Knight (1 RP per 3/4/5 Resistance of the Knight). So, if Agricol (2 Influence, 1 Resistance) is granted the Duke Title (+6 Influence/+6 Resistance) and carries a Fae Shield (+0 Influence/+8 Resistance), his total Resistance would be 15. So if you were playing The Faceless Man Quest (1:3), you would need to spend 5 RP to play it. And Agricol's controller would draw 5 cards during Autumn resolution. More information can be found here.

Q - Why do the abilities on cards have the words Influence and Resistance rather than the symbols?

A - Because our lead game designer messed that up and forgot to get it changed. It will be fixed in future editions of the game.

Q - Why IS there a watermelon in that press?

A - Reno will tell you later.

Rules Version

These are the 1.0.2 version of the rules for Round Table the Trading Card Game.

These rules were last updated on 2024-03-18.