Line of Succession

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Playing a round
5. End of a round
6. Three crowns
7. Scoring
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Line of Succession is a short duel for two. The old king is dying, and two heirs compete for the support of the realm. Cards are laid one by one in a row in the middle of the table. On your turn you either add a card to the end of the row or take the last five cards of the row for your collection – but you may take cards only once per round. Timing is everything: when you add a card, you may be handing it to your opponent.

After four rounds, the player with more points wins: points come from having more supporters of a family than your opponent, from complete sets and from favours, minus your betrayals. And whoever collects all three crowns wins at once.

• Players: exactly 2.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck; you play with 45 of its cards.

Line of Succession is our own adaptation for an ordinary deck, inspired by District Noir (Nobutake Dogen and Nao Shimamura, 2016). It has not been playtested yet.

The cards

Sort out these 45 cards; the other 7 cards (♣ 6 7 8, ♦ 7 8, ♥ 8 9) and the jokers go back in the box.

The numbers on the supporter cards don't matter – only their suit, their family. Each family is worth as many points as it has cards: the smallest family, clubs, is worth 5, the largest, spades, 8. Easy to remember: the highest card of a family shows its value (♣ up to 5, ♦ up to 6, ♥ up to 7, ♠ up to 8).

Setup

1. Shuffle the 45 cards. Take 3 cards off the top and put them back in the box without looking at them. They are out of this game – so nobody knows exactly how many cards of each kind are in play.
2. Deal 5 cards to each player, face down.
3. Turn the next 2 cards face up in the middle of the table, side by side. This is the start of the row.
4. Put the rest face down as the draw pile.
5. Decide who starts the first round.

Playing a round

Take turns, starting with the start player. On your turn you do exactly one of these two things:

Play a card. Lay one card from your hand face up at the end of the row (always the same end – the row only grows in one direction). If your hand is empty, you can't do this.

Take cards. Take the last five cards of the row – the card at the end and the four before it – and lay them face up in front of you, sorted by kind: supporters by family, favours, betrayals, crowns. If the row has fewer than five cards, take all of them. You must take all five: you can't pick and choose.

You may take cards only once per round. After that you must play a card on each of your turns until your hand is empty. And you must take once: if your hand is empty and you haven't taken yet, you have to take.

So in each round each player has exactly six turns: five times playing a card and once taking cards – in whatever order they like.

The cards you take are yours for the rest of the game. Your collection stays face up, so both players can always see who has what.

Example: The row is 3♦ Q♠ 7♥ J♣ K♦ 2♠ 9♣, with 9♣ at the end. Ben takes cards: he gets 9♣, 2♠, K♦, J♣ and 7♥ – a crown and a favour, but also a betrayal. The row now is just 3♦ Q♠. Anna still holds three cards; she plays her 6♦ to the end of the row, hoping to take it later together with more.

End of a round

The round ends when both players have had their six turns: both hands are empty and both players have taken cards. Cards still in the row stay there for the next round.

If the draw pile still has cards, deal 5 new cards to each player and start a new round. The other player starts this time. After the fourth round the draw pile is empty and the game ends.

(The numbers work out exactly: 45 − 3 = 42 cards, 2 for the start of the row and 10 in each of the four rounds.)

Empty row: in the rare case that your hand is empty, you still have to take, and the row is empty, you take nothing; that counts as your take for this round and your turn is over.

Three crowns

If at any moment one player has all three crowns (K♠ K♣ K♦) in their collection, that player wins immediately – no scoring. If one of the crowns was among the three cards put back in the box, this can't happen; you just don't know it.

Scoring

After the fourth round, each player adds up their points:

1. Families: for each of the four families, the player with more supporters of that family scores its value: clubs 5, diamonds 6, hearts 7, spades 8. If both have the same number (even zero), nobody scores that family.
2. Sets: every complete set of four supporters – one of each family – scores 5 points. Count how many cards you have of your smallest family: that's how many sets you have.
3. Favours and betrayals: add your favours (+2, +3, +4) and subtract your betrayals (−1, −2, −3).

Crowns are worth nothing when scoring.

The higher total wins. If it's a tie, the player with more spades supporters wins; if that's tied too, more hearts, then more diamonds, then more clubs, then more crowns. If everything is equal, you share the win.

Example: At the end Anna has 3 spades, 4 hearts, 2 diamonds and 3 clubs, plus J♦ (+2), K♥ (+4) and Q♣ (−3). Ben has 5 spades, 2 hearts, 3 diamonds and 1 club, plus J♠ (+2), Q♠ (−3), 10♥ (−2) and 10♦ (−2).

• Spades: Ben has more → Ben 8. Hearts: Anna → 7. Diamonds: Ben → 6. Clubs: Anna → 5.
• Sets: Anna's smallest family is diamonds with 2 cards → 2 sets = 10. Ben's smallest is clubs with 1 → 1 set = 5.
• Anna: 7 + 5 + 10 + 2 + 4 − 3 = 25. Ben: 8 + 6 + 5 + 2 − 3 − 2 − 2 = 14. Anna wins.

Tips for beginners

• Never leave a juicy row. Before you play a card, look at the last four cards of the row: whatever you add, your opponent may take all five on their next turn.
• Watch whether your opponent has taken yet. Once they have taken in this round, they can't take again – now you can safely build up a good row for yourself.
• Save your betrayals. Once you have taken and your opponent still has to, every card you add will end up with them – that's the moment for your −3.
• Count the families. Clubs has only 5 cards: 3 of them are enough for a majority. With 3 unknown cards out of the game, a family can still be tied.
• Keep an eye on the crowns. If your opponent has two crowns, make sure the third one never ends up within their reach.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Open information: instead of putting 3 cards back unseen, put them face up next to the draw pile. The game is more calculable and the crowns are no longer a gamble.
• Match: play several games; the loser of a game starts the next one.

Deviations from District Noir: the cards of the original are mapped to a standard deck as shown above, with the same numbers of each kind and the same values. Our only addition is the rule for an empty row.