Royal Rescue

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards and dice
3. Setup
4. Phase 1: Preparation
5. Phase 2: Umbar's servants
6. Phase 3: Ugly Umbar
7. Phase 4: The dungeon
8. Winning
9. Two players
10. Solo game
11. Tips for beginners
12. Variants: the quests
13. Notes on these rules

Overview

Royal Rescue is a cooperative card-and-dice game: all players form one team and win or lose together. Ugly Umbar has locked the King and Queen in his dungeon. You raise armies from your cards, win officers, weapons and special abilities with the dice, beat Umbar's servants one by one, then Umbar himself – and finally roll the numbers of the dungeon's four locks before your last card is gone. The cards decide how strong you are; the dice decide the battles.

• Players: 1–4; best with 3 or 4. For one and two players see "Solo game" and "Two players".
• You need: one standard 52-card deck with 2 jokers, 7 ordinary six-sided dice, and paper and pencil if you want to note things.

Royal Rescue was designed by Richard Lenherr for the Traditional Deck Game Design Contest 2022 on BoardGameGeek, where it won first place for the best multiplayer game. These rules follow his version 1.4 (December 2022). Where his text leaves a question open, "Notes on these rules" at the end says how we read it.

The cards and dice

Of the 7 dice, one is the bonus die: it starts showing 1 and counts how many rolls you may repeat. The other 6 are the combat dice. You roll dice in pairs to win officers and open locks, and in larger handfuls to fight.

Bonus die: at any time in Phases 2–4 the team may use the bonus die to repeat a roll (an attack or an opening attempt). Then turn it down by 1; if it would go to 0, put it aside. Some events raise it by 1–3, never above 6 (if it was put aside, it comes back with the new value).

Setup

1. The dungeon: take the 4 Kings and 4 Queens, shuffle each group face down and turn up one King and one Queen – the royal couple. Lay them face up at the top of the table and the 4 Aces around them in a ring. Put one joker below them: that is Ugly Umbar.
2. Situation pile: shuffle the other 3 Kings, 3 Queens and the second joker and put them face down beside the dungeon.
3. Officers: stack the 4 Jacks face up beside the situation pile.
4. Soldiers: shuffle the 36 number cards and deal them all out evenly – 12 each with 3 players, 9 each with 4. Everybody takes their cards into their hand without showing them.
5. Dice: put one die showing 1 aside as the bonus die. Put the other 6 dice on Umbar.
6. Choose a commander (the first player) and a direction of play.

The game has four phases. You don't need to learn them all before you start – read each phase when you get there.

Phase 1: Preparation

Step 1 – Build armies

Each player wants to collect as many cards of one value as possible (for example four 8s). You may not say which value you want. Instead, starting with the commander and going round, each player lays two cards from their hand face up whose sum or difference is the wanted value. A player who can't show their value with two cards lays nothing.

Example: Anna wants 7s. She can lay a 4 and a 3 (4 + 3 = 7) or a 9 and a 2 (9 − 2 = 7).

Be careful not to lay cards that others want to collect – it can't always be avoided. Then, again starting with the commander, each player gives one card from their hand to another player, trying to fulfil a wish. Everybody must give a card, even if they can't help anyone.

The cards laid to show the values now defect to Umbar: put them face down in a pile beside him. They are his servants.

Now each player lays their collected cards face up in front of them: that is their army. If you ended up with more cards of another value, you may take that value instead. If you don't have at least two cards of one value, your army is one card of your choice. The rest of your hand is laid face up beside you – it becomes your people in step 3.

Example: After the swap, Anna has three 7s, Ben four 8s, Carla two 10s and Dan four 5s. Those are their armies.

Low values are harder to roll with two dice later (step 2), so an army of 7s or 8s is easier to strengthen than one of 2s or 3s.

Step 2 – Officers, special abilities and handicaps

In turn, each player rolls two dice as many times as their army has cards (Ben, with four 8s, rolls four times).

• Officer: if the two dice add up to exactly your army's value, take a Jack and put it into your army. Once you have your officer, you may use your remaining rolls to try to win officers for other armies – always rolling for that army's value. An army can have one officer. In every later battle, the officer adds +2 to one die of its army.
• Special ability (a 12): take the top card of the situation pile and lay it upright beside your army; your bonus die also goes up by 1. You can have only one special ability; every further 12 you roll only raises the bonus die by 1.
• Handicap (an 11): take the top card of the situation pile and lay it sideways beside your army. You can have only one handicap; further 11s don't count.

Special abilities and handicaps only ever go to your own army. Jacks that are left over defect to Umbar: put them on his servant pile – they are enemy officers.

A situation card has an effect for its rank (joker, King or Queen) and for its suit; both count. A Q♠ as a special ability gives you "Lockpick" and "Range".

A traitorous servant is a servant number card with the same value as one of your armies. They fight harder (see Phase 2).

Step 3 – Recruit militias

Look through your people cards: every set of four cards of the same value becomes a militia. Put your militias in the middle of the table.

Step 4 – Count your people

From your remaining people cards, take out every card with the same value as one of the armies. These soldiers didn't join you and defect to Umbar too: put them on his servant pile. All players' remaining people cards form one common pile: your people.

Step 5 – Buy weapons

Each player may turn 1 to 3 army cards into weapons: turn them face down on the army. The army must keep at least one face-up card. In every later battle, each weapon adds +1 to one die of its army (never two weapons on the same die).

Step 6 – The battle situation

Turn up the top two situation cards. Together, decide which one sets the troops' condition (lay it upright) and which one the battle conditions (lay it sideways). Again, rank and suit both count.

Phase 2: Umbar's servants

Shuffle Umbar's servants – the cards laid in step 1, the spare Jacks and the soldiers from step 4 – into a face-down pile.

Strength of a servant: you need at least this number on one die to beat it.

(The troops' condition can change this: joker +1 for all, Queen −1 for traitorous servants.)

The battle row: turn up the top two servants and lay them side by side: the first and the second place. You always fight the servant in the first place. If both have the same value, the first one must be beaten twice, by the same army, before it falls.

An attack: choose together which army attacks first; after that the armies take turns in the direction of play, one roll each. The attacking army rolls one die per army card (face-up cards; officers and weapons don't count) – Ben's four 8s roll four dice. Add the officer's +2 to one die and each weapon's +1 to another, plus any effects of the situation cards.

• Hit: at least one die reaches the servant's strength. The servant is beaten: put it on the discard pile. Move the second servant to the first place and turn up a new second one (when the pile is empty, the last servant fights alone).
• Miss: the servant stays, and the attacking army loses one card – first its officer, then an army card – onto the discard pile. When an army loses its last card it is destroyed: turn that card sideways and leave it there, so everyone still sees which servants are traitorous. Its weapons may go to another army or militia (an army can carry one weapon per card, a militia only one).

Example: Ben's army (four 8s, one officer, no weapon) attacks a normal servant (strength 5). He rolls 3, 3, 4, 5. The 5 beats it on its own; so would the 4 with the officer's +2. Against a traitorous servant (strength 6) only the 4 + 2 would do.

End of Phase 2: when the last servant is beaten:

• If at least one army is left, raise the bonus die by 1 and go on to Phase 3.
• If all armies were destroyed (this can happen before the last servant), the militias fight on, one after another. A militia rolls one die per attack, whatever its size, and loses one card on a miss. If a militia survives, raise the bonus die by 2 and go on to Phase 3.
• If there are no militias either, your people fight: one die for every 4 people cards (1 die for 1–4 cards, 2 dice for 5–8 …), no situation cards, no weapons. A miss costs one people card. If people are left, raise the bonus die by 3 and go on. If the last people card is gone, you have lost.

Phase 3: Ugly Umbar

Umbar's strength is a number of sixes: one more than the number of armies and militias you have left. Show it with a die set aside (3 armies and 1 militia: Umbar has 5 sixes – set a die to 5). Now all armies and militias attack him in the direction of play, one roll each. Every die that reaches 6 (with officer, weapons and effects) removes one six from Umbar; several such dice remove several.

When everybody has attacked once:

• Umbar has no sixes left: he is beaten. Raise the bonus die by 2 and go on to Phase 4.
• Umbar still has sixes: he strikes with his fire whip. Roll one die: you must remove that many cards from your armies, militias, officers and people, split as you like (weapons are safe). Then attack him again.
• No armies or militias left: your people attack – one die per 4 cards, only real 6s count. If Umbar survives, the fire whip strikes again. When nothing is left after a whip, you have lost.

If you reach Umbar with your people only, roll once for them first: Umbar gets one six for every 6 in that roll, plus one.

Phase 4: The dungeon

The dungeon has four locks, one per Ace, with ten numbers in all.

1. The combination: shuffle the discard pile face down. Lay the Aces in a column below the royal couple, from bottom to top: ♠ (lock 1), ♥ (lock 2), ♣ (lock 3), ♦ (lock 4). Turn up 1 card beside the ♠, 2 beside the ♥, 3 beside the ♣ and 4 beside the ♦. Each number card is its number; a Jack is 0.
2. Clean up: handicaps end. Of the special abilities, only Locksmith and Lockpick still count (their suits don't); a player with one of them keeps their officer or weapon for it. All other officers become ordinary cards, all other weapons are removed. The battle situation cards go back.
3. Your cards: shuffle all remaining army, militia and people cards (and the ordinary officers) and deal them out evenly. Hold your cards as a face-up pile so that only you see the top card. You may not tell anyone what you see – but you may try to convince the team that you should try next.
4. Opening: the team chooses who tries. Start with lock 1 and open its numbers from right to left. The chosen player turns up the top card of their pile and rolls two dice: - The number opens if the dice's sum or difference equals it – or if you roll any double. - If you missed but the sum or difference equals the value of your card, you may roll once more. - If your card has the suit of the current lock's Ace, you may change your result by 1 up or down. - A 0 opens only with a double, or with a difference of 1 changed to 0. - Success: that number is open (take its card away; when a lock is empty, take its Ace away too). The same player goes on with the same card on the next number. - Failure: the card is out of the game. The team chooses the next player (it may be the same one).

Example: Lock 3 shows 3♣, 7♥ and a Jack: its combination is 3-7-0, and you open the 0 first. Carla turns up the 6♣ and rolls 5 and 4: sum 9, difference 1. That is no 0 – but her card is a club, the suit of lock 3's Ace, so she may change the difference 1 to 0. The 0 is open, and Carla goes on with the 6♣ against the 7.

Winning

If you open all ten numbers before your last card is gone, the royal couple is free and you have won. If your cards run out first, the King and Queen stay in the dungeon – you have lost.

How well did you do? Count the cards still in your hands (the solo game uses the numbers in brackets):

Two players

Play with a third, imaginary player:

• Setup: deal the number cards as for three players; the third hand of 12 lies face down.
• Step 1: the imaginary player doesn't lay or give cards. Split its hand into two halves; each of you looks at one half, takes one card from it into your hand and puts one of your cards into the other half. Then decide who starts.
• Its army: the imaginary hand takes the value it has most cards of as its army (you choose on a tie) and goes through steps 2–4 like a player, but it buys no weapons.
• Phases 2 and 3: you take turns rolling for its army.
• Phase 4: the imaginary player leaves; its remaining cards are dealt out with the others.

Solo game

• Setup: deal 12 cards to yourself, 12 face down as Umbar's servants (without looking) and 12 face up as your people.
• Step 1: you may swap up to 3 of your hand cards with cards from the top of the servant pile. Then lay out up to 4 armies directly from your hand, each of at least two cards of the same value. The rest of your hand joins your people. Militias are unlimited.
• Phase 4: you don't need separate piles or nominations: shuffle your cards into one pile and go.

Everything else is played as with three or four players.

Tips for beginners

• Choose a value you can roll. 7s and 8s win officers most easily; 2s and 3s hardly ever.
• Show your wish clearly. A 10 and a 3 can only mean 7 (there are no 13s); a 6 and a 2 might mean 8 or 4, and your team has to guess.
• Weapons or soldiers? A weapon makes one die stronger but costs a die. For big armies, one or two weapons usually pay.
• Save the bonus die for the dungeon if you can – there every repeated roll can save a card.
• Spread the fire whip. Take its losses from the people and weak militias first, and keep your best armies whole.

Variants: the quests

Once you know the game, try the designer's three quests:

• Quest 1 – Armed mission: if there are armies of 3 cards, at least one of them must turn 1 card into a weapon; if there are armies of 4, at least one of them must turn 3 cards into weapons. Your people may carry weapons.
• Quest 2 – Dark might: the last card of an army or militia destroyed by a servant goes under the servant pile. Umbar's sixes can only be removed with doubles (or better). Armies and militias of 1 don't fight Umbar; they join other armies.
• Quest 3 – Haunted dungeon: each number of the dungeon opens only with a matching double. Weapons may be turned back into army cards in the dungeon. Your people open a lock only by adding the die to their card's value or subtracting it, not by rolling the number directly.

Notes on these rules

Royal Rescue is a contest design, and version 1.4 of its rules is still marked "work in progress". Where the text is open, we read it like this: an army has at most one officer; the cards beaten or lost in battle go on a discard pile, which is the pile shuffled for the dungeon; the people of all players form one common pile; the imaginary player in the two-player game forms an army from its most common value; a bonus die that was put aside comes back when it is raised. If your group reads a rule differently, agree before you start.