In Gods' Gambit, players represent fallen gods who must solve problems in the world and perform good acts to be allowed to return to the High Heavens.
By playing a card from your hand of either the same color (same location) or the same value (same trouble) as on the playing table, you clear one of the quests bestowed upon you. When one player has rid himself of all of the cards (quests) in his hand, or when a certain period of time has passed (when you've drawn four special cards from the draw deck), that round ends. The player who rid himself of cards gets closer to the High Heavens, but those with cards remaining are pushed away even further.
The gods can also use their faithful servants for their own purposes. They can help their masters to do away with surplus quests, or cause trouble for the other gods by imposing more quests on them. However, take care when you do this because all such acts remain in memory as bad karma. If you manage to complete all of your quests, your accumulated bad karma will be ignored, but if you fail and have quests remaining, they will become a heavy burden.
You will need to determine when to silently do your chores and when to use your servants to increase your chances of success.