3 to 6 players act in the role of six characters that represent 6 groups of people in the whole human history: King, Thief, Minister, Executioner, Sheriff and Peasant.
Every player has 5 coins in the game, 3 in her hand and 2 in the treasury which is the area in the center of players. The game is to divide the treasury between the players and when the treasury is empty, the winner is the player who has more coins in her hands.
In the beginning, the cards are drawn in front of players and the player with King starts the game.
The starting player shuffles the cards and places all 6 cards from the back on the table. In all games from 3 to 6 players every 6 character cards should be placed on the table and every player has a card. So in 3, 4 or 5 player game, there are 3, 2 or one card which is not owned by any player but they have their spot in the game.
Before the start, every player can see one card except the one she owns.
Then the game starts!
Every player can do 3 things on her turn:
- Rotate the cards: by saying “to right” every card goes to the spot in its right. By saying “to left” we do the same to the left. And by saying “to the counter card” every card goes to the spot in the counterpoint (which means the 3rd card from the left or the right).
- Pay a coin to the treasure and see her card.
- Claim a character and act!
Character Acts:
King: Says “Who is the minister?” and takes 3 coins from the treasury. Then another player can claim he is the Minister, say “Yes Sir” and take one coin.
Thief: Takes one coin from the player in his right and one from his left. If any of them is out of coin, takes from the treasury instead.
Minister: He can take any 2 cards and shuffle them under the table without seeing them and place them back.
Executioner: He attempts to kill one player by calling his character card. The victim should check his card. If executioner was right, takes all the victim’s coins.
Sheriff: Says “Pay Tax” and all players should pay one coin to the treasury. As sheriff doesn’t pay tax, chooses one player and says “You pay 2” and that player should pay 2 coins. If you are out of coins, you shouldn’t pay tax.
Peasant: She can show her card and say “I’m Peasant”. Then she should say the character of all players and take all the coins remaining in the treasure. If she gets wrong, she should pay 2 coins to the treasury and the game continues.
When a player claims a character, another player can challenge her. In this case player 1 gives her card to player 2 and He checks the card. If player 1 was right, player 2 should pay one coin to the treasury. If he was wrong, the game continues.
Whenever the treasury got empty, the game is over and player who has more coin than others is the Winner!
