To Be King - Time

The game is played out in rounds with each round consisting of each player having a turn. Once everyone has had a turn, the game advances to the next round. This chapters will go into detail on rounds, player turns and discuss the various things a player may be responisible for keeping track of on their turn.

The game begins with round '0'. This period is used by players to choose a clan and create a character. Once all the players have developed their characters, provided them with funds, talents, gifts, spells (if they get any) and a starting location, the host would click the New Round button in the Shield window. This officially begins the game.

5.1.1 - Round 1

Several things occur when the New Round button is clicked for the first time. The Merchants receive a random variety of goods, the palace rooms and relics are randomly distributed throughout the palace, many of your character's options are activated, a few other internal settings are taken care of and the clan shields are dealt out to the Shields window. You will see a few messages annoucing some of these things in the chat window.

Merchants Stock Their Shelves - The first thing the players should do is arrange and examine the items the merchant's shops have for sale so everyone has an idea of what's available. All the merchants start with a few staple items and the game may provide each with a few randomly selected items to help stock their shelves. The host should now go to each merchant and organize the goods making them easily visible to all players.

The first picture show the Blacksmith shop when opened for the first time. The card stack in the middle are the goods that the Blacksmith always starts with. Cards on the merchant description were just dropped there as added stock. Once these cards are dragged and organized, you may end up with something that looks like the second picture. New goods will occasionally appear in the merchant shops at various times and a message will be displayed stating that (a merchant) has received (an item).

Palace Rooms & Relics Are Distributed. Doors are Locked - The map file used for your particular game has no rooms in the palace. Rather, it only has placeholders to show where the rooms will be once distributed. This random distribution takes place at the beginning of the first round. If you open the palace map, you'll see the maps and relics are all now in place and several of the doors have been locked.

Since this random distribution takes place when the game begins, all the rooms and relics will be in different locations every time you start a new game, even if you are using the same map file.

Starting Location Option - Since the location a player is placed in at the beginning of the game is entirely random, they have the option on Round 1 to remain in there current location and encounter it rather than move, if they like. After Round 1, they must move unless they have an option to stay in their current location as per normal movement rules.

No Rival Interaction - Players may not encounter each other in any way on Round 1.

5.1.2 - After Round 1 - The Kingdom News

Beginning with Round 2 and onward, a number of things will take place whenever a new round begins and a string of messages, known as "The Kingdom News" will appear in the chat window that will look similar to this:

Here's all the stuff that may be reported in the news:

- Any long term events that are currently active (like an ongoing storm) will be announced.
- Announcments of roamers moving or disappearing.
- Announcements that collectibles left on the board have been picked up by someone and no longer available. This will quite often be followed by a message stating a merchant has received that item.
- If a player is tagged as poisoned or diseased or both, HP's will be deducted and announced ..like Catrina above.
- Players who are wounded receive an HP of natural healing and announced ...like Groxia above.
- A bonus of financial support may be randomly determined and announced ...like Luminia above.
- A bonus of a point may be given to a random attribute ...like Corsair above.
- A bonus of a 5 point increase in HPMax may be given.
- Arcane Points (AP) are reset for any player that spent them and announced with a reminder to deduct AP for active items.

As you can see, a lot of things take place every time a new round starts. Because of all the stuff the game is working out, it may take some time for it to respond after clicking the New Round button. Just be patient.

It's important to read The Kingdom News at the beginning of each round to insure you are updated and you're aware of what's happening in the world ..perhaps with a cup of coffee.

Basically, a player's turn consist of them moving their character token (unless they are involved in something else) and resolving any events that take place. When a player is done, they announce their turn is over and we go to the next player. If it's the last player, the host begins a new round. A player may have one or more of the following to take care of during their turn, as well.

5.2.1 - Independents

Independents are individuals that work for you and you can send them off to do various things, like buy goods, sell gems, attack creatures and/or harass your rivals. They may be companions, roamers or even certain types of creatures. You need a Tygal to control independents as you must have a way to communicate with them while they are away from your party. You can hire the services of a Tygal at the Psychic.

There's no set order on whether you move your character or independent first or last. However, if you forget to move your independent before you've announced the end of your turn, then you may not move them until your next turn. If your independent gets involved in something outside of your turn, you still control them instead of passing control to the next player in sequence.

5.2.2 - Controlling Long Term Events

If you draw an event that extends over a period time, like a storm, you are responsible for taking care of when the storm ends. Long term events will have a [Tracker] option which will present a tracker. As the controller of this event, you would drag the event card around with you and, at the beginning of each turn, you would click the tracker's down arrow indicating a round has passed. If this reduces the tracker to '0', announce the event is over and [Trash] it. Here's an example:

In this example, Grisha has had an occurrence event called Wild Vines. As the card's [Info] shows, she must establish a [Controller]. This places her clan tag on the card, showing she's the controller and the info states that the wild vines will last for D4+2 rounds. She rolls a 5 for total of 7 rounds. She opens the [Occurrence Tracker] and clicks the up arrow to set the tracker at 7. Just to help insure that she doesn't forget her responsibilities, she has also activated her [Reminder Tag] on her token, which is shown as a finger with a ribbon.

At the beginning for each turn thereafter, before doing anything else, she would open the tracker, if necessary, and click the down arrow. If it shows '0', the event is over. She would announce the wild vines has ended and she would trash the occurrence.

Note that the event ends with her. So, if she's the first player in a round, the wild vines ends before anyone has the chance to take advantage of it. If she's the last player in the round, everyone can take advantage of it except her as it will end at the beginning of her turn.

Ongoing active long term events will be announced in The Kingdom News.

5.2.3 - Controlling Long Term Personal Issues

If you suffer some malady (poison, disease, other personal issues, etc.) for a period of time, you would use [Trackers] attached to your token to keep track of the number of turns. For example: Grisha will be catatonic for 3 rounds and she's recorded this on her personal tracker.

Keeping track of your personal issues is a bit different than events as far as timing. Rather than reducing your tracker at the beginning of your turn (like a long term event), you would reduce it at the end of your turn. So when Grisha shows 1 turn left on her tracker, rather then reducing it to 0 at the beginning of her turn, she would play out one more turn as being catatonic and then drop her tracker to '0' at the end of the turn. She would then recover.

Note that trackers have a [Close] option and they will retain their values if you close them and open them later.