player: 2, materials: 52 card deck, 2 six-sided dice (🎲🎲), number of resources (📦)

Introduction

Dueling Nobles is a unique and strategic card game that contains far more depth than the standard gambling games typically played with 52 card playing decks. Jacks, Queens, and Kings are your prized fighters as they challenge your opponent’s nobles to sword duels ⚔️ in an effort to eliminate them from the game.

Preparation

First, separate the playing card deck into 2 decks, one that contains Jacks, Queens, and Kings, and a larger deck that contains the rest of the number cards. These decks will be referred to as the noble deck and the number deck from this point on.

Each player receives 6 cards from the noble deck, than selects 3 nobles to put in front of them (this area is the player’s courtyard, all further nobles they control will be placed here). Each player can have any mix of Jacks, Queens and Kings as they desire (including multiple copies of the same noble). The remaining 6 noble cards that weren’t selected get shuffled and become the noble deck for use later in the game. Determine who goes first, than each player gets dealt 6 cards from the number deck and the game is ready to begin. Player’s alternate turns starting with the first player.

Play Game

  1. Beginning of Turn Actions
  2. Generate Resources
  3. Spend Resources
  4. Announce a Duel
  5. Resolve Duel (Combat)

Beginning of Turn Actions: These include the King’s ability, permanent boost cards and suit abilities.

Generate Resources: Each player generates 1 📦 on their turn (📦s are marked by counters). In addition, a player may discard from his hand 3 cards of the same suit to generate 3 📦s.

Spend Resources: Each player on their turn can spend 1 📦 to draw 1 card (limit 3 cards per turn) All 📦s must be spent before any cards are drawn (for example, you can’t spend 1 📦, look at your card, and then decide to draw another, its all one action). Each player may also spend 5 📦s to draw a new noble from the noble deck and put it in their courtyard.

Announce a Duel: Each player can make 1 Duel on his turn. Announce which noble you are using and which noble of your opponents you wish to duel. Your opponent may spend 2 📦s to change the target of your duel to a different noble in his courtyard. If he doesn’t change the target of the duel, your noble and the noble you selected begin a duel. Push them forward to indicate this.

Resolve a Duel: Both the attacker and defender add together a subtotal of the total ⚔️ of their noble. This includes their normal ⚔️ number, any modifiers or bonuses they receive, and the addition of one 🎲 roll to the number (place 🎲 on your noble to help remember the bonus they are receiving). Each player then announces the ⚔️ of his noble. The attacker can then play 1 number card out of his hand and add that number to the ⚔️ of their noble. If that card is the same suit as the noble that it is played on, that noble receives an additional +2 ⚔️ bonus in the duel. The attacker must always play their number card first. The attacker can decline to play a number card, but won’t receive another chance to play one after the defender plays their number card. The defender then gets his opportunity to play their number card and add it to the ⚔️ of their noble, or they can decline. Each player can only play 1 number card per noble (except for the Jacks ability). Once both players are done with their number card the ⚔️ totals are tallied, and the higher total wins. Used number cards are placed in the discard pile.

The loser of the duel takes 1 🩸 on his noble. When a noble reaches his 🩸 limit it is discarded (killed) and re-shuffled back into the noble deck. The winner of the duel immediately receives 1 extra 📦. In the case of a tie, both nobles receive 1 🩸 and neither generates any 📦.

Suit Abilities

All suit abilities only work once per game per player, and only at the beginning of your turn.

  • ♥️: discard a ♥️ card from your hand to heal 1 🩸 from any of your nobles.
  • ♦️: discard a diamond card from your hand to draw 3 cards (only if your opponent has more nobles than you in his courtyard).
  • ♣️: may discard a club card from your hand to take any card from the discard pile and put it in your hand.
  • ♠️: may discard a spade card from your hand to look at your opponent’s hand

Number Card Abilities

  • 2’s and 3’s: can play as permanent ⚔️ boosts on your nobles at the beginning of your turn. These represent weapons used in the duels the nobles are fighting. Each noble can only have 1 permanent boost card and you can only play 1 per turn. The permanent boosts can be switched between your nobles at the beginning of your turn. If a noble dies, the permanent ⚔️ boost gets discarded as well. 2’s and 3’s can be played as regular number cards in duels as well, they don’t have to be used as permanent ⚔️ boosts.

  • Aces: represents critical hits by the player who plays them in a duel. The player who plays an ace as their number card in a duel automatically wins the duel, unless the opponent also plays an ace (in which case the duel is a tie and both nobles take a 🩸).

The Nobles

  • Jacks: 11 ⚔️, 2 🩸 max. May use 2 number cards to add to their ⚔️ total in a duel. Both must be played at the same time and before the defender plays their number card.

  • Queens: 12 ⚔️, 2 🩸 max. Queens have +3 ⚔️ for each other noble in the same courtyard as them.

  • Kings: 13 ⚔️, 3 🩸 max. At the beginning of your turn you may 🩸 the king to generate 1 📦 (once per turn). Kings roll two 🎲🎲 to add to their ⚔️ total instead of 🎲.

End Game

If the number deck runs out, re-shuffle the discard pile and use it as the number deck. If the noble deck runs out, then neither player can draw new nobles until some nobles are killed. The first person to kill all of their opponent’s nobles wins the game.