Royal Court

You are the Royal Steward. Each day, nobles, priests, soldiers, and peasants petition the throne, and it falls to you to seat them in their proper places. Seat them well and chains of harmony form, earning the King's Favor. Seat them badly, and the court is left wanting.

Royal Court is a single-player card puzzle for five-minute sittings. One deck of fifty cards, four faction fields, and a small antechamber where petitioners wait their turn.

Four houses, four rules

Each faction keeps its own idea of proper order. The Nobility insist on descending rank. The Clergy climb ever upward. The Military march in alternating step. The Peasantry stay close to their neighbours. Build a chain that follows the pattern, then bank it before it can be broken, and the longer it runs, the more the court applauds.

A day is won by all four

The day is won only when every house is satisfied, so the question each turn is not just where a card scores, but which house still needs feeding. Ten event cards bend the day in its own direction.

Features

• Fifty cards, four rules. Nobility descend, Clergy ascend, Military alternate odd and even, Peasantry stay within two. Every faction plays like its own small puzzle inside the larger one.
  
• Bank or push. A chain scores when you cash it in. Leave it running for a bigger payout and risk a bandit, a plague, or a war declared breaking it first.
  
• Ten events. The Jester, the Harvest Festival, War Declared, the Plague, and more. Each bends the day in its own direction, and each tells you what it did.
  
• The Daily Court. The same shuffle for every player, once a day.
  
• Unlimited courts. Deal as many fresh courts as you like, whenever you like.
  
• The Reckoning. Every day ends in a ledger and a rank, from a wanting Regent to a satisfied court, with lifetime stewardship stats.
  
• Hand-drawn. Forty-nine petitioners drawn in a warm, cel-flat storybook style on parchment, on an oak board.
  
• One purchase. No ads, no microtransactions, nothing else to buy.