Rulebook v2.0
The City of Kings started shipping 6 months ago and since then thousands of new people have played the game.
During this time, I have been closely monitoring posts, game reports, watching videos, and gathering as much feedback as possible about how people are playing the game.
By collecting this information, I have been able to identify which rules people need further clarification on, and which strategies are most frequently used.
Version 2.0 of the rulebook and quick reference booklet have been written with 2 goals:
- Add clarification to problematic areas.
- Bring further balance to strategies, reducing the strength of some, and powering up others through minimal game changes.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Some of these changes may conflict with previous rules, or previous clarifications that were made. In these instances, the new rules written in these booklets take priority, and should be considered a change to the previous rules.
DOWNLOAD
You can download the booklets here:
CHANGE LOG
In addition to the following list, there may be some spelling corrections, or re-arrangements of layout, but these have not been listed and will not impact the rules.
MAJOR CHANGES AND CLARIFICATIONS
These items are considered the most important changes and clarifications.
STABLE MAP TILES – PAGE 13 (QUICK REFERENCE BOOKLET)
Stable tiles no longer require the Interact action to use, they are now considered adjacent to all other Stable tiles and are travelled through during a Move action.
Workers are still unable to use Stables.
CALCULATING PERCENTAGES – PAGE 15 (RULEBOOK)
The way percentages work for luck and skills has been clarified.
When calculating a Heal or Attack that gains a percentage bonus from Luck, or from a Skill, you always use the character’s base stat, ignoring any bonuses.
Example 1: T’Lorra has 8 attack and has unlocked the Skill Eagle’s Rally, gaining +2 to her attack. T’lorra performs a basic attack and rolls for luck; she gets +50%. The total damage is:
Basic damage: 8
Bonuses: 2
Luck: 4 (50% of 8, not 50% of 10)Total Damage: 14
When dealing with multiple percentages, such as a skill giving +50% and luck giving +50%, you always take 50% of the base stat.
Example 2:
Basic damage: 8
Bonuses: 2
Luck: 4 (50% of 8, not 50% of 10)
skill giving +50%: 4 (50% of 8, not 50% of 10, and not 50% of 14)Total Damage: 18
TEMPORARY STRUCTURES – PAGE 18 (RULEBOOK)
You can only have 1 Temporary Structure on a map tile at any time, you cannot place 2 Temporary Structures on the same map tile.
TRAPS – PAGE 18 (RULEBOOK)
Traps do not ignore shields.
FIRE/POISON TOKENS – PAGE 14/15 (QUICK REFERENCE BOOKLET)
Fire and Poison tokens both activate the moment they are placed on a map tile.
Fire instantly does damage to players and creatures on the map tile (if there are any), and poison instantly gets moved onto character sheets and creature templates should a player or creature be on the tile.
2-PLAYER STORIES AND SCENARIOS (SECOND PRINT)
In a 2-player game, all stories and scenarios now start with only 2 morale, instead of 3. This has been updated on the cards in the second print, but owners of the first print will need to take note of this change.
MINOR CHANGES AND CLARIFICATIONS
RULEBOOK
1) Page 2: The where to find us links have been updated.
2) Page 4: The contents have been updated to list out how many of each colour of the Creature Ability tokens there should be, and how many Ageless Realms/Azure Rise map tiles there should be.
3) Page 6: A recommendation has been added to play the Desecrated scenario first.
4) Page 6: Previously the text only mentioned stories, scenarios have been added.
5) Page 6: Added information to explain multi-phase tiles (buildings).
6) Page 6: Added information about which map tiles are the Ageless Realms and which are Azure Rise.
7) Page 8: Updated wording for Special abilities to clarify when they activate.
8) Page 9: Added clarification to bonus abilities, you should not add them to a creature setup by a Quest, Scenario or Story card.
9) Page 10: Moved “weak tokens get removed” to be before “strong tokens get turned over to weak side” to avoid confusion.
10) Page 12: Re-organised the page layout to give more room for how range works.
11) Page 12: Added examples for how range works.
12) Page 13: The description for duplicate creature abilities has been updated to confirm duplicate abilities are only activated once per creature activation.
13) Page 13: Clarification has been added to confirm you should still activate Special Abilities, even if the Basic Attack has no target.
14) Page 14: Wording update, changed “turn corners” to “change direction”.
15) Page 20/21:The graphics have been updated to show further variations of options, previously the same example was repeated multiple times.
16) Page 20/21:Updated Action skills to mention multi-action skills
17) Page 24: Added item parts to the resources section of quest rewards.
18) Page 25: Added clarification to state equipment cards don’t automatically get replaced when you purchase them.
19) Page 26: Restructured page layout to accommodate new content.
20) Page 26: Added clarification to state bosses do not activate during the round they are setup.
21) Page 26: Added clarification about only using phase 1 building tiles for setup.
22) Page 26: Added additional clarifications about Escort quests and freeing NPCs from creatures before you can escort them to safety.
23) Page 27: Added missing text to “The Scorched”.
24) Page 27: Added an option to still play 2-player with 3 morale for those struggling with the new “2 morale” update.
QUICK REFERENCE BOOKLET
25) Page 4: Added confirmation that trap damage triggers the Fury ability.
26) Page 9: Added clarification to Scavenge quests confirming you can roll the dice before you choose which Option you are attempting.
27) Page 14/15: Added the word “Strong” to the Fire, Frost and Poison descriptions to help clarify what happens when multiple tokens of the same type get placed on the same map tile.
Thank you for your continued support and I hope these updates help further your enjoyment of The City of Kings.
Frank
Frank West
Frank West is a gamer and designer based in Bristol, UK. He published his first board game, The City of Kings, in 2018 and now works on other games and organising events in the local area. His goal? To design and publish games focusing on immersive themes, fun mechanics and beautiful components. If you have any questions or would just like a chat, feel free to get in touch at any time!
2 comments
Damon
6th October 2023 at 9:42 pm
Question – is there a “V2.0” designation anywhere in the printed rulebook that I could use to identify the version I have?
Frank West
9th October 2023 at 10:42 am
Hi Damon,
On page 2 under “Where to find us” if the Twitter and Facebook handles are listed as tcokgame then it is version 1. If they are listed as cityofgameshq then it is version 2, I hope this helps!