The Old King's CrownPlay online, free

How to play

A party of heroes enters the barrow of a dead king. It finds the Crown Vault, beats its guardian and lifts the crown. Then the Old King rises and chases the crown. The party must carry it to the Entrance before the Dread candle burns down. All players are one team. It wins together or loses together. Nobody gets a personal score.

The barrow

The barrow is a grid of 5 by 5 squares. The Entrance is printed on the bottom row. Every hero starts there. All other squares are empty. The room tiles are in a stack, and the Crown Vault is hidden in its lower half. You see how many tiles are left, but never their order.

Your turn

You play one hero at a time. Throw 4 dice. Each die pays for one action, in any order. A poisoned hero or the hero that carries the crown has one die fewer. The turn ends when no die is left, or when you tap End turn.

1. Step. Move to a room next to yours that is already laid.
2. Explore. Move into an empty square next to yours. Lay the top room tile there. A lair wakes a monster, a trap throws a save die, a chest room gets a chest token, and the Crown Vault wakes the Shield Guardian.
3. Fight. Fight a monster in your room. A die at or above its Guard hits for 1 wound. A 6 always hits for 2 wounds.
4. Search. In a room with a chest and no monster, a die of 4 or more takes the top item card.
5. Revive. A die of 3 or more stands a downed hero in your room with 2 health.
6. Lift the crown. In the vault with no monster there, a die of 5 or more lifts the crown. This wakes the Old King.
7. Skill. Each hero has one skill that a die pays for. It is printed on the hero card.

Some actions cost no die: pass the crown to a hero in your room, pick up a crown that lies in your room, and use an item. To leave a room that holds a monster, you need a die of 4 or more.

Dice that you do not use stay on your hero mat as guard dice. Each guard die blocks 1 damage when a monster strikes, and then it is used up.

The monsters

There is no player for the monsters. After each hero's turn, every monster that is awake acts once. If a hero stands in its room, it strikes. If not, it walks toward the nearest standing hero and strikes if it arrives. A strike hits the hero with the least health. A hero with no health is down: it drops the crown, lies on its side and can be revived. Monsters ignore a downed hero.

Dread and the crown

At the end of each round, the Dread candle burns one notch. When the crown is lifted it burns two. When it reaches the 5th and the 10th notch, a wanderer enters at the Entrance. If it burns down to the 15th notch, the barrow seals and you lose. You also lose if every hero is down at the same time.

The Old King falls when his health is gone. He lies still for two rounds, then he rises again. You win at once when the hero that carries the crown steps onto the Entrance.

At the online table

• Tap a die, then tap a lit square. If a square has more than one choice, buttons show them. On a keyboard: Space or R throws, 1 to 4 pick a die, the arrows move over the squares, Enter uses one, and D ends the turn.
• With one seat you play two heroes. With 2 to 4 seats each seat plays one hero.
• Each decision has a 60-second timer. If it runs out, the table plays the safe move for you.
• An empty seat is taken by a bot, always marked as a bot.

Why it is fair

A secret seed decides the lead seat, the order of the three decks and the dice. You see its fingerprint when the game starts and the seed itself when it ends, so you can check it. Verify a game.

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