Cursed Court

In Cursed Court, players wager their limited influence across the courtly seasons. As the machinations of the nine key nobles are progressively revealed, their fortunes rise and fall. Each has just four wagering crowns and 20 betting coins in their color. The nine major nobles appear in a three-by-three grid on the game s board, and four times each in the game s 36-card deck. From the top-left they are the Courtesan, Merchant, King, Priestess, King, Duke, Jester, Sorceress, and Assassin. Each game lasts three years, and each year has four seasons. Each year begins with hidden information. Cards are dealt face-down, like hole cards in poker, with a key exception: Each hole card is shared by a pair of adjacent players, who may both look at it. So each player begins the year knowing the card to their left and the card to their right, and other players can deduce the hidden information they can t see based on what their opponents do. Each season begins with public information. One card is dealt face-up to the tableau, an array of cards next to the board. In each season, each player places one of their crowns on a board region, either a noble region or a set region. A noble bet is a wager that at least one of that noble s cards will appear among the hidden and public cards before the year s end. A set bet is a wager that some specific collection of nobles will all appear. For example, the Opera set comprises the Courtesan, Merchant, Priestess, and Queen.KEY_TAB