Kingdoms: Neutrals and Outsiders

Kingdoms: Main Page -> Kingdoms: Neutrals and Outsiders

The Neutral Player

As an optional rule, a Neutral Player can be added to the game. This usually happens when you have one extra person who wants to join the game, for example, if you have the adjudicator, two players on each Kingdom, and one player spare.

The Goals of the Neutral Player

The Neutral Player is essentially uninterested in who wins the Game of Succession... his sole motivation is Profit.

By default the Neutral Player needs to have doubled his starting Glamour at the end of the Game. If he manages this, he can consider himself to have won. If he doesn't he, has lost.

Note that the Neutral Player's victory conditions are entirely unrelated to the victory conditions of the two Kingdoms. Whether he wins or loses doesn't effect which King wins the Game of Succession.

To achieve these goals, he needs to establish Mercenary Contracts to the two Kingdoms. Of course, to do this, he'll need Mercenaries as well!

Its generally in the Neutral Player's interests to make the Game of Succession go on as long as possible, so that he has multiple opportunities to make profit. There are many ways he can work towards this outcome, of course - that's part of the skill of playing Neutral!

Set Up

The Mercenary Dreamform

Everyone in the Neutral Faction adheres to the same Dreamform. This Dreamform needs to be designed by the Neutral Player, and is unrelated to the Dreamforms of the two Kingdoms.

Note that a Neutral Faction Dreamform tends to describe a mercenary company rather than a realm or kingdom.

Example Dreamform: The Silver Skull Freebooters are ocean-going pirates with a mercenary attitude and a ruthless desire to plunder and pillage. They are a loose confederacy of pirate captains, each with their own unique style and modus operandi. Their trappings and personalities suggest that the Dreamform they originate from reflects 15th Century European sea pirates, especially with a Spanish feel.

Starting Glamour

The Mercenary starts with a cache of between 10 and 20 Glamour. This is all he possesses though, and if he doesn't work with it, this is all he'll ever possess!

The Neutral Player's current Glamour total is kept secret from the two Kingdoms, but is always known to the Adjudicator.

Note that the Neutral Player decides his starting Glamour, but that the chosen total will also decide the amount he needs for victory.

Springtime

In the Season of Springtime, the Neutral Player goes through the following steps:

• Create new mercenaries
• Apportion boons.
• Offer contracts.
• Escape attempts.

Creating New Mercenaries

A Mercenary Piece can be a Pawn, Knight, Rook or Bishop.

The Neutral Player can make as many Neutral Pieces as he can afford, at the following Price List:

• Pawns - 2 Glamour.
• Knight, Bishop or Rook - 4 Glamour.

The Neutral Player writes a short paragraph describing the unit he is making (just as he would if he was a King Player building his Court) and then the Adjudicator assigns descriptors to them.

New Mercenaries are added to the Neutral Player's Mercenary Pool.

Mercenaries can be either Seelie or Unseelie in nature, at the Neutral Player's choice.

Apportioning Boons

The Neutral Player can then apportion Boons to any Mercenaries in his Mercenary Pool. This works in the same way as a King apportioning boons.

Offering Contracts

The Neutral Player can then Offer Contracts. There are three ways he can choose to do this:

Open Auction

One or more Mercenaries is placed in a Group, along with a "term" defined by the Neutral Player. This term is normally "till the end of Winter this year", but the Neutral Player can specify a longer or shorter term if he wishes.

The Kings then have the opportunity to bid. The King with priority that year gets the privilege of making the first bid, though he can choose to pass that privilege to the enemy King on any given auction. Each King must then beat the previous bid, or concede. Once a King concedes, then the last bid wins.

If the Neutral Player wishes he can specify a minimum bid that he would accept, and bidding cannot start lower than this price.

The King with the last bid must then pay that much Glamour to the Neutral Player. That King then takes control of the piece for the duration of the term.

Note that King's cannot bid more Glamour than they currently have, though their Dreaming attribute does not limit expenditures in auctions.

Secret Auction

One or more Mercenaries is placed in a Group, along with a "term" defined by the Neutral Player.

The Kings then each make a Secret Bid, which they tell to the Neutral Player. The Neutral Player then decides which bid to accept, and the agreed price in Glamour is transferred from the King to the Neutral Player.

Importantly, in a Secret Auction, the price remains secret from the non-hiring King.

Note that it is acceptable for the Neutral Player to go back to a King and ask him to change his bid (and he may well want to lie, claiming that the other King has outbid him). Also, the Neutral Player does not have to accept any bid at all in a Secret Auction.

Once he accepts and takes the Glamour price, however, the hiring King then takes control of the piece for the duration of the term.

Private Deal

One or more Mercenaries is placed in a Group, along with a "term" defined by the Neutral Player.

The Neutral Player then approaches one King, and negotiates a hire deal.

If a price is agreed the hiring King then takes control of the piece for the duration of the term.

Escape Attempts

The Neutral Player rolls for Escape Attempts for any Mercenaries that have been Captured.

Mercenaries that escape are returned to the Mercenary Pool, unless they are still under contract, in which case they return to the hiring King.

Summer

In the Season of Summer, the Neutral Player cannot do anything. However, any Mercenaries are now under the control of the Kingdom that hired them, and can be used as normal by that Kingdom.

Note that Mercenaries are temporarily considered to be members of the Shadow Court or Dominant Court of the Kingdom, dependent on their Seelie/Unseelie nature. This determines whether the Queen-player or the King-player is their controlling player.

Autumn

In the Season of Autumn the Neutral Player can negotiate ransoms for any mercenaries that have been captured.

A successfully ransomed Mercenary is returned to the Mercenary Pool, unless they are still under contract, in which case they return to the hiring King.

Note that even if under contract, the ransom for Mercenaries is always paid by the Neutral Player.

Winter

In the Season of Winter, the Neutral Player cannot do anything. However, any Mercenaries are now under the control of the Kingdom that hired them, and can be used as normal by that Kingdom.

Note that Mercenaries are temporarily considered to be members of the Shadow Court or Dominant Court of the Kingdom, dependent on their Seelie/Unseelie nature. This determines whether the Queen-player or the King-player is their controlling player.

Contracts normally end at the end of Winter, and Mercenaries are returned to the Mercenary Pool at that time. However, any Mercenaries that are currently captured at the time of their contract expiring do not return to the Mercenary Pool, and instead remain imprisoned till they escape or are ransomed.