Banquet

On the face of it, it is a golden age; King Arthur and Queen Guinevere are married and ruling with wisdom and impartiality, the Kingdom is stable and prosperous and Evil seems to have been driven from the land. All is not well however; ambitious Lords constantly scheme at the Royal banquets to get in with those in good standing with the Royal couple. The illicit relationship of the young lovers, Tristan and Isolde, threatens to start a war with their neighbours and then there’s the rumours about Queen Guinevere and Lancelot... Players play as ambitious Lords in the time of King Arthur, all vying to be seen sat next to the most influential people in court at King Arthur’s latest banquet at Camelot. Gameplay involves playing a Scheme card from you hand that will allow your character card to move in various ways, or allows you to move the other members (King's Knights, Guests or VIPs) of the banquet. Moving one character, however, may cause the character it displaces to also need to move in a specific way, and moves may chain beyond your control! For example, moving a Knight may require that knight to automatically move straight to the Royal Row, which may then displace a VIP such as Isolde who must move to be next to Tristan, who may then displace another Knight, etc. You have until the end of the final banquet course (or "round", which varies depending on chosen game length) to manoeuvre yourself into the best position to gain points from adjacent guests AND to hopefully complete your secret quest for bonus points. The player with the most influence points wins (and becomes the most influential Lord of the land)! Each game also has a random or specifically chosen common quest that changes the rules of the game slightly, which all players are affected by. When playing with less than 4 players, AI players called "Rogue Nobles" operate the "missing" players, moving around automatically and likely screwing up your well laid plans!