Deck construction Each player participating in an A Game of Thrones game uses two decks: 1) a 7 card
plot deck and 2) a 60+ (40+ for draft) card
draw deck of
characters,
attachments,
locations, and
events. During play the
draw deck cards will often end up in other game play areas including the
discard pile (cards discarded from play) and the
dead pile (cards that were killed or are marked with the Deathbound keyword). Typically, players are only allowed three copies of any particular card (as determined by the card name, regardless of card type or game text similarity) in their
draw deck, and only one copy of any particular card, by name, in their
plot deck, but these restrictions can be modified by some other cards, such as the Twins agenda.
Winning conditions A player must earn 15 power tokens between their House card and characters in play to win A Game of Thrones. Numerous cards in the game can change the amount a player or his opponent are required to earn in order to win. Generally, power tokens are earned by winning challenges against an opponent, but some cards allow a player to directly claim power for his House card or characters in other ways.
Setup At the beginning of the game, each player shuffles their
draw deck, and draws the top 7 cards, with an option for a
mulligan given to each player to shuffle and draw a new hand. From this initial hand, each player is able to select up to 5 gold worth of characters, locations, and attachments with the Setup keyword, but no more than 1 card of any type with the Limited keyword, from their hand; these cards are placed face-down until all players are ready to reveal their initial cards in play. Once all cards are revealed, players draw cards again until they each have 7 cards in their hand again.
Rounds and phases The game is played through repeated rounds until one or more players meets the winning condition, or all but one player has met the elimination condition. Rounds are divided into 7 phases, with each phase allowing players to alternate actions that affect the game state in some way. The first phase every round is the
Plot phase. Each player selects one unused plot from his
plot deck, and all players reveal their chosen plots simultaneously. Initiative values from plot cards and other resources are tallied, and the player with the highest initiative chooses which player will go first in each phase of the current round. The textbox effects of plots are then resolved in the order chosen by the first player. In the second phase, the
Draw phase, each player is allowed to draw two cards from their
draw deck. Although divided into turns for each player, the
Marshalling phase is a single phase for all players. At the beginning of each player's turn in the Marshalling phase, the player counts all income from plot card and any other resources available. The player is then able to bring new resources in the form of characters, locations, and attachments into play by spending the gold. Some events and other triggered effects also require the payment of gold, and unused income is not carried over into other rounds, so resource management is important. The fourth phase is the
Challenge phase. As with the
Marshalling phase, each player has a turn to initiate challenges against other players. Generally, players may initiate one each of
Military,
Intrigue, and
Power challenges each round, but several cards can allow extra challenges to be initiated or deny certain challenges at all. Also, in a multiplayer game, he can either use all his challenges on one opponent or divide them among his adversaries. He doesn't have to use all of them. Challenges can be initiated in any order, and require a player to
kneel one or more characters with an icon matching the challenge type to begin the challenge. Then, the player being attacked may kneel one or more characters to attempt to oppose the challenge. Once all player actions are taken, the player with the highest total strength in the challenge wins. If the defending player wins, nothing special occurs, but if the attacker wins, then the defender suffers losses depending on the type of challenge initiated. • Military - if the defending player loses, he must
kill a number of characters he controls equal to the claim value on the attacker's plot. • Intrigue - if the defending player loses, he must randomly discard a number of cards from hand equal to the claim value on the attacker's plot. • Power - if the defending player loses, he must remove a number of power tokens from his House card equal to the claim value on the attacker's plot, and place them on the attacker's House card. In the fifth phase, the
Dominance phase, each player counts the total strength of all controlled characters that are still
standing, plus the amount of gold still remaining in his possession (unspent). The player with the highest total wins dominance that round, and claims 1 power token for his House, taken from the power common pool. In the
Standing phase each player changes each
kneeling card to
standing. With the LCG format came a new phase, the
Taxation phase, in which each player returns unspent gold to the common pool (in the CCG format, players could not use gold outside of their turn in the Marshalling phase).
Common game terms and rules Kneeling and
standing are the two possible game states for each card in the game, although there is a special
moribund state that's further explained in the faq on FFG website.
Standing cards are upright, and are ready for use to pay for effects, or to initiate or defend challenges.
Kneeling cards are rotated 90 degrees to the side, to indicate that they've been used to pay for an effect, or to initiate or defend a challenge. Some game effects are able to
kneel cards (changing them from
standing to
kneeling) or
stand cards (changing them from
kneeling to
standing) in order to manipulate the resources a player has available.
Unique cards represent the special individuals, places, items, and happenings in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. Unique cards may not be played if the player already has a copy of that card in play, or if a copy of that card can be found in the player's dead pile. Unique characters, locations, and attachments may be placed with copies that are already in play to serve as
duplicates. Duplicates may be discarded to save the unique card from being killed or discard.
Triggered Effects are a type of game effect that a player chooses to use in order to change the game state in some way. Triggered effects are indicated by a bold name of a phase (one of
Plot,
Draw,
Marshalling,
Challenges,
Dominance, or
Standing) or
Any phase to indicate when the effect may be used. Another timing word that may precede a triggered effect is a bold
Response, which indicates that the effect may only be used in response to another occurrence in the game.
Triggered abilities are a subset of triggered effects, and are specifically triggered effects that are written on cards currently in play.
Passive Effects are game effects that have no bold timing restriction indicated, but instead happen whenever certain prerequisites are met, such as a character coming into play.
Constant Abilities are game effects written on cards in play that have an ongoing effect on the game state.
Influence is indicated on various characters, locations, and attachments in the game by a number on a scroll in the textbox of the card. In the Valyrian block, influence was introduced as an additional resource to manage, requiring players to kneel one or more cards with a specific total amount of influence to pay for an effect. Normally, once a game effect has been initiated, it fully resolves without an interruption. However, once an effect is begun, there is a chance for specific effects to
Cancel the initial effect. If the effect is cancelled, all costs stay paid, use limitations remain, but the effects do not occur.
Kill means removing a character from play, and placing that character in the
dead pile. Kill effects only work on characters, including other cards that are currently functioning as characters, but other cards can be placed in the dead pile through various game effects, such as the Deathbound keyword.
Discard, when occurring without the modifier
from hand, means to take a card that is in play, and place it in the
discard pile. Generally, whenever an effect targets a card to be killed or discarded, players are given a chance to
Save the card from the effect, either by discarding a duplicate of the targeted card or by using another game effect. If a card is saved, it is not removed from play, and it is not considered killed or discarded. ==Organized play==