Design Document

Game zones  The playing field is divided into different zones, they are as follows.
 * Competition zone - Here the drawn competition cards are placed in a row.
 * Discard pile - Preparation cards that are in some way removed is placed here.
 * Preparation pile - Players draw cards from this pile.
 * Preparation zones - Each player has a preparation zone in which he/she places permanent enhancement cards.
 * Playing zones - Each player has a playing zone in which he plays his cards for the current round.

Game zones are present to make the game play more easily for the players. They are not a necessity but a comfort.

Preparations
 * First one player draws five competition cards without looking at them and places them face down in the competition zone.
 * Then each player draws five preparation cards which will be the make up of their hands.
 * If a player is not happy with his/her initial hand, he/she can discard as many cards as he/she likes to the discard pile and draw up to five new ones. This can only be done once at the start of the game.

The game plays out during five different competitions. The amount of competitions has been decided out of love for the number five, although it works well with the current game.

Players can, in the beginning of the game, evaluate their hand and reshape it if they want to. This is a precaution so players won’t ever lose the game because of a bad starting hand.

The Cards <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Two attributes are needed in each competition so the preparation cards that give points in several different attributes will be more valuable to the players. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The deck of preparation cards are as follows:
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Competition Cards - These are the competitions in which the knights compete, five are chosen at random for each game. Each competition has two attributes on them which are the attributes used in the competition. They are:
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jousting - Strength and Knowledge
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Man-eating flower arrangement - Strength and Beauty
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sword Fighting - Strength and Endurance
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Quintain - Strength and Agility
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Speech - Knowledge and Beauty
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dragon Slaying - Knowledge and Endurance
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Origami - Knowledge and Agility
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Catwalk - Beauty and Endurance
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dancing - Beauty and Agility
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shield spinning - Endurance and Agility
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Preparation cards - These are the cards that the players have on hand, they consist of two different types of cards.
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Enhancement cards - These cards raise the stats of your knight by a set amount. There are three types of Enhancement cards; 1+ in three Attributes, 2+ in two Attributes, 5+ in one Attribute.
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Insult cards - These cards can sabotage or hinder another player by either lowering the score in the current competition or removing a card in their Preparation Zone.
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5 Cards giving 5 points in one attribute:
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5 Strength - x1
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5 Beauty - x1
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5 Knowledge - x1
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5 Endurance - x1
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5 Agility - x1
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">20 Cards giving 2 points in two attributes:
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Strength 2 Beauty - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Strength 2 Knowledge - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Strength 2 Endurance - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Strength 2 Agility - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Beauty 2 Knowledge - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Beauty 2 Endurance - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Beauty 2 Agility - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Knowledge 2 Endurance - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Knowledge 2 Agility - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Endurance 2 Agility - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">20 Cards giving 1 point in three attributes:
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Strength 1 Beauty 1 Knowledge - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Strength 1 Beauty 1 Endurance - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Strength 1 Beauty 1 Agility - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Strength 1 Knowledge 1 Endurance - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Strength 1 Knowledge 1 Agility - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Strength 1 Endurance 1 Agility - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Beauty 1 Knowledge 1 Endurance - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Beauty 1 Knowledge 1 Agility - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Beauty 1 Endurance 1 Agility - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Knowledge 1 Endurance 1 Agility - x2
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6 Insult cards:
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This card gives an opponent - 3 points during the current competition - x3
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This card removes a card in an opponents preparation zone, you choose which one - x3

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The reason 5 point attribute cards is a rarity is because the players are supposed to envy each other, these serve as targets for insult cards. During the course of the game it will eventually be obvious who is on the path to victory (explained later) and the other players will want to repel him/her. This is where the insult card comes in; a cleverly crafted insult can get the winning player off his/her balance and cause him/her to lose competitions that he/she should have won.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When deciding the winner, all attribute points are taken into account as well as won competitions, this is explained more thoroughly later in the document. This is why the cards that give points in several different attributes give a lower number of total attribute points, they give players knights a larger area of expertise and are therefore useful in more competitions. While the cards that give points in only one kind of attribute is usually useful in one, maybe two competitions apart from giving the most points when deciding the winner.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rounds of play <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The game is broken down into rounds, which in turn are broken down into different phases, they are played in order as follows:
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Draw phase - Each player draws cards until he/she has five cards on hand.

<p style="margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All players should have a full hand of cards during each round. <p style="margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Players will always know what attributes their knights need during the current competition. They will also know what attributes they need during the next competition. This makes the players able to plan ahead. If they know they have a low chance of winning the current competition, they can instead prepare their knights for the upcoming competition instead of making an attempt at the current one.
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Reveal phase - One player turns competition cards face up until two are revealed, the first competition in the competition zone is counted as the current competition.
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Preparation phase - Each player places two Preparation cards from their hand into their respective playing zones face down. When all players are done, the placed cards will be turned face up at the same time. If a player places an Enhancement card, it must have at least one attribute in common with the current competition.

<p style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The reason each player plays two cards is explained later in the document.

<p style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cards are played face down so that a player won’t know what the others are brewing until it matters. At first glance, the rule about enhancement cards having to be relevant to the current competition might seem like it is crippling the planning aspects of the game, but with the large amount of multi-attributed enhancement cards a player can still plan a head. The reason for this rule is game balance, without it lucky players could simply play all their 5 point enhancement cards and win the game without effort or strategy. <p style="margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Competition cards will be of use during the end of the game (explained later in the document).
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Competition phase - All players total enhancements are rounded up as points, counting both cards from the preparation zone and the playing zone. Only enhancements relevant to the current competition will be counted. All insults subtracting points from players are also taken into account.
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Award phase - The player with the most points during the competition phase is awarded with the current competition card. If two or more players have the same amount of points, each player draws a card from the pile and adds the points to his or her score. Whoever has the highest score now wins. The Attributes must be relevant to the current competition and Insult Cards count as zero points. Repeat until one person has won. The additional cards drawn are discarded once the round is over.

<p style="margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Since only one competition card can be awarded, a random winner must be decided. The Preparation deck gets another use during this scenario. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The end phase is where players decide what played cards they really want to keep. As stated earlier, the kept cards are taken into account during competitions. This gives players control as they know what competition comes next. It also creates targets for Insult cards, as a players kept cards will be public to the other players. Keeping a 5 point enhancement card is a big risk.
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">End phase - Each player chooses one enhancement card in their playing zone and moves it to their respective preparation zone, while discarding the rest to discard pile.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When all of these phases have concluded, the game moves on to the next round starting again from the Draw phase. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When the last competition has been awarded, the game moves on to the final competition. This plays like a normal Competition phase except <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">only <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the Enhancement cards in the Preparation Zone are rounded up when counting points, including all the awarded competition cards being worth 2 points each. The player with the most points during this round wins the game.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The reason competition cards are worth points in the same way as Enhancement cards is because it works really well with the Insult cards, a player having won more competitions than others are bound to loose his/her Enhancement cards to the others’ Insults. When prototyping it was revealed that Competitions being worth two points makes for the most dramatic climax. The winning player does not win by a large difference from the other players. Most of the prototype games got results where the winner had about 19 points in the end, and the runner ups was behind by about 2 points, which is the worth of one awarded competition.