Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Down With The King is a political game set in a fantasy world. Players are nobles who plot to overthrow the king.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Open Drafting
Select cards or items from a shared face-up display.
Dice Rolling
Roll dice to introduce uncertainty into actions, production, movement, or resolution.
Role Playing
Make decisions or communicate from the perspective of an assigned character.
Paper-and-Pencil
Record choices and results directly on a personal sheet.
Events
Triggered events alter the shared state, rules, or available choices.
Read the full game description
Down With The King is a political game set in a fantasy world. Players are nobles who plot to overthrow the king. Players must cooperate to defeat the king, but only one of them can take the crown thus backstabbing is always a concern. The game is played through various decks of cards. Players strive to gain prestige and influence points so that they can recruit characters to their side. They also use natural disasters, plagues, interrogations, and other political problems against their opponents. Of 19 possible actions each turn, a player can only perform 2, thus creating a tension and need for strategy. Player interaction is very high because players can perform actions during opponent turns and because nobody is eliminated early from the game. A player who is killed just misses a turn and then returns as the former player's heir, usually with revenge in mind.