Castles....

Castles is an evil game, played by Goof-offs and Ne'er-do-wells, sometimes for fun, sometimes for money or blood.  The game is played at the Telari's Escape gaming hall, located one east, two north and two east of South Town Square, next to the statue of Randon D'Godarg.  The rules are posted in the gaming hall, and are as follows.....

        -C=A=S=T=L=E=S-  -R=U=L=E=S-
 
"Castles" is a card game in which each player has a tower that they need to defend.  A tower has a rating between 0 to 100.  If a player has a tower that reaches 100 or more, that player automatically wins.  If a player's tower reaches 0, the player is considered "disabled".  Since it is possible to play cards that raise other player's towers, it is possible for a disabled player to resume game play.

Each player also has a wall that protects their tower.  Walls have no limits on size.  Most damage is inflicted on the wall first and then any leftover damage is then applied to the player's tower.  For instance, if you have a wall of 3 and a tower of 15 and took 6 damage, your wall would then be 0 and your tower would be 12.  Some cards, however, can deal damage directly to a tower, completely bypassing a wall.
 
Cards themselves are arranged in a collection called a hand.  Each player's hand always contains 6 cards.  Cards may only be played during a player's turn.  Cards have varying effects, which are displayed by typing  PLAY STATUS  (you must be participating in an active Castles game to use this command).  To play a card, you must pay its "cost".  Each card has one of four costs:
 
        NOTHING:   the card is free to play.  It requires nothing.
        BRICKS:    the card requires a certain number of bricks to play.
        GEMS:      the card requires a certain number of gems to play.
        CREATURES: the card requires a certain number of creatures to play.

To play cards, each player has a number of resources called "bricks", "gems", and "creatures".  At the beginning of every turn, each player gains bricks from his/her quarry (a generator for bricks), gems from his/her magic, and creatures from his/her zoo.  For instance, if you have a quarry of 2, a magic of 1, and a zoo of 4, then at the beginning of your turn, you will gain 2 bricks, 1 gem, and 4 creatures.  You can use these resources to play cards.  Optionally, you can automatically win the game by having an exceptionally high resource.
 
Additional costs: some cards have effects that cause you to lose resources, wall, or generators.  For example, a card may say "deals 5 damage to enemy, lose 2 gems" and cast 2 bricks to play.  You will lose the 2 bricks for sure, but if you have less than 2 gems, you can still play this card.  You won't wind up with negative gems.  Use this to your advantage to avoid paying some of these costs.
 
Playing again: some cards let you play them and then play again immediately.  You will draw a new card and get to play again, but this does not count as the beginning of your turn, so you will not gain resources from your generator again.
 
Other play options: you may forfeit at any time to immediately lose.  You may also pass your turn by playing nothing or by discarding a card.  See  PLAY  for more details.
 
Winning conditions:  you win if (a) all of your opponents are disabled (tower is 0), (b) your tower reaches 100, or (c) any of your resources are at or above 300 at the end of your turn.
 
The game has a three-minute timer on it.  Any time a player takes their turn, the timer is reset.  If someone takes longer than three minutes to complete their turn, the game ends immediately.  This may change in future versions of Castles.
  
To begin a new game, type  CREATE GAME.   To enter an existing game that has not yet started, type  ENTER GAME.
 
        -C=A=S=T=L=E=S-  -R=U=L=E=S-


HOME