Sunday, January 22, 2023

Royalties (Part 1)

You take a moment to catch your breath and recover from your battle with the skeletons. After a moment you survey the area and smile. It seems the skeletons might have left something of value behind.


What Are Royalties?

In a dungeon crawl adventure game like this, players fight monsters in order to gain treasure. Treasure is referred to in Royal Treasures as "Royalties." This is because Royalty cards - all those cards without numbers (A, K, Q & J) - are considered trump when taking the Royalty action.


In order to generate Royalties, gather up all cards and shuffle them together, then lay out a new tableau of 3 cards. Cards are "played" from your tableau to generate results on random Royalties tables. This is called a Royalties Action.


Royalties $ Action

The Royalties $ Action is boosted by your hero's reputation or Repute. In CTE Repute is like a currency that measures your hero's worth. For this reason we use the $ symbol to represent Repute and its coinciding Royalties Action. Hint: Repute and Royalties both begin with the letter R.


Equipment and Branches

Royalties are equipped to locations on your character called Branches. Each Branch can equip one Royalty. There are 11 Branches: [HD] head, [MH] main hand, [OH] off hand, [RF] ring finger (left), [RF] ring finger (right), [TS] torso, [WT] waist, [HA] hands, [FT] feet, [NK] neck, and [BK] back.


Base Repute $ Bonus

Your base Repute $ bonus is equal to the number of items that you have equipped. Right now, you have your club and your quilted armor. So, you have $2 (two Repute.) Since you can potentially equip up to 11 items, you can increase your bonus to $11 if you are able to equip an item to each of the 11 branches on your character. In addition magic items add to your Repute $ total for each magical property that they possess.


To perform a Royalties $ Action, play a card from your tableau and add any $ Repute bonuses to the effort. Royalty Cards: A, K, Q & J are trump.


Creating an Item

To create an item, first you need to determine the item's branch. To do this, you must perform an ABSOLUTE action.


Absolute Actions

Creating a new item begins with determining the item's branch. This requires a special kind of action called an ABSOLUTE action. When you perform an absolute action, you play a card not for effort, but for the card itself.


When taking an absolute action you choose a card from your tableau and play it. You don't add any modifier to the card, and there is no trump. Instead the card is referenced for its unique identity. This means that every absolute action will result in 1 out of 52 possible outcomes.


The Royalty Branch Table below calls for an Absolute Action to resolve. Absolute Actions are identified by the @ at symbol. Hint: "At" and "Absolute" both start with the letter A. (Think, "At face value.")


Table 2 - Royalty Branch @

(Perform an Absolute @ Action and consult the table below.)


2♣ [HD] 2♦ [OH] 2♥ [TS] 2♠ [FT]

3♣ [HD] 3♦ [OH] 3♥ [TS] 3♠ [FT]

4♣ [HD] 4♦ [OH] 4♥ [WT] 4♠ [FT]

5♣ [HD] 5♦ [OH] 5♥ [WT] 5♠ [FT]

6♣ [HD] 6♦ [RF] 6♥ [WT] 6♠ [NK]

7♣ [MH] 7♦ [RF] 7♥ [WT] 7♠ [NK]

8♣ [MH] 8♦ [RF] 8♥ [WT] 8♠ [NK]

9♣ [MH] 9♦ [RF] 9♥ [HA] 9♠ [NK]

10♣ [MH] 10♦ [TS] 10♥ [HA] 10♠ [BK]

J♣ [MH] J♦ [TS] J♥ [HA] J♠ [BK]

Q♣ [MH] Q♦ [TS] Q♥ [HA] Q♠ [BK]

K♣ [MH] K♦ [TS] K♥ [HA] K♠ [BK]

A♣ [OH] A♦ [TS] A♥ [FT] A♠ [BK]



The two letter code identifies a branch where the Royalty can be equipped. These branches are: [HD] head, [MH] main hand, [OH] off hand, [RF] ring finger, [TS] torso, [WT] waist, [HA] hands, [FT] feet, [NK] neck, and [BK] back.


Each of the ten branches has its own table listing the Royalties that can be equipped to that branch.

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