Regicide

Readiness

ready (confidence=0.92, rules=0.90, fun=0.95). BGG rank: 565; year: 2020; weight: 1.97; playtime: 30 min

Core Loop

A cooperative card game using a standard 52-card deck (plus 4 jokers). Players are knights cooperating to defeat the 12 royal enemies (Jacks, Queens, Kings — 4 of each suit), faced one at a time in increasing difficulty. On your turn, play ONE card (or a combination — pairs, sets equaling 10, or animal companion + any) from your hand to attack the current enemy. The card's value is damage; its SUIT triggers an effect: Hearts heal (return cards from discard to bottom of deck), Diamonds draw (everyone draws), Clubs deal double damage, Spades reduce the enemy's attack. After your attack, the enemy attacks back: you must DISCARD cards from hand totaling at least the enemy's attack value, or you lose the game.

Turn Structure and State

• BGA tutorial is present; useful for exact turn flow and implementation gotchas.
• BGG description anchor: Regicide is a cooperative, fantasy card game for 1 to 4 players, played using a standard deck of cards. Players work together to defeat 12 powerful enemies. On their turn a player plays a card to the table to attack the enemy and once enough damage is dealt, the enemy is defeated. The players win when the last King is defeated. But beware! Each turn the enemy strikes back. Players will discard cards to satisfy [...]

Win Condition and Arc

Win by defeating all 12 royals in sequence (Jacks first → Queens → Kings). Lose if any player can't fully cover an enemy attack on their turn. Arc: Jacks (10 HP, 10 attack) are tutorial-difficulty; by Kings (40 HP, 20 attack), play is desperate — you must combo cards and sequence suits perfectly.

Decision Primitives

BGG mechanisms: Card Play Conflict Resolution, Communication Limits, Cooperative Game, Hand Management, Solo / Solitaire Game, Sudden Death Ending, Variable Set-up

Memory-derived primitives:

• Standard playing card deck (themed reinterpretation)
• Cooperative card-driven combat
• Suit-based effect engine (4 distinct mechanical roles)
• Hand-as-HP (discarding to defend)
• Tableau-free, all action through hand and a single enemy slot

v4 controlled primitives: cooperative_with_traitor, hand_management_under_draw, escalating_threat, communication_constraint

Top iOS archetype fits: coop 7.3, balatro 6.9, wordle 6.1.

Why It Is Fun

A 52-card deck performs miracles. The suit-as-mechanic mapping is elegant: Hearts replenish the future, Diamonds widen present options, Clubs nuke, Spades buy time. Cooperative tension is real — you're constantly counting hand value vs upcoming attacks.

Friction and Failure Modes

• Treat Sonnet-memory edge rules as draft until confirmed by manual, BGA, or transcript.

Translation and Design Hooks

• Use this card to ask: which primitive carries the fun if theme/licensing is removed?
• For iOS, look for short-session compression, clear state visualization, and a digital-only twist.
• For new tabletop design, look for the tension source and decide whether to preserve or invert it.

Edge Rules and Gotchas

• Animal Companion: an Ace can be played WITH any other card; both attack values combine and BOTH suits trigger.
• Pairs/sets: you can play multiple SAME-VALUE cards together if their combined value is 10 or less (e.g., two 5s, three 3s, etc.) — all their damage and suits stack.
• Suit immunity: each enemy is IMMUNE to its own suit's effect (King of Hearts ignores Heart effects, etc.).
• Jesters (Jokers): playing a Joker forces the current royal to discard hand — actually, Jesters cancel the enemy's suit immunity for the rest of the fight, AND let the player choose who goes next. Powerful, limited (2 in deck).
• Hand limits: each player has a max hand size (varies by player count, e.g., 7 cards at 2P, 5 at 4P).
• If you defeat an enemy with EXACTLY the right damage (no overkill), the enemy goes to TOP of deck (re-enters as a card you can later draw). Otherwise it goes to discard.
• Player count scaling: at 1P, you have a bigger hand; at 4P, smaller hands but more turns to combo.

Sources Used

[
  {
    "kind": "llm_memory",
    "path": "data/llm_memory_sonnet/307002.md",
    "quality": 0.9,
    "note": "sonnet-self-rated-9"
  },
  {
    "kind": "bga_tutorial",
    "path": "data/bga_tutorials/307002.md",
    "quality": 0.85,
    "note": "BGA implementation rules summary"
  },
  {
    "kind": "tabletopia_overview",
    "path": "data/tabletopia_overviews/307002.md",
    "quality": 0.3,
    "note": "Tabletopia overview; not a rules authority"
  }
]