Components
- 2 Robins
- 2 Bards
- 60 Loot tiles
- 16 small Fame tiles
- 8 big Fame tiles
- Instructions
Object of the Game
The players collect Loot tiles by moving their Robin pieces on the board. A set of Loot tiles in the same color may be sold to earn gold. This gold may be spent to help the player's Bard piece move around the Race Track on the outside of the board.
Each player will try to stay one step ahead of their opponent. Every fame tile the players encounter as they move will present them with a challenge.
They may either fulfil the challenge or bribe their way past the challenge by paying gold! The player who completes two laps around the Race Track is the winner!
Setup
Loot Tiles
Shuffle all Loot tiles (gold coin side up) and build a 5x5 grid.
The youngest player starts. They take one Loot tile from any corner on the board. The next player takes the tile from the opposite corner. Each player flips the tile they chose back over to the side showing the gold coin and takes it into their personal supply.
The players put their Robins in the now empty corners.
Place the remaining Loot tiles with the gold coin side up in a draw pile.
Fame Tiles
Find the corner pieces labelled "The Beginning" (start) and "Long Live the King" (end). Put them together in one of the corners. Place "The Beginning" piece (as shown above) in the inner corner.
Shuffle the remaining corner pieces, draw three, and put them in the remaining corners. For the first game, use the day (easy) tiles. These are less challenging than the night (harder) tiles.
The players put the Bards in their respective colors next to the start tile.
Shuffle the small fame tiles and put three of them between the corners. Use more of the day (easy) tiles if this is the first play of the game.
When complete, the game layout should look similar to the example above.
Game Play
Moving Robin
The players alternate turns. The start player begins the game.
The players move their Robin in the shape of an "L" composed of three tiles (just like the knight's move in chess): Either 2 tiles in any direction, then 1 tile to the side or 1 tile in any direction, then 2 tiles to the side. A Robin may not occupy the same tile as the other player's Robin.
The player takes the tile they landed on into their personal supply.
At the end of their turn the player fills the now empty space (the space the Robin left) with a Loot tile from the general supply. Do not fill the square occupied by a Robin.
In the example above, the red Robin may jump to any space marked with a green check mark. These are all legal moves. It may not end its move on the opponent's blue Robin.
The player's Robin has to stay within the 5x5 Loot tile grid while moving. The Robin may never leave the grid. The player's Robin may never end its turn on the a tile occupied by the other player's Robin.
After moving their Robin (and taking the Loot tile) the player may decide to move their Bard. In the example above, the red Robin may jump to any space marked with a green check mark.
These are all legal moves. The player's turn is now over. The player indicates that their turn is finished by filling the emptied space on the 5x5 grid.
The Racing Track
There are two ways to move with your Bard along the Racing track, which surrounds the 5x5 grid:
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The player may spend 1 Gold coin (and discard it to the open discard pile with the Loot side up) to move their Bard 1 tile forward (clockwise) on the Race Track. The player may continue to move their Bard forward as long as they can meet the requirement or pay the bribe for each tile they encounter.
The player may move their Bard forward 1 tile on the Race track for every Gold coin spent. They may repeat this step as often as they want. The Bard may move clockwise at any time during a player's turn.
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Every Fame tile shows one task. If the player is able to fulfill the task indicated on the Fame tile, they may move their Bard 1 tile forward on the Race Track.
Example: The blue player is standing on "The Fence". To move to the "Two Houses" he must have exactly 2 collections. The 2 blue Loot tiles and the single black Loot tile are sufficient.
Unfortunately, he can not fulfill "Vain Endeavour" and he decides to spend one Gold coin to complete the task instead.
There is a list which explains all Fame tiles in more detail. Most Fame tiles refer to the contents of your Loot tiles, some to the number of Gold coins or the positioning of their Robin in the 5x5 grid.
All text on the Fame tiles are always meant to say "at least". If instead "exactly" or "at most" is meant, it will be stated clearly.
Definitions
Loot Collection
A Loot collection is a set of 1 or more Loot tiles of the same color. Loot collections may never be split into smaller collections.
Example: If the player has 2 green and 1 white Loot tile, they have exactly 2 Loot collections. They may not decide to count their green Loot tiles as 2 Loot collections.
Selling a Loot Collection
Anytime during their turn players may sell a Loot collection which consists of 3 or more Loot tiles of the same type.
Example: The player is selling a Loot collection containing 5 Loot tiles. They discard 2 of them to the discard pile and flip the remaining 3 to the Gold coin side.
Discard two of the Loot tiles on the open discard pile and collect the remaining ones as Gold coins by turning them over. Every Loot tile has a Gold coin printed on its back.
If the draw pile is empty, shuffle the open discard pile and make a new draw pile. If there is no discard pile, please refer to the section labeled "What if there are no Loot tiles left?" on page 6.
If a player is selling more than 3 of the same Loot tiles of a collection, they gain an additional Gold coin for each. Players may not sell only part of a Loot collection.
Each time a player sells a Loot tile they have to sell all of the same type. If they are selling more than one Loot collection, they have to sell each collection separately, one after another.
 The Symbols on the Fame Tiles |
How do the Robins stand relative to each other?
Striking Distance
If both Robins are exactly one chess knight's move away from each other, they are considered to be within "Striking distance". No actual striking is allowed though.
(The players move their Robin in the shape of an "L" composed of three tiles: Either 2 tiles in any direction, then 1 tile to the side or 1 tile in any direction, then 2 tiles to the side)
Diagonally Adjacent
If both Robins are diagonally adjacent on the 5x5 grid.
Directly Adjacent
If both Robins are on orthogonally adjacent tiles of the 5x5 grid (horizontally or vertically).
End of the Game
The game ends immediately if one player's Bard "laps" the other player's Bard on the race track.
To "lap" the other player, one player's Bard must have made a full extra lap around the track thus passing the other player's Bard a second time.
The player whose Bard has passed the other is the winner. If both Bards are on the same spot on the Race Track, the game does not end.
Otherwise, the player who first completes two full laps of the Race Track and fulfills the challenge on the goal tile is the winner.
The Start and Goal Tiles
After completing the first lap of the Race Track (moving beyond the two inner tiles labeled "Nottingham" and "The Beginning" on the starting tile) the players ignore the starting tile in the final lap
The final tile of the game ("Long Live the King") is special. It can only be fulfilled by paying 4 Gold coins. It cannot be fulfilled by only paying 1 Gold coin like other tiles in the game.
What if there are no loot tiles left?
If there are not enough Loot tiles in the draw pile to fill the 5x5 grid, the active player may decide which empty space to fill first. The player must indicate which space they intend to fill before drawing a new tile.
The player may also sell Loot collections or pay a Gold coin to move ahead on the Race Track. As a result of this, the Loot tiles can be added into the draw pile and can be reused to refill the empty space on the 5x5 grid.
Modification of Game Length
Players may agree to modify the length of the game. A normal game will last about 30 minutes.
If the players want a shorter game, then place only 2 small Fame tiles in between the corners on the Race Track. If a longer game is desired, place 4 small Fame tiles instead.
Playing With Children Or New Players
If an experienced player is playing against a child or a new player, consider giving them 1-2 extra Gold coins to start the game.
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