By Order of the King is a fast-paced, test-your-luck social deduction game of devious lies and hidden roles set in the gory gallows of a medieval kingdom. Take turns as the Executioner, deciding which of your friends will suffer brutal, historical executions while players lie, bluff, and bargain with you to save their lives or fulfill hidden agendas. Each execution brings greater reward but choose the wrong player, and it may be your own head on the chopping block.
In each game, one player becomes the Executioner, earning "crowns" for each head (dead player) brought back to the king. At the start of the game, a set of randomized roles and items is revealed for all players to study before being dealt out randomly. Each player secretly receives one role and one item.
Roles determine each player’s objective. Loyalists share in the Executioner’s rewards if they survive. Saboteurs aim to trick the Executioner into killing the Princess or a player with a Pardon—instantly securing victory. The Princess must stay alive, while the Jester seeks death to steal crowns from everyone else.
Players may freely check their role cards, but can only view their item once before placing it face down. Each round begins with the reveal of a Gallows Card, showing the gruesome execution method used by the Executioner that game accompanied by a special event. Then, players each take one action: peek at any item or secretly swap any two items. Since swapped cards can’t be viewed, to deduce cards players must rely on deduction, deception, and persuasion when answering to the Executioner or other players. They may end the game with a card they have not peeked at, and face the Executioner only relying on the testimony of others to understand their card. For this reason, what item card the Executioner thinks a player has, can be more important than the card itself.
During all of this, the Executioner can stop the game to ruthlessly interrogate his soon-to-be victims, or sit back and silently analyze prisoner's behaviour for clues about their cards. At the end of the game, at least one player must be executed. Many items trigger deadly or unpredictable effects when their holder dies, sometimes killing entirely different players than the one chosen. Each successful execution increases the reward—but if the Princess or a Pardon holder dies, even by accident, the Saboteurs claim everything.
Rewards are only given to loyalists and saboteurs who survive, so trust no one, lie convincingly, and above all survive by any means necessary.
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