Description

From a review by Rick Heli, Spotlight on Games:

The game comes in a long box with a board, five decks of cards, a number of plastic chips in four colors representing gold pieces, six plastic pawns and a die.

The board is a circular track of thirty-four spaces with a depiction of a castle within it. In the castle are twelve labeled castle sections (drawbridge, six towers, king's court, dungeon, kitchen, rosengarden and dining hall) which players will try to own -- denoted by holding a card with the corresponding name.

Players all begin on the Start space with fifty gold pieces and roll the single die to move forward. Landing on a castle section allows buying that section, or, if it is already owned, forces payment of half the purchase price to the owner. Costs range from six to the most expensive section, the Drawbridge, which costs twenty. No section may be purchased until the Drawbridge has been. Other spaces on the board force drawing a card from one of three available decks which may have a cost to use: Move (free) moves the player to another space; Give (costs two) has various positive and negative effects; Receive (costs two) is similar to Give; Wishing Well (costs ten) has various effects including the Key to the Royal Bedroom. No one can win without the Key card. In addition, it is necessary to own at least half the castle sections.

Other spaces on the board force payment of tax, placed in the center of the board, or the chance to claim all the collected taxes. There are also three Flogging spaces where the player must either pay ten to avoid the flogging and take another turn or else roll a single die and risk going to the Dungeon. Players in the Dungeon languish there until another player is sent to the Dungeon, at which point they pay the new player one gold and resume play. The only other spaces on the board are one each to pick a player to lose a turn and to choose a player to be sent to the Dungeon.