The quick version
Deal two hidden cards to each player and give everyone two coins; with two players, give the starter only one coin. On your turn take one action: collect coins, claim a character's power, or pay seven coins for an unstoppable Coup. Give everyone a chance to challenge character claims and make eligible blocks before resolving the action. Losing influence turns one of your cards face up; lose both and you are out. Stop when one player remains.
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Deal two secret characters
Use the physical Indie Boards & Cards base game with three copies each of Duke, Assassin, Captain, Ambassador and Contessa: 15 character cards total. Leave expansion characters and allegiance cards out. This guide uses the regular setup for 2–6 people; the optional two-player draft is below.
Sit around an indoor table with room for everyone's cards and visible coins. Shuffle the 15 character cards and deal two face down to each person. Look at your own cards, then keep them face down in front of you. Put the remainder face down in the center as the Court deck.
Give each player two coin tokens and one summary card. Put the remaining coins in the center as the Treasury. All personal coin holdings stay visible. Choose a first player for your first game; thereafter the previous winner starts. With exactly two players, the starter receives one coin rather than two. Read the actions together before beginning.
Your face-down cards are your influence. Whenever you lose one influence, choose one of your own face-down cards and turn it face up permanently in front of you. Its power is gone; only hidden cards can prove a claim. Having two copies of one character is allowed. A card shown to prove a successful challenge is replaced, rather than permanently lost.
Choose one action on your turn
You must take one action; you cannot pass. You may bluff about any hidden character, even if you do not hold it, but you must have enough coins to pay an action's cost. At the start of a turn with ten or more coins, your only action is a Coup.
- Income: take one coin from the Treasury. Nobody can challenge or block it.
- Foreign aid: take two Treasury coins unless another player blocks by claiming Duke. Foreign aid itself cannot be challenged; the Duke block can.
- Coup: pay seven coins to the Treasury and name another surviving player. They lose one influence of their choice. Nobody can challenge or block a Coup.
- Duke — tax: claim Duke and take three Treasury coins. The claim can be challenged; the action cannot be blocked.
- Assassin — assassinate: claim Assassin, pay three coins and name another surviving player. If the action succeeds, the target loses one influence. Only the target may block it, by claiming Contessa.
- Captain — steal: claim Captain and name another surviving player with coins. Take two of their coins, or their one coin if that is all they have. Only the target may block, by claiming Captain or Ambassador; they must name one of those characters.
- Ambassador — exchange: claim Ambassador. After challenges, secretly draw two Court cards and combine them with your surviving hidden cards. Keep exactly as many hidden cards as you had before drawing and return the other two face down to the Court deck, then shuffle it. You may keep your original cards. Face-up lost influence never enters an exchange, and exchange never restores lost influence. This action cannot be blocked.
Contessa has no turn action. Her power is the block against an assassination targeting her owner. A block is a response to someone else's turn, not an extra turn. You need not prove an unchallenged role claim.
Declare, challenge, then block
Declare your action
The starter takes the first turn. Income is a simple opening: say 'Income' and take one coin. For a character action, state the action and character, name a target if needed, and set aside any cost. For example, 'Duke: I take three coins.' Pause before taking the benefit or revealing a target's card.
Resolve a challenge to the action claim
Any other surviving player may challenge a character claim, even if they are not the target. A challenge asks whether the claimant can prove the named character with a currently hidden card. If they show it, the challenger loses one influence. The claimant returns that proof card to the Court deck, shuffles, draws a random replacement and keeps it hidden. Their original claim remains valid for this action even if the replacement is a different character. If they cannot or choose not to show the character, the claimant loses one influence, the action fails, any action cost is refunded, and their turn ends.
Allow the eligible block
After an action claim survives its challenge window, invite blocks if that action permits them. Any other surviving player may claim Duke against foreign aid; only the target may claim Contessa against assassination or Captain/Ambassador against stealing. The blocker may bluff. Any other surviving player may challenge the block claim, using the same proof, replacement and influence-loss procedure. You can challenge a block, but cannot block a block. An unchallenged or proven block stops the action and ends the active player's turn. A disproved block fails, so the original action goes ahead unless another eligible player blocks it. A failed block is not a new action for its owner.
Apply the result and move clockwise
If there is no successful block, apply the action. When an assassination is blocked, its three-coin cost stays spent; a disproved Assassin action claim refunds that cost instead. Give each declared block its own challenge opportunity before resolving it. Once play has moved on, nobody can challenge a past claim. After the whole action is settled, the next surviving player clockwise takes one turn; skip eliminated players.
If you challenge a real Assassin and lose, you lose one influence for that challenge. If you still have a hidden card, you may then claim Contessa to block; otherwise the successful assassination removes another influence. Likewise, a disproved Contessa block costs one influence for the challenge and another for the assassination. Accepting an unblocked assassination costs only one influence.
Keep your last influence
When both your cards are face up, you are immediately eliminated. Leave those cards visible and return your coins to the Treasury. If a successful steal follows a disproved block that eliminates its target, first give the thief up to two of that target's coins, then return the rest to the Treasury.
The game ends immediately when only one player has any hidden influence left. That player wins, regardless of coin totals or whether they have one or two hidden cards. There is no point tally, equal-turn finish, second place or ordinary tie. Resolve a challenge and its action in order rather than treating losses as simultaneous.
For another game, gather all 15 character cards, shuffle and deal fresh pairs, and reset the Treasury and starting coins. The previous winner starts; in a two-player game they start with one coin. Coin holdings and surviving characters do not carry over.
Make the bluff easy to understand
Before dealing, demonstrate one true Duke claim and one false Duke claim with spare cards, then reshuffle everything. Show that proving Duke preserves the claimant's influence but replaces the card, while a false claim costs the claimant a card. Explain the difference between challenging a claim and blocking an action: 'I doubt your Assassin' risks a challenge loss; 'I claim Contessa' is a block that can itself be challenged.
Pause after each role claim and ask for challenges before asking for blocks. If people speak together, this guide suggests a house procedure: hear the first challenger clockwise from the active player and resolve one challenge to that claim. Ask everyone to make a clear decision before continuing; do not use surprise speed to remove their response opportunity.
Keep lost cards and coins where everyone can see them. There are three copies of each role, so revealed cards and your own hidden cards help you judge later claims. An earlier proven character may have changed through replacement or exchange. Help with rules openly, but let each player choose their own action, challenge or block.
Negotiations are allowed, but promises do not bind players. Do not lend or give coins, or show hidden cards except when the rules require it. A role bluff belongs to the game; keep accusations about the declared claim. Eliminated players stop taking actions, challenging and blocking, and should let the remaining players decide their own moves.
Keep turns moving so people who are eliminated can return at the next deal. If the group is enjoying the changing bluffs, play again; if the same arguments are repeating, change activities. For an accidentally exposed hidden card, this guide suggests a house remedy: stop without a winner, reshuffle all cards and redeal. Do not swap a card secretly after someone has challenged it.
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Ideas & Twists
Choose a variation together before you start.
Coup · See main rules
Official two-player setup variantChoose your opening character
For exactly two players, divide the 15 cards into three sets, each containing one Duke, Assassin, Captain, Ambassador and Contessa. Each player secretly chooses one card from their own set and removes the other four from the game without showing them. Shuffle the third set and deal one random card to each player; its remaining three cards form the Court deck. Each player now has two hidden influence cards: one chosen and one random. The starter receives one coin, the opponent two; put the rest in the Treasury. All actions, challenges, exchanges, replacement draws and the last-survivor finish stay the same. Only the seven cards still in play may enter the Court deck; the eight removed cards stay out. Choose again at each new deal.
Coup · See main rules
House suggestion · same players across three gamesThree-game series
Agree before dealing to play exactly three complete base games with the same 2–6 players. Use paper and a pen to give each game's sole survivor one win; eliminated players receive none. Reset all cards and coins after every game. For this series, choose the first starter, then move the starting seat one place clockwise between games instead of always starting with the previous winner. In each two-player game the starter still gets one coin. After the third game, the player with the most wins takes the series; players tied for the most wins share it, with no extra tiebreak game. Every individual game still ends with one survivor, and coins never count toward the series.
About this guide
The physical Indie Boards & Cards five-character base game supplies the main rules and official two-player draft setup. Dized identifies its rules as publisher-maintained and verified; the linked printed rulebook is hosted by a third party. Reformation, Inquisitor and Rebellion G54 rules are separate. The teaching demonstration, simultaneous-response procedure, exposed-card restart and three-game series are host or house suggestions.
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