Instructions | King's Crowns

Objective: The first player to play Crown cards worth 100 or more points wins the game. For five players, play to 75 crowns.

Start: Deal 6 cards to each player. Put the remaining cards face down as a draw pile. Turn up one card to start a discard pile. The person left of the dealer starts, and play continues in a clockwise direction.

Play: Each player builds three card stacks: a play stack, gifts stack, and crowns stack. The player whose turn it is picks up one card from either the draw pile or the discard stack. The player then plays one card from their hand, either on one of their stacks, on an opponent’s play stack, or face up on the discard pile. If the draw pile is emptied, shuffle and turn over the discard pile to re-stock the draw pile.

Card stacks:

Play stack: The play stack controls what crowns a player can play. The first card in a play stack must be a Salvation card. Then the player will be allowed to play 5 Crown or 10 Crown cards on their crown stack. If a player adds a Time with God or Holy Spirit card to their play stack, they will be allowed to play any value Crown card on their crown stack. An opponent stops a player from playing crowns by playing a Sin card on the player’s play stack. A player must cover the Sin card with a Forgiveness card of the matching color, or a Holy Spirit card. When a Forgiveness card is on the top of the play stack, the player will be allowed to play only 5 Crown and 10 Crown cards on the crown stack. When the Holy Spirit card is on top of their play stack, they will be allowed to play any value Crown card.

Gifts stack: A player may play one Gift card of each color on their gift stack once they have played a Salvation card. This gift stack is overlapped so that all cards will be showing. Gift cards allow a player to play Crown cards of the matching color.

Crown stack: A player plays Crown cards on their own crown stack. The game ends when a player totals 100 or more crowns in the crown stack (75 for a five player game). The crowns they are allowed to play depend both on the top card of their play stack and gift cards in the gift stack.

The player may not play a Crown card if they have not played a Salvation card or the top card in the play stack is a Sin card
The player may play 5 Crown or 10 Crown cards if the top card in the play stack is a Salvation or Forgiveness card
The player may play any value Crown card if the top card in their play stack is a Time with God or Holy Spirit card
The player may always play black Crown
The player may play other colored Crown cards after they have played the Gift card of the matching color.

For example, if a player has a Forgiveness card on top of their play stack and a green Gift card, they can play 5 Crowns or 10 Crowns in green or black.

Card types:

Salvation: A Salvation card must be the first card on a player’s play stack. It must also be played before any Gift cards. Each player plays this card once, for you are saved once.

Sin: A Sin card is played on an opponent’s play stack to stop the opponent from playing crowns (Orange – moral, Maroon – physical, Purple – disobedience). This should not be part of a Christian life, but it makes for a more fun game!

Forgiveness: A Forgiveness card of the same color as a Sin card is played on a player’s play stack to cover a Sin card.

Time with God: A Time with God card is played on a player’s play stack, to allow higher value crown cards to be played.

Gifts: Gift cards are collected in a player’s gift stack. There are 3 colors of Gift cards, each allow matching colored Crown cards to be played (Red – overseeing, Blue – helps, Green – preaching/teaching).

Holy Spirit: A Holy Spirit card is a combined Forgiveness and Time with God card. It covers any color Sin card and allows any value Crown card to be played.

Crowns: Crowns are the heavenly reward for obedient living (II Timothy 4:8), but those who spend time with God and exercise their gifts can do more. Crown cards are played in a player’s crown stack. A player must have a Time with God card or Holy Spirit card at the top of the play stack to play 15 Crowns or 20 Crowns. A player must have a played Gift card of matching color to play a colored Crown card. A player can always play a black Crown card.