Let's Play Shadows Over Camelot, You'll Eat Ham and Jam and SPAMALOT

Dark times have come to Camelot and only King Arthur and his knights can stop it!

Shadows over Camelot is a cooperative/semi-cooperative hand management and deduction-based board game for 3-7 players.

Each player represents a knight of the Round Table and they must collaborate to overcome a number of quests - ranging from defeating the Black Knight to the search for the Holy Grail. Completed Quests place white swords on the Round Table; failed Quests add black swords and/or siege engines around Camelot. The knights are trying to build a majority of white swords on the Table before Camelot falls.

Shadows Over Camelot rulebook
Order of Gamers Player Aid

Setup

Set up the boards (for the Lancelot and Dragon board, Lancelot’s side is faceup) and place the Relic miniatures on their respective boards.

Each player randomly takes a Coat of Arms and introduces himself and their Special Power to the group. Place your Life Die set at 4 on the Coat of Arms and your miniature at the Round Table.

Give one Merlin card to each player then shuffle the White, Black and Loyalty cards into decks. Deal 5 White cards to each player and place the rest on the board. Deal one Loyalty card to each player who secretly looks at it and places it under his Coat of Arms. Unused Loyalty cards are put away unseen.

Each player selects one White card and places it on the Round Table. Players discuss how these cards should be shared.

King Arthur begins the game and play proceeds clockwise.

Collaborating

Declarations of intent, resources and capabilities can be discussed as long as comments are non-specific and in character and do not refer to specific values.

Game Turn

Each player's Game Turn is divided in two phases, each separated by a verification check as to whether the game ends or not.

In the first phase, The Progression of Evil phase, you must make one of three unappealing choices, all favoring the Evil forces. You must choose one of the following 3 actions:

– draw a Black card, read it and apply its effects;
– add a Siege Engine around Camelot; or
– lose a Life Point.

Check End of Game Conditions

In the second phase, The Heroic Actions phase, you try to help your cause by performing one (or occasionally more) of five Heroic Actions. You must choose one (or more in special cases) of the following 5 actions:

– move to a new Quest;
– perform an action related to the Quest you’re on;
– play a Special White Card;
– Heal yourself; or
– Accuse another Knight.

Check End of Game Conditions

Progression of Evil

• Draw a Black Card
  • Draw the top card, read it aloud and apply its effect. A Special Black card can be cancelled if you and/or your fellow Knights collectively play 3 Merlin cards.
    A Standard Black card is played faceup on its corresponding Quest (the last one played on a Quest can be cancelled by a Merlin card).
    Lancelot and Dragon cards are placed on whichever of these Quests is currently in play.
    A Black Knight, Lancelot or Dragon card may be played facedown (not read aloud) to hide its value. This allows the player to draw a free White card.
    If the Quest on the card is no longer in play, a Siege Engine is added to Camelot instead.

• Adding a Siege Engine around Camelot
  • Take a Siege Engine from the Reserve and place it on one of the empty Siege Engine spots surrounding Camelot.
    If this is the 12th Siege Engine placed around Camelot, the game is immediately lost for all but the Traitor

• Losing a Life Point
  • Points can never go below 0 or above 6. Do not reveal your Loyalty if you die.

Heroic Actions

• Moving to a New Quest
  • Each move to a new Quest requires an Action. Movement between the areas of Camelot (Siege Engines and the Round Table) does not.
• Performing a Quest-Specific Action
  • If a Quest’s End Conditions are met, move all Knights on the Quest back to the Round Table (at no cost), apply the Quest’s Victory or Defeat consequences, and discard the cards played on the Quest.
• Playing a Special White Card
  • Read the card aloud and apply its effect. You can never play more than one Special White card per turn.
• Healing Yourself
  • Discard 3 identical cards and go up a Life Point.
• Making an Accusation
  • This can only be done if there are at least 6 Siege Engines around Camelot or at least 6 Swords on the Round Table. Each Knight may choose this Action only once during the entire game.
  • Accuse a Knight of being the Traitor. Reveal his Loyalty card; if Loyal, turn a White Sword on the Table to its Black side. If a Traitor, add a White Sword to the Table. The Traitor turns his Coat of Arms over and follows the instructions there.
• Additional Heroic Actions: Sacrifice
  • Once per turn, a Knight may sacrifice a Life Point for an additional Heroic Action.
• Additional Heroic Actions: The Knights' Special Powers
  • With the exception of Percival and Kay, all other Knights may only use their Special Power during their respective Heroic Action phase. Percival uses his during his Progression of Evil Phase, and Kay may use his out of turn, as soon as a Quest ends.
    
    You may use your Special Power before or after your Heroic Action. If you choose to perform two Heroic Actions, you may even use your Special Power in between them.
    
    The rule forbidding the same Heroic Action from being performed twice during the same turn remains in effect.

You can never perform the same Heroic Action twice in the same turn.

Quests

If a Solo Quest is abandoned all White cards played so far are discarded.

When on a Combat Quest, you may, as your Heroic Action of choice, play a single Fight card on any empty card spot on the Knights’ side.

A Combat Quest ends the moment its last White (or Black, if in the Progression of Evil phase) empty spot is filled. The sum of all White cards played on the Quest is compared to the sum of the Black cards played there.

To protect the identities of both the innocent and a potential Traitor, all the Black cards that were played on the Quest must be shuffled together before revealing them to compute their sum.

If the White Fight cards have the greater total value, the Quest is won; otherwise it is lost.

• Tournament vs the Black Knight Perpetual, Solo, Combat Quest.
  
  
  • To beat this quest Knights must play 2 pairs of distinct values in the Black Knight’s Tournament
    • Win: 1 White sword + 4 White cards + 1 HP
    • Lose: 1 Black Sword + -1 HP

• Quest for Lancelot Solo Combat Quest
  
  
  • To beat this quest the knights must play a full house ( 1 pair and 1 three-of-a-kind.)
    • Win: 1 white sword + 4 white cards + 1 HP, + Lancelot's Armour
    • Lose: 1 black sword + -1 HP
  • Lancelot’s Armour: When drawing a Black card, the owner may draw the top two and keep one, placing the other at the bottom of the deck. Unlike other relics, Armour remains with the Traitor even if unmasked.

• Dragon’s Quest Group Combat Quest Appears only after Lancelot’s Quest has been finished.
  
  
  • To beat this quest the knights must play 3 three-of-a-kinds
    • Win: 2 White swords + 7 White cards + 2 HP
    • Lose: 2 Black swords + -2 HP

• Quest for Excalibur Group Quest
  
  
  • To win Excalibur, you must progressively move Excalibur to your side of the river.
    
    To move Excalibur one spot closer to your side, you may, as your Heroic Action of choice, discard any one White card face down from your hand onto the White discard pile. The Knight triggering the last move receives Excalibur, even if not on the Quest.
    • Win: 2 White swords + 7 White cards + 1 HP + Excalibur
    • Lose: 2 Black swords + -1 HP
  • Excalibur: Adds +1 to the outcome of any combat quest (including vs Siege Engines) the owner is on. At any point the owner may choose to sacrifice it to cancel ANY Black card drawn.

• Quest for the Holy Grail Group Quest
  
  
  • To win the Holy Grail, you must cover every single spot on this Quest with a Grail card.
    To progress in your search for the Holy Grail, you may, as your Heroic Action of choice, play a single Grail card on the first empty spot closest to the Holy Grail miniature.
    If all card spots are filled, remove the closest Despair (or possibly Desolation) card instead, and discard both cards.
    If you lay the 7th Grail card on the last spot on the board, the Quest is won, its victory spoils granted, and the Holy Grail goes on your Coat of Arms.
    • Win: The Holy Grail + 3 white swords + 7 White cards + 1 HP
    • Lose: 3 Black swords + -1 HP
  • Holy Grail: If a Knight falls to 0 Life Points and is about to die, the owner may restore him to 4 points. The Grail then vanishes.

• Pict and Saxon Wars Perpetual Group Quests
  
  • To win one of the Saxon or Pict Wars you must complete a “straight” series of Fight cards, starting with 1 and ending at 5, before the Forces of Evil are able to place four Saxon or Pict figures in that war.
    To fight the Saxons or Picts, you may, as your Heroic Action, play a single Fight card on the first available card spot in that War. Playing the fifth and final Fight card in a War wins that Quest. If four Saxon or Pict figures are placed on the battlefield before you play the fifth card, the Quest is lost.
    • Win: 1 white sword + 4 white cards + 1 HP
    • Lose: 1 black sword + -1 HP + 2 Siege Catapults

• Camelot

If you stay at the round table, you may also choose these two actions.

• Round Table: A Knight may stay at the Table and draw 2 White cards (unless he already has 12 or more cards).
• Siege Area: A Knight may remove an Engine by playing as many Fight cards as desired and then rolling under the total value. If the roll is equal or greater, the Knight loses a Life Point.

All ties in the game, including:

• Fights against Siege Engines;
• Fights against the Black Knight;
• Fights in Lancelot’s and the Dragon’s Quests;
• And ties between White and Black swords on the Round Table at the Game’s end;

are always resolved in favor of the forces of Evil and the Traitor. A stalemate is never good enough for the Knights!

Game End

The Game ends immediately with a loss for all the Loyal Knights if there are:

• 12 Siege Engines surrounding Camelot;
• 7 or more Black Swords on the Round Table;
• or all the Loyal Knights (Traitor excepted) are dead;

In addition, the game stops immediately after the first Action in which a 12th Sword is laid on the Round Table.

If the Traitor is still alive and undetected at this point, he reveals his Loyalty card, and two White Swords on the Round Table are now turned over to their Black side.

The players and the turn order. Any questions about the special powers, feel free to ask.

jpfriction as Arthur, King of the Britons!

gahitsu as Sir Palamedes

red hedgehog as Sir Tristan

Mogri as Sir Galahad

Destil as Sir Percival

aturtledoesbite as Sir Kay

Sir Gawain as Sir Not-appearing-in-this-show.

This is the board we'll be working with. It's a thumbnail, so just go ahead and click on it for a bigger version.

The knights are outlined in their player color, shown in that little circle by their name.

1. Bold your moves. This helps me out.
2. Number your moves. Progression of Evil will always be 1.
3. If you decide to draw a card from the black deck, stop and do not proceed with your Heroic Action until I draw the black card.
4. No game talk outside of this thread.
5. When discussing things, be vague.
6. There are no rules.

Let me know if you have any suggestions to help this go smoother.

It's only a model.

This is a common point of confusion with new players, so to clarify: you can never perform the same type of action twice in a turn. For example:

• You can't play a card on one quest, move to another quest, and play a card for that quest, because that would repeat the "Quest-Specific Action," even though it was for two different quests.
• You can't move to a quest and to Camelot in the same turn, even with the purple knight's power to depart Camelot for free.
• When a quest ends, all knights present are moved back to Camelot, but that isn't an action, so you can still move in that turn.
• You can play a special white card on the same turn that you play a white card for a quest. Playing a special white card is a separate action.

Also, I don't see it mentioned anywhere, but life points awarded/deducted as a result of quests are only applied to knights present at the time the quest ends, and white cards awarded from quests are drawn face-up and divided among the knights present at the players' discretion (potentially awarding all of the cards to one player, for example). If only one knight is present, he gets all of the cards and they aren't revealed to other players.

Otherwise, the game is much more straightforward than the rules might suggest.

I welcome any clarity to the game rules that I may have missed. (Mogri is my wing man for all board game LPs)

I'll be PMing everyone with their cards and their loyalties shortly. After you have a chance to look through things, everyone puts up one White card to share. Then everyone can discuss how these cards passed out.

1. jpfriction - Grail
2. gahitsu - 5 Fight
3. red hedgehog - Grail
4. Mogri - 4 Fight
5. Destil - Grail
6. aturtledoesbite - 5 Fight

[e] derp, answered in a post above. My bad!

Yes

Sorry, missed your post that clearly answered this. It's early for me. ; ;

Obviously the traitor

Everyone's card hands and roles have been sent out. Get to discussing!

And also, as pointed out to me by Mogri, Grail cards are not considered Special White cards. They are just regular White cards.

I'll put up a 4 Fight.

Some general strategy notes:

Grail quest: This quest is very hard to win, but catastrophic to lose. Additionally, winning or losing too early can generate a large number of siege engines. You should go to the Grail quest if you have a large number of Grail cards. At least one knight, but preferably more, should go here within the first few rounds. (I'm thinking about going here, but I won't do it with my current hand.)

Excalibur quest: Easier to win than the Grail quest, but it can be easy to lose, too, and it will also generate siege engines after the quest is finished. Since you can dump any card in your hand to advance this quest, you should go here if your hand is large but useless. At least one knight needs to go here within the first few rounds. (This is a good quest for the traitor, who can dump high-quality cards without anyone else finding out.)

Lancelot quest: Winning the Lancelot quest is very important, since Lancelot's Armor is such a powerful artifact. You should go here if you have a lot of high-value Fight cards. You will need a full house to finish this quest, but King Arthur can fudge that a little for you. Someone needs to go here as soon as is reasonably possible. (Allowing the traitor to get Lancelot's Armor is catastrophic.)

Black Knight quest: This is a low-priority quest. If you can do this quest, you should do Lancelot instead. Playing the Black Knight/Lancelot cards face down is often a good idea. Only play them face-up if you need to signal a high-value card to a knight who is at that quest.

Saxons/Picts quests: Also a low-priority quest, but if you happen to have a 1-5 Fight, then by all means, go for it. (Since the wars and the Black Knight are recurring quests, there's little urgency behind them. Make sure not to get caught at one of these quests if it's going to end badly.)

Dragon quest: No one has ever successfully completed this quest.

Camelot: If your hand is bad, stay at Camelot and draw some cards.


Loyal knight strategy: It can be hard to detect a traitor. The surest way to win is to win with enough white swords that if an undetected traitor remains in the game, the swords flipped to black won't cause you to lose.

Traitor strategy: On second thought, I'm not sure I want to discuss traitor strategy. You can do the footwork yourself, you lousy good-for-nothing.

I am reading this as not a warning, but a challenge.

I understand that some people get into the RP aspect of this game and figure that a band of brave knights would not allow a dragon to go unchallenged, so they make a point of attempting the quest. I can't personally recall ever attempting the dragon quest.

Part of the problem is that the game usually ends before the dragon board fills up. The best point of comparison for the dragon quest is the Excalibur quest: both are group quests; the dragon quest requires nine somewhat specific cards, while the Excalibur quest requires an somewhat unspecified number of any cards; and the rewards are similar, but the Excalibur quest gives you Excalibur in place of an extra 1 HP. More to the point, the Excalibur quest will quickly end in failure if left unattended. The dragon quest takes just as long to fail whether or not anyone shows up.

The dragon quest should really have been worth three swords, putting it on par with the Holy Grail quest, except that the latter gives you a very useful artifact.

This looks really fun, and I wish I'd gotten in! I'll be watching closely.

It's been a while since I played, but I'm pretty sure this opening hand is very very weak. I'm leaning towards drawing cards for a turn or two, I won't do much good on any quests.

I put up a Grail Card to share.

I don't even know what's good or bad to put up or anything.

Anything you don't plan to use in the near future. If you plan on going to a non-Grail quest, for example, offer a Grail. If you plan on going to the Grail quest, offer a decent Fight card. If you have no Grails and you don't want to give away a Fight card, then give a special white card.

By "Fight card", I take it you mean the standard White cards? Or am I wrong there?

The standard White cards consist of the Fight cards and the Grail cards. The Fight cards have a numerical value on them ranging from 1-5

Oh, okay, now I get it. Mostly. I think.

I hope.

5 Fight

Love the jolly coop tag.

I'll toss out a Grail Card I guess, I don't think it will be that useful for me with my current hand.

Need to wait for the rest of the people to share, but I think if I grab turtle's Fight 5 and get lucky with a draw I'll be in good shape for Lancelot's quest.

Let me know if I'm being too specific with strategy talk.

I'll put up a Grail card

What Destil said, rings true for me. I likely won't have much available to me for a few turns.

and I'll be traveling tomorrow and likely won't be able to take my turn

Hey, I'd like to work on the Excalibur Quest. I've got the cards for it, both good and bad.

I don't know if it's best to offer up the best fight card, with a possible Traitor about, but I've got a 5 Fight I can put up.

Ok, the cards put up are

1. jpfriction - Grail
2. gahitsu - 5 Fight
3. red hedgehog - Grail
4. Mogri - 4 Fight
5. Destil - Grail
6. aturtledoesbite - 5 Fight

Chat about who wants what and when that's done jpfriction can take his first turn.

We each take a single card, right? If so, I'll take whatever no one else wants.

You could take none or, if you could convince the other players, you could take all. It's up to y'all how the cards are divied out.

I'm not particularly enamored with any of the cards on the board.

I will say that from where I'm sitting, the Black Knight's armor looks an awful lot like paper for all the good it will do him.

Is anyone else thinking of heading to the Grail quest? If I took all of the Grails, I could make some good progress there, but there's no way I'll finish it solo. I'd prefer to split those cards with another knight, spend a turn or two drawing cards, and then see what we can do there.

I just realized we're missing Sir Drawsmorecards

I don't have any Grail cards. I too was going to sit around and draw some cards before I head off. And yeah, the Black Knight's just gonna melt.