How to Play
Captains
Your captain card tells you how to win: for example, you might need to kill a specific enemy, or bloody your hands more than anyone else. To succeed, persuade opponents to work with you - even faking your identity, if necessary - and manipulate others into attacking your ideal targets.
Will you pretend to be Cordelia to lure your opponent into a vulnerable position? Will you label your enemy as the feared technomancer Prospero, creating a distraction that lets you sneak in your own victory?
Captain’s Gambit is a game of identity deduction and timely betrayals. You can leverage your tactical skills to calculate the shifting odds, or leverage your improv talents to fast-talk your way out of trouble. Everyone brings their own skillset to the game - play to discover yours.
Permits
Your two permit cards give let you do Permit Actions. You’ll choose one action per turn, like Overcharge to gain energy or Barrage to deal damage.
These cards are hidden from others. This means you’re only supposed to choose actions that match one of your two permit cards.
…However, in Captain’s Gambit you are free to lie and declare whatever actions you want! If you look truthful enough, you can can get away with doing any action you feel like.
If you don’t believe someone else actually has a permit card, you can call them out: if you do, either your opponent will forfeit their action and take 3 damage, or they’ll show you their permit card, and you take 3 damage.
To succeed, you must make the best of every situation, either by skillfully planning out your actions, by smooth-talking some players into helping you, by laying low and passing by unnoticed, or by speaking out and distracting everyone. How will you win?
Captain’s Gambit is for the player who…
Enjoys games like Coup, Werewolf, D&D, Dungeon World, or SSBM
Prefers their games to feel unique every time they play
Wants games that are actually fun for 6-8 players
Likes to follow metagames as they evolve and shift over time
Loves watching and making big brain plays that outsmart everyone else
Captain’s Gambit Development Blog
