Council of Idiots

How to play

Controls, then the numbers that matter

1. 01

   Treasury, the people, the army and weirdness all start at 50, unless a decree says otherwise, and are lethal at BOTH ends — hit 0 or 100 on any one of them and your reign is over. Eight of the eleven endings are a stat maxing out or bottoming out.

2. 02

   Every night each stat drifts 2 points back toward 50 (except the one a decree holds), so one big swing is survivable; two in the same direction usually isn't. Plan effects run from -25 to +20.

3. 03

   The advisors have tells: Penny buys gold with the people's love, Dave buys love with gold, Gerald and Maggie both pump weirdness, Reginald moves the army. Read the icons on the card, then guess the sign from who is talking.

4. 04

   The goose storyline fires three times — once early, once from day 8, and the Great Goose Ultimatum from day 14. Survive the Ultimatum and the Goose joins your council for the rest of the reign as a fourth option that just says HONK, marked ❓, with two hidden random effects.

5. 05

   Day 30 is the win. Two rare choices end the run on the spot instead: writing back to King Brenda (20% chance) and swimming in the moat with Gary (18%). Both are endings worth finding.

6. 06

   A plan you have already picked says heard on its card in later reigns. That tells you nothing about which way it goes, only that the Chronicle has it. The Chronicle opens from the title screen after your first reign. It shows found endings with their epitaphs, hints for the rest, and every crisis you have answered with the plans you have heard, to re-read. It never lists a crisis you have not answered.

7. 07

   Today's docket, on the title screen after your first reign, deals one reign from the Taipei date: every ruler meets the same crises in the same order that day, under the same name. Your first docket reign each day is the one it keeps; close the page half-way and Today's docket picks it up after your last pick. Replay it as often as you like: replays are practice, and add only the plans you hear to the Chronicle. It counts the dockets you have ruled, your best and your longest run of days in a row, and a missed day takes nothing away. Copy result adds the date.

8. 08

   Each too-much ending unseals a decree: a reign that starts with that stat at 15 (army and weirdness at 10) and never lets it drift back. Decrees are the road to the four too-little endings, which a reign at 50 almost never reaches; even picking at random, about a third of reigns under The Empty Vault end Bankrupt. Recruiting the Goose unseals the Goose Charter, which seats it from day 1.