All the guests were gossiping and laughing as they poured into the great hall. The bard, meanwhile, stood by the high table with the jester, trying to sneak food without getting caught. As she reached out for some olives, the door creaked open and the baron appeared. All commotion ceased and everyone turned to stare at him. The jester whispered to the bard, “I wonder who invited him? The Baron hasn’t spoken to the king since the queen was killed last year. She was the Baron’s sister, you know. Well, well, well. This will be a very entertaining meal.”

Our large-group game of courtly intrigue, The Last Banquet, is on sale now at your local retailer and in our online store!

In The Last Banquet, you and your friends take on the roles of guests at an opulent royal feast. Perfectly suited for parties and large gaming events, the game accommodates groups of six to twenty-five players. Using your character’s actions and words, you must work with other players to achieve your team’s goal, which may be to deliver a secret message, rescue the kidnapped princess, or seat your team’s assassin by the king’s side.

Sneaky Servants and Ambitious Nobility

Our first preview introduced you to some of the court personalities invited to the banquet and their devious means of getting ahead at court. Each character has an individual set of actions and words to accompany them. We saw how the mischievous jester can create chaos by forcing players to switch characters, turning the abbot into the merchant, or the princess into the king. We also looked at the ambitious duchess’ dangerous gossip-mongering, which she uses as a pretense to physically lure her allies and her enemies closer.

But what about the king himself? Sitting on the throne both empowers him and makes him vulnerable. In more than one scenario his life is at stake. His actions allow him to either switch places with another player or change the direction that the scepter is passed, which reverses the order in which players take their action. When you play the king, you must decide how to use those actions to avoid assassination, discover your enemies and protect the royal family.

Deadly Plots and Royal Rivalries

You begin the game by choosing, as a group, which scenario to play – we took a detailed look at two of the scenarios, A League of Traitors and The Missing Princess in our second preview. You might select the titular scenario and try to murder the king at his own feast (or save the king from death), or play Spies and Courtiers, in which the baron works to secretly deliver a scandalous message to the king, and the duke’s faction seeks to prevent the message from being delivered. You could play an ambitious merchant, using any means necessary to take over a dead nobleman’s luxurious estate, or a vengeful ghost who has come to dinner in order to kill her sister the queen.

Once the scenario has been chosen, players select characters, divide into factions, and strategize before taking their places. Be careful where you sit at the beginning of the game, since that affects when you can take your action, but be prepared to switch places several times in a given round. You never know who you’ll end up sitting next to– it could be a resentful cup-bearer, a flirtatious duchess, a loquacious wizard or a gracious queen!

Dinner is Served!

With six different cloak-and-dagger scenarios and twenty-five palace personalities to choose from, every banquet at the royal court will be a unique experience.The palace gates are open and your place at the royal table is ready!

Download the rules from the support page and pick up your copy of The Last Banquet today!