Oath

Objective, roles, and victory: Players become Chancellor, Citizen, or Exile in a changing kingdom and pursue the current Oath and any available Vision. The Chancellor rules the Empire, Citizens belong to its side, and Exiles may challenge it. The first-printing rules do not use a general “highest VP total wins” ending. Victory depends on Oathkeeper/Usurper status, Vision conditions, stability checks, and the priority rules at the end of round eight.

First and later setups: For a first game, follow the guided setup in the Playbook for sites, cards, resources, and roles. For later games, consult the Chronicle and previous result to preserve or rebuild the map, world deck, Oath, and player positions. Choose a Chancellor; other eligible players begin as Exiles and may later become Citizens. Setup reflects the current Chronicle state, so not every game starts from an identical fixed board.

Player count and automated opponent: The original game supports one to six players. In multiplayer, people take the Chancellor, Citizen, and Exile roles. The base-box Clockwork Prince provides automated-Chancellor rules for solo and two-player play. It follows its own board, reference rules, and action sequence; it is not a full human player and does not create a cooperative team. The base rules do not divide multiplayer players into two teams with a shared win.

Rounds and Wake: The game lasts up to eight rounds. Each round begins with the Chancellor, then players take turns clockwise, completing Wake, Act, and Rest. Wake handles support, Oathkeeper or Usurper status, and immediate victory checks. A player must check the conditions for their current role and Oath before moving on. A player with the largest army or most cards does not automatically win.

Act and Supply: In Act, spend Supply to take major actions and, when allowed, Minor Actions. Search finds a card in the world deck or a local discard pile; Muster adds warbands; Trade gains support or secrets; Recover takes a relic or banner at the current site; Campaign uses dice combat to contest sites and objects; and Travel moves the pawn and explores a site. Supply limits how much a player can do in a round, while site and card abilities can change action costs or results.

Rest and card resources: After acting, Rest recovers resources on cards and refreshes Supply according to the rules. Denizens, Relics, sites, and advisors provide different powers and resources, subject to their location, control, and printed conditions. A card effect is not automatically a permanent global rule; resolve its timing, costs, exhaustion, and refresh using the first-printing Law.

Exile victories: An Exile can win by taking the ruling objective and changing the Oathkeeper state. If an Exile has the Oathkeeper marker on its Usurper side at their Wake, they win immediately. Another path is to reveal a Vision and meet its goal; after at least three Visions have been drawn from the world deck, an eligible Exile may win at Wake. A Vision has its own requirements, so drawing or revealing one alone is not a victory.

Stable regime and succession: At the end of rounds five, six and seven, roll the regime die only if the Chancellor or a Citizen is Oathkeeper. An empire win requires a 6 in round five, a 5–6 in round six, or a 3–6 in round seven. The Chancellor normally wins, but a Citizen meeting the current Oath’s Successor goal wins instead. Depending on the Oath, succession concerns relics and banners, the Darkest Secret, the People’s Favor or the Grand Scepter; Citizens do not all share a team victory.

Eighth-round priority: If no earlier ending occurred, resolve the eighth-round ending in order. First, an Imperial Oathkeeper gives an Empire win, subject to Citizen succession. Otherwise an Exile who is Usurper wins. Otherwise check Exiles with a revealed, fulfilled Vision; simultaneous claims prioritize Conquest, Rebellion, Sanctuary, then Faith. If none applies, the Empire wins, again checking succession. There is no ninth round.

Chronicle and the next game: After a win, follow Writing the Chronicle to set the next Oath, resolve Citizen and Exile status, preserve or update sites and components, and rebuild the world deck. Some cards, map relationships, and goals carry forward, but the system is not an irreversible legacy. The publisher says groups may reset or change players; recording a result is part of the rules, not a requirement to finish a fixed campaign.

Clockwork Prince and expansion boundary: The base-box Clockwork Prince plays the Chancellor in solo and two-player games and uses its own board, cards, and automated action table. Later Queen of Shadows, Servant, New Foundations, and Clockwork Adversaries designs add other solo or cooperative systems and are not the original base rules. A 2019 design diary described an earlier VP-leader ending; this entry follows the first-printing Law’s victory paths and round-eight priority instead.