Fool's Court

Fool's Court puts you on the throne of a small kingdom where petitioners come to beg, bargain and complain. You answer them, and your choices affect the factions, treasury and people who return with new requests. Their cases range from a lord presenting you with a live bear to a proposal to tax beards, or a visitor sharing an account of a butterfly.

Hear petitions and shape the kingdom

The game contains more than 300 fully voiced petitions and story scenes, with 26 storylines to follow. Your court includes a bishop, marshal, chancellor and other named characters who remain with you throughout your reign. Friends make their part of the kingdom easier to run and reduce costs on buildings they care about; enemies can prevent those buildings from being built. Courtiers also form opinions of one another, which matters when you seat them at dinner.

Each day, the king has a new whim you can choose to indulge.

Spend your evenings

When court ends, you decide how to spend the evening:

• Host a tourney: Seven bouts take place in the lists. Give a knight your favor, wager gold through the steward and let your winnings ride. Lances break and riders fall.
• Throw a feast: Choose the food, guests and seating plan. Seat rivals together and see how they fare, while keeping track of your own cups. The game includes 30 incidents that can go wrong at the table.
• Visit the war room: Read letters, send gifts, trade grain and men, demand tribute, or muster an army to march on a neighbor.
• Open the treasury chest: Spend from your purse on your own enjoyment, though someone may discover where the money came from.

Build your town

Your town is visible from the castle window, with people going about their day. You can raise 41 buildings along ten lines, from a granary and market square to a menagerie, cathedral and citadel. Some buildings unlock new parts of the game, and the Tilt Yard and Great Hall let you hold tourneys and feasts respectively.

Renown and the buildings you construct can raise your title from Petty King to King, Great King, High King and Emperor. War can destroy buildings, and poor construction decisions can cause one to collapse.

Deal with your neighbors

A new map is drawn for each reign, placing five realms around your kingdom. They write to you, trade with you and hold grudges. Defeat a realm in battle and it pays; defeat it twice and it surrenders, allowing you to make it a vassal or take its land. Your neighbors can also attack you. Wars play out clash by clash, and you need to keep supplies of food, soldiers and gold.

Keep the crown

There is no day limit. Your reign ends through debt, revolt, a coup, famine, a neighbor's army or certain stories at court. A chronicle then recounts the reign, including its successes and failures. The game has three difficulty levels, from Prosperity to Ruin, and 41 achievements.