NRB Plays The King's Dilemma

**NRB Plays The King's Dilemma** is the first episode of the campaign.

**As a campaign/legacy game, this playthrough inevitably contains potential spoilers for the entire game.**

"*We've all got the same secret secret agenda, right? Which is to kill House Rules?*"
―Dom
## Scenario

Players represent the King's council in the kingdom of Angkist - debating and deciding their collective position on key issues. Each player is a House within the kingdom, each with their own agenda.

## Characters

* Dom is House Alleyne - "a posh version of Allen, because we're very posh". They propped the King up way back when, and will never let him forget it.
* Sullivan is House Rules "the most fun time anyone could possibly have". Everyone else ranges from mildly irritated to utterly irritated by them.
* Laurie is House Pastel of Natar - devoutly religious. They worship the mother (not Laurie's mother, her name is Elaine).
* Ken is House Ego - they love the sea and are "often depressed".
* Holly is House Woodhog. They are not in any way bitter about being annexed by the Kingdom.

## Notable moments

* Laurie: "The King's Dilemma is a debating game." Dom: "No it isn't."
* We have some lovely titles - very high production again.
* Sullivan is making it up as he goes along, Laurie already looks slightly despairing.
* The new table really shines for this sort of game - we can see everyone properly and there's lots of room for everything.
* Ken: "OK, now we're talking. Now we're ... what the hell do these mean?"
* Sullivan and Dom bicker about the reason for the success of the actual House Rules series.
* Dom's leaning into his mad dictator persona again, accompanied with cackling.
* Dom thinks we should fix the windmills so that people can work and pay taxes. Laurie thinks they should be allowed to die so they can be reborn.
* We're all ganging up on Sullivan - we think we should give him the wrong meeting day so he doesn't show up to Council.
* Ken doesn't like merchants - they smell funny. Holly is morally opposed to slavery. Dom's worried about the money. Laurie says mother will provide.
* Ken hates money and Dom says he's going to hold that against him later.
* The bickering and infighting has started, that's comforting. Dom and Sullivan are accusing Ken of (not) voting tactically. Laurie forces a tied vote to test Ken's morality and everyone is now trying to bribe him.
* Ken: "I'm not interested in money - but please, show me more."
* Dom: "At least Holly will end up with her name on a sticker so later on we'll chop her head off." Holly's ok with that, if it means she's saved a stranger and their map. House Hedgehog prizes the life of one over the many - Sullivan says they're a bunch of fucking idiots.
* Every decision has consequences - freeing the slaves has damaged our trade agreements. We wonder if people will still be clapping when they run out of bread. And we're running out of money already.
* Chopping Holly's head off would just mean a thousand hedgehogs come out. She's not wrong - that *would* be a surprise.
* It took us more than half an hour to get to Brexit jokes. "Angksit means Angksit."
* House Alleyne is taking a strong stance of not giving a shit.
* Dom is planning to break ties with his little cardboard cock. Tiny Teri spot! Hi Teri!
* Holly is loving the signing and stickers parts of this legacy game.
* Sullivan is not confident that our explorer's results were in any way worth the cost. Essentially we now know that cacti are cacti.
* Dom's first breakdown is triggered by avocado pears. Not avocados. He hates the nouveau riche on the council. Laurie points out we're up to dilemma 4 of an entire campaign and it may be ever so slightly early for him to lose his shit. In the end, he passes on the vote and lets everyone else take the responsibility. Sullivan's motivated by stickers.
* Sullivan: "That cactus better save all of our lives."
* Laurie: "The plan's working - we've done the Angksit, we've tanked the economy and now we've got the people in to blame."
* Everyone else seems to have wandered off for a comfort break while Ken voted all by himself. Luckily the vote went the way we all wanted but couldn't be bothered to vote for.
* The ex-concubine dying seems to have really cheered up the kingdom. Huh.
* We're bickering about our right-on credentials now. Ken's happy to sacrifice sleep for diversity. Dom and Sullivan question his motives. Laurie claims he recycles but Holly says he doesn't rinse his stuff out properly. No, I don't know how we got here either.
* Some of us are motivated by money, some by knowledge - and never the twain shall meet.
* When the King finally dies, we have our complicated scoring.
* Laurie does best for money, everyone does quite well on their secret agendas, gets some achievements and score for power and Laurie wins overall.
* Teri's not putting up with nonsensical edit requests. We can hear her eyerolling from here.
* The King was poisoned by cactus tea, apparently. Or one of Holly's stolen artefacts fell on him.

## Scores

* Holly 13
* Dom 14
* Sullivan 14
* Ken 15
* Laurie 21

## Trivia

* This 1st episode was released early via Patreon on 30 September 2023, then made publicly available on YouTube on 28 October. Subsequent episodes will be restricted to Patreon release.