Each player holds two hidden influence cards. Be the last player with influence to win. You may claim any character, whether you hold it or not. Each character appears three times in the Court deck.
Income: take 1 coin; cannot be blocked or challenged. Foreign Aid: take 2 coins; Duke may block. Coup: pay 7 coins to make a rival reveal an influence; unchallengeable and unblockable. You must Coup when you begin your turn with 10 or more coins.
Duke: Tax, gain 3 coins; block Foreign Aid. Assassin: pay 3 coins to make a target lose an influence; Contessa may block. Captain: steal up to 2 coins; Captain or Ambassador may block. Ambassador: draw 2 from the Court, choose which influence to keep, return the rest; also blocks Stealing. Contessa: blocks an assassination against herself.
Every other living player can challenge an action's character claim, even when it targets another player. Only the target can block Stealing or Assassination; anyone else can challenge that blocking claim. Challenge opportunities move clockwise, one player at a time. A truthful claimant shows the claimed card, shuffles it back into the Court, and draws a replacement; the challenger loses influence. A false claimant loses influence and the action fails. A successfully challenged Assassin action refunds the 3-coin cost; a blocked assassination still costs 3 coins.
Action claims are challenged before any counteraction is declared. A block may itself be challenged. A target could lose two influence from one assassination if their challenge or block fails and the assassination succeeds.
When losing influence, choose one hidden card to turn face up; it remains out of play. Two revealed cards eliminate you. During Exchange, choose as many cards to keep as you have remaining hidden influence and shuffle the others back into the Court.
Multiplayer rooms support 2–6 players plus spectators. Solo mode is manual seat switching for practice, without AI players. In two-player games the opener starts with 1 coin; the other player starts with 2.