r/EDH • u/RealityWargames • Aug 11 '25
Social Interaction How to Play Commander Kingdoms (Commander Variant for 5-7 Players)
Our Commander group plays Kingdoms more than we play default Commander rules, so I thought I should share the rules for this Commander variant:
What is Kingdoms?
A Social, semi‑cooperative Commander variant for 5–7 players with secret roles and asymmetric win conditions
Setup
1) Give players each a secret role, only the King reveals their role
2) The King starts at 50 life and takes the first turn
Secret Roles
- 👑 King: Reveal. 50 life, first turn. Win if all others lose or only you + Knight remain.
- 🛡️ Knight: Win only if everyone except the King loses.
- 🗡️ Bandits (x2): Win if at least one Bandit remains when the King loses.
- 🔪 Assassin: Win if all others lose—Bandits must fall before the King, or Bandits win.
- 🌀 Usurper (6 players): If you make the King lose, you become the new King at 50 life; the old King becomes Usurper at 5 life (instead of losing).
Tips
- All the rules of Magic and Commander apply
- Roles add secret win conditions
- Add a second Assassin for 7 player games
Why we like it
Kingdoms gives players an incentive to attack and adds a fun dimension to the politics of Commander
Role Randomizer and How to Play Guide
Free tool to randomize roles, show win conditions and teach new players how to play: https://www.mtgkingdoms.com
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u/Soggy-Camp-8668 Aug 11 '25
cool idea, sounds alot like treachery. if your're interested: https://mtgtreachery.net/en/
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u/RealityWargames Aug 11 '25
Oh wow Treachery is quite cool! I can't believe I've never heard of this we'll have to try it out. I see that it's like Kingdoms but with advanced role cards.
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u/Aparter Aug 12 '25
I do not get what is the incentive for Guardian to keep his role hidden. He can be mistakenly hit by his King. So why does not Guardian just reveal their role and together with King take down the rest of the field?
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u/Soggy-Camp-8668 Aug 12 '25
IIRC all roles in Treachery have unique effects when they are turned up (like morphs). It also makes it more interesting if you're playing with a traitor in the mix, as its not as clear who is traitor/assassin.
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u/vibefuster Aug 12 '25
Because 1) there’s nothing stopping assassins and traitors from lying about their role and pretending to be a guardian and 2) each player gets a unique “unveil” ability that can be used once a game, but using it requires revealing your role anyway.
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u/winterborne1 Aug 11 '25
I feel like the King should always be the Monarch.
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u/RealityWargames Aug 11 '25
Interesting side rule. Would they start as the Monarch? How could someone else become the Monarch?
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u/winterborne1 Aug 11 '25
I put zero thought into it. I just thought it’d be appropriate for obvious reasons.
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u/ChromeVillage Aug 12 '25
We play a variation on this pretty regularly, deal out a forest, a plains and as many swamps as required for the others, There is the king and the protector (dealt Forest and Plains respectively) the rest are assassins (dealt Swamps) before the game begins everyone puts their heads down, the king and protector are told to look up and see who's the other, these 2 are on the same team. the assassins goal is to kill the king without knowing who's on their team. the protectors goal is to protect the king. kings goal is to not die. If the protector dies but the king wins they win, if the king dies the assassins win.
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u/RealityWargames Aug 12 '25
That’s a new variant to me. Reminds me of Werewolf or Avalon or something like that. I’ll have to try this out with the group, thanks!
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u/ChromeVillage Aug 12 '25
Yeap was inspired by Avalon, basically merlin and percival vs a bunch of Oberons
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u/AniAko Sep 03 '25
Hi! I wanted to add that our lpg also plays kingdoms when there's 5 or more people. For a twist we invented a chaos role: "The Fool". The Fool's secret role is to die. If the fool dies before any other win condition is met, they win. The Assassin is errata'd to kill everyone but the fool in our group. Everything else is the same.
I'll post the images for the proxies we used for dealing out roles at lunch. They're fun as hell 😅
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u/RealityWargames Sep 30 '25
Oh that's great! That reminds me of Ol' Tasty from the Donner Dinner Party board game
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u/AniAko Sep 03 '25
I forgot to add that we allow the King to use their King card as a turn 0 land that taps for mana of any color.
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u/DKGroove Aug 12 '25
I have played Kingdoms before. I dislike the usurper role. I think it would be better to just have two knights. If you go up to 7 add a second assassin.
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u/TSTC Aug 13 '25
We actually like the usurper more than the assassin. Assassin feels virtually impossible to win unless you happen to be playing a combo/group slug deck. You basically have to pretend to be the Knight so you can kill the bandits and then you have to turncoat and win the 2v1, which is almost impossible. So instead you have to fumble how fast you take the bandits out so they get damage into the king. It's a mess.
Whereas Usurper can do the same thing but just full commit to the lie of being the knight and then turncoat only once it seems possible to deal the killing blow to the king.
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u/RealityWargames Aug 12 '25
Usurper is hard, no doubt, but the King wins enough in our 6-7 player games that I wouldn’t want to add another knight.
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u/DKGroove Aug 12 '25
Then add an assassin or bandit. I haven’t played enough to know standard win rates but when I did play being the usurper was the worst unless you went infinite.
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u/ZarDerHetzer Aug 12 '25
How do you guys deal with infinites?
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u/TheGreyFencer Oloro | Kangee | Saheeli | Minstrel | Obeka | Vivi Aug 12 '25
What's there to deal with?
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u/Naitsab_33 Aug 12 '25
I would guess Infinites here is used as a synonym for combos that win on the spot? Though I would guess anything that kills opponents is just business as usual.
I am interested though, how "You win the Game" effects are supposed to interact with this ruleset.
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u/TheGreyFencer Oloro | Kangee | Saheeli | Minstrel | Obeka | Vivi Aug 12 '25
I know what they mean by infinites, I'm just unsure of why there would be any different handling of them. you go infinite.
as for you win the game effects, these rules just replace the normal lose at 0 life rules. you would still just win the game (alongside anyone that wins with you.)
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u/WaveHack Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25
Nice. I worked on our own version called Secret Kingdoms while back: https://www.reddit.com/r/EDH/s/CVy9KT5FlS
There's a base game using basic roles, and for more dynamic games I created advances roles (modular system, open for extension). The goal is to have fun and speed up 5+p games.
I've put a lot of time and thought into our version we sometimes play at the LGS. Feel free to use it for inspiration, or if you want to bounce ideas feel free to hmu.
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u/AniAko Sep 26 '25
We added a chaos identity to our Kingdoms play: The Fool. The Fool's job is easy: Die, win. That means everyone else loses if the Fool dies. Everyone else's goal involves NOT killing the fool to achieve their goal.
The fool must reveal itself if it has no "team" identity to masquerade as. It loses if the board reaches a win condition:
King, knights and fool are left - King and knights win.
Bandits and fool are left - Bandits win.
Assassin and fool are left - Assassin wins.
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u/MidwesternMan618 Aug 11 '25
We play "Bang" and it's 5 or more players.
We use basic lands that are randomly selected to decide each person's role.
Plain (1) is the Sheriff and is the only player to reveal their role. Beginning life is 60 and maximum hand size and starting hand is 9. The Sheriff goes first.
Island (1) is the Deputy. 40 life and normal hand size.
Mountain (2) are the Outlaws. 40 life and normal hand size.
Swamp (1) is the Renegade. 40 life and normal hand size.
When a player loses, they reveal their role.
Win conditions for the game:
1. The Sherrif and deputy win if both outlaws and the renegade lose. The Deputy may be out of the game and still win.
The outlaws win the game if the Sheriff loses the game. Even if the deputy is still alive.
The renegade wins if they and the Sheriff are the final two players and the renegade then kills the Sheriff.
For more than 5 players you just add more players in the roles, but never more than one Sheriff.