2023 · Game Changing Designs
Inns & Outcast is a 3-8 player card game set in a high fantasy setting. Players take on the role of adventurers who’ve completed their quest, and now are undergoing the process of divvying up loot scored during their epic undertaking. Characters clash in constant combat for coinage each round. The game is set in the recently rebranded City of Destiny™. A bustling boomtown transformed from the tiny hamlet of Po’Dunk. Where there was once a village on the verge of collapse, now stands a thriving metropolis filled to the brim with hustlers and cons. It has become the go-to place for every Hero, Villain, and Mercenary looking to find their place in the world and is in fact the number one tourist trap. The city’s ever-changing population leaves only its world-famous hospitality service in its wake. The only permanent fixture of the city being its Inns & Outcasts.
Players start each turn by simultaneously placing a card face down, then counting up initiatives from 1-6. Once a card’s initiative is called, all cards of that initiative are revealed. Players make short decisions regarding the specifics of their abilities, then proceed until all cards are shown. When all cards are revealed, special abilities kick in which allows players to add coins to their personal hoard.
Players can make income either through their starting gold (a fixed amount of gold determined by each character card) or through their special abilities. Special abilities can come in the form of reveal effects – which happen instantly, or through loot abilities which compound at the end of each turn. Loot abilities are high-risk, high reward as they can often be blocked by other cards. Once a card is played, it stays out until 5 turns have gone by, allowing all players to refresh their hands. It’s a game about reading your opponents and the situation at hand to make big gains while slowing down your opponents.
The player having the most money at the end of the game being the winner. The game ends once a player crosses a threshold of currency, which is determined by group size – but just because you’re the first over the line doesn’t guarantee a win.
