King's Favor

Heya folks!

Stralor here (maybe you saw my inaugural post? http://www.bgdf.com/node/12930).

I've been pushing work on my game, King's Favor, for a while now. I've got an almost-pretty-but-still-lacking-art rulebook, and many, many iterations of my game under my belt. This game has been completely overhauled from scratch three or four times now, and it has finally clicked with this most recent version. I'm happy with most of the mechanics, and there are only a couple of issues I need to get sorted, which I'll get to in a second.

So! A little about King's Favor!

The King is dying, and he has no heir. You and your peers in the major noble houses are vying for his preference to succeed him, hoping to make your house the new royal family. Meanwhile, you each have a secret guild allegiance which provides an alternate path to victory....

The game takes 4 to 12 players, and plays in about 5 to 10 minutes per player (count on 10 with new players). It is semi-cooperative, in that each player has two allegiances, one to his or her house and one to his or her guild, and is working together with housemates and guildmates to achieve victory. But the competition is on! Only only one house or one guild may win. Which allegiance do YOU most value?

I've attached the rulebook! I'd absolutely appreciate if it got some serious reads. I'm interested in starting a conversation about mechanics (and even perhaps the why and how the game is what it is), formatting & structure, and even proofreading.

A couple of mechanics need a bit of tweaking. The Swift ability can be exploited to snowball if you know how. I've been thinking of adjusting it to costing a guild point rather than a success. Thoughts? Also, there are some starting bonuses for underpopulated houses that may get doubled to aid the potential for staggered starts.

I can't wait to hear what your sharp minds come up with. Thanks in advance for any feedback you might have.

Cheers,
Stralor