Palace Quest

Palace Quest is the new cooperative adventure for 1–6 players from Emanuele Ornella (designer of Ronin) and Dirk Henn (designer of Alhambra). The Sultan has bestowed upon you the monumental task of constructing his dream palace, but his vision is exacting. You must work together as a team to assemble the perfect Alhambra.

Palace Quest is played over 8 rounds. At the beginning, each player receives a stack of gems used to finance the construction of the buildings. Each round the role of the master builder changes, and this player decides which 3 buildings can be placed that round. Together, players may reveal 5 gem cards one after another — they decide whether to try their luck again and discard the previous card to draw a suitable one. If the team runs out of gem cards, they lose the game.

In the first 3 rounds, the team builds the basic framework for the Alhambra. After that, each round one of the Sultan's wishes must be fulfilled — wishes range from the length of the outer wall to the number of buildings or their arrangement. Failing a wish can lead to losing the game. At the start of each game, the wishes and consequences are randomly redistributed, so no two games play the same.

To make construction easier, players form neighborhoods of buildings of the same type, which earns action tiles that allow drawing additional cards, rotating building sites, or changing gem colors. Seeing all of the Sultan's wishes upfront and the consequences for failing creates a uniquely tense decision space — devise a master strategy, but pivot tactically when the cards aren't in your favor.