Serpent's Tooth

I've actually had this for a long time but I've been quite behind on my reading. Serpent's Tooth is concerned with symbolic patricide with one player taking the role of the King, a strong, powerful and mostly likely male character, and the other players characters in the kingdom or court who will usurp the King's power.

The really interesting mechanical aspect is that the King's powers are actually the rights to control parts of the narrative. Initially all the narrative rights are with the King but if the other players successful scheme to steal the in-game emblems of the King's authority then they get to control part of the scene framing.

The game ends when the emblems have all been taken from the King so there is a symmetry between the fiction and the rules structure.

There are various playsets for the game, the first being the obvious literal king while the others are Amazon King (Jeff Bezos or Steve Jobs), Homecoming King (American high school) and more esoterically the Green Man (the heart of the forest) and a superhero version.

It's a short punchy game and one I'm looking forward to giving a go.

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