How to play Five Wards

Five Houses govern a city of five wards (Docks, Market, Foundry, Gardens, Archive) for five rounds. Every ward starts at Prosperity 3 (range 0-6). You hold four Stakes: your home ward (public) and three hidden cards. Your score is the sum of each Stake times its ward's final Prosperity, plus your Favor.

Each round: Dawn reveals a crisis and gives everyone 1 Favor. In Drafting the Chair drafts Motion A and the Rival drafts Motion B, allocating the Treasury (usually 6) to Defense, Investment (2 each, +1 Prosperity), Stipends (max 2, never to the drafter), or Unallocated. Everyone else may submit a Petition. In Negotiation you choose up to two structured statements and non-binding Offers. In Revision drafters may revise; others answer, endorse, dispute, or promise. Then final versions freeze with immutable IDs (for example R2:A:v2), and identical finals merge into one voting group.

Funding: lock escrowed Pledges (at most 3 Favor per round, paid from Favor you already have) with conditions PASSES, VOTES, or VOTES_AND_PASSES on those final IDs. Vote: A, B, C, or Neither. A group needs 3 of 5 votes; otherwise the Default Decree buys Defense in fixed ward order. Resolution applies damage, effects, Stipends, and Pledges.

Claims are never checked. Disclosures, published Intel, and published Audits are authenticated system facts. Promises are stamped Kept, Broken, or Void but never change the score by themselves. Missing two consecutive Votes, or choosing Leave match, is a permanent Forfeit. Closing the page is only a disconnection.