Rulers is played across a map of your own creation. This map in Rulers is split into Regions. Each Region represents an area of control on the map. Regions can be any shape or size, and do not have to follow a uniform pattern.

All Regions share these rules:

• Each Region starts with 3 Attributes - Industry, Agriculture and Commerce.

• A Region starts with 4 Locations and may not exceed 4 Locations.

• Each Region can support up to a maximum of 4 Settlements and 4 Attributes.

• Regardless of their size on a map, all regions take 1 Turn ⏳ to traverse.

Regions in your world

The gamemaster is free to determine the number of Regions that are in the game.

We recommend this process to determine the number of Regions your map should have:

• 1 Region per player

• For every 2 players, have 1 NPC controlled Region

• For every 3 regions that are player or NPC controlled, have 1 Wild Region that is neutral territory controlled by no one.

For example, in a game with 4 players there would be 8 Regions: 4 player Realms, 2 NPC Realms, and 2 Wild Regions.

For a game where the players start as more powerful civilizations, consider giving them 2 Regions at the beginning of the game.

For a game with more faction intrigue, consider having 2 NPC Realms for every Player Realm, with 2 of those NPC Realms being larger than the rest, controlling 2-3 Regions instead.

For a game with more exploration, consider having more Wild Regions than both Player and NPC Realms combined.

Keep in mind that the more Regions there are on your map, the longer it will take for diplomatic envoys and marching armies to travel from one Region to another. Keep players close to each other and to NPCs so that they can interact with one another!

Locations

Each Region is comprised of 4 Locations. These locations do not have to be geographically mapped, or considered the same size. A Location is an abstract “node” that is contained within a Region. For simplicity, you may refer to them as North, South, East and West.

Each Attribute and Settlement in a Region must be assigned to Location. Each Location can hold only one Atrribute and only one Settlement.

A Region cannot have more than 4 Locations, but it may have less down to a minimum of 1. If a Region were to be reduced to 0 Locations, that Region would cease to exist.

Patrial Region control

Locations may be captured in war or traded in agreements between Realms.

When a Location is removed from a Region, it is merged into an existing Location of an adjacent Region of the new owner, providing this does not exceed the limit of 4 Settlements or 4 Attributes in one Region, and neither does it exceed the limit of 1 Attribute and 1 Settlement per Location.

If merging this Location would exceed these limits, then it is instead Occupied. An Occupied Location does not confer the benefits from the Attribute and/or Settlement assigned to that Location.

When all Locations in a Region are Occupied, then ownership of the whole Region is given to the occupying Realm.

If 4 Locations from multiple adjacent regions are Occupied, the occupying player may create a new Region comprising of these 4 Locations.

Speed

Speed represents the number of Regions that can be traversed in one turn. A straight path must be able to be drawn from the starting Region to its destination. All Regions are considered to be the same size regardless of how they may be drawn on a map. Speed also represents the number of Regions that can be included in the return journey. Regions are traversed one at a time, with travellers stopping at each Region on their journey, until the next turn resolves and they move again.

For example, an Army has Speed 1 👣. That means that any Location in any neighboring Realm can be reached, and that the Army can return back to the Region it started from, in one turn. A Messenger has Speed 2 👣. Therefore, a destination up to 2 Regions away can be reached, and the Messenger can travel back again to the Region it started from, in one turn.