Favor

You are a successful merchant in medieval Europe, well connected but not part of the influential high society. You want to gain new business contracts in the region, but your competitors- who clearly aren't as good as you at business- are using their social connections to steal the contracts for themselves. You’ve no other option but to use your own connections to secure contracts, but these are busy times and not everyone will be able to help when you ask in this simultaneous play, trick taking game.

What makes Favor different than most trick taking games like Hearts or Spades? There are a few things like simultaneous play, no suits (but still having trump cards), and everyone having the same cards, but the big difference has to be the Response deck.

Sure, you can use any of the 14 cards in your hand to ask for a favor (thematically similar to Love Letter), spread rumors of a plague, or send in a plague doctor, but nobody can control the response. The Response deck tells you who is too busy to help you, and the more influence a person has the more likely they are too busy to help. Since the response deck cards stay face up as the game progresses, players gain a better idea of what to expect, but you still have to contend with the choices of the other players.

Check out the rules document to see how trump cards (the Royal Family), Plague, and Plague Doctor cards work. You’ll want to start asking for favors to win contracts in no time!

What if
...two or more people request a favor from the same person? These are influential, high society people... they will not play favorites or choose between you. You cannot win the contract if you and another player have played the same card.

...two or more Plague cards are played at the same time? Do they cancel each other out? Nope. If one or more plague cards is played, nobody can win that contract except the Plague Doctor.

...I think the Plague Doctor is creepy? Blame historical fact. They were real people and, yes, they dressed like that.

...nobody wins the contract? Then nobody wins the contract. It happens. Make a community discard pile near the Response deck to discard the Favor cards, and try for the next contract.

...two or more people have the same number of contracts at the end of the game? The tied players use their last favor to determine the winner. If they are still tied, they start another hand, but the first person to get a contract wins. (Don’t finish the hand.)