Two cards face down, two coins, and a court where everyone lies. Claim the Duke and take Tax, the Captain and steal, the Assassin and strike — whether you hold them or not. Anyone may call your bluff: lose a challenge and a card turns face up; lose both and you are exiled. The last one with influence wins. With the Reformation expansion to add as you like: Loyalists and Reformists, Conversion, Embezzlement from the Treasury Reserve, the Inquisitor, and tables of up to ten. Two to ten players, peer-to-peer: no accounts, no server, just a room code. Bots fill any empty seat.
Influence. Everyone is dealt two face-down character cards — their influence — and 2 coins (in a game of two, the starting player takes only 1). To lose an influence is to turn one of your cards face up, your choice which; with both face up you are exiled. The last player with influence wins.
Your turn: one action. You may not pass. Income: take 1 coin. Foreign Aid: take 2 — any player claiming the Duke may block it. Coup: pay 7 coins, and another player loses an influence; nothing stops it. With 10 coins or more you must Coup.
Character actions are claims — true or not. Duke: Tax, take 3 coins. Assassin: pay 3 coins, and another player loses an influence; the Contessa blocks it. Captain: Steal 2 coins from a player who has some; the Captain or the Ambassador blocks it. Ambassador: Exchange — draw 2 cards from the Court deck, keep what you like, return 2.
Challenges. Any other player may challenge a claim. If it is true and shown, the challenger loses an influence, and the card shown goes back into the Court deck for a new one. If not, the claimant loses an influence and the action fails — any coins paid come back.
Blocks. Once any challenge to an action is settled, it may be blocked — the target of an assassination with the Contessa, of a steal with the Captain or the Ambassador, Foreign Aid by anyone with the Duke. A block is a claim too, and may be challenged. A blocked action fails, and the 3 coins paid for an assassination stay spent.
Twice in one turn. The target of an assassination who challenges the Assassin and loses — or claims the Contessa and is caught — loses an influence for the challenge and then another for the assassination.
Talk. “Any negotiations are allowed, but none are ever binding.” No one may show their cards or give away coins. Use the chat. The record on the side keeps every claim: shown when a challenge proved it, lost when it did not.
Reformation
The host picks any of it in the lobby.
Allegiances. The start player chooses to be a Loyalist or a Reformist; round the table the others alternate. No one may Coup, Assassinate, Steal from, Examine or block the Foreign Aid of their own side — unless everyone left is on one side.
Conversion. Pay 1 coin onto the Treasury Reserve to change your Allegiance, or 2 to change another player’s.
Embezzlement. Claim not to hold the Duke, and take every coin on the Treasury Reserve. A challenger says you do hold it: if you do, you must concede — lose an influence and take nothing; if you do not, show your cards — the challenger loses an influence, and your cards are shuffled into the Court deck for new ones.
The Inquisitor, in place of the Ambassador: Exchange one card with the Court deck, or Examine — another player shows you a card of their choice, and you hand it back or make them draw a new one and return that card to the Court deck. Blocks stealing.
Seven to ten players. Four of each character at seven or eight, five at nine or ten — “recommended for experienced players”: the eliminated wait longest.
The two-player variant. Each player secretly chooses one card from a set of the five characters, and is dealt the second from a third set; the three cards left are the Court deck.
Coup and Coup: Reformation are by Rikki Tahta, published by Indie Boards & Cards. This is an unofficial fan implementation. The rules follow the Coup rulebook, read from RulesPal’s transcription and checked against the publisher-verified rules on Dized, whose FAQ settles the order of challenges and blocks; Reformation’s follow its rulebook, read from UltraBoardGames’ transcription. Where the rulebooks are silent — a target saying early that they will block, one block to an action, the cards shown against an Embezzlement challenge shown to the whole table, a Treasury that never runs out — the choices made are noted in the code. The character signs are this page’s own, not the cards’ art.