The Justiciar: Marquess of Argyll

Rules Overview

Game design: David McDougal

A Shedding Card Game of Legal Power and Its Long Shadow

Objective

Archibald Campbell rose from Earl to Marquess of Argyll across two decades of civil war, wielding a legal commission of "fire and sword" against Royalist clans — and was executed in 1661 for the very authority he once held lawfully. Score the fewest points across four rounds, each marking a real turn in his rise and fall. Shed your hand quickly, but avoid being the one left holding a Commission when the round — or the game — ends.

Setup

Remove all four Aces from a standard 52-card deck. They are never dealt into a hand and are never played as part of a combo. Each Ace represents one round's Commission:

Shuffle the remaining 48 cards and deal them evenly:

• 3 players: 16 cards each
• 4 players: 12 cards each (recommended player count)
• 5 players: 9–10 cards each (deal is uneven; set aside any remainder each round)

Best played at 3–4 players, where the deal divides with no cards left over each round.

Card Ranking & Legal Hands

Cards rank Ace-removed 2 (low) through King (high). Suit is never used to determine legal play — only rank matters.

A legal play is one of the following, and each play must match the exact same type and size as the current play, beating it in rank:

• Single card
• Pair (2 of matching rank)
• Triple (3 of matching rank)
• Four of a kind (4 of matching rank)
• Run of 3 or more consecutive ranks (suits may be mixed within a run)

If you cannot legally beat the current play, you must pass.

Round One Only — Opening Lead & First Commission

Before any Commission has been assigned, the game needs a way to begin:

• Opening lead: Whoever at the table most recently visited Scotland leads the very first play of the game. If there's a tie or no one has visited, the tied players (or the whole table) draw a card each — highest rank leads.
• First Commission: The first player forced to pass during Round 1 immediately receives the Ace of Spades (1638). This is a one-time bootstrap rule and does not recur in Rounds 2–4, which already have a clear Commission holder carried over from the prior round.

Playing a Round

Play proceeds in turn order. On your turn, you must do one of the following:

1. Play a legal hand that beats the current play, or
2. Pass, or
3. If you currently hold the round's Commission, you may instead accuse any other player at the table — in lieu of playing or passing. You may do this on any of your turns, as many times as you like, for as long as you hold the Commission.

If every other player in turn passes back around to whoever made the current play, that play clears and its owner leads a brand new play of any type.

Accusation

To accuse, name the suit matching the round's active Commission (e.g., in Round 1, you always name Spades). The accused player must choose one of the following — and never has to explain their reasoning:

• Refute: Play one card of the named suit face-up. That card is placed directly into the accusing (commissioned) player's hand — the Commission itself does not move. (Refuting costs the accuser a growing hand, not the defender.)
• Accept: Reveal nothing. The Commission passes to the accused player immediately, with no cards exchanged.

If the accused player holds no card of the named suit, they must accept — the Commission transfers automatically.

Round End

The instant any player empties their hand, play stops immediately — no further cards are played and no further accusations may occur that round, even if the Commission holder's turn was next.

Score the round:

• +1 point for every card remaining in each player's hand.
• Whoever holds the round's Commission at that exact moment keeps it, frozen, for the rest of the game. It is no longer transferable.

Between Rounds

Collect all cards, reshuffle, and redeal evenly. The player who ended the previous round holding the Commission:

• Opens the next round holding that round's fresh Ace as the new active Commission, and
• Leads the first play of the new round.

End of Game

After Round 4 (1647) ends, do not reshuffle or redeal. Tally each player's final score:

• +1 point per card remaining in hand, summed across all four rounds.
• +5 points for every frozen Commission Ace a player ends the game holding (a player may hold anywhere from zero to all four).

The player with the lowest total score wins.

Tiebreaker: the tied player holding fewer frozen Commission Aces wins. Still tied — share the victory.

Historical Context

Fire and Sword compresses two decades of Archibald Campbell's rise and fall into four moments.

♠ 1638 — The Covenant. On his father's death, Campbell inherited the earldom of Argyll and threw his support behind the newly signed National Covenant — the document that divided Scotland into Covenanter and Royalist camps. No commission had been granted yet. This is the choosing of a side, before the burning began.

♣ 1640 — Atholl and Angus. Argyll received his first commission of fire and sword from the Committee of Estates, marching against the Earl of Atholl and the Ogilvies during the Second Bishops' War. It was carried out, in the words of contemporaries, "with completeness and cruelty."

♥ 1644 — Huntly and Montrose. Argyll suppressed a Royalist rising led by the Marquis of Huntly, then pursued James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, after Montrose's forces sacked Aberdeen. The two never met in open battle that year — but the pursuit cemented Montrose as Argyll's most dangerous enemy.

♦ 1647 — Gylen and Dunaverty. Covenanter forces under Argyll's authority besieged and burned Gylen Castle and took Dunaverty, among the last actions of the civil wars in the west.

Fourteen years later, in 1661, Argyll stood trial and cited these same commissions — legal instruments, properly granted — in his own defense. He was executed regardless. The Aces frozen in front of players at the end of this game are an abstraction. The historical fact that legal cover did not erase the weight of what was done under it is not.

Scaling Notes

• 3 players: 16 cards each. The Commission and accusation rules function identically; games run slightly shorter with fewer players at the table.
• 4 players (recommended): 12 cards each, dividing the 48-card deck with no remainder.
• 5 players: 9–10 cards each; set aside the remainder each round. Playable, but the deal is uneven, and the designers recommend 3–4 players for the tightest experience.

Quick Reference

Card rank: 2 (low) – K (high). No Aces in play until frozen as Commissions.

Legal plays: Single / Pair / Triple / Quad (matching rank) or a Run of 3+ consecutive ranks. Suit is irrelevant to legality.

On your turn: Play, Pass, or (if you hold the Commission) Accuse.

Accusation target: Any player, any turn, unlimited uses while you hold the Commission. Always names the round's fixed suit.

Refute: Accused plays a matching card → goes to the accuser's hand. Accept: No card played → Commission transfers to the accused.

Round ends: Instantly, the moment any hand reaches zero.

Scoring: +1 per card in hand (all rounds, cumulative) + 5 per frozen Commission Ace held at game end.

Win condition: Lowest total score after 4 rounds.