This has nothing to do with the card 'King's Court', I just thought it was a cool name.
This game is a smaller game with very few amount of cards with the fun lying in how the players act. It's a Deduction-like game similar to the original 'Memory' game. You have to try and figure out which cards your opponents have, and where, and even what you have yourself.
I've never mocked up cards or anything, but I plan on doing so tonight, and I imagine the game will work something like this.
But wait a second...how do you win?
Cards in the deck have numbers on them that have a point value that can either be negative or positive. Whoever has the highest points at the end of the game is the winner. You must switch cards with other players to gain the most valuable cards that are worth the most points.
Starting out the game
There is one deck that is shuffled thoroughly. Each player is dealt a number of cards. The number of cards is yet to be determined, but everyone will receive the same amount of cards. These cards are kept face down in front of each player and you cannot look at their faces. Each player selects 2 (1?) of their cards to look at, and then puts it back, face down. Decide on someone to go first.
The game is played in a series of rounds and each round consists of each player's turn.
On your turn
Your turn works like this:
Choose one player and choose one of these two options: passive picking or aggressive picking.
Passive Picking:
Choose 1 of the cards in front of you and put your hand over it. The person that you picked does the same.
Aggressive Picking:
Choose 1 of the cards in front of the player you chose and tell them to put their hand over it. The person you picked does the same to you.
Either way, once both players have their hand on a card, you look at the front of the card yourself and show it to everyone else, but NOT the player you chose. The player you chose does the same, looking at it himself and showing it to everyone but you. The cards and then put back facedown they are swapped with one another. So that the player that you chose gives his card facedown to you and you give your card face down to them. These cards are placed back into the row of cards in front of each player.
Once everyone has taken their turn, the round is over and the next round starts with whoever started the last round. Once all the rounds are over, the game is over.
Game End/Scoring
Each player flips over the cards in front of them and counts up the score. Highest score wins.
Why is this called King's Court!?
Each card is a member of a king's court. I imagine there's the Queen, Jester, Princess, Prince, Messenger, and of course the King himself. The higher up the person in royalty the more points they are worth. So say the Messenger is 1 Point, the Princess is 2, the Prince is 3, Queen is 4, and King is 5. The Jester would then be worth -1 points.
So yep. That's the game. Just thought I'd share it with everyone to say if anyone is interested in it. It's definitely not perfect, but hope any tweaks that I make to it keeps the same premise that I want: A small, simple, family-friendly game, that has a small ounce of deduction that doesn't make the game too complex.
If something doesn't make sense, feel free to ask me and I'll clarify.
Thanks!