Gen Con 2023 Exclusive Look At The New Darrington Press Board Game 'Queen By Midnight'
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At Gen Con, a geeky convention focused on board games and RPGs, I had the opportunity to watch a detailed explanation of the new Darrington Press game Queen By Midnight.
The game was released on August 22 so the sneak peek was exciting for the fans of Darrington Press games. They had limited early-release copies for sale each day and this was one of the most anticipated games of the convention and ended up winning Gaming Trend’s award for “Best of Gen Con”. The copies they did have for sale sold out within fifteen minutes of the vendor hall opening. They were also demo-ing Queen By Midnight along with several other of their games in the event hall and even had a small peek at Critical Role’s new RPG Daggerheart.
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The game itself seems daunting at first with lots of things to do on your turn and time to keep track of, however, it is also really intuitive and even a player who isn’t used to deck-building games will be able to pick up the rhythm and story of the game quickly. The neat thing about it is that there are a lot of things to do on your turn so it’s not like you do one thing and then have to wait a whole other round to do some more. The following is a brief explanation of the basic mechanics of the game.
This is a deck-building game with a twist. The basic story set-up and the whole purpose of the game is that the queen is dead. Before she died, she invoked the Rule by Midnight which means that the six princesses of Twelvefold have to fight it out for who will be queen before midnight. It’s the ultimate battle royale. Each player is a different princess and the only way to decide who the next queen will be is 24-hour combat through attacks and trickery.
There are six different cards you can draw or have: Attack, Utility, Boon, Bane, Summon, and Reaction. There are also princess-specific pieces that you only use if you are playing the princesses Rosaline or Freya. The other princesses are named: Hephesta, Boss No, Erdene, and Doctor Lux. Each player starts at 30 (full) health and 0 clout. You also start with a set of 10 player cards which include 15 Princess Vault cards, 3 War Chest cards, and 1 Inner Circle/Ultimatum card.
Image Source: Darrington Press
As with most deck-building games you have a currency that you use to help build your deck. For this game, it’s called clout and you don’t lose your clout at the end of your turn, which happens in a lot of other deck-building games. On your turn, you can purchase cards at either the vault marketplace, which is your stash of cards in your personal vault, or at the shared bazaar where anyone can purchase cards. At the start of the game, the cards in the bazaar deck are called the Afternoon Bazaar cards. Later, you will replace them with different decks. You also don’t have a set number of cards you are allowed to buy or not; it’s all dependent on clout and there’s no specific order in how you do things your turn, which makes it a versatile game and up to each player to add a little something more to their character and gameplay. The only thing that matters is that at the end of your turn, you have five cards still in your hand, which is the starting limit. As with any standard deck-building, if you can’t draw cards or don’t have enough, you just shuffle your Archive Cards and make a new deck.
There are a few other things that the game master went over involving some of the other cards. Boon Cards are where you can get items and enchantments to help you, and Bane Cards, which you can use to hinder and hurt your opponent and are placed in your Armory until an effect dismisses it. Utility Cards, which have tools and equipment you can use to purchase other cards, heal, and provide support, are placed in your Archive or banished (not able to be used for the duration of the game) once used. Summons Cards are placed in your Armory and represent companions and guardians that will help and protect you. And some cards involve dice to deal damage. The clock tower mechanic also doubles as a dice tower, so you would use that to roll. These are just a few of the basic cards and as the game goes along, the others will be described.
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There is an attack function in the game where you can purchase attack cards and do damage, which will make the health bar of your opponent go down. The nice thing about the attack cards is that it tells you exactly how to use them on the card. There are little icons that match icons on the top of each princess card so you can see whether you can use that particular attack card to deal damage to that particular princess or not. This is what makes it easier than some games because it’s all laid out for you on the cards themselves instead of having to remember all of the rules. Each princess has 2 class types that help them in what they can do. The three classes of cards are Brawler, Schemer, and Caster and each princess is two of each in the form of Major and Minor Levels. A princess cannot use a card that is not their type. Each card also specifically says how much damage it gives, which is helpful for the players as well. If the other player has a reaction card, however, they can stop an attack, which does come in handy. The card sits in your deck (or Armory in this game) until you are ready to use it. The reaction does cost clout to use (most of the time), but again, the cards tell you exactly what it does and how much it costs, which is so helpful for the unseasoned player. However, if you don’t have enough clout, you cannot buy or play the card.
Your turn ends when you rotate the clock tower to the next person. They will go through the same steps as you, buying cards, playing cards, refreshing the Bazaar or their Vault if needed, building up their arsenal, placing Reaction Cards, etc. When the clock rotates back to the first player, it rotates to the next hour on the clock, which is really how the game moves forward. At different hours things happen. At five o’clock the Afternoon Bazaar deck is swapped out for the Twilight Deck, which has bigger, more expensive cards. The player's hands also increase from 5 to 6 cards. At 8 o’clock the Twilight Deck is swapped out for the Midnight Deck which has even bigger, more expensive cards. At 8 o’clock the princess also has their war chest unlocked which consists of 3 cards, one of which has your superpower, again with detailed explanations on the cards as to what they do. And each princess gains 3 additional clout.
Image Source: Darrington Press
In between the times of the deck swaps, at 6 o’clock one of the most important game mechanics happens: each princess declares an allegiance to another princess. This is the biggest role-playing part of the game as you get to convince the others as to why you’re the best and you deserve a seat on the throne. The more detailed and elaborate you can get, the better! However, the actual declaration of allegiance is done in secret by playing a card face down on the player board. One side has your princess’ picture and on the face-down side it’s a picture of the princess you’re declaring allegiance to. You keep it a secret for now, but it plays a big role later on. At 10 o’clock the player’s hand size increases to 7 now and the game speeds up even more the closer it gets to midnight.
The round of play goes on until one of two things happens: A princess knocks all of her opponents out and becomes the queen or the clock strikes midnight. At this point, either the queen has been determined because all other players have gone down to zero health or you have to officially end the game by choosing that now. If the clock strikes midnight and there are multiple princesses left with health, then you add health plus clout (1 point per health and 1 point per clout) to determine who is the queen. Whoever has the highest, is the queen. This is when you would reveal your allegiances unless you are knocked to zero health before the end. If you are knocked to zero health before the end of the game, you show who you swore allegiance to then. If this happens before the end of the game, as a bonus for the princess you swore allegiance to, the princess gets extra abilities for the remainder of the game while using their Inner Circle card. Each princess can only have one person in their inner circle. If more than one person chose the same princess, then the first person to reveal it, either at the end or earlier in the game if they were knocked to zero health, would get to be in the inner circle and the others would just be out. If you are in a princess’ inner circle who became queen, then you also win the game.
To go along with the easy explanations of the cards and how each one works, each princess board is also set up the same way with information about the princess’ backstory, how their specific gameplay works (each one is a little different), and how complex they are so you can always pick the right one for you. Which also makes the game unique and easy to learn. Unless of course, you want to do the fun and sometimes ruthless random assignment of princesses at the start of the game, and then, well, you’re just stuck with who you’ve got.
Queen By Midnight is for 3-6 players and takes about 60-90 minutes depending on the length of rounds and players. It is for ages 12 and up. The clock itself is fully functional to turn the hands and keep track of the in-game time. It’s well made and once you put it together, you don’t have to take it apart. The game box is built to hold it, the boards, the cards, and the rest of the items neatly and securely. It is $69.99 and is available now at:
· Critical Role online shops:
o US: https://shop.critrole.com
o UK: https://shop.critrole.co.uk
o AU: https://shop.critrole.com.au
o CA: https://canada.critrole.com
o EU: https://shop.critrole.eu
· Darrington Press Guild stores (friendly local game stores partnering with Darrington Press): https://darringtonpress.com/explore/
· And other friendly local game stores soon.
This game will definitely be a hit with new and seasoned players alike, and with how it’s set up, every game is sure to be different and unique.
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