Offer meaningful choices
Before cards are committed, choose an eligible Proposal, stake its Influence, and let the opponent accept or refuse.
§ Diplomats · faction guide
Every battle begins with a choice.
Diplomats use Influence and Terms to turn an impending battle into a negotiation. The opponent may accept a settlement—or refuse and fight after the Diplomat has shaped the consequences.
- Victory
- Run the Gauntlet or complete the Peace Treaty
- System
- Influence · 0–10
- Leaders
- Ambassador · Senator
At the table
How the Diplomats play.
Diplomats do not avoid Gauntlet’s battles; they make every battle politically expensive. A Proposal can resolve peacefully when accepted or create leverage, penalties, and ratification opportunities when refused.
Manage risk
Accepted Terms return the stake and may reward you. Refused Terms can be imposed by winning—but losing may cost the staked Influence.
Build legitimacy
Each newly ratified Proposal becomes a Treaty Article. Five different Articles create the Peace Treaty victory.
Signature system
The mechanics that define the faction.
Influence
Begin with 1 Influence and build toward a maximum of 10. Influence is both political capital and a tactical battle resource.
Terms and Proposals
Nine reusable Proposals define requirements, stakes, accepted effects, and refused effects. Acceptance prevents the battle; refusal continues into it.
Leverage and ratification
After refused Terms, spend available Influence for battle bonuses. Winning can impose and ratify the Proposal even after the opponent refused it.
Victory
How the Diplomats win.
Run the Gauntlet
Diplomats can win through the normal territorial route, using settlements and political pressure to improve their position.
Peace Treaty
At the start of your turn, after Capture, five different ratified Proposals win the game. The alternate path is public, gradual, and increasingly difficult for the opponent to ignore.
Faction Leaders
Two ways to lead.
Each Leader uses the same faction card pool and core system, but pushes it toward a different tactical identity.
Agreement, card flow, and settlement
Ambassador
“Words first. War last.”
The Ambassador converts accepted Terms into additional cards, sustaining further negotiations and defenses.
Leader ability
Cordiality: once per turn, after the opponent accepts your Terms, draw one card.
Risk management, resilience, and imposition
Senator
“Procedure endures.”
The Senator can preserve staked Influence after losing a battle by permanently sacrificing cards from hand.
Leader ability
Political Capital: once per turn, sacrifice cards from hand to recover an equal amount of Influence that would otherwise be lost after refused Terms.
Archetype and setting
An institution—and a method of power.
Diplomats represent courts, envoys, councils, and legislatures: institutions that treat agreement, legitimacy, and procedure as forms of power. The Ambassador works through personal trust; the Senator makes influence survive through institutions and sacrifice.
Visual and archetypal influences: Treaties, sealed letters, debate chambers, legal papers, wax seals, polished wood, court diplomacy, legislative procedure, and institutional legitimacy.
Gauntlet’s setting is still being developed. The six factions are institutions within a broadly shared civilization, not fixed nations or isolated cultures.
Take the next step