From the tables of Thornwall
How to play King's Mercy
A playable adaptation of the fictional tavern game from No Foreign Games, set in the world of Medieval Mobsters.
Bring an ordinary deck and three to six players. Use counters or spare buttons for the pot; the Red Door's business accounts are not required.
Playable bonus
Play King’s Mercy
The Thornwall game from No Foreign Games works with an ordinary deck. Keep the Ace through 9 of every suit, add one Joker as the Fool, and bring three to six players.
View the complete rules
Build the 37-card deck
- Keep the Ace through 9 of every suit. Ace counts as 1 and 9 is high.
- Add one Joker. This is the Fool.
- Set aside the 10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and any second Joker.
No Joker? Use the King of Spades as the Fool and set aside the other three Kings. Treat it only as the Fool, never as a King.
Rank order is 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-Ace-Fool. Suits never rank, break ties, or make a flush.
What wins
Under normal play, hands rank from strongest to weakest:
- Three of a kind: Three ordinary cards of the same rank. Higher ranks win.
- Run: Three consecutive ordinary ranks. 7-8-9 is highest; A-2-3 is lowest. Runs do not wrap.
- Pair: Compare the pair first, then the third card.
- High card: Compare cards from highest to lowest.
The Fool is never wild. It cannot join a run, pair, or three of a kind, but it counts as the lowest third card. Fool-7-7 is a pair of sevens with the lowest possible third card.
Equal hands split the pot. An odd unit goes to the first tied player clockwise from the dealer’s left.
Set the table
- Give every player the same number of betting units. Twenty each works well.
- Choose a one-unit stake for the session.
- Pass the deal clockwise after every hand.
- A player who cannot ante sits out. A player who cannot call must fold.
Every ante, bet, and raise is exactly one unit.
Deal and bet
- Every player antes one unit.
- Deal clockwise from the dealer’s left, one card at a time, until everyone has three face-down cards. Redeal if a card is exposed.
- The first active player to the dealer’s left acts first. Check or bet one unit; facing a bet, fold, call, or raise one unit.
- Allow two raises total after the opening bet. The round closes when every active player has contributed the same amount or folded.
- Play a second betting round the same way. No cards are drawn.
If everyone but one player folds, that player takes the pot and there is no Mercy decision.
Invoke King’s Mercy
After the second betting round closes, but before an active hand is shown, the active Fool holder may say, “King’s Mercy,” and turn the Fool face up. The decision is final.
- Without Mercy, the strongest active hand wins.
- With Mercy, the weakest active hand under the normal comparison wins.
- Mercy reverses the ranking for everyone. It does not automatically make the Fool holder the winner.
- Compare hands normally, but the lower category and lower card at the first difference win. Do not start with each hand’s lowest card.
- A folded or undealt Fool cannot invoke Mercy. Ignore a false call and score the hand normally.
Under Mercy, 9-7-2 beats Fool-9-8: both are 9-high, and 7 is lower than 8.
The reckoning
After the Mercy decision, all active players turn their hands up together. Folded hands cannot win. Award the pot, then reveal the folded cards. If the Fool has not appeared, turn cards from the undealt pack until it does.
Collect all 37 cards, shuffle, pass the deal, and begin the next hand.
Tony’s mistake
Tony holds the Fool, 7, and 7. Hamon holds 9, 4, and 2.
Tony’s pair wins normally. If he invokes King’s Mercy, Hamon’s weaker high-card hand takes the pot. Holding the Fool does not mean calling Mercy is wise.
Quick reference
- Players: 3–6; three to five is more tactical, six is swingier
- Cards: Three per player
- Betting: Ante, two one-unit rounds, two raises at most per round
- Normal winner: Strongest active hand
- Mercy winner: Weakest active hand
- Hand order: Three of a kind, run, pair, high card