HAIL CAESAR! | Kill Your Friends & Take the Throne
Par EZ Games
Statut actuel
Fonds récoltés : 3 401 €
🏛️ What is Hail Caesar?
The Empire is in turmoil. Six Emperors have come and gone in the last year alone.
None died from natural causes.
Now it’s your turn.
Take the role of a power-hungry usurper, scheming your way through Rome’s institutions. Build influence, sway factions, undermine your rivals, and assassinate your way to the throne.
Only one can rule. Only one can remain.
🎲 How to Play
Your bloodline is your path to power.
At the start of the game, choose three character cards to form your bloodline. Each character represents one of your lives and comes with a unique ability and a preferred faction.
Lose all three and your claim to the Empire is gone.
There is always an Emperor on the throne. Everyone else is a Usurper, working to bring them down.
The Emperor has more power, but also a target on their back. Usurpers must decide when to cooperate, when to compete, and when to make their move.
When the Emperor is assassinated, the killer takes their place. The former Emperor becomes a Usurper, and the hunt begins again.
Four factions vie for influence across the Empire, each wielding a core pillar of power:
The MILITARES, inherently powerful, but they grow restless without action. Play boldly!
The POPULARES, your power rises and falls with the will of the mob. Become more powerful the more trouble you cause.
The OPTIMATES, controllers of the Senate, the institution of intrigue and whispers. Spy, plot, and pit players against one another.
The COLLEGIA, guild of traders, deal in gold, the lifeblood of power in the Empire. Bully your opponents through sheer wealth.
Each faction has a strength and weakness against another, creating a constant game of trump and counter-trump.
Each turn starts with drawing an Imperial card, revealing which faction is being fought over and what effects are in play.
When play begins, each player plays one card at a time to compete for the faction's favour. The strongest influence wins, claims the favour, and leads the next turn. The weakest influence gets marked by the Emperor.
But strength isn't everything.
If you don't have a card of the faction being played, you can play its counter-faction to trump the others.
Or you can bluff.
Claim you have nothing to play and risk being called out. If you're caught, you lose the round and gain a Mark. But call out an innocent player and you gain the Mark instead.
The Emperor has a unique weapon: Marks.
Marks represent the Emperor's attention
The more Marks a Usurper has, the easier they are to assassinate.
The Emperor can hand out Marks for treason, catching Usurpers in the act, or simply for a poor showing in the struggle for influence.
The Empire is ever changing.
As more unruly events and actions unfold, the empire becomes more chaotic. The lower stability is, the easier it is to get rid of the Emperor, but beware!
Push the empire too far and you'll all pay.
And don't forget, whatever chaos you sow now, you'll reap later if you're on the throne.
Influence and favour aren't just about gaining power. They give you the opportunity to kill.
Assassinations can be played at any time before your target plays their card for the turn. Each of the 16 assassination cards has its own unique mini-game based on the method of execution.
Poison: The attacker draws (5/6/8) cards from the deck and claims a number of a faction cards drawn, e.g., 3 senate cards. The defender must then choose higher, lower, or the same.
Shoddy "Maintenance": Attacker and defender stack cards in a tower one after another until someone's collapses. Each level the attacker may place a mark on the defender's tower, pushing it towards collapse.
Bathroom Brawl: Just your wits against theirs, best of 3 rock paper scissors. Use 3 marks and you can have a knife planted in the towel basket, you win on ties.
And 13 more including Senate Stabbing, where other players have a say in who lives, Bidding War, based on a blind gold bid against one another, and Mob Justice, whether the emperor can get a higher roll than the current unrest.
Marks affect these mini-games, sometimes skewing the odds in your favour and other times totally changing the ways the attacker and defender have to play them.
These mini-games are the highlights of gameplay, fun and tense moments deciding your fate. Will your poison reach the cup? Will your blade find its mark? Or will your victim escape?
And if you kill the Emperor... You take the throne.
The last player on the throne wins.
...it's that simple. Sort of.
Get the full rules breakdown below!
💼 What's in the Box?
🏆 Pledge Tiers
(All rewards offer the included products with 20% off MSRP)
🧩 Expansions
What happens when the legends of Rome enter in the struggle for the throne?
Myths & Legends adds a collection of characters drawn from Rome's history, mythology, and greatest what-ifs.
Play as Jupiter, King of the Gods. Call upon Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome. Or take your chances with Titus, one of Rome's great historical what-ifs (Plus 5 more characters!).
Each character comes with unique artwork and a unique ability.
To keep things unpredictable, I'd suggest adding just 2 Myths & Legends characters to the character deck each game.
Having the throne is only one part of running an Empire.
Imperial Administration adds new events, governorships, characters, assassinations, and special cards that give the Emperor even more to manage, and give the Usurpers even more ways to interfere.
Governorships
The biggest change with Imperial Administration is the addition of 6 governorships for the usurpers. The emperor assigns each usurper a province to govern.
These provinces provide gold to the usurpers each round, and each benefit a specific faction playstyle.
The provinces included are Britannia, Gallia, Aegyptus, Illyricum, Hispania, and Italia.
Inside the expansion:
30 x Provincial Event Cards 16 x Imperial Event Cards
6 x Illustrated Province Tokens 4 x New Special Cards
4 x New Assassinations 2 x New Characters
The throne is dangerous enough. Running the Empire is worse.
📝 What makes Hail Caesar Unique?
At its core, HAIL CAESAR! is a trick-taking game, but we've thrown in an evolving field of play, characters, assassinations, bluffing, asymmetric powers, and a throne that changes hands to create something much more unpredictable.
Dynamic Asymmetry
A unique and novel mechanic that allows all players to be both of the asymmetric roles within a single game.
One player is Emperor, getting to use special powers. Everyone else is a Usurper.
Kill the Emperor and you become Emperor yourself. Suddenly, the player you were hunting is gone, you're sitting on the throne, and everyone else has a new target.
As far as we know, this is a truly unique mechanic.
Characters & Bloodlines
There are 18 unique characters, each inspired by figures from Rome's history and legends.
Every character has their own ability and faction affiliation, giving you different ways to approach the game. Build your bloodline around the characters that best suit your strategy.
There are also three types of Emperors: Legendary, Normal, and Terrible.
Legendary emperors are very powerful and normally very effective once they're on the throne but are vulnerable before they get there.
Terrible emperors are incredible usurpers, they excel at cloak and dagger, but are easily toppled once on the throne.
Factions
The four factions of Rome are in a constant battle of for power, with strengths and weaknesses against one another.
Each faction can overpower another, meaning the best card isn't always the card with the highest rank. You need to watch what has already been played, read your opponents, and decide when to commit your strongest influence.
Winning a faction's favour unlocks powerful abilities, while characters aligned with that faction can use them for a discount.
Stability & Unrest
The Empire is never truly stable.
As Unrest rises, assassinating the Emperor becomes easier.
However, push the Empire too far and the consequences affect everyone.
Plus there's a catch: Whatever chaos you create as a Usurper, you'll have to deal with as Emperor.
Imperial Cards
Every round, an Imperial card changes the conditions of play.
It determines the faction being fought over and can introduce different modifiers — from burdens that make certain influence harder to use to opportunities that reward players with extra Gold.
Gold can also be placed on a played card to increase its rank, allowing a well-funded player to turn an ordinary influence card into a decisive play.
The best strategy isn't always to play your strongest card.
Sometimes it's knowing when to save it.
Special Cards
Special cards are factionless, meaning they can be played into any faction.
They're generally lower in rank, but make up for it with powerful abilities that can completely change the situation.
Deflect Blame: move marks from one usurper to another (including yourself)
Pilfer Treasury: take the current gold regardless of the turn winner
Non-Committal Language: Either a 2 or a 7 rank, decide at the end of the turn.
Leave the Capital:exit the round, receive no marks and can't be targeted.
Plus 12 more including Restructured Priorities, Friend of the Governor, and Martyrdom.
Learning when to hold them, when to play them, and how to combine them with your other cards is where much of HAIL CAESAR!'s deeper strategy emerges.
Easy to Learn. Hard to Master
The core rules of HAIL CAESAR! are quick to learn and games get moving fast.
But beneath that simple foundation are dozens of little decisions: which characters to choose, which influence to keep, when to bluff, when to assassinate, when to make your move for the throne, and when to sit back and let someone else make theirs.
It's built for a Friday night with friends, a quick game between bigger games, or as an introduction to the more strategic side of modern card games.
🏁 Stretch Goals
I believe that no content I would want to see in the game should be held behind stretch goals, therefore all stretch goals are exclusively either increases in manufacturing quality, or the addition of features that require a commission to be achieved.
$6000 - Ambience track from Universal Ambients
$7000 - Card stock upgrade
$10'000 - Box UV coating
$12'000 - Legendary border uv coating
📖 The Team
Hi!
My name's Alex and I'm the creator of HAIL CAESAR!
Thanks for spending the time to stop off and have a look at my project!
I have loved ancient history since I was a kid. Reading the big cross-section picture books in the library about how Testudo formations worked, how aqueducts were built, or even how the Colosseum's sail shades were pulled across on sunny days.
This love was no doubt inspired by my dad who was always a big history buff. We would watch all sorts of history documentaries together while I was growing up, but nothing captured me like the ancients.
In the year I had between high school and university I worked as a Dominos delivery driver, where I spent many hours driving around listening to music. This eventually got boring so I looked for podcasts and found the History of Rome by Mike Duncan.
This reignited a lost love I had for the topic and I ended up listening to the entire thing in a couple of months (73 hours worth!).
Later, in university while studying psychology, I realised (with the help of my professor) that I could fit almost an entire Ancient History major into my elective slots.
So I did just that.
For 3 years, my favourite subjects were always the Classics.
I didn't just study ancient Rome, the republic, the empire, Roman Britain and so on, but also ancient Greece, the golden age of Athens in the 5th century BC, and of course Alexander the Great and his exploits.
Really I started this game by total chance.
While reading through my list of videogame ideas to an interested friend of mine I proudly explained what I thought was a fun idea of a hectic mix of Civilisation and Crusader Kings that would simulate the chaos and ridiculousness of the Roman Empire, particularly during one of my favourite periods of Roman history, the year of the 6 emperors.
I then sadly stated that I would need a whole team of developers to pull that off and so never pursued it. But my friend wasn't so quick to dismiss, and suggested I make a card game instead.
This simple suggestion was exactly what I needed, such a small shift, but just what was necessary to achieve my wish:
Sharing my love of this hilarious and ridiculous period of history with others.
This game has been 2 years in the making, with many ups and downs since then. To make this while finishing my studies was a big task, but entirely worth it even without a single dollar. Getting to see joy on my friends' faces while playing something I built was the proudest I've ever felt.
Finally I just want to say thanks to my family, who really supported and trusted in me, and to my friends for all being so willing to test and critique the game. You're all the best.
I was approached by EZ Games to collaborate in bringing Hail Caesar's visuals to life alongside Alex. Since January, I have had the pleasure to join forces working alongside the team and great artists and friends of mine to develop the game's illustrations and graphic elements. It has been an exceptionally rewarding experience and I hope everybody can enjoy the super fun game that everyone put so much care into.
Hope you guys have fun!
Toni's portfolio and Instagram
Toni's Instagram
Eduardo Damasceno (Pupa) Instagram
Gabriel Rosa (Gabe) portfolio and Instagram
Vinicius Luigi Instagram
🏭 Production & Delivery Timeline
The plan is to have the game delivered to backers' doors by Mid-September of next year. Delivery is likely to be before then, but extra time should allow us to deliver on time in case of unforeseen issues.
There is still a bit more playtesting to do, which we're doing even now, but the feedback from playtesters has been really positive, and I believe we're nearly finished with balancing.
The main delay between funding and production will be commissioning the rest of the art, which we will send updates on throughout the post-campaign phase.
While we finish the art I will be preparing the production with manufacturers, which is immediately possible as the parts list is all but finalised.
All that's to be said, we aim to begin manufacturing by June next year, which will give us 3 months to prepare distribution for the delivery deadline of Mid-September.
A good portion of the funds will be used for producing additional high quality and unique art for the rest of the game's pieces, and refining the current art we have.
Production will be the biggest cost, which will obviously be larger or smaller depending on the number of units we're able to order.
The goal we have set is the minimum amount we would need to order enough to make it feasible with some margin for error and unplanned costs.
📦 Shipping estimates
This is only an estimate, shipping will be calculated once we have your shipping address.
USA - $5
Canada - $9
EU & UK - $9
AU & NZ - 12$
VAT and other taxes will be collected in the pledge manager post-campaign.
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