Kings & Peasants

From BoardGameGeek:

Kings & Peasants is a ladder-climbing card game for 3 or more players in which the first player to empty their hand becomes King and adds a new rule that everyone must obey. It is played with a fully illustrated medieval deck and belongs to the same family as President, Daifugō and The Great Dalmuti. It takes about two minutes to learn. Setup Deal the 52 cards out evenly (Jokers are not used); any leftover cards are set aside. 2 is the highest card, then Ace, King and down to 3, the lowest. Rounds A game is played over a series of rounds. In the first game the holder of the 3♣ leads (if it was set aside, the first player to put down a 3); in every later game the Peasant leads. Play goes clockwise and each play must beat the last. The opening play sets the number of cards for the whole round: singles, pairs or triples. A player who passes is out until the next round. If three consecutive ranks are played (e.g. 4-5-6), the player of the third card may declare that the rest of the round must continue the run. A 2 ends the round at once. When everyone else has passed, the last player may keep playing until they pass or run out. The winner of a round leads the next; if they are out of cards, the player to their left leads. Crown, tribute and decrees Rounds continue until everyone has played all their cards. The first player out is King and takes the King card; the last is Peasant and takes the Peasant card. The King issues a decree, one new rule for the games that follow, such as "playing a 7 reverses direction" or "the Peasant refills everyone's drinks". Decrees stack, so each session builds its own rulebook, and a King who loses the crown has to live under the laws they made. The Peasant shuffles and deals, then gives the King their two best cards and the King returns any two. The runner-up and second-to-last swap one card the same way; anyone in the middle keeps their hand. With 3 players only the King and Peasant swap. Components 52 illustrated playing cards, each suit with its own court and heraldry 2 Jokers (not used; the deck works as a standard 54-card deck) 1 King card 1 Peasant card 1 Ideas for the King card 2 Rules cards (1 double-sided card in the Italian edition) Tuck box 9.0 × 5.8 × 2.7 cm Laminated and varnished cards, printed in Italy -description from the designer