Queen's Court: A Duel of Dignitaries

Queen's Court: A Duel of Dignitaries is an online competitive card game with layers of strategy for all skill levels. Each player has two piles of cards, the player with the lowest count between cards at the end of the round wins the round! It takes two round wins to win the game!

START OF THE GAME
Each player receiving two face up cards and three cards in hand. The remaining cards are the draw deck in the center. There is also a glove card for each player.

ROUND MECHANICS
Each round starts with the next player in clockwise order. A round is won by having the lowest spread of numbers between your two piles. ie the difference between the shown numbers on your piles.
For example, the left pile shows 5 and the right pile shows 2, the spread is 3. Or, if both cards show 9 and 9, the spread is 0 (a zero sum spread).
QUEEN CARDS
The Queen cards are wild, when played on any pile, they are equal to the number shown on the adjacent pile. Making a Zero sum spread. (The best possible hand)
 
If both piles have Queens, this is the highest possible spread. (The worst possible hand) If this hand is showing at the end of the round, it is an automatic loss for that player, regardless of any other players spread.
 
GAME PLAY: FIRST HALF OF ROUND
Each player takes turns in clockwise order. On their turn, a player places one card from their hand onto any of the player piles, including their own. This may change the spread for that player.

After playing a card, the player receives one card from the center deck. If a player plays a card resulting in a zero sum spread between two piles, they draw two cards from the center pile, instead of one.

Play continues until all cards from the center deck have been drawn, completing the first half of the round.
GAME PLAY: SECOND HALF OF ROUND
Each player receives a glove card into their hand. Playing this card on any pile prevents anyone from playing on that pile for the remainder of the round.

Both player’s piles can be covered by a glove card. After the round is over, the immediate card below the glove is used to calculate the spread.

Players continue taking turns to play cards onto any pile. Once a player plays their last card from their hand, their pile spread is locked in at the current spread, no one can play on their piles. Players with remaining cards continue play, skipping over locked players.

If the last player remaining is holding cards, they must play their hand on their own piles. If their piles are both covered by gloves, the round is over.

END OF ROUND
When the last in-hand card is played, or all piles are locked, the round is over. The player with the lowest spread showing wins the round. The winner of the round receives a red gem to note they have won a round.

TIES
If tied the player with the fewest total cards in their two piles wins. If the pile counts are also tied, all tied players gain 1 round win. However, if a player in the tie has already won a round they do not gain another round win.

WINNING THE GAME
The game is won by the player who wins two rounds! The game cannot be won through a tie (if the pile counts are also tied), and continues until a player has a clean win.

RANK POINTS
In local play no rank points are awarded. In online play, the winnings for each round is 100 rank points per opponent (i.e 200 for 2 opponents). For each round lost, the player loses 100 rank points.

The rank points are given/taken per round. If the round results in a tie (spread is tied and pile counts are tied) the rank points are split between the winners.

In online play, lobbies can also have an ante. This number is set by the host. Players need to have their rank points greater than or equal to the ante. The ante is deducted at the start of the game. The ante winnings is x2 the ante, and is only given to the winner of the game at the game end.
CHALLENGES
Each game players receive three challenges. These challenges can be completed for extra rank points. In local play challenges do not have any value.

Challenges have 3 tiers:
- 50 rank points
- 100 rank points
- 200 rank points

The challenge rank points are given out at the end of the game. No rank points are removed for incomplete challenges.