SKU: 16010161558

The City of Kings: Refreshed

Sale price$89.95 Regular price$99.95
Save 10%

Pay in installments of $24.99 with ShopPay, AfterPay and Klarna

Shipping Estimate
USA
  • USA
  • CAN

Ships within 48 hours · Estimated delivery Jul 16 - Jul 21

Promo Codes Available:

For Your Every Summer RSVP, with Code: SUMMER15

Description

The City of Kings: RefreshedWith The City of Kings going out of stock a while back I thought its 5th anniversary would be the perfect time to take the lessons learned and bring it back with a little refresh. The goal of these updates is to provide players with greater control over the game, to empower some previously weaker options, and to make the game more approachable for those looking for a slightly less challenging game. It was important to not takeaway from the existing

With The City of Kings going out of stock a while back I thought its 5th anniversary would be the perfect time to take the lessons learned and bring it back with a little refresh.

The goal of these updates is to provide players with greater control over the game, to empower some previously weaker options, and to make the game more approachable for those looking for a slightly less challenging game. It was important to not takeaway from the existing experience or to change what the game is, not to change any artwork and to keep component changes as minimal as possible so existing game owners could still enjoy the game.

Let’s talk about the 4 changes.

Attention

When you gather or scavenge for resources in The City of Kings you roll dice to determine how much you get. Sometimes you gain attention tokens and when you get your 4th token a creature will spawn. This risk element to collecting resources is important to the game experience. It stops you collecting unlimited resources and forces you to choose between close dangerous resource locations, and distant but safer resource locations. As you level up your resource collecting skills, you start to roll more dice and with that comes both the chance to collect more resources but also gain more attention tokens. The intent of the original design was to make it more efficient to gather more resources as you can get more per action, without changing the risk factor. However, a lot of players choose not to upgrade their resource collecting stats as they don’t want to risk rolling 2, 3, or 4 attention tokens in a single action. For example, if you roll 2 dice on a location with 1 attention token then you could increase it to 3 tokens. But if it already had 2 tokens, you now risk spawning a creature which makes using a “semi-safe” space dangerous.

The change

In the Refreshed Edition you can now only ever get a maximum of 1 attention token per work action, regardless of how many attention symbols you roll. You will either get 1 or 0 attention tokens, thus making upgrading these stats more powerful and less risky.

Equipment

The equipment system sometimes will be the immediate answer to your problems and sometimes won’t. More specifically, giving you the chance to get items you don’t need now, which you can then plan how to use later, rather than always just giving you what you needed. The benefit of this system is having to look into options.

The change

The equipment cards have now been split into 2 decks and whenever you get to draw an equipment card you may choose which deck you take it from. The first deck only contains equipment anyone can use immediately (legs and body slots). The second deck contains a mixture of all types of equipment, weighted towards head and arms.

Quests

From killing creatures, gathering resources, travelling to locations, stacking wood, or simply gambling, quests should add variety to an adventure and introduce you to the world. There is a lot of variation and it really does shake up your game. However, some quests spawn creatures and creatures in The City of Kings are very different to most games in that they are extremely hard. You’re only going to fight 5-7 creatures in most sessions and each will make you have to stop and think about how to overcome it. With quests offering a chance at spawning an extra creature many players see them as too dangerous, especially when they are already struggling and need a solution. This is particularly problematic as quests should be one of the options to overcome difficult situations.

The change

Quests are now optional and when you first read a quest you will immediately decide whether it is something you want to deal with or not. If you choose to not do the quest, you simply continue on your way and ignore the quest that was described. This means if you draw a creature spawning quest at a time that it would be problematic, you may opt not to spawn the creature. You will not get a replacement quest, which may be punishing enough, but it keeps the option open for future turns.

Creature stats

The City of Kings was designed to have a series of tough decisions that you could carefully plan your way through, and for each success to feel well earned. The most common feedback seen is one of two things:

"I love how challenging the game is, it ticks a box no other game does."

"The game is too hard which isn’t fun."

Back in 2015 this was an expected outcome. It was thought about whether The City of Kings should always fill a niche, or whether it should be more accessible.

The change

The creature stat bars have now been replaced with creature stat cards. These work exactly the same way as the creature stat bars, but there are now 2 options. The advanced option is exactly the same as the original game, the other option has easier creatures reducing the overall difficulty. It should be noted that this does not suddenly make the game easy, the easier option is still challenging and will require you to think out your options. It does however give you more flexibility and alongside all the new rules you’ll find you have many more options available to you.

Shipping Notes
  • Free Standard Shipping on $100+ Orders to the USA.
  • Except Preorder products are shipped in 48 hours.
  • Delivery to the USA:
  1. Standard Shipping : 3-10 business days
  • If time is of the essence, please consider selecting expedited delivery for faster service.
Exchange/Return Notes
  • We offer a 30-day return/exchange service after receiving.
  • Final sale items are not eligible for returns or exchanges.
  • To process your return/exchange, please contact us at [email protected]
  • Please click here for more details>>> Return & Exchange Policy
SKU: 16010161558

Discover Niche Categories That Outsell

Top-Converting Item to Boost Your Average Order

4.2 ★★★★★
Based on 26 reviews
Sort
Highest Rating
Newest First
Oldest First
Product Reviews
B
Verified Purchase
Brandi
Pawtucket, US
★★★★★ 5
So good!
Format: Kindle
Oh my goodness! What did I just read? Lyra Winters you have some serious explaining to do! That cliffhanger killed me! I am so happy to be back in the world of Kalista. This is definitely darker than Fates Hollow but oh so good. This is a fated mates reverse harem which I absolutely love. Pandora had a very hard and rough upbringing. She lives in pain constantly and it makes it hard on her. She struggles with everything because she was kept so isolated and is new to her magic. Pandora gets sent to the Reform Academy and all of them have reasons why they are there. I love how, after everything she has been through, she is still a nice person. She is growing and becoming stronger too. Love her character. The guys all act like jerks at first but all have a back story that helps understand why even though want to smack them. I'm here for the groveling that I'm sure will come. I love them all. They each bring something for her. They are all drawn to her though. This is a slow burn book but there will be more books in the series so sure it will build. Man, that cliffhanger was a doozy and need book 2 now!
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2024
C
Verified Purchase
Courtenay
Los Angeles, US
★★★★★ 3
Good-ish
Format: Kindle
🌶️ 0/5 ⭐️ 3/5 I will preface this by saying I am not a huge RH fan. However it didn’t feel like a RH quite yet. The relationships and plot are all building in this book. At first I was thinking things were happening stupid fast since she’s had zero interaction with another being and has been tortured her whole life, and I believe they were for one side of the relationship, but by 50% things moved too slow lol. Idk I think the main 1-3 guys I’m actually interested in more than the others didn’t get enough air time so I hope the next book things start moving with them since it ended the way it did.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2025
F
Verified Purchase
Florina3090
Phoenix, US
★★★★★ 5
Can I have Term 2 now?
Format: Kindle
This is by far my favorite book of Lyra's to date. I gobbled this book up so fast, I was so upset I finished it. I know this is going to be a book I reread, just like Fate Hollow Academy. I loved Fate Hollow Academy, so I was excited when Lyra announced she was taking us readers back to Kalista. Although the characters from Fate Hollow are mentioned several times throughout the book, this book is about Pandora and her love interests in the Demon Realm. Before you deep dive into this book, definitely look at the trigger warnings before you start. When Lyra says there's dark themes in this book, she meant it. Also, just know this book does end on a cliffhanger and will probably leave you with as many questions as it did me. Below may contain some minor spoilers, so keep that in mind if you want to keep reading my review. Pandora's first 2 decades of her life are full of torture, hatred, and confinement in a cellar. That is until her father finds her and brings her into the world she was supposed to live in. Because of her upbringing she wasn't acclimated to the Demon world and the way their society works so when she is offered the chance to go to a Demon Reform Accademy, she accepts it to learn the ways of society and how she is supposed to feed. Pandora isn't like the other common demons in this world, no. She, like her father Death, are soul-eaters. Pandora is too scared to release her powers because she doesn't want to kill anyone, so she needs to learn how to feed off of a piece of soul instead of taking the whole thing. Because of who her father is, she's classed as a Noble, and while she doesn't agree with her fellow Noble students, who look down on the "lower" class, she also is faced with 3 Demons who hate her for being a Noble. Theses a lot of back and forth tension which these 3 demons who have issues of their own. One is obsessed with her, and wants to know all of her secrets. One leaks fear all over the place, but also is scared of the "princess" -wink- -wink-. One is a complete drunk who doesn't like her just because he's got family Noble problems. Don't worry, there are 2 other demons who are just the sweetest towards her. One who will get vengeance for anything done to her, he's got Golden Retriever energy around her and touch her and die energy for anyone around her. Finally, there is one who is friends with her even when the whole school is scared of her, who brings her into his dreams and will create nightmares for those who bother her.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2024
M
Verified Purchase
Mystery_Machine_Gang
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 4
This was more than I expected...
Format: Kindle
So...I finished this book at nearly 2am! It was just that hard to put down. I loved that it's set in the same world as Fates Hollow but in the future. Poor Pandora has been through so much but there's light at the end of the tunnel for her. She finally meets her dad and it turns out he's amazing. In order to help her learn about demon society and how to control her magic he sends her to the Demon Reform Academy. There she meets 2 awesome demons who help her and care for her. She also sadly meets her 3 tormentors. I will say though that while they do bully Pandora they also rescue her several times and defend her. They too have traumatizing pasts and can't see the good that is in front of them. Of course demon society needs to be shaken up too since that's part of the problem. I really enjoyed this read. I teared up a few times throughout the book but I liked the characters and that ending...well it looks like 3 in denial are going to need to grovel hard.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2024
K
Verified Purchase
Krystle
Charlottesville, US
★★★★★ 5
MUST READ BOOK!!
Format: Kindle
I was in a huge reading slump, when one of my favorite authors recommended this book in her readers group (The amazing Marie Mistry 🫶) and I absolutely DEVOURED this book. Now I’m in the club crying about having to wait until December for Term 2! This book is about a girl named Pandora who has suffered a life that nobody would ever wish to have. This book is about Pandora learning how to live, learning about herself and what she really wants. She has a long journey to find out all of these things, but she took the first steps in this book and it was beautiful to read. Some of the men in this book are our dream men, Hunter and Reed 😍 and then we have the men who need some work and who we all really just want to beat up until they admit what they really feel, Skel, Bram and Dexter. But that cliffy was a killer and I absolutely cannot wait until the next book!! You have written an absolute dream of a book Lyra and I eagerly await the next installment in this series!!!
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2024

recommand products