Brien J Miller - 11:44am Mar 22, 1999 PST (#727 of 729)
the "emissary" to some :)

Grand Inquisitor is a card game of the Inquisition. On 4 November, 1184,
The prontiff of the holy universal church, Lucius III issued the
decretal, Ad abolendum, -The Charter of the Inquisition,- and launched
nearly 600 years of terror in the name of the prince of peace. The most
notorius period of the Inquistion was at the height of it+s power in
1423, when a pious, learned, man named Tomás de Toquemada took over the
role of the Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition in order to
check it abuses. What followed paled all that proceeded. Now its your
turn. In your hands lies the power of Bishop Torquemada. You are now the
Grand Inquisitor.

Grand Inquisitor is played in rounds, each player having a single turn
during a round. Each player may hold up to six cards. Players start with
the draw of one card, then play any number of cards, finally discarding
or drawing cards such as he or she once again has six cards. This
continues until the deck is depleted at which time play ends and the
final score is tabulated.

The object of the game is to be the player with the highest score when
the game ends. Player+s score points for convicting heretics (through
trial by fire we might add...). Heretics can only be convicted if they
are in your dungeon during the Tribunal step of each round. The Tribunal
step immediately follows once all the players have taken their turn for
the round. Some rules and cards allow for scoring points at other times
and three -Heretic Innocents- cards, (they are never really innocent you
know...) can cost negative points if they are in your hand at the end of
the game.

Grand Inquisitor has 2 1/4 pages of rules, a page being 5.5x8. The other
1 3/4 pages is filled with a quick and dirty overview of the
inquisition.

Cards are:

Heretics: Pagans, Demonic Rites, Dogmatics, Cults, Political etc, with
subgroups like witchcraft, aryans, monophystites, knights templar.

Heresies: Which are the same as above (pagans, demonics, etc) that are
used to call heretics to the world.

Clerics that players use to inquisit the heretics. Clerics start at
Cardinal Bishop, then Cardinal Deacon, then Cardinal Priest, then Arch
Bishop, Bishop, on down to monks. Each has a ranking value.

Churches, Militia, Jesuits, Dominicans, and some special event cards all
add up to contesting and pulling heretics from the world into your
dungeon. From there, you have to send them to Tribunal before some
equally god-fearing opponenet wisks them from you. There is also a few
Heretic Prelate cards that can be used to capture high (or low) ranking
clerics.

Just good familly fun based on that rocking ol' good time religion...

Can't happen today, thank God. Now you will all have to excuse me but I
have to go get my hot tongs- Tinkiwinki is down in the dun... er living
room, and just needs a little religion...