This may appear somewhere, so forgive me if it does, but what would each new player have to buy to be able to play?

Depends on what you mean by "play."

Remember that nothing has been released for this game yet. It should be released at Gencon in Indianapolis at the end of July.

Current information indicates that you can "play" a 4-player game right out of the box with a single copy of the Core Set. The Core Set is supposed to have a small "starter deck" for each of the 8 factions, which can be combined (by mixing factions) into 4 "tournament legal" (i.e., 60 card) decks.

Ever play Smash Up? In that game, you take all the cards from 2 factions, shuffle them together, and that's your deck? Well, the Core Set is probably going to work something like that. So if you don't care about customization, you will probably be able to play up to a 4-player game with just 1 copy of the Core Set, out-of-the box.

However , if you are a hard-core deck builder and want to completely customize your own deck, the assumption is that the deck building rules will be for 60-card decks, maximum of 3 copies per deck. Since the Core Set is probably only going to have one copy of each card, that means a new "competitive" player would need to buy 3 copies of the Core Set in order to have a full play set of each card.

With 8 factions per box, though, it isn't unusual for 3 players to get together, but 1 copy each of the Core Set, and trade factions until everyone has a plates of their favorite factions (e.g., I give you all my Stark cards, you give me all your Tyrell cards; if you weren't interested in Tyrell and I wasn't interested in Stark, we each just saved $40).

So, to sum it all up:

- A casual play group of up to 4 players who don't plan to customize decks or play in tournaments: Needs 1 copy of the Core Set, total.

- A single competitive player who plans to do a lot of customization across all factions and play primarily in tournaments and organized play: Needs 3 copies of the Core Set for him/herself.

- A group of 3-4 competitive players who plan to do a lot of customization, but each player plans to stick to one or two factions (that are all different): Needs 3 copies of the Core Set, total, and then share out the contents.

Precedent (the 1st Ed Core Set) suggests it won't be possible to make 4 tournament-legal decks out of 1 Core Set (what we've seen so far leaves me wondering whether it'll be possible to make even 1), though it doesn't matter if you don't plan on playing in tournaments. If you're sharing, you might have some trouble with neutral cards, including plots.

Aren't there any neutral cards? Those would be hard to split between 4 players.

You know, I could have sworn I read somewhere that this game could support up to six players, but I must have imagined it.

Official page only says 4, so ignore me...

Wait! I KNEW I'd seen it somewhere!

While the game's page is still 1 - 4, I remember reading this line:

" With a single Core Set of A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Second Edition , you can play a four-player melee, but with two or more Core Sets, you can play a melee with up to six players. "

Good think I was planning on buying two core sets from the off then!

Exactly, DigitalEccentric. They can't put a number of players on the box if the box alone doesn't allow that many players (it would be considered false advertising or something like that). That's why they wrote the stuff about using extra Core Sets to accomodate more players.

Precedent (the 1st Ed Core Set) suggests it won't be possible to make 4 tournament-legal decks out of 1 Core Set (what we've seen so far leaves me wondering whether it'll be possible to make even 1), though it doesn't matter if you don't plan on playing in tournaments. If you're sharing, you might have some trouble with neutral cards, including plots.

You should definitely be able to make at least 1 tournament-legal deck out of 1 Core Set. We know this because of the inaugural Kingslayer Tournament advertised for Gencon: make your best deck from a single Core Set.

You can probably make at least 2 and as many as 4. It's just that those decks will lack options in terms of customization and variety (e.g., you'll have to use every card in the box to get to 4 decks - there are probably exactly 28 plot cards in the box), and will all have to be 2-factions each to make it up to the 60 cards.

Can't wait can't wait can't wait for Kingslayer.

Even though it's probably going to be a carnival of barely playable chimeras, it's going to be fun.

Precedent (the 1st Ed Core Set) suggests it won't be possible to make 4 tournament-legal decks out of 1 Core Set (what we've seen so far leaves me wondering whether it'll be possible to make even 1), though it doesn't matter if you don't plan on playing in tournaments. If you're sharing, you might have some trouble with neutral cards, including plots.

You should definitely be able to make at least 1 tournament-legal deck out of 1 Core Set. We know this because of the inaugural Kingslayer Tournament advertised for Gencon: make your best deck from a single Core Set.

That's not in itself a guarantee, however. There was a Core-Set-only "Padawan Tournament" at the Star Wars Game Experience, and I seem to recall the decks being eight objective sets each (as per the "starter deck" information included in that game's rulebook), whereas tournament decks require a minimum of ten objective sets.

True, but the Worldeater tournament for Conquest last year required an otherwise tournament-legal deck built from a single Core Set - which could only be done by choosing a faction, using all cards from that faction, choosing an allied faction, using all non-loyal, non-signature cards from that faction, plus a couple of neutrals. So it could go either way.

It's worth noting that a single Conquest Core Set can build two tournament legal decks in total by doing the above.

Precedent (the 1st Ed Core Set) suggests it won't be possible to make 4 tournament-legal decks out of 1 Core Set (what we've seen so far leaves me wondering whether it'll be possible to make even 1), though it doesn't matter if you don't plan on playing in tournaments. If you're sharing, you might have some trouble with neutral cards, including plots.

You should definitely be able to make at least 1 tournament-legal deck out of 1 Core Set. We know this because of the inaugural Kingslayer Tournament advertised for Gencon: make your best deck from a single Core Set.

You can probably make at least 2 and as many as 4. It's just that those decks will lack options in terms of customization and variety (e.g., you'll have to use every card in the box to get to 4 decks - there are probably exactly 28 plot cards in the box), and will all have to be 2-factions each to make it up to the 60 cards.

4 tournament legal decks from one core definitely won't be in the cards (*rimshot*). The product description we saw previously showed that you would need 5 packs of sleeves for the core set, so that puts the maximum number of cards in the core at 250. 4 full decks would be 240 of those cards, but that doesn't include all the plots that will be in there, plus the House cards and melee titles, which will also count toward that 250 number.

A tournament legal 60 card deck is no doubt buildable out of the core (although it will likely be a bit wonky), but I fully expect that this core will be much like the 1E core, where the 4 decks included were all 45 cards.

True, but the Worldeater tournament for Conquest last year required an otherwise tournament-legal deck built from a single Core Set - which could only be done by choosing a faction, using all cards from that faction, choosing an allied faction, using all non-loyal, non-signature cards from that faction, plus a couple of neutrals. So it could go either way.

It's worth noting that a single Conquest Core Set can build two tournament legal decks in total by doing the above.

The big difference with Conquest is the deck size: in Conquest, it's only 50 (and 8 slots are already filled). With 19 cards from your main faction, 13 cards from your allied faction (there are 6 loyal cards in Lannister, so I expect similar numbers for the other factions) and 18 neutral cards, you have 50 distinct cards in your deck, so you need 10 more. It's possible, but it depends on how many cards are doubled.

True, but the Worldeater tournament for Conquest last year required an otherwise tournament-legal deck built from a single Core Set - which could only be done by choosing a faction, using all cards from that faction, choosing an allied faction, using all non-loyal, non-signature cards from that faction, plus a couple of neutrals. So it could go either way.

It's worth noting that a single Conquest Core Set can build two tournament legal decks in total by doing the above.

The big difference with Conquest is the deck size: in Conquest, it's only 50 (and 8 slots are already filled). With 19 cards from your main faction, 13 cards from your allied faction (there are 6 loyal cards in Lannister, so I expect similar numbers for the other factions) and 18 neutral cards, you have 50 distinct cards in your deck, so you need 10 more. It's possible, but it depends on how many cards are doubled.

Huh. I suppose it's a shame the decks aren't 50 cards this time around, then. Always wondered if the mechanics might make a 50-card deck minimum possible, but I guess not.