Coffee Empire

The coffee planet belongs to four ancient houses, and each wants all of it. You join one of them — not as a general moving troops, but as one of its Shadow Council. You never command a soldier. Instead you work in the house's capital, bring in its goods and its people, and donate them to the house. The house's citizens do the rest: they farm, roast, research and march on their own, in the direction their leaders set.

A visit takes a few minutes: see what your work has made, contribute, vote or set a policy, check how the war is going — and leave the house to get on with it.

Everything you give your house earns prestige, and prestige is what the house listens to. Its most generous members hold office: the Lord sets the house's course for the week — farming, industry, research or war — the Bishop blesses one part of it each day, the ministers call for the goods the house needs most, and the marshal chooses which land to march on. Offices change hands every week, so a new voice can always rise.

A season lasts eight weeks. Houses grow, trade blows over the land between them and, in the final week, can take a rival's capital and its lands with it. Whoever holds the planet — or most of it — when the season ends has won it, and the next season starts the race again.

Each house is one suit of a deck: Latte diamonds, Mocha hearts, Espresso spades and Flat White clubs. The cards are marked like playing cards, two to ace, but every one is a picture of what it gives — coffee beans and milk, farmers and scholars, soldiers, and the four great figures of each court — with the Lord and the Bishop as the jokers. Cards bring their resources to your house and join your collection, which stays with you from season to season.