"Dark Cults" (Dark House Publishing). This is a storytelling card game from 1983, written by Kenneth Rahman. The game is moody, and light on mechanics. The fantastic black and white artwork on the cards is also by Rahman (using the pseudonym "Eymoth") and is worth the cost of the game itself. The logo for Dark House bears more than a passing resemblance to that of Arkham House.

Frank Mentzer wrote:

JASON THE RULESREADER wrote:My wife and I were playing KNIGHTS OF CAMELOT last night and a couple of questions came up.

Heya Jason.

I'm afraid you're reaching too far back here. When the Rahmans (creators of the best-seller Divine Right) came to us with KoC, it looked like another winner, and sales proved that correct.

The 1st edition, however, had a 36-page rulebook. Why is this a Bad Thing, you ask? Because in printing, books in signatures of 16 pages cost-effective, but otherwise you have to add a cutting/insert phase, which is expensive. So for the 2nd edition I crammed it down into a 32-pager, and voila. (I did editing, layout, and playtesting for both editions.)

However, I remember little about the game itself, and can't help you with your questions. As a guess I'd say you're limited to one Request per turn.

Anecdote: This design by the Rahmans (who did the earlier and very famous Divine Right game) was initially released with a 36-page rulebook and a slight design flaw in the box (name too small on the side). So I volunteered to trim it down to a much cheaper 32 pages, and the reprint also of course fixed the box design. These two printings are thus very easy to identify. I'm just a Playtester in the first one I think, but Developer/Editor in the second. Sadly I had to turn down a subsequent Rahman design called Crimson Cutlass (pirate ship v ship), which we thought was too cumbersome in play; it took too darn long to resolve all the individual fights. They released it years later on their own. Super-obscure datum buried in this verbage: you'll also find Rahman credited as co-designer of "Dark Cults", a horror storytelling cardgame. If you can find it. ;>

Publishing Trivia: Why is 32 so hugely better than 36? Start with one large sheet and start folding... 2 pages, 4, 8, 16, 32. Do the layout right, run it thru a folder, edgecutter, saddlestitcher for the staples (all automatic printers' machinery), and you're done. But a 36 pg thus adds one folded sheet of 4 pages in the middle and has to be inserted manually before stapling, adding a disproportionately large cost.