Hand of the King Wiki
A structured reference for playing HOTK, understanding the simulation, and connecting scoped MCP advisors.
Start Here
HOTK is a kingdom-management game where the player acts through the Hand, reads the realm, resolves crises, and advances time one tick at a time.
Campaign Setup
A HOTK campaign starts with difficulty, king identity, origin, trait, path, and map generation. These choices define the realm's starting pressure and the king's strengths.
Turn Loop
Each HOTK turn is a read-decide-review rhythm: inspect the realm, resolve pressure, spend actions, review results, then advance time.
Kingdom Systems
HOTK is driven by interacting systems. Treasury, legitimacy, houses, resources, faith, foreign pressure, and succession all push on one another.
Docket And Royal Actions
The docket is the crisis desk. Royal actions are the crown's proactive moves between crises.
Council
Advisors are lenses for the king. They interpret the realm, expose tradeoffs, and react to decisions, but they do not command the player.
Treasury, Trade, And Market
Treasury is the crown's gold, trade routes are ongoing economic channels, and the market should become a barter surface for turning resources into gold.
Map, Nations, And Church
The map should be a pure strategic view: where the realm is, who borders it, what each place means, and how geography connects to pressure.
Skills, Dynasty, And Heirs
Skills are long-term ruler progression. Dynasty is succession risk and opportunity. Heirs make marriage and lineage politically meaningful.
Agent MCP Advisor
MCP Advisor mode lets an external LLM read the campaign, list current choices, and submit proposals for human review without executing gameplay.
MCP API Calls
HOTK MCP access has two layers: MCP tools used by the external client and delegated HOTK API routes used by the MCP server.
Troubleshooting And Glossary
HOTK has several overlapping systems. This page explains common terms and the fastest way to debug confusing behavior.