• Pendulum

Stonemaier Games

Pendulum

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Pendulum is a real-time strategy board game from Stonemaier Games for 1–5 players, recommended for ages 14+, with games lasting around 60–90 minutes at a medium-heavy complexity. As a noble of Dünya you command workers, expand provinces and advance four victory tracks, where managing time well matters far more than acting fast.

About the Game

In Pendulum, the Timeless King of Dünya has no heir, and the realm's greatest nobles race — in real time — to claim the throne. A typical game hums with quiet urgency as you command workers, execute stratagems and expand your provinces while timers run down, weighing every moment spent planning against moments spent acting.

Pendulum plays with 1–5 players in around 60–90 minutes and is recommended for ages 14 and up. This is a medium-heavy strategy game built on real-time play, worker placement, engine building and resource management, with each noble offering unique powers. Advance along four victory tracks — power, prestige, popularity and legendary achievement — remembering that the winner is the player who invests time most effectively, not the one who acts fastest.

Designed by Travis Jones and published by Stonemaier Games in 2020, Pendulum began as the highest-rated prototype in the history of the Stonemaier Games Design Day, an event showcasing promising unpublished designs.

History

Pendulum was designed by Travis Jones and published by Stonemaier Games in 2020. According to the publisher, it was the highest-rated prototype in the history of the Stonemaier Games Design Day, an event where designers present promising unpublished games, which led to its full release as a simultaneous, real-time strategy title.

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Shipping details

Pendulum

$50.00

Watch: How to play

Rules of Pendulum

  • Setup: give each player a noble board with a unique power, a personal province board, starting workers and resources; set out the shared main board, the three sand timers and the stratagem cards.
  • No turns: everyone plays simultaneously in real time, so there is no waiting for other players.
  • Timers gate actions: rows on the main board open and close as the sand timers run out; flip an empty timer to change where workers can be placed or moved.
  • Place workers on open action spaces to gain resources, draw and play stratagem cards, expand your province and advance your markers.
  • Build your engine: develop your province so each action produces more as the game goes on.
  • Four tracks: advance along power, prestige, popularity and legendary achievement — your standing on these drives your final score.
  • Councils: play pauses periodically between rounds for council phases, where progress is checked and rewards resolved.
  • Game end: after the final round, tally points from your track positions — the highest total claims the throne.

Strategy

  • Think, then act: the winner invests time most effectively, not fastest — a moment of planning usually beats a hasty placement.
  • Plan around the timers: while the sand runs, decide your next two or three moves so you are ready the instant a row opens.
  • Focus your tracks: pushing one or two of the four tracks hard usually beats spreading thinly across all of them.
  • Build early: developing your province in the opening rounds pays off with a stronger engine later.
  • Play to your noble: each character has a unique power, so shape your plans around what it rewards.
  • Watch the councils: know when the pauses are coming and shore up your track positions beforehand.
  • Stay flexible: if a row or track is contested, pivot rather than fighting a losing race — there is more than one path to the throne.