The King's Abbey is a worker placement/resource management game in which each player has their own player board that represents the abbey they have been tasked to build. Players take charge of monks that are represented by ten dice as they go out and gather resources, go on crusades, construct buildings, train clergy, bring in peasants, and defend their abbey against the darkness. Each player does this by rolling their dice and then assigning each die (monk) to different places on their player board, resource boards, and crusade cards. The places on the player boards will bring in peasants and train clergy. The places on the resource boards will give them wood, grain, stone, and sand for building the various parts of their individual abbeys.

Each player receives prestige (victory points) for completing crusades and constructing various things in their abbey such as towers and different kinds of buildings. The game proceeds over a total of seven rounds where the "darkness" becomes greater each round. The darkness represents things like depression, famine, raiders attacking, and other things that the Dark Ages brought with it. You fight the darkness by keeping the defenses of your abbey strong. Players are trying to have the most prestige than any other player by the end of the seventh round.

After seven rounds, players add up all prestige earned. Whoever has the most prestige wins the game!