Citadels

The Kingdom is in need of a new Master Builder, and you are among those vying for the prestigious post. Recruit local citizens and use their unique expertise to outwit your rivals. Only the most majestic metropolis will earn its creator the coveted title of Master Builder!

This revised edition of Citadels retains the signature bluffing and intrigue of Bruno Faidutti’s celebrated classic, condensing all the published content into a travel-friendly version at an unbeatable price. A game of intrigue awaits!

Content

Citadels includes twenty-seven characters — eight from the original Citadels, ten from the Dark City expansion, and nine new ones published in the new edition — along with thirty unique building districts, and the rulebook includes six preset lists of characters and districts beyond the starter list, each crafted to encourage a different style and intensity of gameplay.

How to Play Citadels

In Citadels, players take on new roles each round to represent characters they hire in order to help them acquire gold and erect buildings. The game ends at the close of a round in which a player erects their eighth building. Players then tally their points, and the player with the highest score wins.

Players start the game with a number of building cards in their hand; buildings come in five colors, with the purple buildings typically having a special ability and the other colored buildings providing a benefit when you play particular characters. At the start of each round, the player who was king the previous round discards one of the eight character cards at random, chooses one, then passes the cards to the next player, etc. until each player has secretly chosen a character. Each character has a special ability, and the usefulness of any character depends upon your situation, and that of your opponents. The characters then carry out their actions in numerical order: the assassin eliminating another character for the round, the thief stealing all gold from another character, the wizard swapping building cards with another player, the warlord optionally destroys a building in play, and so on.

On a turn, a player earns two or more gold (or draws two building cards then discards one), then optionally constructs one building (or up to three if playing the architect this round). Buildings cost gold equal to the number of symbols on them, and each building is worth a certain number of points. In addition to points from buildings, at the end of the game a player scores bonus points for having eight buildings or buildings of all five colors.

Mechanics

• Hidden Roles
  
• Deduction
• Puzzle