Bluffing

At the beginning of the game each player receives a different set of picture tiles. To start a round, a theme is shown, e.g. "Women like it..." Everyone thinks about this and selects a tile from his set, but does not show it to the other players. Players lay their tiles picture-side down on the table, and these tiles are mixed up with random tiles from the stock.

On the board there are slots which are numbered from 0 to 6. Tiles are placed next to slot 3 so that everyone can see the pictures. The goal for each player is to have his tile reach the top (slot 6) of the ranking of items that best meet the requirement. Each player receives points equal to the slot number where his tile is at the end of each round. The point total is reduced if another player correctly guesses which tile belongs to whom and marks it with the player's color.

When it is your turn, choose two tiles in the same row/slot and compare them to one another in meeting the requirement of the theme. (Important: You can only compare two tiles in the same row. If there is only one tile in row 4, you cannot compare this tile to one in a different row!)
For example, say, "I think women like lipstick more than a car." Then, you move the lipstick tile up one row and the car tile down one row. After you have done that, the others can guess your tile, by placing a stone of your color on any tile. Each player has only one stone of each color and can only guess the active player, so this must be done selectively and timely!

The round ends when one tile reaches the 6 slot and another is in the 0. Then, you calculate the points. Each player gets points equal his slot, minus every correct guess stone on the tile. So, if your tile is in slot 4, but there are 2 correct color stones are on it, you get only 2 points (4 - 2 = 2).

Before the beginning of the next round everyone gets a new picture tile from the stock and a new theme is shown.

The first player to score 15 points after a round ends the game and is the winner. He is the RanKING.

Each human being has his dark side, often well hidden behind a friendly smile. This game is about the friendly unveiling of such secrets. The players try to reveal the dark sides of the other players and to hide their own secrets well. There are points for revealing secrets, for which the players move forward on the success track. In the end, whoever stands farthest up on the success track wins, but only if his dark side was not revealed.

The cards in the players' hands represent the secrets. The players can brag about them in order to get points, but they must be careful that their own secrets are not revealed by the other players, because then the other players will earn points.

Game description of the 2011 revised edition from the publisher:

Welcome to Cadwallon, an infamous city known for the chicanery of its artful guilds! Can your guild sweep through its districts and gain power through recruiting influential citizens and acquiring valuable relics?

The revised edition of Arcana is a card game of recruitment and resource gathering for 2-4 crafty leaders. Command a guild of loyal agents during a series of district encounters against your opponents. Score the most prominent citizens, advantageous locations, and valuable treasures through bribery and power struggles. Collect the highest amount of victory points to become the master guild of Cadwallon!

This vibrant game creates a fantastical atmosphere for players to enjoy while they attempt to best their opponents through strategic card play. Make your guild the most influential by winning Stake cards and strengthening your deck with impressive Personalities, advantageous Locations, or tempting Relics to use in bribery.

The revised edition of Arcana introduces two new guilds to choose from, the Guild of Fortune-tellers and the Guild of Architects, as well a variety of optional rules that players can utilize to enhance their experience. Players can customize their guild, fulfill objectives, recruit Militia, invoke the ability of their Guild Masters, affect game play through random events, or optimize tactical strategy through card discards. Which variant will you use in your game?

Summary of Play

Arcana is played over a series of rounds that are comprised of two phases, the Intrigue phase and the Resolution phase. Send Agents from your unique guild deck to any of Cadwallon’s districts to claim control of Stake cards: Personalities, Locations, and Relics, all of which award victory points.

During these district encounters players gain control of Stake cards by playing their Agent cards. Stake cards are won through meeting or exceeding the card’s main arcanum: either Military, Political, Spiritual, or Financial. Whichever Agent has the highest matching arcanum type wins the current revealed Stake card in that district.

Of course if the Stake card you are after is a Personality card you can choose to bribe them with a Relic Card instead, immediately ending the phase and wresting the victory points from your opponents should you succeed.

Players can increase the mystery of the final outcome through bluffing. Players control two friendly distracts (piles of Stake cards) in which they can place their Agents facedown. Will your opponent chance opposing you when he is uncertain of your arcanum value?

This text refers to the Queen 2007 reprint. The older edition had players write down their viking orders and was two rounds longer.

In Eketorp, players build Viking strongholds upon the Swedish island of Öland.

The goal of the game is to collect the most valuable blocks to build your own fortress, either by winning battles on the resource spaces or by stealing blocks from other vikings.

Each turn, new resources appear and the players secretly plan their viking movements. After all the placements are revealed, vikings battle each other for blocks (with the losers sent off to the field hospital to recover). The game ends after a set number of rounds, or when one of the players has succeeded in finishing their fortress.

Banküberfall description: The bank directors want to have more excitement in their lives. So they decide to rob their own banks.
As one of those bank directors, the player can speculate with money transfers, distract policemen with a beautiful women, spy and intrigue against each other.

Gravediggers description: this game is the 2007 Twilight Creations edition of the same game with a different theme: here gravediggers are competing in robbing graves. Here the special caracters are beautiful women, guards, attendants and bandits (4 of each as the character and card distribution, just like the rules are exactly the same in the two games).