Card Drafting

P.I. is a pure deduction game, with players competing in three consecutive mini-games in order to see who's got the best chops in terms of solving their cases.

Each mini-game plays out the same way. To start, you receive in secret one suspect card (out of 12), one crime card (out of 10), and one location card (out of 14); this set of information represents the case that the player to your left must solve. The game board shows fourteen locations arranged so that each location touches a few others; each location has space for a suspect and crime tile. Shuffle the suspect tiles (12, plus two "no suspect") and the crime tiles (10, plus four "no crime"), then place one face up in each location. Each suspect, crime and location is included in a deck of evidence cards, and nine evidence cards are revealed.

On a turn, a player either places an investigator, chooses an evidence card, or attempts to solve her case. When you place an investigator in a location, the player to your right looks at his case cards, then places a disc on this space for each case card he holds that matches the suspect, crime or location in this space. Additionally, he places a cube on this space for each suspect, crime or location that's adjacent to this space.

When you choose an evidence card, the player to your right places a disc on the matching tile if the card matches one of the case cards he holds, places a cube on the matching tile if this tile is adjacent to a tile matching one of the case cards he holds, or places nothing if you've made a wild-eyed guess and the tile isn't adjacent to anything.

To attempt to solve the case, you place a black token on your guesses. If wrong, you're penalized two points and continue play next turn. If right, you receive 7, 5, 3 or 1 points depending on how many others have solved their cases in earlier rounds.

The mini-game ends once everyone has solved their case or only one case remains unsolved. All used investigators are removed from play, then the board and cards are reset for the next mini-case. Each player has only five investigators total, so use them wisely!

Whoever has the most points after three mini-cases wins.

Miskatonic School for Girls is the first deck-building game in which you get to build your opponent's deck. This unique feature creates a totally different play dynamic from other deck building games.

MSFG has players assuming the roles of rival houses at Miskatonic. Each house has a healthy level of sanity (20) at the beginning of the game. As the game goes on, that precious sanity will slowly be torn away by the faculty of the school. In order to combat the bad teaching methods of the Great Old Ones, the students of the house need to band together!

During your turn, you'll buy your new friends with friendship points and use nightmare points to send faculty after the rival houses. Eventually, those Faculty will end up in a player's hand, where they will hold class, teaching your innocent students about the horrors around them. This has a detrimental effect on your house's sanity.

Due to the overwhelming power of the dark truth, it's just a matter of time before your house goes completely bonkers. The last house left with any sanity wins!

Game description from the publisher:

The Rivals for Catan: Age of Enlightenment contains three expansion sets (125 Cards Total) for The Rivals for Catan (released in Germany as Die Fürsten von Catan). These theme sets – "The Era of Explorers", "The Era of Sages", and "The Era of Prosperity" – offer new variety for the base game and bring new elements into play.

• In The Era of Explorers, players set sail from Catan to explore the world and discover new lands. Your explorer harbor serves as the starting point for your exploration of nine adjacent sea cards. Pirates, islanders, and shipwrecks await across the waters. Embark on missions and try to be the best explorer. Ship tokens chart your position. Victory awaits the most skilled and intrepid sailor!

• In The Era of Sages, the wisdom of many and varied sages – a currency in its own way – gives you the opportunity to influence the strength and frequency of events. Fend off famines, deflect attacks, and promote peace. Connect with nature and balance prudence, power, foresight, and vigilance in your struggle for Catan!

• In The Era of Prosperity, you strive to be a good prince and govern wisely, in order to build schools and a hospital – and even promote the arts. Raise your people's spirits and spur expansion. But beware as discontent dooms prosperity!

The Rivals for Catan: Age of Darkness, a 90-card expansion for The Rivals for Catan, includes three separate theme sets that can be used with the base game:

• The Era of Intrigue – You will witness the confrontation of followers of new and old beliefs and take part to determine Catan's spiritual balance. "Religious Dispute" causes both players to lose cards; Churches and Temples minimize losses; Temple cards strengthen your access to your own draw stacks. Church cards lure opposing heroes and earn gold. With a Church and a Temple, you may build the Great Thing stead and end the conflict.

• The Era of Merchant Princes – Using the "Commercial Harbor" and the "Merchant's Residences", decisive buildings in the struggle for trade advantage, players try to control Catan's commerce. "Maritime Trade Monopolies" and the "Master Merchants" enhance trade ships. "The Shipbuilder" reduces the building costs of ships. Dominate trade using clever card combinations!

• The Era of Barbarians – Use Castles, Border Fortresses, the Strategist, the Caravel, and new heroes to fend off both the barbarian attacks and your rival's efforts to dominate your holdings.

The Rivals for Catan is a reimplementation of Catan Card Game.

The Rivals for Catan was released in German in September of 2010, on the 15th anniversary of the original card game. An English edition was released in the fourth quarter of 2010. The designer of the game, Klaus Teuber, has stated that he completely reworked many of the original card game's mechanics to make it easier for newcomers to play the game.

Each player portrays a prince for Catan, developing their individual provinces and competing to build a more successful province than the other. The basic mode of play is similar to the original Catan Card Game, where players expand their provinces by building settlements connected by roads. Players may also build expansions in their settlements that aid them in various ways, or upgrade their settlements to cities to allow more expansions to be built. They build these additions by using resources that they accumulate each turn, which are determined by the roll of a die. Cards are drawn on each turn to replenish the players' hands. The players may also use action cards that directly affect either their own province or their opponent's province.

The Rivals for Catan features a reduced pool of cards, without the more aggressive style of action cards found in the original Catan Card Game. Therefore, all action cards will be able to be used from the beginning of the game unlike in the original card game.

Ways to Play:
The Introductory Game focuses on the basics of the card game, featuring gameplay that is more appropriate for newcomers. This game is played to 7 victory points and includes 36 Expansion Cards in four stacks. This play style should take beginner players 25 to 30 minutes to play.

Three Theme Games add more rules, expansions, and aggressive cards. These Theme Games may be played individually or combined to play a variant called "The Duel of the Princes." Each Theme Game adds 24 Expansion and Event Cards to the cards from the Introductory Game, which are placed in two stacks separately from the cards from the Introductory Game. When playing a Theme Game, playtime should be around 45 to 60 minutes.

As with the original Catan Card Game, players can also play the Tournament Game, in which each player chooses specific cards to build their deck ahead of time from which they draw from during the game.

Theme:
The theme of The Rivals for Catan is no longer restricted only to the feudal era of the Middle Ages like the original Catan Card Game. The Introductory Game portrays the very early years of the world of Catan, while each Theme Game takes place in progressively later eras. These eras are known as "The Era of Gold," "The Era of Turmoil," and "The Era of Progress."

Belongs to the Catan Series.