Memory

You are head of a family in an Italian city-state, a city run by a weak and corrupt court. You need to manipulate, bluff and bribe your way to power. Your object is to destroy the influence of all the other families, forcing them into exile. Only one family will survive...

In Coup, you want to be the last player with influence in the game, with influence being represented by face-down character cards in your playing area.

Each player starts the game with two coins and two influence – i.e., two face-down character cards; the fifteen card deck consists of three copies of five different characters, each with a unique set of powers:

Duke: Take three coins from the treasury. Block someone from taking foreign aid.
Assassin: Pay three coins and try to assassinate another player's character.
Contessa: Block an assassination attempt against yourself.
Captain: Take two coins from another player, or block someone from stealing coins from you.
Ambassador: Draw two character cards from the Court (the deck), choose which (if any) to exchange with your face-down characters, then return two. Block someone from stealing coins from you.

On your turn, you can take any of the actions listed above, regardless of which characters you actually have in front of you, or you can take one of three other actions:

Income: Take one coin from the treasury.
Foreign aid: Take two coins from the treasury.
Coup: Pay seven coins and launch a coup against an opponent, forcing that player to lose an influence. (If you have ten coins or more, you must take this action.)

When you take one of the character actions – whether actively on your turn, or defensively in response to someone else's action – that character's action automatically succeeds unless an opponent challenges you. In this case, if you can't (or don't) reveal the appropriate character, you lose an influence, turning one of your characters face-up. Face-up characters cannot be used, and if both of your characters are face-up, you're out of the game.

If you do have the character in question and choose to reveal it, the opponent loses an influence, then you shuffle that character into the deck and draw a new one, perhaps getting the same character again and perhaps not.

The last player to still have influence – that is, a face-down character – wins the game!

A new & optional character called the Inquisitor has been added (currently, the only English edition with the Inquisitor included is the Kickstarter Version from Indie Boards & Cards. Copies in stores may not be the Kickstarter versions and may only be the base game). The Inquisitor character cards may be used to replace the Ambassador cards.

Inquisitor: Draw one character card from the Court deck and choose whether or not to exchange it with one of your face-down characters. OR Force an opponent to show you one of their character cards (their choice which). If you wish it, you may then force them to draw a new card from the Court deck. They then shuffle the old card into the Court deck. Block someone from stealing coins from you.

Copyright La Mame Games 2012. This game is not authorized for posting on Steam.

Flinch is played with a deck of 150 cards numbered 1-15. Players are allowed to play cards in sequence (building up from 1 to 15) to piles formed in the center of the table. "1" cards must be played to start the piles, but others may be played or held at the player's discretion. Cards may be played from a number of sources: a player's hand (five cards to start), a player's "game pile" (a stack of 10 cards of which only the top card is face up and playable), or a player's "reserve piles" (whenever a player passes or completes a turn, they must add a card from their hand to their reserve piles - up to five reserve piles may be formed). Hands are continually replenished with new sets of five cards during the game. The object is to play all 10 cards from game pile to the center of the table.

Flinch is based on the traditional card game Spite 'N' Malice.

The little magician apprentices have lost some magic objects inside of the master’s maze. Now they try to collect them before the Master notices anything. However, in the maze there are invisible walls and only one of the missing objects is revealed at a time. So they have to make their way through the maze by means of a good memory and lots of skill.

Each player moves their magician over the board while trying not to bump the labyrinth below. Each magician is joined with a magnetic ball so if you hit a wall the ball drops and you have to start all over again.

In the adventure game North Wind, cities are suffering heavily under constant raids from pirates. As freelance trade captains, the players bring food and other goods to the cities, in addition to fighting the pirates whenever they encounter them. Fighting without cannons leads to poor results, however, and cannons are expensive. With each success, though, a player can better equip his three-dimensional ship and strengthen his crew.

In the end, the player who finds the best mix of trading and fighting will prove to be the victorious captain.

First published in today's form by Ravensburger in February 1959.

There are versions known from Japan in the 16th century - matching pictures painted on shells. Known as Awase or Kai-awase.

In USA and England known as Pairs, Pelmanism, or Concentration. But these are played with simple playing cards.

In Switzerland was a domino-like game named Zwillingsspiel with the same roots.

In Czech Republic this type of game is known as Pexeso. It usually consists of 32 pairs of square cards. There are thousands of Pexeso sets with different themes.

There are hundreds of different Memory games - starting with 24 cards for the youngest, with all kinds of animals, art, about countries, also a gay and a "Breast Memory", several free giveaway Memory games published by companies.

The most famous publisher is Ravensburger - they have the rights for the brand name Memory.