In Citadels players compete to become the next Master Builder of the realm by constructing the most impressive medieval city. To do so, players must accumulate gold coins and secure the services of various character types.
Each player builds their city by playing from their hand a series of district cards that will ultimately have a point value equal to their cost at the end of the game. The game ends at the end of the round in which a player has seven districts in their city.

The uniqueness of the game, which contains a bluffing element, lies in the initial draft in which players pass character cards to each other and choose one character for that round. Each character card has some special abilities, such as stealing a player’s gold coins or destroying another player's district. After the selection phase, players move to the turn phase (in which players accumulate resources and build new districts in their cities); however, this occurs not clockwise, but in ascending order based on the rank of the character they chose.

Contents: 27 Unique Characters, 84 District Cards, 1 Plastic Crown, 22 Plastic Gold Coins, 27 Character Reference Cards, 5 Ability Indicator Cards, 8 Consultation Cards, and 1 Rulebook.