Girl Genius: The Works - Rules and Gameplay

Rules and Gameplay

Each card in the game has symbols along each of its four edges. The symbols, which come in five types, range in number from one to eight. Each card also has a point value between 0 and 9, and most of the cards have instructions which must be followed when the card is popped.

The game starts with the laying out of 12 cards in a lattice pattern ("the Works"), all face-down, except for two corner cards which are positioned face-up. Each player starts with a hand of five cards, and a score pile, which is initially empty. The players then take their turns in order around the table. Each turn consists of five stages:

• Flip a card. If there are any face-down cards in the Works, flip one face-up.
• Spin a card. Pick up any one face-up card, spin it 180 degrees, and put it back in its place.
• Check. Consider in turn each of the four edges of the card you just spun. If the type of symbol on an edge matches the type of the symbol on the neighboring card's edge, then the card with the more symbols "pops" out of the Works. If they have the same number of symbols, both cards pop.
• Replace cards. Any blank spaces in the Works created by removing cards on this turn are now filled with new cards from the hand of the player who created the blank space. The new cards are always placed face-up, except as detailed in the instruction for "Bärenkönig," whose replacement is played face-down. (If the replacing player runs out of cards, then she must draw cards from the draw pile one at a time to finish the replacement stage.)
• Draw cards. Each player now draws cards from the draw pile until he has at least five cards. (If a player already has at least five cards, then that player draws no cards.)