How to Play Citadels: Character Drafting, Gold & Districts
Citadels is a city-building and deduction game. Each round, players secretly draft characters, then those characters are called in numerical rank order to take turns.
Scope: current Z-Man revised edition using the standard recommended character set unless your group chooses alternate characters.
Draft characters secretly
The player with the Crown manages the draft according to player count, including any face-up/face-down removed characters required by setup. Each player keeps their chosen character secret.
Call characters by rank number
Beginning with rank 1, call each character in numerical order. If a player drafted that character, they reveal it and take their turn. The Crown affects who manages drafting next round rather than simply determining normal clockwise action order.
Take income
At the start of your character turn, take either 2 gold or draw district cards and keep the allowed number under the current rules.
Use your character ability
Each character has a unique ability involving theft, assassination, destruction, district income, card manipulation or building. Resolve it according to the character text and timing restrictions.
Build districts
Pay a district card’s gold cost to add it to your city. Standard rules limit how many districts can be built per turn unless your character or another effect says otherwise. You generally cannot build a duplicate of the exact same named district.
District colors interact with characters
Religious, military, trade and noble district colors can produce extra gold or other benefits for matching characters. Unique purple districts provide individual powers or scoring effects.
Completing a city triggers the final round
When a player reaches the required city size for the current player count/edition, complete the current round. Then score district costs, color diversity, completion bonuses and purple-district effects.
Publisher reference: Z-Man Games current Citadels rulebook.