A game of rebuilding the city

London

Raise the city from its ashes — and mind the poverty.

❦

Found a new game

You will receive an invitation link to share with your players.

or

Answer an invitation

Two to four players · seats are drawn by lot when the game begins

You are cordially invited to a game of

London

Raise the city from its ashes — and mind the poverty.

❦

The table is assembling under the code

A strategy card game for two to four players — an hour or so at the table, or take your turns at leisure: the game keeps your seat.

…or found a new game of your own

The waiting room

London

❦

Invite your players — share this link:

…or have them enter the code at the front page

    Keep this page's address — it is your ticket back to this seat.

    Symbols

    • +£ Money gained when the card activates
    • −£ In the bottom-left medallion: money PAID to activate the card
    • 3 Immediate prestige — scores the instant you activate the card
    • 3 End-game prestige — scores at the end of the game, however the card sits
    • + − Poverty gained / poverty alleviated
    • Discard a card to activate this card
    • ⤵ Flips face-down once activated
    • spent Your own flipped cards stay identified under a washed-out sash — opponents see only the card back. End-game prestige still counts.
    • N Borough marker: N/S names its side of the Thames; a blue circle means riverside (some cards count riverside boroughs).

    The poverty reckoning

    Poverty only bites at the very end — on a rising scale. First the lowest total at the table clears to zero and every other player subtracts that same amount; what remains costs:

    poverty left1–2345678910each beyond
    VP lost−1−2−3−5−7−9−11−13−15−3 more

    Hand cards become poverty at the end, and every run adds +1 per display stack, per loan, and per card left in hand — the poverty chip's tooltip prices your own total at any moment.

    Rules summary

    1. Turn order: start of turn, then one action, then (if needed) discard down to the hand limit, then end turn.
    2. Start of turn: you may repay loans (only now, before drawing), then you must draw one card — from the deck or from any card on the development board — unless your top borough replaces the draw (Westminster: 0–2 cards; St Pancras: look at the deck's top 3 in secret — "scry" — keep 1 and return the rest).
    3. Choose exactly one action each turn: Develop, Buy Land, Run the City, or Draw Three.
    4. Develop: play cards from hand one at a time. Each needs a same-colour hand card discarded to the board to pay for it (Paupers — the grey, worthless slum cards — may never be placed, nor used as that discard) plus its printed £ cost, then it's placed face-up as a new stack or on your own stack not built this turn. Action cards (Wren, Huguenots, Jewish Refugees) need no colour discard.
    5. Buy Land: pay a market borough's cost, draw its printed card count, gain its prestige, remove its poverty relief, then place it atop your borough pile. Only your TOP borough's abilities are live, though every borough you own still counts toward "boroughs owned" effects.
    6. Run the City: activate any number of your face-up cards, once each, paying money or a discarded card per activation; your top borough's active ability must resolve exactly once somewhere in the run.
    7. Every run costs poverty afterward: +1 per display stack, +1 per £10 loan you carry, +1 per card left in hand.
    8. Draw Three: draw three cards, one at a time, deck or board (fewer if fewer remain anywhere).
    9. Loans: take a £10 loan any time on your turn (£12 while City tops your pile); repay one for £15 — only at the very start of a turn, before drawing.
    10. Hand limit: finish an action over 9 cards and you must discard down to 9 before ending your turn.
    11. When the city deck empties, the endgame triggers: every other player gets one last turn, then scoring.
    12. Scoring: (1) cards left in hand become poverty and leave the game; (2) every display card scores its end-game prestige, face-down or buried; (3) repay what loans you can at £15 each; (4) +1 VP per full £3 remaining; (5) −7 VP per unpaid loan; (6) the lowest poverty total clears to zero and everyone else subtracts that same amount; (7) whatever poverty remains costs VP on a rising scale: 1–2→−1, 3→−2, 4→−3, 5–10→−5,−7,−9,−11,−13,−15, and −3 more per point beyond 10.
    13. Most VP wins; ties go to fewest poverty, then most boroughs, then the single highest-prestige card, then a shared victory.