History TabletopGame / Citadels

* DifficultButAwesome: The Witch has one of the most powerful effects in the game, allowing her to steal an opponent's character ability and preventing them from building districts on top of that. As a tradeoff, if she accidentally targets a character that is ''not'' being used by any player, she loses the ability to build districts for that turn.

* DifficultButAwesome: The University and the Dragon Gate are the most expensive districts, costing 6 gold each. Due to their awesomeness, they're worth 8 points.

* ManipulatingTheOpponentsDeck: All the no. 3 cards. The first edition has the Magician, who can force to trade a card trade with any other player, or discard any number of cards from their hand and replace them with new cards from the main deck. The additional set gives the Wizard, who can see another player's hand and steal a card. The 2016 adds the Seer, who can take one random card from every other player, then give one card of their choice from their own hand to each player.

** An interesting variation, as the protection comes from the ''character'', rather than the actual ''place'' they are affiliated to, but if you are playing as the Bishop, your districts cannot be touched by the Warlord or Diplomat.

* PurpleIsPowerful: The Special district cards, which gives some of the best advantages in the gameplay, are coded with purple.

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: There are 5 different types of districts, each coded with a different colour and provides various advantages for the players. [[AllYourColorsCombined Having all 5 district types in your city will grant you 3 extra points at the end of the game.]]

* TheCaligula: The Emperor, unlike the King and the Patrician, doesn't take the crown token; instead, they give it to someone who isn't the Emperor itself or the previous owner. Then they get paid a tribute by the newly-crowned player.

* ParanoiaFuel: The Magistrate and the Blackmailer revolve around this trope.
** If you're targeted by a Magistrate's warrant, you must choose between not building a district for that turn, or risk giving the Magistrate a free district.
** If you received a threat from the Blackmailer, you must choose between paying half of your gold, or risk having to pay ''all'' of it.
* PlaceOfProtection: An interesting variation, as the protection comes from the ''character'', rather than the actual ''place'' they are affiliated to, but if you are playing as the Bishop, your districts cannot be touched by the Warlord or Diplomat.

* PurpleIsPowerful: The Special district cards, which gives some of the best advantages in the gameplay, are coded with purple.
* ThatOneRule: The Ballroom. If a player builds this and holds the crown (thus calling the order of turns) players must reply "Thank you, Your Excellency" or lose their turn.

# Spy: Can name a district color and a player. For every card of that type in that player's hand, the Spy steals one gold from them, and draws one district card from the deck.

# Architect: They can either gain 4 extra gold, or draw 4 extra cards. However, they cannot build districts.

# Tax Collector: If the Tax Collector is one of the characters used in the game, every player must pay a tax whenever they build a district, paying 1 gold into a separate reserve. A player using the Tax Collector character doesn't pay the tax, and instead can take the reserve and add it to their own stash.

* CripplingOverspecialization: The Architect can get tons of resources in a single turn, but they cannot build any district.

# Spy: Can name a district color and target a player. For every card of that type in that player's hand, the Spy steals one gold from them, and draws one district card from the deck.

** Royal/Noble districts (Yellow): Gives 1 extra gold for the King.
** Religious districts (Blue): Gives 1 extra gold for the Bishop.
** Trading districts (Green): Gives 1 extra gold for the Merchant.
** Military districts (Red): Gives 1 extra gold for the Warlord.

* LowFantasy: The selectable characters includes a Magician (and, from the expansion pack, a Witch and a Wizard), while one of the districts is called the School of Magic. Despite this, magic doesn't play a significant role in the gameplay (since the main focus of the game is to build cities and not RPG-based combat), and no non-human characters appear to exist in the game's setting.

* PlaceOfProtection: An interesting variation, as the protection comes from the ''character'', rather than the actual ''place'' they are affiliated to, but if you are playing as the Bishop, your districts cannot be touched by the Warlord or Diplomat.

# Thief: Steals all the gold from another character except the assassin.

# King: Receives the "king" token, which means they would initiate the character selection and choose the first character card. They would also receive an extra gold for every yellow-coloured they build.
# Bishop: Players receives an extra gold for every blue-coloured district they build. Also, their districts cannot be destroyed by the warlord.
# Merchant: Receives 1 extra gold per turn. Also gains an extra gold for each green-coloured district they build.
# Architect: Player can draw 2 extra cards. They can also build up to 3 districts at once.
# Warlord: Can destroy another player's district (by paying the cost of the particular district minus 1 gold). Gains 1 extra gold for every red-coloured district they build.

* Brainwashed: The Witch is able to "bewitch" another character, and would assume their turn, being able to use the "Bewitched" character's special powers to the Witch's own advantage. The player whose character is "bewitched" gets the standard amount of resources (coins or cards) for themselves, but cannot use powers or build districts.

# Thief: Steals all the gold from another character.

* KillAndReplace: The Witch is able to "bewitch" another character, and would assume their turn, being able to use the "Bewitched" character's special powers to the Witch's own advantage. The player whose character is "bewitched" will ''lose'' their turn and is, for all intents and purposes, dead.

* PurpleIsPowerful: The Special district cards, which gives some of the best advantages in the gameplay, are coded with purple.

Within the gameplay, the players must compete with each other to build a complete city with 8 districts (though the number can be reduced to shorten the game's play time). The game ends when a player completed their city, and the player with the highest amount of points wins.

The objective in the game is for the players to build their own city consisting of 8 districts (though you can reduce this number to shorten the game's play time). The game ends when a player completed their city, and the player with the highest amount of points wins.

* NoPlotNoProblem: Although the game provides a very elaborate setting with rather complicated rules about the characters' dynamics and district-based strategy, there's no actual plot/storyline to play as beyond "build better districts than the other players to earn the most points by the end of the game". The characters don't even come with any backstory, since they are not meant to be individual persons, but a representative of various classes/occupations within a kingdom.

* NoPlotNoProblem: Although the game provides a very elaborate setting with rather complicated rules about the characters' dynamics and district-based strategy, there's no actual story to the game beyond "build better districts than the other players to earn the most points by the end of the game". Also the characters have no backstory, since they are not meant to be individual persons, but a representative of various classes/occupation within a kingdom.

* NoPlotNoProblem: Despite having a very elaborate rules and universe, there's no actual story to the game beyond "build better districts than the other players to earn the most points by the end of the game". Also the characters have no backstory, since they are not meant to be individual persons, but a representative of various classes/occupation within a kingdom.

* KillAndReplace: The Witch is able to "bewitch" another character, and would assume their turn, using all their special powers to build your city. The player whose character is "bewitched" will ''lose'' their turn and is, for all intents and purposes, dead.

* LowFantasy: The selectable characters includes a Magician, a Witch and a Wizard (in the expansion pack), while one of the districts is called the School of Magic. Despite this, magic doesn't play a significant role in the gameplay (since the main focus of the game is to build cities and not RPG-based combat), and no non-human characters appear to exist in the game's setting.
* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: The art design of the characters and district cards are reminiscent to Renaissance art mixed with StandardFantasySetting costumes and locations.

Three expansion packs have been released: the "Additional character set" edition, which provides a set new characters that can be swapped in with the old cast based on their numerical counterparts, the "Dark City" edition, which adds 14 new purple district cards, and the "Circus" addition, which features new "Action cards" that offers new tactical advantages.

* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: