Citadels is a German-style card game, designed by Bruno Faidutti, originally published in French as Citadelles by MultiSim in 2000, illustrated by Julien Delval, Florence Magnin, Jean-Louis Mourier and Cyrille Daujean as graphic designer for the first edition. Sometime later, Citadels was published in German as Ohne Furcht und Adel, which means "Without Fear or Nobility". Citadels was a finalist for the 2000 Spiel des Jahres award. The Dutch version, Machiavelli, won the Dutch game prize (Nederlandse spellenprijs) in 2001. Gameplay The basic goal is to collect gold coins and pay to build district cards. The value of each card is equal to its points at the end of the game. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Gameplay consists of multiple rounds with two phases: character selection and actions. Character Selection Phase Characters are selected through a partially secret draft. Characters determine the turn order during the action phase, each has a different in-game ability, and four special characters provide the opportunity to collect extra gold. Beginning with the player possessing the crown counter, players take it in turn to choose a character card secretly before passing the hand to the next player. To add further strategy to the game, only some characters are available each round. Unavailable characters are selected randomly, and may be revealed or hidden, depending on the number of people playing. The first player to draft always knows the first face down character that is out of play and the last player to draft always knows the last card that is placed face down after the draft. Player count determines how many characters out of eight are in play and how many characters that are not in play are hidden or visible: In special 2-3 player versions of the game each player controls multiple characters during the action phase. Rules vary as to which cards are placed out of play. In 4-7 player games each player controls one character during the action phase. In 4 player games two cards are placed face up and one face down before drafting. In 5 player games one card is placed face up and one face down before drafting. In 6-7 player games one card is placed face down before drafting. The 7th player has a choice between the face down card and the last card available at the end of the draft.