card off the front of the line to collect a higher-value second-position Noble. Certain Noble cards affect the game, including a "Fast Noble" requiring the player who collects it to also take the next Noble in line. A card symbolizing Maximilien Robespierre (beheaded in 1794) causes the "day" to instantly end upon his decapitation. At the end of a "day" of gameplay (either by the collection of the Robespierre card or the exhaustion of the line), a new line of Nobles is dealt face-up and play resumes. After three "days", the player with the highest point total wins. Strategy The key to winning the game is to manage which Nobles one collects through careful use of action cards while forcing other players to collect low- or negative-scoring Nobles. Some Action cards allow a player to prolong the "day" (by adding new Nobles to the line), shorten it by allowing Nobles to "escape," or end it, by playing the "Scarlet Pimpernel" action card. Availability After several years of Guillotine being out of print, Wizards re-released the game in 2005 alongside The Great Dalmuti, another Wizards card game. In addition to being reprinted, Guillotine was featured as one of the playable games in Gleemax Games Alpha on the Gleemax website. Reception The reviewer from the online second volume of Pyramid stated that "Take France in the late 1700s. Add a large helping of various and sundry mostly useless nobility. Stir in a group of disaffected common citizens with no real political power. Then toss in a pinch of Professor Guillotine and agitate vigorously. Garnish with extremely amusing art and you have Guillotine, the hilarious new card game from Wizards of the Coast about trying to get a head." A review from Lautapeliopas praised the entertainment value, ease of play, and theme while criticising the components and omissions in the game's rules. Guillotine won the 1998 Origins Award for Best Traditional Card Game. References External links Guillotine review at www.thedicetower.com Card games introduced in 1998 Dedicated deck card games Origins Award winners Wizards of the Coast games