"role-selection"

2000 · 2-8 Players · ~30-60 min · Competitive

Citadels is a classic card game that turns role selection into a tense bluffing contest, and it's held up remarkably well for over two decades. The character draft is where the real game lives, and it rewards reading your opponents as much as planning your own moves. Higher player counts introduce downtime that can drag the experience down, and the take-that elements will rub some groups the wrong way. But for four or five players who enjoy getting into each other's heads, Citadels remains one of the most accessible and replayable bluffing games around.

2002 · 3-5 Players · 90-150 min · Competitive / Economic Strategy

A foundational Euro game whose role selection mechanism remains one of the best interactive systems in the hobby. Puerto Rico rewards repeated play with shifting strategies and constant tension over timing and turn order. It carries real baggage in its colonial theme, and newer designs have refined what it started. But the core engine still holds up more than two decades later, and groups who can engage with it honestly will find a game that earned its reputation through design quality rather than nostalgia.