Girl Genius: The Works – Castle Wulfenbach

Designer	James Ernest Phil Foglio
Publisher	Cheapass Games
Players	2-4
Playtime	30 mins
Suggested Age	12 and up
Reimplements	Girl Genius: The Works

Girl Genius: The Works is a non-collectible card game that consists of several standalone decks of cards. You can play the game with any one of those decks, while also being able to combine some or all of those decks into a single deck for a longer game or a game with more players. Each deck contains many unique cards, but the gameplay is the same in all cases.

Each player gets a five-card hand and twelve cards are laid out face-down in a patchwork pattern. Each card has colored symbols along each side, as well as a point value and special instructions. On your turn, you reveal one face-down card, then spin any face-up card 180º. After spinning, if any of the symbols on the edges of the spun card match the symbols on one or more of the surrounding cards, you "pop" the card(s) with the most matching symbols. "Popping" a card means that you must follow the instructions on the card (whether helpful or harmful), then (usually) add it to your score pile. Cards in your hand are used to replace any popped cards. The game is played until one player has 70/50/40/30 points with two/three/four/more than four players.

The Castle Wulfenbach deck has two large groups of unique cards: six Jägermonsters and seven Dingbots. The Jägers are troublemakers: They are all Soldiers, and they all pop one Soldier, so if you pop one of them, you just might get them all! But their second effects are not always so great: They include "Let another player draw a card from your score pile", "Let another player draw three cards from your hand", and "Put this card in another player's score pile."

The Dingbots like to clump together — they are like the Mimmoths from the original edition of Girl Genius: The Works, who are returning in the Circus deck — but they're not quite as talented as the Mimmoths. Most of them say "Move one Dingbot from another player's score pile into yours", although Dingbot Prime is as strong as a Mimmoth and able to grab them all.