King's Towers: free online Citadels-style card game

King's Towers is a hidden-role card game in which you build a medieval city one district at a time. Each round you secretly choose a character with its own power, and nobody knows who is behind each mask until the herald calls it. If you like Citadels, you will find the same mix of bluffing, deduction and building here. It is free and runs in your browser on phone and PC, with no downloads and no sign-up.

Game modes

• Online with friends: create a room and share its code; play with 2 to 6 players.
• Quick match: join other people, and bots fill any empty seats.
• Against bots: choose 2 to 5 opponents and their level (easy, medium or hard); it even works offline.

Goal and end of the game

The player who builds the most valuable city wins. Everyone starts with 2 gold and 4 district cards, and a random player gets the crown. When someone builds their 7th district, the current round is played to the end and then the game is over. Scoring:

• The total cost of all the districts in your city.
• +3 if you have districts of all 5 colors.
• +4 for the first player to complete 7 districts, and +2 for each other player who also reaches 7.
• The effects of special districts.

In case of a tie, the player who revealed the highest-numbered character in the last round wins.

How a round works

1. Secret choice. The 8 characters are shuffled and one is set aside face down. With 4 players, 2 more are set aside face up; with 5 players, just one (the Regent is never left face up); with 3 or 6 players, none. The player holding the crown goes first: they look at the characters, keep one in secret and pass the rest to the next player. With 3 players there are two passes and everyone keeps two characters.

With 2 players (1 vs 1), each player also takes two characters. One is set aside face down at random; the player with the crown picks one of the remaining seven; the other picks one and discards another face down; the first picks again and discards one; and the second picks one of the last two (the leftover stays face down). Nobody knows what the other discarded.

2. The call. Characters are called in order, from 1 to 8. Whoever holds the character called reveals it and plays their turn; if nobody has it, the call moves on. The character eliminated by the Shade doesn't answer: everyone finds out who it was at the end of the round.

Your turn

1. Resources: take 2 gold, or draw 2 districts and keep 1 (the other goes under the deck).
2. Build: put 1 district from your hand into your city by paying its cost in gold. You can't have two identical districts.
3. Power: use your character's power once, at whatever point in your turn you like.
4. Collect: the Regent, the Abbot, the Moneychanger and the Marshal collect 1 gold for each district of their color. If you don't ask for it, you collect automatically at the end of your turn.

The 8 characters

• 1. The Shade: name a character; it loses its turn this round.
• 2. The Magpie: name a character (neither the Shade nor the eliminated one); when it is revealed, you take all its gold.
• 3. The Illusionist: swap your whole hand with another player's, or put any number of cards under the deck and draw that many.
• 4. The Regent: you take the crown, so you choose first next round; collect for noble districts.
• 5. The Abbot: the Marshal can't destroy your districts (unless the Abbot is eliminated); collect for religious districts.
• 6. The Moneychanger: gain 1 extra gold after taking resources; collect for trade districts.
• 7. The Master Builder: draw 2 more districts after taking resources and build up to 3 on your turn.
• 8. The Marshal: destroy another player's district by paying its cost minus 1 (not in cities of 7 or more districts); collect for military districts.

The districts

The deck has 68 districts in five colors: noble (yellow), religious (blue), trade (green), military (red) and special (purple). Their cost, from 1 to 6, is also what they are worth in points. The 14 special districts are unique and bend the rules in your favor, for example:

• Griffin Arch: costs 6 and is worth 8 at the end.
• Great Tower: the Marshal can't destroy it.
• Quarter of Lost Souls: counts as whichever color you're missing for the 5-color bonus (not if you build it in the last round).
• Treasure Vault: at the end, +1 point for each gold you have left.
• Grand Archive: when you draw districts as your resource, keep all of them.

Tips for beginners

• If your hand has good districts, take gold; if it's weak, draw.
• Pick the character that collects for the color you have most of in your city.
• Watch the characters passed to you: the missing ones hint at what the others may hold.
• Don't sit on a pile of gold while the Magpie may be in play, and protect your city with the Abbot when you're in the lead.
• Go for all 5 colors early: those 3 points decide plenty of games.