District Noir

District Noir has been nominated for the 2023 As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année Game of the Year, and Pandasaurus Games will be bringing District Noir to the west! This is a two-player abstract game with elements of bluffing, set collection, and hand management. It's designed by Nobutake Dogen and Nao Shimamura and was first released as Throne and Grail.

So how do you play District Noir? To set-up the game, remove three face-down cards from the deck of 45 cards from the game, then lay out two cards face up to start a line. Each round, each player receives five cards in hand, and each turn you either play one card from your hand to the end of the line or — once per round — collect the most recently played five cards. Once all the cards from hand have been played, deal out five cards to each player and start the next round. After four rounds, the game ends.

Some cards have positive or negative numbers on them, and you score those points directly. Other cards are numbered 5-8, and you score 5-8 points for a value if you have more of those cards than the other player. Additionally, you score 5 points for each set of 5-8 that you've collected. And while normally points decide who wins, if you collect all three special cards — each of which are worthless on their own — you win immediately.