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Girl Genius: The Works

Girl Genius: The Works
Designer(s) James Ernest
Illustrator(s) Phil Foglio and James Ernest
Publisher(s) Cheapass Games
Players 2 or more
Age range 10 and up
Setup time 2 minutes
Playing time 30 minutes
Random chance medium
Skill(s) required none

Girl Genius: The Works is a card game played with a specially designed deck of 108 cards. The game, designed by Phil Foglio and James Ernest, takes its theme from the "gaslamp fantasy" of the Girl Genius comic book series. The goal is to be the first player to reach 100 points by "popping" cards out of a two-dimensional layout.

Unlike most games published by Cheapass Games, Girl Genius: The Works has high-quality laminated cards with detailed designs. It was nominated for two Origins Awards (Best Abstract Card Game and Best Graphic Presentation of a Card Game) in 2001, but did not win in either category. (The awards went to Cosmic Coasters and Zombies!!!, respectively.)

Girl Genius: The Works uses gaming mechanics similar to those in the collectible card game XXXenophile, based on Foglio's earlier graphic-novel work. XXXenophile's gameplay is largely the same as the present game's, except that the former has each player compose a deck from the pool of 270 available cards, while the latter has a fixed 108-card deck. XXXenophile is now out of print.

Each card in the game has symbols along each of its four edges. The symbols, which come in five types, range in number from one to eight. Each card also has a point value between 0 and 9, and most of the cards have instructions which must be followed when the card is popped.

The game starts with the laying out of 12 cards in a lattice pattern ("the Works"), all face-down, except for two corner cards which are positioned face-up. Each player starts with a hand of five cards, and a score pile, which is initially empty. The players then take their turns in order around the table. Each turn consists of five stages:

"Popping" a card means that you pick it up, follow its instructions, and then place it in your score pile. If the instructions tell you to pop another card, then the process recurses; you follow the instructions on the new card before putting it in your score pile, and only then do you put the first-popped card in your score pile. (In other words, the current set of popped cards forms a stack.)


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