The Franciscan Diamond

A Master Thief has set her eyes on The Franciscan Diamond and is plotting to steal it, but an equally talented Private Eye is on her trail. Seeking to distract the gumshoe and working her own angle is the Femme Fatale. But it’s no cake walk for her either because The Cops are hounding her every move, all while trying to avoid being played the fools by the Master Thief. Who will emerge victorious from this caper is a mystery! The Franciscan Diamond is an trick-taking game starring four classic characters of a Noir Mystery: the Master Thief, the Private Eye, the Femme Fatale, and The Cops. Players start the game with a secret role and aim to win tricks that score their objective cards while avoiding collecting cards linked to their nemesis. After 8 scenes, the case is closed and the player that best played their role emerges as the victor! The Franciscan Diamond has an asymmetric deck of 4 suits. Each suit has a different number of cards. The game starts with players taking a hidden role and proceeds over 8 rounds. Each round begins with 3 draft passes where cards are exchanged between all of the players. After the drafts, play consists of tricks where players attempt to capture cards aligned to their secret role while avoiding collecting cards aligned to their role's nemesis. To help keep roles secret, scores in all four suits are kept for each player until the end of the game. At the end of the game, players score points only for their role cards and lose points for any their nemesis cards obtained. Cards acquired from the other two suits do not gain or lose the player any points. The player with the highest total score wins. —description from the publisher