Citizens of the Spark
- Designer: Philip duBarry
- Publisher: Thunderworks
- Players: 1-5
- Age: 14+
- Time: 45-60 minutes
- Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/41ifd4Z
- Played with review copy provided by publisher
The fate of creatures touched by the spark of intelligence hangs in the balance. You must recruit strong animal allies to your city and unlock the potential of your citizens if your settlement is to survive the days to come.
Citizens of the Spark is a variable set-up card game in which players take turns attracting citizens, taking actions, and claiming sparks. The more citizen cards a player has of a specific type, the more powerful that citizen’s action becomes. The player with the most sparks in their city when the deck runs out wins!
Play with 7-10 animal citizen types per game, chosen from 30 available creatures and combined into one shared deck. Every citizen type has distinct powers, making each game’s action combos uniquely variable.
On your turn, recruit multiple citizens by selecting an available group of cards, placing them in your city tableau, and grouping like citizens together to grow their action strength. Next, select one type of citizen in your tableau to activate, taking the effect of the card and discarding it from your city. But keep watch on rival cities, because when you activate a citizen, all players can follow your move and activate a matching citizen of their own!
Alison Brennan: Game Snapshots – 2025 (Part 27)
Alison Brennan: Game Snapshots – 2025 (Part 27)
A while back I had a rant about the casual misogyny found in rule books in relation to using he/him (not examples, but in the actual rules and card effects) and how that creates feelings of exclusion for women in our hobby. Thankfully it’s getting better but I’ve recently watched a number of rules videos where the rules presenters kept referring to meeples as he/him. Eg “You place your meeple here and he gives you …”. Urgh. Really? Yet another drop of exclusion in our lives. Add it to the list.
This wasn’t just one video. It was three different games over 2 days. The first I let slide. The second was what, again? Third, hmm, this is really bugging me now. I mean, you’re casually watching, eager and excited to learn a new game, and then you get the “he”. It’s so easy to say “You place your meeple here and it gives you …” or any other of 20 variants. The presenter can then feel good about being inclusive and won’t it be nice that women don’t have to suffer urghs, eye-rolls and turn-offs as they watch.
New-to-me games played recently include …
Share this:
Like this: