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blue is hoping to move onto the valuable World card, but white and purple may gain strength and try to take it
I just can't believe that my lovely girlfriend and I are the only ones who are into Zarcana.. its our top happy hour game these days.
A game of Zarcana in progress, using a custom-made deck.
Playing Zarcana in my kitchen with my sweetie
The box is from a fantasy flight game that I didn't care for.  I pasted my own Zarcana labels on it.

Zarcana (1996)

Players
2–4
Best: 2, 3
Playing time
45–45 min
Age
12+
6.66
Average rating
51
Ratings
2.82/5
Weight
#17548
BGG rank
Outside top 5,000
Alternate names:Arcana
Designer:John Cooper
Publisher:Looney Labs
Average rating, ratings count, weight and rank are sourced from BoardGameGeek (BGG).
Game DNA
  • This game: Strategy 7, Luck 5, Interaction 7, Complexity 5.6, Theme 3
Strategy7.0
Luck5.0
Interaction7.0
Complexity5.6
Theme3.0

This game's strategy, luck, interaction, complexity and theme.

Card GameAbstract StrategyTerritory BuildingTile PlacementModular BoardArea Majority / Influence

Overview

Zarcana is a game played with Icehouse Pieces on tarot cards.

"Zarcana is a game of war, journeys, growth, life, and death. Icehouse pieces are your minions, spreading out across a world composed of tarot cards. You move these minions across the board, trying to occupy valuable cards. The board can change, grow and shrink, so be prepared to defend your holdings, invade enemy territory, and colonize new lands. You will also have a hand of cards, drawn from the tarot deck. Each card has a power, and you can make use of the cards you occupy on the board in addition to the cards in your hand. Use them wisely. Whoever occupies the most valuable set of cards on the board will be the winner, when the end of the game is finally declared."

Its rules were included in Icehouse: The Martian Chess Set.

Zarcana was redeveloped into Gnostica.

Zarcana has also been re-implemented by Zark City and Dectana. The former is much simpler and uses a poker deck, while the latter is more complex and uses the Decktet.

Not available yet

Player reviews, retailers/pricing and rules videos have no real data source for this game yet.

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