Ratnapura

Welcome to Sri Lanka in the late middle ages. This small island to the South of India is well known for its gemstones. And welcome to Ratnapura, the city of gems and the seat of king Parakkamabahu II. The royal treasurer died and the king is looking for a suitable successor to take care of his vast collection of precious stones and to grow the king’s richess. Any suitable candidate has not only to know everything there is to know about gems, but also has to be a cunning business man who understands how to manipulate the market so that he can triumph over all the others.

In the game of Ratnapura the players have a hand of gem cards which they play in order to win tricks. The trump values of several of the suits are determined at the start of the game and can be influenced by the players by winning “grand tricks”. Changing the value of those suits is crucial for improving your chances of winning tricks, but all the other players will try to do the same. A number of special suits can be used to secure especially valuable tricks or to dump worthless glass marbles into other players treasure vaults.

Ratnapura uses a specially prepared deck for all player counts and thus plays as well with 2 players as it does with the full complement of 5.