Christmas Present
General info and comments
Christmas Present was released exclusively to the Hungarian market by Piatnik in December 2013. It was published through JEM Magazine's website as a print-and-play expansion.[1]
What is it? It happens once every year, it's cold, everything is covered in snow and the whole world is decorating pine trees. Shall I tell you the answer? Of course, it is Christmas. This is when millions of gifts find their owners. They are very happy with some of them, but sometimes the feeling "they shouldn't have opened the package" overwhelms the person. In this add-on players will receive gifts and not all of them will be happy ones (at least for the other players).
The original Hungarian rules and artwork are available here:
Thanks to Rachel Anthony-Rowlands and Leven for providing corrections to our translation.
Contents
- 64 cards (2 decks of 32 cards)
Rules
The basic rules of Carcassonne do not change, and the Christmas Present expansion can be used with all expansions released so far.
Preparation
At the start of the game, separate the cards into two decks according to their distinct card backs (Cloister and Roadside), then shuffle each deck and place them within reach of all players.
Gameplay
1. Placing a tile
When a player places a tile adjacent to another player's cloister, they may draw the top card from the Cloister deck and either activate it immediately (if the card allows or requires immediate activation) or place it into their hand (if the card allows or requires activation later).
When a player places a tile that contains only roads, they may then draw the top card from the Roadside deck and either activate it immediately (if the card allows or requires immediate activation) or place it into their hand (if the card allows or requires activation later).
Activating a card
The current player can activate several cards in a row in a turn. Players can only play the cards in their hands in their own turn (except for the card that protects a Meeple).
The activated cards are placed in a discard pile once used.[2]
Each player can have a maximum of 5 cards of both card types in their hand at the same time, they keep these a secret from the others. At the end of their turn, players must discard excess cards from their hand.
At the end of the game, the cards that can be played must be revealed in player order (those with the Carcassonne symbol), then the cards that can be used during the game can no longer be used (those with the lightning symbol or those with no symbol).
Description of the cards
Symbols
- Cards with the lightning symbol at the bottom are activated immediately upon drawing them.
- Cards with the Carcassonne symbol at the bottom are activated at the end of the game.
- Cards without any symbol may be activated at any time during the game.
Cloister deck
Roadside deck
Card Distribution
Total Cards: 64
Cloister Deck
Roadside Deck
Footnotes
For Icons explanation and licensing please visit Icons page.
- ↑ The concept is so similar to The Gifts, that it seems very likely that this expansion served as the inspiration for that one, though this expansion has many more cards and abilities.
- ↑ When there are no cards left to draw, the discard pile is not re-shuffled.
- ↑ We also suggest that when two features are joined together and one has rotated meeples, that the meeples from the other are also rotated.
- ↑ If three or more players are tied for majority and two players activate tiebreaker cards, those two players will share the majority to the exclusive of any others.