Description

?????????????????????? (Sailor Moon Card Game: Masquerade Battle) is a must-follow trick-taking game with hidden teams and social deduction. The cards have five suits with one being a trump suit, and each card has two different values. The game allows 3 to 9 players. The rules state that playing with 3 to 7 players is recommended but 4 to 6 players is best.

Players each receive a Team Card that tells them whether they are secretly on the Dark Kingdom or Sailor Guardian team. During the initial bid, players may declare the number of Character Cards they will collect and for which team they will collect them. They are not required to declare they are collecting for their true team. The highest bidder becomes Queen Metalia (if they declare for the Dark Kingdom) or Princess Serenity (if they declare for the Sailor Guardians) and leads the first round.

During a round, each player plays one card. Players must play a card matching the suit of the first card if possible, but each card has one value for the Sailor Guardians and one for the Dark Kingdom. Players choose which value to use, and the winner of each round will keep cards won using the Sailor Guardian power separate from cards won using the Dark Kingdom power. The Moon suit is a trump, and there are other special cards that can affect who wins each round. The winner of a round plays the first card in the next round.

When a round ends and at least one player has no cards left in their hand, the game ends and points are scored. Each player only scores Character Cards won using the power matching their Team Card. In order for the team with the Queen or Princess to win, two conditions must be met: (1) a single player on that team must have collected at least as many Character Cards as the Queen or Princess declared and (2) that player must have collected more Character Cards than the person with the most Character Cards on the other team. If the Queen or Princess player's Team Card matches the team they declared in the bid, that player a bonus of 5 on their count of Character Cards. If either of those 2 conditions are not met, the other team wins.