Ratzia [Board Game]

Ratzia

Step into the rat-infested underworld of criminal auctions. In Ratzia, you’re not negotiating ancient artifacts or alien relics — you’re bidding on the night’s ill-gotten gains. Cars, jewels, nightclubs, and more are up for grabs... until the cops crash the party.

This is a reinvented twist on Knizia’s classic Ra (minus the catastrophes), where the tension of pushing your luck meets tight, one-round auctions. Light to teach, but intellectually rich to master, Ratzia offers high replay value in a compact card game format.

Ratzia is played over three rounds. In each round, a “lot” of booty cards is gradually revealed one by one, giving players a choice: reveal another card (hoping for something valuable) or call an auction. But be careful — police cards may force a forced auction or even end the round if too many appear.

Each player starts each round with three bid cards (cheques) (face up, public). When auction time comes, players may pass or play one bid cheque, vying for the lot. The highest bidder wins—but not quite in the usual way:

• The winning bidder gives their bid cheque, but then swaps with one of the leftover cheques in the market, which goes face-down for future use.

• Losing players get their bid cards back, so you don’t “burn” your bidding capacity simply by losing.

• Some cards you collect get set aside (scored and removed), others you keep for endgame collection.

At round end (either because players have used all bid cards, or too many police have appeared), scoring occurs. The game proceeds for three rounds; highest total score wins.

What’s in the Box

While the packaging and final deluxe components may evolve (especially for first printings or Kickstarter editions), typical contents include:

• A deck of ~140+ booty / police / building / trinket cards

• Player bid cheques (bid cards)

• Player reference aids / scoring sheets

• Rulebook

Because the game is card-based with no tile catastrophes, setup and teardown are quick — perfect for casual game nights or tight table schedules.