Zarcana

Zarcana is a game of war, journeys, growth, life, and death, played using pyramids on a board made of tarot cards.
Downloadable Rules: 
Designer: 
John Cooper
Year Created: 
1996
Stuff You Need To Play: 
5 Trios of a color for each player
a Tarot deck

Publication History

  • The earliest version of this game was published in 1996, in More Icehouse Games, with the name Arcana.
  • The name became Zarcana when the game was featured in 1999's Icehouse: The Martian Chess Set.
  • This game became overshadowed by the subseqent, superficially similar game, Gnostica. However, Andy greatly prefers Zarcana.
  • In 2023, the rules were updated slightly and released as PDFs in the style of the Pyramid Arcade rulebook. Andy discusses the revisions here.

Other Notes