Belladonna

France, 16th century. Catherine de' Medici has arranged a sinister banquet, but tonight, not every guest will make it to dessert.

Seat the nobles around the table and make sure the poison finds its way into their cups to increase Catherine's influence over the court. As the queen slowly descends the staircase toward the banquet hall, the fate of her guests will be sealed.

In Belladonna, you will compete to turn a dark banquet into the perfect opportunity to earn the queen's favor and strengthen her influence over the court. Invite, poison, and conspire. Make sure that by the time Catherine arrives, no one is left alive.

A game of Belladonna ends when Catherine reaches the banquet hall. Until then, players perform actions using the cards in their hands. Each card allows you to perform a different action and, once used, remains in your discard pile until you decide to retrieve your cards.

Dice are the central element of the game. Each player has nine dice in their color, representing the guests and showing their poisoning level. In the palace gardens, you will also find dice in three different colors representing different poisons: hemlock, aconite, and belladonna.

On your turn, play a card from your hand or retrieve your discard pile to return all the cards to your hand. If you have no cards left in your hand, retrieve your discard pile without using your turn.

Actions

Buy a card or play a card. Acquire a new card for your action deck, or pay an additional cost to place it beneath your player board and gain new abilities.

Gather plants. The palace gardens are full of poisonous plants. Take dice from the fountain and add them to your supply.

Seat guests. Spend dice to seat new guests at the banquet. Gain the bonuses shown on the board corresponding to each guest's coordinates.

Poison guests. Increase the value of the dice representing the guests at the banquet, up to the limit shown on your player board. Gain a bonus for each die you modify.

Messenger. Move the messenger through Paris and deliver new invitations to the nobles of the city.

In addition to the game's basic actions, there are additional actions. You may perform any number of additional actions during your turn.

Additional Actions

Use a seal on your player board. Use one of your seals to gain coins, modify the value of dice, and receive other benefits.

Donate to the church. Free the final space on one of the influence tracks on your player board by making a donation to Notre-Dame. Donations score points at the end of the game according to the objectives.

Spend a seal. Spend a seal to temporarily increase your messenger's movement or change the color of a die.

Charon. Pay two coins to Charon to collect one of the guests whose poisoning level has reached 6. Charon's boat can hold two guests, who will cross the river toward one of the docks. Players receive immediate bonuses and gain access to additional end-game scoring opportunities.

—description from the publisher