Lost Cities

Lost Cities is a card game for two players designed by Reiner Knizia, first published in 1999 by Kosmos in Germany and later released in North America by Rio Grande Games, using a sixty-card deck divided into five color-coded expeditions representing the Himalayas, the Brazilian rainforest, the desert sands, the ancient volcanoes and Neptune's realm. On each turn a player either plays or discards a card and then draws a replacement, choosing whether to commit resources to a given expedition; once started, a player may only add cards to that expedition in ascending numerical order, and starting an expedition costs points unless enough higher cards follow to make the venture profitable. After three rounds of play the totals across all five expeditions are summed and the higher score wins. The game's popularity led Knizia to issue semi-official rules supporting four players, and a related board game adaptation, originally published as Keltis, was released in the United States re-themed as Lost Cities: The Board Game, expanding the format to accommodate up to four players with added complexity.