Pilgrims

In Pilgrims, a trick-taking card game with a number of twists, players are collecting groups of villagers to go on pilgrimage together, but only the most impressive bands of pilgrims get to be commissioned by the bishop and gain prestige! In each round, two (or sometimes one) sites of pilgrimage are on offer, and players try to build the most impressive band of pilgrims by playing cards of the same suit. Lower value cards may be used to provide relics or manuscripts to add to the prestige gained from visiting a particular holy site. You may even be able to go on pilgrimage on your own as the hermit! When you go on pilgrimage, you receive a scoring card and discard all the cards you played. Players going home discard only one of the cards they played. Scoring cards give you 5-10 victory points, and there are chances to add to these using lower-value cards you play. The more you go on pilgrimage, the smaller your band of followers becomes, making it more difficult to compete against your opponents, so you need to choose when to admit defeat and go home early in the hope of attracting more impressive followers to your cause. The game is over when thirty pilgrimages have taken place, which typically means 16-20 rounds of play. This game has been in development since 2004, and now is in final stages of refining the artwork. -description from designer