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This morning, I came across this question. It had already been thoroughly answered. However, the answer contradicts the rules as I know them. After some digging, I found that the game in question, Citadels, is published by three different companies.

For Citadels, I have three distinct contracts. Hans im Glueck has the publishing rights in German, Dutch and Czech, Millenium in French and Spanish. Fantasy Flight Games originally published the game in English and in the Scandinavian languages, but we regularly add other languages to the list. (source)

It turns out these publishers hold distinctly different interpretations of the game's rules. Some examples include,

Fantasy Flight Games

  • (The queen) receives three gold if you are sitting next to the King (or the Emperor).
  • (The warlord) may not, however, destroy a district in a city that is already completed by having eight districts.
  • You may not build a district such that you have two identical districts (two “Castle” cards, two “Market” cards, etc.) in your city.

Hans im Glueck (999 Games)

  • The queen receives three gold at the start of her turn if she sits next to the player with the wooden king.
  • The warlord may not destroy districts from cities that already has eight districts.
  • (no equivalent rule found)

The first two examples are rules with contradictory interpretations. The third is entirely nonexistent in 999 Games' rule book.

How to respond to questions regarding this game? Is there a site wide inclination towards US rules? Or should a good answer describe both versions? Unlike with Solitaire or Checkers, the existence of different versions is not a very well known fact.

Sources:

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  • If anyone can find the French rules, I'd be much obliged. The designer is a native French speaker so I expect those rules would be closest to the designer's intentions. Alls I can find are plain text files, and I have no way of telling whether those are original, or translated back from the English rules.
    – freekvd
    Feb 23, 2015 at 21:52

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EDIT: For future reference, I created a canonical question about these rule differences for Citadels in particular. This is not a one size fits all solution, please think of this answer as one for a more general problem.

I don't think it's particularly important to choose a language for your answer. If it's known that there are differences between certain versions, a good answer should include those differences.

In the Citadels example, particularly these two rules:

  • Fantasy Flight Games: The queen receives three gold if you are sitting next to the King (or the Emperor).
  • 999 Games: The queen receives three gold at the start of her turn if she sits next to the player with the wooden king.

These result in completely different behavior. In the US, you want to be next to the person holding the card. In the EU, you want to be next to the person who has the wooden king piece. The wooden king piece is always in play (as opposed to the card), but it can change places during the king/emperor's turn. In my opinion, an answer that only discusses the Fantasy Flight Games version is incomplete, and doesn't answer the question for all future visitors.

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Unless otherwise specified in the question the rule source should be considered English as this is an English based website. However that being said when the rules where thrown into Google translate they can out very similar to the English versions.

As for your examples from what I can see they seem the same in each language though I didn't see the restriction on districts in the Dutch version I did see it int he German version.

Dutch - Base (Google Translated)

Ending the game

The game ends when a player 8 (or in the case of the master builder 8 or more) has buildings. However, the round is finished. Each player scores after the last round as follows points: • All items for the buildings in his city • 3 points if the player premises of any 5 colors possession • 4 points for the first player owns 8 buildings • 2 points for each player who after the last round also 8 buildings Gold pieces and hand cards yield no points . The player who has the most points is the winner of the game. In a tie the player with only his buildings with the most points .

German - Base (Google Translated)

Ending the game

The game ends when a player interprets the eighth building map. The round is played to the end . Each player receives Now the following points : • All points of all building cards in his city. • 3 points if the player building different cards in all 5 Has ausliegen colors . • 4 points for those players who first building 8 cards has ausliegen . • 2 points for those players who also building 8 cards interpret . • The gold does not score . The winner is the player who achieved the most points can . With a tie, the player with the most wins Points can achieve alone with his building cards .

Building Districts

A character has made it known begins his Turn: • Income: He takes 2 gold pieces or he takes 2 building cards from the deck, selects one of them and takes them into your hand. The he puts another card on the discard pile. • building action: Then he must 1 building card from the Lend a hand in front of him on the table and continue to build his own city. He pays the specified number of gold pieces on the map in the middle of the table. Note: Each building must designed in a city only once be. It may therefore e.g. in a town already has a Taverne is no more tavern are designed. • Character Action: At any time during his turn, he may use his character property. This means that you have to choose a time when alternating his property (see also examples on End of the description of the character cards). With 2 or 3 players, each player has 2 characters and is therefore 2 times per lap on the train. Players can use this tactic, by about saving the receipts of the first character to to build the next an expensive building

German - Expansion (Google Translated)

Immediately if a player builds the bell tower , he must decide whether the Game after the 7th or 8th after the building is completed. If the Bell tower destroyed, always played until 8 building

(This rule says the original end condition is restored if the bell tower is removed not that the game doesn't end if the bell tower is removed after the 7th district is completed and 7 is the current winning conditions)

English - Bell Tower Card Text

When you place the Bell Tower in your city, you may announce that the game will end after the round in which a player first places his 7th district. You may do this even if the Bell Tower is your 7th district. If the Bell Tower is later destroyed, the game end conditions return to normal

From what I can tell in the case of the bell tower the rules are the same in all 3 languages its just how people see them after translation is different.

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    I'm not sure if we should consider English as the rules source, even if it is an english site. The game was designed by one person or a small team and other people translated the game in different languages. I think the original version should be treated superior, although it is good if language-differences are pointed out. If it wasn't language but revision, it would also be helpful to point out the differences, but prefer the newest in that case.
    – Mnementh
    Jun 11, 2015 at 19:42
  • @Mnementh It doesn't do anyone any good if rules are posted in a language that they can't understand and need to use a translation service to understand. Worse if it is in a format that they can't simply copy and paste into the translation service.
    – Joe W
    Jun 11, 2015 at 22:26
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    The one giving the answer should explain it in english, but source the explanation with the original version if possible and relevant (versions are different). Also, a really good answer should point out the differences between language versions if relevant for the question. Sure, not everyone knows all versions, but thats one reason to ask on such a site, to find more knowledgeable persons.
    – Mnementh
    Jun 12, 2015 at 9:19

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