Mea Culpa

Mea Culpa is the paradise-and-pandemonium gamers game that’s all about sins and sinners. In order to win, players have to end the game with their 'poor souls' closer to heaven’s gate than their opponents. Alas, throughout the game these poor souls pretty much exclusively move into the opposite direction, i.e. towards hell. Only at the very end of the game, the players might climb back towards heaven, depending on the letters of indulgence that they managed to collect until then. The accumulation of these letters of indulgence is each player’s primary goal. To this end, they take on the roles of different people – the Pope, the Emperor, the Merchant, or the Little Sinner. Each round, these roles in turn grant them access to different special actions. On their turn, players buy or sell goods on the market, visit the brothel to benefit from personal connections, or secretly donate money and goods to the church. Meanwhile, the construction of the game’s three cathedrals proceeds. As soon as a cathedral is fully erected, the church will hand out the all-important letters of indulgence. However, basically only those who have donated the most in either of three categories will actually receive anything. Many perks that can be used during the game require the players to 'sin'. Sins are tracked by means of a tally stick and will move the player’s poor soul closer to hell. The player who strikes the right balance and picks the right roles at the right time will be able to collect the most valuable letters of indulgence and might stand chance at winning the game. If a player has burdened themselves with too much sin though, all will ultimately be for naught.