Canon: The Card Game – Fandom Edition

Fans of science fiction, fantasy, and many other genres are constantly debating what's in the canon and what isn't. Are the prequels? The spin-offs? The Christmas or other holiday special? The animated series? The musical episode? Fan fiction? The special edition or director's cut? Those questions have been turned into a game that's fun to play.

The goal is to work collaboratively and competitively to get your own personal canon of up to seven cards to match the central canon, which everyone creates together, as closely as possible.

Each person begins with a hand of five cards. There is a draw pile face down, seven spaces in the center for the collaboratively-determined canon (to and from which any player may place or take cards), seven spaces in front of you for your own canon, and a spot for a discard pile where cards are placed face up. The draw pile and discard pile should be oriented the opposite way from the seven canon slots, so that they are not confused with one another. You can place a card from your hand onto an identical card either in the central canon or your own personal canon.

The game ends when only one player has cards remaining, and makes one final move. Any additional cards that player has then go on the discard pile.

One’s score at the end of play is determined by:

1. Multiplying each card in one’s personal canon by each matching card in the central canon, and
2. Subtracting one point for each individual card in one’s own canon that does not have an equivalent in the central canon.

Note that there is no penalty related to cards still in your hand if you are the last player holding cards. These are simply discarded. Only what is in your canon determines your score.