In Lost Cities, a classic two-player game, you and your opponent embark on thrilling archaeological expeditions to uncover the secrets of lost civilizations. The goal is simple, yet the strategy is deep: accumulate as many points as possible by assembling the most profitable expeditions. The game uses a deck of cards with five (or optionally six, in newer editions) different colors, each representing an excavation site, and values from 2 to 10, plus special 'handshake' cards that act as multipliers.

Each turn, you must make a crucial choice: play a card into one of your expeditions or discard it to a color-matching discard pile. The clever twist is that cards in an expedition must be played in ascending order, but they don't have to be consecutive. Handshake cards are played at the start of an expedition and serve to multiply that journey's final score, but also represent an initial investment that can be risky. After playing a card, you draw another, either from the main deck or from the top of one of the discard piles.

Expeditions start with a negative cost of 20 points, meaning you need to play at least 20 points worth of cards to start making a profit. If you fail, the expedition will result in negative points, and handshake multipliers can even intensify that loss! On the other hand, if you manage to build a robust expedition with eight or more cards, you earn a 20-point bonus. The game continues until the last card from the deck is drawn. Points are then tallied for each expedition, and the game is usually played over three rounds, with the total score determining the winner. It's a game that balances luck and strategy, with tense decisions every round.