Ambition is a tension-filled and fast paced card game of deduction and misdirection for personal gain, set in a dark neo-feudal world recovering from years of enslavement by insectoid oppressors. Players must manipulate the powers of a series of 16 characters in order to gain tokens of power (coins).
The object of Ambition is to be the first player to acquire 10 coins.
Each player begins Ambition with 2 character cards. Play proceeds in phases:
1. Pass phase. Starting with the first player, each player consecutively passes a card to the player on their left.
2. Play phase. Each player selects a card that they wish to activate later in the round and plays it face-down.
3. Block Phase. Starting with the player to the right of the first player and proceeding anti-clockwise each player names a character card out loud that they wish to block (preventing it from being activated in the next phase).
4. Action phase. In turn order, players whose cards are not blocked may activate their cards and use the powers of their active card.
5. Upkeep phase. Players gather up their cards and the first player marker passes to the left.
There are 16 unique character cards, each with their own special powers.