← All games
Jinja

2021

Jinja

2–5 players · 60 min · 14+

Jinja is colorful worker placement game about building shrines across Japan. You must place workers at key locations around Japan to activate one of thirteen different actions or build at one of seven different territories. To earn the highest honor, you must plan your strategy, time your construction, and be a little bit lucky. Jinja features evocative illustrations and high-quality components, with custom plastic miniatures representing the shrines, painted meeples to represent the workers, screenprinted score trackers, and a custom multi-color Mask die.

The game board is an illustrated map of Japan divided into territories with a limited number of temple sites. Over five seasons, players place workers on one of the thirteen actions or seven territories as they work towards their different goals. Building a Shrine earns honor and special abilities

Jinja adds replayability with variable goals and events. Omikuji, or "fortunes," are secret goals that score you bonus points if your shrines are on key locations. Kitsune cards are randomly chosen for each game, providing different discounts, bonuses, and abilities that change with the seasons.

Throughout the game you can exchange deed cards for territory, leave it up to luck by rolling the mask die for bonuses, and revisit your territories to build up your resource supply. At the end of the game, players also get bonuses for having the most shrines in each region.

—description from the publisher

Rules and strategy

Source knowledge for this edition still needs preparation or review.

Prepare rules knowledge

Source rules are needed before we can answer reliably.

Sign in to submit a rulebook

Ask about Jinja

Answers show their sources. When the evidence is missing or unclear, we’ll say so.

Find a copy

Some links may earn GamesBond a commission. Prices and availability are set by the retailer.