In Cardville players take on the roll of mayor of a developing town, growing it by adding more districts, developing existing ones, and adding landmarks.
On their turn a player rolls 3 dice and allocates the results to increasing their cash reserves and gathering resources, but they must choose carefully because the result of the remaining dice is given to their opponent and used by them to gather resources.
They must also beware of rolling triples, as the result is never good - alien abductions, meteor strikes or riots are just some of the calamities triggered by the wrong roll!
The game uses a deck of cards to represent districts and landmarks that players may purchase and add to their growing town. Coloured tokens are used to record resources and cash, and also to represent areas of the town that have been developed.
Undeveloped plots can generate resources, but developed ones generate victory points at the end of the game.