Lisboa is a game about the rebuilding of Lisboa after the great earthquake of 1755.

On November 1, 1755, Lisbon was hit by an earthquake of an estimated magnitude of 8.5–9.0, followed by a tsunami and three days of fires. The city was nearly totally destroyed. The Marques of Pombal — Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo — was the then Minister of Foreign Affairs and the King put him in charge of the rebuilding of Lisbon. The Marques of Pombal collected a team of engineers and architects and you, the players, are members of the nobility; members who will use your influence in the reconstruction and business development of the new city. You will work with the architects to build Lisbon anew, with the Marquis to develop commerce and with the King to open all the buildings, but the true reason you do all this is not for glory or fame or even fortune, but for the most important thing of all in that time: wigs.

Lisboa is played on an actual map of downtown Lisbon. During the planning of the downtown project, the type of commerce permitted in each street was previously determined. The economic motor is driven by the wealth of the royal treasure and this treasure is controlled by player actions during the game, making each game a completely different experience. The game ends after a fixed number of rounds and whoever collects the most wigs by the end of the game wins.

Lisboa is played through rounds. Each round, players play one turn. They may put one card on their display or replace one card from this display. During the game, players will schedule hearings to get character favors, such as commerce, construction, and openings. The iconic buildings score the stores and stores will provide income to the players. Players will need to manage influence, construction licenses, store permits, church power, workers and money, with the workers' cost being dependent on the prestige of the players.

Deluxe Edition features stretch goals from Kickstarter campaign. In addition, or upgrades, to base game components, these are included:

• 1 custom Cardinal meeple (upgrade)
• 1 custom Treasury token (upgrade)
• 4 custom Courtier meeples, 1 per colour (upgrade)
• 4 stenciled Influence discs, 1 per colour (upgrade)
• 4 stenciled Scoring discs, 1 per colour (upgrade)
• 1 screen-printed Rubble Cloth Bag (upgrade)
• 1 screen-printed Clergy Tiles Cloth Bag (upgrade)
• 32 custom Official meeples, 8 per colour (upgrade)
• 14 Public Building Randomizer tokens (additional)
• 24 Store Randomizer tokens (additional)