Everyone plays the head of a political party. When the game begins, power is democratically distributed, but everyone has only one goal: to become a dictator and have themselves worshipped by the people as Emperor! One will have to recruit the votes of other politicians, win over the population, push through the right laws, and above all be very corrupt. Have fun!
Setup
Everyone comes up with a name for their party and gives a passionate speech about what they stand for. Then each player receives 2 population tiles with value 1. (There are also population tiles with value 2, 3, 4 and 5.) Place these face up in front of you; these are your loyal voters.
Finally, everyone receives the same set of playing cards: one of each type, but two bills. Take these into your hand.
In the middle of the table lies an overview of the state of the country. This influences the effectiveness of your actions and what the population of the country wants to hear. With each action, this section can change drastically.
The person who likes debating the most may begin (and becomes the chairperson).
Goal
The first player to crown themselves emperor wins. To do this, you must meet two requirements:
- Your party is larger than the emperor limit.
- You call for the emperor bill, and manage to get a majority to vote in favor.
Gameplay
The game proceeds in rounds. Each round has six phases (actually three, since one is repeated 4 times):
- Players take turns performing actions.
- Players take turns performing actions.
- The discussion round.
- Players take turns performing actions.
- Players take turns performing actions.
- The people vote for the next cabinet.
Cards
All hand cards fulfill two functions.
- A specific action (which can be used in one of the four phases)
- A color: either green (“the truth”/“a vote in favor”) or red (“a lie”/“a vote against”).
Cards you have played are placed (face down) in a discard pile in front of you.
When may you take cards back? Only when your hand is empty may you take all your cards back into your hand at the end of the election phase.
What if you must play a card, but have none left? If you have nothing, you automatically tell a lie, or you automatically vote in favor.
The 5 pillars
The state of the country is summarized by the so-called “five pillars”. These are represented by the name of the pillar, with tokens behind it. The number of tokens indicates the current status of this pillar.
This status often has a large influence on the game. For example, certain actions cannot be performed if the economy is at 0, because there is no money.
Important: all pillars have a range from 0 to 5. They may never go outside this range.
The five pillars are:
- Economy (+ Finance): this is the main pillar. If it is at 0, no bill that costs money may be proposed. If it is at 5, no bill that generates money may be proposed.
- Security (+ Defense): this is the most dangerous pillar. If it is at 0, all phases are skipped and an election round happens immediately. As long as it is at 5, the election round is skipped.
- Culture (+ Education, Science): if it is at 0, the influence of the media immediately goes to 5. If it is at 5, it is not possible to manipulate votes.
- Social (+ Infrastructure, Employment, Water Management): if it is at 0, riots occur and you may no longer play speech/secret meeting. If it is at 5, you may not perform corruption/manipulation.
- Environment (+ Climate, Public Health, Sports): if it is at 0, innocent citizens die left and right; if it is at 0 during your turn, you lose a population tile. If you set it to 5 during your turn, you gain a population tile.
The lower all pillars, the easier it is for someone to become emperor. If after the election someone has a higher percentage of votes than the emperor limit, they can immediately claim victory. The emperor limit is calculated as follows:
Current number of pillar points / 25
Example: Economy is at 1, Security at 3, Culture at 2, Social at 2, and Environment at 1. That is a total of 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 9. So to exceed the emperor limit, your party must have at least 9/25 = 36% of all votes.
In addition, there is an “extra pillar” on the table that represents the influence of the media. (This can be adjusted with certain actions; the election round section explains the effect of this influence.)
Player actions
Each player can perform the following actions during their turn.
- Bill
- Speech
- Secret Meeting
- (Intense) Questioning
- Negotiating
- Scheming
Note: you may of course only perform an action if you can play the corresponding card from your hand.
Note: negotiating with players and making agreements is not allowed during an action round (unless your card allows it) or election round.
Important: population tiles that are gained (or lost) during a round are placed face down separately. (Call this the “future voters pile”.) These tiles only become final (and only take effect) after the elections.
Important: all cards used to vote or to speak lie/truth go into that person’s media pile.
Bill
You choose a pillar and propose a bill. Everyone must play one card from their hand to cast their vote. If more than half of the total population tiles have voted in favor, the proposal is accepted.
Note: if someone votes in favor, they use all their voters. Someone with 4 population in front of them therefore has a more important vote than someone with 3 or 2 population.
Each bill must meet certain requirements. Otherwise, you may completely make up what you say. (But it must of course be logical!)
Example: let all refugees in gives you extra voters, but the sense of security in the country decreases, as does the amount of money. Conversely, all people with tattoos must leave the country causes you to lose voters, but security increases (… because everyone knows people with tattoos are secretly witches).
The requirements that each bill must meet are:
- The economy pillar goes up/down by 1
- A pillar of your choice goes up/down by 1
- If both the economy and the chosen pillar move in the same direction (both up or both down), you must punish yourself. Otherwise, you may reward yourself.
How must you punish yourself? Choose yourself: discard a population tile, discard two cards from your hand, place an extra lie card in your media pile.
How may you reward yourself? Choose yourself: take an extra population tile, take two cards from your discard pile into your hand, change an extra pillar value (except economy), or remove a card from your media pile.
The Emperor Bill: you may always propose this when your party is above the emperor limit. (You simply say: “I crown myself emperor—who votes in favor?!”)
Speech
You give a fiery speech to persuade people. At the end, you may do one of two things:
- Steal 1 population tile from someone else and place it in front of you;
- Change 2 pillar values of your choice.
Secret Meeting
This is an upgrade of a “speech”. You turn your population tiles face down, and take a new population tile face down. (You may see its value; the rest may not.) Your population tiles remain hidden until the next election.
Questioning
You choose a player and try to set up a scandal. Come up with a sharp question (“so, where did that 5000 euros from the budget go?”), and the other must answer. This action increases the influence of the media by 1.
Intense Questioning
This is an upgrade of “questioning”. The other must not only answer: they must also place a card face down on the table. This card indicates whether they are telling the truth or not. Now there are three possibilities:
- You decide to believe them at face value and do not look at the card. The card goes to the discard pile and the game continues.
- You look at the card—they are telling the truth! You must give one of your population tiles to the other.
- You look at the card—they are lying! The other must give one of their population tiles to you.
This action increases the influence of the media by 2.
Negotiating
Choose a player. You may negotiate with this player and make an agreement. (For example: vote for my next bill, perform this action and then I will do this, etc.)
Scheming
This is an upgrade of “negotiating”. You choose a player to negotiate with, but you do not have to do this in the presence of the others. You may step into the next room to make a secret plan.
The Discussion Round
The chairperson introduces a problem. This problem may be completely made up and explained by them. (For example: “the number of ugly dogs in the country has increased by 70%”, or “I fear that witches have continued to live underground since the Middle Ages and now plan to stage a coup”.)
Each player gives their opinion on the problem and a possible solution. This may be done in turns (clockwise), but also without order. Make it a fun story, but remember: what you say has major consequences! Namely:
- If you later do not keep your promise, you lose voters (and your credibility).
- This is the only moment when players, without having to play a card, may discuss cooperation, make compromises, or declare that the other is crazy and ruining the country.
How do promises work? Each player must at least mention something specific they will do to solve the problem (and why). For example: “it is ridiculous that we have so many ugly dogs! I will question Hans intensely about this as soon as possible”.
If you have indeed intensely questioned Hans before the elections, you have kept your promise. If not, you must add an extra lie card to your media pile during the elections. (The other players are responsible for tracking whether you keep promises!)
The Election Phase
Each election proceeds in the following steps:
- Check promises
- Influence of the media
- Final attempt
- Result
Checking Promises
This has already been covered in the “discussion round” section. In summary: anyone who has not kept their promise must place a lie card in their media pile.
Influence of the Media
Look at the current status of the media, and call this number M. Everyone reveals their media pile and counts the number of lies and truths. If they have more lies than truth, they lose M population. Conversely, they gain M new population.
Final Attempt
Everyone plays one final card simultaneously. If this card is a corruption or manipulation, it is included in the result. Any other card goes to the discard pile without effect.
- Manipulation: you hack away and may steal two population tiles from others. This may only be from the “future voters” pile. (It may also be from two different people.)
- Corruption: this is an upgrade of “manipulation”. You may steal three population tiles from wherever you want. However, you must place two lie cards in your (currently empty) media pile, and two truth cards in your discard pile.
Result
Players combine their current voters and “future voters”! Everyone counts their final result and gives a strong speech about the great victory! (Or the huge loss …)
From now on, all these population tiles lie face up and are final.
Then players look at the ranking: who came first (and is therefore the largest), who second, and who third.
- The winner may draw 2 new cards and take 1 card from their discard pile.
- The second may draw 1 new card and take 1 card from their discard pile.
- The third may either draw 1 new card or take 1 card from their discard pile.
Notes
TO DO: We need too many cards! Find a way to use fewer cards:
- Start with fewer?
- Not start with the same cards?
- Special cards appear (much) less often in the deck?
- Instead of good players getting more cards over time, mainly ensure that bad players get fewer cards over time.
- Possibly merge the “upgrade” cards with the normal ones? (OOOOOR you automatically get the upgrade if you play two of the same cards together?)
(The same applies to population tiles, by the way?)
IDEA: During the discussion round. Everyone votes on who was the best (and thus who won the discussion). That person gets extra … something (voters? cards?). At the same time, the chairperson votes on who they think won. If they are correct, that is a bonus. If they are not correct, … there are unpleasant consequences?!
Required components:
- 6 pillar cards
- 30 tokens: 5 per pillar
- 40 population tiles: 10x1, 10x2, 10x3, 10x4
- 117 action cards:
- Bill: 12 + 12 = 24
- Speech: 6 + 6 = 12
- Secret meeting: 6 + 3 = 18
- Questioning: 6 + 6 = 12
- Intense questioning: 6 + 6 = 12
- Negotiating: 6 + 6 = 12
- Scheming: 6 + 3 = 9
- Manipulation: 6 + 3 = 9
- Corruption: 6 + 3 = 9