Bra$ilis Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• What Is In the Box and What Is It For
• How Do I Beat My Political Rivals?
• And If There Is a Tie?
• What Do I Need to Do Before Starting?
• OK, But How Do You Play, Then?
• What Do These News Items Do?
• How Does the Game Proceed?
• Example of Play
• But What Do the Power Cards Do?
• What Happens When My Power Cards Run Out?
• How Do I Get the Political Aid? How Do I Use It?
• The 5 Political Aids in the Game Are:
• What Is the Population's Fury Line and the Revolution For?
• How Does the Game Really End?
• I Just Saw That Some News Items Have a Black Background. Is It Defective?
• Can I Buy My Colleagues? And Make Alliances?
• Is There Any Variant or Expansion?
• Is Bra$ilis Brazil?

What Is In the Box and What Is It For

[Heading partly obscured by the publisher's web watermark; the visible words read "O que vem na caixa e pra que serve".]

The game contains:

1. 1 Board (divided into "Political Image" and "Population's Fury")
2. 1 Pizza (1/2 Marguerita, 1/2 Calabresa) divided into 8 slices
3. 46 News Cards
4. 7 Extra Vote Cards
5. 54 Power Cards
6. 6 Political Profiles
7. 7 Markers in Blue, Red, Yellow, Green, Grey, Purple and Black
8. 5 Political Aid Cards
9. 60 Bills of money, all of the same value: $100

How Do I Beat My Political Rivals?

The objective of each politician is to accumulate the greatest number of votes. Votes are obtained through News Cards (or through the Marketeer, which will be explained later... be patient!). Each news item can be good or bad, making the politician gain or lose votes. Each news item also affects that politician's image and money.

When the pizza is completed (we will explain everything in a moment!), the game ends and the votes are counted to discover the winner.

And If There Is a Tie?

Let's simplify, then! At any moment of the game, if there is a tie, the politician benefited will be the one who:

I. Has the best image; II. Has more money in the game; III. Has more money in the wallet (yes, that very one!); IV. Has the richer father.

Note: If any of the players or their family members have an international account in any tax haven, they always get the advantage in a tie!

What Do I Need to Do Before Starting?

[Heading partly obscured by the publisher's web watermark; the visible words read "O que preciso fazer antes de começar".]

As Jack, a famous inhabitant of Bra$ilis, would say: "Let's take it step by step."

1. All players will represent a politician, who may be chosen in whatever way seems fit. None of them has any special ability, so don't worry too much about that. After the politicians are defined, each player takes an identifier corresponding to their politician (just follow the colour) and places it on the value ZERO of the Image scale.

2. The Pizza, which represents the progress of the game, must be pre-assembled before the start of the match. Each slice of pizza represents 1 round. Assemble the Pizza according to the number of politicians taking part in the game:

Number of Politicians	Initial Pizza Slices
3	0
4	2
5	3
6	4

3. Place the black marker on the Population's Fury scale at the starting position, represented by a double circle.

4. All politicians receive 5 Power Cards (if there are 6 politicians in the game, each receives 6 cards).

5. The politician with the most money in the wallet starts the game and places the first slice of pizza. He is the Chief Politician! (TIP: before playing Bra$ilis, stop by an ATM!)

OK, But How Do You Play, Then?

At the start of each round (new slice of Pizza), the following actions must take place:

1. Remove "X" random News Cards without revealing them, where "X" is the number of politicians in the game. These news items are placed in the centre of the table (or on the floor, if you have no chairs in your home) without being revealed, so that the progress of the round is made evident.

2. Distribute the salary of each politician, which is $300 Bra$ilis Dollars (3 notes, of course!), clockwise, starting with the Chief Politician.

   Note: if during the game there is not enough money to pay the salaries or the amounts indicated on News Cards, it means that Bra$ilis is going bankrupt! The money needed for the payments must be taken from the richest politician at that moment, through the CPMV (Cobrança de Políticos Mão de Vaca, "Collection from Miserly Politicians").

3. Return all Political Aids to the centre of the table so that they can be auctioned, except in the first round, when no auction takes place (the auction will be explained later).

The round is now ready to begin! The Chief Politician randomly reveals one of the news items that were previously set aside, reads the card aloud, and the politicking is unleashed!

What Do These News Items Do?

All revealed news items are headlines from the country's main newspapers! The catch is that it is still not known which politician was involved in that news item — after all, it is almost always like this: the media in Bra$ilis reports the facts and only afterwards checks whether they are true and who the real culprit was!!!

A dispute then begins among the politicians, through Power Cards and their influence points, over the authorship of the news item, whether good or bad. When, finally, the author of that news item is discovered, the next politician (clockwise from the one who has just revealed the previous news item) reveals the next news item, and so on successively.

ATTENTION! A news item can make the politician who authored it gain or lose votes. In addition, it also improves or worsens their image and makes them gain or lose money. Money and the image of the politicians are important tools in the search for more votes.

Example of a News Card (as shown in the rulebook): the card shows an image adjustment (the politician drops 2 points on the image scale), a bank account effect (the politician receives $300), and a vote value of 3 — these are 3 negative votes at the end of the game!!

How Does the Game Proceed?

When a politician reveals a news item, each of the politicians, in turn (starting with the politician who revealed the news item and continuing clockwise), chooses 1 of 4 possible actions:

1. Play a Power Card on oneself;
2. Play a Power Card on any other politician;
3. Use his "Political Aid";
4. Pass.

If a politician chooses to "pass", he can no longer play any of his Power Cards during this news item, but he may still use his "Political Aid" (you will soon understand all of this!).

When all politicians have passed, the politician with the most influence points (through the sum of the cards) will be responsible for the news item and must keep it, secretly, beneath his Political Profile. Simple, right?

As soon as it is defined who was responsible for the news item, the image and money of the politician involved must be adjusted according to the indication on the News Card itself. Once this is done, it is time to reveal the next news item (it is the turn of the politician to the left of the one who revealed the previous news item) and the dispute is restarted.

Some details of this dispute:

• If only one politician remains in the dispute over the news item, [part of this line is obscured by the publisher's web watermark] he may keep playing as many cards as he wants on the table.
• For each news item in dispute, at least 2 politicians must use at least 1 Power Card. For example, in a game with 5 politicians, where all players have cards in hand, if the first 3 choose to "pass", the last two are obliged to play at least 1 card. After all, every news item must have a responsible politician! This rule still applies if there are politicians without cards at the start of the dispute: always, at least 2 politicians must use at least 1 Power Card!
• In case of a tie, the tie-break rules explained earlier apply. The politician who wins on the tie-break criteria chooses the destination of the news item (for himself or for his opponent).
• If a politician begins the news dispute with no cards in hand, or has already passed, he can still be the target of the other politicians' cards. So, CAREFUL: take good care of your Power Cards!

Example of Play

Four politicians are seated at the table, all with some cards in hand (Oséias, Joaquim, Ana and Tião, in seating order).

It is Oséias's turn to reveal a news item. The news item (as shown in the rulebook) has an image adjustment of -1, a vote value of 1, and a money effect of -200.

The news item gives 1 vote point at the end of the game and the politicians get excited:

• Oséias starts by playing a card of value 2 in front of him. Joaquim prefers to pass, since he wants to save his cards for another news item. Ana plays a 3 in front of her and takes the lead. Tião, in the best "monkey see, monkey do" style, also plays a 3 in front of him.
• Oséias begins the second turn by playing another 2, and now has 4 points on the table. Joaquim has already passed, so he no longer participates. Ana places a 1 in front of her, tying for the lead with 4 points. Tião is sad because he fears he will not catch Oséias, so he prefers to pass and save his card.
• Only Oséias and Ana remain in the dispute. Oséias insists and places another card of value 2 in front of him: that is 6 points!! Ana then completes her table with a card of value 2, equalling the 6 points. These were the last cards of the two politicians.

The dispute ends, since everyone has passed. The final scoreboard is:

• Oséias: 2, 2, 2 (total 6)
• Joaquim: passed (no cards played)
• Ana: 3, 1, 2 (total 6)
• Tião: 3 (total 3)

Ana wins the tie-break, since she has a better image than Oséias, and so she receives the news item. She now adjusts her image marker and the Revolution, reducing both by 1 point. She should pay $200 to the bank, but since she only has $100, she pays what she can, since debts do not exist in Bra$ilis. Now she keeps her news item beneath her Political Profile and waits for the revelation of the next news item.

ATTENTION! If Tião had won the news item, his marker would not move, because he is already in HELL (the negative limit). The same goes for markers in HEAVEN (the positive limit) receiving positive image cards. The Revolution moves normally in both cases.

But What Do the Power Cards Do?

There are 3 types of Power Card:

• Influence Point Cards (with values from 1 to 5) — these are cards that give influence points to the politicians;
• Multiplication Cards ("x0" and "x2") — these are cards that multiply the value of the influence points of the last (and only the last) Power Card played by the target politician (who may be a political rival or yourself!);
• Interference Cards ("Eliminate a card" and "Reposition a card") — these are cards that interfere with the last (and only the last) card played by the target politician.

Note: the repositioning card may reposition a card of the politician who uses it, directing it to another politician, but it cannot make a repositioned card come to him.

Now it is just a matter of using your cards well and hoping that your rival politicians cannot exert much influence among their colleagues.

Card examples shown in the rulebook:

• Influence Point Card: 3 points ("PONTOS DE INFLUÊNCIA").
• Multiplication Card: "x0" — "cancels the points of the last card played" ("ANULA OS PONTOS DA ÚLTIMA CARTA JOGADA").
• Interference Card: "repositions the last card for another player" ("REPOSICIONA A ÚLTIMA CARTA PARA OUTRO JOGADOR").

What Happens When My Power Cards Run Out?

As news items appear and politicians try to use their Power Cards in the best possible way, their cards will inevitably run out.

Before revealing a new news item, if only 1 of the politicians has cards (one card or more), all politicians must complete their hands until they have 5 Power Cards.

Note: in a game with 6 politicians, we recommend that replenishment be done only when just 2 politicians still have cards before revealing a new news item, and that the politicians complete their hands until they have 6 Power Cards.

ATTENTION! If, at the time of replenishing Power Cards, one of the politicians has his image marker on the HEAVEN or HELL position, he will receive one more card or one less card, respectively, and his marker is returned to the starting position, zero. As already said, in Bra$ilis a politician's image in the long term does not matter. The population has a very short memory!

If your marker is in any other position than HEAVEN or HELL, you receive cards normally and the marker stays in the same place.

Example: [Part of the heading is obscured by the publisher's web watermark.] Of the 4 politicians at the table, only 3 of them have cards in their hands:

It is Ana's turn to flip a news item, and it has a negative value (image -2, 1 vote, +$300).

Ana is worried, because she has no way to defend herself!!

• Moacir begins by placing a 2 in front of Ana. Oséias prefers to attack Julinho, whom he thinks has more votes, and places a 2 in front of him. Julinho tries with his only card to strike back, placing a 3 in front of Oséias!!
• Moacir realises the fight is no longer his, and passes. Oséias uses his Reposition card to take the 3 from in front of himself and pass it to Julinho. Julinho now has 5 points in front of him and has no more cards, so the news item has a destination:

Julinho receives $300 from the bank, moves 2 points of image towards HELL, moves the population marker 2 points towards REVOLUTION, and secretly keeps his negative point beneath his Political Profile. Now only Moacir has Power Cards in hand, so, just before the next politician reveals the next news item, everyone must replenish their hand until they have 5 cards each.

ATTENTION! Ana's grey marker is positioned at HELL!! This means she will receive one Power Card fewer, ending with only 4 cards after the replenishment!! Ana's marker is placed at the initial image position. If one of the politicians is in HEAVEN at this moment, he receives one more card, and his image marker also returns to the initial position.

How Do I Get the Political Aid? How Do I Use It?

There are 5 Political Aid cards in the game, which come into play only after the second round (corresponding to the second slice of Pizza placed by the Chief Politician).

After the distribution of each politician's salary, "X-1" Political Aid cards are drawn at random and placed face up in the centre of the game, where "X" is the number of politicians in the game. These cards will be auctioned among the politicians, before the Chief Politician reveals the first news item of the round, as follows:

• The politicians announce the amount of money they have.
• The politician with the least money chooses a Political Aid to be auctioned. (The tie-break criteria still apply, i.e., whoever has the best image chooses the card to be auctioned, and so on.)
• All politicians collect their money and make secret bids to try to buy the Political Aid being auctioned.
• When everyone is ready, the bid values are revealed simultaneously. The one who made the highest bid takes the auctioned Aid. (The tie-break applies here too!)
• All money committed to the auction bids is NOT returned, so take care when entering an auction.
• If no one bids a minimum of $100 for a given Political Aid, it is discarded.
• The auctions of the remaining Political Aids are carried out without the politicians who have already bought an Aid in this round, starting again with the politician with the least money.
• Each politician may have only one Political Aid at the end of the auctions, and it may be that more than one politician has no Political Aid in this round.

Each Political Aid may be used only once in that round [the middle of this line is obscured by the publisher's web watermark]. At the end of each round, all Political Aids (used or not) are returned [the wording here is partly obscured by the watermark] to be auctioned at the start of the next round.

The 5 Political Aids in the Game Are:

Marketeer (Marketeiro) — card text: "The guy is good. Receive +1 extra vote from the population." This guy knows how to make the population look at you with new eyes, so you immediately win one extra vote card just for hiring him.

Lawyer (Advogado) — card text: "Comrade price of $300 to be cleared of accusations!" No matter what they say about you while he is at your side, everything has its price: pay $300 and he will prove that you were not involved in the scandal your name has just been linked to! So neither your image nor your money is changed.

Note: the Lawyer cannot cancel a news item that has already been attributed to you earlier.

Advertiser (Publicitário) — card text: "With him at your side you don't lose image, and your image rises 1 point immediately." Do you need a better image? You are talking to the right guy. Hire the Advertiser and he will immediately increase your image by 1 point. In addition, any news item attributed to you will not make you lose image in this round.

Colonel (Coronel) — card text: "Pay a small commission of $200 and gain 1 Power Card." This is a very influential man! With his experience (and by paying an extra commission of $200), you gain the right to buy one more card.

Palanque — card text: "Shares the last Power Card used by a colleague at your side." This is where the strongest alliances are formed. With the Palanque you can take advantage of the political influence of your neighbours. Use the Palanque to share the last Power Card played on the table by the politician next to you.

ATTENTION! The Palanque only has an effect on influence point cards. A card that is being shared through the Palanque cannot be excluded, nor can multiplication and interference cards be played on it.

What Is the Population's Fury Line and the Revolution For?

[Part of the heading is obscured by the publisher's web watermark; the visible words read "Pra que serve a linha de Fúria da Po[pulação]" and "e a Revolução?".]

Whenever a news item indicates an image reduction and is attributed to a politician, besides adjusting that politician's image, the Population's Fury scale must also be adjusted towards the REVOLUTION (1 space for each point of negative image).

Note: the Population's Fury scale is not affected by image gains. It always moves towards the REVOLUTION.

Whenever the marker reaches the REVOLUTION, it means the population's patience has come to an end! Two measures must be taken:

1. The politician with the worst image randomly loses one of his News Cards with positive and null votes (those with a green background in the vote area, including Extra Votes). This politician must gather all these cards, and then the politician with the best image will randomly withdraw one of the cards, which is discarded from the game. If two or more politicians are tied for the worst image, all of those politicians must lose one card; there is no tie-break.
2. The Population's Fury marker is returned to the starting position.

Take care with your image: the population's memory may be short, but this punishment will fall on whoever has the worst image at the moment.

ATTENTION! One of the News Cards represents an immediate REVOLUTION. If it is revealed, carry out the actions relating to the REVOLUTION normally and draw a new news item (from the News Card pile) to replace the previous one.

How Does the Game Really End?

Everything ends in pizza...

When the eighth slice of pizza is served, the pizza is complete and that will be the last round. At the end of this round, all politicians reveal their News Cards and the votes are counted.

The politician with the most votes is the winner. In case of a tie, the same tie-break rules already mentioned apply.

ATTENTION! If any of the politicians, at the end of the game, has no News Card, it means that they did not enter the political dirty game (or they may have entered, but the population did not see it). If that happens, that politician ends the game with 3 votes!

I Just Saw That Some News Items Have a Black Background. Is It Defective?

[Part of the heading is obscured by the publisher's web watermark.]

Of course not! This indicates that in these news items, all Power Cards with influence points must be played with their value hidden (card face down), so that only the politician who played it knows its value. Continue applying all the normal rules and, when all politicians have passed, the cards are revealed!

Can I Buy My Colleagues? And Make Alliances?

Negotiating power is the great art of the game. After all, when you do not have the influence necessary in the politics of Bra$ilis, the solution is to negotiate the influence of other politicians. To do this, each politician may negotiate Power Cards with other politicians in each news item, as long as both have not yet passed on that news item.

This negotiation may involve money or any other promise.

Note: Political Aids cannot be used by third parties.

But BE CAREFUL:

• If the negotiation involves a direct exchange (for example, buying a Power Card from another politician), it must be carried out without cheating. When a player buys a Power Card, it goes into his hand, and you may only use it if you have not yet passed on that news item.
• If the negotiation involves a "word" (for example, forming an alliance with another politician), it need not be fulfilled, since it is only a political promise.

In politics almost everything goes. Alliances, intrigues, false accusations, manipulations — in short, everything that is on this line...

Setting aside the rules already mentioned, anything may be promised or negotiated, as long as you do not make any politician cry for real. Ah, and it is not allowed to steal cards and money from others or from the table! Clever dodger!

Is There Any Variant or Expansion?

Expansion not yet! But variants, yes!

• Less Strategy (Menos Estratégia): Many people may not adapt to the strategy of when to use cards or not. For this, we suggest that the replenishment of cards be done when only 2 politicians still have cards (or 3 politicians for games with 6 politicians), before a new news item is revealed.
• More Strategy, Media Control (Mais Estratégia, Controle da Mídia): One way to add more strategy to the game is to remove "X+1" news items from the News Cards at the start of each round. When each politician reveals a news item, he may look at 2 of them and choose 1 to reveal, according to his interests.
• More Your Way (Mais do Seu Jeito): Feel free to play a longer or shorter game (by changing the number of pizza slices in the game), a game with more or less money (by raising or lowering the salaries), or a game with more or fewer possibilities (by raising or lowering the number of cards distributed when replenishing cards). Do as you think best for your fun!

Is Bra$ilis Brazil?

No! As we have already said, however incredible it may seem, it is not Brazil. We take this opportunity to say that it is NOT our intention to offend any group of the population or any particular person. Bra$ilis is a game that makes a playful critique of all countries where corruption is intrinsic to politics and to society.