Chez Guevara Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
  • Rank Cards
  • Life Cards
• How to Play
  • 1. Draw
  • 2. Roll
  • 3. Call People
  • 4. Free Time
    • Scrounging
    • Activities
    • Raids
  • 5. Discard
  • 6. Heal
• Marking Slack
• Marking Wounds
• Rank and Promotions
  • Promotion
  • Demotion
  • Timing
• Other Stuff You Can Do
  • During Your Turn
  • Stuff You Can Do When It's Not Your Turn
• Raids
  • Wounds and Promotions
  • Loot
  • Sweet Revenge
• Denounced!
• Winning the Game
• Additional Rules and Definitions
  • Canceling
  • Pulling Rank
  • Countermanding Orders
  • Glorious Leader, Gordo, and Party Girl
  • Getting Rid of People
  • Double Cards
  • Noisy Nookie
  • Combining Chez Guevara with Chez Geek

Setup

There are two types of cards, Life and Rank. These go in separate piles. Each player will need table space for his "tent" – that is, the collection of cards he has played for Activities and Things, and the People who have come over to visit.

You'll also need at least one six-sided die, and some markers for Slack (dice, pennies, poker chips, beer nuts . . .) and for Wounds (red candies, red dice, whatever).

Rank Cards

Separate these eight cards from the rest. They are purple, front and back. Each Rank has three numbers and a special perk. The higher ranks, Corporal and Sergeant, each have a special penalty as well.

• Income is how much money you have each turn to spend on Scrounging or Activities. You get your Income at the beginning of your turn. You can't save Income from turn to turn . . . any Income not spent on Things or Activities disappears at the end of your turn.
• Free Time is the number of things you can do during your Free Time phase.
• Slack is the number of Slack points this rank brings you.
• The perk is something special that your rank lets you do.
• The penalty (for any Rank except Private) is the amount subtracted from your roll if you are Denounced.

Life Cards

There are four kinds of Life cards: Person (green), Thing (blue), Activity (red), and Whenever (orange).

Note: You may not give cards away or trade them with your comrades, but you may show another player your hand if you like, and you may make any deal that you like about how you will play your cards. But no deal is binding if someone decides to welsh. Life is hard in the jungle, comrade.

How to Play

The dealer shuffles the Rank cards and deals one Rank, face up, to each player. This card stays on the table. It is not part of your hand. (Exception: In a two-player game, just give each player a Private card.)

The other Rank cards are left face up on the table. These represent available promotions.

The dealer then shuffles the Life cards and deals five, face down, to each player. The rest of the Life cards remain face down as the draw deck. Discarded Life cards will be placed face-up beside the draw deck. If you run out of Life cards during a game, shuffle the discard pile and reuse it.

The player to the left of the dealer goes first. Play proceeds clockwise. Each player's turn has six phases: Draw, Roll, Call People, Free Time, Discard, and Heal.

Note: Many cards, especially Person cards, allow (or require) exceptions to the rules. The special rules on the cards always take precedence over the general rules stated here, and changes in (for instance) Income and Free Time take place as soon as the card goes into play. Be sure to read a card when you get it!

1. Draw

Draw cards from the Life deck until you have six cards in your hand. If you already have six or more, do not draw.

2. Roll

Each turn you get the chance to roll a die to get unwanted People out of your tent. Other cards (such as the Bomb Expert) also call for a roll every turn. The Roll phase is when you do these things. See Getting Rid of People, below.

3. Call People

Person cards represent people who might visit your tent. They may only be played during the Call People phase. You may call as many People as you want, if you have their cards in your hand.

There are two types of Person cards: invited (they give Slack) and uninvited (they have a Slack of 0 or less, and may have other bad features, too). Invited People must be Called (see below). Uninvited People are put into play during the Call People phase, but you don't actually have to Call them. After all, fun people need to be called; jerks just drop in.

To play a Person card:

1. Announce your intention to have a Person come over, and lay down the card. Then announce whether the Person is coming to your tent or someone else's. If the Person gives no Slack, place the card now. (Note that some People have limitations about what tents they will enter.) If the Person has a game effect, it takes place immediately.
2. If the Person gives Slack, roll a die to Call him. On a roll of 1-2, that Person was out of camp and could not be found. Discard the card.
3. On a roll of 3-6, the call succeeded and that Person card goes in your tent. Any effects that Person has on the game then occur, including Slack awarded to you!
4. When you get an uninvited Person to leave your tent (see Getting Rid of People), you determine which tent the Person goes to next.
5. Cat cards count as Person cards, and are played during this phase as well. A Cat requires no roll to Come Over – you just announce it and put it in your tent! Meow.

4. Free Time

During this phase, you may spend your Free Time. Each Free Time allows you to either do one Activity or to go Scrounging. You may also play cards that give you more Free Time. You must always announce how you are spending your Free Time. You must have the card for any Thing you want to buy or any Activity you want to do.

Scrounging

Scrounging is the process of buying (or "finding") useful Things. You must announce that you are Scrounging. No matter how many Things you get in one turn, it counts as one Scrounging expedition. If someone cancels your Scrounging, all Thing cards you played return to your hand. (See Canceling, below.) If you still have Free Time left, you may attempt to Scrounge again.

If no one prevents you from Scrounging, you may buy as many Things as you have the Income to afford. Note that some Things are free, so you can get them with no Income, but you must still take the time to Scrounge.

Example: Juanita is currently a Corporal, so she has an Income of 3 and a Free Time of 2. She plays Lucky 7, raising her Income to 4 for this turn. She then announces that she will use her first Free Time to go Scrounging. She buys some badly needed Soap (Cost 1) and The Art of War (Cost 3), which net her a total of 4 Slack. She puts both cards in her tent. During her second Free Time, she will play an Activity card . . .

Activities

A few Activities have a Cost. If you don't have enough remaining Income to match the Cost, then you may not perform that Activity. But most Activities have no cost, and require only Free Time.

You must announce the Activity that you plan to perform as you play the Activity card. If nobody plays a card to stop you, place the card in your tent and gain the appropriate Slack. Some Activities are worth a variable amount of Slack, determined by a die roll. If a result is ever zero Slack (or less), the Activity is considered unsuccessful and the Activity card is put in the discard pile. You have still used up one Free Time in the attempt.

Example: During Esteban's Free Time phase, he announces that he will try for some Nookie. He plays a Social Justice Nookie card. No one plays a card to stop him, so he rolls and gets a 1. The Slack for a Nookie card is 1 die-1, so Esteban's Nookie is worth 0 Slack. Cursing the cruel system that crushes the proletariat, Esteban discards the card.

Raids

Raids (see below) are a special kind of Activity. If none of your comrades has a Rank higher than yours, you may call a Raid on the Activity phase of your turn. This costs you one Free Time. It does not cost any Free Time to the other players.

5. Discard

If you have more than five cards, you must discard down to five (or fewer). If you have five or fewer, you may still choose to discard any or all of your cards. You may not discard your last card. This rule only applies to discarding. If you can play your whole hand before your Discard phase, more power to you!

6. Heal

If you do NOTHING on your turn except Discard – that is, if you don't Call People or use any Free Time – you can get rid of one Wound token.

Marking Slack

If an Activity gives variable Slack, or if anything changes the amount of Slack on any card to give extra Slack, the owner must place Slack counters on the card to indicate the extra Slack. All your comrades must be able to look at your tent and count up the printed value on all cards, plus the counters, to see how much Slack you have.

Marking Wounds

Wounds are indicated by red markers. When you get wounded, put a wound marker in front of you. Each wound counts as -1 Slack, so if you have 20 Slack but two wound markers, you are two Slack away from winning.

Rank and Promotions

Every player starts the game with a Rank card. You may only have one Rank at a time. Higher Ranks have more privileges and can Pull Rank (see below) on lower ranks. But higher Rank also makes you more vulnerable to being Denounced!

Promotion

To get promoted, you must play a Promotion card. This allows you to exchange your Rank for a free card of the next higher Rank. If there is no free card, you can't get promoted, so save your Promotion card.

You may also get Promoted after a Raid, or when a comrade is Demoted . . . see below.

Higher Rank always gives more Slack, so it is possible to win the game immediately by being promoted.

Demotion

Demotion happens either when you are Denounced, or when someone plays a Demotion card on you. You immediately go down by one Rank. If there is a Rank card available for the next lower Rank, exchange your card for it. If not, you must pick a player of the next lower Rank and trade cards with him!

Timing

Promotion and Demotion are Whenever cards, so they can be played any time, but a Promotion or Demotion cannot affect a die roll that has already happened. Promotion and Demotion cards take effect in the order they are played.

Other Stuff You Can Do

During Your Turn

Your Whenever cards may be played on anyone at any time, unless the card text specifically prohibits it.

Stuff You Can Do When It's Not Your Turn

1. Your Whenever cards may be played on anyone at any time, unless the card text specifically prohibits it.
2. You can Pull Rank to change what someone else does with his Free Time. (See Pulling Rank, below.)

Raids

Raids are the way in which the Glorious Leader's troops liberate from the capitalist running dogs and their bourgeois puppets the things which they require to further the purposes of the revolution. In other words, you go out with your guns and rob anyone you meet. Viva!

A Raid is an activity and requires an Activity card. There are two special rules for using a Raid card:

• You must be one of the highest-Rank players. For instance, if you are a Corporal, you can call a Raid only if there is no Sergeant present. (It doesn't matter if there is another Corporal.) If all players are Privates, anyone can call a Raid!
• If you don't have a Raid card, you may invite the other players to give you one, and anybody who wants to can hand you a Raid card from their hand. If they do, though, you must use it!

Wounds and Promotions

All the players go on the raid, and have a chance of being wounded. (The Glorious Leader does not go along, as he is far too important to the Revolution to risk himself in combat. He regrets this deeply.)

Each player rolls one die. The highest roll (high rollers roll again to break ties) gets Promoted, if there's a place available in the next rank.

However, anyone who gets a 6 (on the original roll, not on tiebreakers) is wounded in the Raid. Take a Wound token. Yes, this means that you can be both Promoted and Wounded on the same raid.

Each Wound token counts as -1 Slack. Various cards will let you get rid of Wounds. You can also get rid of a Wound by doing nothing except discarding cards during your turn (see Step 5, above).

Loot

Each Raid card will specify a number of cards to be dealt face-up to the table as Loot. (If a Sergeant led the Raid, deal one extra card.) The Loot is now divided up.

The player who led the Raid chooses first, and may choose any one card. If it's a Thing, he plays it immediately to his tent; there is no cost. If it's not a Thing, he puts it in his hand.

The player who led the Raid then decides who chooses second. That person must choose a Thing card.

Then each other player chooses a card, in the order of their Rank (ties are broken by Slack). However, they may choose ONLY Thing cards. When all the Thing cards are used up, any remaining players get nothing, and any remaining cards go to the discard pile. (If there are Things left over after each player gets one card, the excess Things are also discarded.)

Things taken as Loot go immediately into play, regardless of whose turn it is or how much they cost. If you get a Thing that puts your Slack total over 20, you win then and there!

Sweet Revenge

If you are Denounced and the leader finds you innocent, you may immediately Denounce your accuser in return, if you play a Denounce! card or you have The Toady in your tent. This return-denounce is always successful.

Denounced!

The Glorious Leader is ever watchful for counterrevolutionary traitors. If you think one of your comrades might be a traitor, denounce him!

To denounce someone, you need a Denounce! card. This is a Whenever card.

When you are denounced, you must roll one die, and add or subtract any bonuses or penalties given by the Things you have. (For instance, a copy of the Sayings of Chairman Mao is a sign of a good socialist, and gives you +1 on your roll.)

If your modified roll is 3 or more, the Leader decides you are innocent, and nothing happens.

If your modified roll is 2 or less, you are Demoted (see above). The person who Denounced you may now either (a) pick any one Person (except the Glorious Leader or a Cat) in your tent and move that Person to any other tent, away from your dangerous influence, or (b) move the Glorious Leader TO your tent to keep an eye on you!

Winning the Game

The first person to reach or exceed 20 Slack (or 18, if there are five players) immediately wins. He has collected enough goodies, favors, and useful gadgets that he can escape back to civilization, turn in the Glorious Leader for a big reward, and open an Internet cafe.

Example: Private Carlos has 19 Slack currently, and buys a New Beret. Even if Sergeant Maria plays Requisition to take the Beret from him, Carlos wins the game, because he had 20 Slack for a moment. (Requisition is not a canceling card.)

Additional Rules and Definitions

Canceling

A card which can cancel other cards may only affect a target card as that card is being played. Canceled cards are discarded, and treated as though they were never played. If the card was an Activity, the Free Time for that Activity is lost. If someone cancels Scrounging, all Thing cards that he was trying to buy are returned to his hand. A canceling card has no effect on any card already in play.

A card that is "being played" is a card that a comrade has announced and put in his tent. You must play a canceling card before that comrade:

1. puts down another card, or
2. rolls to see if a Person is coming over, or to see how much Slack a card gives, or
3. ends his turn.

Example: Bomb Making Practice can cancel a Sleep card. If Tomas plays a Sleep card and ends his turn, and then Jaime draws Bomb Making Practice on his next turn, Jaime cannot affect the Sleep card Tomas already played. Jamie will have to wait until someone announces that he is playing a Sleep card, at which point Jaime can cancel it.

Pulling Rank

You may "pull rank" on any of your comrades who are of lower rank than you. Corporals can boss Privates, and Sergeants can boss both Corporals and Privates.

You pull rank during a comrade's turn, when he is trying to play an Activity card. As he announces what he will do with his Free Time (Scrounging or performing an Activity), tell him you are pulling rank, and give him an Activity card from your hand. He then spends that Free Time doing the Activity you gave him. The Activity card he attempted to play, if any, is discarded. If he was trying to Scrounge, the Thing cards return to his hand.

If the activity that you gave him gives Slack, he keeps it and gets that Slack. If it gives 0 Slack, like Dig Holes or KP, the card is discarded.

You cannot Pull Rank to prevent your comrades from Calling People, because that is not an Activity.

You CAN Pull Rank and give someone a Raid card, but only if (at the moment) there is no higher Rank than yours at the table. In that case, the raid happens immediately, and the player you gave the card to is considered the Raid Leader!

The best thing about Pulling Rank, though: Every time you do it, you immediately get 1 Slack! You get your Slack before the player you Pulled Rank gets any Slack from the card you gave him, so if you both reach 20 Slack, you are the winner.

Countermanding Orders

Suppose someone Pulls Rank on you and gives you a new Activity to do. Can someone else Pull Rank again and give you a different new Activity?

Yes . . . but only if he has a higher Rank than the person who originally Pulled Rank. A Sergeant can countermand orders given by a Corporal.

Glorious Leader, Gordo, and Party Girl

These uninvited People have special rules for their behavior. When Glorious Leader, Gordo, or Party Girl come to your tent, you must immediately discard one card from your tent, of the type stated on the uninvited Person's card (Food, Booze, or Cigarettes). You choose what to discard. Each consecutive turn one of these People is in your tent, you must discard one card of the appropriate type, until all cards of that type are gone from your tent. After these pests eat/drink/destroy all cards of the appropriate type, they still stay in your tent until you can get rid of them.

Getting Rid of People

On the Roll phase of your turn, you may attempt to get rid of any People in your tent, except the Glorious Leader and, of course, Cats. To invite someone to leave, roll a die. On 1-3, the Person hangs around and any negative effects take place. On 4-6, you may either discard the Person, or send him to any other tent that he is not restricted from entering. He has no effect on you that turn.

Except for the turn they enter your tent, unwanted People do not have a negative effect until after you attempt to get rid of them.

Example: Heriberto plays Gordo on Maria. She discards Tequila, a Booze card. During her next Roll phase, she rolls to get rid of Gordo, but gets a 3. Gordo stays, and Maria discards the Potato to appease her unwanted guest. When Maria rolls during her next turn, she gets a 6. Hurrah! Gordo must leave. Maria controls the card, and she puts it in Heriberto's tent. Turnabout is fair play! Now he must discard a card (and so on, and so on, and so on . . .).

Double Cards

Certain cards fall into more than one category. For example, the Goat counts as both Pet and Food. These cards are open to the attacks and benefits of both categories . . . so the Goat can be eaten by Gordo, but since he's a Pet, he can be protected by Nature Boy.

Noisy Nookie

At any time a player gets Nookie worth 5 or more Slack, the comrades on either side of him lose (if they have it) one Sleep card from their tents. Yes, this can remove an already-played Sleep card.

Combining Chez Guevara with Chez Geek

You can't, exactly . . . the games use slightly different systems, and it makes no sense to be BOTH a revolutionary in the jungle AND a slacker in an apartment. Pity, that.

But . . . the Thing cards for all the Chez games use the same format. So if you want to take Thing cards from one game and put them into another . . . ignoring any special effects that pertain only to the game they were originally created for . . . go ahead. Give your urban slackers a grenade and an AK-47. We used to know those guys. We think the grenade was a fake.