Commies! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• I. Setup
  • Components
  • Sample Party Tableau
• II. Plots
• III. Rounds
• IV. Resolving Cards
  • POWER
  • LEADER
• V. Payoffs
• VI. End Game
  • Collapse
  • End Game Examples
• VII. Sample Layout (5 Players)

I. Setup

1. Take a FACTION, and place the matching ID CARD and LEADER. Place your ID CARD in front of you.
2. Take one LEADER from each PLAYER, and randomly deal them left to right to create a PARTY TABLEAU.
3. The left-most half of the PARTY TABLEAU are the BOLSHEVIK (majorty) factions. The right-most half are the MENSHEVIK (minority) factions.
4. Construct DECK from all POWER cards with player number equal to or less than number of players. Add the three remaining LEADERS from each player.
5. Give each player ten SUPPORTER tokens.
6. Repeat PLOTS until one player runs out of SUPPORTERS.

Components

• ID CARDS: 1 each (Communist Popular Front, Popular Communist Party, People's Socialist Party, Socialist Popular Alliance).
• LEADERS: 4 each.
• POWER: 6 each. Each POWER card shows a player count; the POWER cards used are those with a player number equal to or less than the number of players.

Note as printed: "Capitalists have been known to play this game with fiat currency. Party commisars insist that gambling is counter-revolutionary activity."

Sample Party Tableau

The printed sample shows a five-card tableau. The BOLSHEVIK side is on the left, a NEUTRAL position is in the middle, and the MENSHEVIK side is on the right.

II. Plots

1. Each player must ante one SUPPORTER on their LEADER in the PARTY TABLEAU. If they have it, each player must pay one SUPPORTER to the TREASURY (game box).
2. Play ROUNDS and SECRETS, then PAYOFF winners.
3. If any player has no SUPPORTERS, end game. Otherwise, leave one LEADER from each player in PARTY TABLEAU, then collect, shuffle, and deal played cards.

III. Rounds

Run five ROUNDS:

1. All players simultaneously play one face-down card from their hand. Shuffle played cards.
2. Put one played card into SECRETS pile.
3. Reveal and resolve remaining played cards, one at a time.

After the last ROUND, shuffle, reveal, and resolve the SECRETS.

IV. Resolving Cards

POWER

POWER cards are played below the PARTY TABLEAU. FISTS cancel out an equal number of BOOTS, and vice versa. Discard cancelled cards.

LEADER

LEADER cards are added to the matching color's stack in the PARTY TABLEAU. If they have one, the owning player must place one of their SUPPORTERS on the stack.

Promote the stack left, ahead of any stacks that have fewer leaders than the stack that was just added to.

V. Payoffs

1. If FISTS outnumber BOOTS, MENSHEVIKS win. Otherwise BOLSHEVIKS win.
2. Losers pay SUPPORTERS from their stack in the PARTY TABLEAU to the same ranked player amongst the Winners.

Icons as printed: BOOTS (a boot) mark the BOLSHEVIKS winning from MENSHEVIKS; FISTS (a raised fist) mark the MENSHEVIKS winning from BOLSHEVIKS.

VI. End Game

At the end of any PLOT where at least one player has no more SUPPORTERS, the game ends.

1. The winning COALITION consists of at most the top half (rounded down) players that have more SUPPORTERS than the remaining players. I.e. a player in the top half that has SUPPORTERS equal to a non-top-half player is NOT part of the winning COALITION.
2. COALITION winners are ranked in order of SUPPORTERS, with ties broken by ranking in the PARTY TABLEAU.
3. SUPPORTER tokens in the TREASURY are allocated evenly amongst the winners, with the remainder allocated to the highest ranking players in the COALITION.

Collapse

If NO players qualify to form a winning COALITION, then the players with NO supporters overthrow the people's republic and take power as winning TRAITORS.

1. Winning TRAITORS are ranked in reverse PARTY TABLEAU ranking.
2. ALL SUPPORTERS from all players are allocated evenly amongst the winning traitors, with any remainder allocated to the highest ranking TRAITOR.

End Game Examples

The printed examples are shown as tables. Each row lists the players' SUPPORTER counts in ranked order, then the TREASURY allocation and the total.

Standard Coalition

Ranked by SUPPORTERS	9	8	5	3	0
From a 25 TREASURY	13	12	0	0	0
Total	22	20	5	3	0

Ties Amongst Coalition OK

Ranked by SUPPORTERS	7	7	6	5	0
From a 25 TREASURY	13	12	0	0	0
Total	20	19	6	5	0

Second Place Tie, Neither Win

Ranked by SUPPORTERS	9	6	6	4	0
From a 25 TREASURY	25	0	0	0	0
Total	34	6	6	4	0

All Tied, Traitor Win

Ranked by SUPPORTERS	8	8	8	1	0
From a 25 TREASURY	X	X	X	X	X
Total	0	0	0	0	50

As printed, the All Tied example marks the TREASURY row with "X" for every player and shows a total of 50 for the last-ranked player.

VII. Sample Layout (5 Players)

The printed sample layout shows a five-player table mid-game. Its numbered commentary reads:

1. It is the fifth last ROUND of the second PLOT. Each turn, five SUPPORTERS are anted to THE STATE which currently has ten SUPPORTERS. Each ROUND, THE STATE keeps a SECRET, and currently has four, awaiting a fifth this ROUND.
2. RED does not have a lot of SUPPORTERS left, and will be looking to play BOOTS, and convince others to play BOOTS.
3. If BOOTS win, RED could win two SUPPORTERS from YELLOW in the current PARTY TABLEAU.
4. RED has four SUPPORTERS committed because four LEADERS have been revealed this PLOT. He will lose these if FISTS win. He will retrieve them if BOOTS win.
5. YELLOW knows there is at least one YELLOW LEADER in the STATE SECRETS, as well as three BOOTS, because he played them and they haven't yet been revealed. YELLOW is going to to play another YELLOW LEADER in an effort to move left to neutral or BOLSHEVIK because he believes BOOTS will win.
6. PURPLE has eight SUPPORTERS, one more than YELLOW or BLUE. She figures that one SUPPORTER is an acceptable loss this PLOT, and has been playing throwaway cards in an effort to start with a strong hand next PLOT. She hopes nobody plays a PURPLE LEADER as that would increase her SUPPORTER commitment when losing the PLOT is imminent.
7. BLUE knows that YELLOW will try to move LEFT, so BLUE needs to commit more LEADERS (and thus SUPPORTERS) to keep YELLOW from moving left and pushing BLUE right to the MENSHEVIKS.

Printed as "going to to play" in item 5; reproduced as printed.