Don Capollo Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• About the Game
• Objective
• Setup
  • Cards
• How to Play
• Main Actions
  • Main action 1: Take a face-down business card into your hand and take a money token from the common stock
  • Main action 2: Turn over two business cards from the pile to keep them or trade them
    • Managing a business
  • Main action 3: Pay one money token to the common stock AND turn over 3 business cards to keep them or trade them
• Free Actions
  • Free action 1: Start or develop a family business
  • Free action 2: Sell or trade business cards
  • Free action 3: Discard 3$ and take a face-down card from the draw pile (at most twice per turn)
  • Free action 4: Make an accountability
  • Free action 5: Call in a favor
  • Free action 6: Ask for a donation
• When Does the Game End?
• Who Wins?
• The Cards
  • Weapons
  • Corruption
  • Casino
  • Drinks
  • Prostitution
  • Works of Art
  • Olive Oil
  • Loan-Sharking
  • Favor
  • Power
• Shuffling Tip

About the Game

Don Capollo, the greatest mobster in Chicago, has just been shot and is about to die. His sons decide among themselves who will be his successor. To do so, the sons will run the family businesses to accumulate money and power.

At the end, whoever has accumulated the most power wins the game and becomes the new "Capo dei Capi". And can finally plan revenge against his father's killer, but that is a matter for another game.

Objective

The player with the most power wins; in case of a tie, the one with the most money.

Setup

Place the power cards face up, within everyone's reach, according to their values, forming piles of cards: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 points of power.

Shuffle the deck of business cards well and place it in the center of the table, face down, forming a draw pile.

Leave the money tokens in the center of the table, forming the "common stock".

Each player receives:

• 1 character token, with the name of one of Don Capollo's sons and the game summary on the back.
• 1 favor card corresponding to the color of his character.
• 5 tokens of a thousand bucks each.
• 5 business cards face down, which the players may look at but may not show to anyone.

Cards

Power card: amount of power accumulated by the player (these are the "victory points").

Business cards: business name; illustration; table used for the accountability ("prestação de contas").

Accountability table:

• 1st row: number of cards the player has managed to accumulate at the moment of accountability.
• 2nd row: amount of money the player must receive or pay when accounting.
• 3rd row: amount of power the player gains when accounting.

(Note: the following text of the manual describes the 2nd row as power and the 3rd row as money in the "free action 4" section; the manual's two descriptions are transcribed as printed.)

How to Play

The oldest player at the table starts the game. On his turn, each player may perform ONLY ONE "main action" and as many "free actions" as he wishes.

The player may perform the free actions in any order during his turn, that is, before, during or after the main action.

Thus, on his turn the player MUST perform ONE of the 3 possible "main actions". A summary of each:

1. Take one face-down business card and put it in his hand AND take one money token from the common stock.
2. Turn over two business cards from the pile to keep them or trade them.
3. Pay one money token to the common stock and turn over three business cards to keep them or trade them.

Main Actions

Main action 1: Take a face-down business card into your hand and take a money token from the common stock

The player takes a card from the draw pile, face down, and puts it in his hand. Then he takes a money token from the stock and puts it with his money. Then the player may perform any free action he wishes, or pass the turn to the player on his left.

Main action 2: Turn over two business cards from the pile to keep them or trade them

The player turns over two business cards from the draw pile. After that, the player MUST give a destiny to all the cards that were turned over. The player may keep the card to "manage" the business written on the card, placing it in front of him, or sell or trade it with another player.

Managing a business

If the player wants to keep a card, we say he intends to "manage a business". To do so, he just takes a business card and places it in front of him face up, starting a row of cards of that business.

Each player may control at most 2 different types of business at the same time, that is, may have at most two different rows of cards in front of him.

Each row of cards may only have cards of the same type. The player may accumulate these cards until he decides to trade, sell or render accounts.

If the player obtains another card of the same type, he may place it beneath the first card already in his row. If the player has a business card of the same type in his hand or on the table, he may place it on top of the same card, but in such a way that the name of both can be seen, forming a vertical row.

The more equal business cards the player manages to gather (up to a limit of 5), the more power points and more money he will obtain at the moment of "accountability", according to the table of each card.

A player is allowed to accumulate up to 8 cards of the same business, in order to harm the other players, but he will only receive the money and power points up to a maximum of 5 cards.

To free one of his two spaces, the player has to make an "accountability" to his father (see free action no. 4), which may be done even outside his turn.

Main action 3: Pay one money token to the common stock AND turn over 3 business cards to keep them or trade them

In this action, the player must pay one money token to the common stock in order to turn over 3 cards. After that, the player MUST give a destiny to all the cards that are face up. To do so, the player may choose to keep all of them, some of the cards, or trade them with the other players.

Free Actions

In addition to the main actions, the player MAY perform the following free actions, as many times as he wishes, in the order he prefers, before, during or after the main action:

1. Place one or more cards from his hand on the table;
2. Trade one or more business cards with the other players (they may be the cards just turned over on the table, those in his hand, or those on the table for any player);
3. Discard 3 money tokens and take a face-down card from the draw pile (at most twice per turn);
4. Make an accountability (he may perform this action even when it is not his turn);
5. Call in a favor;
6. Ask for a donation in money.

When he does not want to perform any more actions, the player passes the turn to the player on his left. Let us examine each of these possible free actions.

Free action 1: Start or develop a family business

On his turn, the player may transfer as many cards as he wants from his hand to the table, starting a new business or placing an equal card on a business that has already been started, developing it.

However, remember that each player can keep only two types of business at a time.

For example: the player has the weapons and drinks businesses in front of him. If the player has a weapons card in his hand, he may place this card on the weapons card on the table, slightly below the first card, so that at least the name of the card can be seen, forming a vertical row. Alternatively, if the player has a free space, he may place a card from his hand in that space.

If you want, you may place more than 5 equal cards on a business card, but at the moment of accountability you will have to discard all of those cards. Remember: the cards that exceed a limit of 5 are not worth points.

You are not obliged to place business cards from your hand on the table, even if you have the possibility of doing so: you may hold the cards to place them at a later moment, thus surprising the other players.

Free action 2: Sell or trade business cards

If the player does not want to keep some (or all) of the business cards he has just turned over, he may put the card up for sale or trade with the other players.

To do so, the player informs the others that he intends to sell a certain business card. The players freely make their proposals, offering:

• some amount of money;
• one or more cards from their hand;
• one or more cards that are already laid down;
• a favor.

The player selling the card may make proposals and counterproposals and is free to accept any proposal from any player.

The other players may make offers to the player even for cards he did not initially want to sell. The players may also try to sell cards that have already been placed in front of them.

When the active player says "deal closed", the negotiations end and the deal is made immediately. None of the players may "regret" his proposal or try to back out of the deal. Mobsters are men of their word.

The traded cards must go immediately to one of the two available spaces of the players: no card may go to their hand or directly to the discard. If the player needs to free up space, he may make an accountability.

Free action 3: Discard 3$ and take a face-down card from the draw pile (at most twice per turn)

The active player may pay 3$ to the common stock to buy a face-down card and put it in his hand. Remember: this action is only allowed at most twice per turn.

Free action 4: Make an accountability

Make an accountability (you may perform this action even when it is not your turn).

To make the accountability, the player may discard one of his rows of cards to turn these cards into money and power. The amount of money and power the player can gain is described in the table of each card.

The top row indicates the number of cards being discarded. The second row indicates the amount of power the player gains by discarding that number. The third row indicates the amount of money the player gains or loses by trading that number of cards.

Thus, the cards are discarded and the player immediately receives the equivalent amount of money and power from the common stock of the table and keeps it for himself.

The discarded cards form a discard pile. None of the players may check which cards are in the discard pile.

Each power card represents a number, which is the amount of power a player has obtained. If necessary, these cards may be exchanged for one of higher value. For example: return 5 power cards of value 1 to the pile and take one power card of value 5. These power points must stay with the player, face down, until the final count of the game.

For example: Giovanni has just decided to render accounts for the weapons business he owns. He has 5 weapons cards, which are placed in the discard pile. With this he gains 3 money and 5 power.

Attention: remember that in some columns of the corruption, works of art and loan-sharking cards, instead of gaining, you lose money!

Free action 5: Call in a favor

If a player really wants a card, he may offer another player a favor. This action may be performed even when it is not the player's turn.

The player who received the proposal may or may not accept the favor. If he accepts, he hands over the requested card and takes the favor card.

At any moment of the game, the player holding the favor card may call in this favor, even when it is not his turn. The favor takes precedence over any negotiation or offer of the opponents. It also prevails over the player's accountability.

To call in a favor, the player must return the favor card to the opponent and may choose among the following options:

a) See his opponent's hand and take a card from it and place it on the table; b) Choose one of the business cards that his opponent is managing and take it for himself, placing it in one of his two available spaces; c) Take one of the cards on the table that were turned face up on his opponent's turn;

Or, at the end of the game, during the point count, if you have not yet used the favor, you may:

d) Steal one power point from the opponent (-1 power point for him and +1 power point for you).

Important: a favor held by a player may also be traded with other players, as if it were money or a business card.

Free action 6: Ask for a donation

If the player needs to, he may "ask his father for a donation": he takes one money (1$) from the pile for each power point he pays. This action may be performed even when it is not the player's turn.

When Does the Game End?

The business cards are used by the players every turn, and with every accountability a discard pile is made.

When the draw pile of business cards runs out, the discard pile is shuffled well and placed at the players' disposal only one more time.

When the draw pile runs out for the second time, the last player may finish his play and then the game ends. It is time for the point count:

All players must lay down the cards in their hand and make the accountabilities to "Don Capollo", converting all cards into money and power points (even the cards that give less money must be used).

At this moment, players may not trade cards among themselves.

If any player holds another player's favor, the holder of the favor gains one power point and the one who owes the favor gets -1 power point.

All players count their money and may exchange every 5$ for one power point. If there is money left over that does not make up 5, the player must keep it, since money is the tiebreaker.

All players count how many power points they have.

Who Wins?

At the end of the game, whoever has accumulated the most power wins the game and is named by "Don Capollo" as his legitimate successor. He receives the title of "Don", and will be considered by all the new "Capo dei Capi", loved by some and feared by all.

In case of a tie in power points, the tied player with the most money wins. If the tie persists, they share the victory.

The Cards

Weapons

"You are more persuasive with sweet words and a gun in your hand than with sweet words alone."

Weapons give a lot of power and a good amount of money. The biggest problem is that they are contested by the other players.

Corruption

"Everyone has a price."

Although you always lose money, the power that corruption brings is worth it, especially early in the game.

Casino

"Now I'm the one dealing the cards..."

This is an average card, which gives neither much power nor much money.

Drinks

"A man has the right to drink."

Another business worth managing, because of the power and money it brings.

Prostitution

"It is the oldest profession in the world; managing it is a sign of respect."

It gives neither much money nor much power. Generally it is worth trading it soon to free up space, but it may be possible that it yields good deals because it is a card despised by the other players.

Works of Art

"Money is no fun if you can't spend it."

At the beginning it gives a money penalty, so it is easy to buy this card paying relatively little. With two cards it is already possible to obtain an interesting amount of money.

Olive Oil

"I always said our work was honest..."

The mafia needs at least one honest business to be used for money laundering. Olive oil was chosen as a tribute to "The Godfather". It is not a profitable business, but since it can be bought cheaply it may be relatively easy to manage to close all five cards.

Loan-Sharking

"Tomorrow, nothing! The deadline was today!"

Although it generates money penalties with few cards, loan-sharking gives a considerable profit after the 3rd card, which makes it an excellent business for the early and middle game, but dangerous at the end.

Favor

"Friendship is everything. It is more than talent, more than Government. It is like a family! Never forget that."

The favor is strong and can be interesting for buying the 5th card of a worthwhile business from a resistant seller: use the favor as a "final argument". Be tough in negotiations to get favors from the other players and try to get your own favor back before the end of the game.

Power

"To what do I owe the honor, Mr. Mayor?"

Power is the only thing that cannot be traded and that really makes the difference. Remember: what matters to win is Power. Money is just a tool to accumulate more Power...

Shuffling Tip

In this game it is very important that the cards are very well shuffled, especially the second time the pile is dealt. To make shuffling easier, the discard pile can be divided into 5 face-down piles as the cards are discarded, just above each of the power cards. Then just shuffle the 5 piles individually and then gather them together and you will have no problems.