Don Peperoni Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Play Materials
• The Board
• Aim of the Game
• Set Up
• Sequence of Play
• Movement
• Bribes
• Large and Small Houses
• Instant Scoring
• Stalemate
• Agents
  • Lawyer
  • Spy
  • Gunslinger
  • Bodyguard
  • Char Lady
• The Police Come To Play
• Control of Election Canvassers
• End-game Scoring
• The Game for 3 or 5 Players
• Play Variants
  • Agents in the family house
  • Splitting Up Movement
• More Options for the Police
  • The Rozzers Come Round
  • Street Closed

Play Materials

• Board
• 5 Screens
• 5x20 Money chits (2x1, 2x2, 2x5, 2x10, 2x20, 4x50, 2x100, 2x200, 2x500)
• Agents: 5x Lawyers, 5x Spies, 5x Bodyguards, 5x Gunslingers, 5x Char Ladies
• 2 Police markers
• 5x15 Election Posters
• 6 Locked house tokens for the 3 player game
• 5x2 Election Canvassers (wooden men)
• 5 Vote counters
• 1 Round counter

Money chits (in 5 colours)

The Board

1. Vote (victory point) counting: At the start of the game, put all the vote counters on the "8". Whenever something is scored, move the counter immediately.

2. Round counting: To begin with, put the counter on "1". At the end of each round move it on one place. When it is on the "8" each player gets one more go before the game ends. Then do the game-end scoring.

3. Board spaces: Board spaces are identified by their borders. Each house is also a valid board space and can only be entered by the door. With 3 or 4 players ignore the area on the other side of the stream.

Component notes: Locked house token (only used in 3 player game). Screen. Police marker. Round counter and track. This part of the board is only used in the 5 player game. Vote (victory point) counters and track. Canvasser (wooden man). Election Posters. Agents (5 colours).

Aim of the Game

In the 8 days before the election your untiring canvassers are in the village handing out bribes non-stop. Through skilful placement of your cash, you try to win the votes from more houses than the other players. For each house you win, you get points. You can still win back houses that other players have won by placing your agents. Whoever has most votes at the end wins.

Set Up

Each player chooses one of 5 characters (The General, Isabella de las Flores, Tequila-Pedro, Ramón Ramirez and Senor Ziggo) and takes the same colour of canvassers and screen, a set of money chits and his Agents (Lawyer, Gunslinger, Spy, Bodyguard and Char Lady) and also 15 election posters with a portrait of his character.

The play screen helps to shield your money and agents from the curious gaze of the other players.

Now each player chooses one of the 8 houses as his family home. (In the 3 and 4 player game the family home cannot be on the other side of the river). Put one of your election posters there so everyone can see it. Your 2 canvassers also start in this house.

The VP counter for each player should be on the number 8 on the vote track. The 8 points represent the 8 value of the family home.

The round counter should be placed on the 1 on the round counter track. The player who has the next birthday starts.

Sequence of Play

At the start of the game all the canvassers are in their family homes. The players move their 2 canvassers one after the other in clockwise turn order. If they enter a house they can immediately take actions.

When all players in turn have moved, the round counter is moved on one and the next round begins.

The game takes place over 8 rounds and ends with game-end scoring.

Movement

Each player has 8 movement points per round to divide between their 2 canvassers. Each space on the board costs 1 movement point to enter. If one canvasser moves 8, the other will not move at all. If one goes 6, the other can go 2. Houses count the same as any other space for movement purposes. Unused movement points are lost.

If a canvasser goes into a house to leave a bribe there, afterwards he can continue his move and therefore could possibly visit 2 or 3 houses and leave further bribes.

Example (illustration caption): The green canvasser leaves the church and moves as shown. With his 5th movement point he goes into the number 2 house. With his 6th movement point he leaves it again. The 7th point brings him to the other side of the river, he has to use an extra movement point to cross the bridge.

Bribes

If a canvasser goes into a house in which he has not yet left a bribe or in which there is a stalemate (see below) he can leave a bribe behind him. The player places a chit face down in the house.

Important: Only one chit per player in each house is allowed. This is where powers of deduction, bluff and observation of other players comes in.

Large and Small Houses

Each house has a number which represents its residents ability to vote. From the family house the player gets 8 votes for example. With other houses the number ranges from 2 to 10. The player gaining the votes from the house is he who has correctly judged the value of the house and has offered the highest bribe.

Houses that a player has already scored can be lost because other players can still place agents in them (see Agents and End-game scoring).

Instant Scoring

If a player moves his canvasser into a house where another player has already placed a concealed bribe, and places a bribe himself an immediate comparison of the bribes will take place. Both bribes are revealed (but not any agents) and the player with the greatest bribe wins the favour of the residents of the house. To indicate this the winner places his election poster in the house and moves his vote counter as many points along the track as the number printed in the house. If the bribes are the same see 'Stalemate' below.

Houses that have a number 10 need three not two bribes to make an 'instant scoring' happen. The residents count for more and are more demanding!

Stalemate

A stalemate happens at an instant scoring when at least two of the bribes are revealed to be equal highest. Then the house's residents are undecided. The players between whom the stalemate has occurred, have another chance to lay money to solve their "argument" and offer more bribes. The player who has a canvasser in the neighbourhood and caused the 'instant scoring' can immediately give another bribe. It remains concealed until any adversary - his earliest opportunity will be in his next go - likewise submits a further bribe and provokes further instant scoring.

In extreme cases you can imagine that three players in a 10 house may have to increase their bribes again, if they have all offered the same amount of bribe. If only one player improves their bribe before the end-game scoring he will win the favour of the residents automatically.

If a new stalemate happens after bribes have been increased those players can lay again.

Agents

Canvassers can also place agents with a bribe in a house. The agents can be left additionally to or independently of bribes. Like a bribe, they are placed in a house face down, but they are only revealed during the end-game scoring. A player may leave several agents in a single house, but only one per round.

With the help of agents a player can get an extra family home.

The following agents are placed by canvassers to convince voters. Each can be used once only.

Lawyer

If the lawyer is the only agent in a house, then at the end-game scoring he will, through threats and with legal argument, convince the residents to vote for the right player. If another player has already won this house through bribery and has gained victory points on the track, he will lose them to the player of the lawyer.

The lawyer loses his effect if there is any other agent in the house. That is also true if there are two other agents present who mutually neutralise each other.

Spy

Once per game a spy can immediately look at a money chit in a house he wishes to bribe. No other player can see the money chit. Afterwards the spy is removed from the game.

Gunslinger

In the end-game scoring the gunslinger will hold his gun to the heads of the residents of the house he is in, forcing them to vote for the right player. Two or more gunslingers in the same building neutralise each other.

A gunslinger chases away all lawyers. He remains present, but ineffective if a bodyguard is revealed.

Bodyguard

The bodyguard is solely defensive. He defends all attacks from lawyers and gunslingers in the house in which he is placed. Therefore there is no benefit in the end-game scoring if a bodyguard is on his own in a house. The body guard has no influence on the residents' votes.

Char Lady

She can drive away the lawyer. However she has no influence in the end-game scoring and is really there largely as a bluff.

The Police Come To Play

Between the 4th and 5th round there is a small interruption in which the police intervene in the affair. They hear that all things are not right at the election. But where should they start? Disorder is everywhere and perhaps it is best to join forces with one of the parties. Naturally that should be the person who pays most.

To determine this, the two police markers are placed on the table. All the players, in clockwise order, place their chosen number of money chits face down by one or both markers. A player can choose not to join in the bidding. Bidding continues until no player wants to place any more chits, then all the chits are revealed. All the chits used in bidding are removed from the game. The police reward the player who has offered the highest bribe (see 'control of election canvassers' below).

If there is a draw between two or more players, the players can - as in a stalemate to gain the voter's goodwill - put out more concealed money chits until there is a winner.

The player with the overall highest bid (it doesn't matter which of the two markers he bid for) gets to choose who starts round 5.

Control of Election Canvassers

A player who has a police marker can, once in his turn, stop and frisk another player's canvasser. The controlled canvasser must stay still for one round before he is able to continue on his way. The movement point counter for the player does not move down. The uncontrolled canvasser for that player can still move his usual 8 places.

The police marker is placed under the canvasser. The affected player can remove it in the round after his canvasser could not move.

If a canvasser of one of the players is being frisked, his other canvasser cannot be frisked at the same time.

End-game Scoring

When the last player in the 8th round has finished his go, then the end-game scoring starts. Houses with concealed money chits that have not been scored (including those where a bid has been raised after a stalemate) are now immediately scored one after the other.

If there is now a stalemate anywhere the favour of the residents is undecided and no-one gets their votes.

Afterwards players, one after the other, reveal their agents. Now we see if they mutually eliminate each other or who gets the advantage (see Agents). A player who thought they had won a house may find at this point that they lose points on the victory point track and another player wins them instead.

The winner and the new Don Peperoni is whomever, after all the counting, has the most votes for him in total. If any players have equal highest points, the one with the most money remaining wins.

The Game for 3 or 5 Players

If playing with only 3 players place locked door tokens in the houses with the light red numbers at the beginning of the game. No one lives there and they can be completely ignored. In addition, all 1 value money chits and a 500 money chit for each player are taken out of the game.

If playing with 5 players the part of the board on the other side of the river is only used in the 5 player game. Also, each house must have 3 money chits concealed in it before an instant scoring takes place.

Play Variants

Advanced players may want to try the following optional variants:

Agents in the family house

Agents that have not been played remain in the family house. If a player places an agent in an opponent's family house, they can drive him away, if a suitable agent is available.

Splitting Up Movement

Each player normally has 8 movement points per round. In this variant no more than 6 of these can be allocated to a single canvasser. It is therefore not possible for one canvasser to move 8 and the other zero. The biggest difference possible is 6 to one canvasser and 2 to the other.

If a canvasser is frisked by police, the player will lose 2 movement points.

More Options for the Police

The Rozzers Come Round

The police shake down a house of their choice. For one whole round no new money chits can be placed there and no agents installed. Bribes and agents left there before this round remain.

Street Closed

A chosen road is closed for a round. No pieces can move down it including the player's own pieces. The police marker is placed on the road.

It is never possible for one police marker to carry out more than one action, i.e. it will either frisk someone or raid a house or close a street then be removed from the game.