Kompromat Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Gameplay in a Nutshell
• Components
• Setup
• How to Play
  • Attempt Missions
  • Notes
  • Reveal Cards
  • Reset for Next Round
• Game End
• Mission Cards
  • Targets
  • Documents and Codes
  • Counter-intelligence
  • Items

Gameplay in a Nutshell

1. Lay out four mission cards face-up.
2. Players alternate turns playing cards to the missions. At each mission you try to beat your opponent's total without going over 21 — exceeding 21 earns notoriety.
3. All cards are revealed. Players win mission cards and gain victory points, notoriety, and special abilities.

Reaching 9 notoriety tokens loses the game immediately. Otherwise the player with the most victory points wins.

Components

57 cards in total:

• 2 equipment decks of 14 cards (one per player). The decks are identical except for their player colour. Each deck contains the values: 0.5, 1 or 11, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10, 1 or 11.
• 1 mission deck of 29 cards

Plus 18 notoriety tokens.

Setup

1. Give each player one equipment deck of 14 cards. Each player shuffles their own deck.
2. Shuffle the mission deck and put it face-down on the table.
3. Put the notoriety tokens in a pile next to the mission deck.
4. Turn over the top 4 cards of the mission deck and lay them in a line leading away from the deck.

Counter-intelligence cards during setup. If any of the 4 revealed cards is a counter-intelligence card, reveal one more mission card and place it on top of that counter-intelligence card. Offset the top card so the exclamation mark icons on the counter-intelligence card below stay visible.

If a replacement card drawn this way is itself a counter-intelligence card, set it aside and draw a different card instead. Shuffle the set-aside cards back into the mission deck.

How to Play

A round has two phases: players first attempt missions by committing equipment cards, then all cards are revealed and the missions are resolved.

Attempt Missions

1. The most suspicious looking player takes the first turn. On your turn, carry out steps 2-7.
2. Draw the top card of your equipment deck.
3. Pick a mission to attempt. Put that card face-up next to the chosen mission.
4. You may keep drawing further cards one at a time. Look at each drawn card in secret, then place it face-down next to the same mission. Your opponent can see how many cards you have played but not their values. Once you have looked at a drawn card you must play it. All the cards you play this turn go to one single mission — you may not split them between missions.
5. You may stop drawing at any moment. Normally you want a total higher than your opponent's without exceeding 21.
6. If your cards at the mission total more than 21, you must stop drawing. Do not tell your opponent that this happened.
7. Once you stop placing cards at a mission — by choice, or because you went over 21, or because you ran out of cards — you may no longer look at the face-down cards you placed there. While you are still drawing and placing cards at a mission, you are allowed to look at your own face-down cards at that mission.
8. Your opponent then takes a turn the same way: one face-up equipment card, then as many face-down cards as they want, all at a single mission. They may choose any mission — it does not have to be the one you just attempted. Turns alternate like this until both players have committed cards to all four missions.

Notes

• You may not add cards to a mission you already attempted on an earlier turn.
• If you run out of cards in your equipment deck, you take no more turns for the rest of the round. This can leave you with no cards at one of the missions.
• The 1 or 11 card can count as either 1 or 11. You do not have to decide which value it takes until you reveal your cards.
• The 0.5 card always counts as one half — lower than 1 and higher than 0.

Reveal Cards

Resolve the missions one at a time, beginning with the mission nearest the draw pile and working outward along the line.

At each mission, the round's starting player reveals their cards there and states their total. At this moment they choose whether each of their 1 or 11 cards counts as 1 or as 11. The other player then does the same at that mission.

Failed mission. A player whose total is over 21 discards all of their cards at that mission and takes a notoriety token.

Perfect mission. A player whose total is exactly 21 may discard one of their own notoriety tokens.

Winning the mission. The player with the highest total takes the mission card.

Ties. If both players have the same highest total, the mission card goes to whichever of them assigned more cards to that mission. If they are still tied, neither player takes the card and it is discarded.

Repeat this procedure for each mission in turn, moving away from the mission deck.

Reset for Next Round

Each player takes back all of their equipment cards and shuffles them to rebuild their equipment deck. Reveal 4 new mission cards from the mission deck and begin a new round. The starting player alternates between the two players each round.

Game End

The game ends in one of two ways.

1. Notoriety loss. The moment a player holds 9 or more notoriety tokens, that player loses the game immediately.

2. Six rounds completed. After six full rounds, count victory points:

• Add up the victory points from the Target, Item, and Document/Code cards you collected.
• Each notoriety token is worth 1 victory point.

The player with the most victory points wins. If the totals are tied, the player with the most notoriety wins.

Mission Cards

There are 4 types of mission card.

Targets

Keep each target you collect in a face-down pile. Targets are scored at the end of the game. A target card shows the victory points it is worth.

Documents and Codes

Documents and Codes are special targets. Their value depends on how many cards of that same type you have collected:

Cards of one type	Victory points
1	2
2	6
3	12

For example, a single Code card at game end is worth 2 victory points; a pair of them is worth 6 points in total; a set of three is worth 12 points.

Documents and Codes are separate types — count each type on its own.

Counter-intelligence

When you take a mission card that has a counter-intelligence card underneath it, you also take notoriety tokens equal to the number of exclamation marks shown on the counter-intelligence card. Discard the counter-intelligence card afterwards.

Items

Items grant a special ability. When you win an item card, keep it face-up in front of you until you decide to use its effect.

• Each item may be used only once, at any time.
• After it is used, put it face-down into your scoring pile along with the other mission cards you have collected.
• Each item card is worth 1 victory point at the end of the game, whether or not it was used.
• An item is available to use as soon as it is gained. For example, you may win an item at one mission and use it immediately, before the next mission's cards are revealed.

An example item is Night Vision, worth 1 victory point, whose effect lets you look at the next 5 cards of your equipment deck and return them in the same order.