Korruptivity
Korruptivity Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
It is quite easy by the way, as the mechanics of Korruptivity are mostly mathematical. Any special rule which applies to a card, also has a nice "international" sign printed on the side of that card whichever uses it. The only thing that you will miss is the special, actual, spicy Hungarian feeling, written into the names of the cards, and some additional quoted texts as well. Fortunately, you probably won't miss this too much owing to the funny artwork and characters drawn onto each card! While you are playing, try to figure out what is going on in the imaginary universe of Korruptivity by guessing what is shown on the pictures! And feel free to add your loud comments to the game play as it proceeds and the projects starts building up.
Korruptivity is all about completing missions as seen on the project-cards. To do so, you'll need to collect certain other types of card, and attach them to a project-card.
By doing so, you also modify the 2 aspects of the project - Corruption (on magenta-colored shapes) and Popularity (on cyan-colored shapes) - which are represented as positive or negative point numbers... well mostly... :)
All the cards attached to a so called "project-line" are counted together, summing up the two different aspects (cor/pop), and giving a total corruption and a total popularity score for each and every running project at the current state.
The third aspect of the game is Power (on yellow), which the game is all about. You get these points for completing the projects, and you have to collect more of them than your opponents to win the game.
There are 6+1 different type of cards in Korruptivity, they are something like the color of the cards; each has its corresponding icon, which can be seen in the upper-left corner of all of the cards.
For the basic game, what you have to know is that, for the purposes of building up the projects, only 4 kind of card types count. These are Document; To-Do; Investment; Event. They called the "Fejlemények" category, something like "Consequences"... Lets just call them the building blocks! It doesn't really matter anyway:)
Card Types and Task Icons
The main card type is:
- Project (project-card icon)
The "building block" types are:
- Document (check-mark icon)
- To-Do (circled cross icon)
- Investment (hand-and-coin icon)
- Event (circled swirl icon)
The two other types are:
- Character (figure icon): in the basic game these Characters are only good for the purpose of balancing the two aspects (cor/pop) of the project-lines... well, more or less :)
- Relation (empty circle icon): the so-called Relation cards have no use at all in building up project-lines; indeed, they do not even take part in the basic game, so they are not shuffled into the play deck at all. (Note: these two card types do not count as tasks...)
Just be aware that the other types - not mentioned yet - do not count as a completed TASK in game terms.
Game Concept
- The main rule is that a card can only be played if it is attached to an existing project.
- Only project-cards can be played on their own, this way starting a new row for other cards.
- All the project-lines are built up of cards in the order they are played out.
- If a card has an aspect (cor/pop) point value, it is added to the total of that project to which the card is attached.
- Any number of cards can be attached to a project-line, any player can play cards on everyone else's projects also, if not blocked otherwise.
Tasks and Limitations
The tasks are requirements, they can be seen on the project cards, and they each represent certain types of card that have to be added to the project-line. They can be specific, if an icon of a card type is shown - or non-specific, like:
- ? (question-mark icon): a different type from the other given tasks, or
- ! (exclamation icon): meaning more of the same kind, and
- ⊗ (circled cross icon): standing for any of the 4 "Consequences" card types...
While you are collecting the necessary card types to complete the tasks, you also have to be aware of the 2 totals of the aspect points (cor/pop) in each running project.
To successfully complete a project, you need to have the totals of the aspect values kept in a range matching the rules seen on the project card (in the place where the aspects points would be).
These rules set out limitations to the way the project should be done. They may be as follows:
| Limitation icon | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Positive-arrow icon (+ / up arrow) | The total of this aspect needs to be positive to be able to successfully complete the project. |
| Negative-arrow icon (- / down arrow) | The total of this aspect needs to be negative to be able to successfully complete the project. |
| "!!" icon | Strict rule! This condition must be met every time when checked, and not just upon completion. |
| "><" icon | The total of this aspect needs to equal the number shown for you to be able to successfully complete it. (zero in this case) |
| "..." icon | No need to add up these aspect points - they do not matter as regards success in this case. |
An aspect total of 0 (zero) is not good enough for completion of, nor is it bad enough to collapse a project (only if there is an exact value limitation regarding this aspect).
If you cannot save your project from breaking a strict(!!) rule when it is checked, all the cards involved in its project-line have to be put to the discard pile. This is called a collapse.
When you have gathered a set of cards into a project-line covering all the tasks of that project and which also suits the limitations defined in relation to the aspects (cor/pop) totals, you will be able to complete the project.
Successfully completing a project means you receive the amount of "power-points" (yellow shape) listed on the project card and occasionally on other cards in its project-line.
After completion, you get back your character cards participating in that project - they come back to the table, in front of the player, face up. These characters can join in any other project just as can cards from your hand, but these "veteran" characters do not count in your hand limit.
All other remaining cards in a completed project go to the discard pile.
Hourglasses and Counters
If you play a card bearing the hourglass sign, you must put a counter on that project-line for every hourglass icon on that card.
If there are "hourglass-counters" on a project-line, it is frozen; nothing can happen to it, and no more cards can be attached to it until all the counters have been removed. Every turn, the active player can remove 1 counter from each of his/her running project-lines, if there are any.
There are a few cards which can be played on frozen project-lines also...
So if you come across a card bearing the negative hourglass-counter sign (-1) that you are attaching to a frozen project with counters on it, you will know what to do :)
Goal of the Game
The goal of the game is to get the most power points by completing projects.
The game lasts until someone has attained 8 power-points (the more points that are needed, the longer the game lasts). After this "power limit" is reached, every other player can try to complete their remaining projects by removing 1 counter from each project-line. The winner will be the one with the highest amount of power after this.
Game Setup
- Project icon: Look up all the project cards and shuffle them in a separate deck - this will be the community deck. Put it face-down on the center of the table. Flip the top 4 cards and put them face-up next to each other. These are the first 4 common projects that one can choose from.
- Building-block icons (Document, To-Do, Investment, Event): Shuffle the remaining cards (except the "Relation" types) to another deck, and put them face-down too. This will be the draw deck, where the players draw their cards from.
- Relation icon: For the basic game you do not need these, but feel free to mix in some of this type of cards into the draw deck, as desired...
- Power-points icon (Pp): Note: the power-points on some rare cards are only needed to be accounted, if that particular project is successfully completed. And yes, a project can "score" negative if completing it such a way...
How to Start
Every participating player starts by drawing 5 cards from the draw deck.
They decide who will go first, in whichever way they feel suitable.
After this, the game goes counter-clockwise...
The active player can perform several activities during his/her own turn, in a certain order. When all is done, the next player will have his/her turn.
Turn Phases (Basic Game)
You, as the active player, can undertake these phases when it is your turn. Phase order:
-
Keep-track-of hourglasses: remove 1 hourglass-counter from every frozen project of your own...
-
Check if any of your projects are ready to be completed...
-
You can proceed with your existing projects or start one of the available common project or even mess with the other's businesses.
- As long as no other cards are attached to a newly started "solo" project card, the next card in that row can only be attached by the player commencing it.
- You can start 1 new project each turn, by putting the project in front of you on the table. If you do so, another project-card has to be flipped to fill up the common space to 4 projects again.
- No more than 3 parallel project-lines can be managed by a single player; if more is needed, one of the existing ones must be voluntarily collapsed.
This is the MAIN phase, in which you can play any cards from your hand by attaching them to running projects... (normally no other players can play cards but the active player)
-
Check if any of your own projects having strict (!!) rules with its aspect collapses if the total of the aspect does not correspond to the limitation and there are no counters on it...
-
Optionally, discard any number of cards from your hand to the discard pile... (Why?! To draw more!)
-
Draw a number of cards from the "draw-deck", needed to give you a total of 5 cards in your hand again...
Special Cards and Signs
You will come across certain special cards that have special signs telling you what to do.
Every special card has written on it what it does, i.e. describing what the sign means. Unfortunately, it is in the Hungarian language on the original cards. The explanations of all the signs and markings you will find on Korruptivity cards are given in English below.
The things that you should not worry at all in the beginning are the "orientation" marks, which don't count in a basic game; though they could mean extra points in pairs, if in a complex game. By the way, they are found on some cards, under the type icon, and these are as follows: Political / Media / Economical / Bureaucratic / Crime / Professional.
The important part when playing the basic game is: markings around the type icon of the card represent the special ability of that card:
- Interrupts: You can play this card anytime, not just in your own turn. Play it after any card has been played by anyone, not necessarily played in the same project-line however...
- Small hourglass: You can attach this card to frozen projects also. (Note that these cards are the only ones that can be attached to projects with hourglass-counters on...)
- Linked: This and another card can be linked together - playing them as one - at the same time, or attaching this permanently to another card.
Signs in the Aspect Value Areas
- -3 / +3 (integer): If an integer number is printed, the points are simply added to the total of the given aspect. If no value is found, it means the card has 0 (zero) points of that aspect.
- ± : When attaching this card, you can decide whether this point value is added or subtracted from the total of the given aspect.
- (x) / (4-x): When attaching this card, you can choose between 0 and +4, what the value of "x" (4-x) should be.
- K / N: This will get a point value when attached to a project-line. It will have exactly the amount of points needed for the total of the given aspect (at the time of attaching) - to be just right to meet its limitation. (The new sum after this is added should be -1/+1 or 0, for example.)
- K0 / N0: This will get a point value when attached to a project-line. It will get exactly the amount of points needed for the total of the given aspect (at the time of attaching) to be zero.
- K2 / N2: This will get a point value when attached to a project-line. It will have exactly the amount of points of the current total of the given aspect. (This doubles the total.)
- Bracket-expression icon: Math expressions in brackets are done with the aspect value of the previously attached card in the same project-line (if it has any) and not with the aspect's total. Making the math expression's equatorial [sic - probably "equation"] (where "x" is the value of that previous card) the new value which should be added to the total, instead of the previous card's value. These cards have a cumulative effect, and they can be combined with similar expression cards, if the aspect is found on every card continuously.
- +++ or 1/3 (power): Collapse (discard) one of your own running projects, receiving 1/3 of its power when the project-line containing this card is completed successfully (rounded down, but at least 1).
Other Signs on the Cards
- Hourglass with +1 icon: All running projects get +1 hourglass counter (every player is affected).
- 2x with To-Do icon: This card is worth two of its kind. (In this example two "To-Dos".) (Note: also on the same card you will find the next sign too...)
- Character-arrow icon: This card can only be attached after a character card.
- Nasty smiley: You can remove any of the cards from the project-line it is attached to, and re-count the aspect's total afterwards.
That's all that is needed for the basic game...
You can also try to use the relation-type cards in your basic games, or play the expert version of Korruptivity as well. However, these cards are rarely needed for projects, but with these cards you can spice it up; so... here come the definitions for the rest of the signs and the remaining iconography found on the cards.
Signs for the Relation Cards
- Circle-slash icon: The previous card of the project-line can be put to the discard pile.
- Cycling-arrows icon: The previous card of the project-line can be moved to another project.
- Folder icon: The previous card of the project-line can be put to your hand.
- Hourglass-with-arrows icon: Counters on this project can be moved to other projects.
- Circled-cross with triple-arrows icon: The next card attached after this card must be the type of the icon shown (in this case a To-Do).
- Joker building block (four-icon group): One can choose which type of card it represents.
Cancel, Copy and Other Effects
- Character-people icon (the printed text notes that this sign was left off the card): With this you can attach a character card to an opponent's project also (in an expert game). It still belongs to you, and will come back to you, who played this card, but only if you participated in a successful project. However, no points for that, if any other player still has character cards in the same project.
- Cancel effect: Cancels the effect of a card played just before this. This canceled card goes to the discard pile without having its effect, if it had any... Turns later, if put on a card, that card is simply removed from the project-line...
- Copy effect: Copies the previous card in the project-line; it is as if two of the same cards were next to each other, with an identical characteristic and effect, if any...
- Character upgrade: Can only be attached after a character card. The character will permanently get the modifications added to its aspects.
- Draw-check effect: You can check the top 4 cards of the draw deck, and if there are any character cards among them, you must attach them after this card.
- Draw-five effect: You can draw 5 new cards from the draw deck, after playing this card.
- Discard-three effect: The player whose project-line this card is attached to must discard 3 of the cards from his/her hand.
- Take-a-card effect: The player who plays this card can draw one card from the other player's hand whose project-line this card is attached to.
- Bianko (blank) cards: There are 7 empty, blank cards in the set, which you can use to create new cards to play with. :)
Orientation Marks (Expert Game)
In the expert game, the orientation marks also came into play:
- Orientation marks mean additional parameters. If a project card has a mark, it means it is your duty to collect and attach to its project-line at least one other card - that possesses the same mark - to successfully complete this project. By the way, every pair of cards with the same orientation mark in a completed project is worth +1 extra power to its owner.
- A card with an orientation mark chosen by the player who attaches it to a project has that mark as chosen when it is played.
- Orientation do not count in this project-line anymore. If any of the cards has any markings, they are canceled.
The orientation marks can be seen under the main card-type icon of the cards; some cards have it, some don't, and a few even have more than one.
Scoring Notes and Closing Remarks
You should also have a piece of paper and a pen ready to administrate the power-points attained by the players, so that completed project-lines can be put to the discard pile.
However, in the basic game, we suggest that after completing a project, you may keep the cards containing any power-points (like the project-card itself) in a separate pile, to keep track of your score.
The original concept of the Korruptivity card game was the so-called "expert" variant, which gives a quite balanced, strategic game-play if you have become familiar with the rules. The so-called "basic game" is somewhat easier and lighter, with more random elements due to the drawing of new cards. So if you want to have plain fun, play the basic Korruptivity with 2-4 players. But if you are a hardcore gamer, you can go ahead and start with the "expert" rules.
Have fun, play wisely, and become a master of the game...
Expert Game
This section is the second document in the source PDF, "Korruptivity Universal Full Expert Rules".
In the expert game there are some major differences in the turn sequence, but otherwise it is almost the same as the basic game, just with more options... :)
The most important change is that character cards decide who is the owner of a project-line, so you can only attach a character card to a project that is - at the moment - not occupied by another player's character cards! Think about this for a moment, and take over your non-aware opponent's projects, if possible... :)
Note: not yet started, solo project cards cannot be taken over like this.
The score limit to attain should be raised to something between 10 and 20 power-points. Since orientation marks bring in quite a lot more power-points to gain victory...
2 player game length ~ [10 Pp < 25 min.]...[100 min. < 20 Pp]
The concept is that all players participate in the same (shared) turn, acting after each other, in every phase. And it is quite possible that one can take several moves and become the active player again and again in the same phase, since a phase only ends if all the players are done.
These "communal" turns take place, one after another, continually until someone attains the score limit.
The objective remains the same: you need to collect cards into project-lines to suit tasks and limitations. Doing so you earn power-points, by successfully completing your projects. Do it faster than anyone else and be the first to get enough power... ;)
And since it was everyone else's turn also, all the players have already had their chances to complete any running project, so no aftermath is needed. The game ends immediately and the winner is the one with the highest score.
The title of "the player to go first" means the player goes first in the whole particular "communal" turn and starts acting first in all of its phases. This title goes round, so that a new player proceeds first in each and every communal turn.
Expert Setup and How to Play
To play the expert version, the author presents a personal favourite variant, the "bidding-community-update".
First of all, you need to take your time and use your friends' helping hands also, to cooperate in shuffling all the cards evenly, to form a huge play-deck. (Oh well, you can divide it into 2 or 3 even decks, just to stabilize the towering pile of cards.) This will be the source of the common cards as well as where to draw from.
All players receive 5 cards initially, and they have to decide "who goes first for the first time" in the first turn...
You can "go first" by willing to discard more cards from your hand than the others. (If nobody is willing to lose cards, then you can deal with this via some arguing, and without the need to discard any...)
Negotiations and seemingly fair offers can be performed, or cards can be traded between players, any time during the game... ;)
The phase order is also a little different from the basic game's, and the way the players get their cards is totally new...
(You will notice that the role of the hourglasses also changes a bit because of the phase order - from a mostly defensive in basic game - to a rather annoying tool in expert-mode to use against any opponent's ready-made projects...)
Remember, it is not only you, taking your very own turn now, since every player participates in the same turn. Don't waste time, think quick, and try to push your opponents to hurry, so that they will make more mistakes and you will win faster ;)
Expert Turn Sequence
All players' turn:
- Draw Phase: All players can draw 2 cards, one after the other.
- Common Cards: 6 new cards are revealed from the top of the deck and put to the center of the table. These are the new common cards. If any cards are left from the previous turn, they are discarded.
- Auctions:
- The first player can bid for a common card by offering at least 1 card to be discarded from his/her hand.
- To participate, a player has to offer more.
- The player with the highest bid will have to discard the offered cards from his/her hand, and can take the common card, putting it into his/her hand.
- The player next to the first player can start the next bid, and after this the 3rd player can begin one, and so on.
- Play Cards:
- In the first round of this phase, all players can build their own projects only, yet with any number of cards.
- From the second round onwards, the active player can only play one card at a time, though it can be attached to any of the running projects on the table.
- After every player has passed after each other without playing any cards, only cards with the "interrupt" ability can be played.
- Check projects:
- Check if any of the projects collapses.
- Check if any of the projects can be completed.
Afterwards a new turn begins, and another player should start in its phases...