Kyoto Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Playing the game
  • 1) Speaker allowance phase
  • 2) Study reading phase
  • 3) Contribution phase
  • 4) Impact phase
• Example of an entire negotiation round
• End of the game
• Final scoring
  • Agenda cards clarifications
• Why is this game called Kyoto?

Components

• 1 board. The board serves as a display for 3 types of environmental damage: animal extinction (represented by animals), global warming (represented by thermometer levels) and air pollution (represented by clouds). It also shows a score track, which is only used at the end of the game.
• 5 animals (front; back = extinct)
• 6 thermometer levels (front blue; back red; some have impact icons)
• 6 clouds (front white; back black; some have impact icons)
• 48 affluence cards. Each shows one of 3 damage icons (air pollution, animal extinction, global warming) and a CO2 value. Most of them also show one of 6 lobby icons (agricultural, oil, automotive, steel, nuclear power, chemical).
• 24 study cards
• 1 lectern (assembly instructions are on the bottom of the lectern)
• 1 speaker card
• 1 central card
• 20 agenda cards
• 63 1-million-dollar bills
• 6 flag tokens
• 6 flag cards + 6 flag holders

Setup

1. Place the board (with either side up) in the middle of the table.
   • Place each of the 5 animals face up anywhere on the globe.
   • Shuffle the 3 clouds with impact icons and remove one at random. Set it aside, impact icon up, where everyone can see it. Then shuffle the 5 remaining clouds, white side up, and place them in a random order around the globe.
   • Shuffle the 3 thermometer levels with impact icons and remove one at random. Place it, impact icon up, next to the removed cloud. Then shuffle the 5 remaining thermometer levels, blue side up, and place them at random in the thermometer notch.
   • Note: The removed cloud and thermometer level are visibly set aside so that you can factor their absence into your decisions.
2. Shuffle the 24 study cards and place them as the face-down study deck to the right of the board. Place the central card to the right of the study deck. In a 5-player game: Remove the top 4 cards from the study deck and return them to the box unseen.
3. Each player: Choose a flag card and place it in its flag holder in front of you so that you can see the End of the game overview on its back. For the rest of the game, you are representing the country* of that flag. Place your flag token beside you. You will only need it at the end of the game to sum your score. Return any spare flag cards, flag holders and flag tokens to the box.
   • *For the sake of convenience, we will be using the term country for all participants (even the European Union).
4. Distribute the 1-million-dollar bills evenly:
   • In a 3-player game, give each country 20 million.
   • In a 4-player game, give each country 15 million.
   • In a 5-player game, give each country 12 million.
   • In a 6-player game, give each country 10 million.
   • Place the spare 3 million above the central card as the initial environmental fund.
   • Each country: Put your money behind your flag as your coffers. You can count it whenever you like but must not disclose how much you have left until the end of the game.

Playing the game

Kyoto is played over 12 negotiation rounds (10 in a 5-player game). However, it can end prematurely if at least one type of environmental damage reaches its critical threshold (see Impact phase).

Each negotiation round consists of the following 4 phases:

1) Speaker allowance phase

In this phase, the current speaker does the following:

a) Gain 2 million from the environmental fund and add it to your coffers. If there is less than 2 million, take as much as you can.

AND

b) If there are any face-down affluence cards underneath your flag (put there during previous negotiation rounds), take them back into your hand.

2) Study reading phase

In this phase, the current speaker does the following:

Draw 2 cards from the top of the study deck and look at them in secret. Return one face down to the box and slide the other - unseen by the other countries - face up into the lectern (so that the hidden impacts are not visible). Afterwards, read the visible information of the study aloud and then place the lectern in the middle of the table.

Each study card shows:

• a title
• a shared reduction goal, which is either a CO2-value or 2 damage icons
• a shared funding goal, which is an amount between 2 and 5 million
• a visible impact
• 0, 1 or 2 hidden impacts

The visible impact is visible to all countries. The hidden impacts are only known to the current speaker and must be kept secret from the other countries. These impacts represent the damage that will be inflicted on the planet if the round's goals are not met during the following contribution phase.

3) Contribution phase

After the speaker reads the study card aloud, start the 90 second timer. During these 90 seconds, you can participate in reaching the shared reduction and funding goals by contributing affluence cards and money, cleverly debating and even bribing one another. There is no specific order in which to act - as long as the 90 seconds run, each country (including the speaker) can:

• I) contribute up to 2 affluence cards from its hand
• II) contribute any amount of money from its coffers
• III) try to bribe other countries

I) Contribute affluence cards

To contribute an affluence card, place it from your hand face up in front of your flag.

• If the current reduction goal is a CO2-value, you can contribute any card.
• If it requires a certain damage icon, you can only contribute cards showing that icon.

Once a card lies in front of your flag, you cannot retract it unless another country bribes you to do so (see section III below).

You cannot contribute more than 2 affluence cards per contribution phase (whether you contribute them together or separately and whether you retract any by taking a bribe).

II) Contribute money

To contribute money, place any amount from your coffers in front of your flag, so that everyone can see the exact amount. You can do this as often as you like, but you cannot retract any of it.

III) Bribe another country

You can bribe another country by offering it any amount of money from your coffers to convince it to do one of two things:

• retract a specific affluence card (or cards) it has contributed OR
• contribute an affluence card (or cards) from its hand.

You can bargain with each other as much as you like (within the given time). Bribes cannot be zero and are paid to the recipient's coffers. All agreements are binding. If an agreement includes retracting any affluence cards, they are placed face down under their owner's flag.

Why should you bribe at all? Depending on your agenda cards, you may not want affluence cards with certain icons to be contributed or may not want this negotiation round to succeed at all. Or you may just want to trick the others into thinking that you have a certain agenda...

As soon as the 90 seconds are up, the contribution phase ends. You can stop the timer prematurely if the shared reduction goal and funding goal have been met (see below) and all of you agree to do so.

Note: Since having affluence cards and money brings you points at the end of the game, it is unlikely that a lot of them will be contributed. Most of the time it is a close call. If you have a hard time imagining what negotiations might look like, see the example round below.

4) Impact phase

When the contribution phase is over, there can be one of two outcomes:

A) The negotiation round succeeds

If all countries together contributed enough affluence cards to meet the reduction goal AND enough money to meet the funding goal, the speaker carries out the following steps:

a) From among all contributed cards, choose as many as are needed to match the reduction goal and place them face up to the right of the central card in the reduced affluence area:

• If the reduction goal requires 2 damage icons, choose any 2 of the contributed cards.
• If the reduction goal is a CO2-value, choose cards that add up to at least that value. You don't have to use as few cards as possible, but nor can you include unneeded cards. (Example: with contributed cards of 40, 70 and 100 CO2 and a goal of 100, you can either choose 40 + 70 OR 100. 40 + 100 or 70 + 100 would not be allowed as either includes an unneeded card.)
• To keep things clear, sort the cards in the reduced affluence area by lobby icon.
• In this step also, everyone can try to bribe the speaker to choose certain contributed cards.

b) Then take from the contributed money the precise amount needed by the funding goal and put it in the environmental fund.

c) Remove the study card from the lectern and put it face down in the box, without showing its hidden impacts to the others.

Afterwards, any country that still has any contributed affluence cards left puts them face down under its flag. If it has any contributed money left, it returns it to its coffers.

B) The negotiation round fails

If the contributed affluence cards are not enough to meet the reduction goal or the contributed money is not enough to meet the funding goal (or both), do the following:

Any country with any contributed affluence cards places them face down under its flag. If it has any contributed money, it returns it to its coffers.

Then the speaker removes the study card from the lectern, shows it to all countries and carries out the action of each impact icon shown on it:

• A species goes extinct: Flip any 1 animal on the board to its extinct side.
• The global temperature rises: Flip the lowest blue thermometer level on the board to its red side. If that red side shows an impact icon, carry that out too.
• Air pollution worsens: Flip any 1 white cloud on the board to its black side. If that black side shows an impact icon, carry that out too.

Critical threshold: When a type of environmental damage strikes for the fifth time, it reaches its critical threshold. Any further damage of that type is ignored.

At the end of the impact phase, the speaker must check if any of the following end conditions have been met:

• At least 1 type of environmental damage has reached its critical threshold.
• The study deck is empty.

If so, then the game ends now (see "End of the game"). Otherwise, the country to the left of the speaker becomes the new speaker by taking the lectern and the speaker card. Then a new negotiation round starts.

Example of an entire negotiation round

1) Speaker allowance phase. Lin is the new speaker. In the environmental fund there is only 1 million. So she takes that million and puts it in her coffers. She also takes the 2 cards under her flag back into her hand.

2) Study reading phase. Lin draws 2 cards from the study deck. She chooses one and places it in the lectern. She puts the other card in the box. Then she reads the chosen card aloud before moving the lectern to the center of the table.

3) Contribution phase. Lin starts the 90 second timer.

• Malik, who has the environment agenda card and therefore is especially eager to save the planet, contributes an affluence card with an oil lobby icon.
• Lin, who has the agenda card of the oil lobby, tries to bribe Malik to retract it by offering him 2 million. Malik refuses. So Lin raises her offer to 3 million. But Malik still does not take the bribe.
• Now Amber also contributes an affluence card with an oil lobby icon, hoping that Lin will try to bribe her. And Lin does offer Amber 1 million as a bribe. Amber asks for 3 million. They settle on 2 million. So Amber receives the 2 million from Lin, puts it in her coffers and retracts her contributed affluence card by placing it face down under her flag.
• 60 seconds have passed already and they are still 1 affluence card and 3 million shy of the round's goals. Amber contributes another affluence card at the same moment that Malik contributes 2 million. Now Amber and Malik try to convince Lin to contribute the last million. Malik is even considering adding it himself but just then the 90 seconds run out.

4) Impact phase. Since they are 1 million shy, the negotiation round fails. Malik returns his contributed 2 million to his coffers and places his contributed affluence card under his flag. Amber puts her card under her flag. Now Lin removes the study card from the lectern and carries out the actions of its impact icons: She flips 2 white clouds. (Luckily, none of them has an impact icon on its black side.) Then she flips the lowest blue thermometer level. Since it has an impact icon on its red side, she must then flip another white cloud. Unfortunately, this cloud also has an impact icon, for which she must flip 1 animal.

Even though they were only 1 million shy, they inflicted a lot of damage on the planet. However, since the study deck is not yet empty and no type of environmental damage has reached its critical threshold, Lin passes the speaker card to Malik on her left and a new negotiation round begins.

End of the game

The game can end in one of two ways:

A) The conference succeeds

If at the end of any impact phase the study deck is empty AND no type of environmental damage has reached its critical threshold, the conference succeeds and you carry out the final scoring (see below). The country with the most points wins. If tied, all countries with the most points win.

B) The conference fails

If at the end of any impact phase one or more types of environmental damage have reached their critical threshold (whether the study deck is empty or not), the conference fails and you carry out the final scoring (see below). The country with the most points is especially guilty of endangering the future of the planet and is therefore excluded. If tied, all countries with the most points are excluded. Then, the non-excluded country with the most points wins. Again, if tied, all tied countries win. If all countries are excluded, there is no winner at all.

Final scoring

Mark your points by placing your flag tokens at space 30/0 of the score track. Move them forward accordingly whenever you gain points during the following 3 steps:

1. Affluence cards. Each country: First, return any affluence cards from underneath your flag to your hand. Then gain 1 point per affluence card in your hand.

2. Agenda cards. Each country: For each of your 2 agenda cards, gain points according to the text on its right. If it tells you to also gain something else, gain that now. Exception: Score the agenda card of the Swiss bank in the following money scoring step.

3. Money scoring. Each country counts how much money it has in its coffers.

   • All countries with the most money gain 4 points each.
   • All countries with the second most money gain 2 points each (no matter how many countries had the most).
   • All countries with the third most money gain 1 point each (no matter how many countries had the most and second most).

Agenda cards clarifications

The text on the agenda cards is for the most part self-explanatory. The following examples and clarifications should help if there are any doubts. The icons in their left corners show which cards they apply to.

• Lobby agenda cards: In the example picture, there are 2 nuclear power lobby icons in the reduced affluence area. If you had the agenda card of the nuclear power lobby, you'd get 3 points for it. Note: You can't get negative points from these agenda cards (e.g. when there are 6 icons of your lobby in the reduced affluence area).
• Environmental damage agenda cards: In the example picture, global warming (4 red thermometer levels) and animal extinction (4 extinct animals) are tied for the most advanced type of environmental damage, while air pollution (2 black clouds) is the least advanced.
• In the example picture, the agenda card of the tropical timber industry would give you 6 points, while the card of the coal mining industry would give you 2 points.
• In the example picture, the agenda card of the pharma industry would give you 6 points (because a total of 10 impacts have occurred: 4 red thermometer levels, 4 extinct animals, 2 black clouds).
• In contrast to the other agenda cards, the Swiss bank card is scored in the money scoring step. If for example, you had the most money, you'd get 8 points instead of 4. And if you were tied with any other countries, you'd get another 3 points.
• In the example picture, the agenda card of the antitrust division would give you 4 points (because 4 types of lobby icon appear once or twice in the reduced affluence area).

Why is this game called Kyoto?

In 1997, delegates from over 150 countries gathered at the Climate Change Conference in Kyoto (Japan) to debate how to slow climate change and negotiate which emission targets to adopt, thus concluding the so-called Kyoto Protocol (which has become a political keyword). As one would expect, the negotiations were a tenacious struggle and the adopted targets were far from environmentally responsible.

This satirical game puts you into the shoes of the decision makers at such a conference, where you constantly face external and internal conflicts as you try to align your desire to preserve the environment with your personal goal of winning. Sounds like a simple task with an obvious priority, right? Well, chances are that at the end you will ask yourselves: Why haven't we done more?