Let Them Eat Cake Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Rounds
  • Voting
  • Example Vote
  • Honour & Sacrifice
  • The Pantry Deck
  • Military Support
  • Cake
• Positions on the Committee
  • Head of Committee
  • Enemy of the Revolution
  • Guillotine Operator
  • Secretary
  • Food Inspector
• Winning the Game
• Quick Play
• Component Note

Ingredients

1. Head of Committee token
2. 21 Medals of Honour
3. 6 Player aids
4. Guillotine
5. 55 Pantry cards
6. 12 starter Cakes
7. 8 starter Generals
8. 36 Voting cards
9. 18 Pawns

Setup

The Revolution is here! Begin the game by congratulating everyone for the role they have played in defeating tyranny. Everyone must shake hands with everyone else. Immediately view anyone who refuses to do so with suspicion.

Everyone selects a character from the Voting cards, and places it with the three matching Pawns on the table in front of them. Give every player a Voting card in the colour of every other player (but not in their own colour) to form their hand. Remove the rest from the game.

If you are playing with 3 or 4 people, give everyone two Voting cards for each other player.

Deal two starter Cake cards to every player to form their initial stash of Cake. They must keep this stash face down at all times. Remove the rest from the game.

Let everyone take three Medals of Honour. These all have the same value, so players should choose based on what suits their outfit.

Thoroughly shuffle the Pantry Deck and place it face down in the middle of the table, along with the Guillotine, the face-up stack of starting Generals and three Medals of Honour (make sure everyone can reach them). Remove the rest of the Medals from the game.

Whoever owns the game takes the 'Head of Committee' token, and can choose to give it to any other player or keep it for themselves. They won't have it for long.

You are ready to begin!

LET THEM EAT CAKE!

Playing the Game

Rounds

Let Them Eat Cake is played over a series of rounds until the game ends with either one player collecting enough Cake, or one player getting killed. Every round you will elect a player to each of the roles on the Committee of Public Safety. Players will also decide on an Enemy of the Revolution if no clear enemy emerges. Each round is a series of short phases of voting and action in this order:

• Head of Committee
• Enemy of the Revolution
• Guillotine Operator
• Secretary
• Food Inspector

Each role gets voted on in turn, and whoever was elected takes their action before moving on.

Voting

Every time a vote is needed, every player must play a voting card face down on the table, and all voting cards are revealed at the same time. Used voting cards should be left in a face-down stack in front of the player. Vote carefully. Players only get their voting cards back once they have all been used – not necessarily at the end of a round. This means that with five or more players, each player will have to vote for every other player once before they can vote for any of them twice.

The Pawns in front of each player represent their supporters on the committee, so every player's vote is multiplied by the number of Pawns they have in front of them. The player with the most votes will get the position.

If two or more players are tied for most votes, the Head of Committee will decide which of them gets elected.

Don't assume a vote is a simple matter of picking who you want. Like any election, players should argue loudly for their preferred candidate (or the person they want everyone to think is their preferred candidate). Players can negotiate and haggle about anything, at any time – Generals, Medals and even Cake can all change hands. Voting cards and Pawns must remain with their owner. Block voting, inspiring speeches, desperate pleas and outright bribery are all actively encouraged. Agreements of all kinds are possible, but never binding – it's up to the players to decide how trustworthy they are, and how much they can get away with.

Example Vote

Four players are having a vote. Peer has 2 pawns. Lauren also has 2 pawns, and is the Head of Committee. Sam has 3 pawns. Louis has 1 pawn. Peer and Lauren vote for Sam. Sam and Louis vote for Peer. The vote is a tie as (2+2) = (3+1). As Lauren is the Head of Committee, she may now decide if Peer or Sam is elected.

Honour & Sacrifice

Each player's worth to the revolution is measured in Honour, represented by the number of Medals of Honour they have. Players can gain, lose or trade Honour during the game. Whenever Honour is gained or lost, it is taken from or added to the centre of the table. Whoever has the least Honour in a round will be declared an Enemy of the Revolution, and must send one of their Pawns to the Guillotine.

Each player's strength on the committee, and thus the strength of their vote, is based on their number of Pawns. Players can lose Pawns to the Guillotine, but can never gain or trade Pawns. If a player ever loses all their Pawns that player has been killed, and the game ends immediately.

The Pantry Deck

The Pantry Deck contains a mix of Cake and General cards, which will be dealt out by the Secretary over the course of the game. Each Cake card is worth a number of Cakes between 1 and 14. The Generals look different, but are all equal. The glory of revolution!

If the game specifies that players should take a General, they do not take it from the Pantry Deck, but from the face-up pile of Generals. If that pile has run out, then that player is out of luck.

Military Support

A player's Generals are a measure of their influence in the army, and are always kept face-up alongside their Pawns. Generals give players an opportunity to affect voting, and can be gained, spent or traded throughout the game. Players can use this influence to affect voting in several ways:

• Spend 1 General to allege vote rigging – at the end of any vote a player can discard a General and call for a new vote to happen immediately. The result of the previous vote is ignored, but the cards used for that vote still count as played, so new cards must be used.
• Spend 2 Generals to seize Cake – after the Secretary has revealed the cards from the Pantry Deck, but before they have been allocated, a player can spend two Generals and place one of the cards on the table in front of themselves. That card is still subject to approval by the Food Inspector.
• Spend 3 Generals to have a coup – immediately before any vote takes place, a player can discard 3 Generals and decide who wins without anyone voting.

In each case the player loses the amount of General cards specified, and also loses one Medal of Honour. The Medals go to the centre of the table, while the Generals go to the bottom of the relevant decks. If any player has more Generals than the others, that player is exempt from being declared Enemy of the Revolution.

Cake

Cake is delicious. Players want Cake, although they can trade Cake if they wish. Players cannot reveal how much Cake they have, so their stash must be kept face down. If a player ever has more than 40 Cakes, they win!

Positions on the Committee

Head of Committee

Vote for a Head of Committee, and give the new Head the Head of Committee token. The role of Head of Committee is mostly to break ties in other votes. Even though someone is Head of Committee when the game begins, players start by immediately voting for a new one.

After every election the new Head of Committee receives a Medal of Honour, then either awards a Medal to a player of his choice OR removes one Medal from any player. The Head must to do one or the other. These Medals are taken from (or added to) the centre of the table. If there are none available in the centre, then players can't get any. The Head of Committee cannot receive a Medal he takes from someone else in the same turn.

In the first round of the game every player who did not vote with the majority loses one Medal. The revolution must display unity from the start. This only happens once during the game.

Enemy of the Revolution

The player with the fewest Medals of Honour is declared the Enemy of the Revolution and places a Pawn on the Guillotine. If there is a tie for the fewest Medals, the Enemy is decided by vote. Only players with the fewest Medals are eligible – players may use other Voting cards at this stage, but those votes will be ignored.

The player with the most Generals can never be declared the Enemy, as they have the backing of the army. Ignore that player in this process. If two or more players tie for most Generals, no-one is safe.

Guillotine Operator

The Guillotine Operator is again decided by a vote. The Pawn currently on the Guillotine cannot vote, so the player who is up for execution has one less vote than usual. Once elected, the Guillotine Operator can execute the Pawn, or grant mercy.

If executed, the Pawn on the Guillotine is dead – knock it into the basket by poking your finger through the Guillotine and leave it where it lies. For all intents it is removed from the game. Its owner has one vote less for the remainder of the game, but their Honour is restored – that player receives three Medals of Honour (if available), and takes one General card from the face-up stack.

If the Guillotine Operator decides to grant mercy, the Pawn on the Guillotine will go back to the player who owns it. Since the Operator didn't do their job, they lose one Medal of Honour.

Secretary

A new Secretary is elected. The Secretary draws one Pantry card per player and places them face up on the table. The Pantry Cards are a mix of Generals and different amounts of Cake.

The Secretary then decides who gets what, placing one card in front of every player. The Secretary can distribute the cards however they like (as long as every player receives one) but, of course, they can ask for advice…

Food Inspector

The final step is the election of the Food Inspector. Once elected, this player decides if the Cake is safe to distribute, i.e. whether players can take the card the Secretary put in front of them. If the Food Inspector is bitter about who got what they can declare the entire batch unsafe.

If the batch is declared unsafe, all Cake cards the Secretary laid out get sent to the bottom of the Pantry Deck. Players who got dealt a General may still keep it – it is placed face up beside their Pawns. The Food Inspector loses a Medal of Honour for not helping the revolution.

If the batch is safe, everyone gets to keep their cards! Cake cards go in each player's stack, and General cards go face-up beside their Pawns.

At this point, any player who received Cake may decide to donate it to the people. They should cry to the heavens 'Let them eat cake!' and place their Cake card at the bottom of the Pantry Deck. Players who do this can then take one Medal of Honour directly from another player.

If multiple players wish to donate cake on the same turn, they do so in order of who shouts first or, if still tied, clockwise from the Head of Committee.

At the end of the round, players check if they have 40 Cakes. If no-one does, a new round begins with the election of a new Head of Committee.

Winning the Game

Rounds continue until the Pantry Deck runs out, one player has lost all their Pawns, or someone has collected more than 40 Cakes.

The living player with the most Cake wins!

If there is a tie, whichever of the tied players has the most Pawns wins. If there is still a tie, whichever of the tied players has the most Generals wins.

Quick Play

Give the players three matching Pawns, three Medals, two starter Cakes, and voting cards for every other player's colour. Put three Medals, the face-up Starter Generals, the face-down Pantry Deck and the Guillotine in the middle.

Get Voting! Head of Committee > Enemy of the Revolution > Guillotine Operator > Secretary > Food Inspector > back to the start!

Bribe, harass, coerce or pile in with your Generals. Each player's Cake stash and used Voting Cards are private, all other information is public. If someone dies, or has 40 Cakes at the end of a round, the game ends. The player with the most Cake is the winner!

Component Note

The rulebook closes with a "How to Build a Guillotine" assembly diagram for the Guillotine component. It is an illustrated assembly guide with no rules text and is not transcribed here.