Patriot Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Flow of Play
• How to Read This Rulebook
  • Quickstart Alternative
• Aim of the Game
• How Do I Win? / Game End
  • If your allegiance card says 'Kill The President'
  • If your allegiance card says 'Save The President'
  • If your allegiance card says 'Save The President: Secondary Mission'
• Allegiance Cards
  • Quantities and Types of Allegiance Cards Dealt to Players
  • What happens if I receive 2x Allegiance Cards?
  • Revealing as an Assassin
• How to Play – Game Setup
  • Setting up the board – see example on the next page
  • Setting up characters
• Game Setup Example
• Turn Actions
  • 1. Gather: Pick up Influence Cards from the Influence Card Pile
  • 2. Act: Act using Action Points on the below board tiles by moving your character onto the tile and announcing your action
    • The Treasury
    • Surveillance Centre
    • Laboratory
    • War Room
  • 3. Encounter: Draw a Brief Card from the Brief Card pile
• Round Actions
  • 1. Determine whether the group passed the letter demand
  • 2. Resolve any riots that are in play
  • 3. Ensure all purchased Beacons are set to 'Launched'
  • 4. Gain Taxes
  • 5. Flip the next letter on the letter pile and read it aloud
• Game Concepts
• Tracker Concepts
  • Base Taxes
  • Civil Unrest
  • Threat Level
• Player Concepts
  • Characters
  • Action Points
• Scientific Discovery & the Laboratory
  • Scientific Discovery Cards
  • How Scientific Discovery Cards are Picked Up
  • What are Science Markers?
• Influence
  • How to Pick Up Influence Cards
  • How to Use Influence Cards
  • Influence Card Actions
  • Influence Types and Their Effects
• Tile Concepts
  • Coins & the Treasury
  • Letters
    • Securing Coins into Letters
    • 'Per player, add the following influence to the demand'
  • Public Opinion
• Brief Cards
  • Bidding Brief Cards
  • Influence Brief Card
  • Choice Brief Card
  • Roll a die to Resolve any Ties Rule
• Super Brief Cards
• Beacons & The Surveillance Centre Concepts
  • Launching Revealed & Unrevealed Beacons
  • Using Beacons
  • Reprogramming Beacons
• Assassinations
  • Assassination Votes
  • What Happens When a Player is Assassinated?
  • What happens if a player is assassinated and more allegiance cards are dealt out?
  • What happens if players have more than one allegiance card?
  • Revealed Assassins
• Troops, Riots & The War Room
  • What are Riot cards?
  • Defending Defense Spaces
  • Ending or Preventing Riots
  • Executing Rioters
  • Official Guide #213: Riots & Combat
• Glossary
• Characters
  • The President
  • Other Characters (pages 25 – 26)
• First Round Walkthrough
  • Prerequisites
  • Round Strategy
  • First Player: The President (Viktor Markov)
  • Second Player: Diva 'M'
  • Third Player: Hilbert Holschtein
  • New Round Actions

Flow of Play

Patriot takes place over 5 rounds, or until players win or lose the game. Each round contains setup actions. After the round is set up, each player takes turns that are split into three phases: Gather, Act, and Encounter.

Once you play through these phases in order, your turn ends, and the player to your left begins their turn. When each player has taken a turn, the round ends and a new one begins.

Prefer to understand the rules in video format? The Dice Tower made a great video explaining the rules of Patriot. We highly recommend watching this short video if you prefer to learn this way. Link to the video on the back page and as QR codes throughout this rulebook. Note, on occasion some game tiles from the video predate the final rulebook. The ultimate source of truth is the rulebook.

How to Read This Rulebook

The Patriot rulebook is split up into sections: Setup, Turn & Round Actions, and finally Game/Tile/Player Concepts.

We recommend making sure all players set up the game correctly as described on page 5, and then reading Turn and Round concepts as a group. At least 1 person in the group should read the concepts between pages 7 to 21 before starting the game. By round 2, we guarantee you'll be experts.

After you read through the concepts (pages 7 to 21), start the game and refer to the tile glossary (p. 23), your player cheat sheets and this rule book if you would like to dive into a subject more deeply. If you'd like a step-by-step first round, refer to the 'first round walkthrough' on page 27.

Quickstart Alternative

Players that wish to start the game quickly may look out for the blue 'quick start' symbol appearing within some rulebook pages. This symbol represents that the basic concept has been explained, and players wishing to start the game quickly may move on to the next rulebook topic until such time that the concept has been encountered during actual gameplay.

Using Quickstart will allow players to start the game early, however it is recommended that players understand all game concepts as soon as possible to reduce confusion and streamline gameplay.

Aim of the Game

In the 3 to 6 player game, each player is dealt a secret Allegiance Card outlining their mission – either to save or assassinate The President.

The 1 and 2 player games are considered 'campaign modes', and each win condition varies per playthrough. If you are playing a 1-2 player game, stop reading this rulebook now and refer to the instructions in the 1-2 player rulebook.

How Do I Win? / Game End

You win the game, and the game ends if you complete your allegiance card objective.

If your allegiance card says 'Kill The President'

The time has come to assassinate The President, Sabotage votes, accuse innocent against innocent, and ensure that all chaos breaks loose. This is your chance – do it for your nation!

With this allegiance, there are two ways to win the game:

1. Ensuring that Threat reaches level 6 (the skull & bones). Refer to page 11 for ways to do this.
2. Call an assassination vote against the President and ensure it passes the assassination check.

Warning: This is a very direct way to attempt to kill the president, and by doing this you have essentially told the room where your allegiance lies.

If your allegiance card says 'Save The President'

If you have received this allegiance card, it is your duty to save The President at all costs.

With this allegiance, there are two ways to win the game with this card:

1. Assassinate all players with a 'Kill the President' allegiance card.
2. Finish all 5 rounds by not allowing the Threat level to reach the skull and bones (6).

If your allegiance card says 'Save The President: Secondary Mission'

Players with this card must save The President, but save the nation first. Secondary missions can range in task, but will require players to achieve secondary goals (like raising base taxes).

To win with this allegiance, you must meet your secondary objective while also meeting the 'save the president' win condition (above).

Allegiance Cards

An Allegiance Card is a secret card dealt to all players at the start of the game, including the President (whose card is placed face down underneath their character card). Allegiance cards must not be shown or discussed with anybody, but should represent the actions of each character throughout the game. It is of utmost importance that no player reveals their allegiance to any other player during the game unless prompted.

Quantities and Types of Allegiance Cards Dealt to Players

A higher number of Allegiance Cards will be dealt if more people play the game. The table below outlines what type, and how many Allegiance Cards should be dealt depending on the number of players.

Number of Players	Number of 'Save The President' Cards	Number of 'Save The President: Secondary Mission' Cards	Number of 'Kill The President' Cards	Extra Allegiance Card Dealt if the Director of the N.S.A. is playing	Extra Allegiance Cards Dealt at start of Round 3
3*	1	1	1	+1 'Save The President – Secondary Mission' Cards	+3 'Save The President – Secondary Mission'
4**	2	3	1	+1 'Save The President – Secondary Mission' Cards	Deal out the remaining Allegiance Cards from the deck created.
5	3	1	1	+1 'Save The President – Secondary Mission' Cards	+2 'Save The President'; +1 'Save The President – Secondary Mission'; +1 'Kill The President'. Do not deal a second Allegiance Card to The President.
6

* 3 Players: If playing with 3 players, ensure no Allegiance Cards with 4+ are played. Deal The President an Allegiance Card face down. The President may not look at the Allegiance Card.

** 4 Players: If playing with 4 players, shuffle all required Allegiance Cards into a pile. In game setup, deal out 1 to each player excluding the President. On round 3, deal out the remaining cards to all players excluding the President.

What happens if I receive 2x Allegiance Cards?

At the start of round 3 players will receive a second Allegiance Card. Only one allegiance is allowed, so one of the player's allegiance cards will be overwritten by the allegiance hierarchy. When two Allegiance Cards are received, your objective is decided as follows:

1. If you have a 'Kill the President' card, your objective is to kill the President.
2. If you have one or more 'Save the President: Secondary Mission' cards, you must complete at least 1 of your Secondary Missions and save the President to win.
3. If you have two 'Save the President' cards, you must save the President to win.

Revealing as an Assassin

As part of the round 3 Letter, Assassins will be able to reveal as an assassin. There are pros and cons of revealing, listed below:

Pros for revealed assassins:

• Cannot be assassinated.
• Gain 4 new tiles that only revealed assassins may use – lower base taxes, increase public opinion, add Super Briefs, and execute troops.
• Revealed assassins no longer have to remain hidden in their agenda.

Cons for revealed assassins:

• AP is reduced to 4 (+ science bonuses).
• Threat is reduced by 1 upon revealing.
• Players may build their turns around you, and sabotaging votes is much harder – there are no longer any surprises!

How to Play – Game Setup

Setting up the board – see example on the next page

1. Shuffle all cards and set into their groups as follows: i. Shuffle and place the Beacon Cards (p. 17) face down in the Beacon pile. a. Draw 4 Beacons (p. 17) and place them face up on the 4 blank Beacon tiles. ii. Shuffle and place the Scientific Discovery (p. 13) cards face down in the Scientific Discovery pile. iii. Shuffle and place the Riot Deck (p. 21) face down in the Riot Deck pile. iv. Excluding Super Brief Cards, shuffle and place the Brief Card Deck (p. 20) face down in the Brief Card pile. v. Shuffle the Super Brief Cards and place them face down to the left of the Brief Card Deck. vi. Shuffle and place each of the Influence Card (p. 15) types face down in their respective piles. vii. Put 10 of each Influence Card (p. 15) types into the Public Opinion (p. 19) deck and shuffle. Place the Public Opinion deck face down in the designated space to the right of the Influence Card piles. viii. Separate each Letter (p. 19) by day into 5 piles. Shuffle each day and choose one letter at random from each pile. Put the days into a pile where day 5 is at the bottom and day 1 is at the top. Place the chosen letters in the space in the middle of the board face down. Return unused Letters to the box.
2. Set the Threat (p. 11) level, Civil Unrest (p. 11) and Base Taxes (p. 11) at 0 by placing the provided acrylic rectangles on the trackers.
3. Place all Coins (p. 19) on the outside edge of the game board near the Treasury.
4. Place all Science Markers (p. 13) on the outside edge of the game board.

Setting up characters

1. Each player rolls a D8 die – the highest roller is The President.
2. The player who becomes The President chooses one of the 4 Presidents from the Character pile and places their token on the 1st turn marker in the Meeting Room (p. 19). i. Note: The President must choose Viktor Markov, Ashi, Marion Mochi or Donovan Maelstrom.
3. Each player, starting from the left of The President, chooses a character and places their standee on the board on the next available turn space. Read the character strengths, weaknesses, and influence aloud to the room. i. Each character has special abilities and weaknesses, and gets different influence cards.
4. Each player receives their top secret Allegiance Card (p. 13 – see table on left for quick guide). i. Players must not share or communicate what their card says to other players.
5. The President places their Allegiance card under their character card without looking at it. All other players view their allegiance cards at the same time. i. Feel free to leave the room, put on some loud music (check out our playlist!), or do something outrageous so as to not give your reaction away.
6. Each player receives Pre-Game Influence Cards: i. In turn order, The President (the 1st player on round 1) receives 0 influence cards. ii. Player 2 receives 1 influence card of their choice (from the options they are able to draw on their character cards), the 3rd player receives 2 Influence Cards of their choice (according to their character cards), and so on.
7. Flip over the Letter for Day 1 and read it out loud.
8. The President starts their turn.

Game Setup Example

The rulebook shows an example of the board set up before the first round starts (Beacon Cards, Scientific Discovery, Science Markers, Coins, Letters, Riot Cards, Brief Cards, Influence Cards, Public Opinion, Allegiance Cards, and Characters are each labelled on the picture, with the Threat, Civil Unrest and Base Taxes trackers).

Turn Actions

So, the board is set up and it's the first player's turn on round 1. What happens next?

Each player, in turn order, takes the 3 actions below (Gather, Act, and Encounter) until all players have had a turn.

1. Gather: Pick up Influence Cards from the Influence Card Pile

Example: The President, 'Donovan', goes first at the start of round 1. Seen on the bottom right of his character card, Donovan picks up 2 Finance, 2 Spy, 1 Science & 1 War Influence cards. After picking up, he has 6 Finance Influence, 2 Spy Influence, 3 War Influence & 1 Science Influence.

2. Act: Act using Action Points on the below board tiles by moving your character onto the tile and announcing your action

Unless occupied by a rioter, players may use any tile on the board in any location, including the one they, or other players are currently on.

Important! Players' Action Points (AP) may only be used in the Act phase. AP does not accumulate, and any AP not used is discarded / reset next round. For example, if Donovan has 10 AP, and he uses 9 AP on his turn through various tile actions, the extra 1 AP is not carried over to the next round. On his next turn, he has 10 AP again.

The Treasury

In the Treasury, players are able to:

1. Pick up Finance Influence Cards.
2. Acquire coins to be placed into the Treasury.
3. Raise the base tax level to acquire income at the start of each round.
4. Draw 2 Brief Cards and choose one to resolve at the end of the round.

• Pick Up Finance Influence (Defense Space 1). Cost: 1 AP. Max 2x per turn.
• Gain Coins from Bank (Defense Space 2). Two options: Cost: 4 AP + 2 Civil Unrest, Payout: 2 coins. Or Cost: 7 AP + 4 Civil Unrest, Payout: 5 coins. Coins are placed into the Treasury and not owned by any single player.
• Raise Base Taxes (Defense Space 3). Cost: 6 AP + 4 Civil Unrest.
• Briefly Predict the Future (Defense Space 4). Cost: 1 AP. Draw 2 Brief Cards, place 1 under the Brief deck, place 1 on top of the Brief deck. Draw 2 Scientific Discovery Cards, discard 1 and place 1 on top of the deck.

Surveillance Centre

In the Surveillance Centre, players are able to:

1. Pick up Spy Influence Cards.
2. Launch, replace, or use Beacons, which act as extra game tiles.
3. Call a vote to assassinate vote on another player.

• Pick Up Spy Influence (Defense Space 1). Cost: 1 AP. Max 2x per turn.
• Launch a Beacon (Defense Space 2). Cost: 4 AP + 4 coins (revealed Beacon) or 2 AP + 2 coins (unrevealed Beacon). Launch a revealed Beacon, or launch a Beacon from the Beacon Draw pile.
• Reprogram Beacons (Defense Space 3). Cost: 3 AP or 3 coins. Replace any number of unlaunched Beacons with Beacons from the Draw pile. Replace any number of launched Beacons with Beacons taken from the Draw pile.
• Call Assassination Vote (Defense Space 4). Cost: 7 AP. An assassination vote may be called against any player, or the President. The cost of the assassination vote is 7 AP, and players must conduct an Influence vote of Spy or War equal to 4 times the amount of players to assassinate the President, or 2 times the amount of players to assassinate any other player (in a 4 player game, 16 Spy/War is required to assassinate the President). Public Opinion is added to the vote, and Influence voting rules apply (refer to page 16).
• Use Beacon. Players may use launched Beacons as an active game tile for the cost displayed on the Beacon card. If Defense Space 2 is occupied, Beacons may not be used. Each launched Beacon may be used once per round.

Laboratory

In the Laboratory, players are able to:

1. Pick up Science Influence Cards.
2. Reduce Civil Unrest.
3. Gain Science Markers.
4. Obtain Scientific Discovery Cards, providing in-game advantages.

• Pick Up Science Influence (Defense Space 1). Cost: 1 AP. Max 2x per turn.
• Roll for Civil Unrest (Defense Space 2). Cost: 3 AP. Roll a D8. 8: -3 Civil Unrest. 5–7: -2 Civil Unrest. 2–4: +2 Civil Unrest. 1: +3 Civil Unrest. Spend 1 coin for every 1 added to the roll.
• Commence Science Project (Defense Space 3). Cost: 2 AP + 2 Civil Unrest. Roll a D8. 7–8: +4 Science Markers. 5–6: +2 Science Markers. 2–4: Nothing happens. 1: -2 Science Markers. Spend 2 Science Influence for every 1 added to the roll.
• Make a Scientific Discovery (Defense Space 4). Cost: 4 Science Markers. Draw 2 Scientific Discoveries. If no 'REJECT' cards exist, discard 1 & choose 1 to resolve.

War Room

In the War Room, players are able to:

1. Pick up War Influence Cards.
2. Deploy Troops to defend Tiles.
3. Move Troops in order to maximise defense in one area.
4. Roll to execute rioters that are on the board, with the ability to reroll by spending Influence Cards.

• Pick Up War Influence (Defense Space 1). Cost: 1 AP. Max 2x per turn.
• Deploy Troops (Defense Space 2). Cost: 4, 6, or 8 AP + 1 Civil Unrest per troop deployed. With 4 AP, deploy 2 Troops; with 6 AP, deploy 3 Troops; with 8 AP, deploy 4 Troops. Troops may be placed on any Defense Space that the player chooses, except for Defense Spaces that already contain Rioters. Deploying Troops does not execute Rioters.
• Move Deployed Troops (Defense Space 3). Cost: 1 AP. Move any number of Troops that are already on the board to any Defense Space/s that do not already contain Rioters. Troops cannot stack on Defense Spaces. Moving Troops does not execute Rioters.
• Roll to Execute a Rioter. Cost: 3 AP. Roll a D8. 7–8: May execute 2 Rioters. 2–6: May execute 1 Rioter. 1: Lose 1 Troop (or, if no Troops exist, add 1 Rioter to any Defense Space of the players' choosing). Spend 2 Influence Cards to reroll.

3. Encounter: Draw a Brief Card from the Brief Card pile

The group may vote with Influence Cards (if required) by adding as many or few Influence Cards as they would like. Add Public Opinion, shuffle and tally total Influence to work out if the Brief Card has passed or failed.

Example: If a total of less than 8 Finance Influence is supplied into the Brief Card vote, all coins will be lost from The Treasury. Luckily, Donovan and the group obtained 10 Influence in Finance, so nothing happens this turn.

At the end of the last player's turn, return to the Meeting Room and adjust turn order anticlockwise before starting Round Actions. Players are now ready to resolve the Letter and start the next round!

Round Actions

So, all players have completed their turn on round 1. What happens next?

1. Determine whether the group passed the letter demand

• Group passed the letter demand: Nothing happens. Commence the next round. If this was the 5th round, the game ends. Refer to page 5 to see if your allegiance wins.
• Group failed the letter demand: The Fail effect is triggered.

The Letter shows its demands and its fail effect. Per player, add the following Influence to the demands: 1 War Influence, 1 Finance Influence. Fail effect: Threat is increased by 1.

Example: After the last turn has been completed in a 4 player game, players picked up, shuffled and counted all of the face down Influence on top of the letter. They had 3 Spy, 8 War, and 2 Finance Influence. They needed 8 War and 4 Finance Influence, which means that they failed the demand and the Fail effect triggers.

2. Resolve any riots that are in play

Riots occur when Civil Unrest reaches 6. When a riot occurs, a rioter is placed on the board to a defense space, as demanded by a Riot Card. Riots are in play and retrigger each round until all rioters are executed.

Riot Card (text on card): If a rioter is deployed, immediately reduce the Presidential Tracker by 1. Each round and upon drawing: 5+ players: add 3 rioters to each location. 1 to 4 players: add 2 rioters to each location.

Reminder (on the board): Moving troops does not execute rioters. You are unable to move a troop to a defence space that contains a rioter.

Example: In a 3 player game, players must add 2 rioters to each defense space on the board. This will add a number of negative effects to the game until the rioters have been executed.

3. Ensure all purchased Beacons are set to 'Launched'

Beacons add in-game advantages to all players, but they are not cheap to deploy, and they may only be used once per round. When Beacons are launched, place a coin on the 'launched' circle. When they are used, slide it to the 'used' symbol. At the start of each round, slide the used Beacons back to 'Launched'.

Example: The top left Beacon has been used. Move the coin from the top right hand side onto the circle that says 'launched'. Now the Beacon has been reset.

Example (above): the top left Beacon has been used. Move the coin from the top right hand side onto the circle that says 'Launched'. Now the Beacon has been reset.

4. Gain Taxes

If the base taxes tracker is above '0', place coins into the Treasury.

Example (right): the base taxes tracker is set to 4. Therefore, 4 coins are placed into the Treasury at the start of the round.

Example (below): 3 coins must be secured to the letter. Coins may be added to the letter for 4 AP. If 3 coins are not added to the letter by round end, Threat increases by 1. (The example refers to the Letter's Demands: secure 3 coins.)

5. Flip the next letter on the letter pile and read it aloud

Game Concepts

Now that we know how turns and rounds work, let's learn the game concepts! This section covers three concepts:

1. Tracker concepts (p. 11): Explains the 'Threat Level', 'Base Taxes' and 'Civil Unrest' trackers surrounding the Letter Demand Space.
2. Player concepts (p. 12 – 16): Explains all aspects of the game that are player specific, for example character cards and Actions Points (AP).
3. Tile concepts (p. 17 – 22): Explains the concepts of the game in Karmonia, for example how Brief Cards work.

Please view the glossary page (page 22) for a detailed description of each tile and how they work.

Tracker Concepts

Base Taxes

When base taxes are raised, the group of players passively gains coins from the bank into the shared Treasury at the start of each round.

Base taxes always start at 0 and can be increased to a maximum of 6.

There are 3 ways to raise base taxes:

1. Activating the 'Raise Base Taxes' tile in The Treasury;
2. Some Beacons give players a chance to raise base taxes.
3. Some Brief Cards offer players an opportunity to raise base taxes.

Raising base taxes through The Treasury is the most expensive way to increase passive income at a cost of 6 AP & 4 Civil Unrest. Players must make sure Civil Unrest is monitored to ensure a Riot is not incited!

Revealed assassins may also attempt to lower base taxes as part of their assassin abilities.

Civil Unrest

Civil Unrest is raised through various tiles and random in-game events. When Civil Unrest reaches 6 (represented by the rioter symbol) a riot will commence. Immediately do the following:

1. Pick up a Riot Card and follow its instructions.
2. Reset the Civil Unrest tracker to 1.

Threat Level

The Threat Level tracker is found below the Letter Demand space on the game board.

The main function of Threat is to actively track how much danger The President faces at any given time. Threat starts at 0 – if it reaches 6 (signified by the skull and bones), The President is assassinated and the game ends.

There are numerous ways that Threat can increase:

1. Letter Demand consequences;
2. Brief Card, or Super Brief Card failure effects;
3. Riots, specifically: i. The first time a rioter is deployed onto the board from an active Riot Card, Threat Level is increased by 1. ii. If a rioter deploys to Defense Space 5, Threat Level is increased by 1.
4. Occasionally, players will be given an opportunity to decrease Threat through Brief Cards.

All players (bar the assassin) must try to prevent Threat from rising at all costs.

Note: Threat does not increase if The President is assassinated by a player activating the 'Call an Assassination Vote' tile. If this happens, the game ends and the assassin/s are the victors.

Player Concepts

Characters

Character Card Overview & AP. In addition to character strengths & weaknesses (in game powers), there are a number of things which the character card helps with through the game.

The left hand side of the Character Card contains 10 circles defining the base AP (blue) of each character, and the variable AP of each Character (red). For example, Marion starts at 8 AP, but can gain up to 10 AP.

Seen below, the game comes with a green chit to help keep track of character AP status. Donovan, below, currently has 8 AP to use.

Character Card Influence. The bottom right of the Character Card defines how many Influence Cards each character will pick up at the start of each turn (Gather phase).

Character Hand Limit. Unless clearly stated on the Character Card, in the 3-6 player game the card limit for all players is 8 Influence Cards by the end of the player's turn.

Character abilities. Each character has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses. These can make or break a game! Refer to the appendix for a full list of characters and their abilities.

Once per game abilities may be used at any point during the game, regardless of player turn. They cannot reverse rolls, card effects, or things that have already happened.

Seen above, there are 'Ability Used' trackers to help players keep track of whether they have used their in-game abilities, or not. Donovan, above, has used his once per game ability already.

Action Points

Action Points (AP) represent the amount of actions that each player can take per turn. Most tiles within the game cost AP to activate.

Each character starts with a base of 8 AP unless stated otherwise (E.G. Viktor Markov & Petr Crumb start with less AP).

AP is found on the left hand side of the character card, marked with 10 circles. Blue circles represent the character's base AP. Red circles represent AP that each character can gain from activities within the game.

Increasing Action Points. While most characters start the game with a base of 8 AP, AP can be increased by completing Scientific Discoveries.

Keeping Track of Action Points. There is an Action Point chit that comes with the game. Place the wooden chit over the number of AP that the character currently holds.

Do players have to use all their AP in their turn? No, players may use as much or little AP as they choose per turn. AP not used by the end of the turn is discarded.

Scientific Discovery & the Laboratory

Scientific Discovery Cards

Each player may make scientific discoveries for personal gain throughout the game. By using special player abilities, triggering Brief Card effects, or by commencing Science Projects, players may gain Science Markers. Once 4 Science Markers have been collected, players may trade them in to activate the 'Make Scientific Discovery' tile. Refer to page 22 for more detail on the tile.

Note (as printed): this page says 4 Science Markers are needed to activate the 'Make Scientific Discovery' tile, while the Tile Glossary (p. 22) says 6 Science Markers can be traded in to complete a Scientific Discovery. Both figures are reproduced as printed.

How Scientific Discovery Cards are Picked Up

There are 2 types of Scientific Discovery cards. One has a positive effect and gives clear in-game advantages to players, and the other type has a negative effect that is unavoidable once drawn. Negative Scientific Discovery cards activate immediately, and are marked with 'REJECT'. See the examples on the right and below.

When players activate the 'Make a Scientific Discovery' tile, the following actions occur:

1. The player picks up the top two cards on the Scientific Discovery pile.
2. If there are no 'REJECT' cards, players may choose one of the two Scientific Discovery cards to keep. The other card is placed on the bottom of the Scientific Discovery card pile.
3. If there is one 'REJECT' card, it is activated immediately. If more than one 'REJECT' card is drawn, all are activated, but the player may keep drawing until a non 'REJECT' card appears.

Example card (marked 'REJECT', titled 'Bad Science'): the card text is only partly legible in the printed rulebook scan. Its visible text reads: "The Scientific Discovery holder, and the player right of the Scientific Discovery holder must co[...] influence cards, shuffle, and redistribute evi[...]". Confirm the full wording against the physical card.

What are Science Markers?

Science Markers (the blue / orange tokens seen on the board) can be used to make Scientific Discoveries. Some Beacons also use Science Markers as payment.

Throughout the game, players will be able to gain and use Science Markers. They are held in players' personal stash, near their character card.

When a player is prompted to 'Gain X Science Markers' (where X is a number), it is referring to the number on the Science Marker, not the physical quantity of markers. There are also some markers that are orange with the number 2 on them. If a player is able to 'Gain 2 Science Markers', they would be able to either gain 2 blue Science Markers (worth 1 each), or 1 orange Science Marker (worth 2).

Influence

Note: to read about Brief Card voting rules with Influence Cards, refer to page 18.

Influence Cards are used as a tool for voting. At times, Influence is also used as a means for payment throughout the game. Influence appears in 4 types: Finance, Spy, Science, and War. Each type of Influence Card is represented by both a colour and symbol.

Influence cards are used to:

• Add influence to Letter Demands;
  • This can be done at any point during a player's turn and at no cost;
• Add influence to Brief Card votes or assassination votes;
  • Influence is added face down to the Vote Pile, starting with the Brief Card Holder (or player who called the assassination) and finishing with 2 Public Opinion Influence Cards;
  • Players may only add Influence Cards to Brief Card votes once;
• Pay to activate certain board game tiles.

How to Pick Up Influence Cards

Influence cards can be picked up in three ways:

1. At the start of each player's turn, pick up as many Influence Cards of each type as stated on the bottom right of the Character Card. The number and type of Influence Cards depends on each character's personality and play style.
2. Players can purchase Influence Cards with AP on their turn.
3. Some Brief Cards allow players to pick up Influence Cards.

Generally, it is better to have a diverse range of Influence Cards amongst the play group in order to combat the most difficult votes & demands.

How to Use Influence Cards

The number (1 to 5) & type (War, Spy, Science, Finance) of Influence on the top of each Influence Card equates to the amount of influence that will sway the vote in each Brief Card, Assassination vote and a player adds a type of influence that is not required in an active vote (for example adding Science Influence to a vote that only required War Influence), the total of the 'negative' Influence is subtracted from the total Influence score.

Note that players are not allowed to say the value or number of influence cards they are playing into any Brief, Letter or other influence check. See a live example of a vote on the right hand side of the page.

Influence Card Actions

Occasionally, a player will pick up a card with an Influence Action. These cards act the same as any other Influence Card, however if played into Brief Card votes, the action is triggered as soon as possible (either immediately, or in the next player's turn).

Example Influence Card (2 Spy Influence), Action: The Brief Holder may replace 1 Beacon at no cost. The Beacon must not be active.

Note: Influence Card actions ONLY take effect in Brief Card votes. If Influence Card actions are played into Letter Demands or Assassination Votes, they take no action and are treated like a normal Influence Card.

Example Character (Samuel Ledger, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court): At the start of each turn, Samuel picks up 2 Finance, 2 Science & 2 War Influence Cards.

Influence Types and Their Effects

The table below lists how each type of Influence Card adds to a vote:

Influence Type Added	Power	Effect	Tally (example)
4 Science Influence	4 Science Influence	+4 to the Brief total	4 Influence
2 War Influence (Action: each player gains 1 influence card of any type)	2 War Influence	+2 to the Brief total. Action: All players gain 1 random Influence Card	6 Influence
1 Science Influence	1 Science Influence	+1 to the Brief total	7 Influence
4 Finance Influence	4 Finance Influence	-4 to the Brief total	3 Influence

Brief Card / Assassination Vote Example: The Brief Card above requires Science & War Influence. Therefore, if players add Finance and/or Spy Influence to the pile, it will detract from the total Influence tally.

In the live example, 7 positive Influence (Science & War) has been added to the Vote Pile for the Brief Card. However, either by a player, or Public Opinion, 4 negative Influence (Finance) was also added, bringing the total Influence count to 3. Oh no! In this scenario, a riot is incited.

Additionally, an Influence Card with an action was played – this takes effect as soon as possible (in this case, straight away).

Example Brief Card (quoted from Samuel Ledger, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court), Influence needed: Science and War:

• 12+: Deploy 1 troop to each location.
• 8 to 11: Nothing happens.
• Up to 7: Lose 2 troops (per location).
• Up to 4: A riot is incited.

Tile Concepts

Coins & the Treasury

Coins are placed from the outside of the board into the Treasury when they are gained through either base taxes, or purchased from the 'bank'. In the example on the left, 17 coins have been gained (2x 5 value coins & 7x 1 value coins).

Coins are shared by all players and always placed directly into the Treasury when gained. While coins are pooled amongst the group, only the current player gets to decide how to spend the coins.

What can coins be used for? Gaining coins provides players the means to:

• Launch Beacons;
• Some Brief Cards require coins;
• Some Letter Demands require coins;
• Adding to the 'roll for Civil Unrest' tile.

Letters

At the start of each of the 5 days (rounds), a letter from the assassin is read by the first player. Each letter contains a demand to all players, as seen in the example. These demands become increasingly difficult as each round passes.

Letters often contain different requests, like Influence, Coins from the Treasury, and drain game resources. If adding Influence to the Letter Demand, ensure it is added face down.

Important!

• Players may add Influence or coins to the Letter at any point during their turn and may tell players what they are putting in if they choose to.
• Unlike Brief Cards, adding the incorrect Influence into a Letter Demand does not reduce the tally of Influence for Letters.

Securing Coins into Letters

Some Letters allow players to secure coins into Letters. This means players are able to transfer as many coins from the Treasury into the Letter as desired at a cost of 4 AP per transaction. Coins transferred into the Letter are not impacted by any 'lose coins' events (for example: discard 2 coins from the Treasury) and cannot be removed once secured.

'Per player, add the following influence to the demand'

When demands request that Influence is added to Letters 'per player', it requires players to add the amount of Influence requested multiplied by the number of players. For example, if the Letter asked for 3 Science Influence per player, and there were 4 players, 12 Science Influence would be required.

Public Opinion

The Public Opinion deck is located underneath the Vote Pile on the game board, and represents the opinion of the citizens of Karmonia. The deck is made up of 40 shuffled Influence Cards (10 of each type), built before the game begins and rebuilt each time it is exhausted.

How to Use Public Opinion. Public Opinion is only played during Brief Card and assassination votes. After all players have placed their Influence Cards face down into the Vote Pile for an Influence Brief, 2 cards from the Public Opinion deck are added face down and shuffled in. Some game events may increase this number from 2.

Brief Cards

Brief Cards show unique events that occurred in Karmonia that shaped the world it is today. They have a major effect on the game, either positive or negative. After each player has completed their turn, a Brief Card is picked up from the Brief Card Pile at the bottom left of the game board.

There are 72 unique Brief Cards over 4 types of briefs – Choice Briefs, where players must choose an option; Influence Briefs, where players must vote with their Influence Cards to complete objectives; Bidding Briefs, where players bid with their Influence cards to gain special abilities; or rolling Briefs, where players must roll a dice to resolve the Brief Card. Each Brief card is unique, some are harder than others, and each holds a theme of Finance, Spy, Science or War.

Bidding Brief Cards

Some Brief cards offer players the chance to bid Influence Cards in order to gain in-game abilities, like the one on the top left of this page. Starting with the Brief card holder, play Influence of any kind, face up, in front of the player (playing multiple cards is acceptable).

For example:

1. Player one bid 4 Science and 2 War Influence, totaling 6 Influence. The next player, clockwise, must bid more than 6 Influence to be winning the bid.
2. Next, Player 2 bid 2x 4 Finance Influence, totaling 8 Influence.
3. Both players 3 & 4 bow out of the bidding.
4. Player one has an opportunity to bid more Influence, adding to their total.

This repeats until all bar one player bows out of the bidding process.

For example, player one bids an extra 2 Spy Influence cards at a value of 5 Influence, totaling 11 Influence. Player two bows out. Player 1 wins the bidding and gets the Brief Card reward. Place all bid Influence Cards into their respective discard piles.

The Bidding Brief card's reward table reads:

• Each player bids Influence:
  • Highest bidder: gain 1 Scientific Discovery card*.
  • Lowest bidder: lose 2 AP at the start of next turn*.
  • Footnote as printed on the card (small print, partly illegible in the scan): roll a die to resolve any ties.

Influence Brief Card

Influence Briefs, like the one directly above, require players to vote with their Influence Cards in order to reach an objective defined by the number in the table. Note that players are not allowed to say the value or number of influence cards they are playing into any Brief, Letter or other influence check. Follow the steps below to play Influence into Brief Cards:

1. Starting with the Brief Card holder and rotating clockwise, each player is to vote with Influence, placing their Influence Cards into the 'Vote Pile' tile face down.
2. Add 2 Public Opinion influence cards to the vote pile.
3. Shuffle & reveal all Influence Cards. Influence Cards with actions take effect.
4. Tally the 'required influence' shown at the top of the Brief Card. i. For example, if Spy and Science influence is required, tally all Spy and Science influence found in the pile.
5. Subtract any influence not required. i. For example, if Spy and Science influence is required, but there is 3 War influence in the pile, minus off 3 Influence from the total.

Determine whether the group passes or fails the brief. Failing a brief means the group did not achieve enough influence to surpass the bottom row of the Influence check.

If the game calls for players to 'automatically pass a brief', activate the top row of the Brief Card.

A live example of tallying influence can be found on page 16.

The example Influence Brief card reads: Influence needed: Spy & Science. 14+: Keep this card in play: the next player to complete a Scientific Discovery draws 3 cards and chooses 1. Up to 12: Nothing happens.

Choice Brief Card

Choice Briefs, like the one directly above, pose a moral choice to one of the players on the board, as directed by the Brief Card.

While all players may add their opinion to the choice brief, the ultimate decision must be made by the player indicated on the Brief Card.

The example Choice Brief card reads, for the Brief Card Holder: Buying Time: pay 4 coins – gift another player 4 AP (to use immediately). Piggy Bank: the next player may gain coins from the bank at no AP cost. Indecision: nothing happens.

Roll a die to Resolve any Ties Rule

Some Brief Cards say 'Roll a Die To Resolve a Tie'. Use a D8 if there is a tie – the highest roller receives the intended effect of the card.

Super Brief Cards

There are 8 Super Brief Cards that have a chance of being added into the game.

Prior to commencing the game, ensure there are no Super Brief Cards shuffled into the Brief Card deck. Instead, these challenging Brief Cards are added into the game progressively by game events – namely Brief Cards, Revealed Assassin tiles, or Letter Demands.

When a Super Brief is added, follow the directions on the Brief Card or Letter Demand.

Beacons & The Surveillance Centre Concepts

Beacons are surveillance projects that are conducted in the Surveillance Centre. While they may not be the most ethical projects, most of the time they add powered-up game tiles that players can access for little or no cost. Most Beacons act as an extra activation tile that can be used throughout the game. Note that each active Beacon can only be used once per round.

Launching Revealed & Unrevealed Beacons

The board starts with 4 face up Beacons. While these Beacons are face up, they are not launched. They can be launched by playing the 'Launch a Beacon' tile on the board, or through specific in-game events (like Brief Cards or Scientific Discovery Cards). Per the second option (activating an unrevealed Beacon for 2 AP + 2 coins), if the Beacon drawn from the draw pile is defective (orange), the Beacon is still placed on the board, but no coin is added to it.

When a Beacon is launched, the player places a coin on the top left of the Beacon card in the 'Launched' circle on the Beacon of the player's choosing. Now the Beacon is Launched and acts as an extra game tile.

Using Beacons

Important! In the 3-6 player game, if Defense Space 2 (or Defense Space 4 in a 1-2 player game) is occupied by a rioter, no Beacons may be used until the rioter is executed.

When a Beacon is Launched, players may use them by placing their character on the 'Use Beacon' tile and paying the cost outlined on the Beacon card. Each Launched Beacon may be used once per round. Once a Beacon has been used, move the coin from the 'Launched' space to the 'Used' space. Per 'Round Actions', the coin moves back from 'Used' to 'Launched' at the start of the next round, ready to be used again.

Reprogramming Beacons

Sometimes, there are Beacons that are orange in colour. These Beacons are defective and take up space on Beacon tile spaces. Other times, there may be a valid Beacon that is face up and ready to purchase, however it is not useful for the game. In these scenarios, players may activate the 'Reprogram Beacon' tile at a cost of 3 AP to replace any unwanted Beacon. Players may complete any, or all of the two actions below:

1. Players may replace any number of unlaunched Beacons with Beacons from the draw pile. On replacement, reprogrammed Beacons must be discarded back into the box.
2. Players may also replace any number of launched Beacons. If players discard an already launched Beacon, the Beacon gets discarded back into the box, and the coin returns to the coin pile on the outside edge of the game board, near the Treasury.

Assassinations

Either by activating the 'Call an Assassination Vote' tile, as a result of a Brief Card, or Beacon activation, players may call an assassination vote against another player. Unless part of a character ability, an assassination vote will always trigger an Influence vote. If an assassination vote is passed, a player is executed and has limited abilities for the rest of the game.

Assassination Votes

When an assassination vote is called, it acts the same way as Brief Card voting, where Spy and War Influence are positive (e.g. will contribute toward the assassination), and Science and Finance are negative (e.g. will reduce the chance of assassination). All players may vote, starting from the player who called the vote and rotating clockwise. The Influence required for a vote is equal to the number of players multiplied by the type of Vote. For example, if players wish to assassinate the President in a 3 player game, the Influence tally must result in 12 or more (3 players multiplied by 4 = 12 Spy and War). Note that Influence Card Actions do not take effect in Assassination votes.

On the Call Assassination Vote tile, the Influence total required is: The President: 4 per player. Other characters: 2 per player.

The "Out in the Open" and "False Pretenses" Brief cards describe alternative assassination votes: Out in the Open – call an assassination vote against a player at no cost. False Pretenses – an assassination vote is called against the player with the least amount of Influence Cards.

What Happens When a Player is Assassinated?

If a player is assassinated, they must reveal whether or not one of their allegiance cards was to 'Kill The President'.

If the assassinated player's allegiance is sided to kill the President:

The game ends if there is only one 'Kill the President' Allegiance Card in the game. If there is more than 1 'Kill the President' Allegiance Card currently in the game, or there is a 'Revealed Assassin', reduce Threat by 1 (unless you cannot) and continue the game.

The assassinated player may continue playing, but must:

1. Reveal their Allegiance Card/s.
2. Discard half of their currently held Influence Cards and Science Markers, and all Scientific Discovery cards (round down).

The assassinated player has 0 AP and may only play 2 face up influence cards into briefs. The assassinated player may still pick up cards, vote in briefs and other scenarios which may require voting (face up).

If the assassinated player's allegiance is sided to 'Save The President' or 'Save the President – Secondary Mission':

Immediately increase Threat by 1.

The assassinated player must:

1. Reveal at least one of their allegiance cards.
2. Discard half of their currently held Influence Cards and Science Markers, and all Scientific Discovery cards (round down).

The assassinated player may choose a new character to enter the game again (the player does not need to wait for their turn to do this) and play as per normal. The assassinated player does not pick up any additional allegiance cards when choosing a new character to enter the game.

What happens if a player is assassinated and more allegiance cards are dealt out?

If more allegiance cards are dealt out, the assassinated player is dealt an allegiance card and is forbidden to look at it. Place the Allegiance Card face down underneath the Character Card of the player.

What happens if players have more than one allegiance card?

The same rules still apply. An assassinated player with 2+ Allegiance Cards must immediately reveal all 'Kill the President' Allegiance Cards they hold. If there is more than 1 assassin in the game, it is not necessary to reveal the second allegiance card that the player holds.

Revealed Assassins

Revealed assassins cannot be assassinated by any means. Assassins may reveal themselves at the start of round 3.

Troops, Riots & The War Room

What are Riot cards?

Riots occur when civil unrest reaches 6 (represented by a rioter symbol on the Civil Unrest track), or by an in-game event.

If a riot occurs, immediately follow the below steps:

1. Move the Civil Unrest tracker back to 0, and pick up a Riot Card from the pile.
2. Place the Riot Card on the first available 'Riot Card Placement' tile, to the right of the 'Vote Pile'. These cards will hang off the edge of the board.
3. Upon drawing and each round (Round Actions phase), resolve the Riot Card by rolling a D4 to determine which Defense Space within each location to deploy the rioter/s. i. Until such time all Defense Spaces in a location (for example, The Treasury) are filled with rioters, D4 numbers directly correlate to Defense Spaces. If a 2 is rolled, then a rioter is deployed to Defense Space 2. ii. If there are multiple locations where rioters are required to be deployed (for example The Treasury & Laboratory), start at the leftmost location and rotate clockwise. iii. Only 1 rioter may occupy 1 Defense Space. In the instance there is already a rioter in a Defense Space, no rioter is deployed.
4. Per Riot Card, the first time a rioter is placed on the board increase the Threat Level by 1.
5. If there are no more Defense Spaces to deploy a rioter, place a rioter on Defense Space 5 and immediately increase the Threat Level by 1.
6. Until a riot ends, riots will retrigger at the start of each round.

Unusable tiles: Tiles that contain rioters are unusable until the rioters are executed.

Riots commencing at the same time: If 2 or more Riot Cards are to be picked up (commenced) at the same time, commence the riot on 'Riot Card Placement #1' before commencing the second Riot Card. If rioters are deployed from both cards, Threat only increases once. Both riots end simultaneously when all rioters are executed.

Only 2 active riots allowed at the same time: Only 2 riots may remain active at the same time. If a 3rd Riot Card is drawn, it is activated per normal, and then placed in the riot discard pile after first activation. This way, at the start of the new round, only 2 riots are triggered at most.

Defending Defense Spaces

Troops may defend the board by being placed on Defense Spaces at an AP and Civil Unrest cost. When a rioter attempts to deploy on a space that contains a troop, no rioter is deployed. Instead, the troop is removed. Great work, troop!

Ending or Preventing Riots

Riots are prevented or ended in two possible scenarios:

1. A Riot Card was drawn, but troops prevented deployment of all rioters on the board.
2. A riot is ended if all rioters are executed. If there are multiple riots, all rioters must be executed to end all riots.

Executing Rioters

Karmonia welcomes (and pardons) Patriotic citizens who wish to execute rioters! Players may execute rioters by activating the 'Execute a Rioter' tile in the War Room. This act costs AP, however players may also spend Influence Cards to reroll, if their result was undesirable. This is considered the most direct approach to ending riots.

Official Guide #213: Riots & Combat

Citizen! Remain calm immediately! This document has been prepared in the event that unlawful & dangerous criminals have commenced rioting.

Riot example: A Riot Card ordered 4 Rioters to be deployed to The Treasury.

• Defense Space 1: was rolled twice. A troop prevented the first Rioter placement, but the Rioter broke through the 2nd time and now occupies Defense Space 1.
• Defense Space 2: A 2 was rolled. A troop was deployed to this space and prevented Rioter placement. The troop is now removed from the board.
• Defense Space 3: No 3 was rolled, so nothing happens on Defense Space 3.
• Defense Space 4: A 4 was rolled. No troop was deployed on Defense Space 4, so the Rioter deployed immediately.

There are now 2 Rioters occupying Defense Spaces on the Treasury. There are no Troops remaining in the Treasury. Threat was increased by 1 since a Rioter was deployed.

Glossary

• Allegiance Card (Pages 5, 14): Cards defining loyalty of characters. Allegiance come in 3 formats:
  • Kill the President!: Player must assassinate The President.
  • Save the President!: Player must prevent the assassination of The President.
  • Save the President! Secondary Mission: Player must prevent the assassination of The President and complete a secret mission.
• Action Points (AP) (Page 12): AP defines how many actions each player may use in each round, shown by the circles on the left hand side of the character card. Each board tile costs AP.
• Assassinations (Page 20): Each player can be assassinated through tile triggers, Brief card results or Beacon tiles. Each time a player is up for assassination, an Influence Card vote triggers.
• Beacons (Page 19): Found in the Surveillance Centre. Beacons are tiles that add in-game bonuses. Beacons must be purchased and can only be used once per round.
  • Reprogram Beacon: A tile on the Surveillance Centre to change Beacons currently in play.
• Brief Cards (Page 18): Brief Cards are mission briefs that are drawn from the left of the meeting room after a player announces that they have finished their turn. There are 3 formats:
  • Choice Brief: Players are imposed with a moral choice.
  • Influence Brief: The group must use Influence cards to vote toward a goal.

Characters

Characters in Patriot vary greatly. Each character is amazing in their own right, and all characters have unique strengths and weaknesses. When choosing characters, firstly have a look at whether or not their play style would suit you. For example, some characters have reduced AP but have card restrictions. Some characters have more AP, but have dramatic in-game abilities. Some characters have more Influence Cards to play with. Secondly, see what characters your team mates are choosing and try ensure that you pick characters that cover all Influence Card types. P.S. It's also totally fine to pick a character because they look cool and have a cool back story.

The character guide gives a difficulty rating underneath the name. Here are some suggestions for a 4 player game: President Viktor Markov – a good mixture of Influence. Chief of Science Zam Che – great with science. Secretary of Finance Hilbert Holschtein – great with finance. The Bodyguard Wilfred Duvon – counterbalances Hilbert and Zam, and has game saving abilities.

Note: the character cards' printed ability text is set in very small type and is not fully legible in the scanned rulebook. The strengths and weaknesses below are as printed on the character guide pages; the character cards themselves are the authoritative reference for their abilities.

The President

President Marion Mochi – Difficulty: Hard · Type: Spy · Play style: Offensive.

• Strengths: Strong defense and attack.
• Weaknesses: Less Influence than other players.
• Military State Clarification: In game setup, place 1 troop in the Treasury, Surveillance Centre, Research Laboratory & War Room as per the normal troop deployment process.

President Viktor Markov – Difficulty: Medium · Type: Finance/War · Play style: Stamina.

• Strengths: Most AP of any player.
• Weaknesses: Must drive the group to pass Letter Demands each round, or AP will be lost.
• Big Heart Clarification: Viktor may not use this ability when Letter Demand results are being counted.
• Democratic Clarification: While Viktor cannot call an assassination vote, he may vote in assassination votes called by other players.

President Donovan Maelstrom – Difficulty: Medium · Type: Finance/Spy · Play style: Game Changer.

• Strengths: Strong once-per-game abilities.
• Weaknesses: Continuous monitoring of Civil Unrest required. Donovan has no passive abilities.
• Delegate Talks Clarification: Donovan must announce that the riot will be prevented before the riot card is read to the group.

President Ashi – Difficulty: Hard · Type: Spy/Science · Play style: Disruptor.

• Strengths: Game changing strengths and science abilities – 2 turns in a row and changing turn order (useful with revealed assassins).
• Weaknesses: Game changing weaknesses – bad at riots.

Other Characters (pages 25 – 26)

Political Candidate – Frank – Difficulty: Medium · Type: Science/War · Play style: Innovator.

• Strengths: Frank is great at science, but most importantly has a 'Hail Mary' with rioter executions.
• Weaknesses: Easier to trigger riots with Frank.
• Disintegration Ray Clarification: Frank may use this ability when there are less than 5 rioters on the board, however the ability is 'all or nothing' – it does not carry over.

The President's Daughter – Diva "M" – Difficulty: Easy · Type: Spy/War · Play style: Saboteur.

• Strengths: Diva is great at sabotaging Brief Card votes.
• Weaknesses: Continuous monitoring of Influence Cards required.
• Cancelled Clarification: "M" must ensure that the target's once per game ability is not already in effect, and must not reverse any actions caused.

Secretary of Defense – Gustavo Moreno – Difficulty: Medium · Type: War · Play style: Tank.

• Strengths: Gustavo may stockpile Influence to gain more AP.
• Weaknesses: Continuous monitoring of Troops required.
• Rule Maker Clarification: Gustavo may decide to use Rule Maker after the Brief Card has been revealed, but not after Influence Cards have been added.

The First Lady – Maury Sweeney – Difficulty: Medium · Type: All-rounder · Play style: Influencer.

• Strengths: Good all-rounder abilities.
• Weaknesses: Continuous monitoring of Influence Cards required.
• Give or Take Clarification: Maury may only choose one of the two options in Give or Take. Maury or the target may pick up any Influence Card type.

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court – Samuel Ledger – Difficulty: Hard · Type: All-rounder · Play style: Controller.

• Strengths: Sam's strengths can change the game.
• Weaknesses: The President must be an ally.
• I Am The Law Clarification: Samuel must clearly state whether he is raising or lowering the (tracker, partly illegible in scan) before the assassination vote commences.

Media Mogul – Frank Ford – Difficulty: Medium · Type: Spy · Play style: Silver Lining.

• Strengths: Frank excels in tough games.
• Weaknesses: Frank is disadvantaged in easier games.
• Fake News Clarification: If Civil Unrest rises and Frank holds no Influence Cards, nothing happens to Frank.

Director of the N.S.A. – M.W. – Difficulty: Very Hard · Type: Spy · Play style: Powerful.

• Strengths: Controls Beacons.
• Weaknesses: Numerous Allegiance Cards increases the untrustworthiness of M.W.
• Untrustworthy Clarification: Refer to page 15 to find out how many Allegiance Cards are to be added into the game.

The Party Donor – Petr Crumb – Difficulty: Hard · Type: Finance · Play style: Aggressive Banker.

• Strengths: Lots of Finance Influence & abilities.
• Weaknesses: Low AP limits Petr's abilities per turn.
• Weight Issues Clarification: Petr may gain extra AP throughout the game. AP may scale up to a maximum of 8, meaning payment can be made up to 10 AP.

Chief of Science – Zam Che – Difficulty: Easy · Type: Science · Play style: Scientist.

• Strengths: Science focus – lots of Science Influence & abilities.
• Weaknesses: Luck is important. AP is lost if dice rolls are bad.
• Thanks, Man Clarification: Zam's target must take the Scientific Discovery given (even if bad).

Secretary of Finance – Hilbert Holschtein – Difficulty: Easy · Type: Finance · Play style: Passive Banker.

• Strengths: Passive income from base taxes.
• Weaknesses: Strategic planning of AP required to reduce Influence Card loss.
• Rotund Clarification: Payment required for each movement between the Treasury, Surveillance Centre, Research Laboratory and War Room.

Vice President – Jack Maelstrom – Difficulty: Hard · Type: Science · Play style: Peacekeeper.

• Strengths: Jack can control Civil Unrest.
• Weaknesses: Jack must make strategic alliances until after the first riot.
• Don't Mind if I Do Clarification: Jack can use his twice per game ability at any time, but he cannot reverse a riot that has already commenced.

The Bodyguard – Wilfred Duvon – Difficulty: Medium · Type: Spy/War · Play style: Game Changer.

• Strengths: Can save the game.
• Weaknesses: Research Laboratory tiles are more expensive for Wilfred.
• Take the Bullet Clarification: Can reverse Threat from increasing and even stop the game from ending, but must be played immediately.

First Round Walkthrough

If players would like a guided first round, follow this step by step guide. Across the next two pages, this guide will demonstrate how some game concepts work in actual gameplay. While this walkthrough assumes a 3 player game, it can also be used to demonstrate the first 3 players turns in a higher player number game.

Prerequisites

1. Set up the Letter, Beacons, Scientific Discovery, Riot, and Brief Cards on this page and place them on the board as directed.
2. Locate the Characters (bottom right). These will be your Characters for this game.
3. Read page 5 in full and follow the setup instructions, noting that you use the Characters and cards provided below in round 1.

Setup captions (as printed): Locate the four Beacons and place them on the four Beacon spaces at the top left of the board. Place the two Scientific Discovery cards face down on the Scientific Discovery pile (the card text reads: "If Civil Unrest reaches 6, you may use this Scientific Discovery to prevent a riot once (discard after using)" and "Keep this card in play until required: gain 4 additional AP. Discard after use"). Place the above Riot card face down on top of the Riot Card pile. Use the above Letter on Day 1 (Demands: 1 Beacon must be launched; Fail effect: Threat is increased by 1). Brief Card, drawn 1st turn: locate the above Brief Card and place it face down on the Brief Card pile in the top position. Brief Card, drawn 2nd turn: place face down on top of the Brief Card pile in the second position. Brief Card, drawn 3rd turn: place face down in the third position. Use the above characters in this game. Roll a dice to decide who plays which character. Highest roller chooses first.

Round Strategy

The Letter Demand on Round 1 is to Launch a Beacon. Beacons can be launched by the 'Launch a Beacon' tile for 4 AP and 4 Coins (or 2 AP and 2 Coins for an unrevealed Beacon). To meet this demand, players must gain coins and Launch a Beacon.

First Player: The President (Viktor Markov)

Strategy: Gain coins so the next player can launch a Beacon.

• Step 1: Gather. Pick up Influence Cards. Per his character card, Viktor picks up 2 Finance Influence, 1 Spy Influence, 1 Science Influence and 2 War Influence cards. (For this walkthrough, filter through the Influence Card piles and pick up the Influence Cards to the right.)
• Step 2: Act. Viktor takes his standee and places it on the 'Gain Coins From Bank' tile. He activates the 7 AP option, gaining 5 coins from the outside of the board and placing it within the Treasury. He then reduces his AP from 10 to 3 and increases the Civil Unrest by 4. Viktor has 3 AP left and moves his standee to the 'Roll for Civil Unrest' tile. Unfortunately, Viktor rolled a 1. He does not want to spend Influence Cards to increase his roll, so he increases Civil Unrest by 3. A riot commences immediately.
• Riot Commences. Following the instructions on page 21, Viktor moves Civil Unrest back to 0, picks up the Riot card from the riot card pile and places it face up on 'Riot Card Placement #1'. Viktor then rolls a D4 twice. His first roll is a 2, so he places a rioter on Defense Space 2 – as this was the first time a rioter was deployed from this Riot Card, he immediately increases Threat by 1. His second roll is a 3, so he places a rioter on Defense Space 3.
• Step 3: Encounter. Viktor wishes to end his turn, so he now picks up a Brief Card. The Brief Card is a Choice Brief card. Viktor chooses 'It's Me...'. This means he moves his Threat tracker to 7. Viktor's turn is now over, so he places his standee back on the 'first player' turn marker.

Second Player: Diva 'M'

Strategy: Use the Coins to Launch a Beacon and end the riot.

• Step 1: Gather. Pick up Influence Cards. Per her character card, 'M' picks up 2 Spy Influence, 2 Science Influence, and 2 War Influence. Because 'M' has a special character ability, she also decides to pick up an extra Finance Influence.
• Step 2: Act. 'M' has 8 AP to spend. First, she wants to remove those pesky rioters. She moves her standee to the 'Roll to Execute a Rioter' tile. 'M' rolls a 7, which means she is able to remove both rioters and end the Riot, placing the Riot Card into the discard pile. 'M' then moves her standee to the 'Launch a Beacon' tile, spends 4 AP and 4 coins from the bank to launch a Beacon, also achieving the Letter Demand. With her final AP, 'M' moves her standee to the 'Pick Up Finance Influence' tile and picks up 1 Finance Influence card.
• Step 3: Encounter. 'M' wants to end her turn now, so she picks up a Brief Card, which is a Rolling Brief. She rolls a D8, but unfortunately she rolls a 3. This means she removes the remaining coins from the Treasury, and also increases Threat by 1.

Third Player: Hilbert Holschtein

Strategy: Gain a Scientific Discovery Card to get an in-game advantage.

• Step 1: Gather. Pick up Influence Cards. Per his character card, Hilbert picks up 4 Finance Influence and 2 Science Influence. (For this walkthrough, filter through the Influence Card piles and pick up the Influence Cards to the right.)
• Step 2: Act. Hilbert has 8 AP to spend. He moves his standee to the 'Commence Science Project' tile and activates the tile. He rolls a 1, so he activates it twice more, rolling a 2 each time. Finally, he rolls an 8 and gains 4 Science Markers. He then moves his standee to the 'Make a Scientific Discovery' tile, and hands in his 4 Science Markers to pick up 2 Scientific Discoveries, choosing the card that allows him more AP.
• Step 3: Encounter. Hilbert used all his AP on gaining Science Markers, so he ends his turn by drawing a Brief Card. It's an Influence Brief. Hilbert plays first and places all his Finance Influence into the Influence Card pile, face down. Next, The President adds his one Spy Influence card. M plays last – she adds her 2 Spy Influence cards. Finally, Public Opinion is added, which was 1 Science and 1 Spy Influence. Hilbert shuffles, then counts up all Influence, calculating that the group achieved 13 Influence. This means that they are able to immediately Launch a Beacon at no cost.

As this is the end of the last player's turn, turn order is adjusted.

New Round Actions

Round Actions overview: 1. Resolve Letter Demand. 2. Resolve Riots. 3. Reset Beacons. 4. Gain Taxes. 5. Flip and read next Letter.

First, players resolve the Letter Demand. One Beacon has been launched, so the demand has been successfully met. There are no riots, the Beacon was not used, and taxes were not raised in round 1. This means that all that is left to do is to flip and read out the next letter to the play group, and start round 2.