Shadow Moon Syndicates Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Aim of the Game
• Components
• Setting Up the Game
• Key Concepts
  • Sectors, Borders and Tokens
  • Influence
  • Control
  • Agent Cards
  • Agent Stack
  • Operation Tokens
• Playing the Game
  • Round Structure
  • Step 1 - Hustle
  • Step 2 - Deploy Agent
  • Step 3 - Fulfill Operation
  • Step 4 - Manipulate
• End of Round
• New Round
• Final Scoring
• 2 Player Game
  • In Rounds 1 and 2
  • In Round 3
  • Kingpin Clarifications
• Further Clarifications
  • Mandatory & Optional Effects
  • Burn Pile
  • Status Tokens

Aim of the Game

In Shadow Moon Syndicates, 2-5 players take on the role of a syndicate crime boss.

Over 3 rounds, players will utilize their hand of cards to nefariously influence sectors of the Shadow Moon, carry out high-stakes criminal operations, and assemble their specialists for the game's finale.

How players manage their cards determines their ability to spread influence and complete criminal operations to gain lucrative Kredits, all the while outmaneuvering rivals in the race for the ascendancy.

The player with the highest score from accumulated Kredits and fulfilled Operations at game end will emerge victorious.

Will you rise above the rest, turning sin into success, and claim the title of Sovereign of Shadow Moon?

Components

• 1 Game Board
• 80 Influence Tokens
• 100 Agent Cards
• 5 Petty Crime Tokens
• 10 Trait Cards
• 30 Objective Cards
• 10 Status Tokens
• 1 Appendix
• 1 Round Marker
• 5 Major/Minor Score Tokens
• 1 Kingpin Die
• 33 Operation Tokens
• 2 Kingpin Reference Cards
• 1 First Player Marker
• 5 Player Aids
• 60 Kredits
• 1 Draw Bag

Kredits are not limited. If you run out, find a suitable replacement.

Setting Up the Game

1. Place the Main Board in a central area on the table.

2. Place the Round marker on the '1' slot.

3. Each Player takes all 16 Influence Tokens and the Petty Crime Operation Token in their chosen colour. Flip the Operation Token to its red and yellow active side.

4. Each Player also takes 1 Player Aid.

5. Shuffle the Trait Cards and reveal the required number using the guide below:

   • 2-3 players: 5 Cards
   • 4 players: 6 Cards
   • 5 players: 7 Cards

   If desired, select which Syndicates will be used, rather than revealing the required number of Trait Cards randomly.

6. Return all Trait Cards and Agent Cards of unselected Syndicates to the box.

7. Take the 10 Agent Cards for each selected Syndicate and shuffle them all together to form a single Deck. Place this Deck facedown on the left slot of the Main Board.

8. Reveal the top Agent Card from the Deck and place it on the right slot of the Main Board. This is the Burn Pile. The top Agent Card of this Pile is always faceup and referred to as the Burned Card (see page 28).

9. Place 1 Agent Card faceup from the top of the Deck into each of the 5 slots along the bottom of the Main Board. These form the Card Row.

10. Deal 6 Agent Cards from the top of the Deck to each player's hand.

11. Shuffle the Objective Cards and deal 3 to each player's hand. Players can always examine their own hands, but never the hands of their opponents.

12. Of the remaining Objective Cards, some may also need to be placed faceup into the slots along the top of the Main Board, using the guide below:

    • 2 players: 3 Cards
    • 3 players: 2 Cards
    • 4 players: 1 Card
    • 5 players: 0 Cards

13. Return any remaining Objective Cards and Trait Cards to the box.

14. For each faceup Objective Card along the top of the Main Board, place 1 Minor Score Token (red side) over the name of the Sector on the Card. If there are 2 Cards matching a Sector, flip the token to its Major Score side (yellow), rather than adding a second Minor Score Token.

15. Place the remaining Major/Minor Score Tokens, along with all Kredit Tokens and Status Tokens in a General Supply within reach of all players.

16. Mix all 33 Operation Tokens in the Draw Bag. Draw and place 5 of these onto the Main Board. Each Operation Token specifies 2 Sectors on their inactive side. These indicate the Border where each Operation Token must be placed. Once placed correctly, these must all be turned faceup to their active side.

Want to choose Syndicates that suit your group? Each Syndicate has its own complexity and aggression ratings on their Trait Cards.

Key Concepts

Sectors, Borders and Tokens

The Main Board consists of 15 named Sectors, divided up by Borders. Influence and Status Tokens are always in 1 Sector, and should always be placed fully within the Borders of that Sector. Sectors that share a Border are adjacent, irrespective of how small or big that Border is. Operation Tokens are always placed on the Border between 2 Sectors. In this way, Operation Tokens are considered to be present in both Sectors.

Influence

Each player has 16 Influence Tokens in their colour. These are more often simply referred to as "Influence". Influence can only ever be in Sectors of the Main Board or in players' personal supplies. Players must keep their Influence in stacks to clearly show how much they have in each Sector.

Many effects can remove Influence from the Main Board. Whenever Influence is removed it is placed back into its owner's Personal Supply.

Many effects allow players to place their own Influence in Sectors on the Main Board. This Influence comes from that player's Personal Supply. If they have no Influence in their Personal Supply they instead move their Influence from any Sectors of their choice.

Control

Control is an important concept in Shadow Moon Syndicates. A player has control of a Sector if they have at least 2 Influence and strictly the most Influence in that Sector (ties don't count!). It is possible for Sectors to not be under any player's Control.

Simulation:

1. The Spire - magenta and purple are both tied for influence in the Spire, so no one has control.
2. Bio Division - though purple has the most influence here, they do not have the minimum 2 influence to control this sector.
3. Neural Network - magenta has control in this sector.
4. Corp Sec - orange has control of this sector.

Agent Cards

The Shadow Moon is made up of many colourful and shady characters, each of which are aligned to a specific Syndicate. Agent Cards represent these characters. Most of the time Agent Cards will simply be referred to as Cards.

These Cards are the driving force of the game, they fuel actions, act as a Round timer, and give focus for players as they plan for the final Round of the game.

Each Agent Card shows:

1. Syndicate Icon - The unique icon that identifies each Syndicate. In any given game, there will always be exactly 10 Agents from each of the chosen Syndicates.
2. Illustration
3. Above the Line - This will have either 1 or 2 effects (sentences). Each sentence is a different, yet connected effect. Both effects are considered to be Above the Line. See Further Clarifications for further clarification.
4. Below the Line - This will always have 1 effect. This may only be performed if players are eligible to perform the Below the Line effect. See Playing the Game for further clarification.
5. Syndicate Name - The unique name that identifies each Syndicate.
6. Card Reference - The unique number that identifies each Agent Card. Players can look up clarifications for what each specific Card does in the Appendix.

Agent Stack

During most turns, Cards will be played and added to the Agent Stacks. Each player has their own personal Agent Stack. When Cards are added to Agent Stacks, they must be placed on top of all previously played Cards.

Players should, however, place Cards in such a way that the Syndicate icons of all Cards within their Agent Stack can always be seen. Only the top Card (most recently added) of each Agent Stack can be interacted with by any players.

Operation Tokens

Operation Tokens have 2 sides, Active and Inactive.

1. Value - This is both how many Kredits this Operation Token is worth during Final Scoring, and how much Influence is required to fulfill the Operation.
2. Crime Type - There are 6 Crime Types (excluding Petty Crime and Wild). These are later referenced for scoring.
3. Hustle Effect - The Operation Token may be flipped to its inactive side (exhausted) to perform this Effect.
4. Sector - The 2 Sectors this Operation Token will be placed on the Border between.

FIRST TIME PLAYING? It is recommended for your first time playing Shadow Moon Syndicates with 3 players or more, or if you want the game to flow faster between players' turns, to use the No Card Row variant. When setting up the game, and each time you begin a New Round, skip the step that places out 5 Cards in the Card Row. There will be no Card Row this game. On Step 4 of players' Turns, Manipulate, only the latter option is available to them. Players may still place one card on the bottom of the Deck to Draw one. This variant will reduce the amount of information available to all players, and will reduce the amount of reading required to understand what all the Cards do.

Playing the Game

Round Structure

Each game of Shadow Moon Syndicates will be played over 3 Rounds. Each Round consists of players taking turns in clockwise order, starting with the player holding the 1st Player Marker, until each player has taken 6 turns.

Players take their entire turn before play passes to the next player. On each of their turns, they perform the steps in order:

1. Hustle (Optional) - Exhaust 1 Operation Token to perform the specified effect.
2. Deploy Agent (Mandatory) - Facedown = Add 1 Anywhere. OR Faceup = Perform Above the Line and then slide to top of Agent Stack. Perform Below the Line if Agent Stack is empty, facedown, or matches played Syndicate.
3. Fulfill Operation (Optional) - Spend all Influence in 1 Controlled Sector to fulfill an adjacent Operation.
4. Manipulate (Optional) - Swap 1 Card in hand with 1 Card in the Card Row. OR Place 1 Card on the bottom of the Deck to draw 1 Card from the top of the Deck.

Once all players have taken 6 turns, proceed to the End of Round. If it is the end of the 3rd Round, skip the End of Round and proceed to Final Scoring instead.

It's worthwhile to use at least 3 Operation Tokens by the start of Round 3. You get 3 refreshes for the final round.

Step 1 - Hustle

If the player has any active Operation Tokens (showing their red side), they may choose to exhaust 1 to perform its effect.

Resolve the printed effect of the Token and flip it facedown to its inactive side. A summary of the Operation Token effects can be found in the Appendix.

Once they have resolved a single Operation Token or chosen not to, the player proceeds to Step 2 - Deploy Agent.

Simulation:

1. In Step 1 of their turn, Purple decides to exhaust their Illicit Operation Token to perform an Interfere 1 effect.

Step 2 - Deploy Agent

The player must play 1 of the Cards from their hand onto the table in front of them. They must choose 1 of the following 2 options:

Play a Card facedown

The player may choose to play their Card facedown to the top of their Agent Stack. If they do, they may Add 1 Influence to any Sector on the Main Board. Then they proceed to Step 3 - Fulfill Operation.

Important: If the top Card of an Agent Stack is facedown, opponents can neither interact with nor target this Agent Stack.

Simulation:

1. During their Deploy Agent Step, Purple chooses to play one card from their hand facedown on top of their Agent Stack.
2. This allows them to Add 1 Anywhere. Purple chooses to Add 1 Influence to Supply Depot.
3. Purple has increased their total from 3 to 4. Purple now has enough Influence (4) to fulfill the Operation located there during Step 3 of their turn.

Play a Card faceup

A: Resolve Above the Line

Playing a Card faceup forms a player's Focus Pile for the turn - note that the Card does not go to their Agent Stack at this time. In most cases, players will only ever have a single Card enter their Focus Pile, but some effects can add more.

The player resolves all chosen Above the Line effects on the top Card of their Focus Pile - beginning with the first sentence, and if applicable, proceeding to the second sentence.

Whenever placing Cards on top of your Agent Stack, make sure to leave the Icons on all previous cards visible.

B: Move Card to Agent Stack

The player slides the top Card of their Focus Pile to the top of their Agent Stack, and checks for the following:

• If the Agent Stack was previously empty (there is only 1 Card there now) they proceed to C to resolve this Card's Below the Line effects.
• If the previous top Card of the Agent Stack is facedown, they proceed to C to resolve this Card's Below the Line effects.
• If the top 2 Cards of the Agent Stack are from the same Syndicate, they proceed to C to resolve this Card's Below the Line effects.
• If the top 2 Cards of the Agent Stack are not from the same Syndicate, they do not resolve Below the Line effects. If there are any remaining Cards in the Focus Pile, they return to B (each card in the Focus Pile is resolved). If not, proceed to Step 3 - Fulfill Operation.

C: Resolve Below the Line

The player may resolve the Below the Line effect on the Card that just slid from their Focus Pile to their Agent Stack. Below the Line effects are performed in the same way as Above the Line effects. After performing this effect, if there are any remaining Cards in the Focus Pile return to B. If not, proceed to Step 3 - Fulfill Operation. Some game effects may cause players to resolve more than 1 Card per turn. Find more clarification of these effects in the appendix.

Note: When resolving a Below the Line effect on a Card that interacts with Agent Stacks, choosing to target their own Agent Stack will therefore target that same Card.

Simulation:

Above the Line:

1. The Purple player plays a Court of Saffron Card. Resolving Above the Line, they first add 2 Influence to Avante for a total of 6 Influence there.
2. They then may push 1 of their Influence to an adjacent Sector. They chose to push 1 to Bazaar. At this point they would have 5 in Avante and 2 in Bazaar.

Below the Line: 3. They are eligible to perform Below the Line effects because the previous top Card of their Agent Stack is from the same Syndicate. Purple decides to add 1 more Influence to Bazaar. They now have 3 in Bazaar.

There should always be 5 Operation Tokens on the board. If there are fewer than 5, draw additional tokens until 5 are available.

Step 3 - Fulfill Operation

During this Step, the player may claim a single Operation Token if both of the following conditions are met:

• They have Influence equal to or higher than the value of the Operation Token in 1 of the 2 Sectors where the Operation Token is present.
• They have Control of the Sector above. In other words, they have more Influence than each other player in this Sector.

Although Operation Tokens are present in 2 Sectors, all Influence spent must come from just 1 of those 2 Sectors.

An Opponent controlling the other Sector does not prevent the player from being eligible to claim the Operation Token.

Simulation:

1. During Step 3 of Magenta's turn, they decide to Fulfill an Operation. They have 5 Influence and Control at Arcano Complex, and have the choice between 2 different Operation Tokens to claim there.
2. Magenta chooses to claim the Espionage Operation. They remove all 5 of their Influence from Arcano Complex, as well as the Lockdown Token they owned. They gain 1 Kredit, as only 4 Influence was required to claim this Operation Token. They move the Operation Token to their play area where they can use it to perform Step 1, Hustle, on a future turn.
3. Finally they draw a new Operation Token from the Draw Bag, place it between the relevant 2 sectors, and flip it to its active side.

To claim an Operation Token, a player must perform the following:

1. Remove all of their Influence, along with any Status Token they owned from the chosen Sector.
2. Gain 1K from the General Supply for each surplus Influence that was removed but not required for the Operation (e.g., if 4 Influence is required but 5 is removed then 1K would be earned).
3. Remove the Operation Token from the Main Board and add it to their play area, leaving it on its active side.
4. Draw a replacement Operation Token from the Draw Bag and place it on the Main Board on the Border of the 2 named Sectors on its inactive side. Then, flip it to its active side. In the rare case where there are no more Operation Tokens in the Draw Bag, skip this step.

Players may only claim up to 1 Operation Token per turn. It is also possible that they may not claim any. In Rounds 1 and 2, they then proceed to Step 4 - Manipulate.

In Round 3, play now passes to the player on their left. If all Players have no Agent Cards in hand instead proceed to End of Round.

Step 4 - Manipulate

In Rounds 1 and 2 only, the Manipulate step allows players to optionally alter the Agent Cards in their hands. Players must skip this step if they have no Agent Cards in hand.

This step is removed entirely in Round 3 of the game.

Players may do 1 of 2 things:

• Swap a Card from their hand with 1 in the faceup Card Row.
• Place a Card from their hand to the bottom of the Deck to draw the top Card of the Deck to hand.
• Play then passes to the player on their left. If all Players have no Agent Cards in hand instead proceed to End of Round.

After each Manipulate step there should be 5 faceup Cards in the Card Row, and the number of Cards in your hand should be unchanged.

In Rounds 1 and 2 you will play 2 of your 3 Objective Cards from hand. If unsure which Card to play, try to keep 1 in hand that you will benefit from later.

End of Round

Once all players have played all their Cards the Round is nearly over.

In Round 3, proceed straight to Final Scoring.

In Rounds 1 and 2, conduct the following in order:

Change First Player

Give the 1st Player Marker to the player who has the most Operation Tokens. In the case of a tie, give the 1st Player Marker to the tied player who is currently the latest in turn order.

It is possible that the 1st Player Marker remains with the same player.

Score Control

If a player Controls The Spire, they gain 3K. All players gain 1K for each other Sector they Control.

Resolve Objective Card

Each player reveals 1 chosen Objective Card from their hand to resolve.

Objective Cards have 2 conditions, each with 2 possible effects:

• Objective: They gain 1K per Operation Token they own of the indicated Crime Type. Wild Operation Tokens always count as the Crime Type of the played Objective Card. If they do not have any tokens of that Crime Type (including Wilds), they may instead refresh 1 inactive Operation Token of any Crime Type. Both active and inactive Operation Tokens count when gaining Kredits.
• Control: They gain 3K if they control the indicated Sector. If they do not have Control, they may instead refresh 1 inactive Operation Token of any Crime Type.

Once fully resolved, return these Objective Cards to the box.

For the first game, players may choose to resolve their chosen Objective Cards in turn order to see how they all work.

Simulation:

1. Green plays the shown Objective Card at the end of the round, gaining 1K for each Violence Operation Token. They gain 2K from the 1 Wild and 1 Violence Operation Token they have fulfilled.
2. They are tied with Purple for most Influence at The Maze, so they do not Control that Sector. They miss out on 3K and instead gain 1 refresh. They choose to refresh their Smuggling Operation Token.

Bank Agent Cards

Each player takes their entire Agent Stack into hand, which may result in having more than 6 cards. If a player has fewer than 6 Agent Cards, they must draw from the top of the Deck until they have 6. Secretly and simultaneously, players choose 3 of these Agent Cards to place facedown nearby as their Banked Cards. All remaining Agent Cards in hand must be placed facedown on top of the Deck.

At the end of Round 1, each player will have 3 Banked Cards. By the end of Round 2, they will have 6 Banked Cards. Players may examine their own Banked Cards at any time, but cannot change them. Players are not allowed to examine their opponents' Banked Cards.

At the start of Round 3, players will draw all 6 of their Banked Cards to hand, forming their Agent Cards for the final round of play.

Remove Status Tokens

Remove all Status Tokens from the Main Board, placing them back into the General Supply.

Advance Round Tracker

Advance the Round Tracker down 1 step and proceed to the next New Round.

See the next page for a handy fulfill operation simulation.

New Round

Form New Deck

Return all 5 Agent Cards from the Card Row to the Deck. Shuffle all Cards to form a new Deck.

In Round 2

Deal 6 Agent Cards from the top of the Deck to each player's hand, and place 5 Agent Cards faceup to form a new Card Row (just like the steps performed during Setup).

Play proceeds in clockwise order beginning with the holder of the 1st Player Marker.

In Round 3

Each player may refresh up to 3 Operation Tokens. Each player draws their 6 Banked Cards.

Do not place any Cards in the Card Row. It is not used, and therefore players must skip Step 4 - Manipulate, for each of their turns this Round. However, players may still interact with the Deck via various effects.

Each player places the last remaining Objective Card from their hand faceup into any 1 of the available slots along the top of the Main Board.

For each newly revealed Objective Card, place 1 Minor Score Token (red side) over the name of the Sector on the Card. If there are 2 Cards matching a Sector (including any previously revealed Cards from Setup), flip the token to its Major Score side (yellow), rather than adding a second Minor Score Token.

Minor Score Sectors are worth an additional 3K, and Major Score Sectors are worth an additional 6K if Controlled during Final Scoring.

Play proceeds in clockwise order beginning with the holder of the 1st Player Marker.

Final Scoring

Proceed straight to Final Scoring at the end of the 3rd Round (do not perform End of Round steps).

Players gain Kredits for the following:

• Sector Control - If a player Controls The Spire, they gain 3K. All players gain 1K for each other Sector they Control.
• Major/Minor Score Sectors - Each player gains an additional 3K for every Minor Score Sector (red) they Control, and an additional 6K for every Major Score Sector (yellow) they Control.
• Bonus Kredits for Operation Tokens - Each player gains 1K per Operation Token they own for each matching Crime Type across all faceup Objective Cards. If the same Crime Type is featured multiple times, those Operation Tokens also qualify multiple times for gaining Kredits. Wild Operation Tokens may only count as a single chosen Crime Type.

Final Score

Players refresh all Operation Tokens to their active sides, showing their values. Each player's final score is the sum of the values of all their Operation Tokens and collected Kredits from throughout the game. The player with the highest final score is the winner!

Tie Breaks

If players are tied, the tied player with the most Influence in The Spire wins.

If still tied, the tied players may choose to share the victory.

If they cannot agree, and all players are tied, then there is no winner. Otherwise the players with the next highest final score win instead.

After a contentious play for supremacy, a handshake or fist bump should seal the deal to share the spoils of victory!

Final Scoring Example:

Major/Minor Score Sectors:

1. The Works - Purple would gain 6K for controlling the Major Score Sector.
2. Avante - Magenta and Green are tied here, so neither would gain any Kredits for that Minor Score Sector.
3. Neural Network - Magenta has 1 Influence here. Despite having the highest Influence, they do not meet the minimum requirement of 2 to gain control. As a result, that Minor Score Sector will not be scored.
4. Bio Division - Green has control here and will gain 3K for that Minor Score Sector.

Bonus Kredits for Operation Tokens:

• Each Fraud Operation token gains 2K, because there are 2 Fraud Objective cards.
• Violence, Heist, and Smuggling tokens each gain 1K.
• Wild tokens can only represent one type of crime. In this case, it is most advantageous to treat the Wild Operation Tokens as Fraud.

1. The Orange player gains 6K from the 2 Fraud Tokens and 1 Wild Token they completed (treating the Wild Token as Fraud).
2. They then gain 1K from the Heist Token and an additional 1K from the Violence Token. The Illicit and Espionage Tokens do not provide any Kredits.

2 Player Game

When playing with only 2 players, a third non-player-character is added to the game, the Kingpin.

During setup, give each player one Kingpin Reference Card and place the Kingpin Die within reach of both players. Place all Influence Tokens of an unused colour next to the Kingpin Die; they represent the Kingpin's Influence. The Kingpin begins the game with no Influence on the Main Board and does not require a Petty Crime Token.

In Rounds 1 and 2

After each player's turn, the Kingpin takes a turn. The player who most recently took their turn will perform the following steps on behalf of the Kingpin:

Step 1 - Roll Kingpin Die and Move Agent Card

The player rolls the Kingpin Die and moves the relevant Card from the Card Row or the top of the Deck to the Kingpin's Agent Stack.

As a lot of Cards will be added to the Kingpin's Agent Stack, players may prefer to display their Agent Stack from left to right. The Kingpin then proceeds to Step 2 - Resolve Above the Line.

Simulation:

A rolled face showing "BOB" = a Card from the top of the Deck. A roll of 1-5 = that number slot in the card row from left to right.

Players acting on behalf of the Kingpin are encouraged to make decisions to benefit themselves or hinder their opponent, as this is an intended feature.

Step 2 - Resolve Above the Line

The player resolves the Above the Line effects on behalf of the Kingpin in the same way as they would on their own turn. They must obey the following rules:

• Each effect must be fully performed, if possible. For example: "Add 2". A Player can add up to 2, but the Kingpin will always add exactly 2 Influence.
• If an effect cannot be fully performed, it must be performed as much as possible. For example: "Push 2 from Neural Network" but only 1 Influence is available. Still push 1.
• Any decisions that need to be made are handled by the player acting on behalf of the Kingpin. These decisions cannot override the 2 rules mentioned above! For example: "Push 2 from Neural Network". The player decides both whose Influence to push and where to move it, but they cannot choose to skip the push altogether.

The Kingpin never resolves Below the Line effects.

They then proceed to Step 3 - Fulfill Operation.

Step 3 - Fulfill Operation

If the Kingpin is eligible to Fulfill Operation, they must do so. If there are multiple options, the player decides which Operation Token to claim. Perform the same steps as a player would, but skip gaining Kredits for surplus Influence. The Kingpin never gains Kredits.

The Kingpin now proceeds to Step 4 - Refill Card Row.

Step 4 - Refill Card Row

Refill each empty slot in the Card Row with a Card from the Top of the Deck.

Proceed to the next player's turn. If both players have no Agent Cards in hand, instead proceed to End of Round.

In Round 3

At the beginning of Round 3 move 3 Kingpin Influence to each Minor Score Sector. Move 5 Kingpin Influence to each Major Score Sector. Place all remaining Kingpin Influence in The Spire. The Kingpin no longer takes any turns and does not have an Agent Stack.

Players may still interact with the Kingpin's Influence.

The Kingpin's Influence is simply there to make Controlling the Major/Minor Score Sectors more like a standard multiplayer game during Final Scoring.

Kingpin Clarifications

If the Kingpin ever runs out of Influence and needs to place more on the Main Board, perform these steps:

A. Remove 1 Influence from each Sector where the Kingpin has exactly 1 Influence. If there are no relevant Sectors, remove 1 Influence from each Sector where they have exactly 2 Influence. Repeat this process until they have enough Influence in their supply to complete the effect they were performing.

B. Continue with the effect they were performing when they ran out of Influence.

The Kingpin may never take an action that would result in more than 5 Influence in a Sector. If an alternative choice is available, the player acting on behalf of the Kingpin must select it. Players may ignore this rule on their own turns, but not on the Kingpin's turns.

Status Tokens work like normal for the Kingpin, with the player acting on behalf of the Kingpin making any relevant decisions where necessary.

The Kingpin does not have a Hand of Agent Cards so the following effects are modified for their turns:

• Interfere: Draw X Cards from the top of the Deck and place them on any Agent Stacks.
• Reanimate: Add 1 to any Sector on the Burned Card. Move the Burned Card to any Agent Stack.
• Sacrifice: Draw a Card from the top of the Deck and place it on the Burn Pile. Add 1 to any Sector on the Burned Card.

Got a question about an ability? Check the Appendix for further clarification and information!

Further Clarifications

Mandatory & Optional Effects

Played Cards allow players to perform various effects on their turns.

All of these effects are optional. Each effect must be resolved in order, from top to bottom.

If a player elects to perform an effect, they must perform it in its entirety, inasmuch as the definition allows. The definition of many effects do, however, incorporate an optional component to them.

Simulation:

1. "Add 2" allows players to place up to 2 Influence in a specified Region, meaning that they may place 0, 1 or 2 Influence, essentially making this effect optional by definition.
2. "Interfere 1" allows players to Draw exactly 1 card and place 1 card faceup on an Agent Stack. A player can't Draw the card and then choose to skip the second half of the effect. The Interfere action may be skipped altogether or else it must be performed in its entirety.

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS END YOUR TURN WITH 1 LESS CARD THAN YOU STARTED WITH.

Most effects are considered to be independent. However, there are circumstances where the second effect Above the Line is dependent on the first effect. In these cases, if the first effect is skipped, then the second effect must be skipped also.

Simulation:

1. The second effect's Sector is dependent upon where the player chose to Eliminate in the first effect. If the player did not Eliminate 1 Influence they cannot perform the second effect.
2. The second effect is dependent upon where and whether the player performed the first effect. The player cannot perform a Strengthen effect if they do not Push any Influence from Corp Sec.

For clarifications on each Card and how they interact with the Burn Pile, see the Appendix.

Burn Pile

An Agent Card is placed on the Burn Pile during Setup. The Burn Pile is a faceup stack of Cards, but only the Card on the top of this pile can be seen and interacted with. This card is called the Burned Card. Throughout, Cards may be added to the Burn Pile via Burn and Sacrifice effects. No matter what state the Card was in, whenever it enters the Burn Stack it is always turned faceup and placed on the top of this pile. In this way, whenever 1 of these effects occurs the current Burned Card will change.

Most Cards that enter the Burn Pile do not return to the Deck or players' Hands. The only exception is via the Reanimate effect (when Bio Fed is in the game). If the Burn Pile is empty, it still exists, but there is no Burned Card, and any effects referencing the Burned Card have no effect. In this case, Burn and Sacrifice will create a new Burned Card as normal.

Simulation:

1. Purple plays the Legion Card to "Add 1 to all Sectors of Burned Card".
2. The Burned Card can currently target The Spire, and 1 Sector adjacent to The Spire. Though there are many Sectors adjacent to The Spire, this effect can only ever be used to target 1 of them.
3. Purple chooses to Add 1 Influence to The Spire and 1 to The Works with this effect.

Simulation:

1. Green plays the MFB Card to Add 1 to all Sectors of the Burned Card. This allows them to Add 1 to all Sectors with Lockdown. Since all of those Sectors are legally targetable by the Burned Card (not just one of them), the played Card enables Green to target all of them.

In the rare case that there are no available Status Tokens in the General Supply, use a suitable replacement.

Status Tokens

Different effects introduce Status Tokens into play in specific Sectors. Each Status Token is owned by a player, identified by embedding one of their Influence tokens within it.

Any additional/future Influence is stacked on top. Only one Status Token can occupy a Sector at any time. If an effect would place a Status Token in a Sector where one is already present, the existing token is removed instead of placing a new one, even if it is the player's own.

Status Tokens come from the General Supply and are flipped to their relevant side when placed. They are returned to the General Supply when removed.

If the player owning a Status Token loses all their Influence in that Sector, the Status Token is removed. Additionally, all Status Tokens are removed at the end of each Round.

Each Status Token has its own unique game effects detailed below.

Lockdown

The owner of this Status Token has protected their own Influence. Other players cannot interact with the owner's Influence in this Sector (Eliminate, Push, Pull, Replace, etc.).

Displace

The owner of this Status Token may Push Influence (belonging to any player) that enters this Sector to an adjacent Sector. As a result of this effect, Influence may be pushed to a different Sector with Displace, and the same rules would apply in this new Sector. In the rare case where this happens and Influence gets pushed back to where it previously came from, the cycle then ends. Influence cannot be pushed using a Displace effect a second time from the same Sector.

Existing Influence in a Sector is unaffected when a Displace Token is placed.

Simulation:

Magenta is the owner of a Lockdown Status Token and has 5 Influence in this Sector.

Purple performs the Above the Line effects of a Court of Saffron Card:

1. They add 1 Influence to The Spire.
2. They make use of the Displace Status to Push this new Influence into Corp Sec. They now have 3 Influence in Corp Sec, and Green has 4.
3. Then, Purple chooses to Pull 2 Influence into The Spire. They pull 1 of their own influence from Bio Division into The Spire, and via Displace, push it into Corp Sec.
4. They secondly pull 1 of Green's Influence from Corp Sec into The Spire, and via Displace, push it into Bazaar.

Purple now has 4 Influence in Corp Sec to Green's 3 Influence, netting them Control and the ability to fulfill the Operation there.