Setup

Create a deck of Votes.

Each player receives a Support card of value 1 (green side up). Place it in front of you with 2 Votes on top of it.

Finally, deal all players 5 Cards to take into their hand.

Objective

The laws you enact in-game give you the scoring rules over time. (Example: “Gold is worth 2 points”.)

The game ends when a player has accrued 25 points (or more). They win!

Gameplay

From start player, take clockwise turns. Each turn has three simple phases: propose, vote and collect.

Propose

On your turn, make a proposal.

• Place 2–5 cards from your hand faceup on the table.
• Only refill your hand (back to 5) when it’s empty.

Vote

Everyone votes on this proposal.

• From your possible votes—all Votes on cards you’ve won—secretly pick the one you want.
• Once done, everyone simultaneously reveals their vote.
• If the majority voted NO, the proposal is REJECTED. Otherwise, it is ACCEPTED.

If accepted, all LAW cards become permanent rules in the game. Otherwise, discard them.

Finally, sort all the voters

• Accepted? Sort from LOW to HIGH (vote numbers). Otherwise, sort HIGH to LOW instead.
• In that order, everyone takes one card from the proposal. (Cycle until all cards taken.)
• If accepted, place that card before you with the green side up. Otherwise, place it red side up.

On cards you’ve won, only the side pointing up ( = away from you) is the one that’s true. The green side means these icons are added, the red side means these are removed.

Collect

Everyone collects new votes.

• Sum the number of icons on your support cards. If above 0, draw that number of Votes. If below 0, you lose that number of Votes.
• You may discard any other resource card you own to get +2 Votes.

You must always have at least 1 Vote for the next round. As such, if you have no support and no resources, you still collect 1.

You must store these votes on cards you’ve won. Each card, however, can only store a limited amount. You can’t draw more than you can store.

Upgrades

Played the base game and ready for more? Or feel like your group needs some tweaks to the game? Check out these expansions.

Wildcard Variant

On the website, you can decide to include the Wildcard Icon (question mark) in the material.

This icon simply represents “whatever icon you want” (at the moment). It makes the game easier and faster.

Abstain Attacks

This expansion adds Abstain votes and Law cards that modify them.

When a player uses this vote, it simply doesn’t count. Pretend it’s not there. The player does not collect a card or influence voting in any way.

This basic rule, of course, can change when certain Laws are passed.

Undecided Voters

This expansion needs no extra material. (You can add Law cards that specifically target this mechanic.)

Add a fourth phase to each round: Move Votes. From start player, in clockwise order, each player may do a “vote move”.

There are two options: Law or Card.

Law: move 1 stored Vote onto an enacted Law card. If a Law currently contains more NO than YES votes, it’s disabled (and must not be followed anymore)!

Card: play 2 Votes to any collected card, which has the red side up. This can be your own card or that of another player.

• Playing 2 NO votes removes the card. (This loses all votes it had stored.)
• Playing 2 YES votes flips it to the green side. (This keeps votes stored on it.)

As usual, you must always have at least 1 Vote for the next round (i.e. you can’t move your final Vote).

Advanced Politics

This expansion adds Laws (of type “shop”) and Resources with special powers (in text, not icons). This requires printing new material.

These “shop Laws” allow you to pay Resources to get a certain reward.

• If you decide to take this action, you must do so at the start or end of a round.
• Paying happens by discarding the card(s) you used. You cannot “split” a card: you either pay the entire card or not.

The Special Resources might have actions to take. These can be taken at any time, by discarding the card (as the text itself states).

When a Special Resource looks at the resources someone has, ignore any Special Resources (as they can vary or be unknown). Only consider icons from the base cards.