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1 Game Rules There are six weeks before November. The campaign has been grueling, but the word "give up" isn t in Pauleen Packer s vocabulary. Technically, that's two words, but she would need to look them up to know that. The lame-stream media counted her out from the beginning, but she's hunted big game before, and this ain't her first rodeo. Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 - How to Win 3 - Types of Cards 6 Game Setup 8 Taking a Turn 8 - Recruit or Draw 9 - Assign to a Team or Headline 12 - Play Cards From Your Hand 13 Creating Campaign Decks 14 Glossary 15 Extra Rules Info (the Fine Print) 16 Credits For how to play videos and more information about the game, visit 1

2 Introduction Ameritocracy is a strategic card game in which you are running for president. You fundraise, hire teams of political operatives, and recruit volunteers. Through the careful allocation of resources, you control the news cycle and clobber your opponents in the media. This will translate into votes, and with enough votes, you win the election. In a game of Ameritocracy, each player has a deck of campaign cards. There is also a common deck of headline cards over which players compete to win votes. Players take turns drawing cards from their campaign decks, recruiting staff, paying cards to play teams and actions, and assigning their staff to teams or headlines. Get enough staff backing you on a headline, and you win it and its votes. Get 10 votes and you win the game. The two things you need to run a successful campaign are staff and money. In Ameritocracy, upside-down cards in play represent staff and the cards in your hand represent cash used for campaign funding. Each turn, you can either recruit staff or fundraise. Teams and actions are played by strategically allocating your staff and money. 22

3 How To Win Gain 10 votes to win the game. Types of Cards Every player has an HQ card that serves as a reference and a place to put unassigned staff. In addition to the HQ, the three types of cards in Ameritocracy are actions, teams, and headlines. Actions and teams are in your campaign deck. Headlines are in a separate headline deck that all players use. Headlines Headline cards show issues that resonate with voters. They are in a separate headline deck used by all players. Note: Because both you and your opponent will be battling over the same headlines, the card info is copied to face both ways. Staff Requirement Staff size needed by a player to win this headline Headline Effect Special rules for the headline. Be sure to read this! Vote Reward Votes gained for winning this headline Headline Name Headline Type 3

4 Actions Actions are strategic maneuvers such as advertising, fundraising, or dirty tricks. Actions are a type of card in your campaign deck. Action Effect This is what you do immediately when the action is played. Card Name Card Type HQ Size Requirement Total staff size you ll need in your HQ when you play this card. Card Cost How many cards you'll need to pay (discard) to play this action. Illustrator Name Staff size Value this card is worth as a staff. 4

5 Teams Teams are groups of people working on your campaign. They range from savvy political operators to young go-getter college students with an infectious zeal for your platform. Teams are also a type of card in your campaign deck Capacity Value Maximum total size of staff assigned to this team. Card Name Flavor Text Team Effect What you do every time you assign a staff to this team. Card Type HQ Size Requirement Total staff size you ll need in your HQ when you put this team into play. Card Cost How many cards you'll need to pay (discard) to put this team into play. Illustrator Name Staff size Value this card is worth as a staff. 5

6 Game Setup Shuffle all the campaign cards together and deal them evenly to each player to form their campaign deck. You can also choose to make campaign decks in other ways (See Creating Campaign Decks ). Each player selects an HQ card and places their campaign deck and HQ card in their campaign area. Leave room next to your campaign deck for a face-up discard pile. The player who can name the most current American congress members goes first. If players are tied, the player who last voted does. If you still can t decide, flip a coin. For 2 player games: Put the headline deck face-down between both players and to the side. Place the top 3 cards of the headline deck face-up between the campaign areas. The first player draws 5 cards from their campaign deck. The second draws 6 cards. 6

7 Game Setup (continued) For 3 or 4 player games: For each border between players, flip 2 cards from the headline deck and place them face-up along that border. Each player then draws 5 cards. Note: Four player games require two combined sets of Ameritocracy to play 3 player headline setup Note: Campaign areas are set up the same as the two player diagram on page 6 Now ya'll are ready to play! Take their turns in clockwise order, starting with the player decided earlier, until one player wins by gaining 10 votes. 7

8 Taking a Turn A player s turn consists of 3 phases. Each of these phases is optional but must occur in the order listed. 1) Recruit or draw 2) Assign once to a team or headline 3) Play cards from your hand 1) Recruit or Draw At the beginning of your turn you must choose to either recruit one staff (explained below) from the top of your campaign deck or acquire money to play teams and actions by drawing a card into your hand. This decision must be made before looking at the card. Recruiting Staff are your troops, your workers, the people on the ground doing the nitty-gritty while you focus on the big picture. To recruit a staff, reveal the top card of your campaign deck, rotate it to show the support value at the top, then place it in your HQ. 8

9 PRESIDENTIAL TIP: supporters are vital to get your campaign up and running, so we suggest you choose to recruit on your first turn or two. Note: If you recruit or draw with no more cards in your campaign deck, shuffle your discard pile back into your campaign deck. 2) Assign Once to a Team or Headline Second, you may assign exactly one staff to either a team or headline. You may also choose not to assign. To assign, simply move a staff card from your HQ to a team or headline. You always assign from your HQ, not from a team or headline, unless a card says otherwise. Once you assign a staff to a team or headline, you can t get it back unless a card tells you to move it. Assigning to a Headline To assign to a headline, place your staff under it, lined up with your other staff already assigned to it. You may only assign to headlines that are bordering your campaign area. So in 3-4 player games, there will be some headlines you can t assign to. 9

10 Headlines usually have an ability. Sometimes the ability gives you a bonus for winning it or assigning to it, but sometimes the ability restricts when it can be assigned to. Winning a Headline Each headline shows a staff threshold. At the point your assigned staff equals or exceeds the threshold of a headline, you win it and its associated votes. When you win a headline, do the following in order: 1) Place all your staff assigned to that headline in your discard pile. 2) Return any of your opponent's staff assigned to that headline back to their HQ. 3) Resolve any effects triggered from winning the card. 4) Collect vote tokens equal to the headline s vote reward. 5) Place the headline on the bottom of the headline deck and replace it with the top card from the headline deck. Note: If two players exceed the threshold at the same time, the player with highest total staff size assigned to the headline wins it. If the players have equal staff size, the headline remains in play until one player has more total staff size exceeding the threshold than the other. Note: In a 3 or 4 player game, you can only win headlines bordering your campaign area. 10

11 Assigning to a Team If you have teams in your campaign area, you may assign staff to them to activate their abilities. To assign to a team, put the staff underneath the team, lined up with the capacity value. When you assign to a team, activate the team ability once regardless of the size of the staff being assigned. Each time you assign staff to Passionate College Students you ll activate it s effect. Each team has a capacity threshold. The total staff cannot exceed the team s capacity value. If the assigned staff causes the total staff size to equal the team s capacity, that team has run its course in your campaign. After you resolve its ability, send it to the discard pile along with the staff assigned to it. 11

12 3) Play cards from your hand At the end of your turn, you can play any number of team and action cards from your hand. Each card has an HQ staff requirement ( ), and a card cost ( ). In order to play a card, you need to have staff in your headquarters with a total size equal to or greater than the HQ staff requirement on that card. Also, you will need to pay the card cost by discarding the indicated number of cards from your hand. If you don t have enough resources, you cannot play the card. In order to play Bus in Seniors you to have to: : have at least 4 size worth of staff in your HQ, and : pay (discard) 2 cards from your hand. Playing Teams When you play a team, place it in your campaign area. The team ability is not activated, however, until you assign to it. You may have a maximum of five teams in play at any one time. Note: Once a team is in play, you don t have to pay the card cost again, or maintain the HQ staff requirement Playing Actions Unlike a team, actions have an immediate effect. When you play an action, resolve its effect and place it in your discard pile. 12

13 Creating Campaign Decks A big part of what makes Ameritocracy fun is trying different combinations of cards together. Here are some other ways to create different campaign decks. Drafting em Lay out twice as many cards as there are players face up on the table (4 cards for 2 players, 6 cards for 3 players, etc.) The first player selects a card and places it face down in front of them and so on until the last player has picked a card. The draft order then reverses: the last player selects a second card, then the second-tolast player, and so on. After all face up cards have been picked, repeat this process except the first pick moves to the next player. The draft continues until each player has drafted 40 cards. For example, if there were four players (A, B, C, and D) in the draft, the pick order would be A, B, C, D, then D, C, B, A. Then another set of 8 cards would be revealed, and the pick order would be B, C, D, A, then A, D, C, B. Building your own deck When building your own deck, there are two rules: it must be at least 60 cards and you can t have more than four of any one card. 13

14 Glossary 1 s, 2 s, 3 s - Shorthand for staff with the value of 1, 2, or 3. Activate - Perform the action on a team card as if you just assigned to it. Assign - Move a staff to either a headline or one of your teams. This staff must come from your HQ unless a card tells you otherwise. If moved to a team, that team s ability is activated. If moved to a headline, the headline may be won. Draw - Put a card in your hand. Cards are drawn from the top of your campaign deck unless otherwise specified. Free - Ignore the HQ staff requirement and card cost when playing the specified card. HQ Size - Total size of all staff in a player s HQ. HQ Staff - Staff located in a player s HQ. Loser - The player whose campaign area bordered the headline, but didn t win it. Pay Cards - Place the specified number of cards from your hand into your discard pile. Recruit - Add a card as staff into your HQ. Unless specified, staff are recruited from the top of your campaign deck. Staffed - a headline is considered staffed by a player if they have at least one staff assigned to that headline. Unstaffed Headline - A headline with no staff assigned to it by either player. 14

15 Extra Rules (the Fine Print) The Number One Rule If a card contradicts something in these rules, the card takes precedence. Things Happening at the Same Time Sometimes situations will arise when multiple things happen at the same time. When this happens, resolve the effects of a card individually. If an ability would trigger before you are finished resolving the effects of a card, finish the effect of the current card first. Then resolve any triggered abilities afterwards, in order. For example, Social Media Experts lets you assign twice to a single headline. Even if the first staff causes you to win the headline, you must finish the effects of the card and staff the headline a second time. Then, resolve winning the headline. Hidden Information Anything in a player s hand, campaign deck, or headline deck is considered hidden information. The discard pile and any cards in play are open information, and a player may inspect any player s discard pile or cards in play. Although the contents of hands and decks are hidden, the number of cards in each is open information, and a player may count a deck or the cards in a player s hand at any time. What happens to staff when teams and headlines are removed? When a headline is removed, all staff assigned to that headline go back to their HQ. When a team is removed, all staff assigned to that team are discarded. 15

16 Extra Rules (continued) Illegal Actions and Abilities There may be times when a card instructs you to do something another card prohibits. When that happens, the card prohibiting the action or ability takes precedence. Additionally, if staff would be assigned, but the assignment is prevented by another card, return those staff to the location they were assigned from (e.g. your HQ, the top of your campaign deck) at the end of the action. For example, Attack Dogs is being used to assign twice to the headline America Wooed in Intellectual Interview from the top of your campaign deck. That headline can only be assigned to by 1 s and 2 s. So if you reveal a 3 first and then a 2, the 2 would be assigned to the headline, and the 3 would be returned to the top your campaign deck. If an action or ability allows you to do multiple things, but some are impossible or prohibited by another card or ability, you perform as many parts of the action or ability as possible. For example, if you assign to Party Fundraisers, but there is no endorsement headline bordering your campaign area, you will still draw 3 cards and recruit, but you may skip assigning to an endorsement headline because it is impossible. Credits We want to thank everyone who made this game a reality; everyone who play-tested the game when it was terrible; everyone who let us play-test at their store or event; everyone who gave us a great idea; our amazingly talented artists Roger Brunke, Lucas Elliot, Keenon Farrell, and Kristen Pauline; and finally, thanks to you for playing Ameritocracy! - Jim McCollum and Shane Russell, game designers 16