BLACKOUT-THE GAME BACK STORY After a major biological attack, all cities created barriers of protection for its

citizens. The first was a basic quarantine around the city's housing districts; the second, a "red zone" district that led to a new underground city. The quarantine was only a temporary solution, and all citizens are expected to eventually live in the red zone. Housing districts that are too exposed are given BLACKOUT status, and the citizens living inside those districts must either enter the RED ZONE or be cut off from the city. The Mayor of Argos has died, and BLACKOUT proceedings have not yet begun. Due to the nature of the situation, the mayoral elections must wait until after all citizens are safe in the RED ZONE. The city council now has the responsibility to oversee the BLACKOUT proceedings. The council members are all very wealthy citizens, and influential within the city. Members have two goals in mind: first, to collectively transfer as many people as possible into the RED ZONE. Second, to individually secure as much INFLUENCE as possible in the red zone, and win the eventual mayoral election. BASIC GAMEPLAY During their respective turns, each player can affect the events of the city as well as the influence in the Red Zone. CITY EVENTS Moving INFLUENCE TOKENS between districts. SPONSOR a district. BLACKOUT a district. OBSERVE a district. STEAL a district. RESCIND an action from another player. RED ZONE EVENTS Discover SCANDALS PROPOSE legislation Forge political ALLIANCES REVERSE or MISDIRECT a scandal SUPPORT or NULLIFY legislation. CITY GAMEPLAY The city of Argos has four kinds of housing districts, categorized by the LABOR STATUS of its respective inhabitants: Farming (24), Trades (18), Tech (12), and Luxury (6). There are 60 housing districts in total. Each district has INFLUENCE tokens. Each token represents leaders of that housing district (Farming districts, due to their larger populations, have two influence tokens). How much influence each leader has depends on which district they live in: Farming=1, Trades=2, Tech=3, Luxury=5. New leaders, with varying influence will occasionally rise up during the game.

INFLUENCE tokens are collected when a district is given BLACKOUT status and removed from the game. BLACKOUT status happens when a district has too much EXPOSURE to the outside. Each district also counts as influence, but unlike tokens, these cannot be removed from the player. It is possible to move INFLUENCE tokens between districts. Moving between the Farming and Trades is quite easy, but moving into Tech and Luxury is much more difficult. Movement between districts can be especially beneficial when you SPONSOR a district. Players can SPONSOR districts. When a district is sponsored, that player will retain the influence of that district when it is Blacked Out, regardless of who initiates it. Players can also STEAL districts. If a district is stolen, only the district itself is taken, and not the influence tokens. EXPOSURE is designated by how many consecutive sides a district has exposed on the city edge. Each district is labeled between EXP 0 and EXP 5. EXP 0 and EXP 1 cannot be Blacked Out. EXP 2 can only be Blacked Out by an Event Card. EXP 3, 4, and 5 can be Blacked out by regular means. A district that is exposed on all six sides is cut off from the game, and its influence is removed from gameplay. (This is unlikely to happen, but is possible). A district with EXP 1 can be put under OBSERVATION, which stops flow in and out of that district. This can happen regardless of labor status, or sponsorship. Once all the housing districts have been Blacked Out, the mayoral election proceedings begin. At this point, only RED ZONE EVENTS can be played. After one final round of play, the player with the most SUPPORT (adding up your total amount of INFLUENCE) will win the mayoral election, and the game. RED ZONE. Winning the mayoral election is not just about accumulating INFLUENCE, but retaining it. You can bolster your own influence and affect the influence of other players. INFLUENCE refers to the influence of each individual token, as well as your characters. The totality of all this influence reflects your SUPPORT. Whoever has the most support in the mayoral election will win the game. There are two kinds of influence in the red zone: AFFILIATED and UNAFFILIATED. AFFILIATED INFLUENCE are tokens attached to a specific player. Attachment initially occurs at BLACKOUT. UNAFFILIATED INFLUENCE are tokens NOT attached to any specific player. These can be acquired by playing RED ZONE EVENT CARDS. Attachment can be affected due to three types of events: SCANDALS, PROPOSALS, and ALLIANCES. Each type has different variations and affects each labor group differently. The effects of these events can be both immediate and run over several turns. SCANDALS negatively affect other players' support. Players affected by a scandal lose influence

tokens. These lost tokens move into the "unaffiliated" pile. POLITICAL SCANDALS - Ex. Betraying your primary constituency // political allegiances PERSONAL SCANDALS - Moral failures outside the political realm (Ex. smuggled in a family member into the red zone, an extramarital affair) If a scandal is played on you, it can be proven false by REVERSAL cards, (which will in turn affect whoever played the scandal card) or MISDIRECTION cards (which will turn the effects to another player). PROPOSALS are legislation designed to help certain labor groups. [???Some legislation requires another player to sign off on, or benefit from.???] Players affected by proposals both gain and lose a set number of influence from different groups. LAND-BASED PROPOSALS - Ex. Designate living/work space to a labor group. WEALTH-BASED PROPOSALS - Ex. Raise/lower taxes, earmark funds for special projects MORALITY-BASED PROPOSALS - Ex. Gun control, affecting rations Proposals can be SUPPORTED or NULLIFIED by other players. ALLIANCES can be forged with different groups. Alliances make it easier to acquire influence within those groups. [???With few exceptions, alliances cause you to gain influence.???] LABOR-BASED ALLIANCES - Farming, Trade, Tech, Luxury SOCIAL-BASED ALLIANCES - Pacifists, Religious, Pragmatists, Zealots, Liberals, Conservatives Players begin the game by choosing a character with certain pre-established alliances. Alliances can be strengthened by PROPOSALS, and weakened by SCANDALS. Alliances also grow stronger the longer they are maintained, and will add support on election day in two ways: 1) an accumulation of allianceinfluence and 2) picking off unaffiliated influence. CHARACTERS There are 24 characters to choose from as City Council. Each has a different set of alliances, wealth, and sway, which limits certain game moves while enhancing others. [EXPANSION: ALLIANCES - Social and/or Labor. No character has more than 3 natural alliances.] WEALTH - Affects the ability to sponsor districts, move tokens, or affect scandals. SWAY - Affects the ability to nullify legislation, or affect scandals. SPECIAL EVENTS Districts can be POISONED, which kills everyone inside, but the district is not removed from play. EPIDEMICS can arise, killing off multiple districts in a round of play. City leaders can get INFECTED, which removed individual leaders from game play. New city leaders (influence tokens) to be added or removed from the game. QUESTIONS Limit how many cards can be played? Cards per hand?

UPDATE 1 [If more than 24 city leaders are removed from the game, the citizens will riot and revolt. The Red Zone will be overrun and contaminated. The game is over, and no player wins.] There are different characters to choose from, each having different attributes: High Wealth High Wealth Med Wealth Med Wealth Med Wealth Low Wealth High 6-7 Med 4-5 Low 2-3 1. [Career Politician] Wealth: 4 Sway: 6 Trust: 4 2. [Minister] Wealth: 2 Sway: 5 Trust: 7 3. [Businessman] Wealth: 7 Sway: 4 Trust: 3 4. [Professor] Wealth: 6 Sway: 4 Trust: 4 5. [Doctor] Wealth: 4 Sway: 4 Trust: 6 6. [Entertainer] Wealth: 5 Sway: 5 Trust: 4 Wealth is used primarily to sponsor districts and initiate scandals. Wealth-based events cannot be supplemented by other tokens. Sway is used primarily to move influence tokens and misdirect scandals. If your character does not have enough sway, the event requirements can be supplemented by giving up wealth tokens. Med Sway Med Sway High Sway Med Sway Med Sway Med Sway Med Trust Low Trust Med Trust High Trust Med Trust High Trust Professor Businessman Politician Doctor Entertainer Minister

Trust is used primarily to determine how many scandals a character can handle. Players gain trust tokens at the beginning of their turn if they are not maxed out.