Subsections
Basic rules
These rules are essential for understanding the game turn as outlined
in the next section:
Trade and agreements
Players are allowed to trade and make agreements at any time. The only
resource that may be exchanged directly is money. Goodwill, cards etc.
may not be given to other players. However, you can pay another player
to use an action card at a specific moment.
Note: Agreements are only binding if they resolve immediately. A
player who agrees to do something at later time can still reconsider
his promise. Whether it is a good idea to cheat on your former
allies is another question entirely.
Money and Goodwill
Goodwill is harder to earn than money but more useful. Instead of
paying with Billions, you can always pay an equal amount of Goodwill
(or any combination of the two). Some actions are even possible only
with Goodwill.
The only disadvantage of Goodwill is that it may not be given to other
players. Exchanging Goodwill for money is not permissible!
Black money
As long as a VP sits on a region of the pyramid, he may collect black
money. This kind of money is not accessible to his company, as it is
of dubious origin. To symbolize this, black money is stacked on top of
the VP. If a VP has to leave a region for whatever reason, the black
money he has accumulated is lost and returns to the bank.
During the Business Phase, you can launder black money and add it to
your company's regular funds.
Extra effort
A company's abilities are often insufficient to do what its owner
wants without extra effort. To temporarily raise the Crime,
Corruption, etc. of his company, a player has to spend an appropriate
amount of money.
A table on the game board tells you the price of extra effort based
on the desired bonus. This increase applies to the next action only,
but it may be bought as often as you like (and can afford).
Journalism
If a player is about to do something illegal, he can be prevented from
doing so by a VP in the appropriate section of the Media circus. For
example a VP on ``Report on Crime'' can cancel every action that
requires Crime. Illegal actions for this purpose are...
- everything using Corruption or Crime.
- playing an Action card that requires Tech.
- selling Stuff if the Stuff level of the region moves into or
within the gray area.
To cancel an illegal action, the player with a VP on the Media Circus
announces his decision and places the VP in the VIP Lounge. The player
he caught moves all involved VPs to the VIP Lounge and discards any
Action cards he used. The action is canceled and has no effect.
What's worse, the accused has to pay 2 Goodwill to the player who
revealed his illegal activities. If he cannot pay, he loses all
Goodwill and must wear the Ba$tard$ Inc. sign around his neck from now on (see
below).
Note: If the player being caught holds the Peace Nobel Price, he loses
the price even if he does not become Ba$tard$ Inc.
If a Business Opportunity is canceled by journalism, the card has to
be discarded. In case of a joint venture, both business partners must
pay 2 points of Goodwill to the journalist.
If a player cancels a joint venture in which he participated himself,
his partner pays 2 points of Goodwill to the bank while the betrayer
gets away free.
Intervention
If things get ugly in some part of the world, the Rest will often
decide to intervene by sending troops, development aid, or at least a
condolatory note. Clearly, this is an opportunity to earn some
money.
Whenever there is an intervention in a region...
- the Stuff level of the Rest drops by 1.
- 1 Billion of black money is placed on every VP in the region
where the intervention occurs.
If an intervention happens because the One $uperpower is at war with
the Rogue State, only the VPs in the Rogue State collect money.
Nothing is better for a company's reputation than having a spokesman
with the Peace Nobel Prize. The prize can be bought for 10 points of
Goodwill during the business phase. The current holder has to wear
the halo.
Having the prize has two important advantages:
- the prize counts as a victory point, i.e. as an additional VP
for the purpose of winning.
- The holder of the prize has a much easier time getting into the
various regions of the world. This is explained in section ``Placing
Vice presidents'' on page
![[*]](crossref.png)
.
Unfortunately, the Peace Nobel Prize is hard to keep: if the current
holder is caught doing something illegal, the prize is gone (see
``Journalism'', p.). As nobody cares for
yesterday's celebrities, the same holds if another player buys it.
If a player is caught doing something illegal and cannot pay the
required Goodwill, he becomes Ba$tard$ Inc. and has to put the sign around his
neck. His reputation has been destroyed, the media use him as
scapegoat, everything, and nobody likes him anymore!
The player wearing the sign cannot gain Goodwill in any way. He may
still engage in investigative journalism, but his victims now pay
their 2 Goodwill to the bank. Any other action that would yield
Goodwill grants him the same amount of Billions instead.
The only way to lose the Ba$tard$ Inc. sign is for somebody else to ``earn''
it.
If several players want to influence the same event, or are subject to
the same effect, the starting player takes precedence. If he is not
involved, the player next to him in clockwise direction does.
Note that this isn't necessarily an advantage: if two players are
caught in a joint venture and both are short on Goodwill (see
``Journalism'', p.), then the one sitting closer
to the starting player gets the Ba$tard$ Inc. sign.
Note: If a player wants to use journalism to prevent some other player
from entering a region, this happens before the battle of Goodwill
(see p.).
