Description

Demockrasy is a two to eight player game in which you play the role of a powerbroker behind the scenes of American politics, putting together Politicians with Supporters whose votes they wield. Players compete to gain Power over the course of the game by voting on legislation their supporters approve or oppose; at the end of the game, the player with the most Power is the winner.

Demockrasy is played over four rounds. Each round has a Drafting phase, when you choose Politicians and Supporters, and a Legislation phase, when you sponsor and vote on Legislation.

During the Drafting phase, players pass several hands of cards around the table, each hand containing Politicians and Supporters. Players pick one of the cards from their hand, play it face-up in front of them, and pass the hand to the next player (passing left or right, depending on which round it is). There are three types of cards: Politicians, which may carry one to five supporters; Supporters, which give their associated politician one, two, or three votes; and Wild cards, which give the player a one-time opportunity to affect a legislative outcome or attack an opposing politician. Once all players have played five cards, the Legislation phase begins.

During the Legislation phase, each player must sponsor one Bill from their hand of Legislation cards (each player receives four Legislation cards at the beginning of the game). The player with the top-ranked politician sponsors the first Bill. Once the Bill has been revealed, all players must cast a vote to OPPOSE or APPROVE the bill on behalf of all of their supporters and politicians. Each player votes the total number of votes provided by their supporters. A simple majority wins; in a tie, the Bill fails.

Supporters may (a) APPROVE a Bill, (b) OPPOSE a Bill, or (c) neither. If a Politician betrays a Supporter--for example, by voting to APPROVE a Bill that's opposed by his or her supporters--then that Supporter will abandon its Politician and break one of that Politician's hearts. Each politician has 1 to 5 hearts; when the last heart breaks, the Politician retires and the associated supporters are discarded. Players also receive a broken heart--which they can assign to a politician of their choice--when they are on the losing side of a vote.

There are three ways to gain power: (1) if you sponsor a bill that passes, you get 1 Power; (2) if you APPROVE a bill that passes, you get 1 Power; (3) you get 1 Power for each Legislation result that aligns to your Supporters' interests.

After each round, clean up the spent Legislation cards and deal new Demockrasy cards (Politicians, Supporters, and Wild cards) to build up your political staff again! After four rounds, count up the power gained by each player; the most powerful player is the winner!

—description from the designer