You are a diplomat. You are also a criminal. The point is to never get caught doing something your immunity doesn't cover.
Press play. The narrator walks through the table, a full turn, Heat and Scandal, politics, winning, and a complete example game. Use the chapter list to jump around.
Your character is a board: portrait, kit, slots for your Immunity, Favor and Signature chips, and the Heat track along the bottom. Everything else is a card.
Players take turns one at a time, clockwise. One turn is one diplomat's day, and a day has three steps. You do all three, in order, before the next player does anything.
A turn in one breath: "Morning: I cool one Heat and draw two. Afternoon: two crimes, three Heat, $6M. Evening: I propose Legalise Smuggling, it passes. Discard to seven. Your turn."
Numbers in the corner are how many copies are in the deck.
Each archetype bends one system and pays for it in another. The woman and man of a pair share the same kit and differ in their once-per-game Signature.
Nobody at the table wants to let you win, so nothing you need to win is in their hands. There are no exit cards to draw and no vote to pass. You book in the open, and the table gets one pass at stopping you.
Twelve Goals, one of each. At setup the deck goes round the table the other way from the character picks; take one in secret, pass the rest. Any Goal for any character, no two players alike. Each Goal names the three Departures its holder may use.
Printed on the back of every quick-reference card. Always open. In your Evening: reveal your Goal, name one of its three doors, and pay for it there and then. The Goal must be met with what you have left, and still be met a round later. A money Goal means money over and above the price of the door.
Nine Maneuvers share the doors' names. Everyday Use for anyone, plus a bonus that waives that door's cost when you book through it. Never required.
You vote on Laws. You play Maneuvers. You trade Favors. Every player has one Favor chip with their diplomat's face on it, and that chip is a promise anyone can hold.
MORNING First player flips Headline · –1 Heat · Draw 2 (any decks)
AFTERNOON Lay Low (–2 Heat) OR commit crimes one at a time
→ rivals may Tip-Off / Leak (Leak Heat lands now) → Cover it or take the Heat → payout → Rap Sheet
EVENING Propose a Law ($1M fee, vote) OR Maneuver (its price) OR Hush Money ($3M: -1 Heat)
OR Book a Departure (Goal met) OR pass
ANY PHASE Burn Bag (any time on your turn, as often as you like): discard any 3 cards, draw 1 from either deck
END Discard to 7
HEAT LIMIT 5 with Immunity · 3 without · Scandal when Heat ≥ Limit
SCANDAL Heat → 0 · lose half money · lose half Rap Sheet · take token · 3rd = Recalled
VOTE Laws only · all vote at once · needs more than half · ties fail · bribe first
DEPARTURE Evening: reveal Goal, name a door, pay it, take the marker · everyone else gets a full turn
Heat still lands: a Scandal collapses it · Deny a Tip-Off for $10M · Shred and Favors work too
Start of your next turn: no Scandal, no Tip-Off, Goal still met = you win
Otherwise it fails (price kept), you skip that turn, Goal stays face up
FAVOR CHIP Give anytime · cash: "Vote with me" / "Take it back" (cancel their crime, Law or trick; never a Departure) · break it: +3 Heat, they keep it