Diplomatic Immunity
Rulebook · v0.27

Diplomatic Immunity rulebook

3–6 players, best with 4–5 · 30–45 minutes · ages 12+

You are a diplomat. You are also a criminal. The point is to never get caught doing something your immunity doesn't cover.

Everyone has a secret Goal. Commit crimes to get rich and build your record, but every uncovered crime adds Heat. Reach your Heat Limit and you suffer a Scandal. Three Scandals and you are Recalled home in disgrace.

Once your Goal is met, you book a Departure and try to leave the country. Nobody has to let you go, and everyone at the table gets one full turn to stop you.

Components

Item Count
Character boards (8 × 4 in, one per archetype: the woman on one face, the man on the other) 12
Goal cards (12, one of each) 12
Die (six-sided, for the roll at setup) 1
Street deck (Crimes, Covers, Dirty Tricks) 74
Politics deck (Laws, Maneuvers, Departure cards) 45
Headline deck 18
Quick-reference cards (Departures board on the back) 7
Bribes and Favors reference card 2
Blank card 2
Money: quarter-size punch-out coins, $1M ×45, $5M ×25, $10M ×14 $310M
Favor chips (punch-out, one per character, carrying that diplomat's face) 24
Immunity chips 6 (quarter-size), Heat markers 6, Signature chips 6, Law markers 18 (3 per seat), Scandal tokens 30, Departing markers 6: all punch-out chips 72

Full card lists are on the cards page; the characters are on the diplomats page.

Setup

  1. Roll for it. Everyone rolls the die. The highest roll wins; tied players roll again. The winner chooses a character first, chooses a Goal last, and takes the first turn.
  2. Choose your character. Starting with the roll winner and going clockwise, each player takes any Character board still on the table. Each board is one archetype with two diplomats, the woman on one face and the man on the other. They share the board's Bend and Cost and differ only in their Signature, so pick your diplomat and lay that face up. One board per player, so no archetype is ever at the table twice. Take a set of seat markers in one colour (a Heat marker, a Signature chip and three Law markers) and an Immunity chip. Put the Heat marker on 0 of your Heat track and the Immunity, Signature and Favor chips in their slots.
  3. Take $5M and your character's Favor chip, the one with your face on it. Money is in millions, and the bank never runs out.
  4. Choose a Goal, in reverse order. The player who chose their character last takes the Goal deck first. It then passes counter-clockwise and reaches the roll winner last. Look through the deck in secret, keep one Goal face down beside your board, and pass the rest on. No two players share a Goal. Players after you see only which Goals are gone, not who took them. Keep yours hidden until you book a Departure. Any Goal is open to any character, even one your character can't meet (a Spouse cannot propose Laws, so Puppet Master would be a long night). Choose carefully.
  5. Deal the hands. Shuffle the Street and Politics decks. Deal each player 4 Street cards and 2 Politics cards.
  6. Set the clock. Shuffle the Headline deck and deal a face-down pile of 12. This pile is the game clock. Return the rest of the Headlines, and the Goals nobody took, to the box.
  7. The roll winner takes the first turn.

Your Turn

Players take turns one at a time, clockwise. One turn is one diplomat's day. It has three steps, always in this order, and you finish all three before the next player does anything:

        MORNING                AFTERNOON                EVENING
   wake up, tidy up         do your crimes          go to the party
   -1 Heat, draw 2          (or lay low)            one political move
           |                      |                       |
           +-------- all three = ONE turn, then play passes left --------+

A round is every player taking one turn. Play passes to the player on your left. Change of Protocol (a Politics maneuver) reverses the direction of play, so "the player after you" and "the player before you" swap. A reversal never gives anyone a second turn in the same round: the players who have not yet had their turn take it in the new order, and the first player opens the next round as usual.

Think of it as a day at the embassy: everyone wakes up, works, and goes to the party, one diplomat at a time. Diplomats do their crimes by day and their politics at cocktail parties.

A sample turn in one breath: "Morning: I cool one Heat and draw two cards. Afternoon: I commit two crimes, take three Heat and $6M. Evening: I propose Legalise Smuggling, we vote, it passes. I discard down to seven. Your turn."

You may talk, trade money and trade Favor chips at any time, on anyone's turn. The three steps only govern what you do.

☀ Morning (upkeep)

  1. If you are the first player (the start of a new round), flip the top Headline. It replaces the previous Headline and stays in effect until the next one is flipped.
  2. Cool off: remove 1 Heat (never below 0).
  3. Draw 2 cards from the Street deck, the Politics deck, or one of each.

⚡ Afternoon (action)

Choose one:

To commit a crime:

  1. Play the Crime card face up and announce it.
  2. Rivals may react. Each other player secretly chooses a Tip-Off (cancels the crime), a Leak (+1 Heat to you), or nothing, and places it face down. Everyone reveals together. Resolve the reactions in seat order, starting on the criminal's left. Each Leak's Heat lands as that Leak resolves, Scandal check included, so you know exactly where you stand before the next step. A second Tip-Off on the same crime is wasted.
  3. Cover it, or don't. Knowing your Heat, you may play one Cover on the crime. A Cover of the crime's type, or a wild Cover, cancels the crime's printed Heat.
  4. Take the Heat. Add the crime's printed Heat unless the crime is Covered or is legal for you. If your Heat is now at or above your Heat Limit, you suffer a Scandal immediately (see Heat, Scandal, and Recall).
  5. Take the payout and resolve the card's effect text.
  6. Put the crime face down in your Rap Sheet pile.

You may also play Dirty Tricks marked "Afternoon" during this step.

Laws are checked at the moment Heat is taken (step 4). If a Law is Repealed during the reaction step, the crime resolves without it.

🥂 Evening (politics)

Choose one:

Money leaves the game through filing fees, Maneuver prices, Hush Money and Departures. Bribes only move it around. Spend it to stay safe, or hoard it and stay hot.

🔥 Burn Bag (any step of your turn, as often as you like)

Stuck with cards you can never use? Discard any three cards from your hand and draw one card from either deck. It's free, it doesn't use your Afternoon or Evening action, and you may do it as often as you like: three out, one in, every time.

End of turn

Discard down to 7 cards in hand. Play passes left.

Heat, Scandal, and Recall

Scandal: 1. Your Heat resets to 0. 2. Lose half your money, rounded down. 3. Discard half your Rap Sheet, rounded down. You choose which crimes. 4. Take a Scandal token. Tokens never go away. If it is your turn, your turn ends.

Third Scandal: you are Recalled. Discard your hand. You cannot win, cannot be targeted and take no Heat, but you still vote on Laws and can still be bribed. You have been posted to the Foreign Ministry, where you are now extremely bitter.

Losing Immunity. Your Immunity chip leaves your board in only three ways: a Persona Non Grata Law naming you, the Chaplain's Excommunication, or giving it up yourself to Defect or enter Witness Protection. Losing it drops your Limit at once, and the Scandal check is immediate.

Voting

Only Laws are voted on. Nothing you need in order to win ever goes to a vote.

When a Law is proposed, everyone votes at once, thumbs up or down: the proposer, Departing players and Recalled players included. Lobbyist cards add a vote either way. The Spook and the Envoy never vote (their Costs); a Spook holding an unused Double Agent declares before the tally whether to cast one vote that counts three times, or sit out.

Favors

Diplomacy runs on favors. Every player has one Favor chip carrying their character's face. That chip is your word.

Giving it. Hand your chip to any player at any time, as part of any deal: to buy a vote, to stop a Leak, to keep a Tip-Off in someone's hand, or simply to be liked. You have only the one, so while it is out you have nothing left to promise. Chips can be traded onward, so your word can end up in anyone's hands. Who holds whose chip is always public.

Cashing it. The holder of your chip may cash it against you in exactly two ways:

Call When What happens
"Vote with me." During any vote, before thumbs go up You vote the way the holder says. (An Ambassador's vote still counts double. If you never vote, the call does nothing.)
"Take it back." Right after you play a card: any crime of yours as the table reacts to it, any Law of yours as it is voted on, or a Dirty Trick, Leak or Tip-Off you aim at the holder, their crime or their Departure The card is cancelled and discarded: the crime never happens, the Law is withdrawn without a vote, the trick fizzles. Shred cannot stop this; it was your word. A Favor can never cancel a Departure.

A cashed chip goes back to its owner, who can give it again. Favors are relationships, not ammunition.

Breaking your word. You may refuse to honour a cashed Favor. You take 3 Heat, and the holder keeps the chip. A diplomat at Heat 0 can afford to break a promise. A diplomat at Heat 2 cannot. Every Favor you hold is a bet on the promiser's future.

Why it plays the way it does. Favors are cheap now and expensive later, like crimes. The broke Heir who buys a vote with the chip in round 2 pays for it in round 8, when the holder cashes it at the airport. One chip each means every promise is the only promise you can make until it comes home, and everyone can see where it is.

Leaving the Country

There are no exit cards to find. The nine Departures are printed on the back of every quick-reference card and are always available. Your Goal card names the three Departures you may use.

Departure Cost or condition You're telling the table...
Private Jet Pay $8M. "I can afford to leave."
Pardon Your Heat is 0. "There's nothing on me."
Defect Your Heat is 2 or more, and below your no-Immunity Limit (3; the Heir 4). Return your Immunity chip to the bank. Your Limit drops at once, and reaching it is a Scandal like any other: a Defector at Heat 2 is one Leak from a Scandal. Bring a Shred. "They're onto me. I'm switching sides."
Asylum Your Heat is 3 or more. Discard your hand. "I'm not safe here. Anywhere else will do."
Witness Protection Return your Immunity chip and discard 3 crimes from your Rap Sheet (your choice). A player of your choice takes 2 Heat. Your Limit drops at once, as for Defect. Your Goal must still be met after the three crimes go: a Vendetta needs 7 on record to leave this way. "I have names. Would you like some?"
Slow Boat Pay $5M and cool 2 Heat. Resolves at the start of your turn after next, so the table gets two full rounds at you. "Nobody looks for you at sea."
Elected A Law with your marker is in effect. Pay $4M. "I'm untouchable now."
Medical Evacuation Pay $3M and discard your hand. "Sudden illness. Very sudden."
Diplomatic Marriage Pay a $6M dowry and name another player. They accept, revealing a met Goal, or walk out. Accept: you both leave, you both win. Walk out: the dowry is lost. "We're family now."

Booking a Departure (your Evening)

  1. Reveal your Goal, name your door, and pay for it. The door must be one of the three on your Goal card. Pay its cost or show its condition now. Your Goal must be met with what you have left after paying. Put the Departing marker in front of you. The price is never refunded, even if the Departure fails.
  2. Everyone else gets one full turn. Play continues round the table as normal. Every other player takes their Morning, Afternoon and Evening while you sit there, Goal face up, marker in front of you. You take no turn while Departing. (Online, the table is asked the moment you book: everyone else gets a short window to play a Tip-Off or a Leak at once, then the turns go round.) Almost anything in the game can be aimed at you: Tip-Offs, Leaks, Shakedowns, Blackmail, Frames, Expunge the Record, Laws and Repeals.

There are two ways to stop you: - A Tip-Off on your Departure. Unless it is answered, the Departure fails when it resolves. - Heat. Leaks, Society Dinners, Dawn Raids, Zero Tolerance, a Limit drop from Persona Non Grata: all of it counts. If you reach your Limit while Departing, you take the Scandal as normal and the Departure collapses on the spot.

And three defences: - Shred cancels a Leak or a Tip-Off aimed at you or your Departure. - Deny. When a Tip-Off is played on your Departure, you may pay $10M to the bank to cancel it. Once per Tip-Off, as often as you can afford. The money comes out of what your Goal is counted on, so an Extravagance player can Deny their way under the line. - A Favor. If you hold the trickster's own Favor chip, cash it to take the card back.

Cool off before you book, or leave with a Shred in hand. 3. Resolve at the start of your next turn, instead of taking it. Check, in this order: - You have not suffered a Scandal since booking. - No unanswered Tip-Off was played on your Departure. - Your Goal is still met, and for Elected, a Law with your marker is still in effect. For a money Goal the money must still be in hand with the door already paid: Extravagance needs $20M on the table at resolution, with the Jet's $8M or the dowry's $6M already gone. A Shakedown during the wait can put you under the line. 4. All three hold: you're gone. You win, and the game ends immediately. Any one fails: the Departure fails. You skip this turn entirely (no Morning, no cooling, no cards), the marker comes off, and your Goal stays face up for the rest of the game. You may book again on a later Evening, and the table will be waiting.

Diplomatic Marriage is the one door that needs another person, and it is priced like it. You pay the $6M dowry and name your partner when you book. They either accept, revealing a met Goal and taking a Departing marker of their own, or walk out, keeping their Goal secret. If they walk out, your booking fails on the spot, the dowry is gone, and your Goal stays face up. If they accept, you are both Departing through the same round, and each of you resolves at the start of your own next turn. If one of you is stopped, the other can still leave. Everyone who leaves wins.

Why would anyone walk out on a shared win? Because a shared win is a win for you too, and some players would rather take their own door next round.

Why it plays the way it does

Nobody at the table wants to let you win, so the design gives them a whole round to try. What they have is still limited:

Departure cards

Nine Maneuver cards in the Politics deck share the Departures' names. Each has an ordinary Use anyone can play in their Evening, and a Departure bonus that waives that door's cost or condition when you book through it. They are never required. See the card list.

Other endings

Timing and Rulings

Quick Reference (front of card)

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  play a 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 · more yes than no · ties fail · bribe first
FAVOR CHIP   Give anytime · cash: "Vote with me" or "Take it back" (cancel their crime, Law or trick; never a Departure) · break it: +3 Heat, they keep it
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

Departures board (back of card)

PRIVATE JET          Pay $8M
PARDON               Heat 0
DEFECT               Heat 2+ · give up your Immunity chip
ELECTED              A Law with your marker · pay $4M
MEDICAL EVACUATION   Pay $3M · discard your hand
ASYLUM               Heat 3+ · discard your hand
WITNESS PROTECTION   Give up Immunity chip + 3 crimes · a player of your choice takes 2 Heat
SLOW BOAT            Pay $5M · resolves at the start of your turn after next
DIPLOMATIC MARRIAGE  Pay $6M dowry · name a partner · they accept (Goal met) or walk out
Your Goal card names your three doors.

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