Mandate 2038: Component spec

This is the canonical physical-form record for Mandate 2038. It specifies what players manipulate and how components express state. Mechanical quantities and limits remain authoritative in content/data/game-config.json.

Colour allocation

The six saturated RGB colours are reserved for player ownership. Every CEO, Team, Facility, Generator, Scrutiny cube, Mandate marker, and ballot accent uses its faction's colour.

Faction	Ownership colour	Hex value
Dovetalis Labs	Red	`#ff003c`
Loopfold AI	Blue	`#0066ff`
Mirevanta Works	Green	`#00e676`
Kestralyn	Magenta	`#ff00d4`
Orisonix	Cyan	`#00e5ff`
Corthaven	Yellow	`#ffea00`

Shared components use black, white, clear or translucent material, or metallic gold, silver, and bronze. Finish never creates an additional rules state.

Selected prototype vocabulary

Gameplay object	Physical role	Selected form	State encoding
Governance Board	Shared map frame and public dashboard	One rigid folding board with tile wells, card rails, tracks, and a writable panel	Map geometry, Era, Timeline, Mandate, Initiative, contracts, current criterion, and final resolution
Era	Progressive rules unlock	Four panels printed on the Governance Board plus one Current Era marker	Marker position; panel text is open information
Faction board	One institution's dashboard	Thick dual-layer board with six captive sliders	Runway, Compute, Capability, Customers, Trust, and Research Protection
Player aid	Turn and scoring reminder	One four-panel foldout per faction tray	Four authored aid topics in one object
CEO	Movable acting piece; one presence	Large faction-coloured pawn	District position
Team	Movable acting piece; one presence	Small faction-coloured pawn	District position
Facility	Stationary institutional site	Faction-coloured node, visibly numbered 1–4	Stable Facility ID and district position
Generator	Stationary Power source	Distinct faction-coloured power node	Its Energy-tile position selects the printed contract
Starting grid	Dedicated Power for Facility 1	Identifier integrated into Facility 1	Travels with that Facility
Scrutiny	Exposure in the Audit bag	Small faction-coloured cube	Owner supply or Audit bag
Systemic Risk	Shared Audit danger	Black piece matching Scrutiny's concealed feel	Audit bag or shared supply
Mandate	Public institutional score	One faction-coloured marker per faction	Shared Mandate-track position
Program marker	Per-Era exceptional action allowance and once-per-game use	Two faction-coloured markers per player	Available beside faction board or committed on one shared Program card
Power allocation	Latest completed Production state	Thirty-six shared silver cubes	One on each powered Facility and one per satisfied Mega-Cluster demand until next Allocate
Current Mandate ledger	Shared short-term counting aid and ending record	Writable panel integrated into Governance Board; one shared marker	Revealed criterion, six faction values, Setup Collective Trust, and final resolution
AGI Dossier	Hidden Era-by-Era commitment	Four Era-labelled cards per faction, symmetrical backs	Face-down Commit or Hedge orientation
Temporary Compute	Allocation Window capacity	Two distinct shared tokens	Current holder; returned at cycle end
Joint Venture / Mega-Cluster	Named shared project	Matched numbered token pair	Host positions and pair number; Mega-Clusters have one owner
Initiative	Resolution and tie order	One shared marker	Current holder
Fusion Demonstrator	Unique advanced-generation project	One shared marker	Grid position or unbuilt supply
Link — Advanced	Facility connection to its owner's Network	Faction-coloured connector token	Attached to one Facility
Realignment — Advanced	Secret jurisdiction motion	One square four-way ballot per faction	Edge aimed toward board center while face down
Volatility — Advanced	Two-result Headline resolver	One ordinary six-sided die	Printed result mapping
Headline, Mandate, Action, Program, Training	Information and choices	Cards	Face, orientation, markers, and printed text
Ordinary Power contract	Generator rules at point of construction	Printed in the Grid and Renewable tile visit boxes	Tile identity; no separate reference card

Governance Board

The Governance Board is the table's public control surface. It organizes the modular map and shared state without replacing district tiles, faction boards, decks, or physical pieces.

Map field

One fixed Frontier well at center.
Six inner operational-ring wells.
Twelve outer public-ring wells forming the complete radius-two hexagon.
Clear edge adjacency and clockwise direction.
Enough clearance for acting pieces, two Facilities, Generators, contract tokens, Links, and retained Power cubes without obscuring district text.

No district identity is printed in a ring well. Tile identity, visit text, production, Facility spaces, category, and ordinary Generator contract remain on the shuffled tile.

Era and card field

Four printed Era panels run in order from I to IV. Each panel contains:

Era name and strapline;
ready / Program-marker / cycle / Audit summary;
complete New this Era unlock text;
one Headline-deck well;
one Mandate-deck well; and
three numbered Future Timeline positions.

One pre-Era Start bay holds the Current Era marker during setup. The marker then moves along the four panels. The panels replace four Era cards; full Era fiction remains in the Card and Board Reference and World and Institutions companion.

Public-state field

The board includes:

the shared Mandate track;
one Initiative position;
a Current Mandate ledger with spaces for the revealed name, criterion, minimum, and one value per faction;
Setup Collective Trust;
final Collective Trust and unresolved Systemic Risk;
eligible Dossier claims and their strengths;
provisional and final institutional winner;
AGI Emerges / Does Not Emerge;
Open / Closed continuity; and
World Ending.

The writable panel retains only state needed later. A resolved Mandate card stays face up in its Era panel as public history; prior per-player criterion values are not mechanically reused.

Contract and supply field

Provide six shared Program-card positions, six numbered Joint Venture pair bays, six numbered Mega-Cluster pair bays, one Fusion bay, and open labelled staging for Power cubes, Temporary Compute, the Audit bag, Scrutiny, and Systemic Risk. The board has no Power Source reference slots. Emergency and Clean Infrastructure are printed on their Energy tiles; Fusion is printed on its shared Program card.

Retention and materials

Use recessed tile wells and low card rails. Low-profile magnets may retain the Current Era, Initiative, Mandate, and contract markers only if physical testing shows that pieces remain easy to move and states remain unambiguous. Do not add magnets merely as decoration or use them to encode an unprinted state.

The ledger must erase cleanly after repeated use without allowing casual table contact to erase it. Its single fine-tip marker is shared and returns to a labelled board or insert channel.

Faction board and tray

Each faction board provides:

faction identity, starts, scoring exception where applicable, and two programs with exact unlock Era and timing;
six captive sliders for Runway, Compute, Capability, Customers, Trust, and Research Protection;
two Program-marker wells and a compact once-per-game Program-use reminder;
six Core Action positions;
supply wells for the CEO, Teams, Facilities, Generator, Scrutiny, and Mandate marker; and
a nearby Dossier filing edge with an unambiguous direction toward the board center.

Captive sliders must expose exact integer positions and resist accidental movement. They replace loose track markers; they do not alter caps. Advanced Network connectivity is read from the shared map and has no slider.

Each board and its faction-specific pieces, cards, and foldout aid are packed as one labelled tray. Advanced Link tokens and the Realignment ballot stay in the separate Advanced module so Default setup never asks a new player to sort unused systems.

State encoding

Latest Production snapshot

Power cubes do two jobs without changing meaning: they resolve the current Allocate step and remain as the latest completed Production snapshot.

At the next Allocate step, collect every cube from the previous snapshot.
Place one cube on each powered Facility.
Place one cube on a Mega-Cluster for each additional unit of demand it receives.
Leave all those cubes in place through Produce, Partner, Dossier, Audit, Mandate, later turns, and any intervening Headline.

A built Facility without a cube is offline. The retained cubes govern powered-Facility Mandates and Headlines, the Deployment Dossier, and final offline penalties. They are not a permanent Power contract and are not carried through Realignment as a fresh eligibility calculation. They travel with their marked hosts as the previous snapshot; the next Production recalculates and replaces them.

Current Mandate ledger

When a Mandate is revealed, erase the previous faction rows and write the new criterion and minimum. For a criterion that counts activity this Era, start each faction at zero or No and update only that value. For a current-state criterion, record the visible value at scoring. The printed Mandate remains the qualification and scoring authority.

This one ledger replaces six four-Era score sheets. It retains the exact short-lived value players would otherwise have to remember without preserving unused historical arithmetic.

Dossier cards and folio gate

The supported form remains four face-down Dossier cards per faction. Their symmetrical backs conceal Commit / Hedge orientation, and players may not inspect filed cards before the Era IV reveal.

A reusable Dossier folio is a gated prototype, not a selected replacement. It may replace the cards only after a blind physical test proves all of the following:

the owner and opponents cannot read filed choices;
each Era's orientation survives movement, bumps, and storage;
prior choices cannot be reinspected while filing a later Era;
simultaneous final reveal is complete and unambiguous; and
setup and handling are measurably simpler than four cards.

Until every condition passes, manufacture and rules counts remain twenty-four Dossier cards.

Realignment ballot

The Advanced ballot is rotationally symmetric on its back. Its face prints one choice on each edge: Consolidate Core, Expand Periphery, Counter-Cycle, and Pass. All players orient and place their ballots face down before anyone reveals. Pass is equivalent to naming no motion. The physical redesign replaces three cards per player with one and changes no plurality or tie rule.

Packaging and setup order

The insert has six faction trays, four Default Era packets, one Training deck well, one shared-component well, and one clearly separated Advanced module. The Era I–IV packets hold 5 / 4 / 3 / 4 Default Headlines respectively and three Mandates each. The Advanced module holds its eight badged Headlines sorted 1 / 2 / 3 / 2 by Era alongside Links, ballots, and the Volatility die.

Labels must match the board's Era numerals and canonical component names. Trays and packets organize setup but create no hidden game state and need not remain on the table.

Physical constraints

No component may conceal a district name, Facility slot, host relationship, Power cube, or piece count.
Every state required during a turn must be visible without a private note.
Shared contracts require durable matching identifiers.
Scrutiny and Systemic Risk must be indistinguishable by touch while concealed in the opaque Audit bag and immediately distinguishable by colour or print after drawing. Use the same size, shape, material, and weight.
Facility numbers and the starting-grid identity remain attached when a Facility moves.
Do not add miniatures, wheels, selectors, or duplicate reference components merely for theme. Neural-network language should come from node, connection, and illumination graphics, not extra game state.