Mandate 2038: Core rules

A strategy game about institutions turning reliable AI capability into contested public authority as they build, deploy, regulate, and make rival claims on AGI

Suggested player count: 3–5

Play profiles

Default Game is authoritative in this book, the browser, and simulation. Use the browser First Game Guide for an accelerated Default Game. Advanced Play is an extension layer with additional complexity. Advanced Play is selected before setup and must be used for the entire game or not used at all.

The symbol ◆ marks a rule that changes in Advanced Play. Use the base rule in Default Game, then apply the corresponding change from the Advanced Play supplement.

The separately printed World and Institutions companion contains setting and ending narratives.

How to Play

Default Game lasts four Eras. The institution with the most Mandate is the provisional winner. The strongest eligible AGI claim can replace that result. Resolve the institutional winner and shared World Ending separately. Follow the numbered sections in order.

1. Setup

1. Unfold the Governance Board. Build the nineteen-tile map in its wells as described in Modular hex board: Frontier in the center, the shuffled six-tile operational ring around it, and the shuffled twelve-tile public ring around the complete outer edge.
2. Separate the Headline cards by Era. ◆ Use only the Default-eligible cards: cards without an Advanced Play badge. Shuffle each deck into its printed Era panel's Headline well. Each Era uses three Headlines. Place the Current Era marker in its Start bay.
3. Shuffle the Training deck. Separate the twelve Era Mandate cards into four three-card Era decks. Shuffle each deck and place it beside its Era panel.
4. Place the six shared Program cards face up beside the Governance Board and stage the remaining shared supplies. Ordinary Power contracts are printed on the Energy tiles; Fusion's is on its shared Program card.
5. Each player takes one prepacked Faction tray and foldout aid. Set its captive sliders to their printed starts.
6. Place every CEO and one Team at Frontier. Keep the other two Teams in supply. Keep all four Facilities and the Generator in supply; no Facility begins on the board. Facilities must be constructed in printed number order: Facility 1 first, then 2, 3, and 4. Facility 1 carries that Faction's integrated starting-grid identifier. Set each Faction’s Runway, Compute, Capability, Customers, Trust, and Research Protection to its printed starting values. Each player takes two Program markers.
7. Place each Faction’s already-earned public Mandate on the shared track as printed on its Faction board. Put every player’s ten Scrutiny cubes outside the bag; the bag begins empty.
8. Add every Faction’s printed starting Trust and record the result as Setup Collective Trust in the Governance Board ledger. This fixed value is used during the World Ending.
9. Choose Initiative randomly and give that player the Initiative marker. Begin Era I.

Do not deal Tactics or secret objectives in the baseline game.

2. Central loop

Each player has six Core Action cards but takes only three turns per Era. Once played, a Core Action remains exhausted until the next Era:

• Fund
• Research
• Build
• Organize
• Deploy
• Influence

Choose three of six Actions each Era, in any order. The other three remain unused unless an ability readies one.

The complete ordinary turn: Select → Move → Act

1. Reveal one Headline.
2. Every player secretly selects one eligible unused Core Action, or commits one Program marker to select one eligible unlocked Program. A choice is eligible only when it has a legal resolution now. A possible trade cannot make an illegal selection legal.
3. Reveal every selected action simultaneously.
4. Resolve clockwise from Initiative.
5. Select: the revealed Action is the only Action this turn.
6. Move: choose one acting piece and move it zero, one, or two adjacent hexes.
7. Act: read the chosen Action card from top to bottom and resolve it from the destination.
8. Exhaust the Core Action, or place the committed Program marker on the shared Program card.
9. Pass Initiative clockwise before the next cycle.

Selection commits the Action card; choose the piece, path, target, and payment during resolution.

Acting piece

The acting piece is a CEO or Team. Both can take any Action and each contributes one presence. Its destination determines where Facilities and power infrastructure may be built, where Research and Deploy occur, which location bonus applies, and which political spaces may be Influenced.

Facilities and Generators cannot act. Organize receives normal acting-piece movement before its additional movement, recruitment, restructuring, or relocation.

Effect precedence ◆

Apply these sources in order:

• The Current Era panel determines globally unlocked actions.
• A Faction board modifies those actions.
• The current Headline supplies its printed global effect.
• An ordinary turn may apply the Action, one destination bonus, each applicable Faction modifier, and each applicable global effect. If multiple programs on the same Faction board apply to that Action, resolve all of them unless one explicitly requires a choice.
• Every exception is timed before selection, during movement, during action, or after action.
• A Headline changes one named field or calls one public choice procedure. It grants no additional Action.
• Readying a card makes it available for a later choice. Resolve nothing when you ready it.
• Agent Swarm is the sole compound-action exception.

What an Era teaches

Systems are inactive before their printed Era panel lists them under New this Era. Read that strip aloud before revealing the Mandate. All Era panels, Programs, and Faction abilities are open information.

Program access is cumulative. Progress teaches ordinary institutional work; Capacity adds industrial infrastructure; Authority adds agreements, quantum record disputes, and public effects; Continuity adds compound Actions, Dossier revelation, and exceptional generation. Later Eras retain previously unlocked systems unless a printed effect says otherwise.

Universal tie rule

Whenever an effect targets the player with the lowest, highest, or most of something and multiple players tie, target the tied player nearest Initiative clockwise. An effect that explicitly applies to everyone, or explicitly awards all tied players, overrides this rule.

Initiative is an order, not a resource. Passing it after each cycle changes who resolves first and who wins unresolved ties; it cannot be traded or retained.

Program markers and Programs

The six shared Program cards are public. At the start of each Era, each player sets aside the printed number of their two Program markers: zero, one, one, then two. Commit one available marker to select an Era-unlocked Program:

• Select a Program instead of a Core Action.
• Place your marker on that shared Program card when selected.
• Each named Program is usable once per player per game.
• At Era end, return committed markers; unused markers do not carry forward.
• Previously unlocked unused Programs remain available later.

Global after movement means the acting piece moves normally, then the Action resolves without a destination restriction.

Agent Swarm is the selected Program; it resolves and exhausts two different unused Core Actions.

A committed Action that becomes blocked

At selection, the Action must have a legal resolution before any trade. After reveal, choose any legal piece, movement, mode, target, payment, and optional pre-resolution trade, but never replace the selected Action.

If an earlier player consumes every legal Facility space, Generator slot, contract token, or other required target, movement still resolves and the Action exhausts without effect or compensation. Initiative can therefore let an earlier player consume a later player’s target. Do not rewind simultaneous selection.

3. Resources

Runway, Compute, and Capability

• Runway: financing spent on Facilities, hiring, partnerships, lobbying, and crises.
• Compute: capacity spent on Research, Deploy, and infrastructure.
• Capability: permanent model quality that unlocks Deployments and AGI; spend it only when instructed.

Customers

Each Customer produces one Runway during Production. Customers #1–3 immediately score two public Mandate; Customers #4–5 score one each. Customers also increase public exposure.

Trust

A zero-to-six track affecting regulation, Joint Ventures, safety, and whether the shared World Ending is Open. Zero Trust does not eliminate a player.

Mandate is the score used to determine the winner (victory points). It is the public authority you have gained to define outcomes. It represents the recognized right to shape the future: credibility in Progress, capacity in Capacity, authority in Authority, and historical legitimacy in Continuity.

Mandate is normally scored immediately on one public track:

• Two when Customer #1, #2, or #3 is gained; one when #4 or #5 is gained.
• Two the first time Capability reaches three, six, nine, and twelve, except for a printed faction scoring rule.
• Two the first time Trust reaches two, four, and six.
• Printed Mandate from Headlines, Era Mandates, Fusion, and faction abilities.

Threshold awards are permanent; later losses do not reverse them.

There is no hidden or deferred conversion of Facilities, controlled hexes, stored resources, or unused cards into Mandate. If an effect scores Mandate, move the public marker when that effect resolves.

Universal costs and caps

Apply resource caps immediately after any gain or trade:

• Runway: twelve
• Compute: ten

Research Protection is not traded or accumulated as currency. Refresh it to one at the start of each Era; Orisonix refreshes to two. A Research visit adds one temporary protection for that Training Run only.

Return excess. A trade cannot move resources through a player above a cap.

When effects change a cost, apply replacements and waivers first, then surcharges, then discounts. The final cost cannot fall below zero.

4. Modular hex board

The board is one jurisdiction whose districts represent physical and institutional dependencies rather than ordinary distance. The Map reference is authoritative for its nineteen-tile setup, adjacency, ring pools, tile effects, Facility spaces, presence, and control. The shuffled map remains fixed for all four Eras. ◆

One movement step crosses one shared tile edge; an acting CEO or Team may move zero, one, or two steps. Every piece placed during setup begins at Frontier. Rival pieces coexist; there is no combat or player elimination.

Power connections ◆

Default Game uses local Power, not a Network graph. The starting grid powers only its assigned first Facility. Each Generator powers only Facilities on its own hex or an adjacent hex. A Facility cannot pass Power onward to another Facility.

Recalculate local eligibility whenever a Facility or Generator moves; do not preserve a connection the visible board no longer supports.

Contract hosts

Joint Ventures and Mega-Clusters use shared, matched token pairs. A Mega-Cluster is always owned by one player. Create one only while its pair is available; place one numbered half on each host.

A contract remains owned but is active only while its fixed hosts meet its requirements. Tokens travel with their Facilities.

Every cross-player contract or jointly funded project requires the explicit consent of every participant. Facilities sharing one hex are co-located. Adjacent host Facilities occupy hexes that share an edge.

Consent applies to the named project only. It does not grant control of a host, create a general trading right, or authorize another contract. A contract’s matched number preserves its identity when a host moves.

Joint Venture

Influence may create a Joint Venture between two adjacent Facilities owned by different players, unless a Faction ability explicitly changes that range. Both host Facilities must be powered during Production for the contract to produce.

Each partner gains the resource shown by the contract icon on the other host tile. Do not copy full tile production or multiply it with Facility effects.

During Influence, make one complete proposal naming both eligible hosts and the partner. Acceptance creates it. Rejection, pass, or no response uses that effect; do not choose another partner or Influence effect.

Either participant may instead use Influence to terminate one shared Joint Venture. Return its pair. Termination cannot be combined with another Influence effect.

Power delivery ◆

Power is Production capacity and cannot be stored.

• Every player begins with a basic one-Power grid connection. It automatically powers that player’s first Facility, requires no recurring payment, and cannot supply the additional demand of Mega-Cluster. It is dedicated capacity and cannot be sold. Place the player’s starting-grid state on that first Facility.
• Every Facility needs one delivered Power to produce.
• A Mega-Cluster needs two additional Power.
• The starting-grid state and each Generator’s own or adjacent Facilities are the only legal recipients. A Generator does not need to be connected to the starting-grid Facility.

Power never travels through an opponent’s sites unless a specific purchase rule transfers that capacity. A sale changes available capacity, not the map.

Follow Power and Production. Capacity powers Facilities and projects, produces no resources, and may be assigned only once. Assign each local source only among its legal recipients.

An offline Facility still occupies space, contributes presence, and may be visited, but produces nothing. Sufficient Power in a later Production returns it online.

5. Four-Era progression

Era I — Progress

• Three turns per player
• Only Core Actions
• Beneficial or mildly disruptive Headlines
• No Program markers

Era I activates movement, Core Actions, Training, the starting grid, Facilities, Customers, and Scrutiny.

Era II — Capacity ◆

Each player receives one Program marker and unlocks:

• Generators
• Mega-Clusters
• Programs

Mega-Cluster

Spend three Runway and two Compute to place a Mega-Cluster across the edge between two adjacent host Facilities. Construction does not require a prior Production Power mark; it does require the local eligibility check below at the moment of construction. Add two Scrutiny to its owner. Place one matched Mega-Cluster token half on each host Facility. Each Facility may host at most one Mega-Cluster; a Facility that already holds a Mega-Cluster half is not an eligible host.

The acting piece must end on either host Facility’s hex.

A Mega-Cluster uses two adjacent Facilities you own that are each eligible for your local Power. Check that eligibility when the project is constructed. During Production, power both hosts plus two additional demand to gain three Compute.

Hosts must remain adjacent for the project to operate. Construction resolves in Initiative order. Construction reserves no Power; the additional demand is paid only during Production. During Allocate, its owner chooses the complete Facility and project allocation together. A project operates only if both host Facilities are powered and its additional demand is satisfied. A constructed project immediately claims its two hosts and the next available matched token pair. Every later project rechecks the shared pair supply, both unclaimed hosts, adjacency, and local Power eligibility. If an earlier accepted project claimed either host or the final pair, the later project is blocked and remains unbuilt.

Reorganization

Reorganization is global after movement.

Move every Team up to one hex.

You may return one Team to supply to gain three Runway and add one Scrutiny. Reorganization never resolves or readies another Action.

Era III — Authority

Each player receives one Program marker. Previous Programs remain unlocked. Joint Ventures now enter play. Production Power purchases are an Advanced Play rule.

Public Capability Covenant

Public Capability Covenant is global after movement.

Every player gains one Capability. You also gain:

• Two Trust
• Removal of one Scrutiny cube

Narrative Capture

Narrative Capture is global after movement.

Choose one:

• Remove two of your Scrutiny cubes.
• Gain two Runway.
• Give a player with more Customers than you one Scrutiny.

Era IV — Continuity

Each player receives two Program markers.

Agent Swarms, Fusion, the Era IV faction abilities printed on the Faction boards, and the final Dossier reveal now enter play. Each Faction ability unlocks at the Era printed on its board.

Agent Swarm

Select Agent Swarm only with two different unused Core Actions. Move once; resolve both from that destination in either order and pay all costs. Apply the visit bonus to only one. Exhaust both, place your marker on Agent Swarm, and add three Scrutiny.

The secret AGI Dossier

Each player has four matching Dossier cards: Benchmark, Deployment, Authority, and Publication. Each card has a symmetrical back and two orientations on its face: Commit and Hedge. The arrow on the card points toward the center of the table when it is oriented to Commit.

After Production and before the Audit in each Era, everyone secretly orients that Era's Dossier card and places it face down. Do not reveal, rotate, exchange, or inspect a filed card. Table talk, resource plans, and visible board play may suggest a player's intentions, but never make a private orientation binding until the final reveal.

In Era IV, file Publication, then reveal every Dossier simultaneously before conducting the final Audit.

1. Count each player's committed cards. Every Commit costs one Compute and adds one Scrutiny.
2. Pay the complete Compute cost. A player who cannot pay it spends all remaining Compute, still adds the full Scrutiny, and has an ineligible Dossier.
3. A fully paid Dossier becomes an eligible claim only when Publication is committed. Earlier commitments without Publication are costly institutional positioning or a bluff; they cannot produce AGI.
4. Add the required Scrutiny before the Era IV Audit. Use the normal ten-cube supply and overflow rule.

Filing a Dossier uses no Action and scores no Mandate. Its sacrifice is the Compute held for final payment, the Scrutiny exposed to the final Audit, and the ordinary actions spent building the public evidence that can strengthen it.

Claim strength

During final scoring, evaluate each fully paid claim with Publication committed. A claim needs at least two supported evidence modules among Benchmark, Deployment, and Authority:

• Benchmark: supported if Benchmark was committed and final Capability is at least three.
• Deployment: supported if Deployment was committed and at least two of the claimant's Facilities were powered in the final Production.
• Authority: supported if Authority was committed and final Trust is at least four.

An eligible claim's strength equals:

• one for Publication, or two while the AGI Blog Post Headline applies;
• one for each supported evidence module;
• one for each reached Capability threshold: three, six, nine, and twelve.

The highest-strength eligible claim forms AGI. Break a strength tie by final Mandate, then Trust, Customers, Compute, and finally Initiative-clockwise order. If no claim has two supported evidence modules, AGI does not emerge and the provisional Mandate winner remains the institutional winner. There is no Prediction Bag, comeback bonus, random draw, or separate declaration.

Fusion Demonstrator

The acting piece must end movement on the Power Corridor. Spend five Runway and construct Fusion there. It uses a dedicated Fusion marker, occupies one of that tile’s three Generator slots, provides six Power, scores two Mandate, and adds three Scrutiny. Fusion counts as an owned Generator for local Power eligibility and Power capacity. It does not count against the owner’s one ordinary Generator-piece limit. If all three Grid Generator slots are occupied, Fusion cannot be constructed. A full Power Corridor blocks construction.

There is one shared Fusion marker and one Fusion project in the game. Once any player constructs it, no other player may select or construct Fusion.

6. Era sequence

A. Begin the quarter

• Move the Current Era marker to Era I; in later Eras, advance one panel.
• Read that Era’s New this Era strip aloud. Those systems are now active.
• Reveal one Mandate from the current Era’s three-card deck. Return the other two cards in that deck to the box unseen.
• Clear the Current Mandate ledger and write the revealed criterion and minimum. Start this-Era values at zero; evaluate current-state values when scored.
• Ready all six Core Actions.
• Make the Era's zero, one, one, or two Program markers available.

B. Three action cycles

At the beginning of each cycle:

1. Reveal a Headline and place it in the current Era’s Future Timeline row.
2. Everyone secretly selects one Action card.
3. Reveal simultaneously.
4. Resolve clockwise from Initiative: move, then act.
5. Pass Initiative clockwise.

Immediate resource trade ◆

Immediately before resolving the selected Action, the active player may make one offer to one rival: give exactly one Runway for one Compute, or one Compute for one Runway. The named rival accepts or rejects. Gifts, bundles, same-resource exchanges, unequal amounts, counteroffers, redirects, and third-party claims are not legal. Adjust both players' captive sliders immediately after acceptance. The active Headline may prohibit a named resource from being traded.

The selected Action was legal before this window and continues whether the offer is accepted or rejected. There is no post-action trade window.

Immediate resource trades require no Influence Action. Only Influence creates persistent Joint Ventures, lobbying effects, or Trust manipulation.

Negotiation and paced play

Discussion creates no game state, obligation, or Action. Promises about later turns remain non-binding. Apply formal choices only in their printed windows; missing responses are rejection or pass.

Paced Play is an optional table rule. Before play, the group may assign one shared sand timer to each negotiation window. When it expires, discussion ends and the normal rejection or pass fallback applies. Expiry never creates consent or forces a deal.

C. Power and Production

Every player board presents the same five Production boxes. Resolve a box for every player before advancing to the next box:

1. Generate: determine every Generator’s local eligible Facilities. Every Generator with at least one eligible Facility operates automatically. Add one Scrutiny for every Emergency Power Complex. Add any Headline generation.
2. Trade ◆: Default Game skips this box. In Advanced Play, in Initiative order, each player may make one Power purchase request through one named pair of adjacent Facilities. Name one of your locally eligible Facilities as the buyer endpoint and one rival Facility as the supplier endpoint. The supplier endpoint need not itself be powered, but it must be on or adjacent to one of that rival's installed Generators or Fusion with unsold capacity. The named supplier accepts or rejects. A rejected, passed, or unanswered request fails; the buyer then allocates with the Power they have. An accepted buyer pays one Runway per Power directly to the consenting supplier. Each supplier may sell at most one Power this Production. Only installed Generator or Fusion capacity may be sold; starting-grid and Headline-granted supplemental Power may not. Emergency Infrastructure is an installed Generator, so its capacity is exportable. The purchased unit enters the buyer's connected Network.
3. Allocate: after all purchase requests, resolve any Headline that lets a player choose supplemental Power. Then each player chooses one complete allocation of starting-grid, Generator, purchased, and supplemental Power among legal local Facilities and Mega-Cluster demand. Remove the previous snapshot, then place one Power cube on each powered Facility and per satisfied Mega-Cluster demand. Leave these cubes until the next Allocate step. A built Facility without a cube is offline. The cubes are total demand satisfied.
4. Produce: produce powered Facilities, one Runway per Customer, and active Mega-Clusters, in that order.
5. Partner: produce active Joint Ventures in ascending contract-number order.

Complete each box for every player before entering the next. Do not let one player finish Production while others still generate, trade, or allocate. This keeps sales and contracts tied to one visible capacity state. Within a box, resolve in Initiative order unless that box specifies otherwise.

Purchased Power lasts only this Production and creates no contract or future obligation. A supplier may leave its own Facility offline. The retained Power cubes remain the authority for the next Mandate, any powered-Facility Headline, the Era IV Dossier, and final offline penalties.

Apply the universal resource caps after every Production gain.

When an Era Mandate counts Compute produced during Production, count printed Compute output before the universal cap. Include powered Facilities, active Mega-Clusters, and either side of an active Joint Venture that receives Compute. Do not count an immediate Facility effect outside the five Production boxes.

D. File the Era Dossier

Every player secretly orients and files the matching Era Dossier card. In Era IV, reveal and pay every Dossier immediately, then add its Scrutiny before continuing. See The secret AGI Dossier.

E. Public Audit

Risky actions add player-colored Scrutiny to the opaque Audit bag. Each player has ten cubes. For each required cube when all ten are already in the bag, immediately lose one Runway; if none remains, lose one Trust. If neither remains, suffer no further loss. A depleted supply never makes a risky action free.

The four-player base draws are two, three, four, and five. For other player counts, calculate each Era’s draw count as:

round(base draws × player count ÷ 4), minimum one

Era halves upward. The resulting Audit profiles are:

Draw the listed number of cubes or stop when the bag is empty.

In every Era, each colored cube makes its owner lose one Runway; if none remains, lose one Trust. If neither remains, suffer no further loss. This is automatic, not a choice.

Drawn player-colored cubes return to the owner’s supply; undrawn cubes remain in the bag.

Consensus Network Facilities may remove cubes before the draw. A drawn black Systemic Risk cube gives every player with at least three Customers the current Era’s penalty, then returns to supply. Black cubes remaining at game end are unresolved Systemic Risk.

F. Score the Mandate

Each Era Mandate has a minimum qualification. If nobody qualifies, nobody scores it. Otherwise the qualifying leader scores two Mandate; tied qualifying leaders score one Mandate each.

Compare only the revealed Mandate’s printed criterion. Resources, control, and public score do not break its tie. Leave the scored card beside its Era as part of the table’s public history. The ledger is a counting aid; clear it when the next Mandate is revealed.

The revealed Mandate card is the exact qualification and scoring authority.

7. Core Actions

Fund

Choose:

• Conservative funding: gain two Runway.
• Venture funding: gain four Runway and add two Scrutiny.

Allocation Exchange provides one additional Runway.

Research

Spend one Compute and conduct a Training Run.

The Training deck contains seven data domains:

• Code
• Science
• Web
• Books
• Images
• Video
• Synthetic

Capability earned during Research is provisional until banked:

1. Begin with zero provisional Capability and no revealed domains.
2. Draw and fully resolve one card at a time.
3. The first card from each ordinary domain adds one provisional Capability.
4. After resolving any non-duplicate card, either stop and bank or continue.
5. Banking adds all provisional Capability to the player’s permanent Capability track and ends the run.
6. An unprotected duplicate crashes the run. Lose all provisional Capability, add one Scrutiny, and end the run.

Scrutiny, Trust, and Runway changes resolved before a crash are not reversed. All revealed cards enter the discard pile after the run.

When a duplicate appears, the player may spend one Research Protection to discard that duplicate and immediately bank the current provisional Capability. Each player refreshes to one Research Protection at Era start; Orisonix refreshes to two. A Research Commons visit grants one additional protection for that run. Protection never lets the run continue after the duplicate.

Special cards:

• Curated Corpus: choose one ordinary domain not yet revealed this run. It counts as that domain and adds one provisional Capability. If every ordinary domain is already present, it is a duplicate.
• Benchmark Leak: add two provisional Capability and one Scrutiny. It is not a domain. Its Capability is lost if the run later crashes.
• Human Evaluation: gain one Trust, immediately bank all provisional Capability, and end the run.

When a Mandate, Faction ability, or Headline counts unique domains, count only the seven ordinary domains listed above that were banked successfully. Benchmark Leak and Human Evaluation never count unless an effect names them explicitly.

Build ◆

Choose one mode.

Facility Build means Construct a Facility. Infrastructure Build means Construct a Generator. Mega-Cluster and Fusion Demonstrator are Programs.

Construct a Facility

Pay two Runway and place your lowest-numbered unbuilt Facility on the acting piece’s hex. Facility 1 must be built first, followed by Facilities 2, 3, and 4. It requires one Power during Production. Each non-Frontier hex has only two Facility spaces; Frontier has none and is never a legal Facility destination. Facilities cannot be destroyed by rivals.

Construct a Generator

The acting piece must be on an Energy hex. Each player may construct one ordinary Generator. On Power Corridor, pay one Runway and place it as Emergency Power Complex. On Thermal and Water Basin, pay two Runway and place it as Civic Heat Battery. The Energy location determines the source; there is no separate source choice. This mode unlocks in Era II. Each Energy hex has three Generator slots shared by all players. A Generator does not use a Facility space, but it cannot be built when all three Generator slots on that Energy hex are occupied.

Organize

Choose:

• Recruit one Team at the acting piece’s destination for two Runway, then move one CEO or Team up to two additional adjacent hexes.
• Move your CEOs and Teams a combined total of five adjacent steps.
• Move one Facility at the acting piece’s destination to an adjacent legal Facility space for one Runway.

A moved Facility carries its starting-grid state, contract halves, and Mega-Cluster host token. Recalculate Power eligibility and contract activity after movement. Its contract-host identity stays fixed.

Deploy

The next Customer requires:

Spend one Compute and gain one Customer. Human Access District waives the Compute cost. Every Deploy adds one Scrutiny.

Influence

Move normally, then choose one legal effect:

• On Consensus Network, Civic Permission Authority, or Allocation Exchange, gain one Trust or remove one Scrutiny. Consensus Network removes one additional Scrutiny; Civic Permission Authority gains one additional Trust.
• At one of your Facilities, create a Joint Venture using that Facility and an eligible rival Facility, or terminate one named Joint Venture you share.

Political control uses the CEO, Teams, and Facilities already on the board. The Influence Action creates no separate presence piece.

Rules Reference

8. Printed Power contracts

The two ordinary contracts are printed at their point of use. The Power Corridor tile always constructs Emergency Power Complex; the Thermal and Water Basin tile always constructs Civic Heat Battery. Fusion's full contract is printed on its Era IV Program card. No separate Power Source cards are used. Each player has one ordinary Generator, and each Energy hex still has three shared slots.

Every connected ordinary Generator operates automatically during Production.

Civic Heat Battery

• Location: Thermal and Water Basin
• Cost: two Runway
• Capacity: three Power
• Gain one Trust when constructed
• No recurring penalty

Emergency Power Complex

• Location: Power Corridor
• Cost: one Runway
• Capacity: four Power
• Add one Scrutiny during every Production

Fusion Demonstrator

The Era IV Program described above.

9. Printed card authorities

Faction boards, Governance Board Era panels, map-tile Power contracts, Core Action cards, shared Program cards, Mandate cards, Training cards, player aids, and Headline cards are rules components. The Card and Board Reference projects every authored face in one document; resolve that text or the matching physical surface. Printed text changes only the field or timing it names; it does not create an unprinted phase or additional Action.

All Factions and CEOs are fictional and imply no real-world claim or endorsement. Every Faction has one persistent institutional identity and one signature ability. Timing is passive, once per Era, once when unlocked, or once per game. “Persists” remains available; “named Era only” expires at Era end. Faction abilities modify named timing windows; they add no phase.

During setup, use each Faction board’s printed starts and place its already earned public Mandate. Award that Mandate once; never score it again. The Faction board is authoritative if a summary elsewhere differs.

A Headline is revealed before secret action selection. Resolve its printed effect and duration. Leave it face up in its Era row. Three Headlines per Era form the twelve-card Future Timeline. A Headline grants no Action. Unless its text names this Era’s Production, its rules expire at the end of the current cycle.

When an effect immediately resolves one Facility's printed production, resolve only that Facility. Do not run a second Production calculation, reopen Power trading, or update unrelated Facilities.

10. Map and component reference

Use Map reference for setup, adjacency, location effects, presence, and control. Use Component reference for deck contracts, component limits, and defined markers. Use Card and Board Reference for every authored face. Those references are part of the Default Game, not optional background.

11. Final scoring

All earned Mandate is already on the public track. Do not score it again.

At game end:

1. Read the twelve Headlines in the Future Timeline aloud, Era by Era.
2. Lose one Mandate for each offline Facility.
3. Name the ordinary winner under the tie breakers below as the provisional winner; a complete tie remains a provisional joint victory.
4. Resolve the highest supported Dossier claim described above.
5. Resolve the shared World Ending.
6. Announce the final institutional winner only after reading the history it claims to have won.

Offline penalties cannot reduce a player below zero Mandate.

There is no other endgame scoring.

The shared World Ending

Determine one institutional winner and one shared ending from visible state and the recorded final Audit and Dossier resolution:

• Record whether an eligible highest-strength claim formed AGI.
• Total every player’s final Trust.
• Use the unresolved Systemic Risk count recorded immediately after the final Audit and before the bag was rebuilt.

AGI emerges only when one fully paid Publication claim has at least two supported evidence modules and wins the deterministic strength comparison. Otherwise it does not emerge. Never infer emergence from Capability alone or an unsupported commitment.

Then determine whether the ending is Open. It is Open only if both conditions are true:

• Final Collective Trust is at least Setup Collective Trust plus the player count.
• Unresolved Systemic Risk is lower than the player count.

Collective Trust is every player’s total; individuals need not exceed their own starting value.

If either Open condition fails, the ending is Closed. An AGI selection does not by itself make the ending Open.

Cross the two results to find the shared World Ending:

Read its narrative from World and Institutions. Facilities and control score no separate endgame Mandate.

Keep the draft secret objectives out of the baseline game, balance evidence, and duration evidence.

The highest-Mandate institution under the following tie breakers is the provisional winner before Dossier resolution. The strongest eligible claim then either replaces that result or leaves it intact as described above.

Ties break by:

1. Higher Trust
2. More Customers
3. More Compute
4. Joint victory accompanied by an extremely serious merger announcement

Find design rationale and balance qualification in Balance and Exploitability. Find observation protocols in Playtesting and Evidence.

Advanced Play

The separate Advanced Play supplement is the complete authority for the bundled Advanced profile. Do not import one Advanced procedure into Default Game.

Document record

Rules version: 0.8.0-rc.17-test Design-baseline date: July 26, 2026 Status: Controlled playtest candidate; synchronized with executable game 0.14.16 Provisional time: 75–100 minutes at four players; three- and five-player durations require their own blind tests Standard game: Four Eras, three turns per player per Era