Designer: Rikki Tahta Publisher: Indie Boards and Cards Players: 3 - 6 Players Time: 15 Minutes Age: 14 and Up
In Coup: Rebellion G54, the last player with
influence in the game wins, with influence being
represented by face-down character cards in your
playing area. Before each game players choose five
character roles from a randomized deck. Characters
have a unique variable power, and the deck is formed
by three iterations of each role for fifteen cards
total.
A player starts the game with two coins and two
influence cards – i.e., two face-down character
cards. On your turn, you can take any of the actions
of the five characters in play, regardless of which
characters you actually have in front of you, or you
can take one of two general actions:
Income: Take one coin from the treasury.
Coup: Pay seven coins and launch a coup against an
opponent, forcing that player to lose an influence.
(If you have ten coins or more, you must take this
action.)
When you take one of the character actions – whether
actively on your turn, or defensively in response to
someone else's action – that character's action
automatically succeeds unless an opponent challenges
you. In this case, if you can't (or don't) reveal the
appropriate character, you lose an influence, turning
one of your characters face-up. Face-up characters
cannot be used, and if both of your characters are
face-up, you're out of the game.
If you do have the character in question and choose
to reveal it, the opponent loses an influence, then
you shuffle that character into the deck and draw a
new one, perhaps getting the same character again and
perhaps not.
The last player to still have influence – that is, a
face-down character – wins the game!
Coup: Rebellion G54 is a new standalone game that
takes the same simple Coup mechanisms and rules, but
with a variable deck of 25 characters, and in each
game you choose to play with five out of the 25, so
the relative power and advantage of each character
changes from game to game. This is more of a gamer's
game than the original Coup as you can create a deck
to increase bluffing, deduction, negotiation or luck.