Propaganda Update!

After some strenuous testing over the past couple months, Propaganda has a Revision 2 ready to print for another round of testing and revisions. 

If you haven't had time to look at the older post introducing the game, the premise is simple:

You have EVENTS and ACTIONS. You start with 5 actions in your hand, and draw an event.

Events are what is happening to the regime on any given turn.

Most of these EVENTS are not in your favor. Some are good for you. 

Actions, like Root out the Enemy, can piggyback on Events (and other Actions) which cause Fear to rise.

This is the core conceit of Propaganda: spinning the narrative!

The New Counter Card! 

You tally up the gains and losses you made each turn on this Counter Card by moving a peg up and down the 6 tracks. 

You have a Dear Leader, who sets your overall strategy for the game. There are 12 to choose from, each with unique boons under different conditions! 

And there are Figureheads, which help you manipulate the news media with their appearances. 

Finally, we have the Doomsday Clock, which is the timer against which you are racing. 

When the clock strikes midnight, any player at the table throws as many defense against each other as possible. When Defense vs Defense points are wiped out, each Defense does 2 damage to Economy and Population. 

Tally up what remains, subtract Fear and Rebellion, and add Trust. 

Whoever has the highest final score "wins."

The new feature is that Actions cards all have a Discard Value. You may discard any Action for this value at any time. I went though and added these in a reasonable manner that makes sense as a, "promise" never to perform that action, or to sell something, or divert state resources. 

More "Propaganda" basically. 

We'll see how this revision plays, and also test out some manufacturing. So far it costs $44.56 for a prototype print at The Game Crafter. Pretty costly. But, that's for a one off bespoke print of a huge board game, including nearly 200 cards, 2 coins, 40 circular time/defense tokens, a clock, a 16 page rulebook, 4 laser cut chipboards, and a bunch of cubes (I'd much prefer pegs but it's woefully expensive.) 

The new coin art. 

The Rulebook has got quite a bit of work put into it too, polishing it up to be all handsome and patching holes where the cards just don't quite explain themselves on those 3 available lines of text. Only a few need more explanation, and it's really not about failing to understand the obvious rules on the cards, it's more about resolving "rule lawyering" with an official note in the book.  

Yes, Special Ops does take out at least 3 Super Soldiers instantly when played. :p 

STEVEN. 

The backside of the Turn Tokens now help you count Defense! When you are attacking another player, you use Defense point from your track. The other player invests some points from their defense into protecting themselves. 

1 defense gets 1 coin flip per turn. Both players flip a coin simultaneously. 

Heads Heads, both shoot each other. 

Tails Tails, both miss each other.

Heads vs Tails, one shoots the other. 

You repeat this until the defenders or attackers are all dead. If the defender fails, then the attacker gets to pick targets in their Economy, Population, or a Project card to damage or destroy. Each defense is equal to 2 points of damage. (Projects have HP equal to the number of turns it take to build them. So a 5 turn projects needs 5hp to blow up.)

There are now many more Actions dedicated to offensive action, and they still contribute something to a Single Player mode in the form of discards. 

Previously, version 1 felt like you were playing a really engaging solo game with friends in the room until players began trying to help or hinder each other later in the game. We'll see if that still holds true in Rev 2!