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

Players: 2–5 · Suggested player count: 3–5

Use the browser First Game Guide for a guided introduction.

This rulebook contains setup, map instructions, component usage, and inventory. Keep the printed cards, boards, and player aids beside it during play.

How to Play

Object of the Game

Institutions race across four Eras to build infrastructure, deploy automated services, conduct research, and secure public authority. The institution with the most Mandate wins. Qualifying institutions may score recognized AGI before the final Audit. Resolve the institutional winner and shared World Ending separately. Follow the numbered sections in order.

Turn Overview: ReAct

Each Era consists of three action cycles with simultaneous selection followed by resolution in Initiative order:

• Before selection: Reveal a Headline and finish its instructions.
• Reason: Everyone secretly chooses an available Core Action, then reveals.
• Act: In Initiative order, each player may make the permitted resource exchange, assigns one Agent, and resolves the selected action. Apply discounts, payments, rewards, and penalties at their specified times.
• Observe: Inspect the changed board and exhaust the action. After everyone resolves, pass Initiative.

After three action cycles, players resolve Era Production, optional AGI recognition (Era IV only), the Public Audit, and Era Mandate scoring.

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 twenty-four Headline cards by Era. Shuffle each deck into its printed Era panel's Headline well. Each Era uses three Headlines. Place the Current Era chip 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. Stage the shared supplies. Ordinary Power contracts are printed on the Energy tiles. Each faction takes its three personal project chips, Available side up; no shared project reference or unique Fusion supply is needed.
5. Set each faction's track cubes to its printed starts. Put its Trust milestone cube at the highest threshold already awarded by starting Mandate, its AGI recognition cube at No, and its objective cube at zero.
6. Place two Agents per player at Frontier. Keep the other two Agents 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. Set each to its printed starting value.
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. Keep participating faction boards visible: their printed starting Trust determines Setup Collective Trust when resolving the World Ending.
9. Choose Initiative randomly and give that player the Initiative chip. Begin Era I.

Modular hex board

The board is one jurisdiction whose districts represent physical and operational proximity rather than ordinary distance. The shuffled map remains fixed for all four Eras. Rival pieces coexist; there is no combat or player elimination.

Build the jurisdiction

Use nineteen tiles in a complete radius-two hexagon:

• One Frontier
• Three Research Commons
• Three Compute Estate
• Two each of Human Access District, Consensus Network, Civic Permission Authority, and Thermal and Water Basin
• One each of Fabrication Corridor, Allocation Exchange, Workforce Transition District, and Power Corridor

Place Frontier at the center. Six operational districts form the complete inner ring. Twelve public districts form the complete outer ring. Every outer district touches its two outer neighbors and either one or two inner districts according to the printed wells. Adjacency governs infrastructure; Agent assignments do not trace paths.

Shuffle this operational ring around Frontier:

• One Research Commons
• One Compute Estate
• One Fabrication Corridor
• One Allocation Exchange
• One Workforce Transition District
• The Power Corridor

Shuffle this public ring among the twelve outer positions:

• Two Research Commons
• Two Compute Estate
• Two Human Access District
• Two Consensus Network
• Two Civic Permission Authority
• Two Thermal and Water Basin

These ring pools are fixed; shuffle tiles only within their listed ring. All copies of one named district are mechanically identical. Names, art, and flavor may distinguish copies, but visit effects, production, Facility spaces, and contract icons must remain identical.

Every piece placed on the board during setup begins at Frontier, the jurisdiction’s standing civic exception rather than property to be controlled. Agents may be reassigned directly to any district.

Every non-Frontier hex has a visit bonus, two Facility spaces, Facility production, and a control value used by Headlines and Mandates. Frontier has no Facility spaces and is never controlled. It is not a category for the hex-category Mandate. Once pieces leave it, positioning, Agents, local Power, and negotiated adjacency matter.

Presence and control

• Agent or Facility: one presence

The player with the most presence controls each non-Frontier hex. Ties mean nobody controls it. Frontier has no controller regardless of presence.

District effects

Resolve Frontier’s optional Runway after the Action, once per acting player assigned there. It does not modify the Action or create production or Mandate.

The two Energy-tile visit boxes are the complete ordinary Generator contracts. No separate Power Source reference cards are used. Each player may construct only one ordinary Generator. A Fusion-upgraded Facility is also a local Power source; its chip explains the effect.

2. Resources

Runway, Compute, and Capability

• Runway: money available to your institution.
• Compute: processing capacity spent on Research, Deployment, and projects.
• Power: electricity supply that keeps Facilities operating; it is a local connection condition, never currency.
• Capability: performance your institution has established and can deploy or present as evidence. Some gains reflect better systems; others reflect results accepted before their limitations become clear. Banked Capability stays on your track and 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 that earns permanent Mandate at printed thresholds, meets Headline and recognized AGI requirements, breaks final-score ties, absorbs penalties when Runway is empty, and contributes to 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.
• Two the first time Trust reaches two, four, and six.
• Printed Mandate from Headlines, Era Mandates and faction abilities.

Threshold awards are permanent; later losses do not reverse them. Move the Trust milestone cube forward when a new threshold scores, never backward. Regaining a threshold at or below that cube scores nothing. Its starting position includes thresholds already awarded in starting Mandate.

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 Mandate cube when that effect resolves.

Universal costs and caps

Apply resource caps immediately after any gain or trade:

• Runway: twelve
• Compute: ten

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.

3. 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 until the next Era.

The complete ordinary turn: ReAct — Reason → Act → Observe

1. Reveal one Headline and finish all its instructions and choices before selection.
2. Reason: everyone secretly selects an available, unlocked Core Action. Check card availability and Era unlocks only; costs and targets need not be legal yet.
3. Reveal selections simultaneously and resolve clockwise from Initiative.
4. Act: after the optional permitted trade, assign one of your Agents to any district, or leave it where it is. Choose the selected Action's mode, target, and payment using the current board, and resolve it there.
5. Observe: apply and inspect the consequences, then exhaust the Core Action. After all players resolve, pass Initiative clockwise and begin the next cycle using the changed world.

Agents as persistent assignments

An Agent represents committed presence and influence, remaining until reassigned. Rival Agents may coexist. Agents have no paths, movement allowance, or exhaustion rule. Any Agent can act on later turns. Recruiting expands presence, never actions.

Each faction starts with two Agents and has four in total. The CEO is a character on the faction board, with no separate playing piece or executive powers. Facilities and Generators cannot act; their placement and local connections still apply.

Effect precedence

The Era panel states which systems are unlocked. Resolve the Headline completely before selection. During an action, apply its effect, the destination bonus, and your faction's single permanent ability when applicable. No effect readies or resolves another Core Action. Build's two construction steps are one action.

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, personal project chips, and Faction abilities are open information.

Era I (Progress) covers baseline actions; Era II (Capacity) unlocks Generators and Mega-Clusters; Era III (Authority) unlocks Joint Ventures and Fusion; Era IV (Continuity) unlocks Quantum and optional public AGI recognition. Unlocked systems remain active.

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.

A committed Action that becomes blocked

Selection commits only the Action. At resolution, choose a legal Agent, district, mode, target, and payment after the optional pre-resolution trade. The selected card cannot be replaced. An earlier player may consume the space, contract pair, or other target you expected to use; adapt within the same Action.

If no legal effect remains, assign an Agent normally and exhaust the Action without effect or compensation. A speculative selection may therefore become only an assignment; it still consumes one of the Era's three action selections.

4. 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. A 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.

A repeated domain represents a run that has become too narrowly concentrated to support its claimed progress. Mirevanta's printed Scientific Method may pay Runway to bank a duplicate instead; charge only when that exception is used. Orisonix retains one revealed provisional Capability on a crash. A Research district grants one additional Capability on a successful bank, including Human Evaluation or Scientific Method banking; it grants none on a crash.

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

Construct up to one Facility, then up to one unlocked infrastructure project, paying each cost. Both use the acting Agent's district. A project is an ordinary Generator, Mega-Cluster, Fusion, or Quantum. Recheck requirements after placing the Facility. You may omit either step; resolve at least one construction if able. Exhaust Build once after completing both steps. There is no extra action, assignment, trade, or destination bonus between them.

Facility spaces, Generator slots, numbered Facility order, unlocked Eras, connected personal hosts, and ordinary Generator slots still apply. Choose a plan you can fully afford when Build resolves. A newly built connected Facility may receive its first unlocked upgrade in that same Build.

Power connections and delivery

All local Power in Mandate 2038 is positional, spatial, and immediate. There are no power points, transmission budgets, or allocation tokens. No Power is assigned, spent, or marked. A Facility is either connected (powered) or offline based on the current board state:

1. Facility 1 (Starting Grid): Facility 1 carries an integrated civic connection and is always powered, including after relocation.
2. Generators: Each player may construct one ordinary Generator (unlocks in Era II on an Energy hex). A Generator powers all Facilities you own on its own district and on all directly adjacent districts. Rival Generators never power your Facilities.
3. Fusion Demonstrator: In Era III, attaching the Fusion upgrade turns that host Facility into an independent local power source. It powers itself and your Facilities in the same or adjacent districts, without consuming a Generator slot.
4. Adjacency and Relocation: Power status is checked continuously on the current board whenever an action, Production, Headline, Joint Venture, Mega-Cluster, or scoring effect refers to “powered” or “connected.” Relocating a Facility into or out of an energy corridor changes its connection status immediately. Only Fusion-upgraded Facilities transmit Power; other Facilities do not.

Worked placement example: Suppose you own an emergency Generator on the Grid district:

• Connected: Facility 2 placed on Grid (same hex) or on any adjacent district is connected and produces during Production.
• Offline: Facility 3 two hexes away (not touching your Generator or Fusion host) is offline, producing nothing and unable to host a Mega-Cluster.
• Relocation: If Organize relocates Facility 3 into an adjacent district, it becomes connected immediately for all subsequent actions, Production, and scoring.

A Mega-Cluster operates only while its host Facility remains connected. Joint Ventures require both partner hosts to remain currently connected.

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 produces while connected by the local Power rule. 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.

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 effect is printed on its personal chip. No separate Power Source cards are used. Each player has one ordinary Generator, and each Energy hex still has three shared slots.

Civic Heat Battery

• Location: Thermal and Water Basin
• Cost: two Runway
• Connection: your Facilities on this hex or an adjacent hex
• Gain one Trust when constructed
• No recurring penalty

Emergency Power Complex

• Location: Power Corridor
• Cost: one Runway
• Connection: your Facilities on this hex or an adjacent hex
• Add one Scrutiny at Production only when serving at least one of your Facilities

Personal infrastructure upgrades

During Build, choose a connected Facility you own at your Agent assignment, pay 3 Runway and 1 Compute; add 1 Scrutiny, then flip and attach one unlocked personal project chip. Each institution builds each project once. Different projects may share a host; no project chain is required.

A Facility built earlier in the same Build can qualify. Distinct upgrades may share one host. Recheck cost, connection, ownership, unlock, and personal chip availability at resolution. Each project can be built once per institution; its Built chip remains attached through Audit or an outage. Move every attached chip when its Facility relocates. Fusion has no global limit, fixed location, Generator slot, or owner inscription. No project requires another project.

Organize

After assigning an Agent, choose one mode:

• Recruit: pay two Runway to deploy one Agent from supply to the acting Agent's district. Recruiting in Talent costs one less Runway. You may have no more than four deployed Agents. Recruitment grants no extra action or assignment.
• Relocate: move one of your Facilities from the acting Agent's district to an adjacent non-Frontier district with a legal open Facility space. It keeps its attachments and starting-grid designation. Recheck connections and contracts immediately. This mode costs no Runway.

Agents have no additional movement procedure.

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

Assign an Agent, 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 Agents and Facilities already on the board. The Influence Action creates no separate presence piece.

Contract hosts

Joint Ventures use shared matched chip pairs, one numbered half on each host. Each pair shows its construction Era by orienting the printed I–IV edge toward the host label. This preserves the current-Era objective without writing. A Facility may host multiple Joint Ventures, including between the same two Facilities, and any of its owner's personal upgrades. Each venture resolves independently; the shared Joint Venture pair supply remains its limit.

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.

5. Era sequence

A. Begin the Era

• Move the Current Era chip 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.
• Keep the Mandate visible. Set its cube record to the printed starting resource value when requested, otherwise zero. Update only the named historical value; evaluate current-state objectives directly from the board at scoring.
• Ready all six Core Actions.

B. Three action cycles

At the beginning of each cycle:

1. Reveal a Headline, resolve all its instructions and choices, and place it in the current Era’s Future Timeline row. Its effect is finished.
2. Reason: everyone secretly selects one available, unlocked Core Action. Reveal simultaneously.
3. Act: resolve clockwise from Initiative. After the optional immediate trade, assign one Agent to any district or leave it in place. Choose legal targets and pay costs using the current board, then resolve the selected action.
4. Observe: apply the consequences and exhaust the action, even if no legal effect was possible. Observation adds no separate decision or reward.
5. After everyone has acted, pass Initiative clockwise.

Resource exchange: fixed one-for-one

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' track cubes immediately after acceptance.

The selected Action remains committed whether the offer is accepted or rejected. Check affordability and targets after the trade; a successful trade may make a speculative selection resolvable. The exchange is permitted even if the selected Action remains blocked and resolves only as an Agent assignment. There is no post-action trade window.

Resource exchanges require no Influence Action. Influence offers lobbying effects and is the only Core Action that creates persistent Joint Ventures. Other actions and Headlines can also change Trust.

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. Production

Apply any permanent faction Production ability first. Use the current board's visible connections; no allocation choices or Power cubes are needed. Resolve each step for all players before continuing, in Initiative order unless specified otherwise:

1. Apply recurring Scrutiny for each emergency Generator serving at least one Facility.
2. Produce each connected Facility, then Customer income, then active connected personal upgrades. Apply caps after each gain.
3. Produce active Joint Ventures in ascending contract-number order.

An Era Mandate counting Compute produced counts printed output before the cap, including Facilities, personal upgrades, and Joint Ventures. Immediate Facility production outside this sequence does not count toward that Production total.

When Talent produces, reassign one of your Agents using the normal assignment rule: choose any district or leave it in place. Update presence immediately. This resolves no Action or visit bonus and exhausts nothing. A Joint Venture still grants only its host's printed contract icon, not that host's full production.

D. Optional AGI recognition, Era IV only

Offer the public qualification and payment described under Recognized AGI to every institution. Add declaration Scrutiny before the final Audit. In Eras I–III, continue directly to the Audit; there is no end-of-Era AGI bookkeeping.

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.

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

Round 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. Reset the objective cube when the next Mandate is revealed. A starting-resource record stays fixed: compare the final resource with that starting value. Other history records track the named total, best run, or Yes/No status. For new active Joint Ventures, inspect their printed Era edges and current connections during Production; no additional record is needed.

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

6. Four-Era progression

Era I — Progress

• Three turns per player
• Only Core Actions
• Beneficial or mildly disruptive Headlines

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

Era II — Capacity

Build now also permits:

• Generators
• Mega-Clusters

Era III — Authority

Joint Ventures and Fusion now enter play. Previously unlocked infrastructure remains available.

Era IV — Continuity

Build may construct Quantum. Earlier projects remain available. Public AGI recognition is offered after Production. All factions retain the same permanent ability they had at setup.

Recognized AGI

After Era IV Production, before the final Audit, each institution with at least 9 Capability, 2 currently powered Facilities, and 4 Trust may pay 3 Compute to declare recognized AGI. It immediately gains 4 Mandate and adds 2 Scrutiny before the Audit.

Every qualifying institution may declare once, in Initiative order, or decline. This uses no Action and creates no deferred payment. Recognition remains recorded if the subsequent Audit reduces Trust. The fixed award does not vary by Headline.

“Recognized AGI” means the world accepts an institutional claim under the game's public criteria. It does not decide whether general intelligence metaphysically exists. Recognition sets one axis of the separate World Ending.

7. Final scoring

Earned Mandate, including any AGI award, is already on the public track. Do not score it again. After the final Audit and Era Mandate:

1. Read the twelve Headlines in the Future Timeline, Era by Era.
2. Lose one Mandate per currently offline Facility, to a minimum score of zero.
3. The institution with the most final Mandate wins. Break ties by higher Trust, then more Customers, then more Compute. A complete tie is a joint victory.
4. Determine and read the separate shared World Ending.

There is no second winner procedure. Facilities and control give no additional endgame score unless a printed effect already awarded it.

The shared World Ending

Use two independent public results:

• Recognized AGI: at least one institution paid for AGI recognition after Era IV Production. Audit losses do not revoke it.
• Open continuity: final Collective Trust is at least Setup Collective Trust plus the player count, and unresolved Systemic Risk after the final Audit is strictly lower than the player count. Both conditions must hold.

If either continuity condition fails, the ending is Closed. Recognition does not itself make continuity Open. The four endings describe accepted claims and institutional continuity, not a hidden verdict on whether intelligence exists.

The institutional winner and the civilization's outcome are distinct.

Rules Reference

8. Printed card authorities

Faction boards, Governance Board Era panels, map-tile Power contracts, Core Action cards, personal project chips, Mandate cards, Training cards, player aids, and Headline cards are rules components. Resolve the text printed on the matching card, board, or player aid. Printed text changes only the field or timing it names; it does not create an unprinted phase or additional Action. Each Faction has one permanent ability available from setup.

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. It modifies one familiar action or Production. It requires no separate use marker, frequency record, or refresh. Every faction uses the same public Mandate scoring.

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. Finish every printed instruction and choice, including any immediate production, before selecting actions. Resolve choices in Initiative order unless the card says otherwise. Then leave it face up in its Era row as history, with no continuing rules effect. Three per Era form the twelve-card Future Timeline.

When a Headline resolves a Facility's printed production, resolve only that currently connected Facility. Talent uses its normal immediate Agent reassignment. Do not produce Customers, Generators, personal upgrades, Joint Ventures, or faction Production income unless explicitly instructed. No Core Action resolves.

These four panels are printed on the Governance Board. Move the Current Era chip between them; no separate Era cards are used. The board prints the Era name, epigraph, rules, and unlock text.

Each player receives one foldout containing the following three panels: the turn sequence, local Power, and public Mandate.

Use all twenty-four Headlines in their printed Era decks. Resolve the listed procedure and rules text.

9. Map and component reference

The following sections list the supported inventory, deck contracts, and component states. Exact effects appear on the cards and boards.

Pack three component families in the labelled trays and Era packets:

Chips are small durable cards. Maps and boards are printed surfaces; the bag is an accessory. Trust milestones and AGI recognition use cubes; projects flip.

Shared Governance Board

The box includes one rigid folding Governance Board. It is the public table organizer and modular-map frame, not a fixed printed map.

It provides:

• one center well, six inner-ring wells, and twelve outer-ring wells for the nineteen district tiles;
• four printed Era panels, Headline wells, Mandate wells, a Current Era path, and twelve Future Timeline positions;
• a shared Mandate track, Initiative position, and reusable objective tracks;
• printed AGI recognition spaces and the World Ending comparison;
• six numbered Joint Venture pair bays; and
• staging for the Audit bag, Scrutiny, Systemic Risk, and unused contract pairs.

The Grid and Renewable tiles print ordinary Power contracts. Fusion's effect is printed on each personal chip. Tile wells retain pieces but create no extra rules state.

One prepacked faction tray per player

Each of the six trays contains:

• 1 faction board with five numbered tracks: Runway, Compute, Capability, Customers, and Trust; a highest-Trust-milestone track, objective track, and AGI recognition spaces
• 5 faction-coloured track cubes, one per numbered faction track
• 4 Agents (position tokens)
• 4 Facilities as flat chips, numbered 1–4
• 1 Generator chip
• 1 integrated starting-grid identifier on Facility 1; Facilities are constructed in number order
• 10 Scrutiny cubes
• 1 Mandate cube
• 1 Trust milestone cube
• 1 objective progress cube
• 1 AGI recognition cube
• 3 two-sided personal project chips: Mega-Cluster, Fusion, Quantum
• 6 Core Action cards
• 1 three-panel foldout player aid

Generators do not count against the Facility limit.

Shared components

• 1 Governance Board
• 19 district tiles: Frontier, six operational, and twelve public
• 1 Current Era chip
• 24 Headline cards; reveal 12 per game
• 12 Mandate cards; reveal 4 per game
• 40 Training cards
• 6 matched Joint Venture chip pairs
• 18 Systemic Risk cubes, tactually identical to Scrutiny while concealed
• 1 opaque Audit bag
• 1 Initiative chip

The six faction trays supply six Mandate cubes and six player aids. Choose two through five factions for a game; leave every unchosen tray in the box.

Each institution has its own projects. Only Joint Ventures draw from a shared pair supply. Personal project chips are never reserved for another institution.

Setup packaging

The insert provides six labelled faction trays, four labelled Era packets, one Training well and one shared contract well. Era packets contain 6 / 6 / 6 / 6 Headlines plus three Mandates each.

Standard cards and foldout count

The game contains 112 standard cards plus 6 foldout player aids:

• 36 Core Actions
• 24 Headlines
• 12 Mandates
• 40 Training cards
• 6 foldout player aids

The chip quantities are listed in the faction and shared inventories above; chips are not additional standard deck cards. Printed Era panels and Power contracts are part of the Governance Board, tiles, and personal project chips.

Excluded deferred content

The supported box does not require Tactics, Secret Objectives, Specialists, or Patrons.

Production form

Use one cube per numbered resource or score track, never in the Audit bag. Scrutiny and Systemic Risk retain individual cubes to preserve draw probabilities.

Facilities and Generators use separate flat chips with distinct symbols and faction identities. Read Power from Generator adjacency and Facility 1's starting-grid identifier; no Power cubes, allocation surface, or powered/unpowered flipping is required. Board dimensions, fold pattern, material and retention tolerances remain manufacturing decisions.

Deck contracts

Training deck: 40 cards

• Four copies of each of seven domains: 28
• Four Curated Corpus
• Four Benchmark Leak
• Four Human Evaluation

Discard every revealed card after a run. If the deck empties, resolve the current card, shuffle the discard, and continue.

Headline decks

Each Era deck contains every card for that Era. Reveal three each Era. Leave every resolved card face up in its Era row to form the twelve-card Future Timeline.

Personal project chips

Keep unbuilt personal chips Available side up. Build flips one to Built and attaches it to its host. Requirements are common; costs and benefits are printed on the two faces. The eighteen chips are three per faction, not shuffled cards.

Defined markers and effects

• Remove Scrutiny: return up to the stated number of your cubes from the Audit bag.
• Connected/powered: Facility 1 is always powered. Other Facilities require an own Generator or Fusion host on the same or an adjacent district. Evaluate connections on the current board.
• Current Mandate: keep the objective card visible. For a history-dependent objective, reset and use its printed cube record. Evaluate current-state objectives directly from visible pieces.
• Recognized AGI: move that institution’s recognition cube to Recognized after payment. It remains there through Audit.
• Offline recovery: an infrastructure change can immediately reconnect a Facility. Facilities never flip.

Document record

Rules version: 0.12.0-rc.10-test Design-baseline date: July 26, 2026 Status: Controlled playtest candidate; synchronized with executable game 0.21.4 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