Campaign Manager 2008
Campaign Manager 2008 Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 2 sets of 45 Campaign Strategy cards (red for McCain and blue for Obama). Each card shows a Card Type, Card Title, Instruction Text, a "Going Negative" icon (where applicable), Demographic Notes, and a Beginner Star (where applicable).
- 1 deck of 20 Breaking News event cards, each showing Instruction Text and a Card Title.
- 1 scoring track.
- 20 scoring tiles (blue side shown on one face; all scoring tiles are red on the reverse).
- 2 sets of 12 Support markers (red for McCain and blue for Obama).
- 1 "Going Negative" die.
- 1 "Going Negative" results chart.
- 4 Issue markers.
- 4 Key Demographic markers.
- 20 Battleground State tiles (explained in detail in the Anatomy of a State section).
Anatomy of a State
Each Battleground State tile represents a specific state and indicates the number of electoral votes (victory points) which will go to the player who wins that state. At any given time, there will be 4 states in play; as each is won, it is replaced by another until all have been brought into play or someone has won the game.
Each state features two rows of colored circles which run along the top and bottom of the card, representing blocks of Voters. The color of the Voters indicates which candidate they currently support, with red circles being supporters of McCain, blue circles being Obama supporters, and white circles being Undecided Voters. The row at the top of the card (adjacent to the Defense symbol) reflects the opinions of voters in the state if they have decided that Defense is the most important issue in the election. The row at the bottom (adjacent to the Economy symbol) reflects their opinions if they have decided instead that Economy is most important.
This sentiment is indicated by the four-space Issue Track which runs along the left side of the card. An Issue marker is moved up and down the track as the leaning of the state's electorate shifts, and it is swiveled to match the outline of the track space it occupies. Whichever issue (Defense or Economy) a state's Issue marker points to is termed the current majority issue in that state, and the other is termed the minority issue.
Example: New Jersey's Issue marker starts in the indicated space, which points towards the Economy symbol. Therefore, when this state enters play, Economy is the majority issue there, and Defense is the minority issue.
Each state also has two demographic groups. At any given moment, one of these two will be marked with a Key Demographic marker to indicate that it is currently the key demographic in that state. The current key demographic in a state may be targeted to win over that state's Undecided Voters. The other demographic group has no effect.
Example: New Jersey's Key Demographic marker starts in the indicated space. Therefore, when this state enters play, Clinton Democrats are the key demographic there.
Each state card also shows the State Name, number of Voters, a Defense Symbol, an Economy Symbol, the number of Electoral Votes, the State Abbreviation, its Demographic Groups (a key symbol indicates where the Key Demographic marker starts), and, for the four recommended starting states, a Beginner Star.
Getting Started
1) Build Your Campaign Decks
While each player has a supply of 45 Campaign Strategy cards, only 15 of these will be used in any individual game. The first step, therefore, is for each player to select the 15 cards which will make up his own Campaign Deck for the current game. This is done through a drafting process as described below.
For a player's first game of Campaign Manager, it is recommended to use the preconstructed decks which have been designed to introduce novice players to the game. These cards are identified with a small star icon. This will give players an opportunity to learn the relative strengths of the different types of cards before diving into the deck-building process. Players may feel free to ignore this recommendation and dive straight in, however, if they prefer!
Each player shuffles his 45 cards, then draws and secretly examines 3 of them (draw and examine 3 cards from your main deck). Of these 3 cards, he must select one to keep and set the other two aside face-down, out of the game (keep 1, remove the others from the game). The player then repeats this process of drawing 3 cards at a time, keeping one and setting the remainder aside, until he has gone through all 45 of his cards (repeat the process until the main deck is gone and you have a 15-card Campaign Deck). The 15 cards each player chooses to keep will make up his Campaign Deck for the current game; the 30 he sets aside will not be used and may be returned to the game box.
Once both players have built 15-card Campaign Decks in this manner, they should shuffle their decks face-down and draw a 3-card starting hand with which they will begin the game (shuffle your Campaign Deck and draw a 3-card starting hand). Players keep their hands hidden from each other during the game.
2) Choose Your Starting States
Next, each player takes the 10 state tiles with his color and logo on the back, and privately selects two of them to be in play at the beginning of the game. When both players are ready, the four chosen states are revealed and placed face-up between the players; the rest may be set aside until needed later. Place the Issue markers and Key Demographic markers in the indicated starting positions on each state.
When playing with the preconstructed starting decks, new players should select the four starting states identified with a small star icon: Florida, Michigan, Missouri, and New Jersey.
3) Shuffle the Breaking News Deck
Shuffle the Breaking News event cards and place them face-down near the states in play to form a deck. (Cards will be drawn from this deck and resolved as new states enter play.)
Playing the Game
The first player to finish building his Campaign Strategy deck may go first. When playing with the preconstructed starting decks, the player closest to his 18th birthday (his date of voter eligibility) may go first.
Play alternates between the two players. On his turn, a player must either:
a) Play a card from his hand. When a card is played, the instructions on the card are followed. Most cards are then placed on the player's discard pile at the end of the turn. The exceptions to this are Media Support cards, which remain face-up in play until another Media Support card is played, causing the older card to be replaced and moved to the owning player's discard pile.
or b) Draw a card from his deck. If a player already has 5 or more cards in his hand, however, he may not choose to draw a card (although he may still play cards which grant additional cards). Apart from this restriction, there is no hand size limit.
Reshuffling
If a player wishes to draw a card but has no cards remaining in his Campaign Deck, his discard pile is first reshuffled to form a new deck. If this occurs in the midst of a player's turn, any cards played earlier on that turn should not be shuffled into the new deck.
Gaining Support
When a card (or event, or Going Negative result) indicates that a player gains a point of Support in a particular issue in a state, this means one Voter on the side of the state associated with that issue switches to that player's color. This can be accomplished in any of three ways (in the examples below, McCain is the current player):
- Players may place a token of their own color onto a Voter spot of their opponent's color.
- They may remove a token of their opponent's color from a Voter spot of their own color.
- They may replace a token of their opponent's color that's on a white spot with a token of their own color.
All of these actions are equivalent, and it doesn't matter which method players use – all result in a Voter of their opponent's color being replaced with one of their own. (Note: Players are much less likely to run short of Support markers if they remove tokens whenever possible rather than adding new ones.)
If the opposing player has no Voters to be taken away, the player may instead place one of his tokens on an unoccupied white spot (an Undecided Voter). These Undecided Voter spots will ordinarily be the last Voters claimed unless affected by a Demographic Support card or a Breaking News event.
Note that once either player has placed a Support marker onto an Undecided Voter spot, it is no longer an Undecided Voter and will never again become one. While a token on one of these spots might be replaced by one belonging to the opposing player, it will never be removed entirely.
If all of the Voters for an issue are already the player's color, gaining Support in that issue in the same state has no further effect.
Shifting a State Toward an Issue
When a card (or event, or Going Negative result) indicates that a player may shift a state toward a particular issue, the state's Issue marker is moved the indicated number of spaces in the specified direction. If the marker is already in the furthest track position in that direction, additional shifts in that direction have no further effect.
The term majority issue refers to the issue (Defense or Economy) that the Issue marker currently points to; the term minority issue refers to the other issue.
Example: The current majority issue in this state is Defense. The active player plays a card which allows him to shift the Issue Track in a single state 1 space towards Economy. He does so, and swivels the marker to match the space it now occupies. Since the marker now points towards the Economy symbol, Economy becomes this state's majority issue.
Altering the Key Demographic in a State
When a card (or event, or Going Negative result) indicates that a player may alter the key demographic in a state, the state's Key Demographic marker is shifted to the other demographic, making it the new key demographic in the state.
Example: The current key demographic in this state is College Graduates. The active player plays a card which allows him to alter the key demographic in a single state. He moves the marker to the other position, and Catholics become the key demographic for this state.
The key demographic in a state is significant when Demographic Support cards are played from a player's hand. These cards make Undecided Voters in all in-play states with a particular key demographic give their support to the player. Note that states where that demographic appears but where it is not the key demographic are not affected. Furthermore, Undecided Voters who have already given their support to a candidate are also unaffected.
Example: McCain plays the "Divided We Fail" Demographic Support card, which affects all states with Seniors as the key demographic. Colorado is the only such state in play, so the three Undecided Voters in the state become Red Voters.
Discarding Cards for Effect
Some cards indicate that a player may discard additional cards from their hand to gain some effect. These cards may not be played without discarding the required number of cards. Of course, if a card indicates that a player may discard "any number" of cards, zero is a legal choice.
Similarly, a Campaign Strategy card may be played even though it has no effect, in order to remove the card from your hand and progress the turn.
Going Negative
Some cards feature a large die icon. These cards represent "negative campaigning" that has a chance of causing a minor backlash against the player. Whenever a player elects to Go Negative by playing one of these cards, he must roll a die at the end of his turn and consult the results chart to determine the effect, in the form of a bonus granted to the opposing player. The opposing player may then apply the bonus.
Winning a State
If at any time all of the Voters on the majority issue side of a state are in support of a single candidate (i.e., all the Voters on the side currently pointed at by the Issue marker are either red or blue), that player immediately wins the state and claims its scoring tile, placing it on his scoring track with his own color showing.
Claimed scoring tiles are laid out end to end in a row along the scoring track starting from the far left. (Note that Obama has two electoral votes pre-printed on his scoring track; the player representing him should be careful to line up any scoring tiles with these (not directly against the edge of the track) so as not to "lose credit" for these two votes.)
Example: Early in the game, McCain has already won Oregon (OR) and Iowa (IA), so those scoring markers are already on his scoring track displaying a score of 169. Obama wins Virginia (VA), so takes that scoring tile and places it blue-side-up on his own scoring track as shown (remembering to not cover up his 2 pre-printed votes); Obama squeaks into the lead with 170 votes!
Winning a state (along with the accompanying steps described below) occurs immediately when a player achieves the necessary support, before rolling the die for Going Negative. If multiple states are won simultaneously, each is resolved one at a time as described below, in the order desired by the current player.
Bringing New States Into Play
Whenever a player wins a state, that state is removed from play and replaced with a new state from those which have not yet been brought into the game (all such states are eligible; the color/logo on the backs is only relevant during starting setup). The player who won the state chooses which new state will be brought in, even if it is currently the opposing player's turn. If all states have already been brought into play, no further states can be added and the game will continue with a reduced number of states in play. The Issue and Key Demographic markers from the old state are placed into the indicated spaces on the new one, and all Support markers from the old state return to their owners.
Example: As seen above, Obama has won Virginia. He removes the Virginia tile from play, returning the Support markers there to the appropriate owner. Next he decides which state he wants to replace it with, and settles on Nevada. He puts the Nevada tile in the space vacated by Virginia, and positions the Issue and Key Demographic markers in their indicated spots.
Breaking News
Every time a new state is brought into play (not counting the four starting states), a card is drawn from the Breaking News deck and resolved (by following its instruction text). By default, this event affects the new state which just entered the game, unless the effect of a Media Support card dictates otherwise. If multiple states are being brought into play, an event is drawn and resolved for each one as it is added, before introducing the next. Once resolved, Breaking News cards are removed from the game.
It is possible that a Breaking News event might result in additional states being won by one player or the other. As in any case when multiple states have been won, the current player may decide the order in which they are resolved.
Winning the Game
Each candidate comes into the game with a slightly different number of electoral votes already "locked up" in non-battleground states. Therefore, each player needs a slightly different number of additional votes to achieve the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the election. McCain requires 115 additional votes to win; Obama needs another 113 votes. (This perceived advantage is offset by McCain's entering the game with a slight edge in battleground states worth a few more total votes than those favoring Obama.)
During the game, players will be filling up their scoring tracks with scoring tiles as they win states. If a player claims sufficient scoring tiles to extend his collection far enough to reach or pass the 270 mark, he immediately wins the game!
Example: It's been a hard-fought battle with both candidates winning many states and securing a good number of Electoral Votes. The current score is McCain 258, Obama 263. It all comes down to the final battleground state of Ohio. Through some shrewd campaigning, McCain manages to win the state! Ohio's scoring tile puts McCain clearly past the 270 votes needed to win the election with a final total of 278. Thanks to the great work of his Campaign Manager, McCain has won the election!
In the event that the game ends with neither player having reached the necessary 270 votes (i.e., both players have exactly 269 electoral votes), the election is too close to call. While in real life this would be only the beginning of a long adventure in recounts and Supreme Court deliberations, for game purposes the players should consider this rare eventuality a draw.
Credits and Acknowledgements
Game Design: Christian Leonhard & Jason Matthews
Graphic Design: Joshua Cappel
The authors would like to dedicate this game to the memory of Franz-Benno Delonge, a wonderful game designer who left us far too soon. Campaign Manager 2008 was inspired by an unpublished design of his which used a similar two-tracked "support" mechanism.
Published by Z-Man Games Inc., 6 Alan Drive, Mahopac, NY 10541. For any comments, questions, suggestions, please contact [email protected] — www.zmangames.com