Campaign Trail: Dirty Politics Module
Campaign Trail: Dirty Politics Module Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Supplement: Dirty Politics
Dirty Politics is an optional supplement that can be purchased directly from www.GreyFoxGames.com.
The Dirty Politics module is a way to add a more cutthroat attacking style of play. If you do not want this style of play you can remove the Dirty Politics cards from the deck before setup.
The Dirty Politics cards have the same basic structure of other action cards, however the actions work in slightly different ways. Each Dirty Politics action will give you the opportunity to attack your opponent(s) by removing registered voters, war chest funds, or committed voters.
A Dirty Politics action card differs from a standard action card in three ways:
- The background color is different.
- The action icons have a different lettering scheme.
- There are no debate issue icons on the Dirty Politics cards. Instead they are identified as Dirty Politics in that space.
Some of the Dirty Politics actions affect ethically minded states. When a card or rule refers to "your ethically minded states" it is referring to those states that are marked with the ethics icon corresponding to your party.
Ethically Minded State: Ethically minded states are those states that are concerned with a particular candidate's ethical behavior. Each party has their own unique ethically minded states.
They are marked on the board with the following icons (in each party color) to the upper right of the state banner.
The five ethically minded states for each party are:
- Democrat: Maryland (MD), Massachusetts (MA), New Jersey (NJ), Connecticut (CT), Washington (WA).
- Libertarian: North Carolina (NC), Virginia (VA), Colorado (CO), Minnesota (MN), Oregon (OR).
- Republican: Georgia (GA), Kentucky (KY), MIssouri (MO), Arizona (AZ), Alabama (AL).
Each Dirty Politics action corresponds to — and is a subset of — the actions on the standard action cards. While these actions have a different name to make them easily distinguishable, they still count as the action they are a subset of for the purposes of politick actions that refer to players playing certain types of actions.
Example: A player who plays a smear campaign action is also playing a campaign action, a player who plays a mudslinging action is also playing an advertise action, and a player who plays a dirty tricks action is also playing a politick action.
Voter Suppression (VS)
Voter suppression is the act of moving around among the states and threatening or intimidating voters from other parties. You will move your pawn and remove opponents' voters from the state in which you end your movement.
Voter suppression actions all contain an indicator of how many states you may move as well as the number of voters you remove from the state in which you end your movement. To take a voter suppression action, move your candidate pawn up to the number of states indicated, then remove voters (from any party) equal to the amount shown on the gray cube icon from the state where you end your movement.
If a voter suppression action contains a plane, you may move to any city then remove voters from that city.
Flip Contributors (FC)
Flip contributors is the act of convincing your opponents' financial backers to support your candidacy instead. You will be taking the money that they earned from their contributors.
Flip contributors actions all contain a number to indicate how much money you take from your opponent. To take a flip contributors action pick a party and take money from their war chest equal to the number shown on the action.
Sway Minds (SM)
Sway minds is the act of convincing potential voters to switch their party registration. You will take your opponent's registered voters through trickery and deceit.
Sway minds actions all contain a number to indicate how many registered voters you take from your opponent. To take a sway minds action pick a party, they must discard registered voters equal to the number shown on the action, then you gain registered voters equal to the number shown on the action.
Mudslinging (Ms)
Mudslinging on your opponents, using radio and tv ads, will convince their voters to abandon their campaign. Mudslinging is one of the Dirty Politics actions that will take voters off the board.
Mudslinging actions contain a list of issues under the mudslinging icon. These are the issues that you can remove voters from, however you will pay for the action a little differently. To take a mudslinging action you need to perform the following:
- You must "pay" (discard to undecided voter supply) 2 voters from among your ethically minded states per issue in which you want to mudsling (you may choose any number of the issues shown on the card).
- For each issue you pay for you remove 2 voters (from any party) from each state showing that issue and return them to the undecided voter supply.
Smear Campaign (SC)
Running a smear campaign in a local area is a great way to convince voters to stop supporting your opponent. Smear campaign is one of the Dirty Politics actions that will take voters off the board.
Smear campaign actions contain a list of states under the smear campaign icon. These are the states that you can remove voters from, however you will pay for the action a little differently. To take a smear campaign action you need to perform the following:
- Your candidate pawn must be located in one of the states listed under the smear campaign icon.
- You must discard 4 voters from among your ethically minded states.
- You may remove up to 8 voters (from any party) from the states shown under the campaign icon (they are placed back in the undecided voter supply).
Dirty Tricks (DT)
Dirty tricks provide you a variety of ways to affect your opponents and mess up their plans. Dirty tricks is a miscellaneous action that can remove voters from the board or provide an ongoing attack.
There are two types of dirty tricks actions: Instant and Ongoing. There are no response dirty tricks actions. To take a dirty tricks action, carry out the text on the card. See Appendix B on page 20 of the base rulebook for more information on specific dirty tricks actions.
Example cards (Dirty Tricks): The following printed card texts are illustrated on this page.
- Scandal (Card #107): Each opposing party loses 3 registered voters and removes 1 voter from each of its ethically minded states OR pays you $60M (their choice).
- Favorite Son (Card #110): Each time you play a card with your home state colored on it, place 1 of your voters from the undecided voter supply there.
Dirty Politics Example
In a 3-party game, Ben is playing the Republicans, Jordan is playing the Libertarians, and Lauren is playing the Democrats.
It is the Libertarian turn. Jordan remembers that Lauren made him pay extra for his campaign action so he wants to retaliate. He plays Card #108 and takes a smear campaign action. He must remove 4 voters from his ethically minded states. He chooses to remove 3 from NC and 1 from OR. He then removes 6 Democrat voters and 2 Republican voters from CA and takes CA away from Lauren.
Next comes the Democrat turn. Lauren has just lost CA and unfortunately cannot do a whole lot right now. She was planning on traveling this turn to set herself up for a campaign action. She plays card #112 and takes the voter suppression action. At least she will be able to affect Jordan a little bit. She moves her candidate pawn one state into NY and then removes 2 Libertarian voters from NY.
Now the Republican has a turn. Ben wants to get in on the Dirty Politics action as well. He plays card #106 and takes the mudslinging action. He doesn't want to lose 8 voters from his ethically minded states so he chooses to only use two of the issues (Gender Equality and Health Care). He pays with 4 total voters from his ethically minded states (1 from AL, 2 from GA, and 1 from KY). He then removes 1 voter from each opposing party from CA (Gender Equality); and 2 Libertarian voters from FL, 1 each from ND, and 2 Democrat voters from HI (Health Care).