Mobbing: Reine Chefsache Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
  • Setup for 5–6 Players
• Turn Sequence
• Card Types
  • Lobby Cards
  • Special Lobby Cards
• Boss's Chair and Victory
• Scoring
  • 1. Scoring Your Own References
  • 2. Scoring on the Supervisory Board
• Mobbing Cards
  • Special Mobbing Cards
• Mobbing Cards with "Sofort" Action (R)
• Game End
• Variants
  • 1. "DREI bzw. VIER Anwärter!" ("THREE or FOUR applicants!")
  • 2. "Spontan"! ("Spontaneous!")
  • 3. "EXTRA-MOBBING!"
  • 4. "Der spezielle Aufsichtsrat!" ("The special supervisory board!") (for 4–6 players)

Components

The game contains 150 cards:

• 72 Lobby cards: 12 in each of six colours, with the values 1, 1, 1.5, 2, 2, 2.5, 3, 3, plus one each of the x2, "Echt schade!", "Einwand!" and "Umgestimmt!" cards.
• 67 Mobbing cards.
• 5 extra Mobbing cards (for a variant).
• 5 supervisory board ("Aufsichtsrat") cards, printed on both sides.
• 1 boss card ("Chefkarte", also called the company boss).

Setup

Setup for 5–6 Players

(For 3–4 players, see Variants.)

First, place the 5 supervisory board members (without numerical value) in a row in the middle of the table. The boss card sits centred above the supervisory board. The 5 extra Mobbing cards (identified by their card backs) are set aside. The remaining Mobbing cards, except the "Der Chef ist gestorben!" ("The boss has died!") cards, are shuffled, divided into two equal face-down piles, and placed to the right and left of the supervisory board. Then the "The boss has died!" cards are shuffled into the right-hand pile.

Each player receives:

• 12 Lobby cards of one colour. From these, the player chooses three Lobby cards as their hand. The remaining Lobby cards may be put into any order and form the player's own face-down draw pile.
• Three Mobbing cards, drawn from the left face-down Mobbing pile.

Memo: in the first game, the Betriebsrat (works council) recommends drawing 3 Lobby cards at random as the hand and placing the remaining Lobby cards as a face-down pile in random order in front of you.

Turn Sequence

The most experienced player begins the game.

In turn, players take it in turns to play one or two cards and then draw two cards. It is allowed to play and draw both Lobby and Mobbing cards, or a combination of both. A player who plays no card may not draw a card either.

Memo: for Mobbing cards, the left draw pile must be used up first.

Card Types

There are two different card types.

Lobby Cards

With Lobby cards, a player tries to influence a supervisory board member in order to secure that member's vote. Whoever reaches the highest Lobby value at one supervisory board member receives that member's vote.

Lobby cards are played face down onto one of the five supervisory board cards (or onto the Lobby cards already lying there). If a new Lobby card is played onto a still face-down Lobby card, the previously played Lobby card is turned face up.

Exception: the cards "Umgestimmt!" and "Einwand!" are not played face down but face up, so that they can carry out their action.

Each supervisory board member can have a row of at most six Lobby cards played to it.

Special Lobby Cards

• "x2": This card doubles the total value of the player's own Lobby cards lying in that row. Example: at game end, Edwin has the cards 2, 1 and x2 at Tom Bola and so achieves a Lobby value of 6.
• "Einwand!" (Objection!): With this card, its player may immediately remove the last card from one supervisory board row from the game. The Einwand card goes back into the game box. This card is always played face up.
• "Echt schade!" (Really too bad!): The card played immediately after this card is removed from the game at once, together with the "Echt schade!" card, and goes into the box. This card is always played face down.
• "Umgestimmt!" (Won over!): When a player plays this card, they must swap two Lobby cards between two supervisory board members. Only two face-up cards or two face-down cards may be swapped. Afterwards the Umgestimmt card goes into the box. This card is always played face up.

Boss's Chair and Victory

The new boss of the company is the player who has a positive reference (at least +1) and the most votes on the supervisory board.

To take the boss's post, a player needs at least one vote from a supervisory board member. If votes are tied, the better reference decides. If there is still no clear decision, there are from now on several bosses in the company: the boss's chair is exchanged for a boss's sofa.

Memo: players with a negative or neutral reference never make it to the boss's chair!

Example: Edwin and Raphael both have the most votes on the supervisory board (each has the majority at two supervisory board members). Edwin, however, has the better reference and therefore wins the boss's chair. Harald has the best reference, but with only one vote on the supervisory board he is one vote short of victory.

Scoring

Two scorings take place.

1. Scoring Your Own References

All Mobbing cards lying in front of each player are now scored. Positive cards are offset against negative cards. A player who then has a positive reference is on the right track and stays in the game. A player with a negative or neutral reference is out of the game.

Example: Raphael has Mobbing cards worth +1, +1, +1, +2, +2, +3 = +10 and -1, -2, -3, -3 = -9 lying in front of him. He therefore has a reference of +1. Frank achieved a reference of +2 with his Mobbing cards. The affair with the boss's girlfriend (-3) would have given him a negative reference at the end, but through the boss's death this Mobbing card is not scored. Edwin also comes to a reference of +2, and Harald to a reference of +4. Stephan unfortunately has a reference of -3 and is therefore out of the game.

2. Scoring on the Supervisory Board

For each supervisory board member, the Lobby value of the existing Lobby cards of one colour is now determined. Face-down Lobby cards are turned face up, and Lobby cards of players without a positive reference are removed from the game. The player with the highest Lobby value at a supervisory board member receives one vote from that member. If Lobby values are tied, each of those players receives one vote.

Example at one supervisory board member: Edwin achieves a Lobby value of 6 (2+1+ bonus x2) at Tom Bola, which Raphael (1+2+3) also reaches at Tom Bola. Both players therefore receive one vote from Tom Bola.

Mobbing Cards

Mobbing cards are played face up, and announced with the card's text, in front of any player of your choice. All played Mobbing cards must be visible to the other players at all times.

Cards with a black number are "good references". They are scored positively at game end. A player can use these cards for themselves by placing them in front of themselves. A positive reference is ultimately required in order to become the new boss!

Cards with a red number are "bad references". They are scored negatively at game end. These Mobbing cards should be placed in front of the other players, in order to put them in a bad light!

Special Mobbing Cards

• "ODER" cards ("OR" cards): These cards can be used both negatively and positively. Once laid down, they may not be turned. They keep the property chosen by the player who played them, even when they land in front of a new player. Memo: in the "Spontan" variant, all "ODER" cards may take their action (A) spontaneously.
• "Der Chef ist gestorben!" ("The boss has died!"): This card is contained three times in the game in total and is placed directly next to the boss card. Memo: the first "The boss has died!" card is only a rumour. Its player may immediately draw two additional Mobbing cards from the pile. With the second "The boss has died!" card, the boss has really died. The boss card is turned face down and the game ends immediately. All Mobbing cards connected with the boss's death now receive a new weighting.

Mobbing Cards with "Sofort" Action (R)

These cards are a reaction (R) to a currently played Mobbing card, and serve to ward off a particular Mobbing card or take it over. There are four different "Sofort" actions, which may be played at any time. They only affect the most recently played Mobbing card.

Memo: Mobbing references already lying in front of players can no longer be shifted or taken over by new Mobbing cards in later rounds.

The "Sofort" actions are:

• "Du irrst dich!" ("You are mistaken!") cards: These may be played immediately as a reaction (R) to any other Mobbing card, and destroy that card. Their player does not have to be the active player. Both cards go out of the game. For a played "Du irrst dich!" card, no new card may be drawn from the pile. Memo: "Du irrst dich!" cards have no influence on "The boss has died!" cards.
• "Bumerang!" (Boomerang!), "Verwechslung!" (Mix-up!) and "Übernahme!" (Takeover!): These three card types may be played as a reaction (R) to a Mobbing card that has just been played. They do not take that card out of the game; instead they transfer the previously played card to a new player. For these cards too, no new card may be drawn from the pile. It is of course allowed to counter these cards with "Du irrst dich!", and so on.

Game End

The game ends immediately when one of three situations occurs:

1. The second "Der Chef ist gestorben!" ("The boss has died!") Mobbing card has been played.
2. After a player has drawn the last Mobbing card, and each of their fellow players has had one more turn.
3. The card limit of 6 cards has been reached at all supervisory board members.

Variants

1. "DREI bzw. VIER Anwärter!" ("THREE or FOUR applicants!")

With three players, three supervisory board cards are placed in the row under the boss. With four players, four supervisory board cards are placed in the row under the boss. Up to 7 cards may be placed at each supervisory board member. All other rules correspond to the basic game.

Note: the source states a limit of 7 cards here, while the basic rules limit each supervisory board member to six Lobby cards. Transcribed as printed.

2. "Spontan"! ("Spontaneous!")

Here "ODER" cards (A) may be played spontaneously, that is, at any time, even if the player who played the card is not on turn. No card may be drawn for a spontaneously played "ODER" card.

3. "EXTRA-MOBBING!"

The EXTRA-MOBBING cards, recognisable by their card backs, bring new actions into the game. At the start of the game they are shuffled into the right Mobbing pile.

Memo: EXTRA-MOBBING cards may be played spontaneously, but they do not entitle the player to draw a new card. Whoever draws the card "Geständnis" (Confession) from the pile must place it immediately in front of themselves.

4. "Der spezielle Aufsichtsrat!" ("The special supervisory board!") (for 4–6 players)

Here the supervisory board cards are played with their backs up, showing numerical values of 4 to 7. The number states how many Lobby cards a supervisory board member allows in its row. Now 4, 5, 6 or 7 cards may be placed at the respective supervisory board members. In addition, a majority at one of these supervisory board members brings not just 1 vote but as many votes as the number of cards that can be placed in that row.

Example: the supervisory board member with the 7 gives 7 votes, and a 4 and a 5 together give 9 votes. If two players have the same Lobby value at a supervisory board member with a 5, both players receive 5 votes.