SAN Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Goal of the Game
• Setup
  • Making Your Deck
  • Making the River and the Supply
  • The Propaganda Track
  • Making the Virus Track
  • Corruption Zones
  • Making Your Starting Hand
  • Choosing Who Starts
• The Cards
  • Mercenary Cards
  • Equipment Cards
  • Virus Cards
  • Card Anatomy
• Gameplay
  • A Turn
  • Play One or More Cards (mandatory)
  • On Your Turn
  • Buying Cards (optional)
  • Discard Played Cards (mandatory)
  • Refill Your Hand (mandatory)
  • End of Turn
• Card Effects
  • Filling the Corruption Zone
  • Advancing on the Propaganda Track
  • Hand Bonus Token
  • Moving on the Virus Track
  • Multiplier
  • Single Use (cannot be ignored)
  • Copy a Played Card
  • Copy a Card in the River
  • Destroy a Card
  • Draw
  • Play All Types of Your Choice
  • Play a Card from Your Discard
• End of the Game
  • Adapting Your Game
• Icon Reference

Components

• 1 Virus marker
• 1 Central Port tile
• 4 Bonus tokens (2 for each Corporation)
• 2 Corporation Banners (1 for the Moon Corporation and 1 for the Star Corporation)
• 82 cards:
  • 17 Moon Corporation cards and 17 Star Corporation cards, divided as follows:
    • 2 x 12 Starting cards: 3 Corruption Mercenary cards (A), 3 Propaganda Mercenary cards (B), 3 Hacking Mercenary cards (C), 3 Equipment cards (D).
    • 2 x 5 Virus cards numbered from 1 to 5 (E).
  • 48 River cards: 2 x 5 Corruption Mercenary cards, 2 x 5 Propaganda Mercenary cards, 2 x 5 Hacking Mercenary cards, 18 Equipment cards.

Goal of the Game

Achieve one of the following three objectives:

• Corruption victory: Place 12 cards into your Corruption zone.
• Propaganda victory: Move your Corporation's banner to the end of the Propaganda track.
• Hacking victory: Get through all the opposing Corporation's Virus cards.

Setup

(See diagram, p. 6.)

Each player chooses a Corporation (Moon / Star) then takes the corresponding Banner, 12 starting cards, and 5 Virus cards.

Making Your Deck

Each Corporation shuffles their 12 starting cards and makes a face-down pile (1).

Making the River and the Supply

Shuffle the River cards and place 6 of them in the middle of the play area, face up. They are the River (2). Make a face-up pile with the remaining cards, which is the Supply (3).

The Propaganda Track

The Propaganda track is made up of 7 stages (4). Place the Hand Bonus tokens (5) as indicated. Each Corporation places their Banner on the first stage, at the far left of the Propaganda track (6).

Making the Virus Track

Place the Central Port tile as shown (7). Each Corporation stacks their cards (8) in ascending order (1 on the bottom, 5 on the top), then places this pile on their side of the Central Port.

Corruption Zones

Each Corporation's Corruption Zones (9) are made up of 6 spaces which can each hold 2 Corruption cards (cf. Corrupting Cards, p. 14).

Setup diagram labels: Decks; Supply; River; Propaganda Tracks; Hand Bonus tokens; Corruption Space; Central Port tile; Banners; Virus cards; Corruption Zones; Starting hand; Virus marker.

Making Your Starting Hand

Each Corporation draws the top 6 cards of their deck (10) and looks at them without showing them to their opponent. For your first game, play with a hand of 7 cards.

Choosing Who Starts

The Corporation whose Banner is beside the card with the highest Crossing cost starts. In the case of a draw, compare the costs of the second, and then third cards, if need be. If this does not break the tie, the Corporations choose using the method of their choice. Place the Virus token (11) on the first space of the starting player's Virus card 5.

The Cards

Mercenary Cards

Corruption / Propaganda / Hacking. They grant you effects and/or Revenue. You may only play one type of Mercenary card on your turn.

Equipment Cards

They grant you effects and/or Revenue. They can be played alone or with Mercenary cards of any type (Corruption, Propaganda, Hacking).

Virus Cards

Virus cards have no effect or cost. You may play Virus cards from your hand on your turn: They are placed directly into your discard with no effect.

Card Anatomy

• Starting cards: 1. Effect; 2. Type; 3. Corporation; 4. Revenue; 5. Card number.
• Mercenary and Equipment cards: 1. Effect; 2. Type; 3. Crossing Cost; 4. Revenue; 5. Cost; 6. Card number.
• Virus cards: 1. Number of Remaining Viruses; 2. Track Spaces; 3. Corporation; 4. Card Number.
• Card back: 1. Crossing Cost; 2. Crossing Penalty.

Gameplay

The game takes place over a series of turns. Each player takes alternating turns. The game ends immediately as soon as one of the 4 End of Game conditions have been met (see End of Game, p. 22).

A Turn

A turn is made up of 4 phases, in this order:

• Play one or more cards - Mandatory
• Buy one or more cards - Optional
• Discard played cards - Mandatory
• Refill your hand - Mandatory

Play One or More Cards (mandatory)

You must play at least one card from your hand, face up in front of you. Cards can produce one or more effects. Unless otherwise stated, you can decide to apply them or not when you play them (see Card Effects p. 18).

The applied effects must be completely resolved before the next phase. There is no limit to the number of cards that can be played in a turn.

On Your Turn

• You can only play one type of Mercenary card (Corruption, Propaganda or Hacking) from your hand.
• You can always play Equipment cards from your hand and apply their effects regardless of the type of Mercenary cards played this turn.
• You can always place Virus cards from your hand into your discard.
• If your deck is empty, shuffle your discard and make a new deck with it.

Example: The Moon Corporation chose to play the Propaganda Mercenary cards (A) and (B) this turn. They cannot play the Hacking Mercenary card (C) or the Corruption Mercenary card (D), and keep them in their hand. However, they play their Equipment card (E) and the Virus card (F). They decide to keep the other Equipment card (G) and the Propaganda Mercenary card (H) in their hand for a future turn.

Buying Cards (optional)

Some cards have a Revenue (A). The sum of the Revenues of played cards is your Purchasing Revenue. It allows you to buy cards from the River (and only from the River).

To buy a card, your Purchasing Revenue must be at least equal to its Cost (B).

Subtract the card's Cost from your Revenue and then place the card into your discard. Finally, refill the space left by the purchased card with the top card of the Supply.

Cards are bought one by one. You can buy as many cards as your Purchasing Revenue allows, including cards placed into the River during this phase.

Example: The Star Corporation has 8 Purchasing Revenue, and buys a card that costs 4. They place it into their discard (A) and refill the River with the top card of the Supply (B). They still have 4 Purchasing Revenue. They can, if they want, continue their buying phase by purchasing other cards.

At the end of the phase, any unused Purchasing Revenue is lost. Important: If you cannot refill the River, the game ends immediately (see End of Game, p. 22).

Discard Played Cards (mandatory)

Place all played cards into your discard, face up. You cannot discard cards that have not been played.

Refill Your Hand (mandatory)

If you have fewer than 6 cards*, draw as many cards as necessary from your deck to fill your hand to 6. Draw one extra card if you have a Hand Bonus token, or two more cards if you have two (see Hand Bonus Token, p. 16).

*7 cards in your first game

End of Turn

If no End of Game conditions have been met, your opponent's turn begins.

Card Effects

Filling the Corruption Zone

For each group of 3 Corruption icons played on your turn, you can corrupt a card in the River. A corrupted card is placed face down on one of the 6 spaces in your Corruption Zone. Refill their space in the River with the first card of the Supply. You can corrupt more than one card per turn.

A corrupted card in your Corruption Zone reduces the Crossing Cost for this space on the Propaganda track by 1 Propaganda icon for you, and increases it by 1 Propaganda icon for your opponent (see Advancing on the Propaganda Track, p. 16).

Example: The Moon Corporation plays 5 Corruption icons, and uses 3 to corrupt a card in the River. They place it into their Corruption Zone (A) then refill the River with the top card of the Supply (B). There are still 2 Corruption icons remaining, but that's not enough to corrupt another card. The 2 Corruption icons are lost.

A corrupted card stays that way until the end of the game. At the end of the turn, unused Corruption icons are lost.

The Corporation that corrupts 12 cards wins the game.

Reminder: If you cannot refill the River, the game ends immediately (see End of Game, p. 22).

Advancing on the Propaganda Track

Each Propaganda icon played adds to your movement capability for this turn. To move your Corporation's Banner to the right, you must pay the Crossing Cost of the card in front of it.

Important: The Crossing Cost can be modified by the presence of corrupted cards (see Filling the Corruption Zone, p. 14).

You may cross more than one card on the same turn if your movement capability allows it.

At the end of the turn, unused Propaganda icons are lost.

The Corporation that reaches the last space on the right of its Propaganda track wins the game.

Hand Bonus Token

When your Banner reaches a space with a Hand Bonus token, you win it, and place it beside your Deck. You will now draw one more card per Hand Bonus token during the Refill Your Hand phase (see p. 10).

Example: The Star Corporation plays 8 Propaganda icons. They use 3 to cross the first card (A) (Crossing Cost 4, -2 due to the 2 corrupted cards in the Star Corporation's Corruption Zone, +1 because of the corrupted card in the Moon Corporation's Corruption Zone. 4-2+1 = 3) and collect the Hand Bonus token (B). Then the Star Corporation uses 4 to cross the next card (C) (Crossing Cost 3, +1 because of the corrupted card in the Moon Corporation's Corruption Zone. 3+1 = 4). They have 1 Propaganda icon remaining, which isn't enough to cross the next card. This 1 is lost.

Moving on the Virus Track

Each Hacking icon played allows the Virus marker to move 1 space on the Virus track either by:

• advancing (in the direction of the arrow) on the Virus card of the opposing Corporation. If this moves the Virus marker onto the Central Port, place the Virus card face down on top of the opposing Corporation's deck.
• or by moving backwards (opposite direction of the arrow) on your Virus card. If this moves the Virus marker onto the Central Port, nothing happens.

In both cases, if the number of Hacking icons played allows it, you can continue your movement by advancing the Virus marker on your opponent's card.

The Corporation that moves the Virus marker from their opponent's Virus card onto the Central Port wins the game.

Example: The Moon Corporation played 8 Hacking icons. The marker was on their Virus card, so they move it back 2 spaces, onto the Central Port. They then advance the marker 4 spaces onto the Star Corporation's Virus 5 card and then onto the Central Port. The Moon Corporation places the Star Corporation's Virus 5 card on top of the Star Corporation's deck. Finally, the Moon Corporation advances the Virus marker 2 more spaces onto the Star Corporation's Virus 4 card.

Multiplier

Gain as many Corruption / Propaganda / Hacking icons as Corruption / Propaganda / Hacking cards played this turn, respectively. The card that produced the effect is counted as well. The effects of two cards that trigger the Multiplier effect stack.

Example: The Moon Corporation can advance 13 spaces on the Virus track. The multiplier effect gives 1 Hacking icon per Hacking card played. In this example, there will be 4 Hacking icons added to the 3 + 2 + 1 + 3 on the cards played, for a total of 13 Hacking icons.

Single Use (cannot be ignored)

At the end of the turn this card was played, place it back in the box.

Copy a Played Card

Copy the type and effects of a card played this turn.

Important: Where applicable, the 'Single Use' effect applies to the card being copied.

Copy a Card in the River

Copy the type and effects of a card in the River.

Important: The restriction of only one type of Mercenary card played per turn still applies. Important: Where applicable, the 'Single Use' effect applies to the card being copied.

Destroy a Card

Place any card from your hand back into the box. The effect can be applied as many times as there are symbols on the played card.

Draw

Draw the top card of your deck into your hand. A drawn card can be played the same turn. The effect can be applied as many times as there are symbols on the played card.

Play All Types of Your Choice

You can play all Mercenary types this turn.

Play a Card from Your Discard

You can choose a card from your discard and play it.

Important: The restriction of only one type of Mercenary card per turn still applies.

Corrupt a Card from Your Hand

You can corrupt any card in your hand (see Filling the Corruption Zone, p. 14).

End of the Game

A Corporation wins the game if at least one of the three following victory conditions has been met at the end of their turn:

• Corruption: They corrupted 12 cards (see Filling the Corruption Zone, p. 14)
• Propaganda: Their Banner crossed the 7 stages of their Propaganda track (see Advancing on the Propaganda Track, p. 16)
• Hacking: They moved the Virus marker from the opposing Virus card onto the Central Port (see Moving on the Virus Track, p. 18)

Also, if the River cannot be refilled because the Supply is empty, the Corporation that has advanced furthest in at least two victory conditions wins. Otherwise, it's a draw!

Adapting Your Game

We suggest adapting the game to the level of the players. The less-experienced player will have a hand of 7 cards (or even 8, if necessary), and their opponent's hand will remain at 6. The Hand Bonus tokens (see p. 16) will apply as usual.

Icon Reference

• Crossing Cost: Number of Propaganda icons to be played to cross a card.
• Card Cost: Purchasing Revenue required to buy the card.
• Revenue: How this card increases your Purchasing Revenue.
• Single Use
• Multiplier: Gain Corruption / Propaganda / Hacking icons per Corruption / Propaganda / Hacking card played, respectively.
• Fill the Corruption Zone
• Advance/Go Backwards one space on the Virus track
• Advance one space on the Propaganda track
• Increase your hand size
• Copy a played card
• Copy a card in the River
• Destroy a card from your hand
• Draw a card from your deck
• Play the types of your choice