Corruption

Corruption

Publisher: Eurogames/Jeux Descartes

Author: Bruno Faidutti

Tester: Aaron Haag

Game Tested: 1st release 2000

Scenario: Money makes the world go round – especially in a world of bribery and
corruption. Three to seven players try to win valuable contracts by cleverly bribing
government bodies.

The Game: Three government bodies – the city hall, the county administration
and the capitol offer building contracts of values between $100.000 and $1.200.000.
Players each receive a deck of identical cards consisting of 6 bribe cards valued $1.000
to $10.000 and four character cards – two journalists, a hit man and a judge.

The game plays over four rounds, each round beginning with randomly drawing two
contracts per government body. These contracts are now on offer to the players, which try
to place the highest total bribe for the contracts they like – most probable the highest
valued ones on the table. Players have a choice of either placing their bribe card
directly below a contract or putting it above the government body card, which represent
the Swiss bank account of the respective body. After having played six cards each a round
is complete and the contract is awarded to the player with the highest bribe on that
contract.

This sounds pretty straight forward and far too simple for a Bruno Faidutti game. And,
of course, there are a few little things that make the game much more interesting. First
of all, depending on the round played some cards are placed face down, thereby not
reveiling their bribe value. In the first round only the first card played by a player is
face up with each round adding one more open card.

Then there are the character cards which may be played instead of a bribe card but not
in the Swiss bank account. Once all players have placed their six cards hit men take
their turn in order of play by killing one other character played for the same contract.
Then any remaining judges act by voiding all bribes played on “their” contract
so that the contract is not awarded in this round. And finally the journalists step in
who negate one bribe card each, chosen by the player who played the journalist. Money
placed into the Swiss bank account of a government body is of course safe from
journalists but the big drawback is that this money is only counted half when finally
tallying the bribes.

A new round starts with two new contracts for each of the government bodies and all
bribe cards are returned to the players. Character cards however act only once and are
not returned. The player with the highest total contract value goes first in placing new
bribes.

Playing Time: The game can be explained in less than 10 minutes and played in
about 30 to 45 minutes.

Similar Games: Banana Republic, Dolce Vita,
Ex&Hopp, Raj

Westpark Gamer’s Opinion: The game very much reminds of “Banana
Republic” by Doris & Frank and Bruno gives due credit to this game in the rules
where he also describes that he has been inspired by stud poker. This is of course a game
of bluffing but here every player has the same 10 cards and there is no element of luck
by randomly dealing out cards. Hence the resemblance to stud poker is very low. The
psychology of the game is much more like Banana Republik or even Raj (Hol’s der
Geier) in that you exactly know which resources are available to each player and that you
are left with guessing and double guessing the other players’ tactics.

With a small number of players the game may become a little dry due to very little
direct player interaction and depending on the group a lot of quiet thinking. With more
players the stack of bribe cards per contract is so large that it becomes almost
impossible to guess on the tactics of other players and people tend to gang up on the
leader.

Overall this is a nice little game which can be played as a starter or finisher of an
evening of gaming. I personally prefer a quick game of Raj or Liar’s Dice,
though.

Aaron’s Rating: 5 (out of 10)

Westpark Gamers’ Rating: 5.0