THE SITUATION:
A C/O MEDIA CARD GAME

Players: 4

Time: 20-30 minutes

You Need: Two decks of cards shuffled together. 

You Know: Just like a world under siege, the game may abruptly end before the specified number of rounds.

TURN STRUCTURE

Shuffle the deck.
Deal all but 10 cards from the deck out to players, the 10 are POWER cards. They start each round.
Players keep their cards face down as an individual draw pile.
Players will also have separate face down points piles for red cards and black cards.
Each round, players take the top three cards from their personal draw pile and place them face up to play the round.

One player flips the top POWER card and places it face-up in the center → that card is the POWER 

🟥 AUTHORITARIAN MODE (red card)
⬛ COMMUNITY MODE (black card)

At the end of ten rounds you want the most black cards (of the highest face value) and the lowest number of red cards (of the lowest face value) for the community to win and vice versa to fall to authoritarianism. A=1, J=11, Q=12, K=13.

When needed, players can take red or black cards from their draw pile (looking at the top cards) to fulfill play that would have come out of a points pile. For instance, if a player needs to give up four black cards, but only has two black cards in their points pile.

PLAYING AN AUTHORITARIAN MODE (RED POWER CARD) 

Board action goes by the suit of the POWER CARD.

Diamonds
Players add up their round’s red cards, the player with the highest total takes all the round’s black cards for their own pile. All other players keep their red cards as extra cards in the next hand.

Clubs
The person with the highest single red card takes the same total of black cards from all (not each) the other players' points piles as the face value of their card. They decide how many cards are taken from which players. They can take zero cards from certain players. 

Hearts
Each player can swap the number of cards equal to the face value on their highest red card with the highest black cards of the round. All their remaining red cards are given to the players of their choice.

Spades
The player with the highest combined total value of their round’s red cards chooses 2 players to swap their pile of red cards and redeal them to players. They tell each player how many to put in their personal points pile and how many to put in their draw pile (affecting the chance of further authoritarian rounds).

PLAYING IN COMMUNITY MODE (BLACK POWER CARD)

Board action goes by the suit of the black POWER CARD.

Diamonds
The player with the lowest red card takes 4 black cards from one player of their choosing and distributes them to other players as they see fit.

Clubs
The community makes up a rule and agrees to execute it. This can be the same rule throughout the game (agreed at the beginning) or chosen each round by the player with the highest total value of black cards.

Hearts
Each player can swap the number of red cards equal to the face value on their highest black card for the round with the same number of cards from the other player’s draw pile. They decide how to dish out the cards from players.

Spades
The player with the highest combined total value of the round’s black cards has all players take the bottom 3 cards from their draw pile. They tell each player how many to put in on top of their draw pile and how many to put in their red and black piles (affecting the chance of further authoritarian rounds).

ENDING THE GAME

At the end of 10 rounds players add up the combined total of their red cards by face value and the combined total of their black cards. The highest total (either red or black) is how you vote. Will the company fall to authoritarianism or be saved by the community?