Let Them Eat Cake

Overview

"Liberty! Equality! Eclairs!" The glorious revolution has done away with tyranny! Now you and your friends make up the Revolutionary Committee, overseeing justice throughout the land. Still, now that the queen's gone, it would be a shame to let all that cake go to waste... Become the first among equals by amassing honour! Become happy by amassing cake! Send your friends' pawns to the guillotine! First to forty cakes wins! Let Them Eat Cake is a game of committees, coercion, and cake. Elect your friends to positions of power in the hope that they look on your patronage favorably — or denounce them as enemies of the revolution. Alliances and betrayal are all fair game as you try to amass as much cake as you can before the revolution collapses. Each player starts the game with a set of voting cards, three pawns, three medals of honour, and some cake. Each round consists of a series of elections, from the Head of Committee to the Food Inspector. Each vote, after negotiating, bribing, and pleading, is simply a matter of each player secretly choosing a voting card of the player they wish to vote for. Each player’s votes are multiplied by the number of pawns they have, and whoever is the Head of Committee will break any ties. Importantly, once you’ve used a voting card, you cannot reuse it until you’ve played all your cards, demanding shifting allegiances throughout the game. The first vote of the round determines the Head of Committee, the official tie-breaker. Soon thereafter players determine the Enemy of the Revolution, who must place one of their pawns on the guillotine, immediately and potentially permanently reducing their voting power. Next, players elect a Guillotine Operator, who decides whether or not the pawn on the guillotine is executed or spared. Once settled, a Secretary is elected to divvy out cake and generals to the players, one card per player. But before these cards are taken, the players elect a Food Inspector who may, at the cost of a medal, declare all cake unsafe. Throughout the game, players will accumulate medals, generals, and cake. Fewest medals make you the Enemy of the Revolution, but the player with the most Generals is immune to such accusations! Any player can spend their Generals to force a re-election or simply choose the winner of a vote. The game ends when one player reaches 40 or more cakes, a player has their last pawn executed, or the deck runs out. The player with the most cake wins!