The Republic of Rome

The game begins with six players controlling major factions in the Roman Senate, each represented by family cards, senators with specific attributes for military, oratorical skill, and loyalty, personal treasuries, and faction treasuries. Rome itself is tracked on the main board with active wars, a population unrest marker, and a state budget reflecting its income and expenses.

The primary objective of the game is cooperative survival: players must ensure that the Roman Republic does not collapse from military disaster, popular revolution, or bankruptcy.

Each game round follows a precise sequence: mortality rolls, revenue collection, forum events and senator recruitment, a speech before the people by the leading official, senate sessions featuring debates and voting on key issues, resolution of active wars, and checks for rebellions.

While players work together to save Rome, there is only one individual winner: the player who accumulates the highest total influence in their faction, manages to get elected consul for life, or successfully leads a military coup in a civil war.

The game concludes when all event cards are drawn without causing Rome's destruction, resulting in a victory for all surviving players, or immediately when Rome suffers an unstoppable collapse.