Roles
Every player holds a hidden role card dealt at setup. Roles are never publicly revealed unless a player chooses to share — or is exposed.
Role Summary
| Role | Team | Count (13p) | Night Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good Politician | Good | 2 | Auto Jail (optional, costs ½ Public Spending target) |
| Corrupt Politician | Bad | 3 | Steal, Suhol, Tokhang (all optional) |
| Lawyer | Good | 1 | Protect one player (no consecutive protects) |
| Ombudsperson | Good | 1 | Investigate one player |
| COA | Good | 1 | Receive audit report |
| Citizen | Good (passive) | 5 | None |
Good Politician
Team: Good
May be elected President. May serve on project committees. Votes in jail votes (2 votes if President). Good Politician goal is to get involved in the projects to reach the Public Works Threshold.
Auto Jail (Hidden Phase — costs ½ Public Spending target)
A Good Politician may spend half of the Public Spending target (12 at 13 players) from Approved Public Spending to force a jail vote on any active player. This is the Good counterpart to Tokhang: it costs the team's own race progress, so it is usually reserved for a high-confidence target.
Strategic note
Good Politicians are the Corrupt's primary framing target. A Good Politician on their first strike is one vote away from permanent elimination — the Lawyer should prioritize covering them (subject to the no-consecutive-protection rule).
Corrupt Politician
Team: Bad
May be elected President. May serve on project committees same with Good Politician.
Mutual Recognition
At setup, before Year 1, all Corrupt Politicians open their eyes to identify each other. This is their only guaranteed coordination window.
Nakaw — Midnight Transaction (Hidden Phase, optional — every Year)
During the Hidden Phase, free (non-jailed) Corrupt Politicians collectively decide whether to steal from the Kaban ng Bayan. Stealing requires unanimous agreement from all free Corrupt — any single No cancels the steal that Year. Stealing is not mandatory and may be skipped to avoid suspicion.
Steal amount = number of free Corrupt Politicians.
| Free Corrupt Politicians | Steal Amount (if all agree) |
|---|---|
| 3 | 3 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 1 | 1 |
Stolen amount is added to the Corruption Fund tracker and deducted from the Kaban ng Bayan / Treasury privately. The public treasury decrease announcement the following Year will reflect it bundled with project costs.
Project Kickback (Governance Phase — automatic)
When a Corrupt Politician is on a successful project committee, the kickback printed on the project card is automatically added to the Corruption Fund tracker. Kickback amounts:
| Project type | Kickback on card |
|---|---|
| Small project | 1 – 2 |
| Large project | 3 – 5 |
Suhol — Silence COA (Hidden Phase — costs 3 from Corruption Fund)
During the Hidden Phase, Corrupt Politicians may collectively pay 3 from the Corruption Fund to silence the COA for the upcoming Public Phase. The COA still receives their accurate audit — numbers, kickback flag, and committee vote breakdown are untouched — but they cannot speak during Discussion that Year.
Cost: 3 from the Corruption Fund (deducted before reaching the threshold — the 3 never counted toward their win bar in the first place). Requires at least 3 in the fund to activate.
- Intended use: after a Year the Corrupt steal (+3 for 3 free Corrupt), they may immediately spend that same 3 on Suhol. Net contribution to the threshold that Year = 0 — they "burn" the steal to buy silence.
- The COA sees a mute banner on their audit — they know they have been silenced.
- Suhol does not falsify the audit. COA still has the intelligence; they just cannot share it that Year.
Tokhang — Hitman (Hidden Phase — costs ½ Corruption Fund target)
Corrupt Politicians may pay half of their Corruption Fund target (10 at 13 players) to permanently eliminate any active player. Blocked by Lawyer Legal Protection if the target is the protected player that Year.
This is part of the full step-by-step flow in Moderator Reference.
Strike system
A Corrupt Politician jailed for the first time serves a 3-year suspension. Jailed a second time, they are permanently eliminated. If both Corrupt Politicians are permanently eliminated, Good wins immediately.
Lawyer
Team: Good
Legal Protection (Hidden Phase)
Each Year, choose one active player to protect. If that player receives a majority jail vote this Year, the jailing is blocked — no strike is recorded. Protection also blocks Tokhang (permanent elimination) against the protected player for that Year.
See the detailed strike + elimination rules in Jail System.
- Protection is secret until triggered.
- Lawyer may protect themselves.
- Protection does not carry over to the next Year.
- No consecutive protection. The Lawyer cannot protect the same player two Years in a row. If they protected Player A last Year, Player A is not a legal target this Year — the Lawyer must pick someone else (or protect no one).
Why the cooldown exists
Without this rule, the Lawyer could permanently shield the Ombudsperson after Witness, making Tokhang useless against the reveal. The cooldown guarantees at least one Year of exposure, keeping the Corrupt's elimination abilities meaningful.
Announcement when triggered:
"The attempted jailing of [Name] has failed due to legal protection."
Priority targets
Protect Good Politicians on their first strike — a second jail means permanent elimination. Protecting the Ombudsperson before they use Witness is also high value.
Ombudsperson
Team: Good
Investigation (Hidden Phase)
Each Year, choose one active player to investigate. The moderator privately reveals their alignment: Good-aligned or Bad-aligned.
- Result is for the Ombudsperson only.
- Result expires at the end of the Year.
- Ombudsperson decides whether and when to share during Discussion.
Witness (Public Phase — once per game)
The Ombudsperson may publicly reveal their current Year's investigation result during the Discussion phase. This immediately triggers a runoff vote — the table votes only on whether to jail that specific player, separate from the normal jail vote.
This directly ties into the Jail System.
- Witness can only be used once per game.
- Using Witness publicly identifies the Ombudsperson — they become a high-value target for Bad going forward.
- The normal jail vote still happens after the Witness runoff.
- Lawyer protection applies to the Witness runoff vote as normal.
Burn your cover wisely
Once Witness is used, the Ombudsperson's identity is known. Time it for when the target is on a first strike or when the game is late enough that the tradeoff is worth it.
COA (Commission on Audit)
Team: Good
Audit Report (Hidden Phase, Year 2 onward)
At the start of each Hidden Phase, COA receives last Year's audit from the moderator:
Official project spending: [X]
Kickback occurred: Yes / No
Committee votes: [Player]=Support/Oppose, [Player]=Support/Oppose, ...The audit reveals how each committee member voted in last Year's project — not just whether a kickback occurred. This is information no one else has. A Corrupt Politician who voted Support to earn a kickback is now traceable by name.
COA does not learn the Midnight Transaction theft amount directly — but can estimate it by comparing the public treasury decrease to the official spending figure.
Year 1: COA receives "No project last year."
COA may share any or all findings during Discussion. They are not required to share anything.
Strategic use
COA knows who voted Support last Year. A player who was on the committee, voted Support, and a kickback occurred — that's a strong lead. Sharing selectively is more powerful than dumping everything at once.
Suhol — silence, not falsification
The Corrupt cannot fake the audit. What they can do is pay 3 from the Corruption Fund to silence the COA for one Year's Discussion phase. The COA still sees the real audit and knows they were silenced — but the rest of the table does not hear any of it. Timing matters: the Corrupt will usually Suhol on Years where the audit would be most damning (large kickback, unambiguous vote pattern).
Citizen
Team: Good (passive)
No special abilities. Votes in jail votes, participates in Discussion. Citizens are the bulk of the committee pool — the cover that lets Corrupt Politicians hide in larger committees.