Kickbacks

A kickback is earned when a Corrupt Politician is on a successful project committee. It is automatically added to the Corruption Fund — Bad's win tracker.

How Kickbacks Work

1. Project succeeds with a Corrupt Politician on the committee.
2. Moderator reads the kickback amount printed on the project card.
3. Kickback amount is added to the Corruption Fund tracker privately.
4. COA audit for next Year flags: Kickback: Yes.

The kickback amount is never announced publicly — only whether one occurred (via the COA audit, one Year later).

Kickback Amounts

Kickbacks are printed directly on each project card. Amounts fall within these ranges by project size:

Project type	Kickback printed on card
Small project	1 – 2
Large project	3 – 5

The exact value is fixed per card — neither the Corrupt nor the Good players choose it. The moderator reads the card's kickback privately and records it.

The Corruption Fund

The Corruption Fund is the net running total of:

• + all Nakaw (Midnight Transaction) theft across all Years
• + all kickbacks from successful project committees
• − every Suhol (silence COA) paid: 3
• − every Tokhang (hitman) paid: ½ of the Corruption Fund target

Bad wins when the Corruption Fund reaches the threshold (e.g., 20 for 13 players). See Win Conditions for the exact check order.

Why the deduction matters

Because Suhol and Tokhang spend from the same tracker that measures Bad's progress, every ability use is a real cost. A Year where 3 free Corrupt steal +3 and then immediately pay 3 for Suhol contributes 0 toward the win threshold — the Corrupt traded threshold progress for a silent COA.

Pace reference (13 players)

Assuming Bad steals roughly 5 out of 7 Years (+3 each) and gets kickbacks on ~3 projects:

• Theft contribution: ~5 × 3 ≈ 15
• Kickback contribution: ~3 × 4 (avg large) ≈ 12
• Ability spend: 1–2 Suhols (−3 to −6), possibly 1 Tokhang (−10)
• Net contribution: ≈ 11–17 over 7 Years

Good reaches spending target (24) in roughly the same window. The race is tuned so abilities genuinely tax both sides.

The Kickback Decision

When a Corrupt Politician is assigned to a committee they face a real tradeoff each vote:

• Vote Support → project passes, kickback earned and added to Corruption Fund, Kickback: Yes appears in next Year's COA audit
• Vote Oppose → project fails, no kickback, no audit signal — but a pattern of failures on committees with suspected Corrupt builds over time

Both choices advance or protect different interests.