Components

• 15 Accountants cards
• 15 Brutes cards
• 15 Mercenary cards
• 15 Famiglia cards
• Instructions

Overview

The players collect gangsters, with the goal of collecting the higher-valued gangsters.

With the exception of the smallest gangsters (the "0" cards), a player normally needs two identical gangsters (same family, same value), to be able to take a gangster with the next higher value of the same family into his hand.

When he does this, he places one of the smaller gangsters from his hand into his play area (the area near him on the table). To get the higher gangsters in a faster way, the player may use the special abilities of the different families, but at the cost of placing more gangsters in his play area.

By doing so, however, a player may reduce his options and so must carefully plan these actions so that he can end the game with the most influential gang.

Object of the Game

The players control two rival gangs and try to recruit additional gang members from the four families (La Famiglia, The Accountants, The Brutes, The Mercenaries) on the Street.

The player, who uses the special abilities of the different families better than his opponent, will get the most influential gang and win the game.

Card Design

Setup

Each player takes a starting set of 4 cards as his starting hand. Each set contains four value 0 cards with backs unique to each set and different from the backs of the other cards in the game.

Each player needs some space in front of himself for his play area. Shuffle the remaining 52 cards and place them face down on the table as a draw stack. Leave some space next to the draw stack to form a discard pile.

Randomly choose a starting player.

Finally, take the topmost 6 cards of the draw stack and place them face-up in a row to form a display (called "The Street").

Game Play

The players take their turns one after the other. During his turn a player plays the following actions in the order described. He can use the different special abilities of each of the families once per turn - see also "Special Abilities of the Families":

1. If the player does not want to take one of the cards from the Street and if there is no value 0 card in the Street, the player can choose to discard any of the face up cards on the Street.

   Based on the value of the card he just discarded, the player draws an equal number of cards from the draw stack to add to the Street. He places the new cards with a small gap next to the old cards in the Street.

   He can continue to do this until there is at least one value 0 card on the Street. He can always take any one of the cards on the Street, but must place the new cards slightly separately on the Street.

   Example: Andrea discards a "2" from the Street and draws two new cards. She places these cards with a small gap next to the old cards on the Street.

   
   
   

2. The player can play one card from the Accountants (value 1 to 4) from his hand face-up in his play area.

   This allows him to exchange 1-4 (the value of the card played) cards from his hand with cards in his play area (but not the played Accountant card) - see also "Special Abilities of the Families"

3. The player can play one card from the Brutes (value 1 to 4) from his hand face-up in his play area. This allows him to take one card of the Street (in the next action) for less than normal.

   The value of the card taken is reduced by the value of the Brute card, but not below value 0 - see also "Special Abilities of the Families".

4. Afterwards the player can take one card from the Street into his hand or can pass. If the player added new cards to the Street at the beginning of his turn, he can only take one of these new cards! There are two different possibilities:

   1. He can always take one value 0 card (possibly reduced to value 0 by a Brute during action 3).

   2. If he wants to take a card with value 1-4, he needs 2 identical cards from the same family with the next lower value. He places both cards onto the table and takes the card from the Street into his hand.

      Then he places one of the two played cards into his play area and takes the other card backinto his hand.

      If the player has only a single card of the value needed, he can use a Mercenary card of the same value as the second card - (see also "Special Abilities of the Families").

If the player does not take a card during action 4, he "passes". Afterward, the other player takes his turn.

If there are no cards in the Street at any time during the game, immediately draw 6 new cards from the draw pile, placing them face-up in the Street.

When the draw stack is exhausted the first time, shuffle the discard pile and place it face-down as a new draw stack.

From this moment on the action 1 changes as follows:

If there is no value 0 card in the Street at the beginning of the turn, the player can only choose to place new cards into the display once (as there are no value 0 left in the draw stack).

Instead of placing the discarded card into the discard pile, it is placed face down at the bottom of the draw stack and then he draws a matching number of new cards and places them in the Street.

Clarification: if a player draws the last card from the draw stack while choosing action 1 and needs to draw more cards (and the draw stack was not previously exhausted), he shuffles the discard pile and draws the remaining cards from the new draw stack.

If there is still no value 0 in the Street, the player can once more use this action. Afterward, action 1 ends.

Special Abilities of the Families

The different families have special abilities. During his turn, a player can play one card from each different family to use its special abilities.

The Accountants

The Accountants allow a player to exchange already played cards from his play area with cards from his hand. The player can play a single Accountant face up into his play area (Action 2).

Then he takes a number of cards equal or less than the value of this card from his play area back into his hand. He must now place an equal number of cards from his hand into his play area.

He cannot take back the just played Accountant.

The Brutes

The Brutes frighten the other cards in the Street and reduce their values. The player can play one Brute face up into his play area (action 3).

He chooses a card from the Street and reduces the value of that card by the value of the played Brute (not below 0, however). Then in action 4 he can either take the card for free, if the new value is 0, or use a smaller pair of cards.

The Mercenaries

The Mercenaries take over any job as wild cards (of any lower value) and can be played as matching cards for all four families.

If a player is taking a card from the Street (action 4), but does not have a pair of cards of the appropriate value, he can use a single Mercenary as the second matching card.

E.g., a "Mercenary 3" can stand in as value 0, 1, and 2 (not 3 or 4) of any of the four colors. Then, the player can take back one of the used cards into his hand as usual, either the normal card or the Mercenary.

Clarification: a player cannot play two Mercenaries as wild cards to get anyone's card. He always needs one matching card of the right color.

La Famiglia

The cards of this family give higher victory points to their owner. They do not have other special abilities.

End of the Game

After the draw stack is exhausted for the second time (when all cards are in the game), the current game turn is finished, giving the second player the last chance to act (equal number of turns for both players).

If both players "pass" one after the other in their respective turns during action 4, the game ends prematurely.

Both players count the victory points of all their cards (both hand cards and cards in their play areas).

The player with the higher total of Victory Points wins the game.

In case of a tie, the player with the single highest victory point card wins.

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