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Lobbyist: Peddle To Meddle

Gameplay Overview
In this 2 or 4 player board game, a grid of 100 hexes make up each Senate seat up for grabs in the midterm. Each party starts with 25 Senate seats (Red for Republican, Blue for Democrat) and $100 million dollars to use as they see fit in hopes of securing more seats for their party and achieving a majority. 50 hexes are empty but are filled as players acquire more seats on a board with iconic U.S. imagery. A month passes after all players have taken their turn. The game ends when a single party reaches a majority of 51 seats OR 24 rounds have passed (24 months in game).

Gameplay Description
Setup:
Board is laid out on the table
The corporation deck for each party is shuffled and placed on their corresponding board slots
The executive order deck is shuffled and placed next to the board
Each party places a half-hex piece on an uncolored state so that each party starts with 25 Senate seats
Since each party has 12 states to begin with, and each state represents 2 Senate seats, one more seat per party is necessary in order to get to 25 Senate seats for each party
Senate seat counters are each set to 25 for each party
Round counter is set to 0
Senate seat price counter is set to 20
If playing with 4 players instead of 2, players split into teams
Each player/team rolls a die and whoever has a higher dice roll gets to choose their party, either Democrat or Republican.
The player/team with the lesser dice roll gets the non-chosen party automatically
If playing with 2 players, then each player is dealt $100 million in currency
Each player sets their money counter to 100
If playing with 4 players, then each player is dealt $50 million in currency
Each player sets their money counter to 50
For each team, each player gets $50 million to start but contributes to the same party
Any corporation cards that they buy will come out of their money supply, and any benefits that they get from those cards will affects the whole team
Executive orders will also affect the entire party (both players on a team)!
Each party draws 2 executive order cards at the beginning of the game and puts them in their hard for later use
The player/team who didn’t get to choose their party goes first

Core Gameplay Loop:
Players begin by taking their turns
If playing team play, then the turns will go from 1 player on the starting party to the next player on the opposing party, then back to the 2nd player on the starting party and finishing with the 2nd player on the opposing party
Each player does as many actions that they want per turn (as long as they have the currency to do so), and has 3 actions that they can choose from:
Buy support from a corporation
In order to buy support from a corporation, players must spend $15 million
The player picks from the top of the corporation deck and must keep that corporation (corporations are permanent in this election cycle!)
Corporations donate money to the lobbyist at the end of each round/month that is determined by the value listed on the corporation card (plus or minus any modifiers coming from executive orders)
Corporations can be one of two types: goods or services
Each executive order card can only affect one of these two types
Parties can buy at most 2 corporation cards per round
However, if an executive order adds, swaps, or removes a corporation card from the party, this does not affect this limitation since players didn’t buy the corporations
Bribe President Cheapskate to get an Executive Order
In order to bribe President Cheapskate, players must spend $25 million
The player picks from the top of the executive order deck and the card goes into their hand
They can choose any time during their turn to play executive orders
Executive orders can’t be played during another player’s turn, even if that player is on the same team as them
When played, each executive order represents the party that bribed the president, and each executive order is permanent!
The executive order can:
Upset (or please) the goods or services corporations that support the opposing party’s lobbyist, decreasing (or increasing) the revenue they get at the end of each round from those corporations
Some cards affect only 1 corporation, in which case a marker is placed on the executive order when it’s played and then on the corresponding corporation card to keep track of which orders affect which corporations
Some cards affect 1 type of corporation (goods or services) so players should keep track of how many they have on their team
Add, swap or remove corporations from either party
If a corporation is discarded, it goes back into the corporation deck and any markers on it are removed (effectively nullifies executive orders that only affect 1 corporation); their corporation deck is then shuffled
Affect the price of Senate seats
Flip Senate seats to the other party
Each party can have a maximum of 10 executive order cards
This total includes the executive orders given at the beginning of the game, the executive order cards in player(s) hands, and executive orders that have already been passed
Each party can only buy at most 1 executive order card per round
Buy a political candidate’s seat
In order to buy a political candidate’s seat, the lobbyist must spend $20 million to buy it in rounds 1-6, $30 million in rounds 7-12, $40 million in rounds 13-18, and $50 million in rounds 19-24
The player/team must buy 26 seats in order to win (for a total of 51 seats)
There is no limit to the amount of Senate seats that can be purchased per player per round
As long as players have money to do so, they can buy as many as they want
At the end of each round (a round being when all 2/4 players have taken their turns) the parties add up the value of their corporation cards and add them to their money, then increase the Round counter
If playing with 4 players, then the donations are split evenly between the 2 players for each party
If the donation money is an odd number for a party, the player with the least money gets the extra $1 million
For example, Players 1 and 3 are on the Republican party team and the party receives $51 million from their corporations cards. Player 1 has $5 million, while Player 2 has $3 million. In this case, Player 1 would get $25 million, and Player 2 would get $26 million since he/she has less money than Player 1.
For the next round, the player who went 2nd during the previous round will go 1st during the next round so that everyone gets a chance to go first multiple times during the game
For example, if round 1 the turn order is Player 1, Player 2, Player 3, then Player 4, then the next round the turn order would be Player 2, Player 3, Player 4, then Player 1
Gameplay ends when one party has a majority in the Senate or the 24 month period has passed (in which case whichever party has more seats wins)