Power Vacuum
The Great Vacuum has just died - and you want that sweet, sweet Absolute Power for yourself! But you will have to outmaneuver your opponents: devious appliances, each as ambitious and dangerous as you. Let the machinations begin!
Power Vacuum is a trick-taking card game with a few treacherous twists. Winning tricks gains you Power, but losing them lets you manipulate it between players. Your secret Agenda card motivates you to prop other players up or bring them down. And suits are visible on card backs!
Number of players: 1 - 5
Game duration: 22 mn
Complexity: 2 / 5
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Play Power Vacuum and 974 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Overview
Be the first to 40 points
Card Dynamics
In this trick taking game, a few variations need to be noted
Red (Violence) is always the trump suit
The suit of a card is shown on the back, so what suits a player holds is always visible to everyone else
Brown (Spies) are NOT brown on the back, instead have one of the other suit colours to keep them disguised
Turn
The first player plays any card they wish, to Lead the trick
All other players must follow suit if possible, or play a red trump or brown spy
If the Leader plays a Brown Spy, the other players do NOT have to follow suit even if they can
If all cards are of the lead suit, or there are no special cards, the player who played the highest lead card wins the trick
If at least one card played is the Red Trump, the highest trump card played wins
If at least one card played is a Brown Spy, this beats a Red Trump, but does NOT beat lead cards i.e. if no other card is red, brown does NOT win
Regardless of how someone wins the trick, they can either take a point token or take a card played that round into their hand, the rest of the played cards are discarded
In addition, whoever played the lowest value card regardless of suit can manipulate the control board (note, this can also be the winner e.g. if you lead with a green 1, and opponent plays yellow 7, you have both won and played the lowest value card)
Manipulating the Control Board
First, Transfer Power by moving a power token between the two points of the cable, the non-allocated wedge is the supply, so either take from the supply to give to the appliance or take from the appliance and put back in the supply. If the cable is between two appliances, and one has no power, there is no choice and you have to transfer from the one with power.
Afterwards, choose one end of the cable and move it to a different socket (either an appliance or the supply wedge)
Each player has a secret agenda card, depicting two appliances, you are trying to have one appliance with the most power and the other with the least. These cards can be orientated as you like when revealed, so it's your choice which you're aiming to have the most and thus which you're aiming to have the least.
You can choose to reveal your agenda at any point in your turn as a free action, this will grant it points at end of round based on cards in hand at that moment (between 5-8) for each correct segment, but you will also have to pick the orientation at that moment too
Alternatively, you can not reveal your agenda during round, and instead reveal and orientate it at end of round. However, you must be correct on BOTH halves to score 14 points, whilst revealing during round you have the option to score points when only one OR both segments are correct.
Round End
The round ends after 8 tricks
Find out which Appliance has the most and least power, ties are shared
The players take the power from their appliance
Hidden Agendas are now revealed, and the owner can choose the orientation
Score Agendas based on when they were revealed and if they were correct
In-Round Agendas score each half separately, scoring 5-8 points as marked when you played them
End-Round Agendas score 14 points if BOTH halves are correct, and 0 if only one or none are correct
Each player with at least 10 power can spend 10 power to get a segment of their statue, this can be done as many times as you have power to spend e.g. if you have 22 power, you can get 2 segments with 2 power to take to next round
Game End
The game ends when a player completes their statue (40 points)
If multiple players do this in the same round, the player with the most excess power remaining wins.