Mythos:

Use your influence to navigate the finite possibilities within the material continuum and build your assets beyond those of your competitors. Can you find the opportunity that matches the hand you have been dealt and bring the two together when the timing is just right? Will you take from the Divine Treasury or be left behind in the Vault of Eternal Destitution?

Objective:

The person who builds the strongest hand without running out of influence wins Strongest card combinations are when cards in the hand match cards on the floor using the same number and suit and can incorporate the dice to form chains of three.

The one who has the strongest hand after a successful Confront or Acquire wins.

Card Values:

Ace = 1 and Queens are removed from both standard decks. King = 12, Jack = 11

Suits in Order of Value: Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, Clubs

Setting up the Game:

1) Dealer gives each player 4 cards from Player Deck (circular cards). The remaining cards form the draw pile.

2) From the Options Deck (rectangular cards) the Dealer places 2 cards face down vertically in the upper part of each of the eight table sections known as the floor and 1 card face up vertically. The remaining cards are placed face down in the lower part of the eight table sections forming the free exchange in groups of 3 horizontally.

3) Place the three 4 sided dice in front of the dealer (1-4, 5-8, 9-12)

4) Each player receives 1 Evade token and 1 Reserves Token.

5) Each player receives 2 chip stacks equaling 100 chips representing their influence points for paying in game costs (i.e. Buy, Sell, Exchange, Evade etc.).

6) The Dealer declares the Buy In Cost which is the initial amount each player must deposit to the pot to play. This amount can be used later. (See Leveraging the Buy In).

7) Dealer declares the starting Buy, Sell and Exchange costs to start and the raise limit. The Risk is equal to the Sell Cost – the Buy Cost. (I usually start with Buy, Sell and Exchange starting at 5 with each influence chip worth 5). Pin the counters above the appropriate value.

8) Dealer rolls the dice.

9) The Dealer then spins the wheel and the person to their left goes next.

Regular Turn:

1) Player must pay the Risk Cost to play.

Risk = Sell Cost minus Buy Cost

If a player cannot pay the risk they must fold by discarding their hand face down on the table. A folded hand is then taken out of play. The only way to avoid paying the risk is when the Buy Cost is greater than the Sell Cost in which case the risk is 0, by Retreating, Converting Reserves or using an Evade Token. A player also declare Confront or Acquire before paying the risk.

2) Set New Rates:

Lower Rates -

Player can choose to decrease the buy, sell and/or exchange cost by paying the difference.

Example: If the Buy is set to 15 and it is lowered by 2 chip values to 5 then you pay 2 chips.

The Buy Cost, Sell Cost and Exchange Cost cannot be set to 0 or less.

3) A player can pay the Buy, Sell and/or Exchange cost once per turn to take the appropriate action. The cost is paid using chips equal to the amount the rate is set to for the specific action. One can also Leverage the Buy In once in the game which means to use the initial cost they paid to start the game to cover the cost of an action.

Buy: Turn up a card on the facing floor.

Sell: Turn down a face up card on the facing floor.

Exchange: Swap a face down card from the facing floor with one in the facing exchange or a face down card from the facing floor to an adjacent floor.

A player can exchange a face down card from the facing floor with a face down card in the facing exchange for free if they have already paid the risk cost. It is for this reason that the bottom row of cards around the board is known as the Free Exchange.

If a player is exchanging a card to or from an adjacent floor they must pay the exchange cost times the number of adjacent floors they are moving a card to. This could be a maximum of 4 times the exchange cost.

A card cannot be exchanged with a card in an adjacent exchange, just the floor.

A card can be exchanged across multiple floors regardless of whether the cards on those floors are face up or down. Only the card on the floor it is coming from and the card it is being exchanged with must be face down or in a sold position.

Example: If the value of each chip is equal to 5 and the Buy, Sell and Exchange rates are set to 5, then it only costs 1 chip to Buy (turn a card face up), Sell (turn a card face down) or Exchange a card (Move a face down card left or right).

4) Set New Rates:

Raise Rates: Player can choose to increase the buy, sell and/or exchange cost by paying the difference.

5) Roll Dice: You can roll all 3 dice as long as one of them is on the floor facing you. The dice are essential to making a strong hand. The dice are used to strengthen an existing matching set of cards from the hand and floor making a pair into three of a kind. A card in hand plus dice does not constitute a pair, there must be a card in hand matching a card on the floor plus the dice to equal three of a kind. Dice are considered wild and can represent any single suit. All players can use the values from the dice to compliment their hand but can only re-roll them if there is at least one of the dies sitting on the floor facing them. If a die falls more to one side of the line dividing the floors then that is the floor it belongs to but if it is uncertain then the dice will be accessible from both floors. 6) On a players turn, anytime after they decide if they want to set new rates, a player can either choose to Confront, Acquire, Evade (pay), or Convert Reserves.

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Special Actions:

Retreat:

Before paying the Risk a player can choose not to pay the Risk and choose to Retreat which means they spin the wheel and pass.

A player cannot Retreat on consecutive turns or after a turn where they evaded.

—————————————————————————————— Confront:

A player can choose to confront another player when they believe they are in the best position to win before they pay the risk, after they raise rates or in response to a player who has declared Acquire.

If the person being confronted does not evade with an evade token check to see if any other players wish to Confront the Confronter. All players involved in the Confront challenge show their hands and the rest fold. The player with the strongest hand that matches any single floor on the board wins the game. A player who has declared confront cannot evade. If the challenged player evades using an evade token, the player who declared confront ends their turn and the next player begins.

A player cannot confront a player that evaded with an evade token on their last turn, declare confront or be confronted on consecutive turns, or declare confront if they retreated or evaded with an evade token on their last turn.

Although you cannot confront a player who has evaded with an evade token, you can confront a player who has paid to evade.

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Acquire: When a player has the floor which best consolidates their hand and they wish to challenge all of the remaining players at the table, they can state that they wish to acquire the options face up on the floor facing them. The other players can choose to Confront, or Fold. If a person calls acquire and nobody calls confront they do not need to show their hand and automatically win. If multiple players Confront, it is the player to the left who must show the cards they are Confronting with first.

A player cannot declare Acquire on consecutive turns, on the same turn another player declared Confront, or declare Confront on a turn following one in which they declared Acquire.

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Evade:

With Evade Token: A player can use their 1 free evade token to pass on their turn to avoid paying the risk or after they decided if they wish to raise rates and avoid a confront call until their next turn.

A player can discard 1 or more cards and then draw cards equal to the amount discarded. This ends their turn. The evade token is the only way to evade a player who is confronting.

A player cannot use their evade token on a turn after they retreated, confronted or declared Acquire.

Paying to Evade: As long as a player still has their initial free evade token they can pay to evade instead of using their evade token. The evade cost is equal to the risk so essentially the risk cost is paid twice. A player can discard 1 or more cards, then spin and then draw cards equal to the amount discarded. A player cannot pay to evade a player who is converting reserves, confronting or who has declared acquire.

A player cannot evade on consecutive turns or after a turn where they retreated.When discarding a card it is reshuffled into the draw pile.

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Convert Reserves:

When a player converts reserves they are wagering all of their remaining influence chips on that turn

The risk becomes 0 for all players.

All players that wish to stay in the game must use their Converting Reserves Token and wager their remaining influence or an amount equal to the player who originally converted reserves. On their turn they can still buy, sell, exchange and change rates as long as the costs don’t exceed the amount they have after converting reserves.

Converting Reserves cannot be evaded using an Evade token.

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7) Spin Board: At the end of your turn you spin the board in any direction you like to try and get the other players to forget what and where you just played. If other players missed your move or place you do not need to tell them what or where you played making concentration and memory important. The player to your left can stop the board wherever they like to start their turn so they choose which floor is facing them. This may be to get access to the dice and/or manipulate the cards facing them or just to throw other players off.

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Table Talk: Table talk between other players is recommended and supported in Tongo as a means to form temporary alliances against other players or as a joint effort to reduce rates etc. However, a discussion with players outside of the game is not permitted and is known as “coaching”.

Cheating: Cheating is not permitted and will result in disqualification. Although it is not unlikely that a Ferengi game would have some cheating, it makes the game very difficult to manage.

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Advanced Rules (Optional)

Advanced players can opt to play without a Free Exchange in which case only half of the Options Decks cards are available for use at the start. Another optional rule adds 2D6 with values 1-6 and 7-12 which can be used to form sets of four of a kind.

A player can also index the margin once per turn by increasing or decreasing the Buy, Sell and Exchange costs by a percentage in which case the Player must still pay an amount equal to the total amount each is being increased by.

Round up rule: In the case that indexing results in a fraction, the value is always rounded up.