The Glass Council

How to play The Glass Council

1. Citizens cooperate to enact 6 Charters or exile the hidden Regent. The Cabal and Regent win with 7 Decrees, or if the Regent becomes elected Steward after 4 Decrees. Roles stay private until the ending. Exiled players cannot act or vote.
2. There is one Regent and floor((players−1)/3) Cabal agents; everyone else is a Citizen. Cabal agents know each other and the Regent. At 5–6 players the Regent knows the agents; at 7–10 the Regent starts without allies identified. Citizens know only themselves.
3. The Chair nominates another active player as Steward. Members of the previous successfully elected government cannot be nominated. At four or fewer active players, only the previous Steward is ineligible. The Chair rotates clockwise after each election or policy power.
4. Everyone still active secretly votes yes or no. Each player has one Influence seal for the whole game: spend it with a ballot to make that vote worth two. Once submitted, a vote cannot change. The host reveals all ballots when everyone has voted. Yes must exceed half of the total submitted vote weight; a tie fails.
5. An approved Chair privately draws 3 policies and discards one. The elected Steward privately receives the other 2 and chooses one to enact; discard the other. The deck starts with 8 Charters and 12 Decrees. When fewer than 3 remain, shuffle the discards into the remaining deck before drawing. Enacted policies never return.
6. Three consecutive rejected governments automatically enact the next policy with no executive power, then clear term limits and the rejection count. Successful elections reset rejections. A game that reaches 30 elections without another ending is a draw.
7. Enacting the second or third Decree grants the Chair a private loyalty audit of another active player: Citizen or Cabal (the Regent appears as Cabal). The fifth or sixth Decree lets the Chair exile another active player. Exiling the Regent immediately wins for Citizens; other exiled roles remain hidden until the ending.
8. Discuss and bluff aloud. Phones keep roles, policy hands, unsubmitted ballots and audit results private; the host gets no extra secret information. The TV shows public proceedings. Computer players use role knowledge, their own audits and public ballots, never hidden deck order or opponents’ policy hands. No AI calls are used during play.
9. For paper play choose a non-playing moderator to deal the appropriate role mix, prepare the 20-policy deck, collect secret written ballots, and deliver policy cards and audit results privately. Use one marker per person for Influence. Track 6 Charter and 7 Decree spaces, rejections 0–3 and elections 1–30 on paper.

Bring your group together

Open a table, invite your friends, then start when everyone is ready. The host can add available computer players before starting. For a living-room game, open the TV screen from your table while everyone plays on their own device.