Let’s Talk about the Game Rules for Famiglia

Hey there! Today, I want to talk to you about the game rules for Famiglia. It’s a really fun game that I think you’re going to love.

Now, let’s dive right into it and talk about how to play.

The objective of Famiglia is to build the most powerful and influential family in Italy. You’ll do this by recruiting new family members, using their unique abilities to your advantage, and completing missions to earn points.

Here’s how it works:

Setting Up the Game

Before you start playing, you’ll need to set up the game. Shuffle the mission cards and place them in a face-down deck. Then, deal each player five cards from the deck.

Next, place the recruit deck and the family deck in reach of all players. Each player will also need to choose a player mat and take the matching player markers.

Now, you’re ready to start the game!

Playing the Game

During each round of Famiglia, players will take turns performing actions. Each player can perform up to two actions per turn, choosing from the following options:

• Recruit: Take a card from the recruit deck and add it to your hand.
• Play a Family Member: Play a card from your hand to your family mat, following the placement rules.
• Activate Abilities: Use the abilities of the family members on your family mat.
• Mission: Complete a mission using the family members on your family mat. Follow the instructions on the mission card to earn points.

Once all players have taken their actions, the round ends. All family members on the players’ mats are discarded, and new mission cards are dealt to each player. The game continues until the mission deck is empty.

Scoring and Winning

At the end of the game, players calculate their scores based on completed missions and special abilities. The player with the highest score is the winner and becomes the most powerful and influential family in Italy!

Isn’t Famiglia an exciting game? Now that you know the rules, get your family and friends together and start building your own powerful family!

I’m going to tell you about a game called “The Gangsters.” In this game, you collect gangsters with the goal of getting the ones that are worth the most points.

Except for the smallest gangsters (which are the cards with the number “0”), you usually need two gangsters that are the same – they have to be from the same family and have the same value. When you have two identical gangsters, you can take a gangster with a higher value from the same family and put it in your hand.

When you do this, you have to put one of the smaller gangsters from your hand in your play area, which is right in front of you on the table. If you want to get the higher-value gangsters faster, you can use special abilities that the different families have, but you have to put even more gangsters in your play area to do that.

But here’s the thing – by putting more gangsters in your play area, you limit your options, so you have to plan these actions carefully if you want to end the game with the most powerful gangster.

The Goal of the Game

Hey there! Welcome to the world of gang warfare, where you’re in control of two rival gangs vying for dominance on the street. Your mission? Recruit members from four families – La Famiglia, The Accountants, The Brutes, and The Mercenaries – to bolster your ranks and outshine the competition.

Now, here’s the deal: your success hinges on how well you utilize the unique abilities of each family. It’s all about strategy, my friend.

Unleash Your Creativity with Card Design

Setting Up

When we start playing, each of us will get a set of 4 cards in our hands. This set will have four cards with a value of 0. These cards will have their own unique backs, different from any other cards in the game.

Make sure you have enough space in front of you for your play area. Take the remaining 52 cards and shuffle them. Place the shuffled deck face down on the table to create a draw stack. Keep some space next to the draw stack to form a discard pile.

Now, let’s choose someone to go first. It can be completely random!

Finally, we’ll take the top 6 cards from the draw stack and place them face-up in a row. This row of cards is called “The Street” and serves as a display for the game.

How the Game Works

When you’re playing this game, it’s all about taking turns. Each player gets a chance, one after another. And when it’s your turn, here’s what you do:

1. I want you to think about the different families in the game. They each have their own special abilities. And here’s the cool thing: you can use one special ability from each family.
2. But there’s a catch – you can only use each special ability once per turn. So choose wisely!

If you don’t want to pick a card from the Street, and there’s no card with a value of 0 in the Street, you can choose to get rid of one of the face-up cards on the Street. When you discard a card, you draw the same number of cards from the draw stack and add them to the Street. The new cards should be placed slightly apart from the old cards. You can keep doing this until there’s at least one card with a value of 0 in the Street. You always have the option to take any card from the Street, but remember to place the new cards a bit apart from the old ones on the Street.

Example: When I’m playing the game, I get to discard one of my cards from the Street and then draw two new ones. I put the new cards next to the old ones, leaving a little space between them.

1. If I want, I can always choose a card with a value of 0. But it might end up being a 0 because of something called a Brute.
2. If I want to pick a card with a value of 1-4, I need to have two cards that are from the same family and have a lower value. I put both cards on the table and take the card I want from the Street into my hand. Then I choose one of the two cards I played to put in my play area and take the other card back into my hand. But if I only have one card that I need, I can use a special card called a Mercenary that has the same value as the second card – (you can learn more about special abilities in the “Special Abilities of the Families” section).

Example: After I added new cards to the Street during my first action, there is now an “Accountant 3” in the Street.

I play my two “Accountant 2” cards to take that card into my hand. Afterward, I place an “Accountant 2” in my play area and take the other “Accountant 2” back into my hand.

If you don’t take a card during action 4, you “pass”. Then, it’s the other player’s turn.

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

Once the draw stack is all used up, we shuffle the discard pile and put it face-down as a new draw stack.

From now on, action 1 changes like this:

If there is no card with a value of 0 in the Street at the start of your turn, you can only place new cards in the display once (because there are no value 0 cards left in the draw stack).

Instead of putting the discarded card in the discard pile, put it face down at the bottom of the draw stack. Then, draw the same number of new cards and put them in the Street.

Let me explain: If you’re playing and you draw the very last card from the draw stack while picking action 1, but you still need more cards (and the draw stack hadn’t run out before), you simply shuffle the cards in the discard pile and draw the remaining cards from the brand new draw stack.

If zero isn’t present in the Street yet, you have another chance to use this action. Once you’re done with that, action 1 comes to an end.

Families with Special Abilities

Each family in the game has its own unique special abilities. When it’s my turn, I can choose to play one card from each family to activate their special abilities.

Note: Gangsters with a value of 0 don’t have any special abilities.

The Accountants

The Accountants give me the power to exchange cards that I’ve already played from my play area with cards from my hand. I can play a single Accountant card face up into my play area, which is known as Action 2.

After playing the Accountant, I can take a number of cards equal to or less than the value of the Accountant from my play area back into my hand. But here’s the catch: I have to replace those cards with an equal number of cards from my hand, so the number of cards in my play area stays the same.

However, I can’t take back the Accountant card that I just played. It stays in my play area, helping me with its special ability.

For example: I have a “Mercenary 2” and a “Brute 3” in my play area. I place the “Accountant 2” face up in my play area and take the “Mercenary 2” and “Brute 3” back into my hand.

I choose the “Brute 0” and “Famiglia 1” from my hand and place them in the play area next to the “Accountant 2”.

The Scary Cards

The Scary Cards, also known as the Brutes, are quite intimidating to the other cards in the Street, causing them to lose their value. As a player, you have the ability to play one Scary Card face up into your play area. This is what I like to call “action 3”.

Now, when you play a Scary Card, you get to choose one of the cards from the Street. The value of that chosen card will then be reduced by the value of your played Scary Card. However, keep in mind that the value cannot go below 0. This is a rule we must abide by.

After reducing the value of the chosen card, you have another choice to make in “action 4”. You can either take the card for free if the new value is 0 or use a smaller pair of cards to claim it. The decision is up to you!

Now, let me give you an example to help you understand better. Imagine there is a card called “Mercenary 4” in the Street. You, let’s call you Anna, have two “Mercenary 1” cards in your hand. So, what you can do is play your “Brute 2” face up into your play area. This card will reduce the value of the “Mercenary 4” to 2. How cool is that?

Now I can use my pair of “Mercenary 1” to bring the “Mercenary 4” card into my hand. I’ll put one “Mercenary 1” card down on the table, and then I can pick up the other one and add it back to my hand.

Introducing The Mercenaries

Hey there! Let me tell you about The Mercenaries. They’re pretty cool because they can step in for any card that has a lower value. It’s like they have a secret superpower!

Let me give you an example. Say you want to take a card from the Street, but you don’t have a matching pair. Don’t worry! You can use a single Mercenary as the second matching card. How handy is that?

Here’s the deal. A Mercenary can replace the values 0, 1, and 2 (but not 3 or 4) of any color card. So you have a lot of options to choose from! Pretty neat, right? And don’t forget, you can pick one of the used cards back into your hand, whether it’s a normal card or the amazing Mercenary.

Oh, but here’s an important rule. You can’t use two Mercenaries as wild cards to get just any card you want. Nope, there’s a catch. You always need to have one matching card of the right color. So keep that in mind, my friend!

Imagine this: I’m walking down the street and I see a “Famiglia 3.” Meanwhile, Anna has a “Famiglia 2” and a “Mercenary 3” with her. She decides to take the “Famiglia 3” into her hand.

After that, she puts the “Famiglia 2” in her play area and takes the “Mercenary 3” back into her hand. Of course, she could have chosen to take the “Famiglia 2” into her hand and put the “Mercenary 3” in her play area if she wanted to. It’s all about making decisions and strategizing!

Famiglia: A Card Game Worth Playing

These cards hold a special power. They give you more points, making them valuable. But they don’t have any other fancy tricks up their sleeves.

The Game Comes to an End

Once all the cards in the draw stack have been used twice and there are no more cards left to play, it’s time for the final turn. This gives the second player a last chance to make their move, ensuring both players have had an equal number of turns.

If both players decide not to make a move during action 4 and pass in their respective turns one after another, the game ends unexpectedly.

For example: When it’s Anna’s turn, she wants to add new cards to the Street. She takes a 3 card from the Street and places it at the bottom of the draw stack.

Hey there! It’s time to wrap up the game, and things are getting exciting. We’re down to just three cards left in the draw stack. To make things even more interesting, all the remaining cards are placed face-up in the street.

Now, here’s the deal. The discard pile was already shuffled once to create a new draw stack. And guess what? The game ends right after this turn is over.

But hold on! We’re not done just yet. Both players need to count up the victory points they’ve accumulated. Victory points come from the cards in their hands and the cards in their play areas.

Now for the grand finale. The player with the highest total of Victory Points is the winner. Simple as that! But let’s say there’s a tie. In that case, the player with the single highest victory point card takes the crown.