Boardroom Bluff

Objective

A claim-and-challenge bluffing game of corporate intrigue. Each turn, claim a role's power move — collect favors, shake down a rival, sabotage someone's standing — and everyone else decides whether to call your bluff. Outlast every other executive to win.

How to play

1. Each player secretly holds up to two influence cards (hidden roles). On your turn, either take a base action (Collect: +1 favor, always legal; Showdown: pay 5 favors to make a target discard an influence) or claim a role's power move, whether or not you actually hold that card.
2. Treasurer claims +3 favors. Enforcer steals 2 favors from a target. Diplomat swaps one of your hidden cards for a fresh one. Saboteur pays 3 favors to force a target to discard an influence.
3. Any other player may challenge a role claim. If you can't reveal the claimed card, you discard an influence and the action fails; if you can, the challenger discards one instead and you draw a replacement.
4. Enforcer and Saboteur claims can also be blocked: the target may claim Enforcer or Diplomat to block a Shakedown, or Guardian to block a Sabotage — which can itself be challenged.
5. Losing your last influence eliminates you from the boardroom. The match ends when only one executive remains, or after the configured turn limit — whichever comes first.

Scoring

There's no running score during play — favors and influence are the only currency. When the match ends, standings rank every player by influence remaining, then favors banked, so surviving with cards left beats a bigger pile of favors alone.

Example round

1. On turn 1, Ana claims Treasurer and takes +3 favors. Ben challenges. Ana reveals the card and Ben has to discard, drawing a replacement.
2. A few turns later, Cleo claims Enforcer and steals 2 favors from Dan. Dan blocks with Diplomat, swapping out his hand. Cleo contests Dan's block.
3. Dan's block fails — he can't prove Diplomat. He discards an influence card and draws a replacement. Cleo's Enforcer stands and the 2 favors move to her.
4. On the final turn, only Carlos and Esther are left standing. Carlos claims Saboteur to force Esther's discard. Esther claims Guardian to block. Carlos challenges the block, and the game ends with Esther unable to prove Guardian — she's eliminated.

Strategy tips

• Watch the table for tells — players who hold Treasurer tend to play cautiously early; players with Guardian or Diplomat often take bolder risks.
• Bluff your power moves only when the table is paying attention to someone else; a claim on a quiet turn draws suspicion faster than one buried in action.
• Save your challenges for the highest-stakes moves; wasting a challenge on a base Collect action gives away your suspicion that the player is bluffing.
• Block claims sparingly — every block you make reveals that you're holding a specific counter-role, which skilled players will note for later turns.
• Favors are a means to an end, not the end itself: a huge pile of favors with only 1 influence card left is worse than a single influence with no favors.

Best with

Boardroom Bluff shines with 3–5 players where table reads and grudge matches are tight and memorable. At 2 players it becomes a pure duel; at 6+ the table becomes too noisy to read, diluting the bluff-reading skill. Works equally well for players who love psychological games and for those who just enjoy the corporate satire.

Variations

• Agree to a 'no discussion' rule where players can only communicate through their actions — no table talk lets the silence speak volumes.
• Play with lower starting favors (2–3 instead of the default) to force more aggressive early plays and tighter decision windows.
• Use a timer for turn decisions: 20–30 seconds per turn to rush players into worse reads and more obvious tells.
• Track who holds which revealed roles across a multi-round session and award a bonus to whoever successfully predicted the most opponent cards.

FAQ