Round & Revel / Binding votes and negotiation

Festival Charter

A promise can win a vote, but only the project on the table becomes part of the festival.

Exactly 4 players, competing with public prioritiesEstimated 25–40 minutes for up to eight proposals

Original authored print-and-play game. Time is a planning estimate; this edition has not had a live group playtest.

Good for: A four-person group that enjoys fictional bargaining and a clear voting procedure.

What you need

One copy of eight project cards and four public priority cards
One PACKAGE marker per player; four total
One YES and one NO voting card per player; four copies of each
One chair marker, public budget record and a pencil

How to play

One festival, four priorities

You are four fictional festival planners sharing a budget of twelve planning units. These units have no money value. Each planner has a different public priority card describing how the festival’s features score for them. A rotating chair proposes projects, everyone votes, and approved projects become permanent. Discussion can build a coalition, but only the written proposal is binding. Highest individual score at the end wins.

Prepare public information

Lay all eight projects face up. Shuffle the four priority cards and give one to each player, then reveal them. Each card names a primary feature worth 2 points per symbol and a secondary feature worth 1; its other features score zero. Features are GLOW, FEAST, PLAY and REST, written as words with quantities. Give everyone a PACKAGE marker and a YES/NO pair. Record budget 12, proposal 1 and choose a first chair.

Make one affordable proposal

The chair selects one unbuilt project and puts it in the proposal space. Its printed cost must not exceed the current budget. Alternatively, the chair may spend their unused PACKAGE marker to propose exactly two different unbuilt projects together, paying their combined cost if approved. The combined cost must be affordable now. Announce the exact card or pair and total cost. No project may be used twice, subdivided, discounted or added after the vote.

What a package does

A package creates one yes-or-no decision covering both projects. Voters cannot approve one and reject the other. The chair’s PACKAGE marker is spent when the valid pair is announced, whether the eventual vote passes or fails. One-project proposals never spend a marker. A rejected project remains available for later proposals. A spent marker never returns, cannot be traded, and does not grant any additional points or voting power.

Discuss the proposal

Give each person a chance to speak or pass before open discussion. Point to public benefits, ask for support, or promise how you expect to vote on a later project. Such future promises are nonbinding; only the current vote counts. Do not trade real favors, money, personal information, priority cards, points or markers. The chair cannot change an announced proposal during this discussion. A group may agree on a roughly two-minute discussion limit before the first proposal, allowing access time when needed.

Vote together

Everyone, including the chair, chooses one YES or NO card privately and places it face down. After all four are ready, reveal together. Exactly one vote per player counts. Three or four YES votes approve; zero, one or two reject. The chair has no casting vote and may vote NO. A missing or ambiguous vote counts as NO. If a vote is shown early, it stays locked while the others finish. Never replace a revealed vote in response to the count.

Apply the binding result

If approved, subtract the full proposal cost from the shared budget and move every proposed card into a public BUILT area. Its feature quantities will score for all four players according to their priority cards. If rejected, leave all proposed cards unbuilt and reduce the shared budget by exactly one planning unit for the lost meeting time. A rejected project’s own price is not paid. Do not let the budget fall below zero. Votes create no private payments or transfers.

Rotate and stop

After resolving a proposal, pass the chair marker clockwise and advance the proposal number. Stop after proposal eight, or immediately when no unbuilt project is affordable, or when every project is built. Check that stop condition before the next proposal. The chair must propose an affordable project if one exists; passing is not a way to avoid the rejection cost. Early ending can mean some people chaired fewer times. The full eight-proposal schedule gives everyone two chair turns.

Count the festival

Add each feature’s quantities across all BUILT cards, ignoring unbuilt projects and spent budget. Each player then scores twice their primary-feature total plus their secondary-feature total. The same built symbol can score for different players at different rates. Features are not consumed by scoring. Highest points wins; tied leaders share the win. Remaining budget, unused PACKAGE markers, number of YES votes and chair order do not break ties. It is possible for everyone to score zero or share a win.

Errors, comfort and replay

Check affordability and project availability before discussion. An invalid proposal is corrected before voting without advancing the proposal number or spending a package marker. Correct a subtraction error from the public log. If an older vote or built set cannot be reconstructed, agree a correction and finish as practice. Read all public cards aloud; a helper may place the exact vote privately selected by a player. Keep the bargaining inside the fictional festival. For replay, restore every card and marker, shuffle priority assignments and rotate the first chair.

A worked example

With budget 7, a chair spends a PACKAGE marker to propose Moon Gate and Long Table, costing 2 + 2 = 4. Three YES votes approve both and leave budget 3. Two YES votes would reject both, leave budget 6 and still use the chair’s package marker.

Suppose the final built set is Moon Gate, Evening Picnic and Maker Nook. Its cost is 9 before any rejection losses. It supplies GLOW 2, FEAST 2, PLAY 2 and REST 1. Glow Keeper scores 2 × 2 + 2 = 6. Feast Keeper also scores 6; Play Keeper scores 5; Rest Keeper scores 4. The two six-point leaders share the win.

Printable materials

Print every project and priority once. Print the PACKAGE marker four times and YES/NO cards four times each. Cut those cards apart. Print the chair marker and public log once. Projects, priorities and outcomes remain public; only each still-unrevealed current vote is private.

FCH-MOON