Free game: The Chair Is Empty

[Cover image: La Legende des Siecles by Rene Magritte, 1950.]

The Chair is Empty

A card-based game about political tensions and power vacuums, for 3 or more players.

This is a much cleaned-up and streamlined version of Caudillo, a power politics game placed in a thinly disguised post-Chavez Venezuela which I first designed in 2013 (before Chavez was post-Chavez).

It is basically similar in its semi-cooperative and semi-competitive nature, and it plays up the constant tension between these urges. As players vie to create the largest and most durable personal power base (scored periodically throughout the game), the card deck delivers more and more crises that players must deal with collectively (and collect small rewards immediately) or become overloaded. Coups d’etat provide another quick way to score, and the office of El Presidente has its own perks too.

The free PnP version consists of 108 cards, 88 counters, and the usual rules and play aids. Several scenarios are supplied, including a 2-player variant.

The game rules say it is for 3-5 players which seems to be where it scales best, but certainly more than 5 can play simply by adding sets of player markers.

I started work on this during lockdown in 2020; David Turczi was involved in early development and I am very grateful for his help. I kept at it over the post-COVID years and it’s in a state I feel okay to release for free print and play, especially with the uncertain situation in Venezuela now (though this is in no way an attempt at a simulation of the actual situation there; the stupid Spanish language puns will tell you that).

I plan on self-publishing a physical version of this later, since in the course of locating resources for O Canada I found a good card printer in Canada (The Playing Card Factory of Mississauga ON: https://theplayingcardfactory.com/ ). But I would like it to have better art than the janky free clip art I am using now, and no damn generative AI will be involved. So it might take a while.

Meanwhile, here are the files:

Chair rules 10 Dec 25  rules

Chair PAC 5 Nov 25  player aid card

Chair variants 5 Nov 25  scenarios, including a 2-player method where El Presidente is a dummy and a “Gringo” piggybacking variant that is perhaps applicable right now.

Chair group cards 2 Aug 24 Group and Agent cards

Chair crisis cards 2 Aug 24 Crisis and other cards

Chair card lists 30 July 24 Card lists for perusing

Chair ctrs 13 Nov 22  double set of counters

[PS: Thanks to friend of the blog Roger Leroux for the title, replacing the functional but less ambiguous “Strongman-2”]