Socialism

In this game, each of the players takes on the role of a social networking site. The goal is to be the first to "fill your quota" by adding fifteen new members to your site. You'll accomplish this by playing cards that represent members of the digerati, and then "inviting" them to join. Each player will have fiteen colored chits to place on their site members, and the first to run out wins the game.

You'll need:

The cards listed below - if you're making your own, I recommend half-sized index cards.
15 colored tokens for each player - poker chips work, but are a little large. Glass stones are ideal.
One six-sided die.
2-5 players
1-2 hours

To play:

Determine the first player randomly, have everyone draw a three-card hand, and then proceed clockwise. During a turn, each player will:

1. Draw a card

2. Play a card

3. Invite members to join their network (this step is optional)

Drawing Cards

Surely, this is obvious? Remove the top card from the deck. When the deck is empty, shuffle the discards back in and continue play if the game is still in progress.

Playing Cards

Each card represents either an Action or a User. To play an Action, merely lay it down, follow the instructions on the card, and then discard it.

Users are more complicated. The first User played simply goes in the center of the table. Second and subsequent Users must be played adjacent to one or more cards already in play. Users are Friends of adjacent User cards, and adjacency counts on both sides and corners. Thus, one User can have up to eight Friends in play.

Inviting Members

During the Invitation phase, you have a few basic options, any of which may be modified by card text:

You may automatically invite a User that you just played to join your network. Provided that User was played this turn, this is an automatic invitation; place one of your colored tokens on the card, and that person joins your network as a Member.

You may spam invite any User in play. To do so, select the user, and roll a die. On a 6, place one of your colored tokens on the card, and that User joins your network as a Member.

One of your current Members may personally invite up to two of their Friends. Select the Member, and the Friends, and then roll a die for each invitation. On a 4, 5 or a 6, place one of your colored tokens on the card, and that Friend joins your network as a Member.

Winning

Play continues until one player has exhausted all twenty tokens, and thus completed their social network.

Cards

Users:

Sheila Callingworth
Shiela will personally invite an additional Friend, for up to three invitations.

Billy Luddite
Billy hates e-mail, and will only personally invite one Friend before getting frustrated and shutting his computer off.

Agnse Smtih
Agnse will personally invite all of her Friends whenever asked to, but her horribly-spelled messages are only accepted on a roll of a 5 or 6.

THE AVENGATOR
THE AVENGATOR hates everyone and everything. He never personally invites anyone, and never accepts personal invitations.

Debbie Webceleb
Debbie always accepts personal invitations.

Phillip Connoisseur
Connoisseur only accepts personal invitations on a 5 or 6, and never accepts spam invitations. However, Friends that he personally invites accept on a 3, 4, 5, or 6, unless contradicted by their own text.

Fa3ryAlly
Fa3ryAlly accepts all invitations.

Hater McFriendless
Hater never accepts personal invitations.

Becca Singleton
Becca will only be a Member of one site at a time. When she accepts any invitation, discard all other tokens from her card.

Jimmy Block
Jimmy can convince Friends to leave networks he's not part of. During the invitation phase, instead of having him personally invite Friends, you may try to remove a token color that isn't also on Jimmy's card from one Friend. This is successful on a 4, 5, or 6.

Alan Sudo/Gerald Sock
Alan/Gerald maintains two separate identities. Each may be invited separately, and he may have two tokens of each color on his card. Alan and Gerald do not count as Friends of each other, but both count as Friends of all adjacent cards.

John Smith (4 copies)
(no text)

Rachel Lurk
Rachel never announces her presence by personally inviting her Friends.

Alan Dale
Alan's music gives him a greater social depth.  He may personally invite Friends of his Friends.

Mary Su
Mary's constant online presence and understanding of the mechanics of her networks allow her to personally invite all of her Friends at once.

Sloan Jenkins
Sloan uses Super-logout: if you cause her to leave all of her social networks, she goes in your hand.

Lola Lowinfo
Lola always accepts spam invitations, but never accepts personal invitations.


Actions:


Stellar Status (4 copies)
Select a User on your network.  That user's status message for the day is so compelling that everyone adjacent will join your network, as well.


Viral Post
Select a User on your network. Put a Viral Post token on that user. At the beginning of each turn, Viral Post moves to a new user, who joins your network.

Lost Password (2 copies)
Remove a user from the board.  If this breaks the board into two or more unconnected sets of users, invitations can no longer cross from one set to another until a new user reconnects them.

OMG CAT PIC (2 copies)
Select a user on your network, who posts a cat picture.  All of that user's Friends who are also on your network immediately send personal invitations to all of their friends so that they can see the adorable cat picture.

A/S/L? (2 copies)
Select a user.  An adjacent user leaves all of that user's networks.

IPO
Your network goes public, generating a great deal of buzz, but changing the focus from users to making money. Roll once for each User in play, each of whom joins your network on a 6. Leave this card in front of you. From now on, your network's personal invitations are only accepted on a 6 unless affected by other card text.

New feature (2 copies)
Photo tagging? Video chat? Music sharing? Whatever it is, people want it.  Leave this card in front of you.  While there, your invitations are accepted on a 1 in addition to any other numbers.

Change of Management
Shakeups at the top make a network into something completely different.  Remove an action card from play.

SMTP Block List (2 copies)
Play this card in front of a player. As long as it's there, that player may not spam invite users.

The greatest form of flattery
Pick an action card in play.  The greatest form of flattery copies its text and acts as the original card.

Sherman Act
Play this card out of turn to cancel another card as it is played.  Both this card and the canceled card go to the discard pile.

Industrial Espionage
You've stolen another network's user list! Choose another network and spam invite all of its users.