Designed by: Adam Porter,Rob Fisher
Kompromat is a two-player spy game based on Blackjack. Players try to complete missions without raising their notoriety too high – the player completing the most valuable missions will win the game or the game ends when someone’s notoriety score reaches nine, at which point they instantly lose.
Each player has a deck of Equipment cards numbered from 2-10 with a single 0.5 card and two 1/11 cards, which you can choose to represent one or eleven. At the start of each round four Mission cards are laid face-up in a display, and your goal is to ‘win’ the mission by playing the highest-scoring cards to it – with the catch they if you go over 21, you ‘bust’ and cannot win. On your turn, you look at the top card of your deck and play it face-up next to any mission where you’ve not yet played cards. Then, for as long as you choose, you can keep flipping more cards and adding them face-down to the initial card, stopping either when you don’t want to risk another card, or because you’ve bust. In either event, keep a nice straight face…
Both players take turns playing cards this way until every mission has cards from either player both sides of it, at which point they’re revealed and the missions awarded to the winning player. Ties are broken in favour of the player who played the most cards, and anyone going bust receives a notoriety token. Then decks are shuffled and a new round begins. (If you win a mission with a perfect score of 21, you can discard a notoriety token too)
Note however that different missions score in different ways. Targets simply have a points value. Documents and codes reward more when collected in larger sets. Items give you a one-off power – keep them face-up for use in a future turn, and flip them over once used. And counter-intelligence cards aren’t actually missions at all – when revealed at the start of a round they get tucked under a standard Mission card – whoever wins that mission also takes the notoriety, which can be risky.
If neither player maxes out their notoriety, then points are totalled after the sixth round. Now your notoriety is finally helpful – as well as the mission cards, each token is worth a point. Most points: wins!
Some of the mission cards do have little take-that elements to them, but it's nothing too horrendous.
Very low indeed.
Stick or twist? Outside of that the key to the game is can you read your opponent?
The reveal of your deck is randomized in each round, and the mission cards can't be predicted.
2-2
Players
8+
Years
15-30
Mins
Sam says
If at first you seem at the mercy of fate, Kompromat reveals itself to be a little more nuanced than simply doubling down and hoping for the best. What might appear a two-player Blackjack variant has more going on than that: the four opening cards give a little information. The growing notoriety of both sides increases tension and loads each card flip with drama - but whatever the result a straight face is needed if you're not to give away how despairing/confident (delete as appropriate) you are. In our first game the trailing player deliberately bust twice to put the other side at 9 notoriety, losing the game.