The story so far

Magic has become unbalanced, creating disharmony among the citizens of the realm, and prompting an investigation by the order of Zoological Zealots. They have ruled that casting communities in your area were illegally gerrymandered and new ley lines must be cast immediately. As an adept and member of the magic community, you have been summoned to join the sacred council recasting the lines. This is your opportunity to alter the lines to benefit your own secret agenda. Rezone the new communities to your liking, but be careful! The other communities have their secret agendas as well. You'll have to outmaneuver the rest of the sacred council to benefit your community.

The sacred council is now called to order.

This is a family friendly game for players 12 and up. Bring this game home or easily take it with you to a party or game night. These premium custom components will look great in your hand and in play.

Objective

Your goal as a magic adept, as one of four characters from sacred magic cultures is to outmaneuver your opponents. Each character will be placing colorful triangle shaped tiles down and around each opponents tiles in a race to win casting communities. Each tile has two sides and one - three different color patches on it and can be laid by your opponent or yourself in a way that each color will then form a community. There by placing a colored magic crystal upon the district and capturing the district. You do this by completely surrounding the casting community in one color of the adepts. Once it is surrounded the new community is born. There are different play modes that determine the length of play.

The player who goes first is the player clockwise from the player who owns the "Unmarked Ballot of Shame". You win this prestigious award by being the player whom last shirked their civic duty by not voting in the last election cycle. For shame, you go last.

At the beginning of the game each player chooses with their slider and Secret Agenda selection card which casting community adept you really want to win. You get one point for every crystal of your own color, but you receive two points for each Secret Agenda crystal they have. Therefore making whomever is the sneakiest the true winner

Unless you are truly altruistic and want all this gerrymandering to fail by selecting to make gray the winner. But where's the fun in that?

Beware, each adept has a magical ability they can play once and it may just change the way each player chooses to engage the play area.

Why Play Secret Agenda?

Easy to play, hard to master. Secret Agenda is easy enough for new gamers and strategic enough for expert gamers.

At the beginning of the game draw three tiles, then every round has three simple parts to play. First place one tile from your hand, either side, upon the play area, second draw back up to three tiles. Last, if a casting community is formed place the appropriate color crystal upon it.

This may look like a typical game, but look closer. While this appears to be a simple tile-laying game, it's anything but. In Secret Agenda, you do not win by simply creating enclosed areas; no, this game is won through plurality - meaning you win an area by having the most of a single color surrounding said area. If there is a tie for the area or gray mostly surrounds the area then no one gets it! So be careful, If gray doesn't control the fewest areas - no one wins!

Secret Agenda is the right game for lovers of new ways of playing. For lovers of political intrigue and magical creatures. Players looking to jump right into a game that focuses more on strategy and less on luck.

Ending and Winning

Play until the supply of any single color of gem is reduced to one, zero tiles are left, or no one can play, then finish the current round ending with the player holding the unmarked ballot of shame. Count the number of gerrymandered communities in your own color, then add twice the number of gerrymandered communities in the color indicated by your Secret Agenda selector.

The adept with the highest score wins. Ties are possible; however, if the number of communities that are not gerrymandered exceeds the number of communities in any adepts color (Including colors not claimed by an adept), no one wins!

Features

Tile Drafting - Just draw three tiles at the beggining of the game and draft a new tile at the end of your turn. Magic abilities bring a bit of intrigue into the game.

Two sides of Tile Placement - Secret Agenda at its heart is a puzzle game. Collect tiles with two sides and place them in optimal locations on the play area to score the most points.

Varied Scoring Goals - What is a casting community? When you place a tile and create one or more shapes surrounded by colored borders, each of those new shapes is a casting community. For each new casting community, count the number of borders in each color according to the chosen method of play.

If there is not a single color that has the highest number of edges bordering the community, or if the highest number of edges are gray, then gerrymandering was unsuccessful. Place a gray gem to mark the new casting community as not gerrymandered. The borders, the influence of neighbors on voting, is what this game is about.

Three Play Methods - Choosing and agreeing upon a method of play before starting is important.

Edges on Tiles - In this beginner count method, imagine standing in the middle of every tile along the perimeter of the region, and look away at the edges that are past the borders. This would have four red borders (one for each edge beyond the borders).

Borders on Tiles - * Prefered Method. In this standard count method this would have two red borders (one on each tile).

Walk the Border - This style is more for the competitive player. in this method, there is only one continuous red border around the whole blue region, even though it spans multiple tiles through the points of intersection at the triangle corners. Borders across tiles makes the game very challenging.

Four Unique Animal Avatars - Choose one of the four avatars to use:

1. Red Panda - Are an extreme environmentalist community. Pandas live in bamboo forests and have rigid rules regarding waste hierarchy. Before any type of new natural resources can be touched. all reusable material must be re-purposed. Red Pandas cast Fènnù magics and are average sized. they pray to the sun deity Ailùridaè.

2. Squid - Live in a utopian community. They share everything in their community. Squid do not believe in ownership, nor do they believe in heavy-handed community control. Basically an anarchy, a free-for-all. All weapons are outlawed in this aquatic community. Squid are small, slim, and cast fluid magics. they pray to the sunken deity Coleoidea.

3. Vulture - Have an INFLEXIBLE theocratic community, one where the moral system of the "faithful" has absolute control. Members that do not obey the laws of the community are persecuted with extreme prejudice. Vultures nest in caves and cast aura magics they are stoic and tall. They pray to the floating deity Zopilote.

4. Toads - live in a dystopian hydromorphic community, where tadpoles are used as sacrificial pawns to further community agendas. Violence is encouraged, and petty bullies battle one another to control all community parties. Toads tend to work against others. The large Toads cast terra magics. They pray to the stone deity Bufonidae.

Player Aid

How to play video coming soon