A Perfectly Civilized Card Game

for 2-4 Players

ages 9+ Round Setup 2 Research
lasting 30-60 Minutes Shuffle the deck and deal each player a hand of cards, which only that player may View the top 2 cards of the Draw Deck, add 1 to your hand and discard the
look at. The number of cards depends on the number of players. other card to the top of the Research Discard. If there is only 1 card in the
2 players – 10 cards each Draw Deck, just add that card to your hand.
designer: Sheamus Parkes Remember, when you discard due to a research action, place it in the Research
developer: Rob Seater 3 players – 9 cards each
Discard, which is oriented perpendicular to the Draw Deck.
artist: Steven Bagatzky 4 players – 8 cards each
by Sheamus Parkes graphic design: Heiko Gunter The remaining cards are placed face down in the center of the table to form the
Example: During his Explore phase, Socrates chooses to make a Research action. He
picks up the top two cards of the Draw Deck. He sees an Engine and a Farmer. He
Draw Deck. There are two (initially empty) discard piles, one on either side of adds the Farmer to his hand and places the Engine on the Research Discard Pile.
the Draw Deck. To distinguish them, the Research Discard is oriented perpen- Socrates goes on to complete the rest of his turn. Thera goes next. During her Explore
Contents dicular to the Draw Deck, whereas the Scrap Discard is oriented parallel to the phase, she chooses to pick up the Engine from the top of the Research Discard Pile
this rulebook Draw Deck. instead of performing a Research action.
54 card deck
1 rule reminder card
paper and pencil for scoring (not provided) Phase B: Expand (Play)
Research Discard During this phase, you may do any or all of the following actions, in any order.
Background Draw Deck
1 play a Theory
It is a dark future for humanity. Technology is regressing, and those who can still You may take a Theory card from your hand and place it face up in front of
operate the ancient machines are worshiped. Our last hope lies in the discovery Scrap Discard you, as part of your society. You may only play one Theory each turn.
of an ancient book describing how to build a perfect world. 3.000 years after its
2 begin a new Job
original conception, Plato’s Republic might finally become a reality.
Both discard piles are face-up, and players may view their contents at any time. You may take 3 Job cards with the same title from your hand and place them
face up in front of you, as part of your society. You can play Engines to reduce
1 MetaPhysics 1 Overview & Objective It can be helpful to splay the discards out, so that it is easy to see what is lower
down in each pile. But maintain the order of cards within each discard pile! the number of copies you need to start the Job (by one card per engine played).
The game is played over a series of rounds. You may only being one new Job each turn.
MetaPhysics

MetaPhysics

In each round, players draw fresh hands of

cards, take turns playing cards until the round
is terminated, and then score. If any player’s
running score total reaches 100 points, the
team with the highest combined score wins.
Theory
Turn Order Example: During his Expand phase, Xeno first Initiates Farmers with a set of 3
matching Farmers. He takes the 3 Farmers from his hand an places them face up in
In the first round, the team with the youngest player goes first. In later rounds,
the team with the lowest combined score goes first. Turns proceed clockwise (to his Society . He would also like to Initiate Philosophers, but he can only Initiate one
the left). Job per turn. Xeno then plays Physics, which grants him a bonus Research action. The

Theory

Farmer power is in effect for that research action. Afterwards, Xeno would like to play
If you are on a team of two, the rightmost player on that team takes the first turn, MetaPhysics, but he cannot play it until his next turn (since he already played one
Anatomy of a Card and then turns proceed clockwise. In this manner, both players of the losing team Theory).
Point Value will take turns before either player of the winning team. If there is a tie, the same
team starts as in the previous round. 3 extend existing Jobs
Card Name
When played, choose a card in Theory marker (if not present, it’s a Job) If there is already at least one copy of a Job card in play in any player’s soci-
either discard. Draw that card
ety, then you may play another copy of that Job face up in front of you, as part
and all cards above it. Art (no game effect)
Special Abilities
Playing a Round of your own society. You may perform this action any number of times per
Players take turns in clockwise order. Each player’s turn has three phases: turn, intermixed with the other actions however you wish. You can even extend
Phase A: Explore (Draw) the same Job several times, if you want.
Game Setup Phase B: Expand (Play) Example: It is Thera’s expand phase, and she has 3 Fishermen in play. Xeno has 3
Setup a score sheet to record the running score for each player. Scores are public
Phase C: Decay (Discard) Merchants in play. She first plays a Fisherman, extending that Job. She next initiates
knowledge.
a new Job, by playing 3 Priests. She then plays a 4th Priest, extending that Job. Next,
Divide into teams. In a 2-3 player game, each player is his or her own team. In a she plays a MetaPhysics Theory card. The plays a 5th Priest, further extending that
4 player game, there will be two teams of two. Teammates sit next to each other, Phase A: Explore (Draw) Job. Finally, she plays a Philosopher, which she places in front of her. Since she only
but they cannot show each other their hands and cannot communicate with The active player must choose one of the following two options: has one Merchant, Thera won’t get its power (unless she later plays a second), but she
each other about game strategy or the contents of their hands. will score its points at the end of the round.
1 Excavate
Each team will have a separate running score. Players on the same team combine
Draw the top card of either discard pile. You cannot draw from a discard pile
their score gains and losses into one running total. (See Ending the Game & Win-
that is empty.

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ning, below).
4 trade (4 player games only)
Instead of playing a Theory (option 1), you can trade cards with your partner.
To do this, first pass 2 cards from hand to your partner, keeping them hidden
from your opponents. You partner adds them to her hand, and then passes back
2 cards (possibly the same ones!). You and your partner cannot discuss what
you want or why you passed the cards you did. You cannot trade and play a
Theory on the same turn.
IMPORTANT: You cannot ever play the last card in your hand during the
Expand phase (B). You can only empty your hand by discarding your last card
in the Decay phase (C).
Phase C: Decay (Discard)
At the end of your turn, you must place a card from your hand face up on the
Scrap Discard pile. This is mandatory, and it is the only way you can discard
the last card from your hand.
Remember to place the discarded card into the Scrap Discard, which is parallel
to the Draw Deck.
Once you have no cards in your hand, you sit out (skipping your turn) until the
end of the round. Usually that won’t be much longer!
Ending and Scoring the Round
The round can end in either of two ways:
1 Only one team has a player with cards left in hand, or
2 The last card in the Draw Deck is drawn.
In either case, end the current players’ turn, but then the round ends.
This means that, in a two player game, the game ends as soon as either player
runs out of cards. In a three player game, the game ends as soon as two of the
three players run out of cards. In a 4 player game, the game ends when both play-
ers on either team have run out of cards. Once a player is out of cards, her turns
are completely skipped for the rest of the round (which is usually not long!).
Scoring a Round
A card’s value is printed in its upper left corner. All face-up cards in a player’s
Society score positive points equal to the sum of their values. All cards remain-
ing in a player’s hand score negative points equal to their value. Note that
Engines are always worth negative points, whether they are in your hand or in
your society.
Players keep a running total of their score between rounds, and scores are public
knowledge. It is possible to have a negative score.
If any individual player has reached 100 points at the end of a round, then the
team with the highest combined point total wins. If no player has reached 100
points, then start a new round. If there is a tie for the win, then play another
round.
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Card Clarifications
& number in deck
Physics Theory x5 0 points
When you add Physics to your Society , you imme-
diately take a research action. This research action is
exactly like the one you perform at the start of a turn,
and it can be modified by Job powers such as Farmer,
Fisherman, and Merchant.
MetaPhysics Theory x3 1 point
When you add MetaPhysics to your Society , you im-
mediately choose any card in either discard. Draw that
card, plus all cards above it.
Unlike the excavation action taken at the beginning of
a turn, you don’t have to pick the top card. It’s ok to
choose the top card of discard pile; you just take that
one card. However, you must draw at least one card
with MetaPhysics; you cannot play MetaPhysics if
there are no cards in either discard pile.
Utopia / Dystopia Theory x2 ? points
Utopia and Dystopia behave exactly the same.
You cannot play this card unless you have at least
4 distinct Jobs in your society. ? is the number of
distinct Jobs you have in your society.
If in your hand at game end, this card costs you
points, equal to the number of distinct Jobs in your
society. Theories and Engines do not count towards
the number of distinct Jobs you have, since they are
not Jobs.
Engine Engine x5 -2-4 pts
When beginning a new Job, you may substitute En-
gines for cards of that Job type. You must still have at
least one card of the chosen Job. The Engines are set
to the side, and do not count as being part of the Job
they helped initiate.
Example: You could initiate Farmers with 2 Farmers and 1
Engine.You could also do it with 2 Engines and 1 Farmer,
but then the Farmer power wouldn’t function (since the
Engines don’t count as Farmers, and Farmers
only work if you have at least 2 of them.
At the end of the game, Engines are worth negative
points whether they are in your hand or in your soci-
ety. They are highly unstable ancient technology!
Note that it is legal to initiate a Job using 3 copies of
that Job and/or Engines even if copies of that Job are
already in play (just to get Engines out of your hand).
Mechanic Job x5 2 points
For each Mechanic in your society, you may ignore
the point penalty of one Engine card in your society.
Mechanics do not counteract Engines in your hand.
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Farmer Job x5 3 points
If you have 2 or more Farmers in your society, then
whenever you Research you may keep one additional
card that you view. Keeping the extra card is optional,
and you don’t have to decide until you see what you
draw.
Fisherman Job x5 1 point
If you have 2 or more Fishermen in your society, then
whenever you Research you may view 3 cards, instead
of 2. You still only keep one of those cards. The other
two are discarded to the Research Discard in either
order. If there are fewer than 3 cards in the Draw
Deck, view them all.
Merchant Job x5 2-3 pts
If you have 2 or more Merchants in your society, then
whenever you Research you may discard a card al-
ready in your hand (to the Research Discard) to keep
one additional card that you viewed. In this manner,
you can keep both cards you view, at the cost of a card
you already had. This is optional.
Farmer + Fisherman
You research actions become the following:
View 3 cards form the deck. You may keep either
1 or 2 of them. Discard the unwanted cards to the
Research Discard (in any order).
Merchant + Farmer
You research actions become the following:
View 2 cards from the deck. Either discard one of
those cards or one card already in your hand.
Merchant + Fisherman
You research actions become the following:
View 3 cards from the deck. Discard one of them to
the Research Discard. Then either discard another
viewed card to the Research Discard or discard
another card from your hand to the Research Discard.
Keep the remaining card.
Merchant + Farmer + Fisherman
You research actions become the following:
View 3 cards. You may keep 1, 2, or 3 of them.
Discard the cards you don’t keep. If you keep 2 cards,
you may discard 1 additional card from your hand. If
you keep 3 cards you must discard 1 additional card
from your hand.
Philosopher Job x5 2 points
If you have 2 or more Philosophers in your Society at
Engine + Priest
If you have 2 or more Priests in play, then you can use
the end of a round, then you score 1 point for each an Engine plus any Job card to initiate that Job.
Theory in play in all players’ Societies. This bonus
only counts once total, not once per Philosopher card.
Soldier Job x4 1-3 pts
Historian Job x5 1-2 pts The first time each round that you add a Soldier to
your society, you may choose any one card in any
If you have 2 or more Historians in your Society when Society and place it on the bottom of the Draw Deck.
you draw from a discard pile, you may choose any
Each player can only ever eliminate one card per
card from the discard pile (not just the top card). Take
round, no matter how many Soldiers are added to
just that card and put it into your hand.
his or her society. If you initiate with 3 Soldiers, you
only eliminate one card. If you later extend your set
with a 4th Soldier, you do not eliminate another card.
Historian + MetaPhysics
However, if you extend someone else’s Soldier, and
If you have 2 or more Historians when you play Meta-
Physics, you may opt to not draw the cards above the
you didn’t already have any of your own already, then
you get to eliminate one card.
one you select. However, you must either take all or
none of the cards above the one you chose – you can-
not pick and choose.
Priest Job x5 2 points
If you have 2 or more Priests in your society, then
you may begin new Jobs using only 2 matching cards,
not 3. This effect does not apply until the Priests are
in play, so it does not help you initiate the Priests
themselves.
Tournament Rules
For official play, shuffle two Plato 3000
decks together.  This works especially well
with 4-player team play.
The Designer
Sheamus Parkes is a person. Sheamus Parkes is a person. Sheamus Parkes is a per-
son. Sheamus Parkes is a person. Sheamus Parkes is a person. Sheamus Parkes is a
person. Sheamus Parkes is a person. Sheamus Parkes is a person. Sheamus Parkes is
a person. Sheamus Parkes is a person. Sheamus Parkes is a person.
Thank You
We are grateful to the help provided by our playtesters, especially Nathan Dilday,
Jessica Seater, Nicole Hendrickson, and Mark Bigney.
Other thankyous.
Cambridge Games Factory
CGF is a company. CGF is a company. CGF is a company. CGF is a company. CGF
is a company. CGF is a company. CGF is a company. CGF is a company. CGF is a
pany. CGF is a company. CGF is a company. CGF is a company. CGF is a company.
CGF is a company. CGF is a company. CGF is a company. CGF is a company.
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