Mango Republic

Mango Republic is a self-published game I originally created in 2006. I was living in Cambodia then and the country was — as it has been for decades — on the brink of madness. At about that time, the paragon of democracy that was Thailand flopped from one crisis to another, flirting with crippling populist protests, a military coup and bitter political infighting. And next door was Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia ... basically an endless buffet of bizarre governmental shenanigans.

Instead of writing yet another column or rant, I decided to make a game of it. This was a board game that would poke fun at the ridiculous political antics, allow players to imitate the over-the-top egos of the region's leaders, and play at a simplistic form of representative democracy. Also, it would be fun.

Because crushing your political enemies is fun. At least the leaders of a great many countries seem to think so.

Mechanics

Mango Republic is primarily played with cards, which give the player various options.

There is a board to keep track the activists, parliamentarians and generals in Mango Republic. Tokens placed by the player on the districts count as activists, tokens on parliament count as parliamentarians or members of parliament, and tokens on Fort Peace count as generals.

The more activists in a district the player has, the more parliamentarians he gets. The more parliamentarians he has, the more cards he can hold. Cards give you options to gain activists, generals and hurt your opponents.

Whoever establishes complete control over the government, wins.

More information 

Download the rules here.

The Kickstarter campaign, which fell short, is here. You can buy the game at The Game Crafter.