The crisis manual

A senior politician in Arkania has been assassinated. The assassin is a Belvarian intelligence officer still hiding inside Arkania. Arkania must find and arrest him. Belvaria must get him out. Six government decision-makers control the crisis — but two of them are secretly working for the opposite country. Every round brings one world event, one action per player, optional Wild Cards, and rising pressure. Find the assassin, protect your true allegiance, and do not let the crisis spiral out of control.

Shadow Frontiers is entirely fictional. Arkania and Belvaria are invented countries; no real nations, politicians or events are depicted.

• 6 players. Three hold Arkanian positions (Prime Minister, Intelligence Chief, Foreign Minister); three hold Belvarian positions (President, Intelligence Chief, Foreign Minister).
• Allegiance cards are dealt secretly: 4 Loyal and 2 Two-Face.
• Each player receives one secret Personal Objective.
• National Score starts at 50 for Arkania and 50 for Belvaria. Crisis starts at 0. Every player starts with 10 Influence.
• Each player starts with 2 Wild Cards (hand limit 3).
• The Assassin is secretly placed at one of the eight locations.
• Every player reviews their classified briefing and confirms “I Understand” before Round 1.

Citizenship is public. It tells the table which country you officially belong to, and it never changes — even if you are exposed.

Allegiance is secret. A Loyal player serves their public country. A Two-Face secretly serves the rival country.

Your true allegiance decides which country you are trying to make win, and whether you can be the Individual Winner.

Exactly 2 players are Two-Faces. A Two-Face keeps their public citizenship and institutional role — and the powers that come with it — while working for the other side.

If exposed by a correct accusation, a Two-Face’s allegiance is revealed and they become an Exposed Operative: they lose their role power but stay in the game.

Prototype: Two-Face cards are dealt at random, so both may sit in the same country.

Eight locations: Capital, Government District, Intelligence HQ, Airport, Port, Northern Border, Southern Border, Safe House. Extraction points: Airport and Northern Border.

• Capital ↔ Government District
• Capital ↔ Airport
• Capital ↔ Intelligence HQ
• Government District ↔ Intelligence HQ
• Government District ↔ Port
• Intelligence HQ ↔ Safe House
• Airport ↔ Port
• Airport ↔ Northern Border
• Port ↔ Southern Border
• Safe House ↔ Northern Border
• Safe House ↔ Southern Border
• Northern Border ↔ Southern Border

TODO_RULES: The source concept does not define movement connectivity. This graph is a product implementation assumption for development and playtesting, not a canonical rule. Edit edges here; no engine code changes are required.

The game lasts at most 8 rounds. Each round has four phases:

• EVENT — draw and resolve exactly one Event card.
• ACTIONS — each player takes exactly one action, in turn order.
• WILDS — each player may play at most 1 Wild Card (or stand down).
• SCORE — the round is settled: summit agreements, Wild replacements, restrictions expire.

Turn order (prototype): A-PM → A-IC → A-FM → B-PR → B-IC → B-FM.

• Round 1: Opening crisis
• Round 2: Investigation
• Round 3: Pressure rises
• Round 4: More information
• Round 5: Diplomatic crisis
• Round 6: Extraction window
• Round 7: Final operations
• Round 8: Final chance

Move your token to one connected location. Closed locations cannot be entered unless you play a Border Pass with the move.

Draw 2 Intelligence cards and keep them privately. An Intelligence Chief can use Deep Search to draw 3 instead.

Investigations can be cancelled by Counterintelligence.

Search your current location. You must be able to present 2 pieces of location evidence for it — Intelligence cards in your hand or revealed publicly that place the Assassin there.

If the Assassin is there, he is captured: Arkania +10, Belvaria -10, Crisis -1, and the game ends immediately.

If any of your evidence was planted (False Intelligence) and the rest is not enough, the warrant is rejected and your action is spent.

Formally accuse a player you believe is a Two-Face. You need 2 pieces of evidence against them.

Correct: they are exposed. The accuser’s public country +5, the Two-Face’s true country -5.

Wrong: the accuser loses 3 Influence and their country 2 National Score.

If planted evidence leaves too little true evidence, the accusation is dismissed and the action is spent.

Make deals, promises or threats at the table. Players may lie; promises are never enforced by the game.

Prototype: the first Negotiate each round lowers Crisis by 1.

• Executive Order (Prime Minister / President): when another official of your public country declares an action, cancel it. The action does not resolve and still counts as their action. Costs 1 Influence; at most 1 per round. It is a reaction and does not use your own action.
• Deep Search (Intelligence Chief): investigate and draw 3 cards instead of 2.
• Back Channel (Foreign Minister): open a private chat with one official of the opposing country until the end of the round. The table learns a Back Channel opened, never what was said.

Exposed Operatives lose their role power. A Double Agent Wild Card can cancel any role power, including an Executive Order.

Some powers and cards interrupt an action. When an action is declared it may pass through two windows before it resolves:

• Executive window — the actor’s Prime Minister or President may issue an Executive Order. Everyone can see this window.
• Covert window — anyone holding a matching reaction Wild (Counterintelligence, Safe House, Double Agent) may play it. The table never learns who could respond.

Windows close after 15s or when everyone eligible passes. Covert windows always stay open at least 2.5s so their length gives nothing away.

One Event is drawn at the start of every round and resolved immediately. See the card list below.

Intelligence is what players discover: where the Assassin is, which officials are compromised, routes out of the country, and proof of foreign involvement.

Intelligence is private unless you reveal it. You may reveal any card to the table at any time, for free. Public cards attach to their location on the map and count as evidence for everyone.

Genuine intelligence is not always accurate: UNVERIFIED cards may name the wrong place or the wrong person.

Prototype deck — card list below.

Wild Cards are tricks. Each player starts with 2, may play at most 1 per round, and draws a replacement at the end of a round in which they played one (hand limit 3).

Most are played in the Wilds phase. Counterintelligence, Safe House and Double Agent are reactions played in response windows; a Border Pass is played with your Move.

Evidence is the Intelligence you can present: cards in your hand plus every card revealed to the table.

• Search: 2 location cards naming that location.
• Accuse: 2 allegiance cards naming that official.

Cards planted with False Intelligence look identical to real ones but never count. You will only discover this when a warrant or accusation fails verification.

Each country’s standing. Starts at 50. A country needs at least 60 to win.

Prototype values. Foreign involvement is proven once 2 true Foreign Involvement cards are public. Major Intelligence Failure and War escalation have no defined trigger yet and are disabled.

Personal standing. Everyone starts at 10. Influence totals are public.

• Executive Order: −1.
• False accusation: -3.
• Political Scandal: −2 to the targeted Prime Minister or President.
• Prototype rewards: correct accusation +2, capture +2, extraction +2, summit agreement +1 per Foreign Minister.
• Completed Personal Objectives add their reward at the end of the game.

A shared danger meter. Events, Media Bombshells and failures push it up; negotiation and a capture bring it down.

A successful Search captures the Assassin and ends the game immediately. Arkania wins if, after the capture bonus, it has at least 60 National Score.

Belvaria must get the Assassin out through an extraction point (Airport or Northern Border).

• From Round 6, a player whose TRUE allegiance is Belvarian may use their action to Move Asset: the Assassin moves one edge. It works only if the destination is adjacent and they hold a true location or route card for the origin or destination. The table sees only “a covert operation”.
• From Round 6, such a player standing at an open extraction point where the Assassin is, holding 1 true location/route card for it, may Extract.
• Successful extraction: Belvaria +10, Arkania -10; the game ends. Belvaria wins with at least 60.

Provisional rule strategy for playtesting — the source concept leaves Assassin movement and extraction prerequisites open.

When the crisis ends: the national outcome is announced, every allegiance is revealed, Personal Objectives are scored, and the Individual Winner is named.

The Individual Winner is the highest-Influence player whose true allegiance belongs to the winning country. If no country won, the highest Influence is shown as Top Influence instead. Ties are co-winners (prototype).

• Arkania wins: capture the Assassin and finish with at least 60.
• Belvaria wins: extract the Assassin and finish with at least 60.

A capture or extraction below the threshold still ends the game, as a Diplomatic Stalemate (prototype).

If Round 8 ends and neither country has completed its objective and reached 60, the result is a Diplomatic Stalemate.

If Crisis reaches 10, the game ends at once. No Assassin bonus is awarded; both countries lose 10. The higher National Score earns a Crisis Survival Victory. Individual Influence is still calculated.

A tie is shown as Mutual Crisis Collapse — no tiebreaker is defined.