Coup (card game)

This article is about the 2012 card game. For the board game with the same name, see Coup (board game). For other uses, see Coup (disambiguation).

Coup

Manufacturers	Indie Boards & Cards
Designers	Rikki Tahta Sacha Alexander Haig Tahta
Illustrators	Behnam Balali Luis Francisco Andrew Higgins Alex Jensen Alexandr Kiselev Prapach Lapamnuaysap Tomasz Larek M81 Studio Jarek Nocoń Guillermo H. Nuñez Weberson Santiago Alejo Vigliani Uros Vuckovic
Publishers	La Mame Games
Publication	2012 (2012)
Genres	Card game Party game Social deduction game
Players	2–6
Playing time	15 minutes
Age range	14+
Website	http://indieboardsandcards.com/index.php/our-games/coup/

Coup is a social deduction card game designed by Rikki Tahta and published in 2012 by Indie Boards & Cards and La Mame Games. Players are given two cards and attempt to eliminate the other players by lying and calling their bluffs until only one player remains.

Gameplay

Each player has two face-down character cards, with the remaining cards being placed in a "Court Deck" in the centre of the play area. Players take turns performing actions, while the other players have the opportunity to challenge or enact a counteraction.

Character	Action	Effect	Counteraction
	Income	Take 1 coin
	Foreign Aid	Take 2 coins
	Coup	Pay 7 coins to force a player to lose a character card
Duke	Tax	Take 3 coins	Block foreign aid
Assassin	Assassinate	Pay 3 coins to force a player to lose a character card
Ambassador	Exchange	Exchange a card or cards with Court Deck	Block stealing
Captain	Steal	Take two coins from another player	Block stealing
Contessa			Block assassination

Some actions and counteractions require a player to claim to have a specific character card (which they can do regardless of whether or not they have it). Such claims can be challenged by anyone in the game, regardless of whether they are directly involved in the action. If a player is challenged, they must prove they had the played character card by revealing it from their face-down cards. If they can not or do not want to prove it, they lose the challenge, but if they can, the challenger loses. Whoever loses the challenge immediately loses one of their character cards. When a player loses both their character cards, that player is eliminated. The winner is the remaining player after all others have been eliminated.

Spin-offs and expansions

Coup: Rebellion Guatemala 1954

A spin-off, Coup: Rebellion Guatemala 1954 (also known as Coup: Rebellion G54), was released in 2014, which included a variable deck of 25 characters. The rules and gameplay are the same as Coup (2012) but with different possible characters, of which five out of the 25 are chosen in each game. An expansion of this called Coup: Rebellion G54 – Anarchy was released in 2016 which added seven new roles (Anarchists, Paramilitary, Arms Dealers, Freedom of Press, World Bank, Plantation Owners, and Socialists) and actions to the game.

Coup: Reformation

In 2014, the game Coup: Reformation was also released by Rikki Tahta and La Mame Games. In this version, each player must declare themself as either Loyalist or Reformist and can target only members of the other faction. Conversion between factions is possible by paying a donation to the Almshouse (treasury). After the other faction has all been eliminated or converted, all remaining players within a faction descend into in-fighting, and the game proceeds as in Coup (2012).

Reception

Upon its release, Coup received generally positive reviews. A review from The New York Times praised its simplicity, engagement, and replayability. Clayton Ashley from Polygon praised the game's simplicity and bluffing mechanism. Alex Walker, writing from Kotaku, complemented Coup: Rebellion for its ease of play, quick rounds, and mechanics. However, he also described that the game could "drag on over longer sessions" compared to the original.

External links

• Coup at BoardGameGeek
• http://programmer-underworlds.club - online multiplayer web version of coup card game.