Kickstarter

Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

We are so grateful for all your support.  And now, we are off and running to produce games for you.

Stretch Goal ($45,000)

If we hit this goal, we will donate another 100 games to schools. This extra money will also enable us to upgrade our website to make it more fun for you.

The Game

The Presidential is a game of strategy played with dice and chance cards on a beautifully designed map of the U.S. showing the Electoral College votes of each state.  Two teams, Democrats and Republicans, fight for control of state delegations to ultimately win more than 270 electoral votes.  The Presidential is an entertaining and educational family game -- fun for both students (13+) and adults.  You may not know how the Electoral College works, but you'll enjoy the excitement of playing for the most powerful job in the world!

Funding Bonus

We have gotten many questions about donating The Presidential Game to schools.  We agree that a game would be much more fun than a text book civics lesson.  So, if we are successful in raising our goal, we will donate 200 games to schools. 

What's In The Box?

TAKE A LOOK HERE: http://gallery.me.com/b.m.e#100086

1 Board

1 Score pad

 6 dice

80 Politics Cards

150 Republican Votes (red chips) and 150 Democrat Votes (blue chips)

Electoral WebMap Calculator Access (www.thepresidentialgame.com)

The map is a replica of the board and shows the states and the electoral votes associated with them.  After each turn, each team will update the map to reflect the states they have won or lost in their turn.  Click once on the state to turn it Republican (Red), once more to turn in Democrat (Blue) and once more to return it to Neutral (tan).  At the top of the map you can see how many electoral votes the Republicans and Democrats have at any time.

The Play of the Game

The 2 teams decide which side will be the Republicans and which side will be the Democrats.  The Republicans take the 150 red votes (chips) and the 3 red dice.  The Democrats take the 150 blue votes (chips) and the 3 blue dice.

The teams then decide how much time there is until election day.  This can be done by picking a length of play (30 minutes, 1 hour etc.) or selecting a number of weeks until the election.  30 weeks is a game that lasts approximately 1 hour.

On each turn, each team must decide whether they will go Fundraising or Campaigning.

Fundraising…There are 4 states where a candidate can fund raise (California, New York, Florida and Texas).  The team decides which state they would like to fund raise in and then rolls 2 dice.  

If a team rolls a 9, they have 9 votes to distribute.  At least 1/2 the votes must stay in the fundraising state.  So, in this case 5.  The remaining 4 votes may be allocated individually to any other state.  For example, if the Republicans went to Texas to fund raise and rolled a 9, the Republicans must allocate 5 votes to Texas.  The Republicans could decide to put all 9 votes in Texas.  If they put 5 in Texas,  then they might opt to allocate 2 votes to Colorado, 1 vote to Oregon and 1 vote to Washington.  

The team then draws a Politics Card, follows the instructions, and returns the card face-down to the bottom of the deck.  The Politics Cards offer many rewards and a few penalties to the teams.  They are similar to rolling another die.

Politics Cards...Here are a few examples of the Politics Cards.

Silicon Valley tycoons host a successful fundraiser for you. Add 6 votes to California.

You receive a 100% approval rating from the NRA.  Win 5 votes in Texas.

 A popular blogger unveils pictures of your opponent’s wife buying a brand new Bentley.  Add 3 votes to Michigan.

 You are spotted wearing a Red Sox hat while prepping for a debate.  Your opponent adds 3 votes to New York.

Campaigning…If a team chooses to campaign, the team selects and announces the 3 states they will campaign in on that turn.  Each state may only be visited once each turn.  The team then rolls 3 dice.  The team then decides which die corresponds to each state and contributes those votes to that state.  

For example, if the Democrats decide to campaign in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, they roll three dice.  If the Democrats roll a 6, 5 and a 3, the Democrats can opt to allocate the votes to Pennsylvania (6), Ohio (5) and Illinois (3) or the Democrats could decide to allocate the votes to Pennsylvania (5), Ohio (6) and Illinois (3).

Votes…Each chip equals 1 vote.   Votes are gained through the roll of the dice and the Politics Cards.  At any one time, each state is Republican (Red), Democrat (Blue) or neutral.   The votes in a state represent the net amount of chips that have been allocated by both parties.

So, if there are no votes in New York, and the Republicans add 5 votes to NY, 5 red chips are stacked on New York.

If the Democrats then add 8 votes to New York, the 5 red chips are removed and 3 blue chips are stacked on New York.

If the Republicans then add 2 votes to New York, 2 blue chips are removed from New York.

End of the Game…When time is up (either the set time or the number of weeks that was selected have passed), there may be several states that are undecided (still neutral) either because they are in a tie or no team has campaigned in them or allocated them fund raising money.  At that point, a neutral state is selected and each team rolls a die.  The highest die wins the state and the electoral votes go to that team.  If there is a tie roll, the teams roll again.  The team with the highest number of electoral votes after all the neutral states have been awarded to either team wins the game.