Bootleggers (1st Edition)

Please note that 1st edition of this game only has 78 Men of action cards.

Bootleggers, developed by the hot new design team SDR, blends the great themes and setting you expect from American games with the fast pace and clever mechanics you expect from Euro-style games.

1918: Congress passes the 18th Amendment prohibiting the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages.

1919: The States ratify the 18th Amendment making it the law of the land.

1920: One year after ratification, prohibition goes into effect. President Hoover’s “noble experiment” is underway.

1921: Trafficking and manufacturing of illegal booze has become very profitable.

It is the time of the speakeasy and bath tub gin.

It is the time of the BOOTLEGGERS!

It's the roaring 20's and prohibition is in full swing in America. The business of illegal alcohol is growing bigger and getting more dangerous by the day. With so much money and corruption, organized crime is sure to follow. Illegal stills dot the countryside and (not so) secret speakeasies exist in every major city. Local authorities look the other way for a price, but G-Men are harder to sway and can wreak havoc on a budding enterprise.

In Bootleggers, you take the role of a boss, making a name for yourself in the trade of illegal alcohol or “hooch”. By muscling in on competition, paying off local authorities, and shipping trucks of hooch, your goal is to make more money than your competition by using any and all means available, both fair and unfair as you see fit.

Sound easy? Don’t bet on it. Bootleggers is easy to learn, but hard to master. It is a strategy game based on the production, shipment and consumption of illegal whiskey. Start your "family business" and build it into an empire. Deceit, lies, and alliances of convenience are the norm as you attempt to control the whiskey trade any way you can. Remember, it’s not personal, it’s business. How you interact with your fellow bosses is very important (“The Art of the Double Cross” by Donald Flush is recommended reading). But be careful, that boss that you double cross won’t just “forget about it”.

Bootleggers is designed for 3 to 6 players, with a playing time of 60 to 90 minutes. Each game has 12 turns (or it ends when a player reaches $100Gs, whichever comes first). Each turn consists of five phases, Muscle, Distillery, Whiskey Running, “What’s the Password”, and the Heat.