# The Dictator

> A free satirical card game in the browser about how democracies are taken apart, and who stops it. You are the Leader of Freedonia, a fictional republic, and you want to rule for good; the Opposition wants you gone. Each year both sides lay cards face down in five venues, then the cards turn over, and any of them can backfire. No download, no account. Play at https://dictator.one/play

The Dictator is made by Newton's Games. It is satire: the country, its people and its newspapers are fictional. The historical cases the game cites are real and sourced.

© 2026 Newton's Games. Card text, art and rules all rights reserved.

## How it plays

- Two sides: the Leader (the player) and the Opposition (played by the game, under the same rules). The Opposition is four people: Vera Byline (editor of The Clarion), Ambrose Stare (Chief Justice), Barnaby Quorum (Speaker of Parliament) and Nell Picket (organiser).
- Five venues, each with a count from 0 to 10 of what the Leader holds there: Parliament (deputies who vote with you), the Court (judges in your pocket), the Newsroom (front pages that print your story), the Streets (people who stay at home) and the Club (chairs at your table).
- Each year both sides get $FIAT (Freedonia's Infallible Autocrat Token), draw cards and lay them face down in the venues, up to two each, paying each card's cost. The Leader sees where the Opposition's cards are, how many, and whose face is on them; nothing else.
- Then the reveal, venue by venue: the cards turn over and each rolls a die. A red face backfires, and that year the card counts for the other side. The side with more clout in a venue moves its count its way, one step for each point of difference, up to four. The winner's two strongest cards stay standing; standing cards lose a point of clout each year, and a venue held by standing cards keeps paying its holder.
- Each deck has an Executive Order, played once a term (for example Fast-track: for one year every card costs 1 $FIAT less).
- Elections come every fourth year (years 4, 8, 12 and on). Before year 1 the Leader chooses an ambition, a regime with its own goals: Soft Autocracy, Kleptocracy, Shadow Regime, Populist Strongman, Emergency Rule or Iron Dictatorship. Meet every goal at an election and the Leader wins. The Opposition wins if the Court, the Newsroom, the Streets or the Club reaches 0 at any time, or Parliament at an election.
- Twelve endings: six victories (one per ambition), five defeats (Voted Out, Democratic Restoration, Media Exposure, Popular Revolution, Military Coup) and one more the game keeps sealed.
- Every game ends with a front page (the State Gazette, the regime's paper, for a win; The Clarion for a loss), a debrief (what would have stopped the regime, and where the game simplifies) and a real historical case matched to the ending, chosen from 41 cases with sources (for example Hungary 2010–2014, Chile 1988, the United States 1972–1974, South Korea 2024).
- Six decks. Everyone starts with the Playbook; winning an ambition opens the deck built for it (Velvet Glove, Populist Surge, Institutional Capture, Iron Fist, Emergency Powers), with cards found in no other deck and an Executive Order of its own.
- Four difficulties: Story, Normal, Hard and Crisis (a 60-second clock).

## Today's coup

One game a day, the same for everyone: the same ambition, deck, twist and draws. The first attempt goes on the day's leaderboard.

## Facts

- Price: free. Platforms: any modern web browser on a computer, or a phone held sideways.
- Length: a year takes a minute or two; elections come every fourth year. Single player. Language: English.
- Content: 255 cards (177 for the Leader, 78 for the Opposition), each illustrated in a cut-paper, art-deco-meets-constructivist style, with a second picture for every Leader card that backfires (432 hand-reviewed images); four Opposition characters; twelve endings.
- AI: the art is made in advance and reviewed by hand. AI writes only the newspapers: the clipping after each year and the front page at the end, from the facts of the game. The game never waits for AI; without it, an edition written in advance is printed.
- Stance: non-partisan. The satire aims at the ruler and the mechanism, never at a real person. Suitable for classrooms and civic education.

## Links

- Play: https://dictator.one/play
- Today's coup: https://dictator.one/play?coup
- About: https://dictator.one/