Designers:  Samuel Bailey (Deep: Enemy Frontier, Elder Sign: Gates of Arkham, Forbidden Stars), Mike Gnade (Brass Empire, Maximum Apocalypse, Set a Watch)

Artists:  Vincent Christiaens (Laboratory Mayhem), Joel Finch, Matt Zeilinger (Android: Netrunner, Rune Age)

Publisher:  Rock Manor Games (Brass Empire, Maximum Apocalypse, Set a Watch)

Genre/Mechanisms:  2 players, area majority/influence, card drafting, pattern building, simultaneous action selection, variable player powers

Funding Status:  At the time of this posting, Lawyer Up is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than 9x the initial funding goal with 7 days to go on the campaign.

Player Count:  2

Solo Mode:  Art Forgery case only

Complexity:  medium-light

Risk:  medium-low

What It’s About:  “An asymmetrical card game for 2 players where one player is the noble prosecution and the other the steadfast defense.”

How It Works:  “Each game begins with the Discovery phase, where players draft vital Evidence to support their case and Bury Evidence that might help their opponent. Next comes the Trial phase, where players call witnesses and play powerful arguments along with the evidence they drafted in their examination pools. Every game is different, but the lawyer with the best case and most convincing arguments will be sure to get the verdict they are after!”

“Discovery is a pre-trial procedure in a lawsuit in which the Prosecution and Defense can obtain evidence from the other party or parties relevant to the case. During this Phase players draft Evidence and other cards specific to the case for use during the Trial Phase of the game. Shuffle the case deck and put it between both players. Each player draws 3 cards from the top of the deck (it doesn’t matter who goes first). Players simultaneously choose 1 card to add to their deck, 1 card to add to their opponent’s deck, and 1 card to add facedown to the Buried Evidence. Players cannot look at cards that have been added to their deck by either player or any cards in the Buried Evidence. Buried Evidence is in neither player’s deck and will often not be used during the Trial phase, but there are some effects that allow players to recover cards from the Buried Evidence. The safest place for a card a player really doesn’t want their opponent to have is in their own deck. Players continue drafting 3 cards until all cards in the case deck are in either player’s deck or in the Buried Evidence. Players then shuffle all cards added to their deck together with their Base deck. After shuffling, each player draws 5 cards as their opening hand. If they have no Procedures in their opening hand, they may take a mulligan.”

“During the Trial Phase each player pleads their case in attempt to sway the bias of whoever is deciding the case. In the cases included in this box, it is a Jury of 12 that you must convince of your case, but future cases may have special rules that change up the Trial Phase. The Trial Phase usually involves calling multiple Witnesses and playing Evidence and Arguments to attempt to win the Witness and sway bias to your side. The Trial Phase usually ends when all Witnesses have been called or when the special victory condition of that case has been met. The player who has the Judge’s favor always Calls the next Witness. When a players Calls a Witness, they choose 1 available Witness from the Key Witness pool and place the chosen Witness card horizontally between both players with the top left Influence number facing them. Starting with the player who Called the Witness, the players take turns performing a single action. Common actions include: Playing Cards into their Examination (choosing a card in their hand that has at least 1 Bias symbol that matches at least 1 Bias symbol of the last card in their Examination; if there are no cards in their Examination, then matching a Bias symbol on the side of the Witness facing them; when playing a card into their Examination, performing any Examination effects on the card if possible, which are mandatory); Playing a Procedure card into their Procedure area (Procedures are special cards that can either be played into players’ Examination as a card with all bias symbols but no ability, or played into their Procedure area to use its special action on a later turn); Activating a Procedure in their Procedure area (resolving the action ability on a Procedure card already in the player’s Procedure area); Sidebar (if not already exhausted, the player’s Sidebar token may be used to call a Sidebar and flip the Judge to be favorable to them, then drawing a card; a player can call a Sidebar even if the Judge is already favorable to them); and Passing (once a player passes, they cannot play any more cards into their Examination; they can still Object, but are otherwise done with their line of questioning for the Witness). When both players have passed, gameplay moves on to Resolving the Witness. As a special action, players may also, once per Witness and 3 times per case, Object to any Argument played by their opponent, as long as they have Objections remaining. When a player Objects, their opponent’s card is immediately negated and discarded and the opponent must take another action. Each time a player Objects, they exhaust an Objection Token.

When Resolving a Witness, the players execute the following steps. “1) Determine total influence. Each player counts up their total Influence for the Witness by adding up the total of numbers in their Examination that are beneficial to them (including the Influence values on the Witness facing them). The player with the highest total wins that Witness. If there is a tie, the player who currently has the Judge’s favor wins. 2) Resolve Victory/Defeat Effects. The player who lost the Witness resolves any Defeat effects on the last card they played into their Examination and on the Witness card itself. Then the player who won the Witness resolves any Victory effects on the last card they played into their Examination and on the Witness card itself. 3) Spend Influence to sway Bias. The player who won the Witness subtracts their total Influence (including Influence gained from Victory effects) from the total Influence of the player who lost the Witness. The player who won can then spend this Influence Differential to sway Bias according to the rules of the case. Bias on Jurors is typically swayed 1 space by spending Influence equal to the Juror’s Skepticism value. Jurors have 4 spaces that represent which way they are currently leaning. These spaces are colored red and blue to correspond to the Prosecution and Defense respectively. Jurors have a skepticism number in the upper right. This number represents how easily they are swayed with Influence. 4) Claim the Witness and Cleanup. Players take all cards in their Examination and place them into their discard pile. Then the player who won the Witness takes it and places it in their claimed Witness area. Flip the Judge to be favorable to the player who lost the Witness. The player who lost the Witness also refreshes their Sidebar token. The player who just lost the Witness and now has the Judge’s favor will call the next Witness. 5) Draw. Each player may discard any number of cards in their hand, then players draw cards until they have cards equal to their hand size. Default hand size is 5 cards. If your deck runs out there is no reshuffling. 6) End Step. The player who lost the Witness now calls the next Witness and a new Examination step begins. Some cases have special victory effects that can end the game early, but when all Witnesses have been called and resolved, the game proceeds to Closing Statements before the game ends and a winner is determined.”

“During Closing Statements, each player should count up their claimed Witnesses that have a Bias symbol matching what is on their Strategy card. The player with the most influence will get to spend the difference in Influence one last time on the Jury. After closing statements, the game ends. The Prosecution wins if every juror is on their side. The Defense wins if one or more jurors are on their side.”

Comparisons:  There are several games where players use card play to solve cases, where solving each case is for the most part a “one-and-done,” because then players know the information and answers and can’t play again. Chronicles of Crime, Detective: City of Angeles, Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, are three of these games. Chronicle of Crime and Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game both rely on app technology. Detective: City of Angeles attempt to build more gameplay into the box by allowing for a Dungeon Master-like role called “The Chisel,” where one person can run a game for the other player. Their knowledge of the game can add to the experience, but it’s the only way for a person who’s played a case a previous time to participate again. There is, however, a fourth game that also functions within a “one-and-done” scenario structure, but has broken down gameplay to a very simple card game with chaining elements. That game, Deadline, is the most correlative to Lawyer Up, simply with a different theme. In Deadline, player work together cooperatively to solve a case. In Lawyer Up, players compete against each other head-to-head to best present their side of a case. In twisting the theme to a courtroom setting with players taking opposing sides, Lawyer Up achieves what none of those previously mentioned games could– replayability.

What Should I Pledge?:
$29 Associate: includes the Lawyer Up core set, all unlocked stretch goals, and the PDF print and play.
$49 Senior Partner: includes everything in the Associate pledge level, plus the Witch Trial and Godfather Expansions.

Add-Ons:
$15 Godfather Expansion
$15 Witch Trial Expansion

KS Exclusives
None listed.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $49 for the Senior Partner pledge plus $10 in shipping for a total of $59.

Lawyer Up completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, April 9th and tentatively ships in March 2021.