Overview

Famiglia is a two-player card game of rival gang recruitment designed by Friedemann Friese. Players control competing gangs, trying to recruit members from four families on “The Street” — a shared card display. Higher-valued gangsters require pairs of lower-valued cards from the same family, while each family’s special abilities provide shortcuts at the cost of committing cards to your play area. The game combines hand management, set collection, and tactical card play.

Components

• 60 cards: 4 families of 15 cards each (values 0-4: five 0s, four 1s, three 2s, two 3s, one 4)
• 2 starting sets of 4 cards each (one value-0 from each family, with unique backs per player)
• Rules sheet

Setup

1. Each player takes their starting set of 4 value-0 cards (identified by unique card backs).
2. Shuffle the remaining 52 cards face-down as a draw stack.
3. Leave space next to the draw stack for a discard pile.
4. Randomly choose a starting player.
5. Draw the top 6 cards from the draw stack and place them face-up in a row to form “The Street.”

Turn Structure

Players alternate turns. On each turn, perform these actions in order:

1. Refresh the Street (Optional)

• If there is no value-0 card in the Street at the start of your turn, you may discard one face-up card from the Street.
• Draw cards from the draw stack equal to the value of the discarded card and add them to the Street.
• Repeat until at least one value-0 card is in the Street (or choose to stop).

2. Play an Accountant (Optional)

• Play one Accountant (value 1-4) from your hand face-up into your play area.
• Exchange up to that many cards between your play area and your hand (not the just-played Accountant).

3. Play a Brute (Optional)

• Play one Brute (value 1-4) from your hand face-up into your play area.
• Choose a card in the Street and reduce its effective value by the Brute’s value (minimum 0).

4. Take a Card or Pass

• Take a value-0 card from the Street for free (including cards reduced to 0 by a Brute).
• Take a higher card (value 1-4) by playing a pair of same-family, same-value cards one step below. Place one of the pair in your play area and return the other to your hand. A Mercenary of sufficient value can substitute as the second card.
• Pass if you choose not to take a card.

Actions

Special Abilities of the Families

• La Famiglia — No special ability. Cards provide higher victory points.
• The Accountants — When played to your play area (action 2), swap cards between your hand and play area (up to the Accountant’s value).
• The Brutes — When played to your play area (action 3), reduce a Street card’s effective value by the Brute’s value (minimum 0), making it cheaper to take.
• The Mercenaries — Act as wild cards when taking a card from the Street. A Mercenary can substitute as the second matching card for any family at values lower than its own (e.g., a Mercenary 3 can act as value 0, 1, or 2 of any family). You always need one genuine matching card; two Mercenaries cannot combine.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

The game ends when:

• The draw stack is exhausted for the second time (finish the current turn so both players have equal turns), OR
• Both players pass consecutively during action 4.

Both players count the victory points on all their cards (hand cards + play area cards). The player with the higher total wins. In case of a tie, the player with the single highest-valued card wins.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Empty Street: If the Street ever has 0 cards, immediately draw 6 new cards from the draw stack to refill it.
• First reshuffle: When the draw stack is exhausted the first time, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw stack.
• After reshuffle: Action 1 changes — you may only refresh once per turn. The discarded card goes face-down to the bottom of the draw stack (instead of the discard pile), then draw replacement cards.
• Mid-action reshuffle: If you draw the last card during action 1 before the first exhaustion, shuffle the discard pile and continue drawing. If still no value-0 in the Street, you may use action 1 once more.
• One ability per family per turn: You may use each family’s special ability at most once per turn.
• Value-0 cards have no special abilities regardless of family.

Player Reference

Item	Details
Players	2
Cards	60 (4 families x 15 cards)
Values	0-4 (distribution: 5/4/3/2/1)
Families	La Famiglia, Accountants, Brutes, Mercenaries
Street size	6 cards (refilled if empty)
Game end	Draw stack exhausted twice, or double pass
Win condition	Most victory points across all cards