How to Play
Updated on May 10, 2026
Korapsyon is a social deduction game for 13 to 16 players set in a fictional Philippine government. Some players are good politicians trying to fund public projects. Others are corrupt politicians quietly stealing while looking honest. Roles are hidden, talk is open, and the truth has to be reasoned out from receipts.
This page is the quick start. For deep dives, follow the links into the rest of the sidebar.
Quick Start in 5 Steps
- Set up the room. Open the app on each phone, join the room, and pick a seat name. The moderator (admin) device runs the table and never holds a role.
- Deal roles. Roles are dealt at random. Read your card on your own screen. Do not show it to anyone.
- Wake up the corrupt. All Corrupt Politicians open their eyes once at setup so they can recognize each other. Other Good roles are then privately confirmed by the moderator.
- Play in Years. Each Year has a Hidden Phase (secret night actions) and a Public Phase (governance, talk, jail vote). The app guides the moderator through both.
- Watch the trackers. Good wants to push Public Spending to its target. Bad wants to push the Corruption Fund to its target. Either side can also win by removing the other side's politicians.
The full moderator script (what to read out loud, in order) is in Moderator Reference.
The Core Loop
The game runs in turns called Years. Each Year has two phases:
- Hidden Phase — secret night actions: stealing, protecting, investigating, auditing.
- Public Phase — treasury report, presidency, project, discussion, and a jail vote.
The core tension is information asymmetry. The corrupt know each other and act in secret. The good must figure out who is corrupt by reading signals: treasury changes, project vote patterns, and the COA's audit reports.
For win checks, see How to Win?. For the strike system that removes players, see Jail System.
How a Year Looks (Quick Map)
| Step | What happens | Where to read more |
|---|---|---|
| Hidden Phase | Lawyer Protects, Ombudsperson Investigates, Good may Auto Jail, Corrupt may Steal / Suhol / Tokhang, COA receives last Year's audit | Roles, Moderator Reference |
| Treasury report | Public drop from last Year is announced | Treasury |
| Election (every 2 Years) | A new President is elected; their vote in the jail vote counts as 2 | Presidential Term |
| Revenue | Active, non‑suspended players pay 1 each into the Kaban ng Bayan | Treasury |
| Project | President picks one of two project cards and a committee, committee votes in secret | Projects, Kickbacks |
| Discussion | COA may share the audit (if not silenced); Ombudsperson may share findings; everyone else talks | Roles |
| Jail vote | Majority required; first jail = 3 year suspension, second jail = removed | Jail System |
| Win check | Run after the jail resolves | How to Win? |
Design Pillars
Deception through governance. Corruption is more than just stealing. It is also about exploiting public projects to earn kickbacks while staying clean on paper.
Delayed information. Most evidence of corruption is one Year old by the time it becomes public. The COA reveals last Year's audit, not the current one.
Asymmetric pressure. Good must finish enough public works to hit the spending threshold. Bad must quietly fill the Corruption Fund before the team is fully eliminated.
Stakes grow over time. Players who are jailed twice are removed from the game. As Years pass, the table shrinks, committees get smaller, and every vote carries more weight.
Player Count and Targets
The game supports 13 to 16 players. Targets scale with the player count.
| Players | Public Spending Target (Good) | Corruption Fund Target (Bad) |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | 24 | 20 |
| 14 | 26 | 22 |
| 15 | 28 | 23 |
| 16 | 30 | 25 |
Base Composition (13 players)
| Role | Count |
|---|---|
| Good Politician | 2 |
| Corrupt Politician | 3 |
| Lawyer | 1 |
| Ombudsperson | 1 |
| COA | 1 |
| Citizen | 5 |
Term Lengths
President term lasts 2 Years. First jail gives a 3 year suspension. Second jail removes the player from the game.
What the App Handles for You
The Korapsyon web app runs the full table flow for the moderator and players:
- Lobby and room codes for joining a game
- Role reveal dealt at random when the game starts
- Trackers for Public Spending, Corruption Fund, Kaban ng Bayan, and the year counter
- Project flow with the President picking a project, the admin building a committee, and committee members casting secret votes
- Night actions for free Corrupt to vote on Nakaw, pick a Suhol, or send a Tokhang
- Jail flow that applies a strike, suspends a player, or removes them on a second strike
- COA inbox that delivers each year's audit straight to the COA player
- Win check that fires the moment a side hits its target or removes the other side's politicians
- Admin transfer so the moderator role can be passed to another device mid game
Where to Go Next
- New to the roles? Start with Roles.
- Running the table for the first time? Open Moderator Reference.
- Want to see a full game played out? Read the Example Game.
- Curious about pacing and probabilities? Check Kickbacks and How to Win?.