In the Power Grab, players use their Arsenal cards (cards with values -5 to 5 on them) to try to get the highest point total. The top three point totals get control of one of three Power Decks (Magnate - top score, Industrialist - second score, Robber Magnate - third highest score). Any players who had tied point totals are out of the running to control the Power decks.
In the Influence Shift, the three Powers (players controlling the Power Decks) will use the Power Decks (which contain a card for each character) to vote for a player to take Influence from. If all three Powers pick different people, a Deadlock occurs and the Powers must give one influence to other players. If all three Powers pick the same person, a Swindle occurs and the targeted player gets to take 3 influence from whomever they desire. If two Powers pick the same person and the third does not, the Powers have an Accord. The two Powers that agreed take one influence each from the target. The vote results are a little confusing to explain verbally, but the rulebook (which is available to download from the game's site) have pictures to try to clear things up.
To make things even more complicated, each player has a secret Agenda they are trying to accomplish. If they succeed, they get to take influence from any player they want based on which Agenda goal was fulfilled. Each Agenda card has three different goals of varying difficulty and once fulfilled, players will get a new Agenda to replace the old one. Agendas range from having certain Arsenal cards played on you, playing certain Arsenal cards on other players, or having the Influence Shift go a certain way. At the end of a round, if a player decides they want to give up on their Agenda, they can discard it for a new one.
I hope to get a video explaining how to play the game with visuals up soon to help further explain how the game works. If you're interested in buying the game, visit the above link. To keep up with the latest on it, check out the Suspicion Facebook page.
