← all games

Family Business

#170BGG ↗

1982 · 2-6 players · 30min · weight 1.32 · 4,333 ratings

v2 v3

BGG raw

ID
170
Name
Family Business
Year
1982
Rank
2699
Min players
2
Max players
6
Playing time
30
Min playtime
30
Max playtime
30
Avg weight
1.3178
Num weights
387
Bayes avg
5.83596
Average
6.07618
Users rated
4333
Num owned
6833
Wanting
34
Wishing
304
Num comments
1372
Fetched at
Sat Apr 25 2026 16:18:45 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Mechanisms (3)
Hand ManagementPlayer EliminationTake That
Categories (2)
Card GameMafia
Description (1352 chars)

Family Business takes mob warfare to a new level of backstabbing, revenge, and general bloodthirstiness, which is what makes it such a blast to play. Every player controls a 'family' and plays various cards to off other players' family members. In a game with this little structure, it's possible for everyone to gang up on one unlucky soul, or for the damage to be fairly evenly spread. Either way, the last family standing is victorious. Each player starts with a gang of nine characters. To try to get rid of other gangsters, contracts are played on them. If these contracts are not blocked by anyone, the targeted gangster is placed on the hitlist. As soon as six gangsters are on the hitlist a mobwar is started. This means that, at the start of every turn, the first character on this list is eliminated. This goes on until the list is empty. Mobwars can also be triggered by cards being played. When no more than the last six or fewer characters are in play a constant mobwar is going on, until only one player has characters left. In general players take turns clockwise, however, the turn goes to any player who plays a response card and then clockwise mode is resumed with the player next to him/her. Lots of interaction as players play cards to put gangsters on the list, save them, have them replaced, start a Mob War, or stop it...

LLM v2 (wide)

Not yet enriched at v2 (wide pass).

LLM v3 (deep)

Not yet enriched at v3 (deep pass).