In Collateral Damage, you play a Gang Boss trying to take over cities in Neo Japan in order to win the game. Your gang is made up of typical characters from romantic comedy anime, with a unique set of statistics and a Special Power to distinguish each one. You move your characters around the board from city to city, and you ultimately win the game by taking over cities.

You as a gang boss get Notoriety Points by having your characters fight and hurt other players' characters. If you miss in a fight, you do Collateral Damage to the city (thus the name of the game).

However, as is typical in romantic comedy anime, your characters might fall in love, usually unreciprocated, and will then ignore your orders to instead follow their love around the board.