Accuse! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Start
  • Contents
  • Setup
  • Goal
• Play
  • Challenging a play
• Accuse
  • Bidding
• Example
  • Set up and first play

Start

Contents

• 22 Play cards: (6 Characters, 6 Locations, 6 Weapons, 4 Traps)
• 6 Center cards
• 8 Rules and Player Aid cards
• 1 Grab token and 3 Guess markers

Setup

• Put the Center cards face up on the table to act as a board
• Give each player 1 Trap card and return other Traps to the box
• Remove 1 Character, 1 Location and 1 Weapon. These are the culprit cards, put them aside and cover them with the tokens and markers
• Randomly deal each player a hand of 1 Character, 1 Weapon and 1 Location card.
• Shuffle the remaining cards, deal 3 face up on the table and the rest to players hands
• Players will start with the following: 2 players = 7 cards, 3 players = 5 cards, 4 players = 4 cards

Goal

• To correctly deduce the culprit cards

Play

On your turn you have to play a card if you have one. You declare what it is by placing it face down next to its Center card. You can be bluffing. If no one challenges you that card remains face down on the table.

If you start your turn with no cards you turn over any face down card of your choice on the table, excluding the last card played.

Challenging a play

If anyone believes the card the declarer has just played was not placed in the correct place they can can challenge and turn that card over for everyone to see:

• Correct challenge - the declarer was bluffing: the challenger takes that card and puts it into their hand.
• Wrong challenge - the declarer was telling the truth: that card remains face up and the challenger gives any card from their hand to the declarer.
• Trap card - the declarer planted a decoy: the challenger loses a card from their hand and puts it face up on the table. Discard the trap card back to box.

You cannot challenge if you have no more cards in your hand and past plays may not be challenged once a turn is over.

Accuse

At any time, anyone can grab the token to make a guess. They mark their guess with the markers and secretly check the culprit cards.

• Correct accusation: They win.
• Wrong accusation: They are out of the game.

Replace the culprit cards without revealing them. The other players now bid to make the next guess.

Bidding

• Everyone puts their cards face down on the table in front of them. Count the face down cards.
• By a simultaneous show of fingers, everyone bids how many face down cards they want to turn over before guessing. They may choose cards in the middle or in front of other players. Lowest bid goes first. Tiebreaks in clockwise order from the first accuser.
• If they also fail the next lowest bidder turns over more cards corresponding to however many more they bid. The last player to guess always turns over half the remaining cards, rounded down. (In a two player game the second player always turns over half of the face down cards.)

If no one is correct, everyone loses.

Example

Set up and first play

Diagram only in the source; no text to transcribe.