Alley Thieves Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• GOAL
• COMPONENTS
• SKILL VALUE
• PLAYER CARD
  • Infiltration Actions
  • Recruited Thieves Area
• RULES IN THE ALLEYWAYS
• SETUP
• TURN FLOW
  • MOVE … one of your thieves
  • ROLL … and update its SV
  • INFILTRATE … a guild
  • RECRUIT … a thief (OPTIONAL)
• THE GAME ENDS
• SCORING
• FAQs
• VARIANTS
  • City of Slums
  • City of Fate
  • City of Walls
  • City of Hard Knocks
  • City of the Strong Willed
  • City of Laws
• TERMINOLOGY
• TURN SUMMARY

GOAL

Players are in a race to build the strongest guild by recruiting up to 5 more thieves while maintaining a presence in the alleyways. At the end of the game, players that still have a guild, total up the Skill Value (SV) from their recruited thieves. In addition, the players earn a bonus of 1 SV for each of their thieves still on the map. The player who has the highest total is the winner!

COMPONENTS

• Hideout Spaces: These are marked by 4 symbols: keys, gloves, coins, masks. There are 4 per guild. This is the guild's hideout. Players start here but may also move to these spaces.
• Intersections: These are marked by a manhole cover. These are the spaces the thieves can move to.
• 1 City of Legerdemain map
• 16 Thieves (4 sets of coloured dice, 1 colour per player)
• 1 Skill Die (black)
• 4 Player Cards
• 4 Infiltration Tokens

SKILL VALUE

This is the value shown on the top of the dice. The SV represents your ability to do things. A high SV means your thief can move further, is more convincing, and is stronger. A low SV means your thief can only move a little, is less convincing, and is weaker. This value may go up/down as you move, as it reflects the encounters you come across in the alleyways. The SV can be adjusted using bonuses.

PLAYER CARD

This card has 2 sections: Infiltration Actions (top section), and Recruited Thieves Area (lower).

Infiltration Actions

After infiltrating a guild by ending your move on an opponent's Hideout Space, you may attempt to perform an Infiltration Action. Only some of the actions will be available to you each time you infiltrate a guild.

The card lists five actions. Each has a die-face value beside it (the number of pips shown on the card, top to bottom: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2):

• AID / HINDER (6): Flip any thief at an Intersection or Hideout to its opposite side.
• TRAIN RECRUIT (5): Add 1 SV to a thief in your Recruited Thieves Area.
• GAIN KNOWLEDGE (4): Add 1 SV to one of your thieves.**
• RECALL (3): Move one of your thieves** to an unoccupied space in your Hideout without changing its SV.
• SPRINT (2): Move one of your thieves** up to 2 spaces without changing its SV.

** your thieves = the thieves you own on an Intersection or Hideout space.

Note: the die-face values are shown as pictured on the card and are not printed as numerals in the rulebook text; they are transcribed from the card artwork.

Recruited Thieves Area

Opponent's thieves recruited by you are placed in this area. Your guild can only sustain up to 5 recruited thieves.

** The Recruited Thieves Area can only house up to 5 recruited thieves. If all the spaces are filled and the game has not ended, you may not recruit any more thieves. So choose wisely.

RULES IN THE ALLEYWAYS

There are 3 rules in the alleyways that all thieves must follow:

• #1 A thief can only move along the alleyways. The thief must finish its movement on an unoccupied space (an intersection with a manhole or a Hideout Space).
• #2 A thief can only move as far as their SV, counting each space as a distance of 1.
• #3 A thief may not pass through or land on any occupied space.

e.g. Green has an SV of 4, and can move up to 4 spaces away. Moving to a space adjacent to Green is a distance of 1. Moving to a space three steps away is a distance of 3. Green cannot move to a space occupied by a thief already in that space. Green cannot move past a yellow thief to reach a space beyond it. Green cannot move to spaces that are a distance of 5.

SETUP

1. Choose a guild's Hideout to start on (indicated by the Masks / Gloves / Coins / Keys).
2. Take 4 thieves of the same colour and the corresponding Player Card & Infiltration Token.
3. Place the Infiltration Token to the side of the Player Card.
4. Place your thieves with the Skill Value (SV) of 2 face-up, on your chosen guild's Hideout Spaces.
5. The player who most recently convinced (invited) someone to visit their hideout (house) goes first. (Game play goes clockwise.)

2 player setup: the empty guilds to the right of Player 2 are covered by the reverse of the unused Player Cards. These areas are not used in a 2 player game.

3 player setup: the empty guild is between Player 1 and Player 3. Cover the section indicated with the reverse of an unused Player Card. This area cannot be used in a 3 player game.

TURN FLOW

On your turn:

• MOVE … one of your thieves (where possible)
• ROLL … and update its SV
• INFILTRATE … a guild when you end your move in an opponent's hideout
• RECRUIT … a thief (this phase is optional)

~ Turn then passes to the player on your left ~

MOVE … one of your thieves

Choose one of your thieves in the city to move to a new, unoccupied space. Indicate (by pointing to) the space (Intersection/Hideout Space) you are moving to.

REMEMBER: To follow the RULES IN THE ALLEYWAYS.

ROLL … and update its SV

Roll your thief and that result becomes its new SV. Place the thief on the space you indicated.

e.g. Red's thief is not trapped. Red has an SV of 3 and can move up to 3 spaces away. After indicating the space she is moving to, Red rolls a 1. This is the thief's new SV. She places the die with the new SV of 1 on the location she indicated.

INFILTRATE … a guild

When you end the move on an opponent's Hideout Space you Infiltrate their Guild and may attempt to perform an Infiltration Action.

Roll the Skill Die to see which Infiltration Actions are available to you. You may use one of the Infiltration Actions equal to or lower than the rolled result that does not have the Infiltration Token on it. (If you roll a 1 you ran out of time and cannot perform any Infiltration Actions.)

If you choose to use an Infiltration Action, use the action immediately and then place the Infiltration Token on the symbol next to the text.

An Infiltration Action may allow you to use another Infiltration Action.

e.g. Red rolls a 4 on the Skill Die. That means Red can use GAIN KNOWLEDGE, RECALL, or SPRINT. Red decides to use SPRINT. She places the Infiltration Token on SPRINT to indicate it was used. Then immediately activates the effect. On her next infiltration, Red will not be able to use SPRINT.

RECRUIT … a thief (OPTIONAL)

Using a thief that you just moved in this turn, you may attempt to recruit a thief from another guild that is 1 space away.

Indicate which thief you want to recruit.

Roll the Skill Die and add that result to your thief's SV.

The opponent also rolls the Skill Die and adds their result to their thief.

• If your total is higher, you successfully recruit their thief. Place the recruited thief in your Recruited Thieves Area without changing its value.
• If it is lower, you did a poor job of convincing the opponent. Your thief loses 1 SV.
• In the case of a tie, the thieves were equally matched. Nothing happens.

e.g. Red (2) attempts to recruit Blue (4) and was successful. Red rolled a 6: 6+2 = 8. Blue rolled a 3: 3+4 = 7. Red successfully recruits the Blue thief. Red places the Blue thief without changing the value into the Recruited Thieves Area.

e.g. Green (2) attempts to recruit Red (1) and failed. Green rolled a 2: 2+2 = 4. Red rolled a 6: 6+1 = 7. Green failed in recruiting Red. Green loses 1 SV. The thief's SV is now 1 (2-1=1).

e.g. Yellow (4) attempts to recruit Green (3) and tied. Yellow rolled a 1: 1+4 = 5. Green rolled a 2: 2+3 = 5. Neither one was able to convince the other. No one wins, nothing happens.

** On your turn, if you are trapped and cannot move any of your thieves, you may try to break free by attempting to recruit a thief. But your thief will not be able to move normally this turn.

At the end of your turn, the turn passes to the player on your left.

THE GAME ENDS

The game ends immediately when either:

• A player has reached the Recruitment Goal:
  • For 2 players: gain a total of 8 SV or more from your recruited thieves.
  • For 3 players: gain a total of 10 SV or more from your recruited thieves.
  • For 4 players: gain a total of 12 SV or more from your recruited thieves.

OR

• A player loses all 4 of their thieves on the map.

e.g. In a 3 player game, Red recruits enough thieves to reach the Recruitment Goal. Red successfully recruited a thief from Yellow. Red adds that thief to her Recruited Thieves area without changing its value. Red reaches the Recruitment Goal for 3 players (10), the game ends immediately. Yellow lost all his thieves (this would have also triggered the game to end). Everyone except Yellow adds up the SV in the Recruited Thieves Area, and adds 1 point for each thief on the map.

SCORING

After the game ends, any player who loses all 4 of their thieves on the map has lost, and their guild is disbanded. The remaining players add up all the SV from their own Recruited Thieves Area, and players gain a bonus 1 SV for each of their thieves still on the map.

The player who has the highest overall total is the winner!!

In the case of a tie, the player with the most number of thieves left on the map is the winner. If there is still a tie, the player with the most SV in their Recruited Thieves area is the winner.

e.g. Yellow has no thieves left on the map, so Yellow's guild is disbanded. Yellow has lost. Blue's total SV in the Recruited Thieves Area is (3 + 5 + 1) = 9 SV. Blue has 2 thieves left on the map and gains +2. Blue's overall total is 11. Red's total SV in the Recruited Thieves Area is (4 + 3 + 3) = 10. Red has 2 thieves left on the map, +2. Red's overall total is 12. Red has the highest overall total, so Red is declared the winner!

FAQs

Can 2 thieves ever occupy the same space?

Unfortunately not in this city and era.

When I infiltrate a Hideout, and use Sprint/Recall on another thief I own, which thief can I use to recruit with?

You may only recruit once per turn. So you can use any thief you moved this turn to attempt a recruit.

VARIANTS

After your adventures in the current city, you may want to set out into the world and try your luck in the other cities. Do you have what it takes to establish your guild presence elsewhere?

City of Slums

When you recruit, a roll of a 1 is an automatic loss, and a roll of a 6 is an automatic win.

City of Fate

Setup: Remove the Skill Die from the game.

Instead of normal game play use the following rules:

On your turn, you only have 1 action. Decide 1 of the following actions to take.

1. Move & roll to update your SV.

OR

2. Recruit. Indicate a rival thief within 1 space of one of yours. The opponent rolls the selected thief and the new number becomes their SV. If the result of the roll is higher than your thief's SV then the recruitment failed. If it is lower then your recruitment succeeded and you add that thief without changing its value into your Recruited Thieves Area. If the result is equal nothing happens.

City of Walls

Defender wins ties.

City of Hard Knocks

On your turn, instead of recruiting, you may return 1 thief from your Recruited Thieves Area back onto the alleyways using one of these methods (decide before you start the game):

• a) Place a thief from your Recruited Thieves Area back on the map in an unoccupied space without changing its value.
• b) Roll to determine the thief's new SV and placing it.

City of the Strong Willed

If your thief is on one of your own Hideout spaces, it gains a SV of +1 when defending against a recruit.

City of Laws

Combine 2 city rules together.

TERMINOLOGY

• Infiltrate a Guild = A thief may sneak into an opponent's hideout to find out more information. When the thief ends its turn on an opponent's Hideout Space, the player is given a chance to perform an Infiltration Action.
• Skill Value (SV) = the number indicated on the thief (dice).
• A Space = A space is an intersection indicated by a manhole cover, or a Hideout Space. These are locations where thieves can move and land.

TURN SUMMARY

On your turn:

• MOVE … one of your thieves (See ** On your turn if you are trapped)
• ROLL … and update its SV
• INFILTRATE … a guild when you end your move in an opponent's hideout
  • Roll the Skill Die and any action equal to or lower than the result, that does not have an Infiltration Token on it, is available. If you roll a 1, no actions are available.
  • If you choose to use an action, place the Infiltration Token on to indicate its activation.
• RECRUIT … a thief (this phase is optional)
  • Roll the Skill Die and add that value to your thief's SV.
  • The opponent rolls the Skill Die and adds that value to their thief's SV.
  • If your total is higher: you recruit your opponent's thief and place it into your Recruited Thieves Area without changing its value.
  • If your total is lower: reduce your thief's SV by 1.
  • If your totals are tied: nothing happens.

** On your turn, if you are trapped and cannot move any of your thieves, you may try to break free by attempting to recruit a thief. But your thief will not be able to move normally this turn.

~ The turn then passes to the player on your left. ~