Inspector Moss: House Arrest Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Object
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • 1. Roll the Dice
  • 2. Perform Actions (optional)
  • 3. Passing Time
• End of Game
• It's Just a Matter of Time...
• Explanation of Assistance Tokens

Contents

• 26 tiles
• Inspector Moss board
• 10 suspect tokens
• 8 evidence tokens
• 1 Inspector Moss pawn
• Time track
• 10 assistance tokens

Also needed: 1 cube for tracking time, 7 white dice, and 1 colored die.

Object

Determine which of the 10 suspects killed John Dough, arrest him/her, and escort the criminal to the police car before the time runs out. As you play, you will gather evidence that will eliminate some of the suspects. Once you have narrowed the suspects down to only one, you must arrest that suspect and then exit the house to the awaiting police car.

Setup

Separate the tokens by type and mix them up face down. Turn the suspect tokens face up, but leave the others face down. Keep them to the side for now. Place a cube on the 45 on the time track to show how many game minutes you have left.

Set aside the Scene of the Crime tile and the Police Car tile.

Shuffle the rest of the room tiles together. Lay them out face down in a 5x5 grid with the Scene of the Crime face up in the center of the grid. Turn over the four tiles that are adjacent to the Scene of the Crime. You may rotate them to any position before placing them.

There are three different kinds of room tiles (identified by an icon on each tile): suspect, assistance, and evidence tiles. Place a matching token on each tile as it is revealed. Suspect and assistance tokens are always placed face up, but evidence tokens are always placed face down (no peeking at evidence tokens!). Place the Inspector Moss pawn on the Scene of the Crime tile.

Playing the Game

Each turn consists of three phases in order:

1. Roll the dice
2. Perform actions (optional)
3. Passing time

1. Roll the Dice

Roll all 7 white dice along with the colored die up to 3 times. After each roll, you may keep any of the dice. Dice that were previously kept may be rolled again. You may stop rolling after the first or second roll if you wish.

2. Perform Actions (optional)

Once you have finished rolling, you may use up to 6 of the dice (white and/or colored) to perform one or more actions. You are not obligated to use all 6 dice per turn if you choose not to. These actions include moving, collecting assistance tokens, and gathering evidence. Once the criminal has been identified, the dice may also be used to make an arrest. Whenever you perform an action, move the required dice to the player board to show that they have been used. 6's are always wild and may be used in place of any other number, but they cost extra time to use. When you use a 6, do not change the number shown on the die; just use it in place of another number. You can take actions in any order, and you may perform the same type of action multiple times, so long as you have the correct dice available.

Movement: You may move the Inspector Moss pawn through unlocked doors to an adjacent tile by using a die that matches the number on the tile you wish to move to. Note that doors must match up on your current tile and on the destination tile in order to move through them. For every locked door (a door with a key on it) you wish to move through, you must use an extra die matching the number on the destination tile. For example, if your tile connects to a number 4 tile, but you have to pass through 2 locked doors to get there, it would require 3 dice showing 4's. Moving through a locked door does not unlock that door for future movement.

Whenever you move onto a new tile, reveal all adjacent tiles that are connected by a doorway (either locked or unlocked). The tiles may be rotated before being placed. Doorways do not have to align with other doorways, but remember that Inspector Moss cannot pass through blocked doorways to reach adjacent rooms. Immediately place the appropriate token on each tile, being sure to place suspect and assistance tokens face up and evidence tokens face down. If there are no more tokens matching the tile, just leave the tile empty.

If you are on a tile with a secret passageway, you may move to any other tile with a secret passageway by using a die that matches the tile you wish to move to. However, it takes extra time to use a secret passageway. Add together the numbers on both secret passageway doors that you use, and immediately deduct that number from the current time on the time track.

Connect the Police Car tile to the first tile that is placed that creates a doorway leading to any exterior edge of the board. Once placed, the Police Car tile cannot be moved.

Movement examples (from a diagram of four tiles A, B, C, D):

• To move from A to B the player requires double 2 (there is one locked door).
• To move from B to C the player requires a single 3.
• To move from A to D the player requires three 5's (there are two locked doors).
• To pass through the secret passageway from C to D the player requires a single 5, but he must immediately take off 3 minutes of time on the time track (1+2).
• For a player to move from C to D without using the secret passageway the player requires the following dice: 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5.

Collecting assistance tokens: If Inspector Moss is on a tile containing an assistance token, you may collect the token by using any three matching dice (example: 4, 4, 4). Once you have a token, you may use it at any time, including during the turn you collect it. Tokens marked by 1x must be discarded from the game after use. All others have unlimited uses. (See last page for an explanation of the assistance tokens' abilities.) You can only carry a maximum of three tokens at a time. If you collect a fourth token, you must choose one of your tokens to drop on your current tile. You may collect it again later by following the same rules for collecting tokens.

Gathering evidence: If Inspector Moss is on a tile containing an evidence token, you may reveal it by using any four consecutive dice (example: 2, 3, 4, 5).

• If it is an arrow token, place it on your current tile in any position that points the arrow(s) towards a row, a column, or a diagonal. All suspects on the tiles that an arrow is pointing towards are eliminated as suspects. Flip all eliminated suspects face down.

Examples (rooms not shown for clarity): the four way arrow has been revealed. In the first example the evidence has been placed pointing vertically and horizontally. All suspects on each tile as it is revealed in those lines have now been eliminated from Moss' enquiries, therefore any suspects in the grayed out rooms can be turned face down. In this case 3 suspects were found innocent. The second example shows what would happen if the token is placed pointing along the diagonals.

In a further example, more evidence has been revealed. The right angle double arrow has been placed in a way to eliminate 3 suspects. However, 1 of those 3 suspects had previously been eliminated by the diagonally placed four way arrow.

• If it is an alibi token (showing a crossed-out pawn), choose any 1 suspect to eliminate. You may choose a suspect that is already on the board or one that has not yet been placed. Flip the suspect face down and place the alibi token on top.
• If it is a tainted evidence token (showing an X), choose any 1 evidence token to remove from play. You may choose an evidence token that is on the board or one that has not yet been placed. Place the tainted evidence token on top of the evidence token on the side of the board, out of play for the rest of the game. If the evidence token has not been revealed, you must leave it face down. If the token had been revealed, any suspects that had been eliminated only by that evidence must now be flipped face up.

Re-examining evidence: You may revisit an evidence tile and use any four consecutive dice again to change the evidence. If you change the direction an arrow points, any suspects that were eliminated only by the previous evidence must be turned face up. If you re-examine an alibi, flip the previously alibied suspect face up, unless it is eliminated by another piece of evidence.

Note: If you reveal a suspect tile that is in a position where it has already been eliminated, simply place the suspect token face down on the tile. If at any time you can logically prove that all unplaced suspects can be eliminated, you can turn them face down.

Making an arrest: Once any 9 of the suspects have been eliminated, you are ready to make an arrest. You must first move to the tile with the remaining suspect. To make the arrest, use any 5 matching dice (example: 2, 2, 2, 2, 2). Take the suspect and place it in front of you. You must then try to make it to the Police Car tile.

3. Passing Time

After performing your actions, you must mark the passing of time on the time track. Use the number on the colored die and add 1 for every 6 die on the player board to find the number of game minutes you used on your turn. Move the marker down the appropriate number of spaces. If there is still time left, take another turn.

Examples (from the dice illustrations):

• 7 minutes of time is taken off of the time track (6 minutes for the colored die, plus 1 minute for using a wild 6).
• 6 minutes of time is taken off the time track (one die showing a wild '6' and a colored die roll of '5').
• 4 minutes of time is taken off the time track (one die showing '6' and a colored die showing '3'). Note that in this example the colored die was not one of the six dice chosen in the 'perform actions' phase but still counts towards the 'passing of time' total.
• 5 minutes of time is taken off the time track (one colored die showing '5'). In this example only 5 dice were used in the 'perform actions' phase. Note that the unused die roll of '6' does not incur a time penalty.

End of Game

If you make it out to the police car with the arrested criminal, you win the game. You do not need to mark the passing time for your final turn. If you run out of time (i.e., you have passed 1 on the time track), then the murderer escapes and you lose. If at any time all 10 suspects have been eliminated, then the real murderer was an uninvited guest and has already escaped, causing you to lose the game.

It's Just a Matter of Time...

To change the difficulty level, you may adjust your starting time. If you'd like an easy game, choose the Rookie level and start on 60 minutes. For the standard game, choose the Detective level and start on 45 minutes. For a greater challenge, choose the Super Sleuth level and start on 30 minutes. If you'd like the game to adjust to your level, you may instead choose to adjust your starting time based on the results of your previous game. Whenever you win, check the number of minutes the time marker ended on and subtract that from your current starting time to get the starting time for your next game. For example, if you started on 45 and won with your marker on 10 minutes, begin your next game on 35 minutes. When you lose, add 2 minutes per active suspect remaining on the board. To easily track your starting time from game to game, you can laminate the time board and mark your new starting time with a dry erase marker.

Explanation of Assistance Tokens

• Key: Pass through locked doors without requiring extra dice.
• Search Warrant: Collect evidence with only 3 consecutive dice instead of the usual 4 consecutive dice.
• Lucky Break: At any time during your turn, you may change any 1 white die to show any number. May be used once per turn.
• Informant: When you are on an evidence tile, you may peek at the facedown token.
• Flashlight: You may use the secret passages without incurring any time penalty.
• Secret Passageway: You may place the secret passageway token on any tile, including unrevealed tiles. If you choose to place it in an unrevealed room, flip that tile face up before placing the token (be sure to add the token shown on the tile as well). The token may be used for movement just like the other secret passageways, both before it's collected and after it's placed. If you wish to move the token after it's been placed, you must collect it again using 3 matching dice.
• No Time to Lose (1x): At the end of any 1 turn, skip the Passing Time phase. (One-time use)
• Switch 2 (1x): Switch the locations of any 2 evidence tokens and adjust the elimination status of all of the suspects to reflect the revised evidence. You do not have to be in the room with either token. If either token has not yet been revealed, you must leave it face down. (One-time use)
• Bomb (1x): Place the bomb token between any two adjacent room tiles to create an open doorway. You may move through it just like a regular, open doorway for the remainder of the game. (One-time use)