Midnight Exchange Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Object of the Game
• Setup
• How to Play
  • 1) Raid
  • 2) End of the Raid
  • 3) Exchanges
• Collectors' Fame
• Prestige Cards
  • One of a Kind
  • Collection
• Work of Art tokens
• New Round
• End of the Game
• Distribution of loot items on the backs of Place tiles

Game Contents

• 4 Identity boards
• 4 Black Market boards
• 4 Getaway tokens
• 54 Place tiles
• 24 Prestige cards
• 60 Work of Art tokens
• 1 cloth bag

Object of the Game

Steal the best loot to exchange at the Black Market for extravagant works of art and complete your collection by winning the most prestige points.

Setup

1. Each player chooses a character and takes their corresponding board.

2. Spread out all the Place cards in the centre of the table, Place side up. No tile should be on top of another.

3. Take as many Getaway tokens as there are players and place these amongst the Place tiles.

   • For a 2 player game, use Getaway tokens 1 and 2.
   • For a 3 player game, use Getaway tokens 1, 2 and 3.
   • For a 4 player game, use all the Getaway tokens.

   In games of less than 4 players, unused Getaway tokens are placed back in the box.

4. Without turning them over, mix the Place tiles and Getaway tokens together in the centre of the table.

5. Put down as many Black Market boards as there are players, either face up. In games of less than 4 players, unused Black Market boards are placed back in the box. In this case, certain loots will not be exchangeable in the Black Market throughout the game.

6. Place the Work of Art tokens into the bag and mix them together.

7. Randomly draw as many Work of Art tokens as necessary to fill each space on the different Black Market boards used. There should be only one token per space.

8. Shuffle all the Prestige cards and place these in a pile, face-down, next to the Black Market boards.

9. Place as many Prestige cards, face-up, as necessary to fill each space on the different Black Market boards in play. Watch out, one of the spaces requires 2 Prestige cards placed one on top of the other.

The example of a 4 player game setup is a diagram; the letters A to H on it refer to the diagram and are omitted here.

How to Play

Over the course of successive rounds, you seasoned burglars will carry out various break-ins so that you can exchange your valuable loots for works of art.

Each round is made up of the three following phases:

1. Raid
2. End of the Raid
3. Exchanges

During the Raid and End of the Raid, all players play simultaneously.

1) Raid

The youngest burglar must whisper "Raid!" As soon as this is said, all players will immediately start simultaneously sifting through the Place tiles in the centre of the table in order to collect the different loots that are hidden underneath to store on their Identity boards.

Iron key. To get into the study (purple tiles) you must collect one of the iron keys found in the blue garage. Once this key has been placed on a free space on your Identity board, you can start raiding the study (purple tiles).

Brass key. To get into the safe (orange tiles) you must collect one of the brass keys hidden in the study (purple tiles). Once this key has been placed on a free space on your Identity board, you can start raiding the safe (orange tiles).

Rules of the Raid:

• You can only Raid with one hand. The other must stay near your Identity board.
• Each burglar can Raid how they like. When a loot interests you, place it in one of the free spaces on your Identity board. If it does not interest you, put it back, face up or down, amongst the other Place tiles in the centre of the table. Reminder: tiles cannot be placed on top of one another.
• Each item looted must be placed on its own space on your board in order to be kept. You can collect a maximum of 6 Place tiles per round. You can stock multiples of the same item, with the exception of keys. You can only collect one iron key and one brass key during the Raid.
• Be careful, as when the raid begins you will only have access to the blue garage which is slightly open. The study (purple tiles) or the safe (orange tiles) cannot yet be raided.
• At any point during the Raid phase before it is over, you can put as many loot items back as you like. To do this, you must take the tiles you wish to put back from your Identity board and place these face up or down amongst the Place tiles in the centre of the table.
• However, you cannot put any keys back. Once a key has been placed on your Identity board, it must stay there until the end of the round in play.

2) End of the Raid

At any point that a player is happy with the 6 Place tiles they have collected on their Identity board, they can end their raid by taking the smallest value Getaway token available. They place this in front of their board and call out the number on this token ("One!").

During this time, all the other players can continue their searching or stop raiding as above if they are happy with their 6 Place tiles. They must then take the next smallest value of Getaway token and place this in front of their board, calling out the number on this token.

The end of the raid happens when there is only one Getaway token left amongst the Place tiles. The last player to still be raiding has no choice but to stop immediately and take the last token, even if they have been unable to collect all 6 loot items.

Example: in a 4 player game, the end of the raid happens as soon as a player takes Getaway token number 3 and calls out the number. The fourth and last player must immediately stop their raid and take the last available Getaway token.

3) Exchanges

Once all the players have finished raiding, it is time for them to resell their precious loots at the Black Market. In turns from lowest value Getaway token collected to highest, each player can visit the Black Market of their choice to carry out their first exchange with the market dealer.

Rules for Exchanging:

In order to exchange a player must carry out their choice of one of the two following actions:

• Choose one of the Black Market boards and pay the required cost shown on the top left of this Market in looted items. To do this, the player takes the required loot items from their Identity board and places these, Place-side up, amongst the Place tiles already in the centre of the table. In exchange, the player can take one of the Prestige cards of their choice or one of the Work of Art tokens from the chosen Market.

  Example: at this Black Market, a player must pay one Wad of Cash and one Gold Bar. To pay this, they must take these two loot items from their Identity board and place them, face up, in the centre of the table. In exchange, they take one of the four Work of Art tokens or one of the three Prestige cards proposed by the dealer.

  Important: one of the Black Market spaces holds 2 Prestige cards, one on top of the other. In this case, the player takes both cards during the exchange.

• OR, exchange one of the leather bags taken during the first raid. To do this, the player takes the Leather Bag token from their Identity board and then places this, Place-side up, amongst the Place tiles in the centre of the table. In exchange, the player randomly draws a Work of Art token from the cloth bag, discovering the treasures it hides. The player then places this Work of Art token where they wish:

  either on their Identity board to use later

  or on one of their previously acquired Collection cards.

  Exception: if a player goes to take an Work of Art token from the bag and it is empty then the player does not draw any token. They must simply place the Leather Bag tile back in the centre of the table. This also means that the game ends once this last phase of the Exchanges is over: see End of the Game.

• When everyone who is able to has exchanged something at the Black Market, everyone takes another turn at exchanging. This turn goes in the same order as before, following the increasing value of Getaway tokens.

• If a player can no longer exchange anything then they must skip their turn.

The Exchanges phase is over and the round ends. A new round can begin.

Collectors' Fame

Thanks to the exchanges carried out at the Black Market, burglars will acquire various masterpieces: Works of Art or Prestige cards, some of which can be upgraded to earn them as many prestige points as possible.

Prestige Cards

These can be either single pieces or collections to complete.

One of a Kind

(card without upgrade border)

If a player collects a One of a Kind card, they must put it face down next to their Identity board. This will win them 3 prestige points at the end of the game.

Collection

(card with an upgrade border)

• If a player collects a Collection card, they place this face up next to their Identity board because it is upgradable. If it is not upgraded, it wins them 2 prestige points at the end of the game.

• If a player manages to upgrade this collection using the required Work of Art tokens then the card wins them a corresponding number of points: see Work of Art tokens.

  Example: this Prestige card is part of a collection. Without being upgraded, it earns its owner 2 points at the end of the game. If it is completed with a Manuscript token then it earns 4 points instead of 2.

• If all the spaces on the upgrade border are filled before the end of the game then the Collection card is placed face down next to the Identity board. All the Work of Art tokens from this card are then placed back in the game box.

Work of Art tokens

In order to win more prestige points, players can upgrade their collections by adding Works of Art to the upgrade borders of their cards.

• When a player collects a Work of Art token from the Black Market, they can place this:

  on their Identity board to use later,

  or on one of their previously acquired Collection cards.

• When a player decides to place a Work of Art token on one of their Collection cards they must place this on the lowest empty space of the upgrade border. This token must correspond to the Work of Art required by the card. Players cannot place a token on the space if it does not match the object required. Each token placed on a card cannot be moved until the end of the game or until the collection is completed.

  Example: a player wishes to upgrade their Chalice Collection. They start by placing their first Chalice token onto the lowest empty space on the upgrade border, earning themself 4 prestige points. At any point in the game they can fill the second space with a new Chalice token in order to win 7 prestige points instead of 4. As a reminder, a total of 2 Chalice tokens are required to complete this collection and no Work of Art other than a Chalice can be used.

• Each Collection card must always be completed from bottom to top, with the amount of prestige points increasing each time. During the final scoring, each collection upgraded in this way will win as many prestige points as shown on the highest filled space.

  Reminder: if a Collection card does not have any Work of Art tokens at the end of the game, it earns the player 2 prestige points.

  Example: on this Collection card, the player must fill the first empty space of the upgrade border using a Jewelry token. Their Collection would then be worth 5 prestige points at the end of the game instead of 2. If the player wants, they can improve their Collection later by filling the second space with a Watch token. At this point, the card would be worth 9 prestige points instead of 5. Finally, if the player manages to fill the third and last space with a Painting token then their Collection wins them 14 prestige points at the end of the game instead of 9.

New Round

Burglars prepare for the new round together by doing the following:

• Each player places all their unexchanged loot items from their Identity board in the centre of the table. The keys that have been looted are also returned to the centre of the table.
• Mix everything together, taking care to leave all the Garage, Study and Safe tiles Place-side up as in the start of the game. Reminder: no tile can sit on top of another.
• Fill the empty spaces on each Black Market board with as many Work of Art tokens as necessary from the bag and as many Prestige cards as necessary from the pile.
• Be careful: if this setup does not cause the game to end (see End of the Game) then each player must also place their Getaway token amongst the Place tiles.

Play a new round, starting with the Raid, then the End of the Raid and finishing with the Exchanges.

Continue to play as many rounds as it takes for the game to end.

End of the Game

The game ends when one of the two following situations arises:

• there are no more Work of Art tokens in the bag.
  • If this situation occurs during setup for a new round, the game ends immediately.
  • If this situation occurs during the Exchanges phase when a player is taking a Work of Art token from the bag, then this player takes nothing. They must place their Leather Bag tile in the centre of the table and all the players finish this last Exchanges phase, ending the game when it is over.

OR,

• there are not enough Prestige cards to fill all the Black Market boards during setup for a new round.

Each player reveals all their Prestige cards and a final scoring of the points won by each burglar is done. Each player wins:

• 1 prestige point per silver Work of Art (Manuscript, Chalice or Statuette) still present on their Identity board,
• 2 prestige points per gold Work of Art (Jewelry, Watch or Painting) still present on their Identity board,
• 3 prestige points for each One of a Kind object won,
• as many prestige points as indicated at the top of the upgrade border of each completed Collection card,
• as many prestige points as indicated on the highest filled space of the upgrade border of each incomplete Collection card.

Reminder: if the upgrade border is empty, Collection cards will still earn their owners 2 points.

Leather Bags are not worth any points at the end of the game.

The player with the most prestige points at the end of the game becomes the most respected collector of all!

In the case of a tie, the player who took the Getaway token with the lowest value at the end of the last round wins the game.

Example: the purple burglar has won the following prestige points:

• 1 prestige point for the silver Chalice token and 4 prestige points for the gold Jewelry and Watch still present on their Identity board,
• 3 prestige points for their One of a Kind Statuette and Pharoah,
• 5 prestige points for their completed Collection of jewels,
• 11 prestige points for their completed Collection of Manuscripts,
• 4 prestige points for their incomplete Collection of Statuettes,
• 9 prestige points for their incomplete display case of Works of Art.

This burglar wins a total of 37 prestige points for all of their collections of works of art.

Distribution of loot items on the backs of Place tiles

The Place tiles are in three areas: Garage (blue), Study (purple) and Safe (orange). Each loot item appears on the backs of the Place tiles as follows.

Garage (blue):

• Jewelry: 4 matching cards.
• Wads of Cash: 4 matching cards.
• Leather bags: 2 matching cards.
• Iron key: 4 matching cards. Found only in the garage; it gives access to the study (purple).
• Empty drawers: 4 matching cards. Found only in the garage. Several empty drawers will lose you precious raid time or help you complete your Identity board more quickly.

Study (purple):

• Jewelry: 4 matching cards.
• Wads of Cash: 4 matching cards.
• Leather bags: 2 matching cards.
• Brass key: 4 matching cards. Found in the study; it gives access to the safe (orange).
• Gemstones: 4 matching cards.

Safe (orange):

• Jewelry: 4 matching cards.
• Wads of Cash: 4 matching cards.
• Leather bags: 2 matching cards.
• Gemstones: 4 matching cards.
• Gold bars: 4 matching cards. Found only in the safe.

Once you have placed them on your Identity board, each key gives you access to the next level of area to raid.