Mirror of Truth
Mirror of Truth Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Overview
You play as guests at a dinner party who have been drawn into the investigation of the murder of the mansion's host. An unknown force has transported all the innocent people into the otherworld as bodiless spirits, unable to communicate with one another. You can explain to the others who you are only by using the objects scattered around, showing which of them suit you and which do not. You must try to work out the murderers as quickly as possible, because victory goes to whoever manages to do so before the others.
Each player plays one of the innocent characters, whose cards are face up in the centre of the table. This character is your secret role. In addition to the players' characters, 1 to 3 extra cards are face up on the table: these are the murderer characters (no player plays as them).
Your goal is to use evidence cards to explain to the others your secret role (which of the characters on the table you are), to work out the other players' roles, and, by elimination, to identify the murderers (the characters that no player is playing as).
During the game you secretly vote on innocent characters and murderers by playing your vote cards. At the end of the game you receive victory points for correct votes, as well as points for successfully defending your own character, or a penalty if you fail to defend yourself and most players name your character as a murderer.
The game consists of three rounds, with 1, 2 and 3 murderers respectively. The winner of the game is determined by the total points scored over the 3 rounds.
Components
- 9 secret role cards
- 6 player tokens
- 150 evidence cards
- 16 double-sided character cards (32 characters in total)
- 4 vote cards for each of 6 players
Setup for the First Round
- Character cards are double-sided, so shuffle them in a special way: shuffle all the cards, split off roughly half of the stack and flip it over, then shuffle all the cards together again.
- Lay out in the centre of the table, in one row, a number of character cards one more than the number of players. Place the remaining character stack, turned sideways, to the left of the face-up cards. This stack serves as the reference point for the characters: the character nearest to it is the first, the next one the second, and so on.
Optional, but recommended for atmosphere: consider the top card of the character stack to be the host of the house, murdered during the party. Starting with the player who dealt the cards and going around the table in turn, each player points to any face-up character, invents and tells everyone how that character was connected with the murdered host. You may also invent a motive for killing the birthday guest. Discuss all the face-up characters in this way.
- Take secret role cards equal to the number of characters on the table. For example, with 4 characters face up on the table, take the cards numbered "1" to "4". Shuffle the cards face down (numbers down) and deal one to each player. Set the remaining cards aside without looking at them (in the first round this is just 1 card). Players secretly look at their cards and place them face down (number down) on the table in front of them, with the green edge of the card turned toward the centre of the table. The number on your card corresponds to the number of a character on the table: this is your secret role, the innocent character you must explain to the others using evidence cards. All players play as innocents! The murderers are the characters that no player is playing as; they must be identified by elimination.
- Deal each player 4 vote cards and 1 player token of the colour they choose. Players place their token on top of their secret role card, and hold their vote cards in their hands or keep them on the table face down, without showing them to one another.
- Shuffle the evidence card deck and place it in the centre of the table face down. Reveal 3 evidence cards next to the deck.
The most experienced player, or the one who last watched or read a detective story, becomes the first player and starts the first round.
Illustration caption: setup for a 3-player game. The "red" player's cards are shown face up as an example.
Playing a Round
Players take turns around the table until everyone has played all of their vote cards.
On their turn, a player:
- If they wish, plays one vote card, placing it face down next to one of the characters (on top of any other vote cards already next to that character). In this way the player makes a prediction about whether the character is innocent or a murderer. A player may place a vote card next to any character, even their own: cards on their own character do not earn points, but they help avoid arrest (see "Scoring" below). Keep in mind that the order of votes matters: cards played earlier may earn more points. There is no limit on the number of cards next to each character.
- Must place one evidence card: take any of the evidence cards face up in the centre of the table and place it near their secret role card, either on top, in the "green zone" (closer to the centre of the table), if they want to say that this evidence suits their character; or below, in the "red zone" (closer to themselves), if they want to say that this evidence does not suit their character (thereby explaining their character "by contrast").
You may not comment on your moves in order not to reveal information: in the otherworld, without a face or voice, you can communicate only by means of evidence.
- Refill the face-up evidence cards in the centre of the table to three by revealing a new card from the deck, and pass the turn to the next player around the table who still has vote cards (skipping players without vote cards).
When all players have played all their vote cards, proceed to "End of the Round and Scoring".
Illustration caption: the "red" player made 3 turns, placing 3 evidence cards and playing 2 vote cards. The other players made 2 turns each, placing 2 evidence cards and playing 1 vote card each.
End of the Round and Scoring
Points are recorded with evidence cards. When a player earns points, they take the corresponding number of cards from the evidence deck and place them face down in front of them in a personal points stack.
Starting with the player who played the last vote card, and continuing around the table, each player does the following:
- The player reveals their secret role card and turns the whole stack of vote cards next to their character face up, without changing their order.
- The player scores points for the vote cards next to their character:
- They themselves receive 1 point for each other player's "Innocent" card.
- Other players whose "Innocent" cards were the first and second correctly played cards (not counting cards of the player who is playing as the character) receive 2 and 1 points respectively.
- If the character has more "Murderer" cards than "Innocent" cards, this character is arrested: the player playing as the character temporarily takes its card. As soon as the player's points stack contains 5 cards or more, they immediately return 5 cards to the evidence deck and place the arrested character at the bottom of the character stack, turning its card to its other face. In this way, bail has been paid for the arrested innocent character and they are set free.
When everyone has revealed their innocent characters, only the murderer character cards remain for scoring (in the first round there is one murderer). For each murderer character, turn over in turn the stack of vote cards played next to it and award points:
- The players whose "Murderer" cards were the first, second and third correctly played cards receive 3, 2 and 1 points respectively.
- If the character has more "Murderer" cards than "Innocent" cards, this character is arrested: place the arrested character at the bottom of the character stack, turning its card to its other face.
Example of scoring for the "red" player:
The player's secret role is character 2: the Chemist.
The player receives the following points:
- 1 point for 1 other player's "Innocent" card under the Chemist;
- 2 points for their own "Innocent" card, which was first at the Housewife;
- 1 point for their own "Innocent" card, which was second at the Pilot;
- 3 points for their own "Murderer" card, which was first at the Architect;
- 0 points for their other "Murderer" card, which was fourth;
- discards 5 cards to pay the bail for the arrest of their Chemist character.
2 cards remain in the player's points stack: this is their result for the first round.
Setup for the Second and Third Rounds
The residents of Sidewood had barely caught their breath after the recent incident when the detective story repeated itself. Who would have thought that, gathering for dinner at another neighbour's house, they would once again have to investigate a murder? And it seems that this time the murderer is not alone!
In the second and third rounds you play with 2 and 3 murderers respectively. Prepare for the new round as follows:
- Return all players' vote cards to them.
- Collect all the evidence cards played around the secret role cards. Shuffle them face down and place them at the bottom of the evidence deck. Do not collect evidence from players' victory point stacks, and leave 3 evidence cards face up in the centre of the table.
If you began the previous round with the host of the house, place the card of the host who was laid to rest after the previous party at the bottom of the character stack, turning its card to its other face.
- Add new character cards from the top of the character stack to the centre of the table: instead of all the arrested characters, and one more in addition, so that the number of face-up characters grows by 1 compared with the previous round. You may arrange the characters in any order.
If you continue the game with the host of the house, consider the new top card of the character stack to be the host of the new party, who was also murdered. As in the first round, go round the table in turn and invent for each face-up character how they were connected with the murdered host.
- Collect the secret role cards and add to them the card with the next number, so that there are as many role cards as there are characters face up on the table. Shuffle the role cards face down and deal one to each player. Set the remaining cards aside without looking at their numbers.
The player who last played a vote card in the previous round starts the new round as the first player.
End of the Game and Determining the Winner
After the third round, each player counts the total number of cards in their victory point stack. Do not forget to pay the bail and release all of your arrested characters! If you do not have enough cards to pay bail, count your points as 0.
The player with the most victory points wins the game! If several players have the same highest number of points, they share the victory.
Clarifications to the Rules
- A player may score twice for their vote cards under a single character, if both of their "Innocent" (or "Murderer") cards are among the first two (or three) correctly played cards.
- The player's cards on their own character are not counted when scoring, but they are counted when checking for arrest.
- The vote cards carry a reminder of how points are scored for correctly played cards.
- When, at the end of a round, one player is left with unplayed vote cards, they must play all of them in a single turn, without placing any additional evidence.
- In the case of the arrest of a player's character: if the player has 5 cards in their points stack, they immediately discard 5 cards from it to pay bail and discard the character card. If the player does not have 5 cards in their points stack, they temporarily take the character card as a reminder of its arrest, and as soon as they accumulate 5 cards in their points stack, they discard 5 cards and the arrested character card.
Cooperative Mode for 2 Players
In the cooperative mode the two players do not compete with each other; they win or lose together, trying to score a set number of victory points over the three rounds.
You are invited to complete 14 missions. Each mission is a separate game consisting of 3 rounds (with 1, 2 and 3 murderers, as in the competitive mode).
Each mission has 2 parameters: the starting size of the evidence deck, and the goal of the game, expressed as the number of victory points you must reach at the end of the game to complete the mission successfully. The number of victory points at the end of the game is the number of evidence cards in your evidence deck after the last, third round.
For example, for the first mission, "Easy Task 18/12", you start the game with an evidence deck of 18 cards, and at the end of the game you must have at least 12 victory points. If you manage this, mark the completed mission with a pencil. After that, the missions linked to it become available to you.
The missions are printed as tiles on a map, and the printed map shows which missions unlock which; the links are not transcribed here. Each mission is shown as "starting deck / victory target" (the translated mission titles follow the Russian titles in brackets). The table is not numbered, because the printed rules do not number the missions.
| Mission | Starting evidence deck | Victory target |
|---|---|---|
| Easy Task (Лёгкая задачка) | 18 | 12 |
| Eastern War (Восточная война) | 12 | 10 |
| Your Firstborns (Ваши первенцы) | 5 | 10 |
| Shining Path (Сияющий путь) | 8 | 10 |
| Chaos of Banality (Хаос банальности) | 20 | 16 |
| Monday Morning (Утро понедельника) | 18 | 24 |
| Rebirth of the Family (Возрождение семьи) | 16 | 16 |
| The Last Tram (Последний трамвай) | 8 | 16 |
Choose an available mission to play (for your first game, this is "Easy Task 18/12") and play the game by the competitive rules, with the differences listed below.
Setup for the First Round
- Each player plays two characters at once. Therefore, set up as for 4 players: for the first round take 5 characters and 5 secret role cards, dealing each player 2 role cards, but only 1 player token and 1 set of vote cards to each player. Players place both of their role cards face down in front of them (numbers down), with their player token between them. Place the role cards in front of you in the order in which you received them, not in ascending order of their values, so as not to give each other extra hints.
- Before the first round, divide the evidence cards into an evidence deck and a reserve deck. To do this, shuffle all the cards, reveal 3 cards in the centre of the table, and then count out the number of cards that matches the first parameter of your mission (for the first mission, "Easy Task 18/12", the starting evidence deck is 18 cards). This is your evidence deck. Place it face down in the centre of the table next to the revealed cards. Set aside all remaining evidence cards: this is your reserve deck.
Illustration caption: setup for a 2-player game. Each player plays two characters at once. Labels: "Reserve deck" and "Evidence deck".
Playing a Round
- Only 1 vote card may be played in front of each character in the centre of the table.
- On their turn, a player places 1 evidence card, choosing which of their characters (and in which zone) to place it.
- A player who has played all their vote cards does not skip turns, and on their turn must place an evidence card.
- The round ends immediately as soon as one vote card has been played in front of each character, or the last card from the evidence deck is revealed.
Scoring and End of the Round
Instead of creating personal victory point stacks, add cards from the reserve deck to the evidence deck:
- add 2 cards from the reserve deck to the evidence deck for each correctly guessed innocent character of the other player;
- add 3 cards from the reserve deck to the evidence deck for each correctly guessed murderer;
- remove 1 card from the evidence deck for each mistake, including your own innocent card on your own character.
If, after the round, your evidence deck has fewer than 3 cards, you have lost early and the game is over.
Setup for the Second and Third Rounds
- Place all the played evidence cards face down at the bottom of the reserve deck.
- Deal players 2 secret role cards each again, as for the first round.
End of the Game
After the third round, count the cards in your evidence deck (not counting the 3 face-up cards in the centre of the table). If the result equals or exceeds the goal value for your mission, congratulations: you have completed the mission! Mark it as completed; the missions linked to it are now available to you.
Complication
You can make the competitive and cooperative modes more difficult: place evidence only in the red zones, that is, explain yourself only through unsuitable evidence, "by contrast". When playing as a pair, instead of placing evidence in the zone of one character, a player may place evidence below their player token. This means that the evidence does not suit both of their characters at once.