Murdero Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Setup
• Player Turn
• End of Turn
• End of Hand
• Scoring
• Full Game
• 4 Players Team Game
• Case Cards
• Action Cards
• Tips
• Action Card Reference
  • Destroy
  • Heavy Caseload
  • Joker
  • Lost Treasure
  • Mitigating Circs
  • Overtime (2)
  • Real Estate
  • Reverse Charges
  • Sabotage (2)
  • Shake Down
  • The Don’s Alibi
  • Political Alibi
  • Silver Screen Alibi

Overview

Build murder investigation case card sets in order to score points. Play action cards to help you and to hamper your opponents. 1st player to earn 100 or more points wins!

Setup

Choose a start player.

Shuffle all of the cards and deal each player a hand of 8. The remaining cards form the Case File deck. Turn the top card face up next to it to start a discard pile.

Setup diagram key:

1. Case File
2. Discard Pile
3. Red case set in progress

Player Turn

Turns proceed clockwise. Draw the top Case File card or the top discard pile card into your hand. You may then do the following in any order:

• Build Cases: Play any number of case cards from hand to make sets.
• Take Action: Once each turn you may discard any 1 hand card to draw the top Case File deck card, or play 1 action card, or use 1 action card you already have out.

End of Turn

Discard only if you must. Discard down to 8 hand cards at end of turn, then the player on your left goes.

Note: There is no single discard at the end of your turn as in most rummy games.

End of Hand

Ends in one of two ways:

• A player completes a case card set numbered from 1 to 5 and goes out.
• The Case File deck is empty (finish the turn). Don't reshuffle the discards into a new deck. No one solved a case to go out so no one doubles their score.

Scoring

Cards out minus hand cards. Each player sums the value of their case cards out in sets. Deduct their remaining hand card values. Score may be negative.

The player who went out doubles their score before deducting hand cards.

Doubling Variant: Player who went out doubles one case set, not all their cards.

Full Game

100 points. Play multiple hands until someone's score reaches or exceeds 100 to win the game.

Or play best total score over 3 hands.

Or play most wins over 3 hands; the highest score in a hand counts as a win.

4 Players Team Game

• Partners sit opposite, and can't reveal or communicate about their hands.
• You may play case and action cards on your partner, who then owns the card. Only they can use its ability for their benefit. The card can't later be moved.
• Scoring: Add the values of all case cards both partners have out. Deduct the value of both partner's hand cards.
• A team needs to reach a combined score of 200 points or more to win.

Case Cards

(45) Building case sets. These have 3 colors, each its own milieu.

• Red: the criminal underworld
• Blue: the world of moviemaking
• Green: the world of politics and law

Each card has a 1-5 in the top left, its value and its murder investigation stage.

Value	Stage	Cards Per Color
1	Crime Scene	5
2	Victim	4
3	Evidence	3
4	Suspect	2
5	Weapon	1

Begin a case set with a Crime Scene value 1 card. Play cards in front of you in sequence: 1-2-3-4-5. Build up to 3 different color sets at once, each having cards of only one color.

To play a higher value card you must already have out the lower value cards. To play a 3 you must have out at least one 1 and one 2.

You may add more than one card of a given value to a set to score more points and to help defend against Sabotage.

Go Out: Complete a set with at least 1 card of each number in one color to go out.

Challenge Variant: May only add cards of value equal to or greater than a set's high card. Only 3, 4, or 5 can be added to a set of 1-2-3; no more 1s or 2s can be added.

Action Cards

(15) These let you draw cards, destroy cards, alter the go out condition, and more. They are either Permanent (stay out on the table) or One Shot. All have zero value.

• One Shot Action (grey border): Remove from the game when played, not put on the discard pile.
• Permanent Action (black border): Play out near your cases, up to one per case you are building, up to 3 total.

Replace A Permanent Action: If you have a permanent action in play for each case you are building, you must remove one of them from the game to then play a new one. You may only do this if you have the full amount of permanent actions out.

Use A Permanent Action In Play: Some of these such as Mitigating Circs you may use once each turn. Use an action this way just like playing one, as the Take Action part of your turn. You can't use the action on the turn you put it into play.

Tips

• Building cases gets harder over time. Each color has only one murder weapon – at most one player may complete each case.
• Build all 3 cases for more points and more chance to use a Weapon card later.
• Play multiple case cards of one color and number. 5 Crime Scenes earn 5 points.
• Play an action only if really helpful. Discard a hand card for an extra draw to help you find a card you need to build your case.

Action Card Reference

Destroy

One Shot

Remove 1 permanent action from the game, not a case card. If Joker is removed then other higher cards in its case may need removing: if the Joker was the only 3 in the set then also remove any 4s and 5s.

Heavy Caseload

Permanent

Hand ends only if one player has 2 sets complete. If this is removed, all players with a complete set go out scoring double.

If you replace this with Joker to give you 1 complete set, you go out and score double; others with a complete case do too.

Teams: One partner must finish 2 sets to go out. Not enough to each complete one.

Joker

Permanent

Play as the Take Action part of a turn to fill in for any case card you could play.

Since it's a permanent, you need a case in play to start a new case with a Joker.

Lost Treasure

One Shot

Take any 1 case card from anywhere in the discard pile. You can't take an action.

Mitigating Circs

Permanent

May use once each turn after it's in play if you remove a case card. If you remove your last case card, you must remove this card. Can't use this the turn it enters play.

Teams: Can't remove partner's cards.

Overtime (2)

One Shot

Add the top 3 Case File cards to your hand. Hand ends if this depletes the deck. Discard down to 8 cards at end of turn.

Real Estate

Permanent

If this is in play at hand end then you score 4 instead of 1 for each Crime Scene card you have in play. This is before doubling for going out so each is could be worth 8.

Printed as "so each is could be worth 8"; kept as printed.

Teams: You score this, not your partner.

Reverse Charges

One Shot

Ends the hand. The 4 cards include this so you can only play this if it would leave you 3 hand cards or less. No one scores double as no one has completed a case.

Sabotage (2)

One Shot

You may remove your own card.

If you remove a card from the middle of a set then remove any dependent cards. If you remove the 3 from a 1-2-3-4 set then remove the unsupported 4. For 1-2-3-3-4, only remove a 3; the 4 stays.

Shake Down

One Shot

The case card you remove must be your own, from the table not from your hand. You may not remove an action card.

Teams: Can't remove your partner's card.

The Don’s Alibi

Permanent

If in play when a red case completes, its owner doesn't go out. If this is later removed from play then all players with a complete red case set go out.

Political Alibi

Permanent

As The Don’s Alibi but for green cases.

Silver Screen Alibi

Permanent

As The Don’s Alibi but for blue cases.