Museum Suspects Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Object of the Game
• Setup
• How to Play
  • 1. Investigate a clue
  • 2. Suggest a suspect
• End of the Game

Game Contents

• 24 Suspect tiles
• 1 Emergency Exit tile
• 32 Clue cards (8 types of clues in 8 colors with 4 criteria per type)
• 48 Investigation tokens (4 colors, 12 tokens per color)
• 4 Detective tokens (A, B, C, D)
• 4 Notebooks
• 4 Pencils

Object of the Game

Find the thief or thieves from the 16 suspects by looking at clues in the museum. Note down hints in your notebook during your 6 turns to help your investigation. The player who bets the most on the real thief or thieves wins the game.

Setup

1. Place the Emergency Exit tile on the table, face up.

2. Shuffle the 24 Suspect tiles together and place 16 of these face up on the table in a 4x4 grid: This grid represents the map of 16 rooms in the museum with one suspect per room. Place the 8 remaining tiles back in the box.

3. Take the 32 Clue cards:

• Arrange these into 8 piles, face down, according to the type of clue:
  1. Animal
  2. Hat
  3. Item of clothing
  4. Accessory
  5. Decoration
  6. Line
  7. Column
  8. Corner
• Shuffle each pile individually, keeping the cards face down.
• Take 1 card from each pile and shuffle these together to make a new pile of 8 cards. Place the remaining cards from the 8 piles into the box without peeking at them.
• Place the 8 cards face down next to the grid of 16 suspects.

4. Each player receives:

• 1 Notebook
• 1 Pencil
• 1 Detective token:
  • for a 2 player game, use tokens A and B,
  • for a 3 player game, use tokens A, B and C,
  • for a 4 player game, use tokens A, B, C and D.
• 12 Investigation tokens corresponding to the color of their Detective token. Investigation tokens are placed face down in front of the players.

Unused game contents are placed back in the box.

How to Play

The game is played in 6 rounds.

Start with player A and then move onto player B, then C, and then D, according to the number of players playing the game.

On your turn, you must carry out the 2 following actions in the following order:

1. Investigate a clue
2. Suggest a suspect

1. Investigate a clue

The active player chooses one clue to check from the 8 clues available. Clues will help you find out which suspects are innocent.

For example, this clue shows that the thief or thieves who are guilty will not be found in any of the 4 rooms at the top right corner of the museum.

Two situations are possible:

• There is no Investigation token on the clue: the player can look at the clue.
• There are already one or more Investigation tokens on the clue: before looking at the clue, the player must make sure that they have one Investigation token in their pile worth the same amount or more than the highest value token already on this clue. If they do not, the player cannot look at this clue and must choose another.

Once a player has looked at a clue they secretly write in their notebook. They cross off the clue card they just saw, and then any boxes in the 4x4 grid that correspond to suspect tiles they know are innocent.

Then they place one Investigation token on the clue they looked at, which can be any value they wish if they were the first player to look at this clue (or the same or higher value than the highest token already there if they were not the first). If the player does not have an appropriate token left to investigate a clue, they must go directly to the "Suggest a suspect" step.

2. Suggest a suspect

The active player must place one of their Investigation tokens, face down either on:

• One of the 16 Suspect tiles: The placed token will give you points at the end of the game based on its value, if the suspect is confirmed as a thief. There can be several tokens on the same suspect and players can place several of their own tokens on one suspect (only one token per turn).
• The Emergency Exit tile: If a player does not think any of the 16 suspects is guilty and that the real suspect has escaped, they can place their Investigation token on the Emergency Exit tile.

End of the Game

The game ends after 6 rounds have been played.

The clue cards are turned over one by one. As each clue is revealed, players must flip the corresponding Suspect tiles face down as each suspect is revealed to be innocent. Any Investigation tokens placed on innocent suspects are removed from the game.

Once all the clues have been revealed, three situations are possible:

• One Suspect tile remains face up: This is the thief! The players who correctly suspected this individual add up their tokens placed on the thief and the one with the highest total token value wins the game.
• The thief was not among the 16 suspects and has escaped the museum: The players with Investigation tokens on the Emergency Exit add them up. The player with the highest total token value wins the game.
• Several Suspect tiles are left face up: These are all thieves! The players who suspected one or more of these individuals add up the value of their tokens placed on the thieves and add 1 point for each thief they have correctly suspected. The player with the most points wins the game.

In the event of a tie, players share the victory.

If no one made correct suspicions then no one wins the game - you'll need to train a little more to become a great detective! Play another game to prove your prowess!

In the example, Charlotte and Felix were both thieves. The yellow player has a total of 11 points (6+4+1 because they placed these tokens on the first thief). The pink player has a total of 12 points (5+3+2+2 because they placed these tokens on the two thieves). The pink player wins the game.