Ojciec Mateusz: tajemnicze zagadki Sandomierza
Ojciec Mateusz: tajemnicze zagadki Sandomierza Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Place the board in the middle of the table. All players should sit where they can reach it freely. The board has seven locations, which the players will visit to take Place Cards.
Separate the Place Card decks (seven small-card decks) and place them on the board, as shown in the illustration on page 3. Above the pictures on the board are icons of the items that can be found in each Place Card deck; these are hints for the players during the game.
Prepare the chosen Story Deck. The game contains four Story Decks, but each game uses only one; the players will try to unravel that story. Return the unchosen stories to the box, as they will not be needed. Place the chosen Story Deck on the marked space on the board, as shown in the illustration on page 3. The top card of the stack is card I, with card II beneath it, and so on. The back of a Story Card shows an illustration of a valuable artifact; the front shows the description of the event, the investigation conditions and the investigation goals.
For the first games we recommend the story GENIALNY ARTYSTA (Genius Artist), because it contains fewer items to find and fewer obstacles. Later stories present the players with increasingly difficult challenges and require more experience. Even the "easiest" investigation in the first story may run into obstacles that cannot be overcome. We hope that this only encourages players to try their chosen adventure again.
Next to the board, prepare the Father Mateusz Cards (OM Cards): 12 large cards that support the players. Place the OM Card deck next to the board. Then one of the players reveals the top 4 cards and lays them beside the board so that they are visible to all.
Next to the board, prepare the Uncertainty Cards: 12 large cards that can upset the players' plans. Place the Uncertainty Card deck next to the board, beside the OM Cards. Then one of the players draws (but does not reveal!) the top 4 cards and lays them beside the revealed OM Cards, so that they are available to all players.
When all the components are in their places, the players may begin the game.
Goal of the Game: What the Story Cards Hide
The goal of the game is written on the Story Cards. Before each game the players choose a story and take its Story Deck, then read the card numbered I.
On each Story Card:
- A. Card number – shows the order in which the cards are read during play. Every game begins with the card numbered I.
- B. Story name – helps you remember the theme of the investigation.
- C. Narrative description – tells the story of what happened and why the players are investigating.
- D. Investigation conditions (warunki śledztwa) – changes that the players must carry out immediately, before the main game begins.
- E. Investigation goals (cele śledztwa) – the items and clues the players must find (see below).
Under the description, the card contains information that is important for the game.
Several kinds of investigation conditions can appear in the game.
Conditions of the form "from the Opatowska Gate deck, find the Police blockade and place it on top of the deck." Immediately take from the indicated location's deck the first available Place Card with a blockade (the red card with the blockade symbol). If there is no such card left in the deck, look for the first card of that Place deck among the discarded cards and place it on top of that location's pile on the board. (The remaining cards from the board are then reshuffled and, without looking at them, placed back under the revealed blockade.) In some cases the conditions specify exactly which blockade card to find. If a blockade card is already revealed on top of the indicated deck, nothing further happens.
Conditions of the form "reshuffle the indicated deck and reveal the blockade in it." Before revealing a blockade card, reshuffle the indicated Place deck (the cards that are on the board and the discarded cards) and reveal the blockade, even if a blockade was already revealed on the board.
Conditions of the form "remove the Father Mateusz card from the game." The player who is about to take an action must immediately cover one revealed OM Card. From that moment the players must use only the reduced pool of revealed OM Cards (the covered card is not replaced by another OM Card).
Conditions of the form "discard a revealed Police blockade from the board." If there is any revealed Police blockade on the board, the player who begins their turn may remove one of those cards. If there is no revealed Police blockade on the board, nothing happens.
E. Investigation goals are the items and clues the players must find. They are hidden in the Place Card decks. Finding them is the main objective of the game. Most often the players will look for clues (there are the most of them), and sometimes for ordinary items. The hardest to find will be items from a specifically named location, for example from the Castle (Zamek) or the Town Hall (Ratusz). How to fulfil the investigation goals is described later in this rulebook, in the section Gameplay.
Example: The illustration shows the investigation goals from the Story Card Królewska Gra (I). To discard this card and learn what happens next, the players must find 3 clues, but – importantly – those clues must come from the Castle (Zamek) deck (other clues do not fulfil the goals), together with any key (not necessarily from the Castle deck). This is therefore a large obstacle at the start of the game.
Gameplay
At the start, the players choose among themselves the one who will begin the game. After that player's turn, the other players take their actions in turn. On each player's turn they have one of the actions described below. Whenever it is a player's turn, they must choose only one of them. They may:
- draw one card from any available location on the board,
- remove a blockade and draw a card from that location,
- give an item or clue as an Investigation Goal, to receive an Investigation Success Token,
- draw and immediately put into play the effect described on a chosen Father Mateusz Card,
- choose an alternative use of a Father Mateusz Card,
- pass.
Action 1
Draw one card from any available location on the board (that is, a location where there is no revealed card with the blockade symbol).
Drawing a card means taking a Place Card from the chosen deck. Remember that you may not draw cards from a deck whose top card is a revealed blockade. If the drawn card is an item – key, crowbar, ladder, stethoscope, torch, identity card, lock pick – or a clue or hint, the player must keep that card without showing it to the other players. At no moment may a player hold more than three Place Cards in hand (they may be cards from different locations). If a player draws a fourth card, they must discard one of their cards to the discard pile (see page 11).
Ordinary items are used by the players to open blockade cards (marked with the blockade symbol). Sometimes they are also Investigation Goals arising from the Story Card, for which the players receive Investigation Success Tokens (see page 9).
Besides ordinary items, four unique items (artifacts) can be found in several decks: the Striped Flint (Krzemień Pasiasty), the 15th-century Reliquary of the Holy Cross Tree (Relikwiarz Drzewa Krzyża Świętego), the 16th-century Image of the Virgin Mary (Obraz NMP), and the 12th-century Sandomierz Chess Set (Szachy Sandomierskie). Each of them is one of the Investigation Goals, depending on the chosen Story Card. For example, if the players are playing the story Królewska Gra, only the Sandomierz Chess Set is the goal indicated on the last Story Card. For the other artifacts, the cards play no role.
If the drawn card is a blockade (a card with the blockade symbol: door, grate, window, safe, police) – the player may not keep it. They immediately reveal it and place it on top of the deck from which they drew it. From then on that location is blocked and no cards may be drawn from it.
Action 2
Remove a blockade and draw a card. If a player holds in hand the items needed to remove a blockade, they may, as part of their turn, discard the items required to remove it (marked by symbols on the card) and immediately draw a card from the same location (following the rules of Action 1).
Example: A player holds a torch, a ladder and a clue in hand. On their turn they want to draw a Place Card from the Town Hall where a blockade (window) is revealed. Because the torch and the ladder are needed to remove it, the player discards those cards from their hand (showing those items to the other players) and immediately draws another card from the Town Hall.
Action 3
Give an item or clue as an Investigation Goal, to receive an Investigation Success Token.
If at the start of their turn a player holds an item or clue that is indicated as an Investigation Goal on the Story Card, they may show it to the other players. They then place it beside the Story Card (so that everyone remembers that this item or clue has already been found). As a reward for finding an item or clue that is an Investigation Goal, the player receives:
- 1 Investigation Success Token for each item or clue,
- 2 Investigation Success Tokens for each item or clue required on the last Story Card,
- 3 Investigation Success Tokens for the item (artifact) required on the last Story Card.
Example: A player holds in hand a clue and a key from the Town Hall. The Story Card Królewska Gra (III) is on the table. The investigation goal is to discard the clue and the key. The player decides to discard the key. They immediately receive an Investigation Success Token and their turn ends.
Action 4
Draw and immediately put into play the effect described on a chosen Father Mateusz Card. The detailed meaning of each card is described on its back. Then the player MUST draw one of the face-down Uncertainty Cards and also put its effects into play.
Note: After playing a Father Mateusz Card and an Uncertainty Card, the player draws further cards to replace the ones used. The Father Mateusz Card is revealed when drawn, while the Uncertainty Card stays face down. If the deck runs out of cards, this step is skipped.
Example: A player decides to use the card Ojciec Mateusz Współpracuje z Policją (Father Mateusz Cooperates with the Police). Because the police blockade is on the Opatowska Gate (which the player is trying to reach), the player uses the OM Card to move the police blockade to the Underground pile. This lets them draw a card from the Opatowska Gate deck (unless it is another blockade). Immediately after these steps, they are forced to reveal an Uncertainty Card. It turns out to be Wydawało się to mało prawdopodobne (It Seemed Rather Unlikely), which forces the player to discard all cards in hand.
Action 5
Use a Father Mateusz Card alternatively. On their turn a player may discard any revealed OM Card without applying its effects. In return, they may immediately reveal one of their own cards from hand and ask the other players for help in opening one of the revealed blockades on the board. Each player who has any card that can open the blockade may give it to the player, so that they can remove the blockade. The player using this action may open one of the blockades using cards from other players. After the blockade is removed, they may immediately draw a Place Card from the deck from which they removed the blockade. Then the player MUST draw one of the face-down Uncertainty Cards and also put its effects into play.
Action 6
You may pass. When a player passes, they take no action (for example when they do not want to use the Father Mateusz Cards because they fear the consequences of the Uncertainty Cards), or when all Locations on the board are already blocked by blockade cards.
End of the Game
The game ends in two cases:
- when any player finds and discards the last of the required items/clues from the last Story Card,
- or when all players pass one after another and do not take any action.
In both cases the winner is the player who has gathered the most Investigation Success Tokens (if several players have the same number of tokens, the winner is the player who moved last at the beginning of the game).
Note: The success of all players is the situation in which the last Story Card is discarded, because it means that all the players played very well and the wicked act of the criminals was thwarted.
Remember
- If a player draws an item that matches an Investigation Goal or the removal of a blockade, they may not play it immediately. They must wait for their next turn.
- Using a Father Mateusz Card results in the obligation to draw an Uncertainty Card.
- Every Father Mateusz Card may be used to attempt to open a blockade with the help of the other players.
- A player may never hold more than three Place Cards in hand!
Supplementary Rules
Discard Pile
During the game the players will be forced to discard Place Cards for several reasons:
- they drew a card over the hand limit (3 cards),
- they removed a blockade card using items,
- they discarded a clue card (wskazówka, marked with the magnifier icon) in order to use the chosen Father Mateusz Cards.
When a card is discarded, the player must show which Place Card they are discarding and why. In each of the situations described above it is worth laying the discarded cards off the board, so that separate piles are formed for each location (do not mix all the cards together!). This matters, because cards may return to the board. This can happen in the following cases:
- a suitable Father Mateusz Card has been played,
- the last card of a given location has been taken from the board. In that case the players immediately reshuffle the discarded cards from that deck and put back on the board a rebuilt deck for the designated location.
Discarded cards must be placed illustration-side up, so that the players do not know what they are covering.
Note: When a player has discarded an item or clue to fulfil an Investigation Goal (and receives an Investigation Success Token), they place the card with that item beside the Story Card, so that all players remember that the item has already been found. Only when the last of the required items has been found are all item cards discarded to the discard pile.
Special Situations
Remember that after drawing Uncertainty Cards NIESPODZIEWANA PRZESZKODA (Unexpected Obstacle) or ZŁODZIEJ DOSKONALE ZACIERAŁ ŚLADY (The Thief Covered His Tracks), a card may not be discarded from the hand if it is an artifact card, or a card that is one of the Investigation Goals.
Difficulty of the Investigations
The investigations are not equally difficult:
- GENIALNY ARTYSTA (Genius Artist) – basic level,
- KAMIEŃ OPTYMIZMU (Stone of Optimism) – medium level,
- KRÓLEWSKA GRA (Royal Game) – hard level,
- CENNIEJSZY NIŻ ZŁOTO (More Precious Than Gold) – very hard level.
We wish you a good time playing.
Card Reference
The manual's setup illustration (page 3) shows the four Father Mateusz Cards that are revealed at the start of the game. Their printed text is:
- OJCIEC MATEUSZ MA NOWY PLAN (Father Mateusz Has a New Plan): Choose a location with a revealed blockade card. Immediately reshuffle the cards of that location that are on the board (together with the revealed card). Then you may draw a Place Card.
- OJCIEC MATEUSZ ROZPOZNAJE FAŁSZ (Father Mateusz Recognises the Falsehood): Swap two cards (revealed in different locations).
- OJCIEC MATEUSZ ZNAJDUJE PRZEJŚCIE (Father Mateusz Finds a Passage): You may use [magnifier symbol] to open any blockade card (each card replaces any item or clue). After removing this blockade card, you may draw a Place Card.
- OJCIEC MATEUSZ POSIADA INTUICJĘ (Father Mateusz Has Intuition): Look at three cards in one chosen available location and keep one of them. Put the remaining cards in any order on the top or bottom of that deck.
Note: The printed symbol in the third card is shown in the source as a magnifier icon; the manual text does not name it separately.
The example on page 9 uses the card OJCIEC MATEUSZ WSPÓŁPRACUJE Z POLICJĄ (Father Mateusz Cooperates with the Police): move a revealed Police blockade to the top of another location's deck (even if a revealed card is already there). The Uncertainty Card WYDAWAŁO SIĘ TO MAŁO PRAWDOPODOBNE (It Seemed Rather Unlikely) says: immediately discard all cards in hand.