Oliver Twist Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Avowed Goal of This Game
• The Perfect Little Pickpocket's Necessities
• The Lair
• Initial Set Up
• Sequence of Play
  • A Player's Turn
  • Prowl
  • Go to Fagin's
  • Ask for Help / Hide
• End of the First Round and Nightfall
• Night Set Up
  • A Player's Turn (Night)
• End of the Round and End of the Game

The Avowed Goal of This Game

You are members of a gang of street urchins working for that old scoundrel Fagin. He gives you a little money in exchange for what you glean picking pockets across London (actually, he fences the goods you bring him for far, far more. But, well…).

During the game's two rounds – day, then night – you must steal as many objects as you can to sell to Fagin, while trying to avoid attracting police attention.

Only the wealthiest (relatively speaking…) at the end of the game will have any hope of earning their freedom!

Happy thieving!

The Perfect Little Pickpocket's Necessities

• 1 double-sided game board (day/night)
• 1 Fagin tile
• 13 Character cards
• 16 Burglary cards
• 1 Gang pawn
• 4 Lairs, assembly required (see below)
• 88 Money tokens, in amounts of £1, £5 and £10
• 1 cloth bag
• 9 starting tokens (octagonal)
• 5 Reward tokens
• 85 round tokens, comprised of 5 Character tokens, 10 Tool tokens, 10 Burglary tokens and 60 Object tokens of 7 different types:
  • 12 apples (1 or 2 £)
  • 11 monogrammed handkerchiefs (1 or 2 £)
  • 10 silver brooches (2 £)
  • 7 pearl necklaces (3 £)
  • 6 gold rings (4 £)
  • 5 fob watches (5 £)
  • 9 wallets (joker)

The Lair

Assemble each of the 4 Lairs by folding the cardboard piece along its scored lines, then apply the 4 double-sided stickers to hold the folded shape together.

Initial Set Up

1. Each player takes a Lair, places it before them and puts a £10/£10 token in their room. Slide the Police file into the Lair.

2. Shuffle the 9 starting tokens, face down. Each player takes 2 at random and places them in the first two spaces of their stash (in the bottom row). The remaining starting tokens are set aside; they'll be used during the next round.

3. Set the Burglary tokens and cards aside. They will only be used during the second (Night) round.

4. Place the board down, Day side up.

5. Shuffle the Object, Character and Tool tokens together in the bag. Then, placing them randomly but face up, fill all of the available spaces in the streets of the game board.

   When playing with 2 players, do not place any tokens in the 2 streets with yellow spaces. Access to them is forbidden for dark and grisly reasons. The extra tokens are left in the bag.

6. Place the Gang pawn in the small paved square at the centre of the board.

7. Place the Fagin tile next to the board, then place the Reward tokens in a pile on the tile, face up, sorted in decreasing order of value (6 on top, 2 at the bottom).

8. Shuffle the Character cards and place them next to the board, face down.

9. Place the Money tokens next to the board to form the bank. You can make change from it at any time during play.

The last player to have visited London goes first – or the youngest if no one has been.

Sequence of Play

A game takes place over two rounds – a Day round, then a Night round.

During those two rounds, each player plays the part of a street urchin, all belonging to the same gang. Gang goals and personal interests diverge, though, and everyone tries to stash away a few valuable items to bring to Fagin the fence for themselves, in order to win the game.

Watch out for the police if you take too many chances stealing in the streets, however! The more visible you are, the more charges against you pile up!

On their turn, each player must perform 1 of the following 3 actions:

• Prowl
• Go to Fagin's
• Ask for help / Hide

At the end of the game, the player who hoarded the most money wins, and is finally able to buy their freedom from Fagin (that old devil really squeezed you for every last penny, didn't he?!)

This first round takes place on the Day side of the board, and ends when one of the players is unable to perform an action.

A Player's Turn

On your turn, you must perform 1 of the 3 possible actions (Prowl – Go to Fagin's – Ask for help / Hide), then the next player in clockwise order takes their turn, and so on.

Prowl

• Move the Gang pawn and take any of the first 4 tokens from a series of tokens connected with the Gang pawn (a series is a line of adjacent tokens that may contain less than 4 tokens).

  It is forbidden to cross empty spaces when moving the Gang pawn.

• Place the token you chose in a free spot in your stash, beginning with the bottom row. From the 6th token on, place your loot astride two of the tokens below; this means there is room for no more than 9 tokens.

  Note: if you only have 5 or less tokens in your stash, they must always be placed in the bottom row.

• If you took any other token than the first one among the 4 ahead of the Gang pawn, every token between the Gang pawn's starting point and the chosen token must be placed in your Police file (left side of your Lair, hidden from sight). You took some risks, and your lack of stealth has attracted police attention!

  Note: the contents of your Police file remain hidden until the end of the round.

Example: The player, Fred, decides to move the Gang pawn onto the fob watch. He places the looted object in his stash, on top of two others as it is his 7th token. The two tokens he bypassed, a Tool and a Character, are placed in the player's Police file as evidence.

Special cases:

• If you take a Tool token, place it in front of your Lair for everyone to see (instead of hidden inside your stash).
• If you take a Character token, discard the token to the bag and draw the first Character card from the draw pile. Look at it, then place it face down in front of you.
• If the Gang pawn is no longer adjacent to any tokens, but you want to, or must, perform the Prowl action, place the Gang pawn onto the empty space of your choice, anywhere on the board but imperatively adjacent to a token. The police have noticed you, but have agreed to look the other way in exchange for 2 £, payable to the bank. After which you can move the Gang pawn the regular way to take a token.
• If you take a token but already have a full stash (5 tokens on the bottom row, 4 balanced on top of them), move any one of those stashed tokens to your police file and replace it with the new one.

Go to Fagin's

From your stash, bring Fagin a set made up of at least 3 Object tokens of the same type, and receive from the bank a total of £ equal to the sum of the coin icons visible on the tokens comprising the set (which are then discarded to the bag).

Examples: Three monogrammed handkerchiefs (each worth £1 or £2) can total £5; three silver brooches (each worth £2) can total £3, paid in £1 tokens (shown as two £1/£1 pairs in the example).

• A Wallet token is worth no £, but it is a joker that can replace any other Object token in order to complete a set.

• If you manage to bring Fagin a set of at least 5 Object tokens, you earn a bonus of 7 £. It is possible to include one or more Wallet tokens in the set in order to qualify for this bonus.

  Example: A set of four monogrammed handkerchiefs plus a Wallet token totals 6 £ + a 7 £ bonus = 18 £.

Fagin's rewards: Ever the generous soul, Fagin rewards the swiftest thieves. Whenever a player delivers a set of tokens to Fagin, they receive (on top of their regular earnings) the topmost Reward token of the pile (of the Fagin tile). The faster you are, the juicier the reward! Take the sum in £ indicated by the Reward token from the bank, then discard the token face down next to the Fagin tile.

Note: even if there are no Reward tokens left, you can still bring Fagin sets of at least 3 tokens, or sets of at least 5 to get the 7 £ bonus. The latter is always available, and cumulative with other earnings.

Ask for Help / Hide

If you have one or more Character cards (after picking up Character tokens during previous turns), you can play one of those cards in one of the following 2 ways:

• Apply the effect of the character who helps you, then discard the card face up next to the board, or
• Discard the card in order to hide from the authorities and skip your turn (which allows you to let your esteemed opponent in clockwise order take their own turn).

Note: Character cards can be kept for the second round. Playing a Character card counts as an action.

End of the First Round and Nightfall

If, on their turn, a player can no longer Prowl or Go to Fagin's, they must pay the police £4, and the round stops immediately, unless they choose to play one of their Character cards (either for its effect of to pass the buck to the next player). Perform the following steps in order:

1. Players who still have valid sets (at least 3 tokens of the same type of object; Wallets work the same way as usual) discard them to the bag. Each set thus discarded is only worth the value of the best token in the series.

   Example: Three monogrammed handkerchiefs and a Wallet token are worth 2 £ — instead of 5 £ if the set had been brought to Fagin during the round (Go to Fagin's).

2. Any tokens remaining in a player's stash go into their Police files instead.

3. All players pull the strip of their Police file, to reveal then compare the number of tokens they contain (Object, Tool, Character). The player with the most tokens is caught by the police and pays a fine to the bank equal to 1 £ for each different type of token they have. If several players are tied for the most overall tokens, all of them pay their own fine.

   Note: Tool tokens count as a single type. During the night, Burglary tokens count as a type.

   Example: Fred has more tokens in his Police file (10) than any of the other players (an apple, a Character, monogrammed handkerchiefs, a Wallet, and a set of silver brooches). He must pay the bank a 5 £ fine, since he has 5 different types of tokens.

4. Put all round tokens into the bag, except for any Tool tokens placed in front of the players' Lairs during the round, which stay where they are. You can now proceed with setting up the second round, the night.

Night Set Up

• Flip the board over to reveal its night side.
• Shuffle the 9 starting tokens, face down. Each player takes 2 at random and places them in the first two spaces of their stash (in the bottom row).
• Add the Burglary tokens to the bag, and shuffle all the tokens together (except for the Tool tokens placed in front of players' lairs during the first round). Burglary cards will be used on this round.
• Empty the bag, then randomly place the tokens face down on the spaces of the board. If there are any extra tokens, return them to the game box.
• Any Character cards acquired but not played during the first round remain in possession of the players. The Character cards draw and discard piles are left as they are.
• Repeat steps 6 and 7 of the initial set up (place the Gang pawn in the small paved square at the centre of the board; place the Fagin tile next to the board with the Reward tokens sorted in decreasing order of value).

A Player's Turn (Night)

Night plays the same way as day aside from a handful of adjustments:

• Before starting, everyone counts their money and announces their current £ total.

• The player with the least £ (in case of a tie, the youngest) then flips 12 consecutive tokens face up on the board, starting with the one in front of the Gang pawn by the starting space. They thus create a first line of available tokens in the direction of their choice.

• The same player then picks who will start the night round (they can pick themselves).

• When performing the Prowl action, you can only take a face-up token. It is therefore possible that when approaching the end of a line, you will only have 1, 2 or 3 tokens to choose from.

• When performing the Prowl action, if the Gang pawn is only adjacent to one or several face-down tokens, you must flip over 12 new tokens. As you reveal them, you have the option of turning at each street junction, even if that means the line will be shorter than 12 tokens. Then move the Gang pawn the regular way to take a token.

  Example: The active player performs the Prowl action but doesn't have any face-up tokens next to the Gang. If they choose the bottom street, they will only flip 3 tokens, whereas the top one will allow them to reveal either 10 or 12 tokens.

• When performing the Prowl action, if you take a Burglary token, discard it and perform a burglary:

  • Draw 1 Burglary card + 1 card per type of tool you have in front of your lair (without tools, you will therefore only be able to draw a single card – the topmost one of the draw pile);
  • Choose the card you prefer among those you drew, then place it face down by your room (Burglary cards are £ gains or losses that apply during the final scoring);
  • Return the cards you didn't keep to the draw pile and shuffle it;
  • Discard a Tool token if you still have one.

  Example: A player with a bag Tool and a rope Tool draws 3 Burglary cards, chooses 1 to keep face down by their room, returns the other 2 to the draw pile and shuffles it, then discards one of their Tool tokens.

• When performing the Prowl action, if you skip a Burglary token to take a token further down the line, that Burglary token is placed in your Police file as would any other token (Object, Tool and Character).

• When performing the Prowl action, if the Gang pawn is no longer adjacent to any tokens, place it onto the empty space of your choice, anywhere on the board but imperatively adjacent to a token. The police have noticed you, but have agreed to look the other way in exchange for 2 £, payable to the bank. Moreover, secretly look at 2 face-down tokens anywhere on the board before placing the Gang pawn. After which you can reveal face down tokens (see above) and move the Gang pawn the regular way to take a token.

End of the Round and End of the Game

The night ends the same way as the day. Perform steps 1 to 3 as you did at the end of the first round (see End of the First Round and Nightfall).

Then everyone counts their £, and adds or subtracts the value of any Burglary cards they may have obtained.

The richest player wins the game, and leaves Fagin's gang for new and much brighter horizons.

Example of a final score: 63 £ in money tokens + 22 £ from Burglary cards (+10, +8, +7, −3) = 85 £.