Perfect Alibi
Perfect Alibi Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Put the Rival tiles back in the game box, as they are only used in the advanced Rival variant.
Place the game board in the middle of the table. Each player takes a note sheet and a pen, and then chooses a player marker, which they place in front of themselves, determining their player colour.
Shuffle the alibi cards and, without looking, place one card under the game board. This is the missing alibi that you need to identify in order to win. Deal the alibi cards to the players. With 3/4/5 players, deal each player 5/3/3 cards. With 4 players, 3 cards are left over. These cards are placed face up on the game board (they are publicly known alibis).
Each player must clearly mark their alibi cards on their note sheet. Keep your cards and your sheet hidden from the other players. In a four-player game, also mark the 3 known alibis on your sheet, but make sure you can easily tell the alibis you hold in your hand from those that are known to everyone.
Tip: if you clearly mark which alibis you have, you will not need to check your cards every time another player asks you a question.
Place all the assistant tiles face up next to the board.
Put all the interrogation tiles of the colours not used by the players back in the game box. Shuffle the remaining interrogation tiles and put them in a face-down stack. Then draw four tiles and place them face up on the board.
The colour of the first tile drawn indicates which player chooses an assistant first. Starting with this player, and then going counterclockwise around the table, each player chooses one of the assistant tiles and places it face up in front of themselves. When playing with fewer than five players, any remaining assistant tiles stay face up next to the game board. The last player to choose an assistant is the first player and takes the first turn.
How to Play
The first player takes the first turn, and the other players follow clockwise. Players keep taking turns until someone decides that they have identified the missing alibi.
On Your Turn
Choose one of the face-up interrogation tiles of another player's colour. If the tile shows changing arrows, this means you must immediately change your assistant (see the following page). Finally, you ask a question of the player indicated by the interrogation tile. Both the question and the answer must be spoken aloud so that all players can make the appropriate notes on their sheets.
Special case: if all four face-up tiles are of your colour, you may take a tile and ask any player a question.
Asking Questions
The symbol on the interrogation tile shows which elements you are allowed to ask about, and the question must always be in the following form: "How many alibi cards do you have for...?"
- Ship's wheel: you must ask about locations.
- "How many alibi cards do you have with the Bar?"
- "How many alibi cards do you have with the Restaurant, the Bar and the Solarium taken together?"
- Clock: you must ask about times.
- "How many alibi cards do you have for 6 and 12 o'clock?"
Answering Questions and Showing Cards
The answer is always a number, and as a general rule you must answer truthfully.
If your answer is 2 or more, you must also secretly show the questioner one of the cards that was asked about. If your answer is 0 or 1, you do not show a card.
Example: Yellow asks Blue: "How many alibi cards do you have with the Bar or the Restaurant?" Blue answers: "I have 3 cards with the Bar or the Restaurant." Blue must then show Yellow a card with the Bar or the Restaurant.
Note: All players must hear all questions and answers, but when a card is shown to another player, only the questioning player may see the card.
Blue says that they have three cards for the Restaurant and the Bar together. Use your sheet to record each player's answers, crossing out the categories asked about and writing the player's answer in the white box (the grey frame is used with the Rival variant).
Changing Assistants
If the chosen interrogation tile shows two arrows, the questioning player must swap their assistant tile before asking the question. The active player puts their assistant next to the game board. Then they take either another unused assistant next to the board, or the assistant of the player who is being questioned. In the latter case, the player being questioned must immediately choose a new assistant from the unused assistants (in a 5-player game there are no unused assistants, so two players will always swap assistants between themselves).
Example: The blue interrogation tile shows two arrows. Before asking a question, Yellow must change assistant. They put their assistant next to the game board and then choose to take Blue's assistant. Blue must then choose one of the assistants lying next to the game board.
End of Turn
At the end of your turn, discard the chosen interrogation tile and draw a new one. If the stack has run out, shuffle all the used tiles and form a new face-down stack.
Ending the Game
At any moment (even during another player's turn), when a player believes that they have identified the missing alibi card, they may mark the suspected card (time and place) on their sheet and then slam their fist on the table. If several players believe they have identified the missing alibi at the same time, the first one to slam their fist must check their solution first. The player then secretly looks at the alibi card that was placed under the board.
If the card matches the player's guess, they reveal their note sheet and win the game.
If the card does not match the player's guess, they put the alibi card back under the board and the game continues. That player is now effectively out of the game. Their turn is skipped and they may no longer ask the other players anything. However, the player must stay at the table to answer questions from the other players under the normal rules (still subject to the effects of assistants, etc.).
The game continues until another player makes a correct guess. If every player except one has guessed wrong, the last remaining player is the winner.
The Final Question
If at the start of your turn you believe you would be able to identify the missing card provided you could ask one particular question of one player, then instead of choosing an interrogation tile you may challenge that player to a final question. You may then ignore the available interrogation tiles and instead ask any player a normal question (about any time or location). After this final question you must make a guess at the missing alibi. This option should only be used when you are close to a solution.
Assistants
Throughout the game, players will have an assistant in front of them. Each assistant gives a unique ability.
(A) Journalist - "A little pushiness can take you far"
On your turn, you may choose not to take an interrogation tile, and instead direct a question about a time or a location to any other player.
(B) Captain - "I know you all"
While you hold this assistant, you may look at all the cards that other players show each other. Exception: you may not look at the cards that a player holding the Cook takes at random from another player's hand.
Example: Green asks Yellow a question, and since the answer is 2, Yellow must show a card to Green. Blue, who holds the Captain, may also see this card.
(C) Psychiatrist - "Keep your cards close to your chest"
You never reveal your cards, even if the answer is 2 or more.
Example: Blue asks Yellow a question and the answer is 3, but because Yellow has the Psychiatrist, no cards are shown.
(D) Priest - "Your secret is safe with me"
When you ask questions, only you may hear the answer. The answering player must give the answer to your question by secretly showing a number of fingers (out of sight of the other players). Example: Red has the Priest and asks Yellow "How many Albert cards do you have?" Yellow secretly shows 2 fingers to Red.
Since the answer was 2 or more, Yellow must now show a card to Red. This of course shows the other players that the answer was at least 2.
(E) Cook - "I will find the recipe for this murder"
When another player is about to show you a card (because you asked them a question and their answer was at least 2), you instead take a card at random from their hand, look at it, and then return it. Consequently, the card you see will not necessarily include the element you asked about.
Example: Green has just asked Red a question, and since the answer is 2, Red is about to show Green one of their two cards. Green looks at a card taken at random from Red's hand.
Advanced Game (Rival Variant)
This variant can be used by expert investigators. It makes finding the missing alibi much harder. Consider yourself warned. At the start of the game, before choosing assistants, every player is dealt a Rival tile. Secretly look at your Rival tile and place it face down in front of you. With fewer than 5 players, the remaining tiles are returned to the game box without looking at them.
The game is played by the normal rules, with the following exceptions:
Whenever you are asked a question by a player who holds the assistant shown on your Rival tile, you must lie. You lie by either subtracting 1 from or adding 1 to the correct answer.
Example: Green, who holds the Cook, asks Yellow. The correct answer is 2, but because Yellow has the Cook on her Rival tile, she must answer either 1 or 3. She answers 1, and thereby avoids having to show a card. Of course, you must not say whether you are lying. When making notes, write on the grey box of your sheet which assistant the player you asked had.
Wrong Answers and the Unforgiving Variant
In Perfect Alibi it is important that players give correct information (and lie when they must). However, it may happen that someone makes a mistake and gives a wrong answer. Since players write down all the answers, you may ask a player to confirm their answers to earlier questions if you think they made a mistake.
However, if you are an unforgiving hard-liner with little patience for mistakes, you can try the following variant. Recommended only with experienced players.
If you think that another player gave a wrong answer to a particular question, you may accuse them of treachery. When accusing a player, you must state clearly which question you think they answered wrongly. The accused player must then confirm their answer to the question(s) asked. If they really did make a mistake, the accused player has revealed themselves as an accomplice to the murder, and the accusing player immediately wins the game.
If no mistake was made, the accusing player is out of the game, as if they had made a wrong guess at the missing alibi (they take no more turns, but must stay at the table, answering the other players' questions as normal, and lying when required).
Note: If you have two conflicting pieces of information, make sure you know which player is at fault before accusing them of treachery.