Razorhurst Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Components
  • Core Components
  • Case-Specific Components
• Setup
• Using the Calendar Sheet
• Rules of Play
  • Overview
  • Starting Your Workday
  • Progressing the Case
  • Using Your Abilities
  • Passing Time
  • Movement
  • Knowledge
  • Ending Your Day
  • Sleep
  • Taking Notes
  • Pausing the Game
  • End of the Game

Goal of the Game

Solve the case and gather enough evidence to catch the criminal.

If there are several players, work together, combining your deductive skills.

You will need to follow leads, collect clues, link suspects to one another, take alibis into account, and piece together the details of each case. You will need to make a lot of notes.

Good luck, detectives!

Components

Core Components

• 4 Detective cards. Each detective has their own strengths and weaknesses in observation, persuasion and strength, shown by the maximum values of these abilities on the card.
• 3 small marker cubes, used to track the ability values of the detective you choose to play.
• 1 six-sided die (d6), used to test your abilities.
• 1 player token or meeple, used to track your location.
• 3 information tokens, used to count the information received from informants.
• 1 Detective's Handbook (this document): the rules of the game (can be read online or printed).
• 1 booklet on forensic pathology (can be read online or printed).
• A pencil and paper for notes.

Case-Specific Components

• Up to 20 Persons of Interest (POI) cards.
• Up to 10 Location cards, each showing several addresses you can visit.
• 1 Calendar Sheet. It is used for notes, tracks the current date and time, and records important hints found that may affect the number of Victory Points. It also shows which Case Book paragraphs to read when you start and finish each day.
• 1 Case Book, containing the text of the story, divided into many paragraphs (can be read online or printed).

Setup

1. Choose one detective to play. If there is more than one player, you all work together as a single detective.
2. Place the marker cubes on the maximum value of each ability scale, and place the d6 die and the information tokens nearby.
3. Place the Calendar Sheet next to the Detective card.
4. Lay out the Location cards on the table and place your token next to them. The Case Book will tell you which address to start from.
5. Put the POI cards in a stack. When you meet people in the case text, you can refer to these cards for more information about them.
6. Prepare paper and a pencil; you will need to make notes during play.
7. Prepare the Case Book. It is recommended that you read it on a phone or tablet so you can use the built-in hyperlinks. Make sure the document is set up comfortably for play.
8. You are now ready to play. Start with the first day.

Using the Calendar Sheet

The handbook illustrates the Calendar Sheet with an annotated example. Its labels read (diagram not reproduced): Paragraph for reading when starting work this day (sun icon). Paragraph for reading when finishing work for the day (moon icon). Current time 11:00, Wednesday 6 May (earlier times already crossed out). Further events marked on the calendar (e.g. "line-up at HQ").

Rules of Play

Overview

Razorhurst is a narrative game; most of the game consists of following links in the Case Book to gather clues and link events together to solve the crime.

Your detective has abilities in observation, persuasion and strength, which will be tested in the events of the story and which can affect how much information you are able to collect. These abilities decline over the course of each working day as you tire, but they can be restored during rest and night-time sleep. A key part of the game is managing the balance between work and rest. Each day you must decide what time to start and finish the investigation. Some information is available only when you are in the right place at the right time, so some things must be planned in advance.

At the end of the game you score points for answering key questions, for correctly solving the puzzle, and for the current values of your abilities.

Starting Your Workday

The Case Book will tell you how to begin the first day. On subsequent days you may choose the hour at which you start work, but it must be daytime (from 6:00 to 17:00).

1. Cross off consecutive icons on the Calendar Sheet until you reach the time you want to start work. For each icon you cross off, you may raise the corresponding ability of your detective up to the maximum shown on the Detective card.
2. Then read the paragraph of the Case Book whose number is shown next to the sun icon for the current date on the Calendar Sheet. Follow the link to that paragraph in the Case Book to begin the workday.

Progressing the Case

The investigation advances as you follow links from paragraph to paragraph in the Case Book. Note that the end of each paragraph is marked by a horizontal line; you should read up to it, but not beyond.

At the end of each section you will be offered an action or a set of options to choose from:

• Asterisks (*) mark an action you must perform next, for example leaving your current address or making an ability check.
• Chevrons (») mark possible choices you may face. In some cases your abilities will determine which actions or choices are available to you (see below). Some options are available only if you have previously obtained a specific hint or piece of information; the Case Book makes sure you record these as you go.

You do not need to write down every paragraph you have read, but you may do so if you want to re-read paragraphs later. You can return to previously read entries when needed, so it is recommended that you at least note the numbers of entries that you think may be especially important.

Using Your Abilities

Sometimes the text will tell you to test one of your abilities. To do so, work out the level of the indicated ability and compare it with the required value given in the same text.

Your ability level equals the current value of the required ability on your Detective card plus the result of the die. To find it, roll the d6 and add its result to your ability value.

You may further increase your ability by reducing your other abilities on the Detective card (if they have not already reached their minimum value), adding one point to your ability for each ability point sacrificed.

Alternatively, you may cross off one luck point on your Calendar Sheet (if you have one) in order to re-roll the die. This will cost you Victory Points (VP) at the end of the game.

If the sum of your abilities equals the required value, re-roll the die.

For example, the Case Book may say: "Test your persuasion: if > 5, read 55, otherwise read 66." Say your current persuasion value is 2. You roll the die and get 3, so your ability is 2 + 3 = 5. This matches the required value, so you may:

• re-roll the die and hope for a better result,
• or increase your ability by sacrificing one point of your observation or strength (provided they have not yet reached their minimum values).

Suppose you choose to re-roll and get 2, giving a total of 2 + 2 = 4. Now you may choose to:

• sacrifice one ability point to match the required value, and re-roll,
• sacrifice two ability points to exceed the requirement, and read paragraph 55,
• sacrifice one luck point to re-roll,
• or accept that you have failed this test and read paragraph 66.

When your abilities become low, you can raise them by going to rest and sleeping. The next day you may be able to return and repeat the failed ability test.

Passing Time

The Calendar Sheet tracks the current date and time of day. The current time corresponds to the first uncrossed icon on the Calendar Sheet. Time advances:

1. whenever you see a clock icon in the Case Book text;
2. each time you move your token from one Location card to another (except when moving to a different address on the same Location card);
3. if you decide simply to wait at your current address;
4. or if the Case Book text directly says so.

Each time you advance time, cross off the next icon on the Calendar Sheet and reduce the indicated ability by 1, down to a minimum of zero. This reflects the effects of fatigue. Your abilities will increase again when you rest and sleep (see "Ending Your Day").

Movement

If the Case Book text allows it, you may leave your current location by travelling to another address of your choice, moving your token. Moving to another address on the same Location card costs no time; simply move your token there. However, travelling from one Location card to another will cost you an hour (see Passing Time).

After you have moved your token, read the paragraph of the Case Book that corresponds to your new address on the Location card. In most cases the Case Book contains a direct link to the relevant paragraph.

Sometimes you may want to revisit places you have already been, especially if you know you missed some information. This is allowed as long as you stay within the time span given in the text of the location paragraph. So if something happened at a certain day and hour, you cannot do it again at a different time.

Knowledge

Sometimes, in order to maintain the integrity of the story for the player, the game needs to know whether they have already read a certain piece of information. For example, you may only recognise a suspect in a bar once you have already obtained a description of that suspect. For such situations the game uses a simple system for tracking what you have done or what you know.

Periodically the text may tell you to "Add X to your knowledge" (where X is a letter of the English alphabet). To do so, simply circle the letter X in the alphabet list on the Calendar Sheet. If it is already circled, this simply means you already know that information from somewhere else.

The text may then say "If you have X, then…". To decide what to do, simply check whether X is circled or not.

Ending Your Day

You may choose the time at which to end your day, but if all your abilities drop to zero, you must end the day immediately.

Return to your police station (bearing all the associated time costs) and read the paragraph marked with the moon icon for the current date on the Calendar Sheet.

Sleep

Outside working hours your abilities are restored, during sleep. Cross off consecutive icons on the Calendar Sheet, increasing the corresponding abilities until they reach the maximum value shown on the Detective card. Stop crossing off icons at the moment when the desired time for continuing work arrives the next day (so that you start a new day).

Taking Notes

As you progress through the game you will most likely need to make notes about the information you receive. When you learn of an upcoming event and want to make sure you do not miss it, it is recommended that you enter it on the Calendar Sheet. When you read useful information, it is also recommended that you record the paragraph number so you can return and re-read it later. Useful information may include:

• relationships between characters (who are allies? who are enemies?) and the motives for the crime;
• information about the locations and times of the suspects and their possible alibis;
• which weapon each suspect could have used;
• any specific details or descriptions you may get from eyewitnesses; and so on.

It will be useful to refer to the POI (Persons of Interest) cards and perhaps group them by affiliation or by characteristics.

Pausing the Game

Working through a case can take several hours, so you may end the game halfway through and resume from where you stopped. To do so, simply record which Detective card you are using, your current ability values, and your location on the map. After that you can restore the current state of the game at any time.

End of the Game

The Case Book itself will lead to the closing of the investigation on the last day (translator's note: the instructions are written in the text of the final day's paragraph), and will describe detailed instructions for determining your progress in the investigation and counting your VP. As a rule, you must reconstruct the chain of events that led to the crime and bring enough evidence to identify the guilty party. You may be asked to answer specific questions about the case, to prove that you know what actually happened.

Your work will also be assessed by the value of your remaining abilities, the number of knowledge letters you have acquired (the circled letters), your luck (the number of re-rolls), how thoroughly you investigated the case and, of course, how correctly you solved it.