Scotland Yard: Das Kartenspiel
Scotland Yard: Das Kartenspiel Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents of the Box
90 tickets:
- 22 taxi tickets – yellow
- 22 bus tickets – blue
- 21 subway (London Underground) tickets – red
- 25 black tickets – black (obviously!)
3 action cards:
- (1) Draw/Feint
- (2) Interrogation/Buy Equipment
- (3) Manhunt/Disappear
3 magnifying glass cards
2 Mister X cards (1 is a spare and not used during gameplay)
2 blank spare cards
Overview
In Scotland Yard: Das Kartenspiel, multiple detectives will collaborate to hunt the mysterious Mister X. The person who has the X card in their hand is currently Mister X – but this can change during the course of the game as Mister X tries to throw off his pursuers. The detectives try to narrow down the suspects until they figure out who is Mister X, and arrest him! Meanwhile, Mister X uses his powerful black ticket powers to put the detectives under pressure, or even to disappear when his pursuers get too close!
Translator's note: in these rules the term 'detective' is used to refer specifically to non-Mister X players, and 'player' to refer to any player (including Mister X).
Setup
Line up the action magnifying glass cards left to right from 1 to 3, face (white side) down. Below this row, line up the action cards in similar fashion – left to right, 1 to 3, face down. Flip the number 1 magnifying glass and number 1 action face up.
Prepare the ticket decks. You will need to remove some ticket cards from the game depending on player count:
- With 5 players, use all the cards
- With 4 players, remove all tickets which contain a 0 in their number (e.g. 10, 50)
- With 3 players, remove all tickets which contain a 0 or a 9 in their number (e.g. 9, 20, 39, 90)
All removed cards should be returned to the box – they will not be used.
Next, remove 5 randomly selected black tickets from the deck, and shuffle them to form a face down special black tickets deck. NB: there will probably still be black tickets remaining the main deck. Shuffle the main ticket deck and place it face down as a draw pile. Draw the first 9 ticket cards without looking at them and shuffle the Mister X in with these 9, then put all 10 cards back on top of the draw pile. In this way, one of the players will draw the Mister X card at the beginning of the game – but only one person will know who!
Deal players one card at a time around the table until everyone has 8 cards each. One of you will now be Mister X, but Mister X should try not to give away their identity! Make sure no one can see your cards!
Prepare the ticket field. Draw the top 3 cards of the deck and place them in ascending numerical order below the action cards – the lowest value ticket below the number 1 action, the middle value under the number 2 action, and the highest value under the number 3 action. These cards now form the beginning of 3 piles of tickets in the ticket field.
Allow space near the main deck for a discard pile. Any time the game has you 'discard' a card, the card should be placed in this discard pile.
Gameplay
The youngest player starts, then players take turns clockwise around the table. A turn consists of performing 3 steps in order:
- Draw a ticket
- Play a ticket
- Perform the action
These steps will be explained below:
Draw a ticket
Take the top card of the ticket deck into your hand.
Play a ticket
Choose any ticket from your card (not the Mister X card!) and place it on one of the 3 piles in the ticket field, covering up the ticket which is already there. The value of the card you choose must be higher than the card you are covering up and lower than the card on top of the pile to the right – e.g. if the piles currently show values of 14, 21 and 55 and you want to place on the second pile, then the card you place must be between 22 and 54. The colour of the ticket you place does not need to match the colour you are covering up, but different colours of ticket can give you bonuses on different actions – see the section on actions for details.
Perform the action
You now perform the action displayed above the pile where you placed your ticket – e.g. if you placed on the second pile then you perform action number 2. You will notice that each action card is divided in two, containing two possible actions. The upper action is a general action which is available to all players and is triggered by the play of any ticket in that pile. The lower action is available only to the Mister X player, and can only be triggered using a black ticket. Beware: as the Mister X action is available only to Mister X, using it will give away your identity! Sometimes it might be worth it…
- General action: all players, all tickets
- Mister X action: Mister X only, black ticket only
The actions are explained below:
(1) General action: Draw
Draw 1 ticket from the main deck.
Bonus: If you play a taxi (yellow) ticket, draw 2 instead of 1.
Mister X action: Feint – the detectives must collectively discard a number of tickets depending on the number of players. The detectives do not have to all discard an equal number, and it does not matter who discards how many, as long as the total number of tickets discarded is correct. If any detective has no tickets left in their hand after this action, they must sit out the rest of the game, but they still win if the other detectives win. If all the detectives have no tickets left in their hands after this action, Mister X wins immediately!
(2) General action: Interrogation
Flip the next face down magnifying glass so that it is face up. Once all 3 magnifying glasses are face up, the player who is taking their turn can perform an interrogation! Choose another player – that player must show you (and only you) their whole hand of cards. If their hand does not contain the Mister X card, you have proven that player's innocence and should announce this to your fellow players. If their hand does contain the Mister X card, you announce this to your fellow players. Mister X draws a ticket from the special black ticket deck (if any remain) and then discards any 3 cards from their hand. Once the interrogation has been performed, the magnifying glasses are all turned face down.
Bonus: If you play a bus (blue) ticket, you may flip 2 magnifying glasses face up instead of 1. If there is only one magnifying glass remaining face down when you gain this bonus, you may flip the first magnifying glass face up again after the interrogation has been performed.
Mister X action: Buy equipment – draw 4 tickets from the main deck.
(3) General action: Manhunt
Choose a player and randomly take 1 card from their hand. If the card is Mister X, the detectives win immediately. If the card is a ticket, discard it.
Bonus: If you play a subway (red) ticket, you may take 2 cards from the target player's hand instead of 1.
Mister X action: Disappear – each player chooses 1 card from their hand and places it face down the centre of the table without revealing it (the Mister X player can choose either the Mister X card or a ticket). Mister X then shuffles these cards and deals one card to each player. Now Mister X might have a new disguise…
(4) Special action: Refresh the ticket field
Discard a ticket which has a lower value than the lowest value ticket currently displayed in the ticket field, then draw 3 cards from the main deck and place these on top of the 3 stacks in the ticket field (sorting them into ascending order, as you did during setup), thereby forming a new field. This special action is useful, as it can become increasingly difficult to play cards onto the stacks as the game progresses.
Winning the Game
The detectives all win together if:
- Manhunt: a player takes the Mister X card from another player's hand during the Manhunt action.
- Interrogation: Mister X must discard 3 cards as the result of an Interrogation action, and does not have enough tickets in hand to do so, therefore having to discard the Mister X card as their final card.
Mister X wins if:
- Feint: all the detectives have no cards left in their hands after the Feint action.
- Empty deck: if the main ticket deck is empty at the end of any player's turn – Mister X has evaded the law for too long and has escaped! NB: Mister X wins by this method only at the end of the current player's turn, so a detective who draws the final ticket from the deck might still have that turn's action available to make one last attempt to catch Mister X!
Tips for the Detectives
- Use the special action sparingly. Refreshing the 3 ticket field stacks will cause you to deplete the deck more quickly, which brings Mister X closer to escape!
- Work together and talk about your plans, so that you can try to make the best use of tickets to get bonus effects of actions as often as possible.
- Use the Interrogation action even if you already know which player is Mister X, as it will force Mister X to discard cards and get you closer to forcing them to discard their final card – the Mister X card!
Tips for Mister X
- Try to remain undetected for as long as possible. The longer you stay hidden, the more tickets will be spent on searching for you.
- Sometimes it can be worth using a powerful Mister X action even if the detectives have not yet discovered you. Although this will reveal your identity, the use of one of these powerful actions at the right moment can make the difference between escape and arrest!