Spywhere
Spywhere Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective
The goal of the game is to score the highest number of points by gathering the cards of your national dish while guessing the nationality of the other players.
Preparation
Each player receives a set of 6 "identification" cards in the colour of their choice as well as a "passport" card picked at random, which they keep secret. It will not be revealed until the end of the game.
Unused "identification" and "passport" cards are put back in the box.
Shuffle the "nationality" cards and deal 3 to each player. Players keep these in their hand without letting others see them.
Place 5 other "nationality" cards in the centre of the table, face up.
The remaining "nationality" cards are stacked and shuffled, then put face down on the table for players to take, next to the five revealed cards.
For games of 4 players or less, remove a nationality of your choice. The "passport", "Identification" and "nationality" cards for this country are put back in the box and will not be used during the game.
Playing the game
The last player who watched a spy movie begins the game.
In turn, each player carries out the following actions:
- Draw 1 "nationality" card and place it in their hand.
- Swap one card in their hand with one of the 5 "nationality" cards disposed on the table.
At this point, if 3 cards out of the 5 revealed cards are identical and they are not the player's own nationality, the active player can choose to eliminate these 3 cards and place them in front of him in a face-up "clue" pile, revealing which nationality is not theirs.
When a player eliminates 3 cards in this way, they draw another card and keep it in their hand as a bonus.
The 3 removed cards have to be replaced with 3 new cards, drawn from the stack, which are placed on the table to make sure there are 5 again.
Optional rule: If there are 3 identical cards again out of the 5, the player can eliminate them and replace them with 3 new cards drawn from the stack. This step can be repeated as many times as necessary.
- Try and identify, if the active player wishes, the nationality of an opponent by placing an "Identification" card face down in front of the player.
An attempt to identify a player can only be performed once per turn. Once this has been done, the card cannot be changed until the end of the game. Each player can therefore only try to identify the same opponent once.
Once these actions are completed, the player's turn ends, and the one to their left starts from step one.
End of the game
The game ends when there are no cards left in the pile or when a player has tried to identify every opponent.
The other players can then, all at the same time, try to guess the nationality of all the others by placing a card face down in front of any player they have not yet attempted to identify.
Counting points
At the end of the game, as soon as the players have all tried to guess their opponents identity, everyone reveals their "passport" card and the "Identification" cards they have received.
You assign:
- 1 point to every player for each card of their own nationality in their hand;
- 1 point to every player for each card of their own nationality in their hand, multiplied by the number of nationalities that they guessed correctly;
- 3 points to the player who ends the game by attempting to identify the nationality of all their opponents.
The player who gathers highest amount of points wins the game.
Rules for 2 players
Each player receives 2 "passport" cards at random as well as a set of 6 "Identification" cards. The 2 players must attempt to identify the 2 nationalities of their opponent.
No attempt to identify the other can be made before the 5th round of the game. The game ends when there are no cards left in the pile or when a player has placed their 2 "Identification" cards down.
The other rules remain the same.
Tips
During your turn, when you place 3 cards of the same nationality that's not yours on the table, you can eliminate them and put them face up in front of you. You thereby penalise the player of this nationality, however, on the other hand, you also give a clue as to what your own identity. It's up to you to make the right strategic choices!
Beware opponents' bluffs! Some players hide their tracks by taking cards that do not match to their nationality. Others won't dare to discard cards of their own nationality for fear of losing valuable points. Warning! If you are tempted to bluff often, know that this strategy is not always rewarding in Spywhere.
Throughout the game, you have to take in a vast amount of clues, often contradictory. Unless you have an incredible memory, it is best to choose one or two players at most to observe. If you try to remember everything, you may lose the thread of the game and you will have to guess at random, which isn't very fun. After you have guessed the nationality of a first player, it's much easier to identify the others.