Stolen Paintings Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Basic Game Overview
• Components
• Setup
• Playing the Basic Game
  • Museum Exhibit Phase
  • Art Auction Phase
  • Scoring Summary Table
  • Scoring Example #1
  • Scoring Example #2
• End of the Round
• The Advanced Game
• Cooperative Game
• For Beginners and Younger Players
• Stolen Paintings Bonus Games
  • Chronological Art Game
  • Solo Chronological Game
  • Wagering Game
  • Art and Music Lovers
  • The Notorious Forgers (2-4 players)
  • The Dialogue (3+ players)
  • Other Games
• Teaching/Educational Uses of the Cards
• Rules Summary

Basic Game Overview

Each Round a player takes the role of the Thief, and steals 1-3 paintings from the Museum Exhibit. The other players, as Detectives, will then try to spot the stolen painting(s) at the Art Auction.

With 4 or more players, you will play one Round per player so everyone has the opportunity to be the Thief once. In 2 or 3 player games, play enough Rounds so that each player has the opportunity to be the Thief twice.

Each Round, the Detectives score points if they can spot the stolen painting(s), and the Thief scores points for paintings the Detectives missed. The player who has scored the most points at the end wins the game!

Components

• 200 Oversized Painting Cards, each with an ID number
• A catalog with information about the paintings sorted by ID
• 12 Number Tokens
• A Score Pad
• A Sand Timer

Setup

1. Shuffle all the Painting Cards together into one face-down deck.
2. Give each player a score sheet from the score pad, and a pen/pencil (not provided).
3. Randomly select a player to be the first Thief.

Playing the Basic Game

Each Round of Stolen Paintings is made up of two phases: the Museum Exhibit, and the Art Auction. During the Museum Exhibit, the Detectives observe and memorize the paintings, and then during the Art Auction they try to identify the stolen painting(s).

Museum Exhibit Phase

At the start of every Round, the Thief builds the Museum Exhibit by drawing the first 24 painting cards from the deck and placing them, face up, on the table. Once all the cards are in place, the Thief turns over the sand timer. All Detectives observe all the paintings until the sand timer runs out.

Note: Players are not allowed to obscure or move any of the paintings during this time.

When the timer runs out, the Detectives must close their eyes. The Thief then takes 1, 2 or 3 paintings from the Exhibit and places it/them face down nearby. The Thief gathers the rest of the paintings from the Exhibit and discards them face down into the box, temporarily out of play.

Art Auction Phase

The Detectives keep their eyes closed, while the Thief draws additional paintings from the deck until he has 8 total, including the stolen paintings. The thief then places all 8 paintings face up in a row, using the number tokens to identify each of them. The thief notes on their score pad which paintings are the stolen ones. The Detectives can now open their eyes.

The Detectives now try to determine which of the paintings in the Art Auction were stolen from the original Museum Exhibit. Each Detective secretly notes their guess(es) on their score pad. When all Detectives are ready, their guesses are revealed. The Thief then reveals which paintings were stolen, and the players score points as follows:

• Detectives earn points for each stolen painting that they identified correctly: 1 point for 1 painting, 3 points for 2 paintings, and 6 points for 3 paintings.
• Detectives always add a bonus of +3 points for correctly identifying the exact paintings stolen (whether the number stolen is 1, or 2 or 3 - all score a +3 bonus for being correctly & exactly identified).
• Detectives lose 1 point for each painting they picked that was NOT a stolen painting.
• The Thief earns 1 point for each stolen painting that each detective did not correctly identify, whether they attempted to identify it and got it wrong, or if they did not even attempt to identify it.

Scoring Summary Table

Result	Points
1 Painting Found	+1 Point
2 Paintings Found	+3 Points
3 Paintings Found	+6 Points
Bonus for being exactly right	+3 Points
Each Incorrect Painting	-1 Point

Scoring Example #1

This example is for a four player game where Alex is the Thief, while Rick, Ruth, and Mary are the Detectives for this round. The paintings Alex stole were number 3 and 8.

Rick guessed 3, 4, and 8. He scores 3 points for his 2 correct guesses, but also loses 1 point for the extra incorrect guess, gaining a net total of 2 points.

Ruth guessed paintings 1 and 3. She gets 1 point for her 1 correct guess, and loses 1 point for her incorrect guess, so she gets a total score of 0 for this round.

Mary guessed just number 3. She gets 1 point for her 1 correct guess, but does not lose any points for not attempting to identify the second stolen painting, so her total is 1 point for this round.

Finally, each painting Alex stole earns him 1 point for every Detective that failed to identify it. Painting 8 was missed by Ruth and Mary, earning 2 points. Painting 3 was spotted by all players so he gets no points for that. Alex gets 2 total points, out of the possible 6 that he would have scored if all 3 Detectives had not identified both of the paintings he stole.

Scoring Example #2

This example is for a five player game where Randal is the Thief, while Joanne, Brandon, Genny and Jason are Detectives for this round. Randal stole paintings 2, 6, and 7.

Joanne guessed 2 and 6, and scores 3 points for her 2 correct guesses. She does not get penalized for not making a third guess, and gains a total of 3 points for this round.

Brandon guessed 3, 4, and 8, all wrong. He gets -3 points for his 3 incorrect guesses and his score is -3 for this round.

Genny selected 2, 4, and 5. She gets 1 point for her 1 correct guess, but loses 2 points for her 2 incorrect guesses, thus getting a net total of -1 point for this round.

Jason guessed 2, 6, and 7, all correct! He gets 6 points for his 3 correct guesses, and a 3 point bonus for spotting all the stolen paintings with no errors, for a total of 9 points.

Finally, each painting Randal stole earns him 1 point for each detective that failed to identify it. Randal scores 6 total points for the round, out of the possible 12 that he would have scored if all 4 Detectives had not identified any of the three paintings he stole.

End of the Round

Discard all remaining paintings from the Auction and Exhibit back into the box. The player to the left of the Thief becomes the new Thief for the next Round. If you run out of paintings while setting up for the next Round, shuffle all the discarded cards from the box into a new deck. Continue until all players have been the Thief once (or twice in a 2-3 player game). After the final Round all players tally up their points, and the player with the most wins! In the case of a tie, the player that scored the most points when they acted as the Thief wins. If still tied, savor your thievery jointly!

The Advanced Game

As some players gain experience with this game, we found they need a bigger challenge. To increase the difficulty, between rounds players can take from the box 10-20 of the face down cards discarded in former rounds, shuffle those cards back into the top 30 or 40 cards of the deck, and then refill the Gallery from this set of cards. This keeps an unknown number of cards in the Gallery that have been seen before, instead of all new cards in each round. As a result, some uncertainty is introduced for all Detectives as to whether or not these cards were seen in prior rounds and this makes the game tougher but more rewarding for advanced players.

Cooperative Game

Using the rules above, you play with one player as thief and all the detectives working together as a team. During the Art Auction phase, Detectives may freely discuss and then must agree on their guess(es). The Detectives win only if they get all the stolen paintings, and no others, otherwise the thief wins.

For Beginners and Younger Players

For families, and when playing with younger players, you can easily modify the difficulty of the Basic Game. In general, for an easier Basic Game for younger players, you can decrease the number of cards in the Gallery to 20, 16, or even 12. Conversely, you can make things more difficult by increasing the number of cards in the Gallery for older and more advanced players.

Stolen Paintings Bonus Games

As you can certainly see, Stolen Paintings includes 200 cards that feature beautiful art. We intentionally left the artist, title, and other information off the cards. With the 4 digit ID number on the card you can use the enclosed Catalog, organized by those 4 digit numbers, to look up much more information about each painting. This allows the cards/paintings to be used in many Bonus Games and teaching exercises. Below are a few that we have thought of.

Chronological Art Game

Draw 8 random paintings and place them in a row with 8 numbered tokens placed beneath them. Each player now writes on their pad what they think is the chronological order of the completion of these paintings. Then, check the dates of each painting in the Catalog and rearrange the paintings in chronological order, keeping their numbered tokens with the associated painting. Each player must now strike out as few numbers as possible in their list to have all the remaining ones in the correct chronological order. Players score one point for each painting left in their list (i.e. the non struck-out paintings), for a maximum score of 8 points. If multiple paintings have the same year, they can be put in either order.

Solo Chronological Game

In this solo game you will be trying to place the paintings in chronological order. Deal out 10 cards face up on the table and rearrange them in a time line from oldest competition date to most recent. Use the Catalog to then check the correct order of those paintings. You score points for the longest string of paintings you have in the correct chronological order as follows:

Paintings	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Points	1	3	6	10	15	21	28	36	45	55

Play three rounds this way and total up your score to see how you did! 0-10 Art Novice, 11-19 Art Fan, 20-34 Art Apprentice, 35-49 Art Lover, 50-99 Art Expert, 100+ A Master of Art!

Wagering Game

You can introduce betting into the game in various possible ways by giving each player an equal number of "+1/-1 betting tokens" (objects like pennies or poker chips). During any round a player may spend one of their tokens to mark one of their paintings they are confident in being correct. When scoring the round, if the marked painting is correct the player gets another point in addition to their normal score; if not, they lose an additional point.

Art and Music Lovers

Draw 8 random paintings, displaying them in a row with 8 of the numbered tokens beneath them. Every round, one player is the art and music lover and the other players will try to guess their tastes. The art lover writes down the number of the painting they prefer among the eight, and also says the name of a song title that they think will help the other players identify the piece of art they have selected. Each other player writes down the number of the painting they think the art lover prefers. Then players reveal their guesses and the art lover reveals their choice.

Each player scores 1 point if they guess right. The art lover scores as many points as players who guessed right -- however, if all players guess correctly, the art lover gets no points. Each player takes one turn as The Art Lover. The most points win. You can also use movie titles or quotes if you're playing with film lovers instead.

The Notorious Forgers (2-4 players)

Deal each player a hand of 5 cards. Then lay out 24 cards face up in a 4x6 grid. Select a random player to become the first Forger. The Forger wants to sneak in their forgery paintings to swap with the museum's paintings without being caught. All players get 30 seconds to review the grid. Then the Forger asks all other players to close their eyes. The Forger proceeds to swap 1 card from his hand with 1 card in the grid for each other player in the game (i.e. in a 4 player game the Forger will swap 3 cards). The Forger may also swap the position of any two cards already in the grid to add confusion.

Then all other players open their eyes and, starting with the player to the left of the Forger, each other player attempts to find exactly 1 of the forgeries. If the player correctly spots a forgery, the forgery is removed from the table and the Forger hands over one of their stolen paintings to the player who guessed correctly, keeping the card on the table as a point. If the player doesn't spot a forgery, the forger keeps a stolen painting as a point for themselves.

Example: Matthew is the Forger in this 4 player game. He swaps 3 cards from his hand with 3 cards in the display. Alex is to Matthew's right and points to the painting he believes is a forgery. He is correct and takes one of the stolen paintings from Matthew.

David is to the left of Alex and now takes a turn. He points to a painting he thinks is a forgery but he is mistaken, and he does not collect a card. Finally it is Randal's turn. Randal points to a card he thinks is a forgery and he's right, Matthew hands Randal one of the stolen paintings. Matthew still has 1 painting he got away with which he keeps face down in front of him as 1 point, Alex and Randal both each have 1 point as well, David has 0 points. It is now Alex's turn to become the Forger.

After all the players guess, refill any gaps in the museum display to 24 paintings again, have the forger refill their hand to 5, and start a new round. Play continues clockwise with each player taking turns to be the Forger. The game ends once 1 player has 10 total stolen paintings in front of them.

The Dialogue (3+ players)

There are over 70 Portraits or Portrait-like cards in the Stolen Paintings deck. Choose and deal out 12 of these Portraits and number them using the tokens. Play is simultaneous.

Each player writes a simple, short, creative "dialogue". There are no limits on the creativity involved. The dialogue could be only a few words; a riddle; a question and answer; a Knock-Knock joke; or any exchange of a sentence or two that they imagine could take place between two of the characters portrayed in these "portraits". Write down the imagined dialogue and the token numbers of the two participants. Each player then takes a turn reading out loud their dialog, without stating which portraits are involved. The other players all write down their guesses as to the paintings used for that dialog, and earn 1 point if they correctly guessed both paintings. The writer of the dialog then gets 1 point for each player that got the answer right, unless all players guessed correctly, and the writer then gets 0 points.

Other Games

Bruno Faidutti also suggests that you can play other games with the cards from Stolen Paintings, for instance:

If you own a copy of Codenames, a great team deduction game designed by Vlaada Chvatil, you can play Codenames using the cards from Stolen Paintings. You'll need a copy of Codenames for the grid cards. Similo is a brand new (2019) very simple deduction card game designed by Hjalmar Hach, Pierluca Zizzi and Martino Chiacchiera. It's light and fun, and you can also play it with the cards from Stolen Paintings. The staff at Eagle Gryphon Games also recommends Dixit, a great game designed by Jean-Louis Roubira and published by Libellud. If you have a copy of Dixit, you can add many of the cards from Stolen Paintings to the deck. We recommend only adding some of the paintings, as Dixit works best when there aren't cards that are extremely similar.

Teaching/Educational Uses of the Cards

Opportunities abound for the many uses of these cards for teaching and education. Here are some possible exercises that teachers can use with their students.

1. Flash Cards or "Art Slides 101". Using the reference Catalog, a teacher can show the cards one at a time to quiz students on the names, artists, or dates of the paintings.
2. Flash Cards as above but with a group - in an orderly fashion or not. Points are scored by each student or team when they correctly identify the elements mentioned above.
3. Identify the "characters" (when possible) portrayed in the Portraits (refer to the Catalog for more information about which cards to use for this purpose).
4. Have the students try to separate out the works on the cards by schools of art (e.g. Impressionism). Identify the names and dates of the works; and the artists. Points and scoring are optional.
5. Incorporate the cards into an existing Trivia board game and play as teams or individuals. Establish the categories for the trivia such as Names of Works; Dates of Works; Names of Artists; Dates of Artists; Names of Portrait Characters, Countries of Artists; Schools of Art (note that the latter two are not covered in the included Catalog per se).

Rules Summary

1. Thief displays 24 painting cards on table
2. Detectives have until sand timer runs out to memorize paintings
3. Detectives close their eyes and Thief steals 1-3 paintings, putting the rest in the box
4. Thief draws cards from the deck until they have 8 total paintings
5. Thief places all 8 paintings with the numbered tokens, noting secretly which ones are stolen
6. Detectives write down their guesses as to which paintings are stolen
7. Detectives score as follows: (see Scoring Summary Table above)
8. Thief scores 1 point for each stolen painting that each detective did not correctly identify.
9. Role of thief rotates to the left, play until all players have been the thief once (twice if playing with 2 or 3).
10. Most points wins!