Time Bomb: Undercover
Time Bomb: Undercover Rulebook
Faithful English translation of the official French IELLO rulebook ("Règles du jeu").
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 8 Role cards
- 3 Organization Members (red background)
- 4 Agency Members (blue background)
- Shadow (purple background)
- 17 Location cards
- 8 covers (player aids)
- 40 Wire cards
- 31 Safe Wires
- 1 Bomb
- 8 Defusing Wires
- 1 articulated Pliers
- 1 Pliers card
- 1 Doom token
Card art and example Location card texts shown in the Components illustration are not transcribed here; Location effects are listed under Location Cards, as far as the manual shows them.
Overview and Goal of the Game
Mister X and his terrible Organization threaten world peace by carrying out a series of attacks around the world, while the spy Jack Belleville and his colleagues from the Agency relentlessly seek a way to defuse the situation. As for the enigmatic Shadow, he is more than determined to turn the situation to his advantage.
At the start of the game, you will secretly discover which team you belong to and will try to identify your potential partners without being unmasked. In turn, each player will choose a Wire to cut from another player in order to try to defuse or detonate this Bomb which, at any moment, can set the international scene ablaze.
The Organization wins the game if it manages to make the Bomb explode, while the Agency wins if it manages to defuse it. Shadow wins alone if he ends the game, that is, either by defusing the Bomb or by making it explode.
Game Elements
Role Cards
The Role cards determine the team to which each player belongs during the game. They are of three types: Organization, Agency and Shadow.
ORGANIZATION The Organization Members are represented by the Role cards with a red background. The objective of this team is to make the Bomb explode.
AGENCY The Agency Members are represented by the Role cards with a blue background. The objective of this team is to defuse the Bomb.
SHADOW Shadow is represented by the Role card with a purple background. Shadow's objective is to end the game, either by making the Bomb explode or by defusing it.
Mister X, Belleville and Shadow are each Team Leader (marked with a Team Leader icon) of their faction.
In the lower right corner of each Role card is the character's Cover (a red Organization symbol or a blue Agency symbol). This symbol does not necessarily correspond to the team the character belongs to: a double agent is indeed hiding in each group. Shadow is the only Role to have a second Cover, in the upper left corner of his card.
Covers (player aids)
The covers allow each player to hide his Role while showing his Cover.
They also serve as player aids and recall the game configuration according to the number of players.
Wire Cards
The Wire cards represent the Wires to be cut to make the Bomb explode or, on the contrary, to defuse it. They are of three types.
SAFE WIRES Cutting a Safe Wire has no effect.
BOMB Cutting the Bomb Wire makes it explode and gives victory to the Organization or to Shadow.
DEFUSING WIRES Cutting a Defusing Wire brings you closer to victory if you are part of the Agency or if you are Shadow.
Location Cards
The Location cards add various effects to each of the four rounds.
The backs of the Location cards are numbered from 1 to 4 to form four decks (one for each round). In each round, the first card of the corresponding deck will be revealed.
Pliers
The Pliers is the tool used by the players to cut the Wires and thus try to defuse or detonate the Bomb. Use either the articulated version or the card as you prefer.
Doom Token
The Doom token is used in 4-player games to impose on Shadow a way to win.
Setup
1. Prepare the Role cards. The table below indicates, according to the number of players, their distribution in each team as well as their covers. Make sure that the Team Leader cards Belleville and Mister X are among these cards. Return the remaining Role cards to the box: they will not be used for the game.
| Players | ORGANIZATION | AGENCY | SHADOW |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4* | 1 red Cover | 2 blue Cover and 1 red Cover | 1 |
| 5* | 1 red Cover and 1 blue Cover | 2 blue Cover and 1 red Cover | 1 |
| 6 | 1 red Cover and 1 blue Cover | 2 blue Cover and 1 red Cover | 1 |
| 7 | 1 red Cover and 1 blue Cover | 3 blue Cover and 1 red Cover | 1 |
| 8 | 2 red Cover and 1 blue Cover | 3 blue Cover and 1 red Cover | 1 |
*In 4- and 5-player games, one of the prepared Role cards will not be dealt. Set it aside without looking at it. This way, no player can be certain of the Roles present in the current game.
2. Shuffle the prepared Role cards and deal one, face down, to each player, who looks at it secretly.
3. Prepare the Wire cards according to the number of players. Return the remaining Wire cards to the box: they will not be used for the game.
| Players | SAFE WIRES | DEFUSING WIRES | BOMB |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 15 | 4 | 1 |
| 5 | 19 | 5 | 1 |
| 6 | 23 | 6 | 1 |
| 7 | 27 | 7 | 1 |
| 8 | 31 | 8 | 1 |
4. Shuffle the prepared Wire cards and deal five, face down, to each player.
5. Each player secretly looks at his Wire cards, then shuffles them and places them in front of him, face down, side by side. He therefore does not know the order of his cards.
6. Place the four decks of Location cards in the center of the table according to their color, face down and in ascending order. Each deck represents a round.
Then shuffle each deck separately. Reveal the first card of Location deck 1, and read it aloud so that each player becomes aware of its effect.
Some Location cards have a different effect depending on the number of players. For example:
- 4: In a 4-player game, use this effect.
- 5-6-7-8: From 5 to 8 players, use this effect.
7. Using a cover to hide his Role, each player shows his Cover to his left-hand neighbor. Since Shadow has two Covers, the player who plays him chooses the one he wishes to disclose by rotating his card 180 degrees.
Tip: Players are encouraged to rotate their Role card several times at the start of the game so that Shadow is not unmasked by this maneuver.
This step does not apply in a 4-player game. Instead, one of the players flips the Doom token so that the result is visible to all, thus imposing on Shadow a way to win. If the blue face is visible, Shadow must defuse the Bomb; if the red face is visible, Shadow must make the Bomb explode.
8. The last player to have gone to the revealed Location (or the last to have lied) becomes the first player and receives the Pliers, which he places in front of him.
Course of the Game
The game is played over a maximum of four rounds during which you will use the Pliers to cut Wires from the other players, hoping to fulfill your objective.
Course of a Round
The first player begins. Take the Pliers and place it in front of the Wire card you wish to cut from another player. Do not hesitate to discuss, to share your information or to lie shamelessly, and listen to everyone's arguments before choosing the Wire to cut. You cannot cut one of your own Wires. Then, reveal the cut Wire card and place it in the center of the table.
If it is a Safe Wire card, nothing happens. Set it aside, face up, with the other Safe Wire cards to remind you how many wires have been cut so far.
If it is the Bomb card, the Organization Members (or Shadow!) immediately win the game.
If it is a Defusing Wire card, set it aside with the other cards of this type already revealed to keep count. If it is the last Defusing Wire card that needed to be found, the Agency Members (or Shadow!) immediately win the game. Otherwise, the game continues.
To win, Shadow must himself perform the action that ends the game. If the Bomb explodes or is defused because of a member of the Organization or of the Agency, Shadow does not win the game even though his objective has been achieved.
Then, the player to whom the cut Wire card belonged takes the Pliers and proceeds in the same way.
End of the Round
The round ends when the number of Wire cards revealed during the round is equal to the number of players.
Example: With 5 players, the round ends after the fifth Wire card of the current round has been revealed.
Gather all the uncut Wire cards of all players (that is, those still face down) and shuffle them without looking at them. Deal them out again, face down, so that all players have the same number. Then repeat step 5 of the setup.
In each new round, each player therefore has one card fewer than at the start of the previous round.
Reveal the first card of the Location deck whose number corresponds to the round that is about to begin, and read it aloud so that each player becomes aware of its effect.
The effects of a Location card only apply to the round for which the card was revealed.
A new round then begins. The last player to have received the Pliers in the previous round becomes the first player.
End of the Game
The game ends immediately if one of the following conditions is met:
- A member of the Organization or of the Agency has cut the Bomb Wire. The Organization Members immediately win the game.
- A member of the Agency or of the Organization has cut the last Defusing Wire. The Agency Members immediately win the game.
- Shadow has cut the last Defusing Wire or the Bomb Wire. Shadow immediately wins the game.
In a 4-player game, Shadow's victory is conditioned by the Doom token: he has only one of the two options (Defusing Wire or Bomb). If Shadow ends the game without winning, victory goes to the Organization in case of an explosion and to the Agency in case of defusing.
If, at the end of the four rounds, none of the preceding conditions is met, the Organization Members win the game.