Top Hats And Treachery Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• The Rules
  • Rule Sets
• Explaining The Cards
• Variant Rules & Strategy
  • The Hotels
  • Serendipity
  • Misfits

Game Components

• Cards (108 in total), in six groups:
  • A) Lower Class (Guest cards)
  • B) Middle Class (Guest cards)
  • C) Upper Class (Guest cards)
  • D) Twist Of Fate (T.O.F.) cards
  • E) Shenanigans (SH) cards
  • F) Grim Reaper (GR) cards
• D6 die
• Round Tracker (Round 1 to Round 16, with Long play and Short play sides)
• Rules Reminder card
• Rules Booklet

The Rules

1. Shuffle all the decks and deal out 1 Upper, 1 Middle & 1 Lower Class Guest to each player, along with a hand of 5 Rumour cards.

2. Place the decks in the middle of the table (with room for discard piles for each), as well as the Rules Reminder. Put the d6 die on Round 1 of the Round Tracker (Long play or Short play side).

3. Choose either Dead Simple or Simply Deadly ruleset to play with.

4. Each turn, play and draw cards as directed in the ruleset.

5. At the start of Turn 6 (& Turn 11 in the Long Play), each player discards down or draws up (as necessary) to 5 Rumours and rolls the d6 for a new Guest to add to their Hotel: 1-2 = Lower, 3-4 = Middle, 5-6 = Upper.

6. At the end of the last Round, add up each player's total (not including hands) and the player with the highest total wins! In the event of a tie, the player with the greatest number of Upper Class Guests wins, then the player who owns the largest hat!.

Rule Sets

DEAD SIMPLE Rule set: Each round: Play 1 Rumour, Draw 1 Rumour.

SIMPLY DEADLY Rule set: Each turn: roll the d6. All players then:

• Roll = 1: Play one, draw one.
• Roll = 2: Play one, steal one from the player on your right or left (your choice!) then that player draws one.
• Roll = 3: Play 1, Draw 1, swap hands with the player to your right.
• Roll = 4: Play 1, Flip a Twist Of Fate card in play: positive negative
• Roll = 5: Draw 1, Swap two T.O.F. cards in play: (your choice: +ve/-ve).
• Roll = 6: Play 2, Draw 2 !

Explaining The Cards

TWIST OF FATE (T.O.F.) - These cards have a positive and a negative side, which gives the player options to play it on their own Guest (+ve) or another player's Guest (-ve).

SHENANIGANS (SH) - These give the player extra strategy options and chances to stir things up - adding extra Guests, Rumour cards, swapping cards around or protecting Guests.

GRIM REAPER (GR) - These cards are used to kill off pesky Guests (opponents' Guests who are too powerful or your own Guests who have become too weak). The Guests and all their Rumours are discarded and their empty room must be filled! You can fill a room for free with a Lower Class Guest, but you may choose to discard a card from your hand to take a Middle Class Guest instead - or two cards to take an Upper Class Guest! If you "trade up" to a Middle Class guest, then the player who killed your Guest keeps the discarded card. If you discard 2 to go for an Upper, then they keep one and discard the other. You can't keep a discard if you kill your own Guest, though!

As the games goes on, new cards are added, T.O.F. can be reversed ("Are you sure that's what you heard? Because I heard that...") and tragic, tragic things may happen to those really powerful Guests your friend has..! (Muahahaha- ahem!)

Variant Rules & Strategy

The Hotels

As a special Kickstarter treat, backers could bid to help create 6 special Hotel Cards, which can be played as an optional extra play mode. One Hotel card is dealt out at random to each player, representing "their" Hotel. Each of the Hotel cards give certain bonuses, which will affect how they play their cards, to maximise their advantage!

Serendipity

The Victorians loved superstition, mysterious co-incidence and plain egotism. Therefore, if a player holds any of the following combinations in play at the end of the game, they score a bonus 5 points!

• Both Dukes: (Colby & Frishcott)
• Both Charlies: (Darwin & Dickens)
• Power & Glory: Crown Prince & Crown Princess.
• A Pair of Rivals: (Nikola Tesla & Thomas Edison or Mary Seacole & Florence Nightingale).
• Pure Ego: If Darwin attends a "Charles Darwin lecture" or Nikola Tesla meets "the fascinating Mr Tesla"!

Misfits

Due to a SH card (eg: Swap Rumours), a Guest may find themselves with Rumour cards that cannot apply to them (eg: a maid cannot be an army coward). These Rumours are called "Misfits" & discarded, so that play can continue.

See rogueartistcreations.com for extra content & ideas!