Trust Me Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Reputation
• Taking a Turn
  • Tell a Tale
  • Use Reputation to Gain a Ticket
  • Take a Character from the Park
  • Refilling the Park
• When the Character Deck Runs Out
• Endgame & Scoring
  • Final Scoring
• 4-Player Coin Variant

Components

• 30 Character cards:
  • 5 Pinocchio (1)
  • 5 The Cat & The Fox (2)
  • 5 The Doctors (3)
  • 5 The Judge (4)
  • 5 Mangiafuoco (5)
  • 5 The Fairy (6)
• 21 Ticket tokens:
  • 6 Cotton Candy (1)
  • 5 Kite (2)
  • 4 Puppet Show (3)
  • 3 Merry-Go-Round (4)
  • 2 Ferris Wheel (5)
  • 1 Roller Coaster (6)
• 1 Coin
• 1 Day/Night card
• 4 Player Aid cards

Setup

1. Sort the 21 Tickets into six face-up stacks by their value. Arrange the stacks in ascending order from 1 to 6.
2. Shuffle the 30 Character cards (from now on just called Characters) to form a face-down Character deck in the middle of the table.
   • In a 2-player game, remove 1 Character of each type before shuffling the remaining 24 Characters to form the Character deck.
3. Place the Day/Night card under the Character deck with the Day side up.
4. Place the Coin within the reach of all players. (The Coin is not used in the 2-player game.)
5. Give each player a Player Aid card. If playing with the 4-Player Coin Variant (see below) be sure that each player places their Player Aid card in front of them with the coin icon face-up.
6. Flip over 4 Characters and place them in a face-up row next to the Character deck. This row is the Park.
7. Each player draws 1 Character from the Character deck as their starting hand, keeping their hand hidden from their opponents.

Gameplay

Beginning with the player who last went on a roller coaster, and moving clockwise, each player takes a turn.

On their turn, players will always draw 1 new Character from the Character deck and place 1 Character from their hand into the Park, face-up or face-down depending on the action they choose.

Reputation

The face-up area in front of each player represents that player's Reputation. Reputation is gained through the face-up Characters you take from the Park. Players can use their Reputation to gain Tickets to the amusements on the Island of Toys.

The Characters in your hand and the tickets gained throughout the game are not part of your Reputation.

There is no limit to the size of your Reputation. (When the Character deck runs out, however, you will lose all of your Reputation.)

Taking a Turn

On your turn, you must do both of the following steps in order:

1. Draw 1 Character from the Character deck and place it into your hand.
2. Perform one of the following three actions:
   • Tell a Tale.
   • Use Reputation to Gain a Ticket.
   • Take a Character from the Park.

Tell a Tale

To tell a tale, place 1 Character from your hand face-down below any Character in the Park.

• You are telling a true tale if the Characters match.
• You are bluffing and telling a tall tale if the Characters do not match.

It is up to your opponents to decide if they trust you or not.

Note: Players do not have to tell actual stories when playing the Characters from their hand. They simply play the Character below the Character they are claiming it matches and wait for their opponents to vote.

Before revealing the face-down Character, all other players must declare: "I trust you" or "I do not trust you." All players can freely discuss with each other before making their choices and decide if they want to declare together or one by one. If players choose to declare one by one, players declare in turn order, starting with the player to the left of the active player.

If the number of players who said, "I trust you," is greater than the number of players who said, "I do not trust you," the majority trusted you. If it is less than that, the majority did not trust you.

In a 3-player game, both other players must agree if they trust you or not. If they disagree, toss the Coin. If the Coin lands donkey side up, the majority did not trust you. If the Coin lands kid side up, the majority trusted you.

Flip over the face-down Character to reveal whether your tale about them was a true tale or a tall tale:

You told...	The majority...	Result
A true tale	Trusted you	You have gained their trust! Your reputation is growing. Take both Characters and place them face-up in your Reputation.
A true tale	Did not trust you	You have proved them wrong! Your reputation now precedes you. Take both Characters and place them face-up in your Reputation. Perform a bonus turn exactly as if you were taking another regular turn, including drawing a new Character into your hand. It is possible to take multiple bonus turns in a row.
A tall tale	Trusted you	You have tricked them! The Island of Toys rewards trickery. Your reputation grows and your notoriety earns you a Ticket. Take both Characters and place them face-up in your Reputation. Gain 1 Ticket equal to the difference between the numbers on the Characters and place the Ticket face-down in front of you. If there are no Tickets of this value remaining, take a Ticket with the next lower value.
A tall tale	Did not trust you	You have been caught! You will need to tell better tales if you want to gain Tickets. Place the Character you played from your hand face-up into the Park.

Use Reputation to Gain a Ticket

To use your Reputation to gain a Ticket, play 1 Character from your hand into the Park face-up.

Then, discard any amount of face-up Characters from your Reputation, either with the same number or in a sequence of numbers. Gain exactly 1 Ticket of a value equal to the number of Characters you are discarding. Place the gained Ticket face-down in front of you. Face-down Tickets are not part of your Reputation. You can not use Characters in the Park, or in your hand, to gain Tickets.

You may only gain 1 Ticket per turn.

Discard Characters to a face-up pile next to the Character deck. Players may not check the discard pile at any time.

Example: Charlotte has four Characters in her Reputation: 2x The Cat & The Fox (2), 1x The Doctors (3), and 1x The Judge (4). Charlotte has multiple options to choose from:

1. She can discard a single Character to take a Cotton Candy Ticket (1).
2. Or she can discard two of her The Cat & The Fox (2) Characters, or two of her sequential Characters [The Cat & The Fox (2) with The Doctors (3) or The Doctors (3) with the Judge (4)] to take a Kite Ticket (2).
3. Or she can discard her three sequential Characters [The Cat & The Fox (2), The Doctors (3), and The Judge (4)] for a Puppet Show Ticket (3).

Even though Charlotte has enough Reputation to gain more than 1 Ticket, she may only use her Reputation to gain 1 Ticket per turn.

Take a Character from the Park

Sometimes no one is around to listen to your tales. Taking a Character from the Park still helps you grow your Reputation, but at a much slower rate.

To take a Character from the Park, play 1 Character from your hand into the Park face-up. Take any other Character from the Park and place it face-up in your Reputation. Characters from the Park never go into your hand.

Refilling the Park

If, at any time, there are no Characters in the Park, draw 2 Characters from the Character deck and place them face-up in the Park.

When the Character Deck Runs Out

When the Character deck runs out of Characters the first time, the day ends and everyone who knows you goes to bed. All players must discard all of the Characters in their Reputation at the end of the active player's turn. Players must grow their Reputation all over again.

If the active player gained a bonus turn, the active player will instead gain a free Use Reputation to Gain a Ticket action without playing a card from their hand into the Park.

The Characters in the Park, the Characters in each player's hands, and any gained Tickets are not discarded.

Shuffle the discard pile to form a new face-down Character deck. Flip over the Day/Night card from the Day side to the Night side and place it underneath the Character deck. Continue playing with the next player in turn order.

Endgame & Scoring

The game ends at the end of the active player's turn when either of the following conditions are met:

• The Character deck runs out of Characters for the second time.
• The players acquire all the Tickets in any four stacks.

If after triggering the end game, the active player gains a bonus turn on their turn, the bonus turn is forfeited.

Final Scoring

Points are awarded as follows:

• Every Ticket is worth points equal to its value.
• Each player also gains points for the quantity of tickets of different value they have, according to the chart below (only the largest set of Tickets per player will score).

Different values	1	2	3	4	5	6
Points	1	3	6	10	15	21

Example: At the end of the game, Charlotte has seven Tickets total and five unique Tickets: 1x Cotton Candy (1), 2x Kite (2), 2x Puppet Show (3), 1x Ferris Wheel (5), 1x Roller Coaster (6). Charlotte gains 22 points from the total value of her Tickets (1 + 4 + 6 + 5 + 6 = 22) and 15 points for her five unique Tickets (5 different values = 15 points), for a total of 37.

The player with the most points wins the game! If there is a tie, the player with the most Tickets is the winner. If there is still a tie, toss the Coin to determine who will be the winner.

4-Player Coin Variant

Each player may, once per game, choose to toss the Coin to try and change the result of the majority if they do not agree with the outcome. This action can only be performed if you are not the active player (it is not your turn) and may only be taken after the majority has decided whether or not to trust the active player.

If the Coin lands donkey side up, the majority decides they did not trust you, regardless of the actual vote. If the Coin lands kid side up, the majority decides they trusted you, regardless of the actual vote.

Only one player may choose to toss the Coin per turn. If you choose to toss the Coin, you must flip over your Player Aid card to indicate that you've used this ability and cannot use it again for the rest of the game.