Winnie the Pooh: Serious Detective Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• About the Game
• Components
• Setup
• The Case Deck
  • Introduction Cards and Setup Cards
  • Event Cards
  • Story Cards
  • Location Cards
  • Special Cards
• Action Dice
  • Shared Dice (white)
  • Personal Dice (colored)
• Case Tokens
  • Investigation Tokens
  • Item Tokens
  • Special Tokens
• Common Tokens
  • Completed Investigation Tokens
  • Note Tokens
  • Clover Tokens
• Detective Boards
• Gameplay
• Actions
  • Movement
  • Investigation
  • Turning a Die
  • Detective's Special Action
  • Case Special Action
• End of Turn
• End of the Game
• Solo Mode
• Detectives
  • Winnie-the-Pooh
  • Kanga and Roo
  • Piglet
  • Tigger

About the Game

Three tangled cases await you, which will send you to completely different places and times. Play the cases in order!

Location cards form the game board: you lay out several cards during setup, and the rest during the game. Locations contain investigation points. You use action dice to investigate such points and, as a result, reveal new story cards: testimonies, observations, puzzles, in short everything that makes up detective work.

Your adventure is influenced by event cards, which bring unexpected twists into the plot and hint that the game is nearing its end.

To solve a case successfully it is important to think through every step together and use your abilities efficiently; otherwise you may fail to complete the main task, which is the goal of the game!

Components

• Rulebook
• 3 case boxes
• 13 action dice: 5 shared dice and 8 personal dice (2 dice per player)
• 5 detective figures with stands
• 4 detective boards
• 85 case tokens
• 50 common tokens: 12 note tokens, 11 clover tokens, 27 completed investigation tokens (9 of each type)

Start the game with case No. 1. Do not begin a new case until you have finished the previous one!

The detectives: Kanga and Roo, Tigger, Piglet, Winnie-the-Pooh (their abilities are described under "Detectives" below).

Setup

1. Take the case deck out of the box and place it in the center of the table with the "STOP" side face down. Do not shuffle the deck and do not look at the faces of the cards!
2. Take the tokens of the current case. Place them next to the deck face down. Do not look at the face side of the case tokens!
3. Place the shared dice next to the case deck.
4. Place the common tokens in the supply: clover tokens (4a), note tokens (4b) and completed investigation tokens (4c).
5. Each player chooses any detective and takes its components: the detective board (5a), the detective figure (5b) and 2 personal dice (5c).
6. Determine the first player in any way.
7. Take the top card of the case deck. The first player must read its text aloud and follow the instructions on it.

The Case Deck

Each box contains a case deck. In-game instructions on cards are marked in blue and red. If a card has a delayed effect or a permanently active property, vertical lines are drawn to the left of its description.

Case cards come in the following colors:

• Brown cards make up the basis of the deck.
• Yellow cards are the case finale cards.
• Gray cards are usually event cards (see below).
• Blue cards are item cards. See "Item Tokens" on p. 5.
• Purple cards are cards with delayed effects (as the vertical lines remind you).
• Green cards give new tasks or announce their successful completion. After reading, it is best to place these cards next to the case deck.

Important! A task is completed only when the card with the corresponding instruction is revealed.

Cards in the case deck come in the following types.

Introduction Cards and Setup Cards

These cards are at the start of each deck. Introduction cards tell the beginning of the story. The main task is also stated on them. Setup cards contain special instructions for setting up the current game.

Event Cards

These cards are a countdown timer. The stack of event cards determines when the game ends. On their back side are the event's sequence number and 5 slots for unused shared dice. After the top card of the event stack runs out of dice, you will be told to reroll them and place them on the next card. Revealing the last card of the event stack ends the game.

Story Cards

During the game, when performing actions or following the instructions of other cards, you reveal story cards with particular numbers. The back of each story card shows its number, and the face shows its number and title.

If you are told to reveal a card, first look through the case deck face down and find the card with the corresponding number. Then turn this story card over, read it aloud and carry out all instructions on it in order from top to bottom. All instructions must be carried out by the active player unless stated otherwise.

If you are told to remove a card from the game, return the corresponding card to the box regardless of where it is. If that card has not yet been revealed, do not look at its face side.

Important! If you accidentally disturbed the order of cards in the deck, or want to put the cards in order after finishing a case, go by the number in the bottom right corner of the back of each card.

Location Cards

These cards make up the game board. They are placed on the table next to each other according to the layout shown on them. Some locations are double-sided; do not flip such cards until you are told to.

Each location has investigation points. In all cases you will encounter points of the following types:

• Examination: lets you search for something, open something, pick something up.
• Conversation: starts a conversation with a character.
• Observation: gives you the chance to discreetly watch what is going on around.

The number on an investigation point corresponds to the number of a story card.

If you are told to close an investigation point, cover it with a completed investigation token of the corresponding type. A closed point cannot be investigated (see "Actions" on p. 6).

Special Cards

Some cases have additional unique cards. Their description and rules for use are given on the setup cards of those cases.

Action Dice

Shared Dice (white)

The faces of these dice show the symbols Examination, Conversation and Observation, the same as on the investigation points in locations and on investigation tokens (see "Case Tokens" on p. 5).

In addition, only the shared dice have a face with a special case symbol. Its meaning differs from case to case and is described on the setup cards of those cases.

Personal Dice (colored)

Each detective has 2 personal dice, whose color matches the color of the detective board. Their faces also show the symbols Examination, Conversation and Observation.

The personal dice also show symbols that allow players to perform detectives' special actions. See "Detectives" on p. 7.

Case Tokens

Each case has a unique set of tokens.

Investigation Tokens

The back of such a token shows a number, and the front shows an investigation point.

Story card text tells you during play to put a token with a certain number into a location. Place such tokens face up on any free space of the indicated location; as a result, a new investigation point appears there.

After the point on such a token has been investigated, remove the token from the game.

If you are told to remove a token from the game, return the corresponding token to the box regardless of where it is. If that token has not yet been placed in a location, do not look at its face side.

Item Tokens

These show illustrations of items and a pocket symbol. You receive items by following the instructions of case cards.

At any moment of your turn you may pick up an item from the location you are in and place it in an empty pocket slot on your detective board, or, conversely, leave an item from your pocket in the location. If you are in the same location as another detective, you may freely hand item tokens to each other.

Special Tokens

Some cases have additional unique tokens. Their description and rules for use are given on the setup cards of those cases.

Common Tokens

These tokens are needed in every case.

Completed Investigation Tokens

You use these tokens to close investigation points in locations.

Note Tokens

You may use these tokens to mark cards you consider important. You will also place note tokens in locations as instructed by some cards.

Clover Tokens

Clover is an item, so such a token takes up a pocket on the detective board. At any moment of your turn you may spend a clover (return it from the board to the supply) to turn 1 of the unused shared dice or one of your own personal dice to any face up.

Detective Boards

Besides the portrait (1), name (2) and quote (3), each board has 2 slots for personal dice (4), a symbol (5) with a short description of the detective's special action (6), and 3 pockets (7).

Each detective has a unique ability reflecting their character. See "Detectives" on p. 7.

Gameplay

Participants take turns, starting with the first player and then clockwise. On your turn you must use 1 shared die and may use 2 or fewer of your personal dice to perform available actions (see below). You may perform any actions in any order. Each die allows only 1 action, so in a turn you can perform no more than 3 actions. Dice may be used in any order.

Some actions can be performed only with a die showing a particular symbol. Move a used personal die off the detective board and place it beside it. Move a used shared die off the top card of the event stack and place it beside that stack.

If you do not want to perform an action with the shared die, you must discard it: remove it from the event stack without performing an action. Such a die counts as used.

All game effects apply only to the detective that caused them, unless stated otherwise.

Actions

Movement

Use any die to move your detective figure to an adjacent location. Adjacent locations are those that border each other horizontally or vertically (but not diagonally).

Investigation

Use a die showing the corresponding symbol to interact with an investigation point. First choose an investigation point in the location where your detective figure is, and use a shared or your personal die with the same symbol. Then close this investigation point. (If you chose an investigation point on a case token, remove that token from the game.) Finally, reveal the card with the number shown on this point.

To investigate a point with a double symbol you need to use two dice at once (one with each depicted symbol). You may close such a point with either of the two suitable completed investigation tokens.

Turning a Die

Use your personal die to turn any unused shared die or your own unused personal die to any face up. You cannot turn other players' personal dice.

Detective's Special Action

Use your personal die showing your unique symbol to perform your detective's special action. See "Detectives" on p. 7.

Case Special Action

Use a shared die showing the case symbol to perform the special action of the current case. The case special action is described on the setup cards of that case.

End of Turn

After performing all actions, go through the following steps in order:

1. Reroll your used personal dice and place them back on the detective board. You may reroll your unused personal dice. Do not reroll the used shared die!
2. If no shared dice remain on the top card of the event stack, flip this card, read its text aloud and follow the instructions on it.

After that your turn ends and the next player clockwise begins their turn.

End of the Game

You will learn that the game is over from the text of one of the revealed cards.

The game ends in any case when the last card of the event stack is revealed.

Solo Mode

At step 5 of setup choose and take 2 detective boards. You will take turns playing the chosen detectives. The other rules do not change.

Detectives

Winnie-the-Pooh

"I know for sure that a pot of honey lifts the mood and adds strength! Friends, there is never too much honey!"

Special action. Winnie-the-Pooh may use a die showing the honey pot symbol to have any detective (Pooh himself may be chosen) perform any action except a detective's special action and investigating a point with a double symbol. Winnie-the-Pooh decides which action the chosen detective performs. Any effects following this action (for example, caused by a revealed card) are applied by the detective who performed the action. After that, Winnie-the-Pooh continues his turn.

Winnie-the-Pooh may use a die showing the honey pot symbol to investigate a point with a double symbol in the location where he is. In that case, however, Winnie-the-Pooh must also use a second die showing a suitable symbol.

Kanga and Roo

Kanga: "Roo, you have become so big and independent! I'm proud of you. How else?"

Kanga and Roo are two detectives controlled by one player. Kanga and Roo have one detective board between them, but separate pockets for items, so they can hand tokens to each other only when they are in the same location (see p. 5). The total number of actions of Kanga and Roo is three, but each of these detectives has one personal die. Kanga may use only the dark green personal die, and Roo only the light green one. Either of them may use the shared die. Each of the two detectives may apply a clover token only to the shared die or to their own personal die.

When one of these two detectives performs a movement action, the other may move at the same time without using a die. If Kanga and Roo are in the same location, they may combine their personal dice to investigate a point with a double symbol.

If it is impossible to determine which of these two detectives caused an effect or should receive an item, choose either of them. Effects applying to all detectives in a location apply to Kanga and Roo simultaneously.

Special action. Roo may use a die showing the Roo symbol to perform an investigation in the location where he is. Count the Roo symbol as any one symbol needed for that investigation.

Piglet

"I, I can! I can do two things at once! Don't mind that I'm so small. I'm quick and clever!"

Special action. Piglet may use a die showing the double symbol to investigate either a point with the corresponding double symbol, or a point with one of the two symbols depicted.

Tigger

"Where to run? I'll be quick! It's a joy for me. And running and being useful is a double joy."

Special action. Tigger may use a die showing the paw symbol to perform 2 movement actions in a row. You cannot use another die between these movements, but you may activate effects along the way, and also exchange items, pick them up or leave them in locations.