目撃者たちの夜 (Witness Night)
目撃者たちの夜 (Witness Night) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Taken from the printed component list (遊戲配件).
- Role cards (角色牌), 11 cards: one each of Killer (殺人魔), Accomplice (共犯), Bomber (炸彈客), Detective (偵探), Tycoon (富商), Lawyer (律師) and Butler (管家), plus 4 Guest (客人) cards (2 yellow, 1 blue, 1 red).
- Role tiles (角色板塊), 11 tiles.
- Location cards (地點牌), 8 cards: Lounge (交誼廳), Gallery (畫廊), Billiard Room (撞球室), Study (書房), Entrance Hall (玄關), Dining Room (餐廳), Guest Room (客房) and Boiler Room (鍋爐室).
- Vote cards (投票牌), 36 cards (6 locations × 6 colours).
Game Overview
(Printed as 遊戲概要.)
Players take turns secretly deciding their own role. From the 1 role card passed to them by other players and the 1 role card they draw from the top of the role-card deck, each player chooses one card as their own role, and passes the remaining card to any player who has not yet decided a role. This step is repeated until every player has decided a role.
All players discuss which location each role card has been to, which player's hand it has passed through, and where it went afterwards, based on these witness reports (目擊情報). From this they deduce where the Killer is.
However, the players who are the Killer and the Accomplice must never reveal their true identity. They may fabricate false witness reports to turn suspicion toward innocent people.
After discussion, a vote is held. If the player with the most votes is the Killer, the Killer and the Accomplice lose and all other players win. If the player with the most votes is not the Killer, the Killer and the Accomplice win and all other players lose.
Difficulty Setting
Using the Specified Role Cards
Choose the game difficulty. The difficulty also determines which role cards are used. When first learning the game, it is recommended to start at Level 1, and move to harder challenges once all participants are familiar with the game.
Preparing the Guest Cards
Adjust the number of Guest cards to the number of players. If the setup calls for 3 Guest cards, shuffle the 4 Guest cards face down, and randomly draw 1 card that is not used. There are three colours of Guest cards, and one colour has two cards. When information is passed on, the other players can use this to judge whether a player is lying. This is an important clue during witness reports and discussion.
Levels
Level 1 — The Beginning of the Incident (3–4 players)
- Killer (殺人魔): 1
- Guest (客人): 3 cards for 3 players / 4 cards for 4 players
Level 2 — The Accomplice Appears (3–5 players)
- Killer: 1
- Accomplice (共犯): 1
- Guest: 2 cards for 3 players / 3 cards for 4 players / 4 cards for 5 players
Level 3 — Sanction of the Law (4–6 players)
- Killer: 1
- Accomplice: 1
- Lawyer (律師): 1
- Guest: 2 cards for 4 players / 3 cards for 5 players / 4 cards for 6 players
Level 4 — The Bomber's Intimidation (3–5 players)
- Killer: 1
- Bomber (炸彈客): 1
- Guest: 2 cards for 3 players / 3 cards for 4 players / 4 cards for 5 players
Level 5 — The Helpless Ones (4–6 players)
- Killer: 1
- Bomber: 1
- Tycoon (富商): 1
- Guest: 2 cards for 4 players / 3 cards for 5 players / 4 cards for 6 players
Level 6 — The Late-Arriving Detective (4–6 players)
- Killer: 1
- Bomber: 1
- Detective (偵探): 1
- Guest: 2 cards for 4 players / 3 cards for 5 players / 4 cards for 6 players
Level 7 — The Butler's Record (4–6 players)
- Killer: 1
- Bomber: 1
- Lawyer: 1
- Tycoon: 1
- Detective: 1
- Butler (管家): 1
- Guest: 0 cards for 4 players / 1 card for 5 players / 2 cards for 6 players
Transcriber's note: in the printed Level 7 illustration the Accomplice card is shown greyed out. It is not listed in the Level 7 role set, so it is not included here. This is read from the image and was not confirmed by a text layer.
Level 8 — The Vanished Guests? (4–6 players)
- Killer: 1
- Accomplice: 1
- Bomber: 1
- Lawyer: 1
- Tycoon: 1
- Detective: 1
- Butler: 1
- Guest: 2 cards for 4 players / 3 cards for 5 players / 4 cards for 6 players
Butler Rules
(Printed as 管家規則.)
During setup, first take the Killer card out of the role cards. Then shuffle the role cards face down, randomly draw 2 of them, and place them face down beside the Boiler Room. These 2 roles left the villa before the incident occurred.
During discussion, if the Butler publicly reveals their identity, they may examine these 2 role cards (and may also show them to the other players), but they lose their voting right. If the Butler wants to keep the right to vote, they cannot reveal their identity, and they cannot examine these 2 role cards.
Special Rule for Level 8
(Printed as 特別規則: 管家規則＋額外移除2名角色.)
Before covering the 2 role cards according to the Butler rules, randomly and secretly remove 2 more role cards from the game. The invitation letters given to these 2 roles mysteriously disappeared during delivery, and even the Butler did not notice that they had not arrived.
Game Setup
(Printed as 遊戲準備.)
- Place the Boiler Room and Guest Room location cards in the centre of the table. Each player takes 1 of the remaining location cards (dealt at random or chosen freely) and places it face up in front of them. In games of 5 or fewer players, return the unused location cards to the box.
- Depending on the chosen level, use the specified role cards, and arrange the corresponding role tiles in the centre of the table, to show the players which roles may appear in the game.
- The colour of the location card in front of each player is that player's colour. Take the 6 vote cards of that colour and place them beside the location card.
- Shuffle the role cards to be used face down and place them in the centre of the table to form the role-card deck.
Example printed on page 9: Level 1, "The Beginning of the Incident", 4-player setup.
Game Play
(Printed as 遊戲進行.)
The game consists of three phases: Role Witnessing and Selection → Discussion → Voting.
1. Role Witnessing and Selection
Determine the starting player by a suitable method. The starting player draws 1 card from the top of the role-card deck, as a ceremony announcing the start of the game. Then they draw another card from the deck, choose one of the 2 cards as their own role, and cover the location card in front of them with it.
Then they place the other role card face down and pass it to a player who has not yet decided a role. Speaking according to the location in front of that player, they say: "I saw a certain role go to a certain place (location name)."
Tip: shuffle the 2 role cards in hand so that the other players cannot tell which card was passed from another player and which card was drawn from the deck.
Repeat these steps until the last player has decided their role. The unchosen role card of the last player is covered on the Guest Room, as "the role that entered the Guest Room."
At this point, every location except the Boiler Room has a role card on it.
2. Discussion
After all players have decided their roles, begin discussing the witness reports to find the Killer, who must be locked into the Boiler Room. Players may discuss their own role, the contents of the cards they saw, drew and passed on, and so on. Players may also lie. A player on the Killer faction (grey) may use false information to confuse the others and sway their reasoning. A player on the Guest faction (yellow) generally wants all the accurate information so that they can determine where the Killer is. Therefore, be careful to judge whether information is true.
Example:
- "I saw the Killer go to the Study."
- The player responsible for the Study says: "I did not see the Killer!"
Do not let the discussion run too long. It is recommended not to exceed 3 minutes, and a timer may be used to control the time.
3. Voting
When the discussion ends, all players vote at the same time. Each player chooses, from their vote cards, the location they believe the Killer is in, and places that vote card face down beside their hand. When every player has made their decision, all players reveal their chosen cards together. The role card(s) on the location with the most votes are moved into the Boiler Room.
Tip: if more than one location has the highest number of votes, the role cards on all of the locations with the highest vote count are sent into the Boiler Room.
Winning the Game
(Printed as 遊戲的勝負.)
Turn over all the role cards. Each player confirms the winning condition of their own role. Players whose winning conditions are met win the game.
Difficult Questions
(Printed as 遊戲中的難題, i.e. FAQ.)
Q1. If the Bomber enters the Boiler Room together with other roles, who wins?
A1. As long as the Bomber has entered the Boiler Room, the Bomber wins alone, regardless of whether the other roles have fulfilled their winning conditions.
Q2. When voting, can a player vote for an unused location?
A2. In games of 5 or fewer players there will be unused location cards. When voting, players may not vote for an unused location.
Transcriber's Notes
- Role-card text is not transcribed. The individual abilities and per-role winning conditions are printed as small text on the role cards themselves (pages 3, 5–8), and the source image resolution (650 × 1000 pixels per page) does not allow them to be read reliably. The only win conditions transcribed here are those stated in the rulebook text (Game Overview, Winning the Game, and FAQ A1). The full role-card text should be checked against a higher-resolution copy of the Taiwan edition before this file is relied on for role abilities.
- The source is a photographed or scanned print with no text layer. All text was read from the page images and translated into English. Chinese terms are given in brackets where they help identify a component.
- Copyright, translation and publisher credits, the Sugorokuya and Swan Panasia logos, and the printed page numbers have been omitted.