Wizard Thieves Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Core Game Components
• Object of the Game
• Loot Types
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • 1. Building up the Pot
  • 2. Grab Challenges
    • Doubles
    • Loot Sandwiches
    • Portal Parallelism
  • Grabbing Etiquette
  • The Curse
  • 3. Treasure Challenges
  • Running Out of Cards
• Game End
• Magic Items
  • Gauntlet of Stealing
  • Alchemical Bomb
  • King Coin
  • Portal Caster

Core Game Components

• 36 Gemstone cards (4 border styles, 9 per style).
• 16 Treasure cards (one each of the x4, x3, x2 and x1 treasures, in each of the 4 border styles).
• 4 Player Status cards (Safe / Cursed, one per player).
• 8 Magic Item cards (2 of each of the 4 core Magic Items).

Other Magic Items are covered in the Advanced Rules.

Object of the Game

Wizard Thieves is all about getting Loot cards. In order to win, you must be the last Wizard Thief left with Loot in hand. Either acquire all your opponents' Loot by winning Grab Challenges and Treasure Challenges, or be the only remaining player who hasn't been eliminated by The Curse.

Loot Types

• Gemstones - The least valuable and most common type of Loot.
• Treasures - High value Loot cards that can help you get more Loot! These cards are denoted by a number icon in the corner.
• Magic Items - Special Loot cards that provide an immediate magical effect. These are denoted by the Magic Item icon.

Setup

Give each player one of the four Player Status Cards. This card sits in front of you for the entire game, to show whether you are:

• Safe (Hat side up) or Cursed (Totem side up).

All players begin the game Safe.

Each status card also bears a unique border style that corresponds to the borders found on all Gemstone and Treasure cards a player will begin the game with.

Separate the Gemstone and Treasure cards into piles according to these 4 border styles (or 3 in a 3-player game). You should end up with a pile of 13 cards for each player - 9 Gemstone cards and 4 Treasure cards. Give each player their respective pile.

Now shuffle the 8 core game Magic Item cards together (2 of each type), and deal two of them face down to each player. Do not look at your Magic Items! All players then shuffle their cards together to form their starting Deck.

Note: In a 2-Player Game, each player will use 2 of these 4 piles to form their starting Deck, which will then consist of 18 Gemstones, 8 Treasures, and 4 Magic Items.

Playing the Game

1. Building up the Pot

As fearless wizards and boastful thieves, you will be revealing your riches one Loot card at a time, flipping them face up into a pile at the center of the table - The Pot - until somebody claims it.

Begin by holding your facedown Deck in your non-dominant hand, keeping your dominant hand ready to reveal and steal with haste!

The starting player is the one who most recently stole something in real life. Even unintentionally! You're still a thief. Nice work. You reveal the first Loot card, flipping it away from you, into the Pot, like so: (illustration in the printed rules)

Note: Any time the card revealed is a Magic Item, apply its effect immediately. Then proceed as normal. (see Magic Items for effects)

Moving in clockwise order, the following player will then do the same thing, flipping a Loot card out on top of the Pot from their Deck. Players continue doing this until someone either reveals a Treasure card, or initiates a Grab Challenge.

Note: If for any reason you reveal a card when you're not supposed to, simply slide it face down back into the middle of your Deck.

2. Grab Challenges

As far as Wizard Thieves are concerned, agility is the master trait. Grab Challenges will put the speed of your mind and your hand to the test, and are one of the primary ways to get more Loot.

As soon as a Grab Challenge comes into effect, the first person to get their hand on the Pot wins it, adding it face down to the bottom of their Deck. Anytime a player wins the Pot, that player will then start building a new Pot by flipping the top card of their Deck out into the center of the table.

There are three types of grab challenges:

Doubles

Anytime two matching Loot cards of any type are revealed consecutively by any player(s).

Examples: two Gemstones of the same kind, two x2 Treasures, or two Bombs (Magic Items) revealed one after another.

Note: The border styles do not need to match. Only the Loot itself shown on a card is relevant to Grab Challenges.

Loot Sandwiches

Just like Doubles, but with one non-matching card in between the matching pair.

Examples: a Gemstone, a different Gemstone, then the first Gemstone again; or an x4 Treasure, a Gemstone leaf, then another x4 Treasure.

Portal Parallelism

(Only in effect after Portal Caster is used - see Magic Items.) Anytime the card played into the Pot matches the one on the top of the Portal pile.

Example: a Gemstone played into the Pot matches the Gemstone on top of the Portal pile.

Note: If the last card in a player's Deck is the first card played into a Pot, Portal Parallelism does not apply and no Grab Challenge is triggered.

Grabbing Etiquette

All players must keep their grabbing hand at least 6" away from the Pot unless it is either their turn, or someone has initiated a Grab Challenge.

Any player who reveals a card that triggers a Grab Challenge must lift their hand off the Pot first in order to legally go for the grab. If your hand doesn't come far up enough to make a slapping sound when it comes back down, you didn't lift it high enough!

The winner of a Grab Challenge is typically the player who has their hand underneath all other players' hands.

If it is not clear whose hand is below whose, then the winner is whoever's hand covers more of the Pot.

You may not look through the Pot to see if a Grab Challenge has been triggered before going for a grab. However, if anyone wants to check whether a Grab Challenge was in fact triggered after a player has grabbed the Pot, the player who grabbed it must fan out all the cards to verify that their grab was valid.

The Curse

If you grab the Pot when no Grab Challenge is in effect, you become Cursed! Flip your Player Status Card over to the Cursed side. For the rest of the game your Magic Items will have no effect, AND... if you go for the Pot again when you're not supposed to, you will be eliminated from the game: place any Loot cards you have left under your Player Status Card, and wait for a new game to begin! If a player is eliminated while revealing Loot cards for a Treasure Challenge (see below), all Loot in the Pot is removed from the game as well. The Curse is the only way players may be fully eliminated.

Note: All players who grab the Pot improperly are affected by The Curse, regardless of who grabbed it first.

3. Treasure Challenges

When building up the Pot, if a player reveals a Treasure card, they automatically trigger a Treasure Challenge. The following player will now have an alotted number of chances (indicated by the number shown on the card just played) to reveal one of their own Treasures.

For example: Timbo reveals a x3 Treasure. Liza, the next player in sequence, now has 3 chances to flip another Treasure card from her Deck into the Pot.

Whoever currently faces the challenge must flip cards from their Deck into the Pot one at a time, as usual. If within their allotted number of chances they reveal any one of the four kinds of Treasure card, they have succeeded, and immediately stop flipping cards into the Pot. The challenge is now passed on to the subsequent player, who will repeat the process. The number of chances given to succeed in revealing another Treasure is always determined by the last one flipped into the Pot.

For example: Given 3 chances, Liza reveals another Treasure on her second chance. She has succeeded, and the next player will now repeat the process. In this case Liza has revealed the x4 Treasure, so the next player will now have 4 chances to succeed.

If the player currently facing a Treasure Challenge fails to reveal another Treasure card within the alotted number of chances they are given, the challenge ends, and the last player to reveal a Treasure card wins the Pot, adding it immediately to the bottom of their Deck, face down, without shuffling it.

For example: If Liza were to reveal 3 cards successively without flipping another Treasure card out, Timbo would then win the Pot.

Note: If a Grab Challenge is triggered while a player is revealing Loot cards for a Treasure Challenge, the Grab Challenge takes precedence.

Running Out of Cards

If your Deck is ever fully depleted, worry not! You're still in the game, and can win Grab Challenges to make an epic comeback! Stay sharp! You can also still be eliminated by The Curse.

Note: If a player runs out of cards during a Treasure Challenge, whoever played the last Treasure card wins the current Pot by default.

Game End

The game ends immediately when there is only one player left with Loot cards in their Deck - ie. all other players have either been eliminated by The Curse or have run out of Loot to reveal. The only exception to this is when the one player holding cards is facing a Treasure Challenge. The challenge must be carried out in this case.

Note: As a general rule, timing is everything. For example, say there are only two players remaining in a game, and both are cursed. If they were both to grab for the Pot when no challenge is in effect, the player who got there first would be eliminated first, and thus the other player would win the game!

Magic Items

Magic Items are special Loot cards that have various instant effects. Whenever a player reveals any of these cards, the card's effect is applied immediately, even when that player is facing a Treasure challenge.

The effect of a Magic Item is only negated under the following three circumstances:

• When the wizard playing the Magic Item is cursed.
• When a Magic Item is discarded into the Portal (this does not count as using the Magic Item).
• When playing a Magic Item initiates a Grab Challenge, but the Pot is grabbed before the Magic Item's effect can be applied.

There are four different types of Magic Item:

Gauntlet of Stealing

Choose one:

• Steal two face down cards from the top of another player's Deck, without peeking at them.
• OR
• Select and steal one card from the Portal pile.

Loot stolen this way is added to the bottom of your Deck.

Alchemical Bomb

Choose one:

• All opponents Destroy one Loot card off the top of their Decks.
• OR
• Choose one opponent to Destroy two Loot cards off the top of their Deck.

Destroyed cards are tucked face down under the targeted player's Status Card, never to return.

King Coin

If revealed during a Treasure Challenge, the challenge has been "Kinged", and the Wizard who revealed this item immediately wins the Pot. Otherwise, it has no effect.

Portal Caster

Choose another player to discard one Loot card face up into a separate pile, off to the side of the main Pot. This is called the Portal. As long as there are cards in the Portal pile, the Portal Parallelism Grab Challenge rule is in effect. All treasures sent to the Portal remain there unless taken using the Gauntlet of Stealing. The Portal Caster itself remains in the Pot when played.

Note: When you win a Grab Challenge triggered by Portal Parallelism, you do not win the Loot cards in the Portal pile. You only ever win those in the Pot.