A Thief's Fortune Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1. Components
• 2. Component Anatomy
• 3. Game Setup
• 4. Area Breakdown
  • Future Area
  • Present Area
  • Past Area
• 5. Playing the Game
  • 5.1 Planning Phase
  • 5.2 Loot Phase
  • 5.3 Action Phase
  • 5.4 Bribe Phase
• 6. End of Round
• 7. Game End
• 8. Common Future
• 9. Universal Rules
• 10. Timing Rules
• 11. Strategy Tips
• 12. Card FAQ
• 13. Solo Rules

1. Components

• 51 Location Cards
• 57 Character Cards
• 63 Event Cards
• 12 Starting Cards
• 7 Solo Achievement Cards
• 4 Player Aid Cards
• 1 Solo Player Aid Card
• 3 Deck Indicator Cards
• 32 Sword Tokens
• 32 Gem Tokens
• 32 Lamp Tokens
• 36 Time Tokens
• 36 Danger Tokens
• 8 Separator Boards
• 1 Game Board
• 1 Starting Player Wooden Token
• 1 Rulebook
• 5 Wooden Discs (4 Scoring Markers & 1 Round Marker)

2. Component Anatomy

Location Cards, Character Cards and Event Cards each show a Loot Area, the Card Name, the Card Type, the Card Ability, and the Card Favor (a choice between multiple options).

Whenever you receive the Favor from a Location, Character or Event card, choose one of the available options.

Starting Location Card and Starting Character Card each show a Card Ability and a Fortune Points value.

Event Cards additionally show a Card Sub-type and, for cards removed from a Solo Game, a marker noting the card is removed from the Solo Game.

Solo Achievement Cards show a Normal Difficulty side and a Hard Difficulty side, plus the number of times this card's ability can be found in the game.

This refers to the number of times this card's ability can be found in the game. Each Location, Character and Event card in A Thief's Fortune is otherwise unique in regards to its loot or Favor options.

Basic Resources: Sword, Gem, Lamp.

Non-Basic Resources: Time, Danger.

Scoring Board: shows the Fortune Point Track, the Common Future Area, the Planning Phase Direction, the Round Track, and the maximum number of resources that may be received during the Loot Phase.

Separator Boards: show placeholders for Gem tokens, Time tokens, Lamp tokens, Danger tokens, and Sword tokens, plus the Danger Track.

3. Game Setup

Follow the steps to setup the game.

1. Place the Game Board in the middle of the table. Then, place the Round marker on round 1.
2. Each player chooses a color and gets the corresponding Scoring marker, placing it on the Fortune Point Track on space 0.
3. Each player receives two Separator Boards matching the color of their Scoring marker and places them in front of them. This area will be each player's PRESENT.
4. Sort out all Resources (Sword, Gem, Lamp, Time and Danger) and place them on the Game Board on the designated areas. The areas containing these piles will be the Supply.
5. Sort out all the Starting Character and Starting Location cards. Each player chooses a Starting Location at random. They then get the Starting Character that is mentioned in its ability and place both of the cards in their PRESENT. They also receive the resources indicated in the Loot area of these Starting cards and place them in front of them. This will be each player's Stockpile.
6. Sort out all Location, Character and Event cards, shuffle each card type and place them as 3 separate face down decks close to the Game Board. Place a Deck Indicator card next to each deck to easily distinguish them during the game.
7. Each player gets a Player Aid card, placing it in their PAST area.
8. The player who most recently borrowed something and never returned it becomes the Starting Player for the first round and receives the Starting Player token. In case of a tie, choose at random.

Setup example shown for 3 players: each player's PRESENT area has a row for Location cards, a row for Character cards, and a row for Event cards.

4. Area Breakdown

Each player has 3 Areas in front of them: a Future Area, a Present Area, and a Past Area.

Future Area

The FUTURE has no limit regarding card capacity and can contain any number of cards of each type.

Whenever a card is placed in a player's FUTURE, all resources indicated on that card's Loot area must be immediately added on that card from the Supply.

If at any time there are no resources on a card in the FUTURE area, it must be immediately moved to the player's PRESENT.

Present Area

Each row in the PRESENT area can have at most 4 cards. In other words, a player can never have more than 4 Locations, 4 Characters or 4 Events in their PRESENT.

Whenever a new card is moved to a player's PRESENT, it goes to the leftmost available space on its corresponding row. If there are already 4 cards in that row, the leftmost card in it is first "pushed" out of the player's PRESENT, the other 3 cards are moved one space to the left and then, the new card is placed on the rightmost space of that row. Similarly, if a card is removed from a row due to an ability, all cards to its right move one space to the left.

If a card pushed out of a player's PRESENT is a Location or a Character, it goes to the player's PAST. In the rare case it is an Event, since it was not activated it is discarded (put it in the discard pile next to its corresponding deck near the game board).

Past Area

The PAST area has no limit regarding card capacity and can hold any number of cards. Contrary to the PRESENT and the FUTURE, cards placed in a player's PAST should be kept in a single face up pile. Players may check their own PAST card pile at any moment while their opponents may only look at the top face up card. The total number of cards in each player's PAST however is common information.

5. Playing the Game

The game is played over the course of 5 rounds. Each round consists of the following phases: Planning Phase, Loot Phase, Action Phase, Bribe Phase.

For your first game, you may want to play without using the Common Future rules included on page 12 to maintain a lower level of complexity.

5.1 Planning Phase

Beginning with the starting player and continuing in a clockwise order, each player draws 1 Location, 1 Character and 1 Event card as well as 2 more from any of the available decks in any combination for a total of 5 cards.

After all players have done this, they reveal their chosen card, turn it face up and place it in the corresponding row in their FUTURE area, based on the card's type (Location, Character, Event). They then add on that card all the resources indicated in its Loot area, taking them from the Supply.

Each player then chooses two cards in their hand and gives them face down to the next player (the player on their left for rounds 1, 3 and 5 and the player on their right for rounds 2 and 4 as indicated on the game board).

Players repeat the process of choosing a card, placing it in their FUTURE, adding the indicated resources and then giving two cards to the next player until all players have two cards remaining in their hand (the ones they just received from the player next to them). Each player then, places one of the cards in their FUTURE as normal (adding the indicated resources on it) and then chooses one of the two Favor bonuses indicated on the other card. They receive that bonus and discard the card face up next to its corresponding deck near the Game Board.

5.2 Loot Phase

During this phase, each player chooses a number of resources available on cards in their FUTURE and moves them to their Stockpile, one at a time. Danger tokens however, are always placed on the player's Danger Track instead.

The maximum number of resources each player can receive this way differs from round to round and is indicated on the game board on the top right of each round number. Note that players have the option of receiving fewer resources than the maximum number allowed (even 0).

The order in which players get their chosen resources from cards in their FUTURE is very important. As soon as a card has no resources left on it, it must be immediately moved in the player's PRESENT area. Each card that enters the PRESENT area of a player may trigger abilities on Location cards already in that player's PRESENT. Such triggers should be carried out immediately before the player continues collecting resources from other cards in their FUTURE.

5.3 Action Phase

Beginning with the Starting player and continuing in clockwise order, each player chooses one or two actions to perform from the ones available below: Activate a Character, Activate an Event, Spend Time, Pass.

Note that it is allowed to choose the same action twice.

Activate a Character: The player chooses a Character card in their PRESENT and performs its ability. The Character card must then be turned sideways to indicate that is has been Activated. That Character remains Activated until the end of the round. A player may only Activate a Character if that Character's ability can be performed.

Activate an Event: The player chooses an Event card in their PRESENT and performs its ability. Once the ability of the Event has been performed, the player moves the Event card from their PRESENT to their PAST. A player may only Activate an Event if that Event's ability can be performed.

Spend Time: The player spends two Time tokens from their Stockpile, returning them to the Supply. The player then gets any one resource from a card in their own FUTURE and move it to their Stockpile. If a card in that player's FUTURE ends up having no resources on it, it must immediately be moved to that player's PRESENT.

Pass: A player who chooses to Pass, may not perform any further actions for the remainder of the round. The first player to choose the Pass action each round, becomes the Starting player for the next round.

The Action Phase continues in the same order with players one by one performing one or two actions on their turn until they pass. Once all players have passed, the Action Phase ends.

5.4 Bribe Phase

During this phase, each player must pay a bribe based on the Danger tokens on their Danger track. For each Danger token, they must spend a Basic Resource (Sword, Gem or Lamp) taking it from their Stockpile and returning it to the Supply. If a player does not have enough Basic Resources to pay for all the Danger they have, they must lose 1 Fortune Point (moving back their scoring marker on the Fortune Point track) for each Danger token they can't pay for.

All Danger tokens for which the player paid with Basic Resources remain on their Danger track. The Danger tokens for which the player was unable to pay for (and ended up losing Fortune Points) are removed and returned to the Supply.

NOTE: A player cannot choose to voluntarily lose Fortune Points instead of paying their bribe with Basic Resources. If the player has the necessary Basic Resources to pay either a part or the whole bribe, they have to do so.

6. End of Round

Once all players have paid their Bribe, the round ends and the following steps are performed:

• The new Starting player (the player who chose to Pass first during this round) receives the Starting player token.
• Each player Resets all Activated Characters in their PRESENT (returning them to an upright position).

7. Game End

Once the 5th round has been completed, the game ends.

• Players count all the Fortune Points indicated on the cards in their PAST area and advance their Scoring markers on the Fortune Point track accordingly.
• Players also receive 1 Fortune Point for every 5 Basic Resources (Sword, Gem, Lamp) remaining in their Stockpile.

The player with the most Fortune Points is the winner. In case of a tie, the player with the less Danger on their Danger track is the winner. If there is still a tie, it is a shared victory.

8. Common Future

At the beginning of the Planning Phase, before players draw cards for the round, draw one card from each card type (Location, Character, and Event) and place them on the designated area on the Game Board. Add on each card the resources indicated in its Loot area.

This new area containing the 3 cards is called Common FUTURE area. These cards should be considered as being in every player's FUTURE area. If a player performs an action or ability that would target/require a card in their FUTURE, these cards should be considered as being in that player's FUTURE for all such purposes.

Example: If a card's ability allows a player to add or get a resource from a card in their FUTURE, that player may choose any of the cards in the Common FUTURE to add or get resources from them.

Similarly to a player's FUTURE area, if at any moment a player removes the last resource from a card in the Common FUTURE, that card must be immediately placed in that player's PRESENT area. From that point on, that card belongs to that player only.

Exceptions:

• A player may not choose to get resources from card in the Common FUTURE as part of the resources they receive during the Loot Phase.
• A player may not use any action/ability to add cards in the Common FUTURE beyond the ones placed there at the start of the round.
• A player may not use any action/ability to add Danger tokens on cards in the Common FUTURE beyond the ones placed there at the start of the round.

At the end of the round, any cards still remaining in the Common FUTURE are discarded and new ones will be drawn at the beginning of the next Planning Phase.

9. Universal Rules

Below you will find some universal rules that should always be applied (unless stated otherwise on particular actions or abilities).

• If a player who already has 5 Danger tokens on their Danger Track, receives more Danger, instead of adding more tokens, they must immediately lose 1 Fortune Point for each Danger received in excess of 5.
• When an action/ability/Favor allows a player to draw a new card, that card must be placed directly into that player's FUTURE.

10. Timing Rules

Timing is very essential in A Thief's Fortune and so the following rules should be applied for proper gameplay.

• Once an action/ability is in process, it should be completed before any of its triggered abilities can be performed.
• If multiple triggers occur because of an action/ability, the player should perform those triggers in the order they occurred.
• If two triggers occur at the exact same time, the player may choose the order in which they will be performed.
• Various processes in the game can be performed by all players simultaneously to reduce the duration of game (revealing a chosen card during Planning Phase, getting resources during Loot Phase, Paying Bribe during Bribe Phase etc). However if any card abilities result in player interaction in which timing is essential, resolve all such cases following player order.

Example: A Friend Character card is placed on a player's PRESENT. Sandra already has 2 Locations in her PRESENT that trigger whenever a Friend Character is placed in that player's PRESENT. She can choose the order in which these two Locations will get triggered.

11. Strategy Tips

Below you can find a list of strategy tips that will enhance your gameplay experience. These tips should be shared with all players before the game begins.

• Make sure you carefully choose the order of receiving resources during the Loot Phase. Since every card that no longer holds any resources is immediately placed in the player's PRESENT, make sure to add cards in your PRESENT in the right order to maximize your combo potential.
• Danger is bad and can often result in the loss of Fortune Points if you do not have sufficient Basic Resources to pay during Bribe Phase. However it is better to try to maintain and balance your Danger throughout the game than trying to avoid it entirely. A Thief's Fortune has a large number of cards that contain Danger in their Loot area. Such cards are often more powerful than cards that do not contain Danger. In other words, try to keep your Danger level in check instead of avoiding it completely.
• There will often be times when you will intentionally want to leave resources on cards in your FUTURE during the Loot Phase instead of bringing all of those cards in your PRESENT area right away. Cards remaining in your FUTURE during the Action Phase can provide you with an area to gather resources generated by card abilities.

12. Card FAQ

Inn: The position change of a Character in your PRESENT should take place after you collect the resource from a card in your FUTURE for using the Spend Time Action.

Well: The position change of a Location in your PRESENT should take place after you collect the resource from a card in your FUTURE for using the Spend Time Action.

Armory: This ability takes place right before you get Danger. If the 1 Sword cost is paid, the Danger token does not go on your Danger Track at all. For each 1 Danger you wish to prevent using this card's ability, 1 Sword should be spent.

Treasure Room: This ability takes place right before you get Danger. If the 1 Gem cost is paid, the Danger token does not go on your Danger Track at all. For each 1 Danger you wish to prevent using this card's ability, 1 Gem should be spent.

Library: This ability takes place right before you get Danger. If the 1 Lamp cost is paid, the Danger token does not go on your Danger Track at all. For each 1 Danger you wish to prevent using this card's ability, 1 Lamp should be spent.

Mercenary: You only choose one of the available favors to get as it is done in the Planning Phase.

King of Thieves: This ability can also be applied to cards in the Common FUTURE since they are always considered as being in other players' FUTURES as well as your own.

Body Guard: As mentioned in 8. Common Future on page 12, you may not use this card's ability to move Danger tokens on cards in the Common FUTURE.

Abandoned Plans: You may also choose a card in the Common FUTURE as the target of this ability.

Push Your Luck: You can Activate this Event even if you do not have any Danger in your Danger Track. It will however give you 0 Basic Resources in that case.

That was a Mistake: If 2 or more players are tied for having the most Danger, all of them get to Reduce 2 Danger. A player may not choose not to reduce Danger. A player who only has 1 Danger, reduces 1 Danger instead.

It Couldn't be Worse: If you are tied for having the most Danger, you still get the 2 Fortune Points.

13. Solo Rules

To play a solo game of A Thief's Fortune, apply the following adjustments:

Cards: During setup, remove all cards showing the "Remove this card in a Solo Game" symbol which is depicted on the lower left area of each card.

Achievement: During setup, choose one of the available Solo Achievement cards and select NORMAL or HARD difficulty to play with. This will be your goal for the game.

Common Future: When playing a solo game, always include the Common Future rules.

Planning Phase Adjustments: During every round's Planning Phase, draw 3 cards from each of the 3 available decks (Location, Character, and Event) and 3 more, in any combination you want (for a total of 12 cards).

Shuffle these 12 cards and form a face down pile. Then, draw 3 cards, choose one to place in your FUTURE and discard the other two. Repeat this process 2 more times and then, for the last 3 cards, choose one to place in your FUTURE and one from which to get Favor, discarding the last one.