Among Thieves Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • 1) Plotting.
  • 2) Dishonor.
  • 3) The Reveal.
  • 4) The Reward.
  • 5) Betrayal!
  • 6) Fool me once...
  • 7) Cleaning up.
  • 8) Passing the torch.
• The Cards
• Winning the Game
• Some Rules & Explanations

Components

• This rulebook.
• 5 sets of 5 action cards (1x Steal, Trap, Heist, Sabotage, No Honor Among Thieves).
• 10 Heist Location cards, as follows:
  • 3x Prison;
  • 2x 1 coin;
  • 3x 2 coins;
  • 2x 3 coins.
• 31 coin tokens.
• 1 Acting Master Thief marker (first player marker).

Setup

Before you start the game, the following should be done:

1. Each player receives a complete set of 5 action cards – one of each: Steal, Trap, Sabotage, Heist, No Honor Among Thieves.

2. The coin tokens are put in the middle of the table. They represent the City, each coin being one citizen – a potential victim of robbery. Then, all players take one coin – their starting money.

3. The Heist Location cards are shuffled and a number of them, equal to the number of players minus 2, are taken from the top and put in the middle of the table, next to the City. So, in a game of three players there's one Heist Location; four players – 2 locations; five players – 3 locations. The remaining cards are set aside.

4. The Acting Master Thief marker is assigned to the player who snatches it first! He gets an extra coin.

Setup diagram (4 players), Fig. 1 key: 1 – the City; 2 – First player marker; 3 – Heist locations; 4 – Heist location deck; 5 – Player cards; 6 – Discard pile.

Playing the Game

A setup for 4 players should look like this (Fig. 1).

Among Thieves is a game played in a few rounds, consisting of the same basic phases, as described below.

1. Plotting.
2. Dishonor.
3. The Reveal.
4. The Reward.
5. Betrayal!
6. Fool me once...
7. Cleaning up.
8. Passing the torch.

1) Plotting.

Each player secretly chooses two (2) of the five action cards and puts them face down in front of him or her, as shown in Fig. 1 above. The remaining action cards are set aside. They will not be used in this game round.

2) Dishonor.

All players lift one finger into the air and the First player counts "No honor among thieves: 3-2-1!" All who have selected the No Honor Among Thieves action card as one of their two actions for the round must point at the player they want to steal from and immediately reveal their card. The others just put their hands down.

3) The Reveal.

Starting with the First player, clockwise, the players take turns revealing one face down action card and resolving its effect if not interrupted (see rules for Trap and Sabotage). Then, after all players have at least one card face up, repeat the same until all cards are revealed.

IMPORTANT! When Trap and Sabotage are played as a counter reaction to Steal and Heist, they do not count as revealed on a player's turn. Thus, when the turn of the player who's played the Trap or Sabotage comes – he should still reveal his second action card if he has one face down in front of him. If a player has his two action cards face up, but other players haven't played any of theirs, this player's turn in this step is simply skipped.

4) The Reward.

Resolve all successful Heists and collect the rewards. If the Heist Location card is a Prison, the player is caught and must bribe the jailor with a coin, if able. The coin is returned to the City.

5) Betrayal!

Resolve all No Honor Among Thieves action cards, starting from the First player in a clockwise fashion. Take what's yours!

6) Fool me once...

Each player chooses in secret one of the two action cards he has played this turn and discards it in front of him, forming the discard pile. He no longer has access to this card.

IMPORTANT! Eventually, all players are left with only 2 cards they must play. When this happens, at the end of the round, they discard one and immediately pick up all other previously discarded cards and add them to their hand. They can now play them again, following the rules of this step.

IMPORTANT! All players who have played the No Honor Among Thieves card must discard it and keep the other one!

7) Cleaning up.

All players add their remaining card (the one they did not discard) back to their hand, the resolved Heist Locations are added back to the Heist location deck, the Heist location deck is shuffled and new Heist Locations are put to replace the resolved ones.

8) Passing the torch.

The current First player passes the First player marker to the player to his left. The new Acting Master Thief takes one coin from the City. Then, the next round can begin.

Example of mid-game situation (Fig. 1 key as above, plus 6 – Discard pile).

The Cards

To be able to play the game correctly, the action cards should be understood properly. All players have the same set of five (5) cards, as follows:

*STEAL: Rob a citizen. If not interrupted, immediately take a coin from the City.

*TRAP: Can be played in two different ways.

• Interrupt: when a player reveals the Steal card, each player, starting from the one to his left, may play Trap to prevent him from stealing. Whether he should do it or not is purely optional, but having chosen, he cannot change his mind.
• On your turn: when you play Trap on your turn, you point at a player who hasn't revealed a Steal card yet. If he does play the Steal card, no matter if it's his first or second action, he's caught and he must bribe the police with a coin, if able. The coin is returned to the City.

*HEIST: This "high risk, high reward" action allows you to try your luck for one of the big bounties. If not interrupted by Sabotage (see below), you put your Heist card on one of the unoccupied Heist Locations. If all are occupied by other players, you can choose one already taken and put your card on it. If you have less money than the player who put his Heist card before you, you replace him. Otherwise (if he has less than or equal to your coins), you cannot heist.

IMPORTANT! When you put your card on top of a Heist Location, you do not reveal what's on it. This happens in "The Reward" step of the game (see Playing the Game).

*SABOTAGE: Works exactly like Trap, only in respect to Heist instead of Steal.

*NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES: Steal a coin from another player. If he has 5 or more, steal 2 coins. It's the first card to be revealed and the last to come into effect.

IMPORTANT! You can only rob another thief (hence the name of the action). This means the player you want to steal from should have played at least one of the following cards: Steal, Heist, No Honor Among Thieves. If he has exactly Trap & Sabotage, he's not a thief, but is referred to as "an honest businessman." If you try to steal from an honest businessman, you have to pay that player one coin, if able. The coin is added to his fortune!

Winning the Game

The game ends when a player has amassed a fortune of 7 or more coins immediately after the "Betrayal!" step is resolved. If multiple players have 7 or more coins, the one who has the most wins. In case of a tie, nobody wins. The game continues as usual, until a clear winner emerges.

Some Rules & Explanations

1. The "No Honor" Rule: this is a rule we devised in the spirit of the game, whose origin comes from the many "oh, I forgot this" situations that have happened in the hundreds of playtest games. So, basically, if someone forgets something or doesn't pay attention, too bad for him. Notable examples include:

• Someone plays the No Honor Among Thieves card, but forgets to point at another player: in this case, he doesn't use the effect of the card, but he must discard it at the end of the round, as if he has played it. Also, for the purpose of No Honor Among Thieves played against him, he counts as a thief.
• Someone rushes to play a Steal/Heist card, when he was actually asked to say if he'd Trap/Sabotage another player: in this case, sucks to be him – all others know he has that card and can accordingly adjust their strategies and make him lose money.
• Someone forgets to resolve his No Honor card and/or takes just one coin when he was supposed to take two: this is arbitrary, especially if he's a new player and doesn't really know the rules, so we use it only when skilled players are involved.
• The one who is shuffling the Heist Location deck is actually counting cards and knows exactly where the 3 coins/prisons are: be careful who is doing the shuffling, because this kind of behavior is in line with the Thieves' Guild Regulations and can only be sanctioned in small groups who pay attention to what's happening.
• Any other similar behavior: should be discussed in the group and the majority of votes decide how you should proceed.

2. If you have to pay a coin, but you have none: you get a free pass. Well, not really – you get a beating and then you are released. It's bad enough you're 7 away from winning the game, so no further sanctions are needed.