Among Us Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective of the Game
• Contents
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • 1. Event execution
  • 2. Players' turns
  • Agent Control (detail)
  • Stated Aliens
  • Rescue
  • Escalation!
  • 3. Consolidation
  • Example (Turn)
• End of the Game
• Event Cards
  • Mother Ship! (5)
  • Yellow Events
  • Red Events
• Transcription Notes

Objective of the Game

Aliens are among us! Coming from a distant planet, they do not have peaceful intentions: they are ready to assimilate humanity to make us small and flabby just like them. And, as if the day was not already awful enough, they want to start right from your city. They are everywhere, grey and harmful like cigarette smoke, but do not panic: as current lodger of planet Earth, we still have some aces in the hole to play. On our side, we have unshakable field agents, tough to the bones and loyal to the cause, although limited when it is time to take action. We can also count on a brilliant group of scientists: if these eggheads could just work together, they might indeed find a way to prevent the imminent invasion... too bad that at the first warning they fled and scattered to the ends of the city! They might be brainiacs, but definitely miss the guts.

As part of the resistance, your mission is to coordinate the agents on the field and gather all the scientists before the aliens complete their plan of conquering the city. You shall send orders from your secret headquarter, but be aware: the enemy is looking for you, and if it manages to localize you, it would assimilate and bring you by its side with no hesitation! If this happens, you will end up in the perfect situation to undermine all the effort of your former comrades: the Earthlings!

Contents

• 1 Two-sided gameboard, representing the city of Milan and the city of Washington
• 1 Rulebook
• 1 Events tile (with the Strategic Pressure track, the Prevented Events space and the Upcoming Events space)
• 1 Architect token
• 21 Event cards
• 6 Agent pawns (car shaped)
• 8 Accusation tokens
• 5 Scientist pawns
• 125 Alien tokens
• 6 Sirens (blue pins)
• 1 Strategic Pressure marker
• 2 Alien landing dice: 1 Sector die (green, letters from A to E) and 1 Address die (blue, numbers from 1 to 20)
• 66 Assimilation cards: 60 Human cards and 6 Assimilated! cards
• 16 Rescue cards: 8 Success cards and 8 Sabotage! cards

Setup

1. Place the gameboard in the center of the table on your favorite side.

The gameboard is the map of the city divided into sectors (a). Agents and scientists move along the spots (b). During the invasion, the aliens take control of districts (c).

The spots make up the roads (d). Different roads have different colors. A point is close to all districts that it touches. A district is close to all districts that have a common edge with it and to all points it touches (f).

At the center of city there is the scientists' gathering point (g) and the neighbouring spots are the gathering spots (h). Aliens can never control the gathering point. The agents begin the game on the starting spots (i).

In the lower left corner of the map there are three mother ship spaces (h) that will keep track of the mother ship arrivals.

You can choose between two maps: the city of Milan and the city of Washington D.C. The map of Washington D.C. is traversed by the Potomac river (l). Each bridge (m) represents a single space and there are no districts along the river: the aliens never cross the water!

[Marginal note on the printed page, in the publisher's English text: "During the alien expansion, two districts separated by the water are not considered close."]

2. Prepare the Event deck.

Place the event tile next to the game board. This tile contains three spaces: a central one for the event deck, one for the upcoming events (v) and one for the prevented events (x). On the same tile there is a strategic pressure track (k), that shows who and how much, between humans and aliens, is ahead.

Remove the card Cathedral or Capitol according to the board side you chose (remove Capitol if you chose Milan, remove Cathedral if you chose Washington D.C.) from the event deck.

3. Elect the architect.

The first player is the one who had a close encounter of the highest type. In case of a tie, the first player will be the one who experienced it the most recently. The first player is the architect of the events and takes the corresponding token.

4. Place agents.

Place each agent pawn (car shaped) on each starting spot with the blue pin inserted to represent the siren on top. The presence of the siren means that the agent is free. Place the remaining agent pawn close to the gameboard.

An agent controls the roads that pass through the spot he is currently on. Moreover, he controls the districts close to the spot he is currently on.

[Marginal note on the printed page, in the publisher's English text, next to the orange circles on the map: "orange circles show them on the map", indicating the starting spots.]

5. Prepare the assimilation deck.

In a 5-8 players game, shuffle 1 Assimilated! card with 9 Human cards, and put the resulting deck on the third mother ship space on the board. Then shuffle a number of Assimilated! cards equal to the number of players minus 4 together with the remaining Human cards. Draw 10 cards from this deck and place them face down on the first mother ship place, without looking at them. Repeat the operation for the second mother ship space. The remaining deck will be your assimilation deck. In a 4 players game, take just one Assimilated! card and shuffle it together with the other Human cards before forming the mother ship decks.

In total, there will be a number of Assimilated! cards in play equal to the number of players minus 3, and in a 5-8 player game one of these will be in the last mother ship space. In a 4 players game there will be just 1 Assimilated! card... and it could be everywhere!

6. Perform the alien landing.

Take the sector die (the green one with letters from A to E) and the address die (the blue one with numbers from 1 to 20).

Every time you have to select a district, roll both the dice. The letter indicates the sector (the mini map on the top left shows the right match), while the number indicates the district in the selected sector. Some districts are without address, so they can't be selected.

In this phase select a district for each sector from A to E, rolling just the blue die for each. Those districts represent the initial landing sites. Place an alien pawn on each of them and on all the neighboring free districts.

If a district has an alien pawn it's called alien district, otherwise it's called free district. Each group of neighbouring alien districts (with a shared edge) is named alien zone.

7. Give the Rescue cards.

Each player takes a Success card and a Sabotage! card and places them face down in front of his area. Put the remaining Rescue cards back in the box.

8. Give the Accusation tokens.

Each player takes an Accusation token.

9. Place the scientists.

For each initial landing site, the architect chooses a neighbouring spot, as long as it doesn't contain another scientist, and places a new scientist on it.

10. Perform the assimilation.

Each player, starting from the architect, draws an assimilation card from the assimilation deck.

11. Prepare the strategic pressure track.

The marker on the event tile shows the current value of the strategic pressure. At the beginning of a game, the value is 1. Place the marker on the starting position (circled with orange). Every time you have to increase the strategic pressure, move the marker 1 position to the right. On the contrary, if you have to lower the strategic pressure, move it 1 position to the left.

When the humans get closer to avoid the alien invasion, the strategic pressure value will increase and the alien actions will be more aggressive. On the contrary, when aliens are closer to the victory, the strategic pressure value will be 0.

In this example, the aliens invade the districts A7, B8, C20, D2 and E6 and all the neighboring districts. Francesco, the architect of events, places the detected scientists on the spots of the selected districts.

Gameplay

The game is divided in 3 stages, repeated until the end of the game:

1. Event execution (carried out by the architect)
2. Players' turns (carried out by all players, clockwise)
3. Consolidation (carried out by the architect)

1. Event execution

The invasion is underway! At any moment an alien attack or a stroke of luck can completely change the situation...

The architect turns over the top card of the events deck and executes its effects. Then, he discards the card.

You can find descriptions of every single event at page 10 of this rulebook.

2. Players' turns

Each player will be able to command agents in the city or to plan the best strategy to pursue his/her goal. Beware, though: with each action there is the risk of being detected and assimilated by aliens! The alien players may choose to stay hidden until the end of the game or to reveal themselves (without showing their cards) to be in favor with other alien players at the price of exposing themselves to the opposing faction.

During his/her turn, a player may have to perform risky actions that require to draw a given number of assimilation cards. Once drawn, the cards must be kept secret and cannot be revealed to other players. By drawing at least one Assimilated! card, a player becomes an alien. From this very moment on, his/her goal is to let the alien faction win the game!

If the assimilation deck is empty, the player performs his/her actions without drawing any card until new assimilation cards are put in the game by an event. An alien player drawing a Human card is still alien. Moreover, drawing two or more Assimilated! cards does not change the situation. Once alien, alien forever!

Starting from the architect, each player, in clockwise order, must perform one single obligatory action between the following 3. After a player's action, the turn of the next player begins.

Planning:

A player chooses to plan when he/she wants to control the dynamics of the events. He/She organizes the strategy by advancing or delaying certain events based on his/her purpose, unbeknown to the others.

The player draws 2 event cards and, without showing them, he/she places them face down, one on the upcoming events deck and the other on the prevented events deck. The player initially declares that he/she intends to perform the planning, then draws the relating assimilation card, and finally carries out the action.

If a player cannot draw both event cards to perform a planning, because the event deck only contains one or none of the cards at all, then, if possible, he/she initially performs a reorganization (see later).

Accusation:

A player decides to accuse another player when he is convinced that the other is an alien, in order to force him to reveal himself. However, in order to do that he needs the support of another player.

This action can be performed only by a non-stated-alien player who still has the Accusation token.

At least another player who still has the Accusation token has to declare that he supports the accusation: if no one comes forward, the accusation doesn't succeed and the player's turn immediately ends.

If someone else supports the accusation, the accused player has to reveal his assimilation cards one by one until he reveals an Assimilated! card, or else all his cards. In the first case, the accusation is well founded, and the accused player becomes a stated-alien. On the contrary, the player is a human, and those who accused him lose their Accusation tokens, putting them back in the box: this is the price for an unfounded accusation.

[Marginal note on the printed page, next to the Agent Control heading, in the publisher's English text: "draw as many cards as the strategic pressure value".]

Agent Control (PS):

This action can be performed only if there is at least an available agent. The player selects an available agent and performs an agent control. Then, to mark that the agent is now used (and the player's actions are over for this turn), remove the blue pin (siren) from his pawn. No other player can control this agent as long as his pawn has no siren on the top.

The agent control action is risky: it means that the player who performs it must draw a number of assimilation cards equal to the strategic pressure current value immediately after the end of the action.

Free agent: a pawn with the blue pin (siren) on top. Used agent: a pawn with no siren on top.

A player that chooses to move an agent on the field can select any one among the free ones. How he/she will control the agent depends on the faction the player belongs to.

Agent Control (detail)

An agent controlled by a non-stated-alien player can:

• Move to any spot of the agent's controlled roads, provided the spot is not occupied by other agents. Two agents cannot occupy the same space, but an agent can cross a space occupied by another agent, provided that the movement doesn't end there. Moreover, it is allowed to move in a space containing a scientist.
• Free all the alien controlled districts (the alien districts with a vertex on the space occupied by the agent) by removing all the corresponding alien tokens.
• Escort a scientist. If the agent is on a spot that contains a scientist and there is another agent (no matter if free or used) along a common road, the scientist can be moved from the first agent to the other: move the scientist pawn under the receiving agent pawn. Two scientists cannot occupy the same spot, thus the spot of the receiving agent cannot contain another scientist. Moreover, scientists will never dare to move close to the aliens, thus the starting spot, the destination spot and all the spots along the path cannot be close to alien districts. If along the road there are two or more agents, it is allowed to move the scientist to any of them.

If the escorted scientist reaches a gathering spot, the controlling player must attempt a rescue (see the Rescue section).

A movement can be performed in any free space along a controlled street. Each street is identified by a color.

An agent can perform all the actions he wants provided these are executed in the order they were listed. None of them is obligatory.

Stated Aliens

An alien player has two ways to be considered stated-alien:

• by receiving a founded accusation, which is another player accusing him and revealing an Assimilated! card;
• by deliberately declaring himself alien, at the beginning of anyone's turn. In this case he has to show an Assimilated! card to the other players.

From this moment on, the player can no longer participate to rescues or draw assimilation cards, and in his turn he can choose between two actions:

• Planning: it works exactly as the human planning.
• Invasion: the stated alien player chooses an agent (no matter if free or controlled) and places an alien token on each district controlled by the agent.

Rescue

Assimilated players now have the chance to undermine the rescue by unleashing an Escalation!

To rescue a scientist, the player has to choose other players to form the Special Team that will perform the rescue.

• The player chooses two other non-stated-alien players that will be part of the Special Team with him.
• All the players of the Special Team vote by choosing one of their rescue cards and placing it face down on the table. The architect collects all the cards, shuffles them and then reveals them.
• If at least one of the cards is a Sabotage! one, an Escalation! is unleashed! At the end of the Escalation!, if the agent is still under control and it is still possible to perform the escort action, the scientist is placed in the gathering spot and is considered saved.
• If all the cards are Success, the scientist is placed in the gathering spot and considered saved.
• After the vote, the architect takes all the rescue cards from the voting players, shuffles them together and gives back to the players a Sabotage! card and a Success! card. The strategic pressure increases.

Escalation!

The architect draws 4 event cards and carries out their effects. If he reveals a Mother Ship! card, he resolves it as usual and the Escalation! ends.

3. Consolidation

After all players have completed their turn, the field is prepared for the next stages.

• All used agent pawns gain back their sirens, to indicate they are available again: all agents become operative.
• The architect token moves clockwise to the next player, who becomes the new architect.
• A reorganization takes place. If there are upcoming or prevented events, the architect shuffles the upcoming events deck and places it on top of the event deck. Then he shuffles the prevented events deck and places it under the event deck.
• An alien invasion takes place! Select a district. This will be invaded by aliens, thus becoming an alien district: place an alien token on the selected district and on all the free neighbouring ones. If the selected district is already an alien district, the effect will be worse. The corresponding alien area expands: place an alien token on each free district close to the alien area.

Example (Turn)

During a 5 players game, Francesco, the architect, draws a Mother ship! event. The card is placed on the indicated space on the board and the corresponding assimilation cards are added to the assimilation deck. The strategic pressure decreases (1).

1. During the players' stage, Francesco decides to take control of an agent and moves it on a gathering spot. He carries the action drawing just 1 assimilation card (strategic pressure is 1): he's still human.

2. Giovanni, on Francesco's left, decides to take control of an other agent to free the neighbouring districts and to escort a scientist towards the agent 04, who could try to rescue him. While doing it, he draws an assimilation card and remains human.

3. Roberta is already an alien player. She prefers to plan instead of carrying out the scientist rescue. There are no cards in the prevented and upcoming events: it means that if she plans, her selected event might be the next to be executed. This decision, though, increases the suspect in the other players.

4. Federico is another alien player and does not want to be discovered yet. He takes control of the agent that controls the scientist to escort him to the gathering point and thus performs the rescue. To do so, he draws an assimilation card. He decides to form the special team with Scilla and Francesco, not to arouse suspicion among the human players. All the players of the team vote with a Success card, and the scientist is placed on the gathering point. The strategic pressure increases to 2.

5. Scilla, the last player of this turn, knows that, due to the reorganization rule, if she does not plan, the card placed by Roberta will be the next event played. She decides though to move the agent to try to escort an additional scientist this turn, taking advantage of the fact that the last special team was successful. She decides to repeat the team with Federico and Francesco. This time, during the vote, Federico uses the Sabotage! card: the rescue fails and now the players know that there is an alien in the team.

An Escalation! is unleashed: a New Agent card is revealed, which is positive for the humans because, from now on, they will have another available agent. The second event is a Mother Ship!, so the strategic pressure decreases, the corresponding assimilation cards are shuffled in the assimilation deck and the Escalation! ends.

The scientist is saved anyway, then the strategic pressure increases again back to 2.

New Agent card: Place a new agent, without the siren, on one of the starting spots. This agent will be initially considered used. The spot must be free from other agents.

Mother Ship! card: The mother ship is coming! If this is the fourth mother ship card played, then the mother ship enters Earth's orbit and the game ends. Otherwise, place this card in the first available space on the board, take the corresponding assimilation cards and shuffle them in the assimilation deck. Then, reduce the strategic pressure.

End of the Game

Humans win when:

• All scientists on the map are on the gathering point.
  • The Resistance was able to complete its rescue mission!

Aliens win when:

• The four Mother ship! events are drawn.
  • The Mother ship has landed!

Or:

• All districts of an entire sector are occupied by aliens.
  • Aliens have prepared the ground for the invasion!

Event Cards

The event deck contains Mother Ship! cards, Yellow events and Red events. The number in brackets after each event name is printed on the card as shown in the source.

Mother Ship! (5)

The mother ship is coming! If this is the fourth mother ship card played, then the mother ship enters Earth's orbit and the game ends. Otherwise, place this card in the first available space on the board, take the corresponding assimilation cards and shuffle them in the assimilation deck. Then, reduce the strategic pressure.

Yellow Events

• Rendezvous (1): Move any agent to a spot next to another agent. The spot must be free from other agents.
• Salvage (1): Place an agent on a spot containing one scientist. The spot must be free from other agents.
• New agent (1): Place a new agent, without the siren, on one of the starting spots. This agent will be initially considered used. The spot must be free from other agents.
• Resistance (2): Choose one of the sectors that contains at least an alien district. All alien tokens in that area are removed.
• Cathedral/Capitol (1): Place an agent on a gathering spot. The spot must be free from other agents.
• Starting location (1): Move an agent to any of the starting spots. The spot must be free from other agents.

Red Events

• Revelation (1): Aliens will reveal among themselves. The architect says the following instructions and all players execute them:
  • Everyone close their eyes.
  • The aliens open their eyes and look at each other.
  • The aliens close their eyes.
  • Everyone says out loud "Among us" and open their eyes.
• Alien planning (1): Draw as many event cards as the actual strategic pressure. Place all the drawn red event cards in the upcoming events space, and all the others in the prevented events space.
• Under attack (1): Aliens attack all the agents in the field. Put an alien token on every free district controlled by an agent.
• Trap (2): Roll the sector die. All agents in that sector will be considered used in this turn. Remove the siren from all the involved free agent pawns.
• Expansion (2): All alien zones are expanding. Place an alien token on any free neighbouring district of an alien district.
• Captured (1): If at least one agent has been used during the game, take the last used agent and remove it from the game.

Transcription Notes

• Pages 11 (credits) and 12 (copyright boilerplate) of the source PDF are not transcribed.
• Hand-drawn red annotations and mini-captions on the printed pages (for example "orange circles show them on the map", "mother ship spaces", "with a shared edge", "draw as many cards as the strategic pressure value", "see next page") are noted in brackets where they carry rules information; the printed text is transcribed as-is.
• Minor typographical errors in the source were corrected silently in the following places: "A points is close" (Setup 1) is written as "A point is close"; "ed E6" (Setup 6 example) is written as "and E6"; "Than" (Agent Control) is written as "Then"; "can chose" (Stated Aliens) is written as "can choose"; "If there upcoming" (Consolidation) is written as "If there are upcoming"; "execute" (Event execution) is written as "executes"; "the accuse is well founded" (Accusation) is written as "the accusation is well founded". All other wording is as printed.