Black Stories: Das Spiel
Black Stories: Das Spiel Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Your Game Components
- 1 game board
- 1 black game token
- 4 red game tokens
- 4 paper clips
- 180 game cards (20 cases of 9 cards each)
You also need paper and pencils.
Each case consists of 9 cards.
Do not look at the cards before the game under any circumstances!
Case file: 1 case card (front: case description, back: solution), 4 hint cards.
Scene cards: 4 scene cards, A to D.
Setting Up the Game
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Lay out the game board in the middle of the table.
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Decide on a case (1 to 20) and take the corresponding card set (consisting of 9 cards) out of the box. Leave all other cards in the box. Do not look at the backs of the cards under any circumstances!
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Place the top five cards (= case file) as a stack on the space at the top right of the game board. The card with the case description is on top. Beneath it are the four hint cards. Of the five cards in the case file, you may look only at the case description on the front of the first card!
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Place the scene cards (A to D) face down on the correspondingly marked spaces in the upper row of the game board.
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Keep the paper clips and red game tokens ready next to the game board. Place the black game token on the space "zero" at the top left of the score track on the game board. Get paper and pencils ready, because it is often easier to reconstruct the cases if you write down important details along the way.
Now you can start right away!
The goal: Your goal is to move the black game token as far as possible along the score track. Find out whether you are already professional investigators, or whether you are still training as rookie sleuths. At the end of these rules you can read on the scoring table how well you investigated.
How to Play
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In each round, two cases are solved. First read the mysterious hint on the front of the case card, which lies on top of the stack at the top right of the game board. This is your first hint about the crime that has happened ...
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Then turn over scene card A. Look at it carefully, because it always shows a very detailed scene. Below it are three questions, which you must answer with "Yes" or "No". Discuss as a team how you want to answer. You can (and should!) argue hotly and speculate wildly. Let your heads smoke ... But in the end you must agree as a team on one answer for each of the three questions.
Good to know: Right at the start of a round it can happen that you have to guess the answers, because you still have too little information about the case. That is nothing to worry about.
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Once you have answered the three questions, take one of the paper clips and mark on the outer edge of the card the number that corresponds to your answers with "Yes". Then turn the card over. There you see how far your answers deviate from the questions that actually should be answered with "Yes".
Example: You answer two of the three questions with "Yes". Clip the paper clip to the outer edge of the scene card on the space with the 2. If you then turn the card over, you see that you have a deviation of 1. This deviation tells you that you should have answered the questions with "Yes" either once or three times.
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Now take one of the red game tokens and mark the value of your deviation on the game board directly to the right of scene card A. Then move the black game token forward on the score track by the number next to the depicted footprints.
The footprint values are: deviation 0 = +4, deviation 1 = +2, deviation 2 = +1, deviation 3 = 0.
In our example you may therefore move forward by 2 spaces, because you answered one question incorrectly: 1 deviation.
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Then turn the card back over to the side with the scene. Leave the paper clip on the card. This way you can follow at any time in the course of the game which answers you gave. The red game token shows you how large your deviation was.
How to Use the Hint Cards
The hint cards show some objects and image details that you have already encountered on the scene cards. Consider whether you want to look at one or more of these image details more closely: they can help you solve the case.
Do you want to look at a particular picture? Then turn this hint card over and read it aloud. But be careful: every hint card you look at costs you points. The first two hint cards you look at each cost 1 point, the third and fourth each cost 2 points.
Tip: When turning over the hint cards you do not have to follow any prescribed order. The point deduction only depends on the total number of hint cards turned over.
Move the black game token back the corresponding number of spaces on the score track. Once you have viewed a hint, you can then decide whether and how many more hints you want to look at.
Hint deductions:
- First hint: -1
- Second hint: -1
- Third hint: -2
- Fourth hint: -2
Example: You have looked at 3 hint cards for the current case. Move the black game token back a total of 4 spaces on the score track.
One more good tip about the hints: Not all hint cards are equally valuable. Some give you important information about the case that was previously unknown, but some do not help you at all. So choose carefully and think about which hints could help you.
How to Finish a Case
If you do not want to look at any more hint cards, you must now solve the case. Reconstruct the case and describe the course of the crime together, with as many details as possible!
Then turn over the case card and read the solution on the back aloud. Now you can add up your points: you receive 2, 3 or 5 points for every bold part of the solution that matches your description of the course of the crime. The more important the detail is for the course of the crime, the higher the point value. What matters is not the exact wording, but that the details match in content.
Move the black game token forward on the score track by the points you earned.
If you have solved all the details of the course of the crime correctly, you can collect a total of 20 points.
The Second Case and the End of the Game
After you have solved the first case (hopefully successfully!), put all cards of this case back into the box. The black game token, however, stays on its current space. Then choose a second case and play it according to the known rules. The game ends after the second case, once you have also reconstructed this course of the crime, solved the case and evaluated it. Here you can see how good your team of investigators was!
Scoring
Scoring ranges:
- 0 to 20 points: You still have a lot to learn, but you will get there. Remember: practice makes perfect!
- 21 to 30 points: You can already take on smaller cases on your own. But you know it yourselves: you have more in you!
- 31 to 49 points: Now you are taking on the heavy hitters! You are increasingly succeeding in catching one of them. Well done!
- 50 to 59 points: You are often asked for advice and have a very good clear-up rate. Keep it up! You really have something going!
- 60 to 67 points: A strong performance: nobody can outdo you anymore!
- 68 to 72 points: Incredible! You have made it to the top of the investigators. No case ever remains unsolved. Absolute professionals!