Burgle Bros. Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup: The Bank Job (3 floors, 2-4 players, 90 min)
  • The Bank Job (component diagram)
• Starting the Game
  • On Your Turn (turns proceed clockwise)
• Peeking
• Moving
• Move Guard
  • New Floor
  • Speed Up
• Alarms
• Hacking
• Cracking
• Tools
• Loot
• End of Game
• Advanced Wall Layouts
• Fewer Players
• Intro Game: The Office Job (2-4 players, 2 floors, 45 min)
• Expert Game: Fort Knox (2-4 players, 2 floors, 90 min)
• Mini Expansion: Lost Visual
• Room Tiles
• Thanks

Setup: The Bank Job (3 floors, 2-4 players, 90 min)

In this job, you are hitting a high-end bank. There are safes with priceless loot you are going to procure. Shuffle the Tools, Loot, and Events decks individually; put piles off to the side face down.

Now, construct the bank building (three floors). Each floor contains 1 safe and 1 stairway: Find the 3 Safe tiles and 3 Stairway tiles and set them aside. Shuffle the remaining 42 Floor tiles and create 3 decks of 14 tiles each, one for each floor. Place 1 Safe tile and 1 Stair tile into each of those decks, then shuffle and deal each deck face down into a 4x4 grid to represent a floor of the bank. Place 8 wall pieces between tiles on each floor, as indicated in the diagram "The Bank Job" on the next page.

Separate and shuffle 48 Patrol cards into three piles of 16, based on their indicated floor. Place one pile near each floor - these are the Patrol decks. Put a Guard piece and a red Guard die next to each Patrol deck. The Guards start with the following numbers showing on their dice: 2 on the 1st floor, 3 on the 2nd floor, 4 on the 3rd floor.

To win, open all 3 safes and escape with the loot through the stairs on the third floor to the roof without getting caught.

The Bank Job (component diagram)

The diagram lays out Floor 1 (rows A-D, columns 1-4), Floor 2, and Floor 3, each a 4x4 grid of Floor tiles with wall pieces between some tiles, and shows where the following components are placed: the Character card and Player piece; the Event deck, Tool deck, and Loot deck; the Patrol deck, Guard piece, and Guard die (set to the floor's starting movement number); and each player's Stealth tokens. It also keys the token supply: Downstairs tokens, Alarm tokens, Cracked tokens, Hack tokens, and Open tokens, plus the Cracking Dice.

Starting the Game

Each player gets a random Character card. They choose one side of the card to use this game. (Sides labeled 'Advanced' are not recommended for beginners). Each player then takes his/her corresponding Character piece and 3 Stealth tokens.

Reveal the top card on the first floor Patrol deck. Place the Guard piece on the tile indicated by the Patrol Card Grid. Then, you and your accomplices choose any tile spot on the first floor your team will enter through. Reveal that card and mark it as the entrance with a Downstairs token. Each player will start in the entrance, but not until your first turn begins.

Before you begin play, reveal the next Patrol card and place the Guard die (red) on the highlighted tile. The Guard will now move toward that space; once the Guard reaches his destination, draw a new Patrol card to determine his next destination.

On your first turn of the game, place your meeple on the entrance. Starting on the entrance does not trigger any effects of the card, such as setting off an Alarm.

Note: The Guard will move after each player's turn!

Tip: Get people on the second floor pronto to slow him down!

On Your Turn (turns proceed clockwise)

1. Take up to 4 actions listed below, in any combination. You may take the same action more than once: a. Reveal an adjacent tile (Peek). b. Move to an adjacent tile. If that tile is face down, reveal it. When on a Computer Room tile: c. Add a Hack token to this tile. When on a Safe tile: d. Add a die to this Safe tile (costs 2 actions). e. Attempt to crack the safe by rolling the dice on this tile.
2. If you only used 2 actions or fewer, draw an Event card.
3. Move the Guard on your current floor.

Peeking

This action allows you to reveal an adjacent tile without entering it. You may not peek diagonally or through walls. When on a Stairs tile, you may peek at the corresponding tile on the next floor up.

Note: You must verbally declare whether you are Peeking or Moving BEFORE revealing a tile.

Moving

Both Players and Guards can move between rooms on a floor, but may not move through walls or diagonally. Attempting to move onto a tile costs 1 action. When you try to move onto a tile, reveal it and follow the text, if applicable. For example, a Laser tile requires 2 actions to enter without triggering an alarm; should you only spend 1 action to enter, an Alarm will go off. If you cannot or do not want to meet the requirements of the tile, one of two things will happen:

If the tile has the Stop icon, you may not enter the tile. Your meeple stays on the tile you came from. This does not count as re-entering the original tile.

If the tile has an Alarm icon, an Alarm is triggered on that tile (see "Alarms" below).

Stairs and Ducts take 1 action to move through. Stairs connect to the next floor or the roof (from the top floor). You can move between floors, but you may not escape to the roof until you have cleaned out (cracked) all of the safes.

When you move into a room that a Guard is currently in, you immediately lose 1 Stealth.

Note: When a game effect states "does not count as entering" this means the tile text for entering does not apply (Alarms/Blocking). But player will still lose Stealth if they enter a tile with a Guard.

Tip: It is safer to peek, but also slower. Sometimes you may have to risk it and run!

Move Guard

Only the Guard on your current floor will move - because in the movies, time only passes when the camera is on you! The number on the Guard die indicates the Guard's speed (tiles moved). When it is time to move a Guard, add the number of Alarms currently going off on the floor to the number on the Guard's die (do not turn the die), and then move the Guard that many times along the shortest possible path toward his destination (the die).

Like players, the Guard cannot move through walls; however the Guard ignores all special rules on the tiles he enters, even if they're face up (he has a security badge to bypass everything). When the Guard reaches his destination, reveal the next Patrol card and place the the Guard die on the newly indicated location. If the Guard has not used up all of his movement, continue to move him toward this new destination.

Diagram: "Guard arrives at destination" shows the Guard reaching the highlighted tile from his prior position; "Draw next Patrol card, take remaining move" shows the next Patrol card revealed and the Guard continuing to move toward the newly highlighted tile with any movement remaining.

Remember, the Guard will always take the shortest possible path to the destination. If there are multiple shortest paths, the Guard will choose the path that follows the most clockwise route (starting at left path from Guard's point of view).

When the Guard moves into the room your piece is in, you immediately lose 1 Stealth.

Tip: Sometimes moving into the Guard is the best choice if you are likely to get hit by him anyway. Remember: Alarms will not go off on a tile the Guard is on.

Diagram: "Take shortest route. If tied, take most clockwise route" shows two example floors, each with a dashed path (green for the shortest/most-clockwise route taken, red for a route not taken) from the Guard's starting tile to an X marking his destination.

New Floor

The Guard's location is not revealed until a player enters a new floor. When you enter a floor, reveal the top card of the patrol deck. Place the Guard piece on the indicated tile. Reveal the next card to determine his destination, and place his movement die in that location.

Speed Up

When a Guard needs a new destination but has run out of Patrol cards, reshuffle his discard pile to form a new deck and change his die to one number higher (max 6).

You can look at the discard pile for a Guard, but not face-down cards. Use this information to deduce where he is likely to go next.

Alarms

When an Alarm is triggered, place both an Alarm token and the Guard's movement die on the Tile where the Alarm went off. When the Guard enters the tile with an Alarm, it is turned off and the token is removed. Removing an Alarm token does not affect the current movement speed of the Guard; it is set at the start of his movement. If a second Alarm is triggered before the first is turned off, the Guard will go toward the closest one (players choose if tied), then proceed to the next closest one. Once all Alarms on the floor are turned off (no alarm tokens), draw a new Patrol card.

Note: If you enter a tile with a Guard (losing a Stealth), the Alarm will not be triggered.

Tip: Don't be too afraid of Alarms - just get out of the way!

Hacking

Use one action to put a Hack token from the supply onto a Computer Room tile that you are on. A Hack token allows you to prevent an Alarm from going off. When an alarm would be triggered on any floor, discard a token from the computer room tile that matches the alarm.

Note: A Computer Room can only store up to 6 Hack tokens.

Tip: Building up a couple tokens on any Computer Room is good for preparing for more difficult floors.

Cracking

When you are on a Safe tile, you may either spend 2 actions to permanently add a die to the tile or spend 1 action to roll all the dice that have built up on the tile. This does not consume the dice; they are returned to the tile (safe tiles start with no dice on them). However, in order to crack the safe, you must discover the combination by revealing all 6 tiles in the same row and column as the safe. The combination will be the numbers written on the bottom right corner of each tile. After each roll, put a Cracked token on all tiles that match any of the numbers you rolled. If there are multiples of the same number, place Cracked tokens on each of them, even if that number was rolled once. You don't need to reveal the entire combination to start rolling, but a tile does not get a token unless it was revealed before that number was rolled.

Once all the tiles in the row and column of the safe have a Cracked token, the safe is open.

When you crack a safe (put Cracked tokens on all 6 numbers of the combination), the following happens:

1. Draw a Tool card from the Tool deck.
2. Draw a Loot card from the Loot deck.
3. A silent alarm is triggered, meaning that the Guard on your current floor and any floor below the current one will have one additional movement permanently (rotate the die up one). E.g., cracking the 2nd floor safe adds 1 to the movement die of the Guards on the first and second floor.

Tools

When you find a Tool, place it near your Character card until you want to use it. Tools can be given or taken from another player on the same tile (with their permission) as a free action. Tools do not cost an action to use, but you must use them on your turn.

Loot

When you find Loot, take the card and place it near your Character card. Your team must escape with all the Loot. If any Loot is left behind, you lose! Each Loot has a penalty when holding it. Loot can be given or taken from another player on the same tile (with their permission) as a free action.

End of Game

If you have no Stealth tokens left, and either you enter a tile with a Guard on it or the Guard enters your tile, then you are captured! Once captured, you give up the names of your crew, and the team loses!

Once you have cracked all the safes, you have the loot and can leave through the stairs on the top floor to the roof. Once you are on the roof, your game is over - you don't take any more turns. Once all players have escaped to the roof you win the game. Your mission is accomplished and you sneak away in your helicopter.

Leaving through the stairs to the roof takes one action, just like moving through any other stairs. On the turn you escape, no Guard moves since you are not on a floor anymore.

Important Tip! - It is essential to learn how to manipulate the Guards to win the game. If the Guard is going to run into another player at the end of your turn, don't forget to check to see if there is anything you can do to help:

• Move to another floor, so that the Guard on this floor doesn't move at the end of your turn.
• Trigger an Alarm on this floor to redirect him.
• Idle 2 actions and draw an Event and hope for the best!

Advanced Wall Layouts

Once you are comfortable with the gameplay, you can customize wall layouts to make the game more difficult. Take 8 Wall pieces per floor. Place them between tiles (not on the outside), making sure no area is blocked off and inaccessible. Long dead ends and choke points make the floors more challenging.

Try the layout generator here: http://gabob.com/burgle

Fewer Players

For 1, 2 or 3 player games, play as normal - 3 Stealth and one character each. But whenever you shuffle a Patrol deck, including during setup, discard the following number of cards face down:

• 3 players: Discard 3 cards
• 2 players: Discard 6 cards
• 1 player: Discard 9 cards

You cannot look at these cards. When the Patrol deck is exhausted, include the removed cards and discard that many again after the deck has been reshuffled.

Note: Some events and characters require teamwork and don't work with one-player games.

Intro Game: The Office Job (2-4 players, 2 floors, 45 min)

This is a good training mission for the team - steal plans from a high-tech office building. Build a two-floor building using all the same rules, but only include the tiles that have the white circle around the number in the bottom right (28 tiles + 2 Safes + 2 Stairs). Set the walls according to the diagram. Set the Guard on the 1st floor to 2 movement and the 2nd floor to 3 movement.

Expert Game: Fort Knox (2-4 players, 2 floors, 90 min)

This is a very different layout - two 5x5 floors. To set this up, first remove 2 Safe and 2 Stairs tiles and shuffle the remaining tiles. Split them into two equal piles and then add a Safe and Stairs tile to each pile. Shuffle each pile and lay them both out face down in a 5x5 grid. Each floor will have one empty spot which must be in the same spot on both floors. Players can choose where the empty spot is located. Take 12 walls per floor and place them between tiles (refer to the Advanced Wall Layouts section). The empty spot acts as an outer wall and is impassable.

To set up the patrol decks, divide the patrol cards into two piles, then cards then shuffle (those with a white circle are for the first floor and those with a black circle are for the second). When revealing Patrol cards, if a card has a red triangle, this is the indicated tile (instead of the highlighted square). Set the Guard on the 1st floor to 3 movement and the 2nd floor to 4 movement. To win you must crack all 3 safes, (each safe having 7 or 8 numbers in the combination) and escape to the roof from the second floor with loot in hand. Any cracked tokens on a tile shared by two safes counts toward both.

Diagram: "White is first floor, Black is second floor" shows the Floor 1 and Floor 2 movement dice both set to 3, and a 5x5 grid ("the extended grid") with one corner spot marked with an X (the shared empty/impassable spot) and a triangle marking an example Guard destination indicated by a red-triangle Patrol card.

Mini Expansion: Lost Visual

In the heat of the moment, the team can lose track of where the Guard is. This can lead to some bad surprises. To play with the Lost Visual cards, shuffle one into each Patrol deck. When a Lost Visual card is drawn during the game, the Guard loses the rest of his movement and is removed from the board. The next player's turn where the Guard is supposed to move on that floor, draw the next Patrol card and place him there. Draw a second card to determine his new destination.

Room Tiles

ATRIUM: You may peek up or down from this tile. Guards can see into this tile from above or below, making you lose a Stealth.

CAMERA: Guards on a Camera tile see all the other revealed tiles that are cameras, on any floor. You do not lose Stealth, but they remotely trigger an Alarm on your tile (by calling on their radio). Note that Guards can see through Cameras when moving through a Camera on their turn.

COMPUTER ROOM: There are 3 Computer Rooms corresponding to Fingerprint, Laser, and Motion tiles. Players may spend an action here to put a token on it. Each time a player encounters a tile that matches the name on this Computer Room (Fingerprint, Laser, or Motion), they can spend one of these tokens to prevent an Alarm from triggering. It's important to build up tokens to prevent trouble later.

DEADBOLT: If a player (or Guard) is not on this tile, it takes 3 actions to enter. If you can't pay the extra actions, you stay in the tile you came from.

FINGERPRINT: Fingerprint is the trickiest Alarm. An Alarm goes off when you enter unless you spend a Hack token from the Fingerprint Computer Room.

FOYER: Guards can see into this tile from adjacent tiles, but not through walls. You will lose a Stealth if a Guard is an adjacent tile. You will lose another Stealth if the Guards enter the your tile, as per normal.

KEYPAD: When moving into a Keypad tile, you must guess the code. Take a die and roll it. If it is a 6, you enter the tile. If not, you will have to stay in the tile you came from. Once you roll a 6, put an open marker on the tile - any team member can enter freely now that code is known. For each attempt after the first (in a single turn), roll 1 more die. I.e., on the fourth attempt in a single turn you would roll 4 dice, but the next turn you would start back at 1 die. If you start the game or fall into this room, you may leave but must open it to get back in.

LABORATORY: First player to enter this tile draws a tool card.

LASER: It takes two actions to enter this tile. If you can't or don't want to spend the extra action, an Alarm goes off unless you use a Hack token from the Laser Computer Room.

LAVATORY: This room has 3 stalls to hide in. When this tile is revealed, place 3 Stealth tokens on it. Players may use these tokens as Stealth while they are on this tile, instead of their own. The tokens cannot be picked up by players.

MOTION: You cannot enter AND leave this tile in one turn. You must stop here. If you don't, you trigger an alarm unless you use a Hack token from the Motion Computer Room.

SAFE: Safes are the goal. Roll the combination to open them (see "Cracking" above). When opened, draw a Tool, draw a Loot, and increase the Guard's movement die by one on this floor and all those below it.

SCANNER: If you are holding a Tool or Loot when you enter this tile, an Alarm goes off.

SECRET DOOR: You may move into this tile through walls adjacent to this tile. This is one-way; you can't move or peek back out through a wall. Guards will not move through secret doors.

SERVICE DUCT: Once both Ducts have been discovered, they act as a teleporter. Players may move between them for one action, regardless of what floors they are on.

STAIRS: Stairs allow you to move directly up one floor. Put a Downstairs token on the corresponding tile one floor up (I.e. 2nd row, 3rd column). You can also peek up stairs and come back downstairs. It takes 1 action to take the stairs to the roof at the end of the game.

THERMO: If you end your actions on a Thermo tile an Alarm will go off. If you are moved here during other turns, it does not trigger.

WALKWAY: If this tile is revealed by moving into it, that player falls 1 floor. When falling, it does not count as entering that tile. If you are on the bottom floor, nothing happens. Any players that enter after it is revealed do not fall, but can move downstairs for an action (this does count as entering). This is one-way; you cannot move up to this tile from below.

Thanks

Matt Leacock for expanding cooperative games. Ryan Goldsberry for the amazing art. Robert Schiewe for great design solutions. Heiko Günther for the art direction. Albert Park for the kickstarter video. Virginia Critchfield for the Rooms, Tools and Loot art. Eric Dodds for being my mentor. Charles Polenzani for PNP and Layout support. The Kickstarter Backers for support and ideas! My 3 awesome kids and my wife and muse, Nikki.

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