Caper
Caper Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Gameplay Reference
A one-page illustrated example of a Caper game in progress, annotated as follows:
Location Reward — A player will score 5 Points and receive 1 Painting at The Louvre if they have the most Capers there at the end of the game.
City Icon — Depending on what City you're playing in, the game can change drastically.
Location Modifier — Some Locations have Modifiers in this corner like The Chapel, where Thief cards are protected from being flipped over.
Round Tracker — The game plays across six rounds which alternate between Thief and Gear Rounds.
Location — Each player can have up to 3 Thief cards at a single Location.
Thieves — Thief cards are placed at a Location next to other Thief cards. Thieves have powerful Abilities and can give players Coins when played.
Coins — Thief and Gear cards can get you Coins to spend on fancier Gear purchases.
Gear — Gear cards are placed on Thief cards or on other Gear cards that are already on a Thief.
Number of Capers at this Location — This player currently has 3 Capers at this Location: one from The Dame's Ability and two from the Artist's (see the Caper Catalogue).
Gear Cost — Some Gear cards have a Cost in the top left that must be paid to play.
Gear Limit — A Thief cannot have more than 3 Gear cards on it, but the Thief receives a bonus Caper if it has 3 Gear cards on it.
Gear Abilities — This Plasma Cutter gives a player a Coin when played and a Point at the end of the game.
See the Caper Catalogue for all the nitty-gritty details on all the cards as you play.
Components
- 3 Location Mats
- 23 Location Cards
- 5 Reference Cards
- 1 Caper Catalogue
- 24 Thief Cards
- 4 Wooden Cubes
- 1 Score board & Round tracker
- 48 Gear Cards
- 10 Coins
Overview & Goal
In Caper, players build a crew of Thieves by playing Thief and Gear cards. The game plays across six rounds with each round alternating between placing Thieves and placing Gear. On a Thief Round, players place different Thieves at the Locations being used for that game. On a Gear Round, players place Gear cards onto their Thieves to increase their influence at a particular Location. After playing a card, players will swap hands - so think twice about letting your opponent have that one card.
The crew with the most Capers at a Location will win the steal there and gain its Reward. Some Thieves and Gear also have special Abilities that can help each player obtain Points. Players can also collect different types of Stolen Goods providing Points at the end of the game. Finally, the player whose crew scores the most Points will be the winner.
These rules cover playing Caper with 2 players. The 3–4 player variants can be found at the end of this Rulebook, but you'll need to learn these basics of the game first.
Setup
Choose the City
You'll find City icons in the lower left corner of Thieves, Gear, and Location cards. Choose one City among the three available: Paris, Rome, or London. Return the cards from the other Cities to the box. These will not be used in the current game. Below is a primer for each City—the more stars a City has, the more advanced its gameplay. If this is your first game, we recommend playing in Paris.
- Paris (1 star) — With so much lovely art around, Stolen Goods are sure to be plentiful.
- Rome (2 stars) — With its historic crime scene, more Capers are bound to happen.
- London (3 stars) — With its world economy, run down your opponent's Coin supply.
Prepare the 3 Decks
Incorporate a City's cards into each corresponding deck: Locations, Thieves, and Gear. Shuffle each deck separately and place them on the table.
Determine the 3 Locations
Place the 3 Location Mats out horizontally between players, leaving some space between each Mat. If you would like a player aid, use the pink side of the Mats—otherwise, use the wood sides. Reveal a card from the Locations deck horizontally onto each Mat. Players will place Thieves and Gear cards on their side of these Locations during the game. These Locations set the tone for the game as their Rewards will be one of the main ways players score Points.
Each Location Mat displays a Reward Area, a Modifier corner on certain Locations that affects cards played at that Location (for example, the Eiffel Tower's -1 modifier), and there is a Mastermind Reference Card for each player.
Reference Cards & Round Tracker
Give each player a Mastermind Reference Card to place near them and return the other Reference Cards to the box. Place the Round Tracker next to the Location Mats and place a wooden cube on the top Thief Round slot. Create the Coin Supply by placing the 10 Coins next to the Round Tracker.
Round Structure
Caper is played over six rounds. There are two different types of rounds: Thief Rounds and Gear Rounds. The current round is tracked by the wooden cube on the Round Tracker. Players are dealt the shown number of cards from the deck matching its Round Type. These cards will be played during the round.
Starting a Round
Begin each round by dealing the number of cards shown on the Round Tracker to each player from its matching deck. These cards form each player's starting hand for the round. If the color of the Round Tracker matches the top of your Mastermind card, then you will be the First Player during that round. For example, the first round of the game is a Thief Round, so each player receives 4 cards from the Thieves deck. The player with the Cream Mastermind card will be the First Player.
Playing a Round
During a round, the First Player will take a turn by placing a card from their hand face-up on their side at a Location, then the other player will do the same. Once both players have played a card from their hands, players swap their entire hand of cards. After swapping hands, the First Player begins a new turn and the process is repeated.
Thief Round — A Thief card must be placed at one of the three Locations next to its Location Mat. Thieves cannot be placed on top of other Thief or Gear cards. A Thief can be placed next to another Thief at a Location, but a Location cannot hold more than 3 Thief cards. If a Thief has an Income at the bottom of its card, the player collects that amount of Coins from the Supply when the Thief is played.
Gear Round — A Gear card can be played or discarded. If played, place it below a Thief card or on top of another Gear card below a Thief—leaving the other card icons and colors visible below it. A Thief card cannot have more than 3 Gear cards on it. Instead of playing a Gear card, a player can discard it to gain a Coin from the Supply. Some Gear cards have a Cost in the top left area. In order to play it, a player must pay that amount of Coins to the Supply. If a player does not have enough, they cannot play that card, but they can still discard it to gain a Coin.
Icon Abilities
There are a number of icons in Caper, but you'll pick up each one in no time. These main icons will help in understanding how they apply to the cards and gameplay.
- Capers — The player with the most Capers at a Location will score its Reward.
- Coins — For buying fancier Gear.
- Points — The player with the most Points wins the game.
- Flip — Flip an opponent's topmost card.
- Protected — A card is protected from being flipped.
- Stolen Goods — There are 3 different types that score Points through sets.
Sometimes you'll find icons on top of card icons. This means you apply that icon for each card set of that color. For example, here you'll receive a Caper for each of your sets containing a Yellow and Purple card at this Location.
Important — Map Marker icons on cards notify you whether to count Your cards at that Location or Your opponent's cards at that Location. Remember these Map Markers refer to the cards at that Location—not just the cards on a single Thief.
Get Fully Equipped — A Thief receives a bonus Caper if it has 3 Gear cards on it.
Most cards provide their benefits at the end of the game, but icons that give Coins or flip cards trigger when played. Don't forget some Locations have Modifiers that can affect cards played there.
Card Colours
The colours of cards plays an important role in Caper as they often relate to icons for card sets or scoring Points. Thief cards are all Cream coloured. Gear cards come in many different colours with certain focuses around each colour:
- Green — Focus on Stolen Goods.
- Purple — Focus on Capers.
- Yellow — Focus on gaining Coins.
- Red — Focus on flipping Gear.
- City's Gear Colour — Focuses on the particular theme of that City.
Flipping Cards
Only the topmost card on a Thief can be flipped—the one most recently played. If the topmost card on a Thief is flipped, you cannot flip a card below it. You can still place cards on a flipped Thief or Gear cards following usual limitations. Flipped cards lose all their abilities, but do not affect the bonus Caper - it can still be earned. A flipped Thief still counts as a Thief card towards sets. A flipped Gear card still counts as a gear card towards sets, but loses its specific color. See the FAQ in the Caper Catalogue for more information.
Ending a Round
When each player has two cards left in their hand, players will take their last turn of the round. When a player is left with a single card in their hand, they will discard it. The player does not receive a Coin when discarding this last card in their hand. When both players have no cards in their hands, the round ends. Move the wooden cube to the next slot down on the Round Tracker and begin a new round. Note: Players start Round 5 with only 2 Thief cards, so it is both their first and last turn of that Round.
Discard Area — Players discard their cards near their Reference Card horizontally and face up, so as to not confuse them with cards in play. Thief cards are discarded to the left of the Reference and Gear cards to the right. Certain cards can bring cards back from your Discard Area, which is considered public information.
Ending the Game
After the final Gear Round, the game ends. Determine who won each Location by counting the number of Capers each player has at a Location. Don't forget any bonus Capers from Thieves with 3 Gear cards. The player with the most Capers at a Location wins that Location. To indicate this, turn the Location so its Rewards read right-side up to its winner. If there is a tie for Capers, neither player wins that Location and it is not turned.
Scoring
Using the Score board and wooden cubes, score each category in order:
- Score Points from Location Rewards
- Score Points awarded from Thief cards
- Score Points awarded from Gear cards
- Score Points for sets of unique Stolen Goods
For example, The Banker scores a Point for each of your Yellow cards at this Location. Plans Cachés scores a Point for each of your Light Blue cards at this Location.
Scoring Stolen Goods — There are 3 different types: a Jewel, an Antique, a Painting, and Wild (can be any type). Each player forms sets with their Stolen Goods received across all Locations. A set can contain 1, 2, or 3 Stolen Goods. If a set has more than one Stolen Good, then each Stolen Good in that set must be different.
- Set of 1 = 1 Point
- Set of 2 = 3 Points
- Set of 3 = 7 Points
For example, let's say a player scored these Stolen Goods across all their Locations: a Jewel, another Jewel, and a Wild. One set would contain two unique Stolen Goods (1 Jewel and 1 Wild, which we'll count as an Antique) and the second set contains one Stolen Good (1 Jewel). The first set gives the player 3 Points and the second gives 1 Point, for a total of 4 Points.
The Winner — After scoring each of these rows, total up all of a player's Points. The player with the most is the winner of Caper! In case of a tie, the player with the highest number of Coins wins. If there is still a tie, the Cream Mastermind wins.
3 Player Variant
Changes — Setup and gameplay is the same with these following changes: During Setup, give the third player the Snitch Reference Card. We recommended that the Snitch is already familiar with Caper. The goal of the Snitch is to have the Masterminds score closely to one another. At the start of a round, instead of dealing the Round cards to each Mastermind, deal double the amount shown on the Round Tracker to the Snitch to form the Snitch Deck—keeping all cards facedown. Now, the Snitch deals one card face-down from the Snitch Deck to each Mastermind.
For each turn, the Snitch draws two cards from the Snitch deck, looks at them, and assigns one to each Mastermind facedown. Each Mastermind plays a card as normal in turn order—they should have two available. Instead of the Masterminds swapping hands, the Masterminds keep their card and the Snitch begins a new turn. Once the Snitch can no longer draw cards, the Masterminds discard their last card, ending the round.
Scoring — The Snitch scores as many Points as the Mastermind who scored the least plus 1/6 of the Points of the Mastermind who scored the most (rounded down). If the Snitch scored more or ties with the highest scoring Mastermind, the Snitch wins. Otherwise, the highest scoring Mastermind wins.
4 Player Variant
Team Play — Setup and gameplay is the same with these following changes: Give the other two players Lookout Reference Cards. The Snitch card is not used. Each team will have a Mastermind and Lookout with matching Reference Card colours (Mint Team vs. Cream Team). Masterminds sit across from one another with their team's Lookout on their left. Each team's goal is to score the most Points.
At the start of a round, the cards are dealt to the Lookouts. Each Lookout chooses two cards and passes them, facedown, left to the opposing team's Mastermind. Each Mastermind now plays a card in turn order. Masterminds cannot discard cards to get a Coin, unless they do not have enough Coins to pay for any of the cards. Forcing the opposing Mastermind to discard will give their team 3 Points when scoring. Try not to do it. Instead of swapping hands, the Masterminds pass the remaining card left to their team's Lookout. The Lookouts start a new turn. If the Lookouts no longer have cards then the Masterminds discard their last card to end the round.
Scoring — A team receives 3 Points for each Gear card in their Discard Area. Include these Points in the Gear section on the Score Pad. The team with the most Points wins!
Credits
Game Design by Unai Rubio. Artwork by Emrich Office. Published by Jumbo Games — jumbostrategygames.com. Special thanks to Unai Rubio, Mont Taber & Keymaster Games for their help in this updated edition of the game, It's Mine.