Catch the Bomber Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Preparation
• Card Type
• Game Flow
• Steps in Detail
• Achievement Assessment
• Victory Conditions
• Character & Basic Cards

Components

• 6 Character cards
• 30 Basic cards
• 7 Location cards
• 30 Footprint tokens (6 colours)
• 6 Player aids

Preparation

Cards

No. of Players	Bomber	Police	Young Lady / Holy Warrior / Suspicious Person	Remarks
3	1	2	—	—
4	1	2	1	Remove 2 Citizens
5	1	2	2	—
6	1	2	3	—

Setting

• Lay out the 7 Location cards: Bridge in the middle and the 6 Gathering Points randomly around it. Leave space for card placement beneath each Location card.
• Give each player 1 Player aid and 5 Footprint tokens of the same colour.
• Shuffle the Character cards and distribute 1 to each player. Character cards, together with Basic cards, are played as hand cards, and, after being played, do not change a player's character.
• Shuffle and distribute the Basic cards to each player evenly.
• The game goes clockwise, starting with the player who has recently deactivated a bomb (even metaphorically).

Card Type

Hand cards (front)

• Quantity: the number shown at the top of the card.
• When encountering an explosion at the same location: each card shows whether it is Dead (skull icon) or Alive (shield icon) in the explosion.
• Title: the card's name.
• Ability: the card's text.
• Restriction when played: some cards show a restriction that applies when they are played.

Hand cards (back)

• Footprint token: placed on top of a face down card, allowing a player to check their own cards anytime.
• On rare occasions when a player's tokens are used up, they can resort to any other small objects or tokens in an unused colour.

Location cards

• Gathering Point (white-framed): when Playing a card to a Gathering Point, the 1st, 3rd and 5th cards are placed face up and the 2nd and 4th cards are placed face down.
• Bridge (blue-framed): only Moving a card (face up Citizen, Police Dog or Bomb Squad) to or from the Bridge is allowed.

Game Flow

Rounds

On each turn, the active player carries out A 【Playing a card】 or B 【Moving a card】, then passes the turn to the next player.

When all players have exhausted their hand cards, the game proceeds to the Game End – Achievement Assessment.

Game End – Achievement Assessment

1. Panic: count the locations with face up Citizens. 【Chaos】 is Unlocked or Failed.
2. Destiny: flip over all face down cards and check for the Bomber's schemes. 【Escape】 and 【Bombing】 are each Unlocked or Failed.

Victory Conditions

• Bomber's Victory: the Bomber achieves 【Survival】 and unlocks one of the 【Achievements】.
• Police Side's Victory: the Bomber fails to unlock any of the 【Achievements】.
• Draw: both sides fail to fulfil their victory condition.
• Sole Victory: the Holy Warrior kills the Bomber in a draw.

Steps in Detail

A 【Playing a card】

• The active player chooses one of their hand cards and plays it beneath a Gathering Point. All played cards are arranged leftward.
• Each Gathering Point may carry up to 5 cards: a player plays the 1st, 3rd or 5th card in the line face up; and the 2nd or 4th card face down with their Footprint token placed on top of the card.
• Some cards have to be played with restrictions, and hence may not be placed at certain positions beneath a location.

B 【Moving a card】

• Arrows on the right side of a Player aid point to a space used as the player's Shelter. When moving a card, a player must play a Citizen card onto their own Shelter.
• Then the player may move a face up Citizen, Police Dog or Bomb Squad from a Gathering Point to the Bridge, or from the Bridge to a Gathering Point.
• A moved card is placed beneath its new location (rightmost if there are other cards); the gap created at the original location shall be filled by moving the cards behind leftwards.
• Cards shall not be moved to a location already with 5 cards.
• All cards affected by the movement of a card will not change their face orientation.

Example: The player decides to move a card, so they place a Citizen on their Shelter.

As illustrated, the Hospital is full of 5 cards and no other card can be moved in, so the player decides to move the Citizen in the line to the Bridge, rightmost behind the card already there.

A gap is left where the Citizen originally was, so the player moves the cards to its right leftward to fill the space up.

※ On rare occasions when neither 【Playing a card】 nor 【Moving a card】 is possible, the player loses the game immediately and stops playing.

Achievement Assessment

Panic

When the game ends, first check if 【Chaos】 is unlocked: count the number of locations (including Bridge) with at least 1 face up Citizen. If there are no more than four, the Bomber successfully spreads panic through the streets and causes 【Chaos】.

A temporary triumph to the Bomber, but even so life and death matters more!

Example: Citizens assemble at 4 locations, and Bomber unlocks 【Chaos】!

Destiny

Now flip over all face down cards and check for 【Escape】 and 【Bombing】 (See Victory Conditions below).

Victory Conditions

At game end, the side that fulfils their victory condition wins!

Bomber wins: 【Survival】 and one of the 【Achievements】.

Police side wins: All Bomber's 【Achievements】 prevented.

The three 【Achievements】 are:

1. 【Chaos】: Face up Citizens appearing at 4 or fewer locations.
2. 【Escape】: Bomber and Police appearing at different locations.
3. 【Bombing】: At least one Citizen or character other than Bomber killed in explosion.

Bomber unlocks 【Chaos】!

Notes

• The rulebook does not give a separate definition of 【Survival】; the term is transcribed as printed.
• If the Bomber is bombed dead, 【Escape】 is prevented, but 【Chaos】 and 【Bombing】 are still up for assessment.
• If the Bomber unlocks any of the 【Achievements】 but is bombed dead, the game ends in a draw.
• When a game ends in a draw and the Bomber is bombed dead by the Holy Warrior, the Holy Warrior achieves the sole victory.

Character & Basic Cards

Character cards (black-framed)

• Bomber (1 card): dead in explosion. ⚠ When the Bomber is played as a player's last card, it must be played face down. The Bomber's primary goal is to survive, and then to do evil at locations free from any bomb threats. Despite the team-based nature of the game, the Bomber is actually fighting a lone battle.
• Police (2 cards): alive in explosion [Police Side]. The Police's objective is clear: to be at the same location as the Bomber and apprehend them in the act! Although the Police cannot be moved but only stationed at the 6 Gathering Points, their chances of success are greatly increased through careful deployment at different locations.
• Young Lady (1 card): dead in explosion [Police Side]. ⚠ This card must be played face down. As the Bomber's primary target, she is required to keep her identity secret at all times, which makes her easily misidentified as the Bomber. Earning her teammates' trust is therefore always important.
• Holy Warrior (1 card): dead in explosion [Police Side]. The Holy Warrior will explode his body cavity bomb at the end of the game, making themselves the only character that may trigger two victory conditions ("Police Side's Victory" or "Sole Victory"). If the victory is in their bag, the Holy Warrior may prefer to fail their teammates and enjoy the ecstasy of winning alone.
• Suspicious Person (1 card): dead in explosion [Police Side]. ⚠ This card must be played as a player's last card. Ensuring a space for themselves at a safe location is the only way for the Suspicious Person to boost their chances of winning.

Basic cards (white-framed)

• Police Dogs (2 cards): alive in explosion. ⚠ This card must be played face up. It prevents the Bomber from appearing at the same location on later rounds. Police Dogs largely impede the Bomber's attempt to escape. Fortunately, they only smell and search whatever comes after them.
• Bomb (4 cards). Bombs explode, causing death sometimes, at the end of the game as long as no Bomb Squad is at the same location. This card cannot be moved, so make certain it is played at the right time and right locations.
• Bomb Squad (6 cards): alive in explosion. When game ends, a Bomb Squad can prevent all bombs at the same location, including that on the Holy Warrior, from exploding. Heroic, huh?
• Citizen (18 cards*): dead in explosion. A player may place this card onto their own Shelter to 【Move a card】, i.e. a face up Police Dog, Bomb Squad or Citizen, to or from the Bridge. Dispersing Citizens to different locations helps prevent 【Chaos】.

* Remove 2 for a 4-player game.