Der Schattendieb Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Game Round
  • 1. Action: Play a Card
  • 2. Action: The Tie
  • 3. Action: The Thieves
  • 4. Action: Play Further Jewellery Cards
  • 5. Action: Fill the Safe
  • 6. Action: Close the Safe
  • 7. Action: Draw Cards
• End of the Game and Scoring

Components

• 80 jewellery cards with values from 1 to 10 (Schmuck-Karten)
• 20 Close Safe cards with values from 4 to 15 ("Tresor zu"-Karten)
• 7 Open Safe cards ("Tresor auf"-Karten)
• 5 thief cards (Dieb-Karten): Watch Thief (Uhrendieb), Ring Thief (Ringdieb), Brooch Thief (Broschendieb), Cufflink Thief (Manschettenknöpfedieb), and Shadow Thief (Schattendieb)

The jewellery comes in four kinds: brooches (Broschen), rings (Ringe), watches (Uhren) and cufflinks (Manschettenknöpfe).

Setup

Each player receives one Open Safe card, which they place in front of themselves. Any Open Safe cards that are not needed go back into the box.

All other cards, including the Close Safe cards, are shuffled together. Each player is dealt four cards into their hand. The remaining cards are placed face down in the middle of the table as the draw pile (Zugstapel).

Game Round

A round consists of seven actions, which are carried out one after another:

1. Action: Play a card
2. Action: The tie
3. Action: The thieves
4. Action: Play further jewellery cards
5. Action: Fill the safe
6. Action: Close the safe
7. Action: Draw cards

1. Action: Play a Card

Each player chooses one of their four cards and plays it face down in front of themselves. This can be a jewellery card, a thief card or a Close Safe card. Once every player has a card in front of them, the cards are revealed simultaneously.

2. Action: The Tie

If jewellery cards with equal values were played, there is a tie between these cards. They are placed on the discard pile (Ablagestapel) next to the draw pile.

Sidebar: Jewellery cards with equal values are placed on the discard pile.

3. Action: The Thieves

If thief cards were played, the thieves now take their turn. Four thieves have each specialised in one kind of jewellery. The Shadow Thief steals every kind of jewellery.

Sidebar: Each thief steals only one jewellery card. The Shadow Thief takes its turn before all other thieves.

The player who played a thief takes one of the revealed jewellery cards of the kind that thief specialises in and places it face up on their Open Safe card.

The player who played the Shadow Thief takes one revealed jewellery card of their choice and places it face up on their Open Safe card.

If thieves specialised in a kind of jewellery have been played in a round, and the Shadow Thief has also been played in that round, the player who played the Shadow Thief takes their turn first. If there is no jewellery card of the kind a thief specialises in, the owner of that thief receives no jewellery card.

Once every thief, successful or not, has taken its turn, the thief cards that were played are placed on the discard pile.

Example: The player of the Shadow Thief takes the "Brooch 10" first. The player of the Ring Thief then takes the "Ring 6". The player of the Watch Thief receives no jewellery card.

4. Action: Play Further Jewellery Cards

Players who now have a jewellery card in front of them may, but do not have to, add further cards of the jewellery kind on display from their hand to the card they played.

Sidebar: Further cards of the same kind of jewellery may be played.

5. Action: Fill the Safe

All jewellery cards now lying in front of the players must be placed face up into their owners' safes.

Sidebar: Jewellery cards in front of the players must be placed into the safes.

Note: Jewellery cards in a safe remain there until the final scoring at the end of the game.

6. Action: Close the Safe

If a player has played a Close Safe card whose value is equal to or greater than the number of all jewellery cards in their safe, this Close Safe card is placed as the last card in the row of their jewellery cards. With this action the player closes their safe, and places their remaining cards from hand face down under the draw pile. The other players continue to play the remaining rounds without them.

Sidebar: A player closes their safe by playing a Close Safe card whose value is equal to or greater than the number of cards in their safe.

Note: A player can close their safe only if at least one jewellery card is in it. If no card is yet in the safe, the Close Safe card that was played goes to the discard pile.

If a player has played a Close Safe card whose value is smaller than the number of all jewellery cards in their safe, this Close Safe card is placed on the discard pile.

Sidebar: If the value of the Close Safe card played is smaller than the number of cards in the safe, it is placed on the discard pile.

7. Action: Draw Cards

Every player who has not yet closed their safe refills their hand to four cards. A new round then begins again with the first action.

Sidebar: Each player refills their hand to four cards.

Exception: If the draw pile is not large enough to supply every player with four cards, cards are drawn so that every player has three cards in hand. The remaining cards of the draw pile are placed on the discard pile.

If there is no draw pile left, the seventh action is skipped. The discard pile is not shuffled to form a new draw pile.

End of the Game and Scoring

The game ends immediately if one of the following situations occurs:

• Only one player has an open safe. This player may not score the jewellery in their safe. They receive zero points for this game.
• All players still in the game want to close their safes in the same round. These players may not score the jewellery in their safe. They all receive zero points for this game.
• There is no draw pile left, and a player has no cards left in hand after the action "Play Further Jewellery Cards". All players who have not yet closed their safe receive zero points for this game.

Sidebar: The game ends when only one player still has an open safe, or when all players whose safes are still open want to close them in one round. The game can also end if a player has no cards left in hand.

Now scoring takes place. Every player who closed their safe in time writes down, for this game, the sum of the values of all jewellery in their safe on a sheet of paper.

Example for one player:

Safe contents
Brooches:	3 + 6 + 8	= 17 points
Rings:	none
Watches:	2 + 4 + 5 + 7	= 18 points
Cufflinks:	5 + 7 + 10	= 22 points
Total:		= 57 points

The game is won by the player who has the most points after three games. The players may also agree to play more than three games.