Detective Club Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Set Up
• How to Play
  • Step 1 — Choose a Word
  • Step 2 — Assign Roles
  • Step 3 — Play Cards
  • Step 4 — Discuss & Vote
  • Step 5 — Scoring
• End of the Game
• Variations
  • Thematic Game
  • No Discussion Phase
• Credits

Game Contents

• 168 Evidence Cards
• 68 Victory Point Tokens
• 8 Voting Tokens
• 8 Player Markers
• 7 Notebooks
• 1 Pencil (Active Player Marker)

Set Up

1. Place the VP Tokens and the deck of Evidence Cards where players can comfortably reach them.
2. Each player takes one color of Player Marker and places a matching Voting Token on it.
3. Randomly choose the first Active Player. This player receives the pencil (which is the Active Player Marker) and takes one notebook for each other player in the game (for instance, in a 7-player game, the Active Player would take 6 notebooks).
4. Each player draws 6 Evidence Cards.

How to Play

A game of Detective Club is played in several rounds. In each round, players play two cards. The game ends after each player has been Active Player once (6-8 players) or twice (less than 6 players).

In each round, the following five steps are carried out:

Step 1 — Choose a Word

As the Active Player, look at your cards and come up with a word, keeping in mind that you will be able to use two cards from your hand to describe that word. Then, play one card face up in the middle of the table: that card is supposed to reflect the word that you have in mind. Then immediately draw a new card from the deck.

Note: Over the course of the game, whenever a player plays an Evidence Card, they immediately draw a new card to replace it. Each player must always have 6 Evidence Cards in hand.

Example: Mike is the Active Player. He wants to play with the word "nature". He places the card displaying a red rose to reflect that word.

Step 2 — Assign Roles

As the Active Player, write the word on all the notebooks except for one. You then shuffle all the notebooks and randomly give one notebook to each other player.

One player will receive an empty notebook: this player is the Conspirator. The others are Detectives. Detectives must try and identify the Conspirator. The Conspirator must team up with the Active Player to try and mislead Detectives.

Note: Players must keep their notebook secret at all times! No one knows who the Conspirator is… except themselves.

Example: Jane is the Conspirator. There is nothing on her notebook. She tries to analyze the two previous cards and looks for something that could fit in. There is water on both cards - maybe the word is "water"? She chooses a card with a big blue wave.

Step 3 — Play Cards

Starting with the player sitting on the left of the Active Player and proceeding clockwise, each player plays one card from their hand. Again, this card is supposed to match the word that the Active Player wrote on the notebooks.

Once all players have played a card, the Active Player plays a second card, and so on until everyone has played two cards.

While the Active Player plays cards in the middle of the table, all the other players play their cards in front of them.

• If you're a Detective, make sure you play solid Evidence cards to avoid being accused during the Voting Phase!
• If you're the Conspirator, try and gather information from the cards played by other players.

Example: Bill is a Detective. He can see that Mike wrote "nature" in his notebook, so he plays a card that displays the sea. That should be enough.

Example: Mike and Bill have now added a second card, and Jane understands that the word was probably not water. Maybe "nature" then? Or something similar? She places the sunflower card, hoping for the best.

Step 4 — Discuss & Vote

After all players have played two cards, as the Active Player you say the word that you have written. You then explain the reasons why you chose the two cards that you placed to reflect that word.

All other players do the same, proceeding clockwise. Once all players have explained their choices, they may vote to designate who they think is the Conspirator. The Active Player does not participate. Starting from the player on their left and proceeding clockwise, each player places their Voting Token next to the Player Marker of their choice, except their own.

Example: Bill and Dustin think that Jane is the Conspirator because she was unable to explain her cards clearly. Bill places his Voting Token next to Jane's Player Marker. She, in return, votes against Bill, hoping that Dustin will make the wrong choice.

Step 5 — Scoring

Once every player has voted, reveal all notebooks and proceed to scoring.

a. Each Detective who placed their Voting Token next to the Conspirator's Player Marker scores 3 VP.

b. If there is 0 or 1 Token next to the Conspirator's Player Marker, then the Conspirator scores 5 VP and the Active Player scores 4 VP.

c. If there are 2 or more Tokens next to the Conspirator's Player Marker, then the Conspirator and the Active Player do not score any VP.

Example: Bill and Dustin were right and score 3 VP each. Jane and Mike do not score any VP for this round.

Players keep their VP Tokens face down. Once the Scoring Phase is complete, a new round begins: the Active Player passes their marker to the player who sits on their left. This player becomes the new Active Player and takes the notebooks. Make sure to cross out the previous word on all notebooks to avoid confusion!

End of the Game

The game ends after each player has been Active Player once (6-8 players) or twice (less than 6 players). Reveal your VP Tokens and add them up to get your final score. The player with the highest number of VP wins. If there is a tie, the tied player with greater number of victory point tokens wins; if there is still a tie, all tied players share the victory.

Variations

Thematic Game

Before the first round, players choose a topic. As the active player, choose a word on your turn. You must make sure that this word matches the topic that was decided at the beginning of the game. Topics can be very specific (for instance "Space Opera", "The USA", "Protagonists"...) or general ("Movies", "Countries", "Literature"...) depending on the level of difficulty you want to play with. Make sure that everyone agrees on the chosen topic. You can switch topics after a few rounds if you like, or try to play the whole game with the same topic!

No Discussion Phase

To shift the focus of the game, you can switch the Discuss part of Step 4 "Discuss & Vote". In this case, start voting immediately after each player has played two cards. The Active player does not say the word out loud and players do not explain their cards.

Credits

• Game Design: Oleksandr Nevskiy
• Development: IGAMES Studio
• Illustration & Design: M81 Studio
• Editing/English Translation: Antoine Prono

Game based on an original idea by Oleksandr Nevskiy. Copyright © 2019 IGAMES – All Rights Reserved. © 2019 Blue Orange Editions, France, All Rights Reserved. Detective Club is a trademark of IGAMES and Blue Orange is a trademark of Blue Orange Editions, France.