Escape from New York Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Rulebook Structure
• Turn Sequence
• The Hero Phase
  • 1 - Reveal 1 Timer Tile
  • 2 - Choose Action Cards to Play
  • 3 - Resolve 1 Played Action Card
  • 4 - Resolve the Other Played Action Card
  • 5 - Additional Move Using a Car
  • 6 - Make Noise and Discard the Action Cards Played
  • 7 - Receive Damage from Enemies in Range
  • 8 - Level Up
  • 9 - Activate the Building
• The New York Phase
  • 10 - Discard New York's First Action Card to Gain 1 Noise
  • 11 - Resolve New York's Next Action or Discard It to Gain 1 Noise
  • 12 - Move Adjacent Enemies into the Current Hero's Space
• Winning or Losing the Game
  • Collective Victory
  • Lone Victory
  • Collective Loss
• Hero Rules
  • Action Card Effects
    • Moving
    • Reveal an Empty Space
    • Reveal a Point of Interest Tile
    • Reveal a Suburb
    • Inflicting Damage on Enemies
    • Inflicting Damage on Prisoners
    • Inflicting Damage on Bosses
    • Tricking Enemies
    • Other Special Effects
    • Personal Abilities
  • Collecting and Losing a Case Card
    • Collecting a Case Card
    • Losing a Case Card
  • Collecting the President Card
  • Collecting and Using Item and Weapon Cards
    • Collecting an Item Card
    • Using an Item Card
    • Discarding an Item Card
    • Collecting and Using Weapon Cards
  • Collecting, Using, or Losing a Car
    • Collecting a Car
    • Using a Car
    • Losing a Car
  • Gullfire Counter
  • Helicopter Counter
  • Leveling Up and Special Action Cards
  • Map Tiles and Their Contents
    • Types of Map Tiles
    • Icons
  • Buildings
  • Suburb (Raft) Counters
  • Making Noise
  • Personal Abilities
  • Receiving Damage from Enemies
• New York Rules
  • Enemies
    • Prisoners
    • Bosses
  • Collecting and Using a Car (New York)
    • Collecting a Car
    • Using a Car
  • Gaining Noise
    • Noise Saturation
  • Inflicting Damage on Heroes
  • Mission Cubes
  • Moving Enemies
  • Returning Cards to the New York Deck
  • Roadblocks
  • Special Action Cards (New York)
• Hard Variants
• Appendix A – Specific Card Explanations
• Appendix B - Rules for the Stretch Goals
  • Game Variant: Wanted!
  • Game Variant: Is the President Dead or Alive?
  • Variant Art Hero Figures and Hero Boards

Components

• 1 New York board
• 1 game board
• 4 Hero boards
• 5 Case cards
• 1 President card
• 32 Hero Action cards (8 for each player)
• 12 Hero Special Action cards (3 for each player)
• 4 starting Hero cards
• 7 New York Action cards
• 3 New York Special Action cards
• 12 Personal Objective cards (6 blue, 6 purple)
• 18 Item cards
• 16 Event cards
• 4 Car cards
• 4 Summary cards
• 40 Prisoner counters
• 25 Roadblock counters (double-sided)
• 14 Suburb counters (double-sided)
• 1 Helicopter counter (double-sided: Heliport and Landed Helicopter)
• 16 Timer tiles (12 standard, 1 Hurry Up, 3 red)
• 34 City tiles
• 1 Gullfire counter
• 12 Level Bar counters (4 groups of 3 double-sided bars)
• 4 Case counters
• 19 plastic bases (2 for each Hero, 7 for New York, 4 white)
• 8 Central Park tiles
• 1 World Trade Center (WTC) tile
• 4 Hero figures
• 3 Boss figures
• 1 Taxi figure
• 4 Car figures
• 8 Point of Interest (POI) tiles
• 1 Library tile
• 15 Items
• 15 Ammo
• 3 Hit Points
• 1 New York Noise cube
• 1 Event Level token
• 4 New York Mission cubes

Setup

1. Place the board in the middle of the table.

2. Shuffle the 8 red Point of Interest (POI) tiles and put 1 of them face down in each red space on the board.

3. Put the Library FACE UP in the matching yellow space on the board.

4. Put the World Trade Center tile FACE UP in the matching blue space on the board. Then, put the Gullfire counter on it.

5. Put the Helicopter counter (with the Heliport side up) in the central space of Central Park.

6. Shuffle the Suburb counters and put 1 face down on each space marked with the Suburb icon.

7. Put each Case token on the matching icon in the top right area of the game board.

8. Put the Event Level token in the first space of the Event Level Track in the top left part of the board.

9. Set up the Timer deck in this way:

   • Shuffle the 3 red Timer tiles and put them face down on the matching space of the board;
   • Put the Hurry Up tile face down on the red Timer tiles;
   • Shuffle the standard (black) Timer tiles. In a 4/3/2/1 player game, put 12/11/10/9 of them face down on the Hurry Up tile.

10. Put the President card in the matching slot in the top right part of the board.

11. Set up the Case cards in this way:

    • Remove the President's Bracelet and the Tape cards;
    • Shuffle the 3 remaining cards, then remove 1 of them from the game without revealing it;
    • Shuffle the 4 remaining cards (including the President's Bracelet and the Tape) and put 1 face down in each Case space.

12. Shuffle the City tiles, forming a City deck near the game board.

13. Shuffle the Central Park tiles, forming a Central Park deck near the game board.

14. Near the board, create a general supply with:

    • The shuffled Items deck, leaving a space for (face-down) discarded Item cards
    • The shuffled Events deck, leaving a space for (face down) discarded Event cards
    • The 4 Car cards
    • The Ammo and Item cubes
    • The Prisoner tokens and Car figures
    • The Roadblock counters
    • 4 red plastic bases and 4 white plastic bases

15. Take all the Hero Special and Special New York Action cards (the cards marked with the star) and put them face down near the game board.

16. Prepare the New York board, placing it near the game board and place:

    • The Noise cube on the leftmost space of the Noise Track;

Rulebook Structure

This rulebook has the following structure:

• The first part, starting from this page, covers the main rules of the game, explaining the turn sequence and the victory and loss conditions;
• The second part (starting from page 11) contains all the specific rules for Heroes (the players) and New York (the bot);
• The third part is composed of appendices, containing explanations for specific cards and the rules for the extra components (unlocked during the Gamefound campaign).

While reading, you may encounter some rule references (for example: "see page 6 - Rulebook Structure"): you do not need to jump all over to the indicated pages during your first reading, but they will come in handy during your first games when you are looking for a specific rule. They will quickly guide you to the relevant paragraph of the rulebook.

Turn Sequence

The game will be played over many turns, until a Victory or Loss condition is triggered.

Each player's turn is composed of 2 phases, played in this order:

Hero Phase: The current player plays the role of their Hero, taking actions and using Items;

New York Phase: The current player manages the Bands of New York, who will hinder the Heroes by moving Enemies, placing Roadblocks, and revealing Timer tiles.

The Hero Phase

1 - Reveal 1 Timer Tile

The current player may reveal 1 Timer tile to return all their discarded Action cards to their hand. If they have only 1 or fewer Action cards in their hand at the beginning of their turn, they must do so.

If they reveal a Timer tile, they return all their discarded cards to their hand. Then, they must resolve the effect described on the Timer tile (see page 16 - Revealing Timer Tiles).

The Action cards represent the actions a player can perform during the game and also their "hit points". Every time a player receives damage, they must randomly discard that many Action cards from their hand.

A player is forced to recover all their cards if only 1 or fewer Action cards remain in their hand at the beginning of their turn, but they can also do so in other situations—for example, if they need an action that they have already discarded.

2 - Choose Action Cards to Play

The current player chooses 2 Action cards from their hand, putting them face down in front of them.

Both Action cards must be chosen before resolving the first action.

At the top left of each Action card, near its name, you will find an icon which quickly indicates the effects of the card:

• Movement: Represents a movement action: This card lets you move to a revealed map space OR into a face down POI (a space with a tile or a space adjacent to the Library).
• Damage: This effect means that the card lets you inflict damage to Enemies. Each attack has a range (0 or 1) which determines the number of spaces the attack can cover on the map. The attacks which inflict damage in your space have range 0; Range 1 means that you can distribute damage among Enemies in your space and in adjacent spaces.
• Special action: Indicates that this card lets you take a special action.

3 - Resolve 1 Played Action Card

The current player reveals 1 of the 2 Action cards they played, then resolves ALL the effects on it.

Each card must be entirely resolved by the player, without ignoring any parts (for example, they cannot voluntarily ignore one part of the action and resolve only the other part). If the player cannot perform the entire action, they must skip all its effects, but the action still makes Noise (see page 16 - Making Noise).

IMPORTANT: An action is still considered entirely resolved in these 3 cases:

• A player must reveal an empty space, but they cannot because all adjacent spaces are already revealed;
• A player cannot inflict all of the damage they can because, for example, they have killed all Enemies in range and still have damage to inflict;
• A player must stop a multiple tile movement because they take a Car (see page 14 - Collecting a Car).

Action effects can include many abilities, such as moving your Hero, revealing tiles, inflicting damage to Enemies, and so on (see page 11 - Action Card Effects).

4 - Resolve the Other Played Action Card

The current player reveals the other Action card they played and resolves ALL the effects on it.

5 - Additional Move Using a Car

If they have a Car and there are no Enemies in their space, the current player may move using it as described on the card (see page 14 - Collecting, Using, or Losing a Car).

When a Hero with a Car moves (even using Action cards), they may also transport another 1 willing Hero (without a Car) with them.

6 - Make Noise and Discard the Action Cards Played

The player must now calculate the Noise they created while resolving their actions: This is represented by the number of Noise icons on the Action cards played and resolved. The current player must move the New York Noise cube to the right a number of spaces equal to the total Noise made (see page 16 - Making Noise).

Afterwards, they put the Action cards they played face down in their own discard pile, to the left of their Hero board.

7 - Receive Damage from Enemies in Range

Next, the current player must determine the amount of damage they receive from each Enemy in range (see page 17 - Enemies) and randomly discard that number of Action cards from their hand without revealing them to the other players.

If a player receives more damage than the cards in their hand, they simply ignore that damage.

Usually, only Enemies in your space will inflict damage, but there are some Bosses and some Prisoner Bonuses that let Enemies shoot you from adjacent spaces.

Fortunately, you can avoid damage by:

• Using specific Items (see page 14 - Collecting and Using Item and Weapon Cards);
• Staying in a space with a Shelter (see page 16 - Buildings);
• Staying behind a Roadblock, which prevents Enemy attacks from the other side (see page 19 - Roadblocks).

8 - Level Up

If the current player has completed all the requirements listed on their current Level Bar (which can consist of killing Prisoners and/or discarding Item cards), they level up:

• They remove their current Level Bar and resolve the text revealed on their player board; then
• They flip the next Level Bar over (if present).

Each level gives the player a bonus (see page 15 - Leveling Up and Special Action Cards).

9 - Activate the Building

If there is a Building in the current player's space, they must activate its effect (see page 16 - Buildings).

The New York Phase

The current player now takes actions for New York, making choices for it when needed.

10 - Discard New York's First Action Card to Gain 1 Noise

The current player discards the top card from the New York deck, putting it face up in the New York discard pile (to the right of the New York board). Then, New York gains 1 Noise (see page 18 - Gaining Noise).

11 - Resolve New York's Next Action or Discard It to Gain 1 Noise

If New York has enough Noise, the current player spends the amount of Noise shown on the back of the top card in the New York deck, then they reveal that card and resolve the effects on it. If New York does not have enough Noise, the current player instead discards the top card face up and New York gains 1 Noise.

12 - Move Adjacent Enemies into the Current Hero's Space

The current player moves all disengaged Enemies —that are, Enemies without any Hero in their space— from the adjacent spaces indicated on the back of the top card of the New York deck into their Hero's space if possible.

Enemies cannot move through Roadblocks.

Tricked Enemies cannot move during the turn that they have been tricked.

Enemies cannot move through Manholes when moving this way.

While moving Enemies, ignore the Roadblock icon on the back of New York cards (it is used by some New York cards' abilities).

Winning or Losing the Game

There are 2 ways to win the game and 1 way to lose. The game immediately ends when any victory or losing condition occurs.

Collective Victory

Any number of players can win together if they are in the same space adjacent to a bridge and they collectively reveal:

• The President card;
• The Tape card; and
• The Diagram of Bridge card that matches the adjacent bridge so they can escape;
• and if 1 of them performs a movement action onto the bridge.

It is not required that a player possess any of these cards to win; it is enough to collectively reveal the cards as a group and perform a single movement along the bridge to make all the Heroes in that space victorious.

If you attempt a Collective Victory but you do not collectively reveal all the required cards, flip them facedown and continue the game, with the Heroes still in the space adjacent to the bridge.

Lone Victory

A single player can win alone at any moment of their turn if:

• The President card has been taken by any player AND/OR the top tile on the Timer deck is red;
• Their hero has reached Level 3; and
• They complete both of their Personal Objectives, revealing the required Item or Case card and using a specific means of transport out of the city (see page 14 - Gullfire Counter, page 15 - Helicopter Counter, and page 16 - Suburb (Raft) Counters).

Collective Loss

All players immediately lose if they reveal the red Timer tile that indicates that New York wins the game.

Hero Rules

Action Card Effects

Moving

Action cards frequently allow the player to move their Hero. Note that some Action cards require that there be no Enemies in their space in order to move: if there are any Enemies in their space when these cards resolve, they cannot perform the action (so they skip all of its effects, but they still make Noise).

When they move, they must follow one of the roads on their space to an adjacent revealed tile or a face down POI tile. If there's a Roadblock blocking the road between their tile and the tile they want to move to, they cannot go that way unless the Action card allows them to destroy Roadblocks while moving. If a player's action lets them move and destroy a Roadblock in their way, they remove that Roadblock by flipping the counter to show the open road.

When a Hero moves to another space, that player fully resolves the effects on the Action played. Then, if an Event icon is present, they reveal Event cards (see page 16 - Revealing an Event Card).

Heroes and Enemies cannot move into an empty space: They can move onto revealed City and Central Park tiles, into the revealed spaces around the Library, and onto revealed Point of Interest tiles.

A Hero destroys a Roadblock in their way with the matching Action card only if they pass through the road blocked by the Roadblock.

Reveal an Empty Space

After moving, the player may reveal an unexplored space adjacent to them. This means that if there are any adjacent empty spaces on the map, they choose one empty space, they draw the top tile from a deck (the City deck or the Central Park deck, depending on the space they are revealing) and place it in that space. They may do this even if a Roadblock is blocking the way to that space. When a tile is revealed, add the indicated resources to it (see page 15 - Map Tiles and Their Contents). Event icons, if any, are ignored when revealing tiles: they will be resolved only when a Hero moves to that tile (see page 16 - Revealing an Event Card).

IMPORTANT: A player may reveal a Point of Interest (POI) tile ONLY by moving on the tile or revealing a specific Timer tile.

If the player wants to reveal a City space, they draw the tile from the City deck. If the player wants to reveal a Central Park space, they draw the tile from the Central Park deck.

If there are no adjacent empty spaces, the player does not reveal any tile.

There are many spaces that are already revealed at the beginning of the game: the World Trade Center, the Library, and the 6 spaces around it.

Reveal a Point of Interest Tile

When you move onto a face down POI tile, reveal it and resolve the effect described on the tile. One of the tiles is the Duke's Camp, in which the President is hidden (be aware that when you rescue him, the Duke will enter play). The other tiles have different effects, ranging from having Bosses enter play, obtaining one of the four Cases, or adding Special Action cards to the New York deck.

Reveal a Suburb

If you reveal a space with a face down Suburb token on it, you must flip that token (leaving it on the tile): It adds an additional icon to the map tile just revealed (see page 15 - Map Tiles and Their Contents).

Inflicting Damage on Enemies

When you resolve an Action card or use Items to inflict damage, you may distribute the damage among all Enemies within the range indicated: "range 0" means that you can inflict damage to Enemies in your space while "range 1" also includes any adjacent spaces. A Hero can never attack through a Roadblock (and those Enemies cannot attack them).

Inflicting Damage on Prisoners

Prisoners normally have 1 hit point, so they take only 1 damage to be defeated and they are immediately removed from the game board.

Some New York Action cards may increase Prisoners' hit points. Prisoners do not retain damage they receive between turns, however. In order to kill a Prisoner with more than 1 hit point, a player must inflict ALL of the damage needed to remove it from the board during a single turn, even if this means using multiple Action cards or Items.

As a requirement to level up, many Level Bars show Prisoners icons: until the player's current Level Bar has visible Prisoner icons, the player must place over them Prisoner they kill (see page 15 - Leveling Up and Special Action Cards). When there are no more visible Prisoner icons, all Prisoners killed are returned to the general reserve.

Inflicting Damage on Bosses

Unlike Prisoners, Bosses retain any damage they receive from turn to turn. Each Boss has a dedicated Hit Points Track on the New York board. When their Hit Points marker reaches 0, the Boss is removed from the game. (The only exception is the Duke, who can re-enter play thanks to his special ability.)

Tricking Enemies

When you trick an Enemy, they immediately move it into an adjacent revealed space. They cannot move them through a Roadblock. After moving it, lay the Enemy on its side: they cannot attack or move until the end of the current turn. At the end of the player's turn, after the New York Phase, stand all the tricked Enemies back up.

With a single trick action, you may trick Enemies into different adjacent spaces.

Other Special Effects

There are many other special effects that let players look at cards, move faster, ignore Events, return cards to their hands, and so on. Simply follow the instructions on those cards when resolved.

Personal Abilities

If a player wants, they can avoid revealing 1 Action card played during their turn by using their personal ability instead (see page 16 - Personal Abilities).

Collecting and Losing a Case Card

Collecting a Case Card

There are 2 ways in which a player can collect a Case card:

• Be in a space with a Case token without any Enemies at any point during their turn; or
• Steal a Case card from another player by using a Special Action card.

When a player collects a Case card, they must put it face down in their personal supply (to the right of their Hero board) and put the matching Case token back in its space at the top right of the game board.

Remember that you cannot hold more than 3 cards at a time (including the President, Case, and Item cards). If you collect a fourth card, you must immediately discard a card from your personal supply. A player may look at their own Item and Case cards at any time.

Losing a Case Card

There are 2 ways to lose a Case card:

• Discard it voluntarily from their personal supply; or
• Be robbed by another player through a Special Action card.

If a player voluntarily discards a Case card for any reason, they must:

1. Choose an empty Case slot (so, a slot with a Case token and without a Case card);
2. Put the Case card you want to discard face down in this slot; and
3. Put the matching Case token in their Hero's space, so that other Heroes can collect it.

The President's Bracelet can be revealed during the game: if this happens and a player loses it, it remains revealed for the rest of the game.

Collecting the President Card

There are 2 ways in which a player can collect the President card:

• Be in the Duke's Camp POI space without any Enemies at any point during their turn; or
• Steal the President card from another player by using a Special Action card.

When the President card is collected for the first time by any player, they must:

1. Add 1 Prisoner to each adjacent revealed space around the Duke's Camp;
2. Flip the Helicopter counter, if it has not already been flipped, indicating that the Helicopter has landed (see page 15 - Helicopter Counter); and
3. Reveal ALL the face down POI tiles: for each POI revealed in this way, they must also discard 1 Timer without resolving its effects;
4. Add The Duke on the Nothing Here POI tile.

The President card must be put in the Player's personal supply. There is no way to voluntarily discard it, but the Special Action card "Not My Plan" lets other Heroes steal it. As with the Tape card, the President is required for a Collective Victory.

Collecting and Using Item and Weapon Cards

Collecting an Item Card

A Hero can collect Items in many ways:

• If a Hero is in a revealed space with 1 or more Item cubes at any point during their turn and no Enemies are in that space, they may return (as many time they want) 1 Item cube to the general supply to collect 1 Item card;
• Activating a Gun Shop or Library (see page 16 - Buildings); or
• By using particular Action cards.

When an Item is collected, the player draws the top card from the Item deck and places it face down in their personal supply (to the right of their Hero board). If the deck is empty, they must re-shuffle all the discarded Item cards to create a new deck.

Each Hero can hold up to 3 cards in their supply, including the President, Cases, and Item cards. If they collect a fourth card, they must immediately discard a card (including to level up) from their supply to make space.

A player may look at their own Item and Case cards at any time.

IMPORTANT: Revealed weapon and Car cards are not part of the personal supply (therefore, they're not considered for the maximum limit of 3 cards).

Using an Item Card

Item cards can be used (and immediately discarded) at any time during the player's turn, except during the resolution of an Action card. There is no limit to the number of Items a player can use in the same turn.

Discarding an Item Card

When an Item is discarded in any way, it must be put face down in the Item discard pile.

IMPORTANT: Heroes' starting items, when discarded, are removed from the game.

Collecting and Using Weapon Cards

A Weapon card is treated as an Item card (so it is stored face down like a standard Item) until the player reveals it, which they may do at any time, except during the resolution of an Action card.

Then, the card must be placed face up in their Weapon space (to the top left of their Hero board). Only 1 Weapon can be in this place at a time, so if a Weapon is already present when you add a second one, you must discard the older one.

Some Weapons require Ammo: this is indicated in their text. When you reveal a Weapon with Ammo, you must immediately put as many Ammo cubes on the card as indicated. When you want to use a Weapon of this type, you must spend Ammo as indicated by the card (you do not discard the card, even if it runs out of Ammo).

Other Weapons do not need Ammo and they can be used multiple times without discarding them.

When a player uses a Weapon that makes Noise, they immediately add the Noise to the New York Noise Track. A Weapon cannot have more Ammo than the number shown on it. Some Weapons, once revealed, cannot be spent to level up.

Collecting, Using, or Losing a Car

Collecting a Car

A Hero may acquire an abandoned Car at any point during their turn if it is in their space and there are no Enemies there. When a Hero takes a Car, they stop their movement, they replace its white plastic base with one of their color, then they take 1 Car card from the general supply and place it in the top right space of their Hero board with their Hero figure on it.

Using a Car

A Car grants many abilities to its owner:

• During any type of movement, the player can transport 1 willing Hero (without a Car) in their space with them at no additional cost;
• A Car can be discarded to move through a Roadblock, destroying it (see page 19 - Roadblocks); and
• A Car can be used during the player's turn (after resolving their Action cards) to perform an additional movement.

Losing a Car

A player may lose a Car:

• If they use it to move through a Roadblock, destroying it (see page 19 - Roadblocks); or
• If they decide to abandon it.

If a Car is abandoned, leave it in the Hero's space, replacing their color base with a white one. Return the Car card and place the Hero figure on the space you leave the Car.

If the Cabbie's Taxi is abandoned, remove it from the game instead.

Gullfire Counter

The Gullfire is a means of transport out of the city, used for the matching Personal Objective. At the beginning of the game, this counter is placed on the World Trade Center. During the game, New York can destroy the Gullfire, preventing players from completing a Lone Victory with it.

Helicopter Counter

The Helicopter is a means of transport out of the city, used for the matching Personal Objective. At the beginning of the game, this counter is placed in the center space of Central Park, with the Heliport face up, and may be moved to other Central Park spaces (revealed or unrevealed) using Items and/or by revealing some Timer tiles.

When the President card is taken or the Hurry Up tile is revealed from the Timer deck, this counter must be flipped over (revealing the Helicopter side), indicating that the Helicopter has landed. From this moment on, players can use it (if their Personal Objective says they can) to win the game.

Leveling Up and Special Action Cards

During the game, a player may level up their Hero by satisfying the requirements shown on their current Level Bar. These requirements will be some combination of:

• Killed Prisoners: When the player kills Prisoners, they simply put them on the Level Bar instead of returning them to the general supply.
• Items: During their turn (before leveling up), a player may discard 1 Item card (from their personal supply or from their Weapon slot, if possible) to put an Item cube on their Level Bar.

At the end of their Hero Phase (before Activate the Building), a Hero who has satisfied all the requirements on their revealed Level Bar must level up, removing the bar (returning the Prisoners and/or Items to the general supply) and resolving the text revealed on their player board.

There are different types of effects when leveling up:

• LEVEL 1: The player must take their Special Action cards (placed near the game board at the beginning of the game), choose 1 card, and immediately add it to their hand (return the others to the supply);
• LEVEL 2: The player must take their Special Action cards (placed near the game board at the beginning of the game), choose 1 card, and immediately add it to their hand (return the others to the supply); then, they take 1 Personal Objective deck (blue or purple) of their choice, returning their matching Personal Objective card. Then, they take any one card from this deck (even their previous objective) to become their new Personal Objective;
• LEVEL 3: The player takes 1 Personal Objective deck (blue or purple) of their choice, returning their matching Personal Objective card. Then, they take any one card from this deck (even their previous objective) to become their new Personal Objective;

In addition, the player flips their next Level Bar, revealing the new requirements.

It is not possible to level up more than once each turn.

When a Hero kills a Prisoner with a Car, they take 1 Prisoner from the general supply to put it on their Level Bar.

Map Tiles and Their Contents

Types of Map Tiles

• CITY TILES: These represent the urban streets of New York. They are placed only in black spaces on the game board.
• CENTRAL PARK TILES: These represent the dangerous areas in Central Park. They are placed only in the green spaces on the right side of the game board.
• POINT OF INTEREST TILES (POI): These tiles are the locations where the President, the Cases, and the various Bosses can be found. Unlike other tiles, they can only be revealed when a Hero moves onto them, when a player collects the President card or as a result of some Timer tiles. Flip the tile over and follow the instructions on it.
• LIBRARY: The Library has a special effect like any Building: Activating this Building at the end of their Hero phase, a Hero may draw 1 Item card or returns 1 random discarded Action card to their hand.
• WORLD TRADE CENTER: At the beginning of the game, the Gullfire counter is placed on this tile (see page 14 - Gullfire Counter).

Icons

Most Map tiles show a number of icons. Each icon has a different effect:

• Prisoner: When this icon is revealed, place a Prisoner on the tile.
• Event: When a Hero moves onto this tile or reveals a Timer tile with this icon, they must reveal a number of Event cards equal to the current Event Level.
• Car: When this icon is revealed, place a Car figure here with a red plastic base, indicating that there is a Prisoner inside.
• Item: When this icon is revealed, place 1 Item cube here.
• Manhole: This icon allows Enemies (and some Heroes with Special Action cards) to move to another space with a Manhole icon as if those spaces are adjacent.
• Roadblock: When this icon is revealed, put a Roadblock face up over the icon, blocking the road indicated.

Buildings

Some tiles show a Building. These tiles have a short explanation of the Building's effects:

• SURGERY: Activating this Building at the end of their Hero phase, a Hero returns up to 2 discarded Action cards of their choice to their hand.

• GUN SHOP: Activating this Building at the end of their Hero phase, a Hero chooses between:

  • Drawing 2 Item cards, choosing 1 card to keep and discarding the other one; or
  • Reloading up to 2 Ammo for their Weapon.

  A Weapon cannot have more Ammo than the number shown on it.

• SHELTER: A Hero on this tile ignores all damage they receive as long as they are there.

Suburb (Raft) Counters

At the beginning of the game, Suburb tokens are placed face down on many spaces along the coast. When you reveal a space with a Suburb counter, you must flip it up, revealing the icon on the back. In addition to the standard icons like a normal tile, you may reveal a Raft icon: this indicates there is a Raft there, a means of transport that can be used to complete the matching Personal Objective and complete a Lone Victory.

Making Noise

A Hero makes Noise by performing actions (or through other effects like Weapons or Events cards) which are marked with the Noise icon in the middle of the Action card. The amount of Noise made during a turn is equal to the total of both cards revealed.

When a player makes Noise, they must move the Noise cube on the New York Noise Track up a number of spaces equal to the Noise generated, if possible (see page 18 - Gaining Noise).

New York will spend Noise to perform actions during the New York Phase.

Personal Abilities

All Heroes have an alternative action they may use once per turn during their turn, as described on their player board: Instead of revealing 1 of the Action cards they played, they may use this ability to either inflict 2 damage in their space (range 0) or move 1 space and reveal an empty space next to them. If they use this ability, it always makes 2 Noise. The unrevealed Action card is discarded as normal (without making any Noise).

This ability lets a player move or inflict damage using any Action card: this may be useful to perform an action at a critical time (like having no movement cards in hand) without revealing a Timer tile.

Remember: The Action card you use to perform this action is not revealed to the other players—it might be useful to keep this information secret!

A player may look at their own discarded Action cards at any time.

Receiving Damage from Enemies

When a Hero receives damage from Enemies, they must randomly discard that many Action cards from their hand, if possible.

A player's hand may run out of cards: The player cannot receive any more damage until their next turn, when they must reveal a Timer tile to return all of their discarded Action cards to their hand.

A player may look at their own discarded Action cards at any time.

Revealing an Event Card

Every time a player moves into a space with an Event icon (even if it already occurred in that space), they must resolve their current action, then they reveal a number of Event cards equal to the current Event Level (represented by the number under the current position of the Event Level token on the track in the top left of the game board). Each card must be resolved in order. If the Event deck runs out, re-shuffle all the discarded Event cards to create a new deck.

In the Timer deck, there are tiles which move the Event Level token and force the current player to immediately reveal Event cards.

Revealing Timer Tiles

There are 4 ways to reveal a Timer tile:

• At the beginning of a player's turn, if they want (or are forced) to recover their discarded Action cards; or
• When resolving some New York Action cards; or
• When the President card is taken for the first time (see page 13 - Collecting the President Card); or
• When the last Mission token is moved to the right box by Noise saturation (see page 18 - Noise Saturation).

When a Timer tile is revealed in any way, the current player must resolve the effect described on it.

Remember that when a player reveals a Timer tile to return discarded Action cards to their hand, they must return the discarded cards BEFORE resolving the Timer tile's effect.

The red Timer tiles include 2 tiles with no effect and 1 tile which ends the game, in which case New York wins (and all players lose) (see page 10 - Collective Loss).

When the President card is taken for the first time by any player, the current player is forced to discard (not reveal) as many Timer tiles as the face down Point of Interest (POI) tiles they must reveal. In this case, the effects on the discarded tile must be ignored (except for the red Timer tile which causes the collective loss).

Hurry Up Tile

Before the red Timer tiles, there is the Hurry Up tile. This tile must be revealed immediately when it appears at the top of the Timer deck. It forces the Helicopter to land and lets players (who have reached Level 3) complete their Lone Victory even if the President has not been rescued yet.

If New York forces a Timer tile to be revealed, the current player must resolve it (so the player who played the Hero Phase right before this happens).

New York Rules

Enemies

There are 2 types of Enemies in the game: Prisoners and Bosses. When an ability or a rule refers to an Enemy, it refers without distinction to a Prisoner or to a Boss.

Prisoners

These represent the most common Enemies of New York. They normally have 1 Hit Point, they move 1 space, and they inflict 1 damage in their space (range 0).

During the game, New York may use Special Action cards to power up the Prisoners' characteristics for as long as these cards are in play (they can move faster, inflict more damage at more distance, etc.) or they may collect Cars (which increase by 1 the Prisoner's Hit Points). Remember that Prisoners do not retain damage, so a Prisoner with 2 Hit Points must receive 2 damage in the same turn to be killed, otherwise it returns to 2 Hit Points (see page 11 - Inflicting Damage on Prisoners).

There are 40 Prisoners in the game. If for any reason they run out, New York instead gains 1 Noise for each Prisoner not added to the board. Whenever there is a choice, the current player must choose where to put the last Prisoners.

Bosses

These represent "very important prisoners" of New York. They enter play when specific POI tiles are revealed. When this happens, the current player immediately moves the Boss figure to that POI tile.

Each Boss inflicts different damage with different ranges, has its own ability (shown on the New York board), and, unlike Prisoners, retains damage between turns, using their Hit Points Track.

Note: Romero and Slag both own a Case: if they are killed, remove their figure from the game and place the related Case token in the space where they died.

Note: Bosses (and Prisoners) cannot collect Cases on the game board.

Collecting and Using a Car (New York)

Collecting a Car

A Car enters the game owned by a Prisoner, but when they die, the Car is abandoned. A Prisoner collects an abandoned Car in its space if, at any moment, there are no Heroes in that space.

When a Car is collected by a Prisoner, they stop their movement. Replace the white plastic base with a red one and remove the Prisoner token from the tile, returning it to the reserve.

A Prisoner with a Car has their movement increased by 1 and their Hit Points increased by 1.

A Prisoner with a Car cannot use Manholes to move.

A Prisoner with a Car can be tricked.

A Boss cannot collect a Car, and they cannot be moved with a Car.

Using a Car

When a Prisoner with a Car moves, it gains 1 additional movement point and can transport another disengaged Prisoner along the way (a disengaged Enemy is an Enemy without any Hero in their space).

When a Prisoner with a Car moves, it moves along the fastest route to the current player along which it can take another Prisoner with it if possible (in case of tie, the current player decides).

If a Prisoner with a Car is forced to move through a Roadblock, the Car is removed and the Roadblock is destroyed (flip the counter) (see page 19 - Roadblocks). Place 1 Prisoner in the space to which he just moved.

As long as he owns a Car, the Prisoner's movement and Hit points are increased by 1. When it dies, replace the red plastic base with a white one, indicating that the Car is abandoned.

Gaining Noise

New York may gain Noise in many ways:

• As a result of a player's Action cards;
• When a player uses some Weapons;
• At the beginning of the New York Phase, by discarding the first New York Action card to gain 1 Noise;
• When the Noise cost of an Action card cannot be paid, New York discards it to gain 1 Noise; or
• When an Event card says it does.

Noise Saturation

If New York must gain Noise but the Noise cube is at the highest position on the track (so when New York has 10 Noise), move 1 Mission token (1 for each Noise) from the left to the right box instead. If there are now no Mission cubes in the left box, reveal 1 Timer tile, move the Noise cube back to the lowest position (0 Noise), then return all Mission cubes to the left box. If New York should still gain Noise after moving the Noise cube to the lowest position, gain the remaining Noise as normal.

IMPORTANT: Move the Noise cube back to 0 only when the Noise saturates. When you resolve a New York Action card which moves the last Mission token to the right box, you do not move the Noise cube back.

Inflicting Damage on Heroes

During the Hero Phase, Enemies in range always attack the current Hero.

Remember that Roadblocks prevent Enemies from inflicting damage through them. When a Hero receives damage, they must randomly discard that many Action cards from their hand, if possible (see page 16 - Receiving Damage from Enemies). Normally Prisoners have range 0, but some New York Special Action cards increase this range by 1.

Mission Cubes

At the beginning of the game, New York starts with 4 Mission cubes in the left box on the New York board. During the game, these tokens can be moved from the left to the right box as an effect of some New York Action cards or when New York cannot accumulate more Noise (see Noise Saturation on this page). If all the Mission cubes are in the right box, the current player must reveal 1 Timer tile, then return all the Mission cubes to the left box.

Moving Enemies

Every time New York moves an Enemy, when not otherwise indicated, it must move in the direction of the current player's Hero. When it has to choose which Enemy to move, New York follows these priorities:

• Enemies who can reach the Hero's space (in descending order of movement value and considering also Manholes, as the tiles with Manholes are considered for Enemies movement (see page 15 - Icons)); in case of a tie:
  • Prisoners with Car; then
  • Bosses (in descending order of movement value); then
  • Prisoners;
• Enemies who can't reach the Hero's space, following the same rule to handle ties used for the ones that can.

If there is still a tie, the current player may choose the Enemy they prefer.

IMPORTANT: Engaged Enemies—that is, any Enemies in the same space as a Hero—are not moved by New York or Event cards.

Returning Cards to the New York Deck

If there is only 1 card in the New York deck at any point during the New York Phase, the current player must reshuffle all the New York Action cards in play and discarded (including any cards placed as Prisoner bonuses) to create a new deck.

Roadblocks

There are 2 ways to place Roadblocks:

• When a tile with a Roadblock icon is revealed; or
• When an Action card says so: in this case, the Roadblock must be put on the road indicated on the back of the top card of the New York deck, which shows the layout of a tile indicating the position with the Roadblock icon.

Roadblocks must always be placed face up (the face with the Roadblock icon). When a Roadblock is destroyed, flip the Roadblock counter to cover it. Destroyed Roadblocks still count as open routes, and they are kept on the game board to avoid confusion and make sure that players did not forget to place a Roadblock in the first place.

If a Roadblock must be placed in a position where there is already another Roadblock, ignore the action. If the Roadblock must be put where there is a destroyed Roadblock, flip the destroyed Roadblock to restore it.

If a Roadblock must be placed on a road leading toward a useless position (the river coast or the board perimeter), ignore the action. A Roadblock can be placed to prevent normal movement onto a Bridge, though.

Special Action Cards (New York)

At the beginning of the game, the 3 New York Special Action cards are placed near the game board. These cards are added to the New York deck (shuffling them into the current deck, not into the discard pile) during the game when some POI tiles are revealed. Each of these cards has a special bonus for Prisoners and, when resolved, they are placed above the New York board, clearly showing the bonus.

At any time during New York phase, if there is only 1 card left in the New York deck, the current player must reshuffle all the New York Action cards in play and discarded, (including any revealed Prisoner Bonus card) to create a new deck.

Each Bonus card powers up a characteristic of all the Prisoners in the game (including Prisoners with a Car). Remember that Prisoners with 2 Hit Points do not retain damage between turns, so they must receive 2 damage in the same turn to be killed.

There can be multiple Action cards with Prisoner Bonuses at the same time.

Hard Variants

Set up the game as normal, with one or both of these changes:

• Remove 1 extra black Timer tile;
• Remove 10 Prisoners (you play with 30 Prisoners instead of 40);

Appendix A – Specific Card Explanations

COME ON: When moving with this card's effect, you ignore Roadblocks and any other effect between the starting POI and the destination POI.

I'LL COVER YOU - LET ME THINK - STRONG ANTITOXIN - TAKE A BREATHER: It is not possible to return this exact card to your hand when applying its effect, since it is not considered to be in the discard pile until the effect has been fully resolved.

PRESIDENT'S BRACELET (052): Once revealed, you cannot use the effect of the President's Bracelet anymore: it only works once. You may still complete a Lone Victory with it, though.

AXE: The Axe's additional damage is calculated before distributing damage. For example, if you have the Axe and you use the I'll Cut You Action card (which lets you inflict 2 damage in your space), you will inflict 3 damage in your space, distributing it among Enemies as you want.

STEAL EFFECT ON SPECIAL ACTION CARDS: When stealing Items or Cases this way, you get to choose the card, but you may not look at it before choosing.

Appendix B - Rules for the Stretch Goals

8 ADDITIONAL SPECIAL ACTION CARDS: There are 2 new Special Action cards for each Hero, recognizable by their backs. Add them to the other ones. When a Hero levels up and the player has to choose 1 Special Action card to take, they will be able to choose among the new ones as well.

2 NEW WEAPON CARDS: CROSSBOW: Add these cards to the Item deck to increase its variability. Crossbows allow you to hit Enemies from a distance without making any Noise!

2 NEW EVENT CARDS: EXPLOSION!: Add these cards to the Event deck to increase its variability. Boom!

3 NEW TIMER TILES: Add these to the standard (black) Timer tiles, so that during step 9 of setup, they are all shuffled together.

2 TRAP TILES + 3 TRAP CARDS: Shuffle the Trap tiles with the other City tiles, so that they may be placed on the game board like any other. When you move onto a Trap tile, you must reshuffle all the Trap cards, and then draw a random card: if you reveal the Triggered card, you must apply the trap effect written on the tile; otherwise, nothing happens.

HARD NEW YORK BOT DECK: These 10 cards may be used to increase the difficulty, making the New York Bot more challenging. Just substitute all the standard cards with the new ones. For the future, you may recognize them by the "HARD" label.

Game Variant: Wanted!

2 NEW PERSONAL OBJECTIVES: WANTED! + 3 WANTED CARDS

To play this variant, add the 2 new Personal Objective cards to the corresponding deck before shuffling and assigning Personal Objectives to the Heroes. Keep the 3 Wanted cards near the game board.

Every time you defeat a Boss, you get a Wanted card (if possible). If your Personal Objective is the Wanted one, you may complete the Lone victory if you own at least 1 Wanted card!

Every time the Duke dies, he gives 1 Wanted card to the Hero who defeated him.

Game Variant: Is the President Dead or Alive?

This set of 5 cards may change the destiny of your games. Instead of using the President card, you will shuffle a President deck formed by 3 cards (1 with The President is Dead, 2 with The President is Alive). Replace the standard President's Bracelet with its variant card.

When you reach the Duke's Camp tile and you want to bring the President with you, you will draw the first card of the President deck: if you draw The President is Alive, you will receive the President card as normal: If you draw the President is Dead, however, you and the other Heroes will be forced to complete a Lone Victory (in this case, you continue playing as if the President was rescued).

Beware: During the game, you may find the President's Finger or gather the President's Bracelet (in its new version) to remove 1 President is Alive card from the President deck before he is rescued to make the Collective Victory harder or even impossible!

Variant Art Hero Figures and Hero Boards

You may use whichever you prefer: only the aesthetics change, while rules-wise they are the same as the standard ones!