Fled Rulebook

Table of Contents

The Bits
Setup
Playing the Game
- The Rooms & Contraband Locations
Playing a Turn
End of Game
- The Winner
- A Few Hints
Credits

The Bits

57 Room Tiles
4 Reference Tiles
1 Starting Yard Tile
4 Roll Call Tiles
4 Prisoner Tiles — 1 in each of 4 player colors
4 Bunk Tiles — 1 in each of 4 player colors
4 Meeples — 1 in each of 4 player colors
1 Whistle Charm
1 Governor Tile
1 Chaplain Warder
3 Regular Warders
3 Rulebooks — German, French & English

Setup

Shuffle the Room Tiles and place them skull side up into several stacks to one side of the table. With 2 players, remove the six tiles marked for 3+ players.

Find the Starting Yard Tile and place it in the center of the table with a warder meeple on top (not the chaplain).

The prison can expand up to 6 squares from the yard tile, so be sure to leave ample room.

Select a Prisoner Tile and matching Bunk Tile in your preferred color, then place your prisoner tile to the right of a Reference Tile in front of you. Return any unused prisoner, bunk, and reference tiles to the box.

Place the Governor Tile to the side of the board opposite the room tiles stacks and put the Whistle Charm on top. Shuffle the 4 Roll Call Tiles and place them one by one to the left of the Governor tile with all windows closed except for the tile adjacent to the Governor, which should be open.

From the draw stacks, each player draws a hand of five room tiles keeping them hidden from opponents. Select a starting player at random. In turn order, connect the corridor side of your bunk tile to the yard in any orthogonal orientation and place your meeple onto your Bunk. You are now ready to begin the game. If you like, you may sound the whistle to alert players that the Governor expects them to be in a bunk room as shown on his poster!

Playing the Game

The object of Fled is to score the most victory points (vp) while trying to escape from prison!

Throughout the game, you will manage a hand of tiles. Each turn you will add a tile to the prison and then discard others to move from room to room while collecting contraband.

But beware! If you are not in the right room when the Governor summons you to roll call, a nearby warder could put you in shackles, or worse—send you to solitary confinement!

Some rooms, like the Warder's Quarters, allow you to trade your contraband for the tools you'll need to get past the outer wall.

Do not lose faith! Father Lyons is a sympathetic chaplain warder who has been known to free captives from more than their sins!

So, give it a lash and rid yourself of this God-forsaken place!

The Rooms & Contraband Locations

Yard
Corridor
Bunk
Mess Hall
Washroom
Warder's Quarters
Courtyard
Forest

Playing a Turn

Beginning with the starting player and proceeding clockwise, each player takes a turn consisting of three steps:

Step 1: Add 1 Tile to The Prison
Step 2: Play 2 More Tiles in various ways
Step 3: Replenish Your Hand to 5 tiles

Tiles are marked with symbols showing their type: a Tool, Contraband, a Shamrock, an Egress, or a Room Type.

The man in charge of the prison was called The Governor.

Step 1: Add 1 Tile to The Prison

At the beginning of your turn, you must add a tile from your hand to the prison. When doing so, you must observe a few placement rules.

Placement Rules

First, you must lay a tile with a Gold Scroll if possible! Otherwise, you may lay down another tile in your hand.

Second, you must connect at least one-half of your tile to a matching room type (yard to a yard), and you may never place a tile in a way that connects a door to a window.

Archways are versatile and can connect to windows, doors or other archways!

Third, the Forest must make up the perimeter of the prison, which is exactly six squares from the starting tile, and never closer. No other room type may occupy the sixth square, nor may you add rooms beyond the sixth square.

If none of the tiles in your hand can be added to the prison, add 1 of your tiles to the right of the Governor's tile to a growing line of tiles there. These tiles make up the Governor's inventory.

Warder, Chaplain & Moon Symbols

If you add a tile to the prison featuring a warder and moon symbol, you must do two things! First, add a new warder meeple to that tile. (Warders may pose a threat if you are not in the correct rooms). If the tile features a cross symbol, make sure it's the chaplain warder!

Second, the moon symbol alerts you to flip the open window roll call tile to its closed window side. Afterwards, flip the tile to the left further from the Governor to its open window side. This signifies the passage of time throughout the game, and lets players know when they might attempt a nighttime escape! (More on that later). Note: When flipping roll call tiles, make sure not to move the whistle charm from its current tile.

Step 2: Play 2 More Tiles

After adding a tile to the prison, you must play two more tiles in various ways. You may repeat a single way, or mix them up as follows:

2a. Discard a tile to move your pawn or a warder

Tile items depicted on the purple and gold scrolls are tools. When discarded from your hand, tools allow you to move your pawn (or a warder if playing a whistle) orthogonally from room to room.

A tool on a gold scroll doubles the symbol's effect.

A shamrock is a good-luck charm and gives you special privileges! First, it is "wild" and may count as any single-use tool. Next, one or more shamrocks added to your "inventory" increases its capacity by 1 tile. We'll learn more about your inventory later!

Tools

A key lets you move your pawn from one room to the next through any door, or doors, connecting them. Note: Some "rooms" occupy the entire tile and are considered one room.

A file lets you move your pawn from one room to the next through a window, or windows, connecting them.

A shoe lets you move your pawn from one room to the next through two adjacent archways. A single archway connected to a door or window would require a key or file, respectively.

A spoon lets you move your pawn from one room with a tunnel to any other room with a tunnel up to three (six if doubled) orthogonal rooms away.

A whistle lets you activate and move one warder 0-3 rooms and then target any prisoner occupying his same room. Warders may move through archways or doors, but not tunnels or windows!

Important: After resolving its effects, move the whistle charm one tile left (or loop it back to the Governor's tile). If you like, you may sound the whistle to alert players about the new rooms they are expected to occupy.

The Warders

When playing a whistle to activate a warder (not the chaplain), you may target and shackle one prisoner in the same room provided the room does not match any of the room posters above the whistle charm.

Randomly draw a tile from that player's hand and place it face down to the left of his reference tile. That player is now shackled with a -1vp tile!

If the player was already shackled, do not draw a tile from his hand. Instead, send the player back to his bunk and remove his shackles, surrendering the tile face up into the Governor's inventory.

Solitary Confinement

If the solitary confinement tile is part of the prison when an already shackled player is targeted, that player must place his meeple in the confinement hole on that tile. On his next turn, he moves his meeple to his bunk (losing that turn), and surrenders the shackle tile to the Governor.

Note: When entering this tile normally, stand to one side of the hole.

The Chaplain

When playing a whistle to activate the chaplain, you may target one prisoner in the same room (usually yourself) to be set free of his shackles. (The player surrenders the shackle tile face up to the Governor's inventory). Additionally, the chaplain allows you to exchange contraband for tools and shamrocks—more on that later.

In the 1850s, the prison's chaplain, Father Timothy F. Lyons, was a great ally to the prisoners, concerning himself with their "moral and physical welfare."

The Escape!

If you are on a space adjacent to a forest, and you have the required tools depicted on the folded parchment in your inventory, you may discard them to escape! This is a free action and may be done at any time during your turn. Once you cross into the forest, your turn is over. If it is nighttime (the whistle charm is on a roll call tile showing the moon), you will only need 1 tool. Remember, a tool on a gold scroll represents two tools, while a shamrock may be any single-use tool.

2b. Surrender a tile face up into the Governor's inventory

If you have unplayable tiles, and/or hope to draw better tiles, surrender a tile to the Governor! Simply place it face up to the right of Governor in his inventory. Tip: While tiles in the Governor's inventory may be drawn by other players, they can also be drawn by you later!

2c. Add a tile to your inventory

Adding contraband, tools and shamrocks into your inventory is the path to victory! Tiles in your inventory are worth the vp depicted on the starting yard tile and may be traded for other tiles or used to escape!

Your inventory is to the right of your prisoner tile and can hold up to 3 tiles (4 if you have one or more shamrocks in your inventory). Here's how to add tiles:

Adding a contraband to your inventory

Tile items depicted on the teal scrolls are contraband. If your meeple is in a room matching either of the room posters on the roll call tile with the whistle charm, you may transfer the matching contraband item from your hand face up into your inventory at no cost. Thematically, you are finding contraband in that room!

For example, the whistle charm is on a roll call tile depicting a bunk and stamp symbol. The orange player's pawn is in a bunk room, so on his turn, he transfers a stamp contraband tile from his hand into his inventory at no cost!

The Contraband

Stamps in The Bunks
Combs in The Washroom
Buttons in The Yard
Plum Cake in The Mess Hall

Adding a tool/shamrock to your inventory

If your meeple is in a warder's quarters, or in the same room with the chaplain, you may transfer a tool or shamrock from your hand to your inventory by paying the cost in contraband items from your inventory.

The cost shown on your reference tile indicates that a tool on a purple scroll costs 1 contraband item, while a shamrock or a tool on a gold scroll costs 2 contraband items. Discard the contraband item(s) next to the draw stacks. Thematically, you are sneakily trading contraband for escape tools or a good-luck charm!

Step 3: Replenish Your Hand

Replenish your hand back up to 5 tiles by drawing from the draw stacks. If you wish, one of the tiles drawn may come from the Governor's inventory.

If there are no tiles left to draw, reshuffle the tiles left in the discard pile to form new draw stacks.

End of Game

The end of the game will be triggered in one of two ways.

1. Hard Labor

The moment a player is unable to replenish his hand to five tiles from either the draw stack or Governor's inventory, the game immediately ends and the Governor summons everyone to hard labor in the quarry! In this scenario, no one escapes, but players will still earn victory points for their collected inventory (or lose points for their shackles).

2. Escape!

When a player escapes, he flips his prisoner tile over to reveal the escape symbol (worth 5 vp) and his turn ends immediately. Each other player may then take one final turn (even if tiles are unavailable for replenishment).

Note: Warders may not follow a prisoner into the forest.

Prisoners escaping past the outer wall still had to make their way to the edge of the island and across Cork harbor—a daring feat realized by three inmates in 1921.

The Winner

Players sum the victory points based on the scroll color on each of their remaining inventory tiles as well as a flipped escape tile, which reveals a white scroll. The starting yard tile shows the VP value of each colored scroll. Players subtract 1 victory point for having a shackle. Tiles left in your hand do not score. The player with the most vp is the winner—even if he did not escape.

If there is a tie, the player with the highest-valued scroll on a tile is the winner. If there is still a tie, players share the victory.

A Few Hints

Early on, focus on being in the correct roll call rooms to increase your chances of finding contraband.
Be mindful of the Governor's inventory as you can use these tiles to your advantage—even ones that you purposefully discard there to use later. This frees up your hand to draw more tiles.
Adding tools and shamrocks to your inventory while in the warder's quarters can still win you the game—even if you do not manage to escape!

Credits

During the famine, Ireland was not a land flowing with ample resources! So, Edmond Power took matters into his own hands. First, he snatched a pint of milk off a float. Later, when he tried to swipe an entire cow, the local constable promptly herded him off to Spike Island prison aboard a paddle steamer.

Bagging a bovine is one thing, but who could blame fellow pickpocketer Thomas O'Neill for nabbing a silk neckerchief from the ship's cargo? The ship's captain, that's who! "It was for my sweet Colleen," he pleaded, but the truth is, he had already traded it for a snuff of tobacco in a less-than-holy covenant.

To Father Lyons, some rules were meant to be broken—especially if they "hindered the well-being of one's soul"! Perhaps this is why this chaplain clandestinely traded in contraband while conducting mass in the chapel.

I want to thank my original playtesters, Melanie and Elizabeth Swanson; and subsequent playtesters Joe Wiggins, Jonathan Sessions, Adam Boisclair and Kyle Huebotter. I am greatly indebted to developer Seth Jaffee. I am also grateful to my keen-eyed rulebook editors including Philip Shearrer and Jonathan Cox. A heaping of thanks goes out to my artist Klemens Franz for his whimsical lines and cheeky storytelling. Thank you, Stephen Noce, my animator, for artful motions that move the soul. Finally, I thank my dear wife and my precious children for filling my life with joy.

Your Cailín was heartbroken upon hearing the news of her beloved Thomas. Hoping to brighten his spirits, she mailed him a parcel containing a pocketwatch with her portrait tucked inside. "Perhaps, being punctual to roll call will earn him favor with the Governor," she pondered.

No prisoner had been more lovestruck than James Cleary. He even changed his last name to secretly wed two women at the same time! Neither wife took kindly to his deception, nor did the magistrate who charged him with bigamy.

The only passion that plagued burglar Denis Hourigan was the thought of escaping! With great diplomacy, he traded stamps and buttons in the shadows of the warder's quarters to score a spoon or file—any artifact that might extract him from the island dungeon! When his Auntie sent him a cake for Christmas, he reluctantly peddled it for a skeleton key!