Gadget Trick
Gadget Trick Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- Trick cards: 60 (10 each in 6 colours). Any card described only as "card" refers to these.
- Surveillance cards: 8
- Gadget cards: 12
Player count: 3–6. Playing time: about 20 minutes. Age: 10+.
Card Guide
Front side (face-up):
- Trick card: a suit (shown as a colour and icon, here yellow with a key) and a number.
- Surveillance card: an activation condition (作動条件) and a removal condition (脱落条件).
- Gadget card: the gadget's effect.
Back side (face-down):
- Trick card: a plain argyle pattern.
- Surveillance card: marked "Sensor" (監視カード).
- Gadget card: marked "Gadget" (ガジェットカード).
Setup
- Shuffle the surveillance cards and the gadget cards separately, face-down.
- Shuffle the trick cards face-down, using only the cards of (number of players + 1) colours. Return the rest of the trick cards to the box.
- Use (number of players + 1) × 10 trick cards.
- With 6 players, use 60 cards, the same as for 5 players (5 colours).
- Draw 2 surveillance cards and place them face-up in a row.
- Choose the gadget cards to use:
- Deal 2 gadget cards face-down to each player. Return any gadget cards not dealt to the box.
- Each player looks only at their own 2 gadget cards.
- Each player chooses 1 gadget to use and places it face-down in front of them. Return the unchosen card face-down to the box.
- When everyone has chosen, all players turn their chosen gadget cards face-up at the same time.
- Draw 1 card from the well-shuffled trick cards and place it face-up in the centre of the play area. This card's suit (colour or pattern) becomes the trump suit (切札のスート).
Dealing and First Lead
The source prints these steps in the upper-right panel of the rules sheet, before the game-flow section. They are placed here as the final setup steps.
- Deal 10 trick cards to each player. With 6 players, deal 9 each.
- Each player's dealt cards form their hand. Each player alone looks at their own hand.
- Decide the first lead (the player who plays the first card of the first trick) by any of these:
- the player who named the gadget they use and whose gadget was most popular;
- the player who most recently used an unusual tool;
- rock-paper-scissors or another suitable method.
- Draw 1 more surveillance card, place it face-up beside the other 2, and return any unused surveillance cards to the box.
Game Flow
- The game lasts up to 9 tricks.
- Normally, 1 card is left in each hand after the 9th trick.
- With 6 players, the game ends after 8 tricks.
- Each trick is played in this order:
- Playing cards
- Determining the winner
- Activating surveillance cards
1. Playing Cards
- The lead player plays 1 card. Then each other player, going clockwise (the turn moves to the player on the left), plays 1 card.
- The lead player may play any card.
- Every other player must play a card of the lead suit (the suit of the lead card), if they have one.
- If they have no card of the lead suit, they may play any card.
- Example: the lead plays a blue card, and the hand holds the cards shown. Since the player has blue cards (1 and 5), they must play a blue 1 or a blue 5. If the player had no blue cards, they could play any card.
2. Determining the Winner
- After every player has played 1 card, determine the winner.
- Normally, the player who played the highest-numbered card of the lead suit wins.
- However, if any trump-suit card was played, the player who played the highest-numbered trump card wins.
- Exception: if several players tie for the highest number among the winning suit, the player who played their card earlier wins.
- The trick winner takes all the cards played in this trick and places them face-up in front of themselves.
- Tip printed on the sheet: arrange the cards to match the items checked by the surveillance cards.
Example of trick results (lead card: blue 5; trump suit: red, shown as the crown):
- Top example: no trump card was played, so the highest-numbered card of the lead suit wins. The blue 7 wins.
- Bottom example: the red 3 is a card of the trump colour, so it wins. If several red cards had been played, the one with the highest number would win.
3. Activating Surveillance Cards
- Check the face-up surveillance cards one at a time, to see whether any player meets a card's condition.
- Basically, it is the winner of this trick who activates the surveillance cards.
- If a player meets even one condition, that player is caught by the surveillance eye and is immediately removed (脱落).
- A removed player keeps their hand face-down in front of them and does not show it to the others.
- Even when a condition is met, the surveillance card is not discarded. It stays face-up in play. For this reason, several players may be removed by the same surveillance card.
Surveillance Cards
- Each game uses 3 surveillance cards.
- Two of them are already known from the survey of the mansion, so they are face-up from the start.
- The third is only discovered once the players enter the mansion, so it is revealed right after the game starts.
- Detailed rules for surveillance cards:
- Unless a card specifies otherwise, all surveillance cards activate on every trick. In each trick, all three are checked.
- If a surveillance card has an activation condition, check it only when the condition is met.
- A card that activates only on specific tricks is checked for removal only on those tricks.
- Several players may be removed at the same time by one surveillance card. This can happen especially with surveillance cards that activate in the late game.
- Check every surveillance card that activates, even after one player has already been removed. Continue checking the other cards if they are needed.
- Order matters for some gadgets. Process the surveillance cards in the order they were revealed at the start of the game.
- With 6 players, the activation conditions change:
- "Trick 8" becomes "Trick 7".
- "Tricks 1–7" becomes "Tricks 1–6".
Next Trick
- If the trick is over and the end condition is not met, the winner of this trick leads the next trick.
- Exception: if the winner of the trick was removed, the player who would have come next after the winner (in the order of play) becomes the new lead.
Gadget Cards
Gadget cards are dealt to the players at the start of the game. They have powerful effects.
- A gadget card's effect is always active unless the card is removed. Because the effects are so strong, they cannot be temporarily switched off.
- A gadget card's effect takes priority over the rules. It expands, restricts or changes the normal rules.
- When gadgets have opposing effects, the restricting effect takes priority.
- As a limited example: a gadget that increases the trump suit is cancelled by a gadget that nullifies trump cards.
- When different gadgets are resolved at the same timing, resolve them in the order the cards were played, starting from the lead player at that moment.
- All trick cards placed on a gadget (stacked on it or otherwise placed on it) are considered won by that gadget's owner.
- These cards are included when checking for removal.
End of the Game and Victory
The game ends when either of these conditions is met.
- After the 9th trick (the 8th trick with 6 players):
- If the winner of the 9th [8th] trick was not removed, they have obtained the goal treasure, and they win.
- If the winner of the 9th [8th] trick was removed, the winner is the player who has not been removed and has won the most cards.
- If several players are tied, the winner is the one among them who has won the fewest trump-suit cards.
- If it is still undecided, all of those players are winners.
- At the end of a trick, when all but one player has been removed: the rivals have all been caught. There is no need to panic, so steal the treasure at leisure and escape. The one remaining player wins.
- At the end of a trick, when all players have been removed: the excellent surveillance system (or the inexperience of the players in using gadgets) caught everyone. The game is a draw.