Mayday!Mayday! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Luggage (Contents)
• Fasten Your Seatbelts (Setup)
• Most Important Guidelines
• The First Suspicions
• Determine a Flight Captain and Form a New Cockpit Crew
  • Phase 1 — Half of the Crew Gets the 'Benefit of the Doubt'
  • Phase 2 — Then 2 of Them Become 'Reliable'
  • Phase 3 — And 1 of These 2 Will Be the New 'Captain'
• End Phase — Form the New Cockpit Crew
• Expansion for Seasoned Crewmembers: Veteran Cards

Luggage (Contents)

• 24 Identity cards: card back, 13x Honest, 11x Infiltrator (the Infiltrator side shows a cracked flight pin).
• 4 Status cards: with a Benefit of the Doubt side and a Reliable side.
• 9 Veteran cards.
• 5 Cockpit Access cards: each with a numbered Skirmish card on the other side.
• 8 Crewmember cards: 1 per player color, with a Punch side and a Protect side.
• 4 Knowledge markers in each of the 8 colors: each tile has an Honest side and an Infiltrator side.

Fasten Your Seatbelts (Setup)

1. Each player is a flight crewmember and takes a Crewmember card and the 4 corresponding Knowledge markers. Crewmembers are called CM below.

2. Take the FIRST SKIRMISH card (no. 1) from the 9 Veteran cards. Then shuffle the remaining 8 cards and remove 1, 2, 3 or 4 cards in case of respectively 8, 7, 6 or 5 CM. Now add the FIRST SKIRMISH card again, shuffle and deal each CM 1 card. Only the CM with the FIRST SKIRMISH card reveals it. He gets the Skirmish card with the big number equal to the number of CM. The CM with this card is called the Skirmish-CM.

3. Place Status cards in the center:

   • With 5 or 6 CM: 3 Status cards. The 'Benefit of the Doubt' sides up.
   • With 7 or 8 CM: 4 Status cards. The 'Benefit of the Doubt' sides up.

4. Place Cockpit Access cards in the center:

   • With 5 CM: place 2 Cockpit Access cards.
   • With 6 or 7 CM: 3 Cockpit Access cards. With 8 CM: 4 Cockpit Access cards.

5. Give each CM 1 Honest and 1 Infiltrator Identity card.

6. Mix a number of the remaining Identity cards:

   • With 5 CM: 3 Honest and 2 Infiltrator cards. With 6 CM: 4 Honest and 2 Infiltrator cards.
   • With 7 CM: 4 Honest and 3 Infiltrator cards. With 8 CM: 5 Honest and 3 Infiltrator cards.

   Give each CM 1 of these Identity cards. Each CM must keep his card secret from all other CM! This card determines if you belong to the Honest or to the Infiltrators team.

7. Each CM shuffles his 3 Identity cards and places these side-to-side, backside up, in front of himself. Remember if you are Honest or Infiltrator, because you may not look at these cards anymore!

   Example: The start situation of the Red CM (three shuffled Identity cards face-down, plus his 4 Knowledge markers and his Crewmember card). In another example, the Green CM got the FIRST SKIRMISH Veteran card.

8. Now one CM must say "All CM (including me) close their eyes.", then says "The infiltrators open their eyes and look at each other.", then "The infiltrators close their eyes again.", and finally says "All CM open their eyes.". So that only the infiltrators know who are the infiltrators.

Most Important Guidelines

• Once you've seen an Identity card of a CM, you are not allowed to check a card of the same CM later! Never!!! So you know maximum 1/3 of another CM's identity.
• When you must look at an Identity card of a CM, make sure that only you see this card and no-one else!!
• You can always tell whatever you want to tell! (Except if a used Veteran card says you must keep quiet.)

The First Suspicions

The Skirmish-CM first looks at the nearest Identity card of the neighbor to his right. He tells what he sees by placing one of his Knowledge markers at this card: 'Honest' or 'Infiltrator'. An infiltrator can place a false Knowledge marker. Honest crewmembers cannot lie. Then the Skirmish-CM looks at the nearest card of the neighbor to his left, and tells what he "sees" by placing a Knowledge marker there too.

Then the neighbor to his left self looks at the nearest card of first his right and then his left side neighbor and places a Knowledge marker each time.

Then the next CM clockwise looks at his neighbors' cards in the same fashion, and so on until only the middle card of each CM remains unseen.

Example: The Red CM's both neighbors looked at one card. The Blue neighbor says he saw an Honest card. Orange says he saw an Infiltrator card.

Determine a Flight Captain and Form a New Cockpit Crew

All CM together decide who get the 'Benefit of the Doubt' (in Phase 1). Then 2 of those CM are promoted to 'Reliable' (in Phase 2), and finally 1 of those 2 becomes the new captain (in Phase 3). The captain has Cockpit Access. All others can receive that in the End Phase.

Phase 1 — Half of the Crew Gets the 'Benefit of the Doubt'

Step A: On the Skirmish card the arrow shows which CM must look at 1 of the 3 cards (free choice) of the Skirmish-CM and must place a Knowledge marker at this card to tell what it is (or to lie). It can happen (if Veteran cards are used or in Phase 3) that the designated CM saw a card of the Skirmish-CM already or has no remaining Knowledge markers. Then the neighbor to his right will look at a card. If that, too, is not possible, then the neighbor to his left looks. If that is also not possible, no-one looks at a card.

Step B: All CM (except the Skirmish-CM himself) simultaneously choose to Punch or Protect the Skirmish-CM. CM hide their choice under their Veteran card, but hold their player color visible. Once everyone has chosen, each reveals his choice. Count the number of Punch and Protect choices.

• If half or more of the cards tell Protect: the Skirmish-CM gets one of the 'Benefit of the Doubt' cards.
• If the majority tells Punch: he doesn't get that Status card and rotates his left and right Identity card by one quarter.

Example: The Red CM chose to Punch or Protect. His choice is hidden under his Veteran card, which arrows point towards the Skirmish-CM. The Green CM gets Punched by most other CM, so Green doesn't get the 'Benefit of the Doubt'. Green still can Punch/Protect self later and inspect Identity cards.

Step C: Give the Skirmish card clockwise to the next CM who didn't get Punched/Protected in Phase 1 yet. Go to Step A, B and C again.

All 'Benefit of the Doubt' cards from the center must go to CM, so Phase 1 ends once:

• all those cards are allocated, or if
• the number of remaining 'Benefit of the Doubt' cards is equal to the number of CM without that card and without rotated Identity cards. Then these CM get the remaining 'Benefit of the Doubt' cards.

Phase 2 — Then 2 of Them Become 'Reliable'

Phase 2 proceeds the same as Phase 1, but:

• The Skirmish card moves clockwise each time to the first-next CM with a 'Benefit of the Doubt' card.
• Now the arrow on the Skirmish card shows who must look at a card.
• If the Skirmish-CM gets enough Protection, then he flips his Status card from 'Benefit of the Doubt' to 'Reliable'. While if a majority Punches, his Status card gets discarded.

Phase 2 ends once:

• 2 CM reached 'Reliable' status. Discard remaining 'Benefit of the Doubt' cards. Or if
• only 2 CM with 'Benefit of the Doubt' status remain and no-one else reached 'Reliable' status yet, or if only 1 CM with 'Benefit of the Doubt' status remains and just 1 other CM reached 'Reliable'. Then the CM with 'Benefit of the Doubt' promote to 'Reliable'.

Phase 3 — And 1 of These 2 Will Be the New 'Captain'

Phase 3 proceeds the same as Phase 1 and Phase 2, but:

• The Skirmish card goes clockwise to the first-next CM with a 'Reliable' card.
• Now the arrow on the Skirmish card shows who must look at a card.
• If the Skirmish-CM gets Protected enough, he is the captain. If a majority Punches, the other 'Reliable' CM is the captain. Both CM discard their 'Reliable' card. Flip the Skirmish card to its Cockpit Access side and give it to the captain. Now the captain shuffles his 3 Identity cards (!) and shows them to reveal his identity. (Don't move the Knowledge markers.) If he is Infiltrator, the infiltrators win. If the captain is Honest, the challenge continues...

End Phase — Form the New Cockpit Crew

First: the captain can choose a CM, with an unused Knowledge marker, and tells at which other CM he must look at an Identity card.

Second: the captain gives another CM one Cockpit Access card from the center of the table. Now this CM shuffles and shows his 3 Identity cards. If he is Infiltrator, that team wins. If he is Honest, he now does the same as the captain did (so continue at First). This repeats until all honest CM got a Cockpit Access card and save the flight. As soon as an infiltrator gets Cockpit Access, they win. Important: a CM with a Cockpit Access card cannot look at Identity cards of other CM anymore!

Expansion for Seasoned Crewmembers: Veteran Cards

Only the CM who did already fly twice on flight LK-886 (so possibly not the complete crew), can use the skill on their Veteran card. (This doesn't count for the FIRST SKIRMISH card.) When using a Veteran card, the rules above still apply. So:

• you are not allowed to see a card at a CM where you looked at a card already,
• you can only look at a card if you still have a Knowledge marker,
• a CM with Cockpit Access cannot look at cards anymore.

Veteran rules:

• You can use the skill only once and whenever you like.
• The 4 cards about inspecting an Identity card, you can use at any moment before a card is seen.
• A used Veteran card you still hold for hiding your Protect/Punch card. Keep it face-up to show it is used.

The skills are:

1. FIRST SKIRMISH: Reveal this card immediately. Place the Skirmish card, with the right CM number, in front of you.
2. I LOOK AT OTHER CREWMEMBER: When you must look at a card, then choose a card of another CM. (Not one of your own cards, and the Skirmish card doesn't move.)
3. DON'T LOOK AT THAT CREWMEMBER: When another CM must look at a card, you choose the CM whose card will be looked at. (The Skirmish card doesn't move.)
4. DON'T LOOK AT THAT CARD: When another CM must look at a card, you choose which of the 3 cards the CM picks.
5. DON'T LOOK! I WILL LOOK: Say 'Don't look!'. Instead, you will look at 1 of the 3 cards.
6. OTHER CREWMEMBER MUST LOOK: Say 'Don't look!'. Instead, you choose who will look at 1 of the 3 cards.
7. THE SKIRMISH IS ABOUT ANOTHER CREWMEMBER: Place the Skirmish card in front of another CM. (It must be a CM who isn't already excluded from becoming the captain. If you use this card between Step A and Step B, then the game continues at Step B, so no extra card gets seen.)
8. SELF-KNOWLEDGE: Look at 1 of your own 3 Identity cards and place one of your 'knowledge' tiles.
9. LISTEN!: Say 'Listen!'. Now only you are allowed to speak. (Until a CM made a choice.)

An expansion set for a 9th/10th player is planned. For 9/10 players the rules are the same. The extra cards show how many cards get used.