Meeple Detective Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Story
• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Action Phase
  • Investigation Phase
  • End of the Game
  • Scoring
    • 1. Bunnet & Crowllector
    • 2. Phantom
    • 3. Zara
    • 4. Bluffing Box
  • Determining the Winner
• Variant: Special Detective Skills
• Variant Solo: Lonely Detective
• Variant Solo: Cyber Detectives
• Variant: Real Detective

Story

Finally, Meeple detectives arrive at Phantom's hideout, a villain kidnapper but Phantom leaves no trace.

Therefore, you must find the hiding place of two minions that is important in the capture of Phantom!!

Components

• 25 Room cards: 13 Event room cards, 4 Clue room cards, 8 Hostage room cards
• 12 Time cards: 4 Investigation cards, 8 Empty room cards
• 5 Detective cards
• 5 Scoring cards
• 30 Detective meeples (6 meeples in each of 5 colours)

Setup

1. Each player chooses 1 detective card and 6 meeples.
2. Shuffle all Hostage room cards and randomly remove 1 from the game. Everyone cannot see which card was removed.
3. Shuffle the 24 remaining room cards and set them into a 4x6 grid according to the picture on page 3.
4. Place the scoring cards according to the picture on page 3 (the back of each card is the variant, difficult mode).
5. Separate 4 Empty room cards and shuffle the 8 remaining Time cards to form a draw pile, then place the 4 separate Empty room cards on top of the pile as shown on page 3.
6. The first player is selected at random, or is the player who has read a detective novel recently. Then the 1st-3rd players each secretly peek at 1 card, and the 4th-5th players each peek at 2 cards (starting with the first player and going clockwise).

Play clockwise.

Gameplay

Action Phase

On each turn, the player must flip 1 card and secretly look at 1 card that is adjacent to the card they just opened face up.

Example: If this card is flipped, the card that can be secretly looked at will be a card that is adjacent (above, below, left, and right) to its position that the player just flipped.

Check whether the recently flipped card is an Event room card or not.

• Yes! The player draws 1 Time card. If the Time card that is opened is:
  • Face-up Time cards are placed above the Event room card that was just opened.
  • (A) Investigation room card: enter the investigation phase (see page 5). At the end of the investigation phase, the next player then continues to play.
  • (B) Empty room card: nothing happens; the next player then continues to play.
• No! Nothing happens; the next player then continues to play.

Investigation Phase

Start with the player who drew this card and play clockwise. Each player chooses one:

1. Place Meeple(s): Place 1-2 meeples on any room card to score (see how to score on pages 6, 7, 8). If that card does not have a meeple, place 1 meeple (and be considered as the player with "place first"), but if available, place 2.
2. Do not place Meeple: Do not place a meeple.

End of the Game

When all 4 investigation phases have been completed, the game will end immediately and the score is calculated (see the scoring phase on pages 5, 6, 7).

Scoring

Flip all face-down room cards and check whether the player's meeples match the scoring card. There are 4 methods.

1. Bunnet & Crowllector

• The minion's hideout is the intersection of 2 Clue room cards of that minion.
• One of the Clue room cards will indicate vertical and the other will indicate horizontal.
• Place first: score 3 points. Next: score 1 point.

Page 6 shows two example layouts. The position marked "A" is the minion's hideout.

2. Phantom

• Phantom's hideout is the intersection of 2 minions, found by looking at the symbol on the minions' scoring cards.
• Place first: score 5 points. Next: score 2 points.

3. Zara

• Zara's hideout is in a Hostage room card without pairs.
• All score 2 points.

Page 7 example: the arrow points to the empty space, labelled "Hostage room cards that removed when setup", i.e. the Hostage room card removed during setup is the one placed into that space.

4. Bluffing Box

• The position of the Bluffing Box will appear when a player places a meeple in a room that doesn't answer 1-3.
• The Bluffing Box gives many points to the player who places first only (award for bluffing).
• Place only: score -1 point.
• Place many players: only the first player scores X points (where X equals the number of players on that card).

Page 8 example: a pink player scores 3 points on a card with 3 players; a pink player alone on a card scores -1 point.

Determining the Winner

1. Sum the total points for answers 1-4. The player with the highest final score wins.
2. In the case of a tie, the player who has the most meeples wins.
3. If still tied, the players share victory.

Variant: Special Detective Skills

Play as normal, but with an additional rule:

• The detective skill is only used within a specific phase.
• When a detective skill is used, flip it over to the other side (it can only be used once per game).
• The player will get 1 point at the end of the game if the detective skill is not used.

Play instead of the action phase:

• Edgar: Flip any 3 cards and secretly look at 1 card (anywhere).
• Arthur: Flip any 2 cards and secretly look at 2 cards (anywhere).
• Rampo: Flip any 1 card and secretly look at 4 cards (anywhere).

Play after the action phase:

• Christie: Swap any 2 face-down cards.

Play instead of the investigation phase:

• Seishi: Place a meeple on each of up to 2 face-down cards. After this, other players can no longer place meeples on the same card as Seishi. (Seishi does not receive negative points under any circumstances.)

Variant Solo: Lonely Detective

1. Play as normal.
2. Compare scores to the rankings according to the table:

Score	Ranking
0-6	Detective assistant
7-10	Apprentice detective
11-13	Professional detective
14	Best detective

Difficulty levels can be increased further by using only 4-7 Empty room cards instead of 8.

Variant Solo: Cyber Detectives

1. Play as normal, but when entering the investigation phase, cyber detectives appear and place 1 meeple (not the player's colour) on the Investigation card that was just attached, and place on every adjacent card that does not have a meeple, according to the difficulty level as follows:
   • Normal = only face-down
   • Hard = only face-up
   • Insane = all
2. The cyber detective always places before the player.
3. The cyber detective scores points equal to the total number of meeples placed by the cyber detective.
4. The player wins if they score more points than the cyber detective.

Difficulty levels can be increased further by using only 4-7 Empty room cards instead of 8.

Variant: Real Detective

The Scoring card can be played on its other side (except that Bunnet and Crowllector must come together; do not mix).

A. Phantom Reversi

• Phantom Reversi's hideout is the reverse intersection of 2 Clue room cards of that minion. For example, where Crowllector indicates above-below, you must look left-right instead.
• Place first: score 5 points. Next: score 2 points.

B. Endless Eight

• Endless Eight's hideout is in an Empty room around a Hostage room card without pairs (the maximum is 8, depending on how many Empty rooms there are around).
• All score 1 point per Empty room.

C. Mr. X

• Mr. X's hideout is within a room that has an Empty room and is indicated on X's symbol (the maximum is 8, depending on how many Empty rooms there are around).
• Place only: score 3 points.
• Place many players: all players -2 points.