MeowMeow Mia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the game
• Components
• Preparation
• Undercover connection
• Flow of the game
  • Smuggling Phase
  • Interrogation Phase
  • Flushing Out the Mole Phase
• Game end and victory conditions
• Character abilities
  • Law enforcement
  • Meowfia members

Goal of the game

The law enforcement faction (the policeman, undercover agent and newsboy) must stop the smuggling three times without the agent being disclosed to win.

The Meowfia wins the game if they can complete three smugglings or identify who is the undercover agent among them!

Components

• 11 Character tiles
• 1 Compass tile
• 4 Cardboard buildings
• 5 Contrabands
• 3 Empty crates
• 1 Ring token
• 1 Rose token

Preparation

1. Have all players sit around the table and take the corresponding character boards from the game box based on the number of players according to the table below. Shuffle the character boards face down and deal one to each player. The dealt board will determine the role that each player will assume for the game and after checking their characters, all players should place their character boards face down in front of them. ※ Unless explicitly specified by the rules, no players may reveal or inform other players of their roles during the game.

Players	Policeman	Undercover Agent	Newsboy	Boss	Guard	Counselor	Mistress	Killer	Bartender
5	●	●		●	●	●			△
6	●	●		●	●	●	●		△
7	●

● Characters used in the game. △ Players can choose to replace a Guard with a Bartender to add more variability to the game.

2. The player who receives the Policeman character tile will reveal his/her role to the rest of the players and be responsible for running the game. (Alternatively, players may also choose to have one who has more experience with board games to assume the role of Policeman and have the remaining roles dealt out randomly as normal.) ※ When playing with 5 or 6 players, remove the Newsboy character tile and place it aside face down for later use.

3. Place the compass tile in the center of the table with South pointing towards where the Policeman is seated and randomly place the four locations on each of the four directions indicated by the compass.

4. Take out all Contrabands and Empty Crates from the box and place them aside for now. Once the "undercover connection" phase has been completed, the game will officially begin!

Undercover connection

In order to determine the location of smuggling operations run by the Meowfia, the law enforcement has planted an undercover agent in the ranks of the Meowfia and created a system of codes for the agent to secretly relay information to other members of the law enforcement. This phase shall be performed as instructed by the Policeman character. All other players shall act accordingly as instructed:

1. "The undercover agent will now attempt to establish contact with the law enforcement. Everyone, close your eyes". At this moment, all players except the Policeman should close their eyes and put both hands as fists on the table.

2. "Newsboy, hold up your thumb now." The player who received the role of the Newsboy will do so without opening his/her eyes. Skip this step in a 5/6-player game.

3. "Undercover Agent, open your eyes." The player who received the role of the Undercover Agent will open his/her eyes while keeping both hands on the table and reveal his/her identity to the Policeman. The Undercover Agent will also learn the identity of the Newsboy at this point.

4. Now, the Policeman will assign specific codes by means of body language to the four locations of potential smuggling in the order of East -> South -> West -> North. For example, the Policeman will say:

   "If the contraband is hidden to the east, do this (scratch chin)"

   "If it's hidden to the south, do this (fold arms across chest)"

   "If it's hidden to the west, do this (shake leg)"

   "If it's hidden to the north, do this (do the motion of clapping without making a sound to prevent other players from figuring out the code)"

   ※ It is absolutely vital that the Policeman assigns four different codes for the four locations; no location may be skipped during this phase. ※ The Policeman should use body language as their codes rather than facial expressions or making passes by looking at specific directions. ※ The Policeman may not attempt to misdirect other players by acting in a way that contradicts what he/she says when assigning codes (i.e. claiming a code for a specific direction while pointing to a different direction). ※ Since the Undercover Agent has to remain silent throughout the process (in order to remain hidden), the Policeman should ensure that sufficient instructions are provided and act out the codes with reasonable exaggeration to get the message across. The Undercover Agent should respond with as little movements as possible (i.e. with slight nods of the head) so that other players will not be able to guess who the Undercover Agent is.

5. Finally, the Policeman will announce "The connection is now over; Undercover Agent, please close your eyes. Newsboy, put down your thumb. Everyone, open your eyes on the count of three. One, two, three!"

Flow of the game

With the codes determined, the game can officially begin. Each round will proceed in three phases following the order: "Smuggling → Interrogation → Flushing Out the Mole", with subsequent rounds following the same sequence until one faction wins.

Smuggling Phase

During the smuggling phase, the Policeman must close his/her eyes and lower his/her head while members of the Meowfia discuss and decide where to place 1 contraband and 3 empty crates at the four different transaction locations.

Once the Meowfia has decided where the contraband and empty crates are hidden, the Smuggling Phase ends and the Policeman will open his/her eyes.

※ All players whose identity hasn't been revealed must take part in the smuggling phase, with full knowledge of where the contraband is located. ※ There can only be 1 contraband in play during the smuggling phase.

Interrogation Phase

1. The Policeman shall announce "Nobody moves! Hands up in the air!" All other players should raise their hands as instructed.

2. After the Policeman instructs all players to put down their hands, the interrogation may begin.

3. The Policeman gets to decide to interrogate the other players in clockwise or anti-clockwise order, starting from the players sitting closest to him/her about the actual smuggling location (skip players whose identities have been revealed). When asked, players must name a location where they believe the contraband is (you are not required to answer truthfully).

4. During the entirety of the interrogation process, the Undercover Agent can try to make passes at the Policeman to reveal the actual location of transaction even if other players are being interrogated. ※ The Undercover Agent may only start making passes at the Policeman after all players put down their hands.

5. After all players have been interrogated, the Policeman must choose and reveal one location. Two things can happen at this point:

   A. The revealed location contains a contraband: this means the law enforcement has successfully prevented the smuggling attempt and the Meowfia's nefarious plot has been foiled! Place the revealed contraband on the Policeman's character tile as a token to keep track and the Meowfia will proceed to Flush Out the Mole Phase.

   B. The revealed location contains an empty crate: this means the law enforcement has been misled and the Meowfia has successfully smuggled the contraband! Place the contraband on the compass token as a token to keep track. In this round, the Meowfia will skip the step of Flushing Out the Mole Phase. If the Newsboy hasn't been identified at this point, the law enforcement may choose to repeat the "undercover connection" once again to establish a new set of codes with the Undercover Agent.

   ※ If the Policeman chooses to repeat the "undercover connection" again, the Newsboy must reveal his/her identity. If the Newsboy's identity has already been revealed, the Policeman may not attempt "undercover connection" again. ※ In a 5/6-player game, if the Policeman chooses to repeat the "undercover connection" again, s/he will flip the Newsboy character tile that has been set aside during setup as a reminder that this process cannot be performed again for the rest of the game.

Flushing Out the Mole Phase

When a smuggling attempt has been foiled by the law enforcement, the Meowfia will try to identify the hidden mole to be responsible for the failure. If the Meowfia manages to correctly identify the Undercover Agent and kick him/her out of the organization, they will win the game immediately!

1. When the Meowfia flushes the mole for the first time, the ring token should be given to the player who was last interrogated by the Policeman. This step will be skipped for the remainder of the game.
2. The player with the ring token will be responsible for running the discussion among the Meowfia members while keeping the discussion within a reasonable time frame. All Meowfia members shall discuss openly and defend themselves (if accused) or accuse other players (carefully) as the Undercover Agent.
3. After all players have been given ample time to make their points, the player with the ring will proceed to hold a vote: all players will point to the player whom they believe to be the Undercover Agent on the count of three. ※ Both the Policeman and Newsboy (if identity revealed) may not take part in the vote. All other players must vote for the Undercover Agent, including players whose identity has yet to be revealed. ※ Naturally, you can only vote for a player whose identity has yet to be revealed.
4. The player with the ring token will count the vote. Apart from the player with the ring token (whose vote counts for 1.5 votes), all other players taking part in the vote will get 1 vote each. The player who received the highest number of votes must reveal his/her identity. If two or more players tie for the highest number of votes, they will get a chance to defend themselves before another vote is conducted for these players. Repeat this process until one player receives the most number of votes.
5. If the Undercover Agent is revealed during the vote, the Meowfia members win the game immediately! However, if other characters have been revealed, the corresponding abilities will be triggered (refer to character abilities below).
6. Based on the outcome of the vote, Meowfia players can discuss if they should do something during the next Interrogation Phase (i.e. perform a specific gesture) to hinder the Undercover Agent from making his/her pass. ※ The Meowfia players can restrict their members with specific gestures using at most two out of the following five parts of the body: "head / left hand / right hand / left foot / right foot". For example, the Meowfia players may agree upon themselves to tilt their head left while putting their right hand behind their back in the hope of stopping the mole from making the pass easily. However, they may not ask Meowfia players to hug their head and put their head on the table (as it will involve using both of their hands and their head at the same time).
7. When the discussion ends, pass the ring token to the player whose identity was revealed for receiving the most votes during Step 5. ※ The Newsboy will never receive the ring token. If the Newsboy's identity was revealed during the vote, the player with the ring token will keep the token instead.

Remove all the empty crates from the locations and reset the locations before proceeding to the next round.

Game end and victory conditions

• If the law enforcement players manage to stop the Meowfia from smuggling 3 times without the identity of the Undercover Agent revealed by the Meowfia at the third attempt, the Policeman, Undercover Agent and Newsboy will win together.
• If the Meowfia successfully smuggle contrabands in 3 separate attempts or correctly identify the Undercover Agent and reveal his/her identity, the Meowfia players win!
• Even if the law enforcement manages to stop all 3 smuggling attempts, the Meowfia will still win if the Undercover Agent was correctly identified in the end.

Character abilities

Triggered when player's character is revealed.

Law enforcement

• Undercover Agent: The law enforcement players lose immediately.
• Newsboy: No more undercover connection can be performed for the remainder of the game.

Meowfia members

• Boss: Permanently remove 1 location and 1 empty crate from the game. For the remainder of the game, there will be only 3 locations left.
• Guard: The Guard must choose another player; the chosen player may not take part in the smuggling process in the following round. During the smuggling phase, the chosen player must close his/her eyes so that they will not know where the contraband has been hidden.
• Counselor: At the end of the Interrogation Phase in the following round, the Policeman may reveal an additional location.
• Mistress: The Mistress must choose another player whose identity has yet to be revealed and give him/her the Rose token and look at his/her character tile (make sure no other players sees it). If the Mistress has correctly chosen the Undercover Agent, s/he will immediately switch side to the law enforcement faction secretly.
• Killer: The Killer may choose to reveal the identity of another player. If another Killer has been identified this way, the newly identified Killer may also reveal the identity of another player.
• Bartender: The Bartender may secretly switch the character tiles of two players whose identities haven't been revealed. Before the switch, all other players (including the Policeman) must close their eyes before the Bartender performs the switch. However, the Bartender may not look at the character tiles being switched. After the switch has been made, all players may open their eyes and secretly check their own identities. ※ The Bartender may want to rotate all character tiles on the table slightly to prevent other players from figuring out the tiles that have been switched.