Mister X Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Preparation
• How to Play
• Game Details
  • Mister X
  • The detectives
• Example Round
• Position Check
• End of the Game
• Tips, Tricks and Special Cases

Contents

• 1 game board
• 1 ticket board
• 1 ticket bag
• 6 pieces
• 6 ticket racks
• 120 tickets
• 15 start cards
• 5 colour markers
• 10 position rings
• 22 investigation chips
• 1 checklist
• 1 visor for Mister X
• 1 tracker for Mister X

Preparation

1. The game board shows Europe with 199 cities. The cities are interconnected by lines of three different colours. Each colour stands for one means of transport: beige = car, red = train/ferry, blue = plane. According to the ticket, pieces are moved along the coloured lines from one city to another.

2. Each city can be reached by different means of transport:

   • Cities with a beige background can only be left using a car ticket.
   • Beige and red cities can be left by car or by train/ferry.
   • For cities with a blue number field, players may use any means of transport to continue their journey.

3. Each ticket consists of two parts: movement (on top) and special action (at the bottom). (120 tickets)

4. A ticket may be used either for a movement or for a special action. Regardless of the special action both Mister X and the detectives can use the means of transport. Special actions shaded in green are reserved for Mister X, while special actions shaded in orange are reserved for the detectives.

5. The ticket board is placed next to the game board. The 10 position rings, Mister X's transparent piece and the 22 investigation chips are also placed next to it. Shuffle the 15 start cards, face down.

6. Put all the tickets into the ticket bag and shuffle them. Each player receives one ticket rack.

7. One player plays the role of Mister X (preferably the most experienced player). Distribute the five detectives among the other players as evenly as possible. Play always with all five detectives!

8. Mister X draws eight tickets out of the ticket bag and places them on his rack.

9. The detectives. Players playing the role of detective receive the pieces and the corresponding colour markers. Each detective draws four tickets out of the bag as well as one additional ticket for each detective that he has. The tickets are placed on the ticket rack.

   Example (game for 3 players): Player A controls 2 detectives, Player B controls 3 detectives.

10. The detectives. Draw one start card for each detective and place his piece on the corresponding city on the game board.

11. Mister X. Mister X puts on his visor.

12. Mister X. Mister X has a pencil ready (not included).

13. Mister X. Mister X gets the tracker ready and inserts a new checklist. Space 0 of the list should be situated above the footprints without a number in the gap.

14. Mister X. Mister X chooses one of the three missions: green (beginners), yellow (advanced players) or orange (experts). The starting spaces of a mission are marked by coloured rings, and the corresponding destination spaces of this mission show an octagon of the same colour. Within the start region, Mister X chooses secretly one of the five coloured cities as his starting point. Then, he secretly notes the corresponding number on space 0 of his checklist. He only tells the detectives the colour of his chosen mission!

How to Play

Mister X begins each round. Then, it is the detectives' turn, in any order, before players check the positions. Afterwards, it is again Mister X's turn, then the detectives', and so on.

Mister X's turn consists of:

1. Movement or special action (= double move or undercover move)
2. Place the movement ticket(s) on the ticket board
3. Note the position on the checklist
4. Discard tickets (optional)
5. Replenish tickets (up to 8)

A detectives' turn consists of:

1. Movement (all detectives in any order, one after another)
2. Carry out a special action (= investigation or special operation)
3. Discard tickets (optional)
4. Replenish tickets (up to 4 + number of detectives controlled by player)

Then: Position check (see "Position Check" below), and the round begins again with Mister X's turn.

Game Details

Mister X

Movement

If Mister X decides to move, he chooses a corresponding ticket among those on his ticket rack that allows him to continue his journey from his actual position. According to his chosen means of transport, he "moves" to the next city along the connecting line. Since Mister X's movements are secret, he does not move the transparent piece on the game board, but only notes his location on the checklist.

He places the used ticket clearly visible for all players on the first vacant space (with the lowest number) on his ticket board. Then, he secretly notes his current position — that is to say the number of the city on the game board — on the next free space of his checklist (same number as on the ticket board).

Note: The transparent piece is only used from the 25th movement on — see "End of the game". By comparing the tickets that are placed on the ticket board and the cities noted on the checklist, players can check if Mister X has observed the rules once the game is over.

Attention: Mister X may carry out special actions from the first round on!

Important: For Mister X it is advisable to use special actions at an early stage and very often — even if the detectives are still far away. He shouldn't economise unnecessarily, otherwise he'll be caught before he knows it.

Special actions

Instead of moving, Mister X can carry out a special action, that is to say a double move or an undercover move.

Double move

In order to make a double move, Mister X chooses three tickets with footprints from his ticket rack and puts them back into the box. Mister X may now move twice according to the normal rules. He then places two more tickets on his ticket board in the order in which he has used them.

Mister X notes both numbers on his checklist: first the number of the city that he has traversed and then the number of the city at which he arrives. It is not possible to traverse a city in which a detective is located. (See example on page 32)

Undercover move

If he wants to make an undercover move, Mister X chooses three tickets with a silhouette from his ticket rack and puts them back into the box. Then, he takes any ticket from his rack and places it on the ticket board, face down. The other players are not allowed to see which means of transport Mister X has used. This ticket does not necessarily have to correspond with the means of transport that he has really used. Mister X notes on his checklist the number of the city that he has travelled to.

Discard tickets

At the end of his turn, Mister X can discard any number of his remaining tickets (and put them back into the ticket bag). Then, he replenishes by drawing new ones so that he has eight tickets again.

The detectives

Once Mister X has finished his turn, the detectives follow in any order. They play together against Mister X. For this reason, the detectives should coordinate their movements with each other. In particular the special actions require good cooperation.

Movement

Each detective must move during each round, if possible. For each movement a ticket is chosen among those on the ticket rack of the player who controls this detective. In order to keep track of which detectives have already been moved, it is advisable to place the used tickets on the corresponding colour markers. The chosen detective is moved according to the ticket along the connecting line to the next city.

If a player does not have enough matching tickets in order to move all his detectives, he moves as many detectives as possible. Detectives that cannot be moved remain on their position during this round.

It is not permitted that several detectives stay on the same city. If a detective is encircled by others so that he cannot move, he misses his turn.

Special actions

After having moved all detectives, the detectives may either make inquiries or carry out a special operation in addition to their movements.

In order to carry out a special action, the detectives need a specific number of tickets with certain symbols; only the remaining tickets of the round may be used. For the special action, each player can only contribute as many tickets as he has detectives.

Attention! The detectives may not carry out a special action before a ticket is placed on space 5 of the ticket board — that is to say, after Mister X's fifth movement.

Investigative work

Investigative tickets enable the detectives to pick up Mister X's trail. The more tickets with a magnifying glass they use the longer the trail will be and the closer they will get to Mister X (see table). Mister X has to mark his position at the respective moment on the ticket board and on the game board using the position rings. (Use a matching pair of position rings with the same number of marks, beginning with the lowest number. That way, you always know which position on the game board corresponds to which information on the ticket board.)

Number of played (magnifying glass)	Effect
3	Mister X shows his position 4 movements ago.
4	Mister X shows his position 3 movements ago.
5	Mister X shows his position 2 movements ago.

Example: Angela has one ticket with a magnifying glass and controls three detectives. Hugh has three investigative tickets and controls two detectives. Together, they play three tickets with a magnifying glass: Angela one ticket and Hugh two. (Hugh cannot use his third ticket because he only has two detectives.) In this example the detectives are able to see where Mister X was located four moves ago. Mister X places a position ring on the game board on the space on which he stood four movements before. Then, he places the other matching position ring on the number of the ticket board that corresponds to the movement number on his checklist four movements ago — that is to say on the "-4".

Special operation

Tickets with an emergency light enable a detective of choice to make one additional movement. The more tickets are played the "better" is the means of transport (see table).

The detective who is allowed to make the additional movement has to be in a city in which the usage of this kind of transportation is possible. (i.e. If four emergency lights are used, the detective must be on a space with a train or a ferry connection; if five special operation tickets are played the city must have an airport.)

Number of played (emergency light)	Effect
3	1 movement by car
4	1 movement by train/ferry
5	1 movement by plane

Tickets that have been used for a special action (by the detectives or Mister X) are out of the game and must be put back into the box so that they cannot be used for the rest of the game. At the end of a round, tickets that the detectives used for movements are put back into the ticket bag. And tickets that Mister X has used for his movements can be found on the ticket board.

Discarding tickets

At the end of their turn, that is to say after any special actions, the detectives can discard any number of the tickets that are still on their ticket racks and put them back into the bag. After that, they replenish their tickets up to the original number (4 + number of detectives controlled by the player).

Example Round

It is the beginning of the fourth round.

1. The detectives. The detectives' position at the beginning of this round: Blue = 135, Red = 111, Green = 110, Yellow = 174, Black = 84.

2. Mister X. Mister X chose the yellow mission, and his secret start space was city 194. As always, Mister X begins the round. At the moment, he is on space 164.

3. Mister X. Since two detectives (yellow and blue) are very close to Mister X, he decides to use the special action "double move". He puts three tickets with footprints back into the box. (These tickets are out of the game.)

4. Mister X. He plays two of his five remaining tickets. First he uses a train ticket and moves (as always) secretly to space 137. After that, he plays a car ticket and moves to city 136.

5. Mister X. Now, he notes both cities on his checklist, one after another. He should insert the checklist so that the current position is always above the footprints without a number.

6. Mister X. At the end of his turn, Mister X can discard any number of his remaining tickets. Then, he replenishes his ticket stock up to eight.

7. The detectives. It is now the detectives' turn, in any order. In order to keep track of which detectives have already been moved it is advisable to place the used tickets on the corresponding colour markers.

   Blue 135 → 144, Red 111 → 133, Green 110 → 165, Yellow 174 → 173, Black 84 → 106.

8. The detectives. After all detectives have made their moves, they may decide to carry out a special action together (investigation or special operation). In this round they can carry out a special action for the first time, since Mister X has already made his fifth movement. But for lack of adequate tickets they decide not to do it.

9. The detectives. The detectives can now discard any number of their remaining tickets. Then, they replenish their ticket stock up to the original number.

10. Tickets that have been discarded or used for movement are put back into the ticket bag.

11. Position check (see below). At the end of the round, players check the positions. If in the course of the round any detective moved to one of the five last spaces noted on the checklist, Mister X has to mark them with the position rings.

    Example: The yellow detective has moved to space 173. Mister X stood on that space three movements ago and has to place a position ring on the city to indicate this.

Position Check

At the end of each round, players check the positions.

On his secret checklist Mister X looks at the last five cities that he has visited. If during this round any detective has moved to one of these five cities, Mister X has to show this on the board. He places a position ring of a matching pair on the game board and on the corresponding position on his ticket board (see also "Investigative work").

If a detective moves to the city where Mister X is in the current round, Mister X immediately loses the game! If several detectives have moved to spaces that Mister X has visited during his last five moves, they are all marked with position rings.

End of the Game

The game is over if Mister X is located in the same city as one of the detectives or if Mister X reaches a destination space of his mission.

If at any one time a detective finds himself on the same city as Mister X, all detectives win.

Mister X wins the game if he succeeds in moving to any (octagonal) destination space of his chosen mission (green, yellow or orange).

However, Mister X only has 24 secret moves at his disposal. If he does not manage to reach his destination in his first 24 moves, he continues the game using his transparent piece which is visible to all players. Apart from this, all rules remain unchanged. Only exception: Mister X does not place his movement tickets on the ticket board, but puts them back into the ticket bag.

Tips, Tricks and Special Cases

• As soon as the position rings are used up, you reuse them, beginning with the pair with the lowest number of marks. The position markers of the oldest track are thus used to mark the newest.

• On rare occasions, if a great many special actions have been carried out, it is possible that the number of tickets will not be sufficient to complete the game. In this case, all tickets that have been put into the box after special actions are put back into the ticket bag.

• Mister X does not have matching tickets for his move or an "undercover move": He must remain on his position, does not note anything on his checklist and does not place any tickets on his ticket board. He puts all his tickets back into the bag and draws eight new ones.

• With the help of the 22 investigation chips, the detectives can visualise their suspicions concerning Mister X's position. During their turn, they may place yellow chips on the city(s) where they suspect Mister X to be and pink ones on the spaces on which they think that he cannot be. These chips are removed from the game board before checking the positions.

• For Mister X it is advisable to use special actions at an early stage and very often — even if the detectives are still far away. He shouldn't economise unnecessarily, otherwise he'll be caught before he knows it.

Please note: The names of the cities on the game board comply with the English spelling in use. The German version of all cities can be found on the border of the box.