Murder City

Murder City Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

5 Jovan Dataslate Cards, one for each player. These are the characters you can play as, and they serve as a record of your investigation's various elements.
25 Murder Cards. These are the crimes that may occur and that you can investigate.
165 Evidence Cards. This is the information and the leads you collect in order to charge a suspect with murder. They are divided into 5 different decks: Eyewitness, Forensics, Interrogation, Murder Weapon and Professional Opinion.
50 Legwork Cards. These are used either on yourself, to advance your investigation, or on other Jovans, to hinder them. The cards represent events that may arise in the arcology, or circumstances that may come to light during an investigation.
- Among the Legwork Cards are the Setback Cards. They affect the situation across the entire arcology, or represent circumstances that all Jovans must face.
25 Hardship Cards. A Jovan's life is far from simple. The murders under investigation occupy all of his thoughts, and constant contact with the dregs of society can drag even a detective down to the very bottom. Hardship Cards are events in your life that are too closely tied to the hunt for criminals.
Credits. These cards are the money of the future, the reward of Jovans for successful cases and charges. Credits are used in the game to determine the winner, but they are also lost and spent during your working days.
- Credits come in three denominations: 1, 3 and 5. Money cards may be handed over in full at payouts, or may be "broken" into smaller amounts.
Dice. 6 dice for the game.

Setup

Before the game begins, divide the five types of Evidence Cards into five decks by their types, and shuffle each deck separately. Also shuffle the Legwork, Hardship and Murder decks separately. (The Setback Cards remain in the Legwork deck and are shuffled together with it.) Place all the decks within reach of all players.

Each player receives a Jovan Dataslate Card, which will serve for keeping personal records of the crimes they investigate. The various ports (empty spaces) on this card show where you may place cards.

Each player becomes the Jovan named on their Dataslate. These cards may be dealt at random, or each player may choose a suitable character for themselves.

Each player starts the game with the following set of components:

3 cards from the Murder deck. These 3 cards are kept face up on the ports located on your Jovan Dataslate Card.
3 Evidence Cards from the Evidence decks indicated on your Jovan Dataslate Card. For example, for the Hard-Boiled Detective character you receive one card each from the Eyewitness, Murder Weapon and Professional Opinion decks. These cards are kept in your hand, secret from the other players. Later these cards may be added to the ports that correspond to the Murder cards.
3 credits.
At the start of each turn each player also receives a Legwork card, kept face down.

Starting the Game

Here is a short list of what each player must have at the start of the game:

1 Jovan Dataslate Card, taken at random or chosen by the player.
3 Murder cards drawn at random.
3 Evidence cards drawn at random, of the types indicated on the Jovan Dataslate Card.
3 credits.
1 Legwork card, drawn at the start of the first turn.

Overview

Murder City is played over 6 turns, which represent each Jovan's period under contract with the arcology. Detectives earn their living by investigating murders and tracking down suspects. The Jovan who has earned the most credits by the time all contracts expire is the most famous (or most infamous) and the richest detective in the metropolis.

Each player draws a Legwork card at the start of the turn.

Each turn consists of 2 phases: the Investigation Phase and the Court Phase.

During the Investigation Phase each player may search for evidence for the corresponding murder. Each player collects Evidence cards and keeps them in hand or attaches them to crimes on their Dataslate. Each Murder card describes the type of evidence needed for a charge, which indicates the motive, the opportunity and the method of the murder. The Evidence cards are Eyewitness, Forensics, Interrogation, Murder Weapon and Professional Opinion.

For example, a Dead Spouse Murder card requires a Murder Weapon, an Eyewitness and a Forensics card.

Each Jovan is a specialist in collecting certain types of evidence and is not very good at collecting others. (Read about the Jovans' Strengths and Weaknesses on their Dataslate Cards.)

Murder cards and Evidence cards come in different colours. A match between the colour of an Evidence card and the colour of a Murder card means the evidence directly relates to that murder. A colour match may also mean the evidence was involved in a similar, though different, crime and may be used to charge in this case, regardless of whether it is genuine or fake.

Of course, a Jovan does not always have the opportunity, the interest or the time to collect evidence that exactly matches the murders. So he sometimes collects false evidence in the hope that he can bring a charge with it. During the game you may attach Evidence cards of a different colour to a Murder card, for example a green Eyewitness card to a red Murder card.

Each Evidence card has a value of 1, 2 or 3. This is the number of dice that card is worth in the trial roll during the Court Phase. The number of dice rolled is the sum of the values of several Evidence cards.

Each Murder card has 3 sets of numbers, for example 22/8, 18/6 and 14/4. The number before the slash is the total that must be reached or exceeded on the dice roll to achieve a given type of charge. The higher the number, the harder it is to prove the charge. The charge categories are Murder One (Premeditated Murder), Manslaughter and Aggravated Assault. Thus, the harder your case, the higher the rating of the Evidence cards, but the more dice (or the better the roll) you need to secure a conviction.

The number after the slash is the number of credits you receive for securing a conviction on each type of charge. So, taking the example above, a successful charge of Murder One (Premeditated Murder), a roll of 22 or more, will earn you 8 credits.

During the Court Phase, on your turn, each player may try to present one case to the court. Before that happens, the case under consideration is reviewed by another player, who acts as the free listener for the metropolis. The prosecuting player takes the evidence gathered for the murder and presents his version of how things happened. That is, the prosecutor explains what happened during the night and why the suspect is guilty.

Based on how smooth the account is, the listener has the right to do one of the following:

Challenge the case, rejecting it before it reaches court.
Allow the case to proceed to trial without checks and without his support.
Endorse the case, not only allowing it to reach court but also confirming its legitimacy to the city and the public.

A case that has been challenged is discarded. The prosecutor has simply lost his valuable time and money preparing this charge.

If the listener allows the case to proceed to trial, the number of dice for the trial roll is made up of the ratings of the Evidence cards attached to the case. Also, using Legwork cards, Hardship cards, a Jovan's Strength and other factors, extra dice may be added to or subtracted from the roll. All the numbers rolled are added together to form the number needed to achieve the charge on the Murder card. Thus, a roll of 19 in the example above does not reach Murder One, but does reach Manslaughter, and the Jovan receives 6 credits.

The game lasts 6 turns.

Setback cards, which may be drawn from the Legwork deck, apply at any moment of the game. They are city circumstances that arise during the Jovans' work, such as unrest, heavy-handed police measures and bureaucratic red tape.

Finally, detectives suffer from fatigue, fear and the often thankless work they do. Hardship cards represent times when a Jovan is depressed or throws himself headlong into the work while the rest of his life falls by the wayside.

Turn Event List

Here is a short list of game events that may occur during your turn.

A single Initiative roll for the whole turn. The game proceeds in both phases clockwise, starting with the winner.
Each player receives a Legwork card at the start of the turn.
Remember that a Legwork card may be played at any time, unless its text specifies the exact timing and circumstances of its use. At any moment, two unused Legwork cards may be exchanged for one new Legwork card, once per turn. Hardship cards may be used to gain bonuses at a specific time in the turn, depending on which reward you want to receive for them.

Investigation Phase Summary

Players draw 2 cards from the Evidence deck; or 1 card from the Evidence deck and a second from the Evidence discard pile, depending on the Jovan's Strength.
Players place Evidence cards from their hand into play, putting these cards on open ports next to the Murder cards. Receive 1 credit for each Evidence card placed.
Normally, any player may discard no more than one Evidence card per turn.
Evidence cards may be sold or traded with other residents of the city. Normally each player may acquire no more than 1 Evidence card in this way per turn.
No more than 1 new Murder card may be acquired per turn; the normal maximum of Evidence cards in play for each player is 3.
If a player has more than 5 Evidence cards in hand at the end of the Investigation Phase, he may not bring a case to court that turn.

Court Phase Summary

Begin the phase with the winner of Initiative for this turn, and proceed clockwise from him.
Announce that you are bringing a case to court. In one turn you may present no more than 1 case to the court. A Murder card with 3 Evidence cards attached to it must be presented to the court.
Your listener is determined. Either it is the player to your left, or someone who voluntarily uses a Hardship card to become the Listener.
- Tell the Listener about the murder and the guilt of the suspect. Announce the type of charge and describe the Evidence cards involved in the case.
- Your Listener decides whether to challenge, allow or endorse your case before the dice are rolled.
- If the case is rejected, discard your Murder card and all Evidence cards attached to it.
- If the Listener allowed the case to proceed to trial, make the trial roll. The number of dice rolled is the sum of the values of the Evidence cards in your case, +/- dice for your Strength or for Legwork, Setback or Hardship cards. Once the roll has been made, it can no longer be modified. Take the payment you receive for a successful charge. Discard your Murder card and all Evidence cards attached to it, regardless of the result of the roll.

Jovan Dataslate Cards

It would be strange if the detectives were heroes, idealists or simply ordinary mortals, but they are a necessary evil in the city of the future. Murders are like a plague, and their number cannot be reduced by a weary, underfunded police force. Anyone who can pay the fee and pass the tests may take the job. After that the Jovan is left to his own devices to build a successful career... or to become yet another victim of a killer.

Jovan Dataslate Cards are dealt to the players at the start of the game. These cards may be dealt at random, or each player may choose the Jovan they like.

A Jovan starts the game with 3 Evidence cards: everything that a detective's keen eye notices on the city's streets during ordinary walks.

Each Jovan has a pair of a Strength and a Weakness, based on his personality. Strengths provide bonuses during the Investigation Phase when using Evidence cards, which may be chosen rather than drawn at random. Strengths also provide extra dice for the trial roll during the Court Phase.

Weaknesses show the detectives' incompetence in dealing with a particular part of the unrelenting force of forensic law, limiting the number of types of Evidence cards with which they can work.

In a sense little has changed in this world of the future. People still kill other people, and bad guys still run from the police after committing crimes. The law is in the hands of the working class, and routine hampers the formal sense of the law.

At the same time much has changed. The number of murder victims has risen because of population growth and overcrowding. Space travel has brought an influx of strange and incomprehensible aliens. And now even the erasure of an artificial intelligence is equated with murder. There are robots in the cities who are richer than the people who built them, and robots programmed for violence and murder. Old laws are no longer able to regulate the new ways of killing that have appeared. People remember the constitution. They can find it on the internet. But they are not yet ready to return under the heel of big government. Not again.

Murder Cards

Corpses of murder victims are constantly found in the arcologies: skeletons in the plasma flows of generators, rotting in refuse-collection vehicles, abandoned in flats on the underground streets. The authorities can hardly maintain order in the city when unsolved crimes are left unresolved. This is when the Jovans step in.

All Murder cards describe committed murders and have a set colour: red, green, blue, yellow or brown. Besides the type of murder, the card has special numbers that you must reach in order to charge Murder One (Premeditated Murder), Manslaughter or Aggravated Assault. The number before the slash is the total that must be reached or exceeded on the dice roll to achieve a given type of charge. This roll is made during the Court Phase, when the case goes to trial. For example:

Murder One 20/6, Manslaughter 16/4, Aggravated Assault 12/2.

This means you need to roll 20+ to achieve Murder One (Premeditated Murder), 16-19 to achieve Manslaughter, and 12-15 to achieve Aggravated Assault.

The number after the slash is the number of credits a Jovan receives after a successful investigation. In this case, for example, 4 credits for Manslaughter.

The "Possible Suspects" section simply provides you with an idea for telling the story of the murder during the Court Phase. If none of these suspects fits the story you create, invent your own suspects.

The "Means, Motive and Opportunity" section contains a list of the three types of Evidence cards that fit this case. These are the circumstances under which the suspect committed the crime, or at least the circumstances you will try to convince your Listener and the court of. If a Murder card requires a Forensics, an Interrogation and a Professional Opinion card, you may attach to this case any Evidence card of this type that is in your hand. Place the Evidence cards you have selected next to the corresponding Murder card on your Jovan Dataslate Card. Evidence cards placed in play do not necessarily have to match the colour of the Murder card, but only you need to know that...

Keep the Murder deck face down in the centre of the table within reach of all players. When a case is closed (see page 26), place the discarded Murder cards face up next to the deck.

After a Murder card is discarded, you may usually acquire a new one during your turn (you may not have more than 3 Murder cards at the same time). See "Acquiring New Murder Cards" on page 26.

Payout Quick Reference

Below is a list of all the types of payouts you may receive during the game.

Income:

3 credits at the start of the game.
1 credit for each Evidence card placed from your hand onto an open port next to a Murder card.
Any credits you receive for selling Evidence cards, Legwork cards and other goods.
1 credit for serving as the Listener.
A further 2 credits if the Listener successfully challenged another player's case. Or a further 2 credits if the Listener endorsed the case and the guilt of the defendant was successfully proved.
The number after the slash on a Murder card, when you make a charge in court.

Expenses:

Payments required when a Legwork card is used on you.
Payments required when a Hardship card is drawn.
Purchases made during negotiations in the Investigation Phase.
1 credit for each "false" Evidence card you did not find when, as Listener, you challenged a case and happened to choose a card of the "correct" colour.

Evidence Cards

Clues and information are commodities, if your job is murders. You receive Evidence cards at the start of the game and during each turn, when you are trying to build the strongest possible charge.

There are 5 types of Evidence cards: Eyewitness, Forensics, Interrogation, Murder Weapon and Professional Opinion. Divide the 5 types of cards into 5 different decks and shuffle each deck at the start of the game. Each player receives at the start of the game 3 different cards, as indicated on his Jovan Dataslate Card.

Each Evidence deck contains 33 cards. These cards come in various colours matching the colours of the Murder cards: red, green, blue, yellow and brown. You may place them from your hand face down next to a Murder card of the same colour, which means the evidence or information is involved in that case or fits it. Or you may place Evidence cards of the wrong colour face down next to a Murder card, in order to bring a false charge against the suspect.

For example, you have 2 Evidence cards in your hand: a red Ceramic Knife – Murder Weapon, and a brown Vagrant – Eyewitness. One of your Murder cards is red and requires a Murder Weapon Evidence card, so you may place the Ceramic Knife face down on one of the open ports next to that Murder card. Another Murder card is yellow and requires an Eyewitness card. You may place the brown Vagrant face down on one of the open ports next to that Murder card, even though the colours do not match.

Each Evidence card names an object, a contact or a piece of information relevant to the case you are investigating. During the Court Phase you include these details in your account of the suspect's guilt at the hearing.

Each Evidence card also has a value of 1, 2 or 3. This is the number of dice the card contributes to the court's trial roll, if your case does proceed past the Listener. This roll represents the soundness of your charge and the response of the judge and jury. The higher the number on your Evidence card, the stronger your charge is in the trial roll.

You may attach only 1 Evidence card of each type to a Murder card. Thus, if a Murder card requires a Professional Opinion Evidence card, you may place only one such card on an open port next to the Murder card.

Some Evidence cards in each deck are jokers (wild). They have no set colour and may be attached to Murder cards of any colour. Jokers do not provide lists of items, information or contacts. It is up to you, the accusing Jovan, to decide which details best fit the charge and your Listener. Jokers represent generalised and non-specific evidence that you find in the city and that may help the investigation of any murder. For example, a knife with the fingerprints wiped off, or an observation of a monorail passenger. You simply decide how and why this information may help your case.

All jokers are marked "1", so they add 1 die to the roll.

Place discarded Evidence cards face up next to their corresponding decks. If an Evidence deck runs out, do not shuffle the discarded cards and form a new deck. Evidence cards from that deck are no longer available to players, except through Strengths or trading.

Legwork Cards

Each player draws 1 Legwork card at the start of each turn. If there is a question of who should draw first, do so in the order of Initiative for this turn (as explained below).

Legwork cards are events and situations that may arise in the arcology during your work or during the investigation of other players' cases. You may use as many Legwork cards as you like during a single turn, during the Investigation Phase or the Court Phase. Some cards require certain conditions in order to be used.

The number of Legwork cards, as well as whom you may use them on, is not limited. Nor is the number of Legwork cards you may hold limited. Place your Legwork cards next to your Jovan Dataslate Card.

The rules on Legwork cards take precedence over the rules in this book in case of conflict. But the rules on Setback cards take precedence over the rules on Legwork cards (see below). That is, in case of a conflict between the effects of these two types of cards, the Setback cards take precedence.

If several players want to use their Legwork cards at the same time, play them in the order in which the players declared their wish. If the order cannot be determined or the effects of the cards conflict, play the cards in the order of Initiative for this turn. If one player's card cancels or neutralises another's action, the second player may choose not to use his card. Its effect does not apply this time, but the card may be played later under the normal rules.

Discard used Legwork cards face up next to the corresponding deck. If the deck runs out, shuffle the discarded cards and form a new deck.

Unused Legwork cards may be exchanged for a new card from the deck at a ratio of 2:1. That is, if you have 2 unused Legwork cards, discard them and draw 1 new card from the deck. You may make this exchange at any time during your turn (no more than once per turn).

Setback Cards

The arcology and the masses of people who overpopulate it are not merely background to Murder City; they affect the Jovans' ability to investigate murders. Local authorities (whoever they may be represented by), a weak legal system, celebrities known across the network and large corporations influence the players' actions.

Any time you draw a Setback card from the Legwork deck, you must read its text aloud and place it next to the Legwork deck. The effects of the card apply to all players and may be instantaneous or last for the current turn. In either case the Setback card is discarded to the Legwork discard pile once its effect has ended.

When a Setback card is drawn from the Legwork deck, the player does not keep it. The text of the Setback card is read aloud, its effects are applied, and the player then draws a new available Legwork card.

Legwork cards are most often drawn at the start of each turn, but they may also be drawn during play (see the "Hardship Cards" section below). This means that most Setback cards also appear at the start of the turn, but they may appear during either the Investigation Phase or the Court Phase. Simply apply the effects of a Setback card when it appears in play.

Sometimes during the game it happens that several Setback cards may appear and apply in a single turn.

The rules on Setback cards take precedence over any rules on Legwork cards in case of conflict. Large events that happen across the whole city overshadow minor personal troubles that affect you or other Jovans.

Place a used Setback card face up in the Legwork discard pile. Setback cards may return to the game if the Legwork deck runs out and a new deck is formed from the discard pile.

Hardship Cards

You can go too far when investigating murders. Jovans become personally invested in cases, despite their attempts to remain uninvolved. Sometimes the work becomes an obsession. And sometimes the last piece of important information eludes the detective, and he loses objectivity trying to find it. And at times a Jovan chooses the direct path and collects only genuine (colour-matching) evidence, devoting all his working time to finding the killer.

Too deep an immersion in the work strongly affects Jovans. Detectives see too clearly the depths of human depravity, and this cannot fail to affect them. Therefore Jovans often cease to be people and become simply insensitive devotees of their work.

Whatever the reasons, a Jovan's work directly affects his personal life. This influence is represented by Hardship cards. A failure in court or the machinations of other Jovans may affect your life through a Hardship card. Or you may draw such a card voluntarily as a penalty when seeking special opportunities during the game.

The following are cases in which you may voluntarily draw a Hardship card in order to gain certain additional opportunities. During one turn you may voluntarily draw no more than 1 Hardship card. You may become the target of other Hardship cards for various reasons, but you may voluntarily draw a Hardship card only once per turn.

To draw or choose an additional Evidence card. Draw a Hardship card to gain the bonus during your action in the Investigation Phase. (You may not draw a Hardship card to gain an additional Evidence card before your action in the Investigation Phase or after your turn has ended.) The Evidence card you gain may be placed in your hand or in play on an empty space on your Jovan Dataslate Card.

You may draw a new Evidence card from the deck or choose one from the discard pile, but you may not take a Hardship card to choose two cards from the discard pile in one Investigation Phase. (See the Strength on your Jovan card for restrictions on choosing Evidence cards from the discard pile.)

When drawing a Hardship card to gain an additional Evidence card, your Jovan's Strengths or Weaknesses still apply. For example, the Hard-Boiled Detective Jovan's Strength allows you to choose cards from the discard pile of Eyewitness cards. If you draw a Hardship card during your turn to gain an additional Evidence card, it cannot be taken, for example, from the Murder Weapon decks. The additional card may only be an Eyewitness card from the discard pile or from the deck.

On the other hand, the Hard-Boiled Detective's Weakness still applies. If you draw a Setback card to gain an additional Evidence card, you must pay 1 credit to take a card from the Forensics deck.

To become the Listener in another player's case during the Court Phase, bypassing the normal assignment of the role in clockwise order. Draw a Hardship card to gain this bonus only during the Court Phase, before the prosecutor begins presenting his evidence. (You may not draw a Hardship card to make yourself the Listener of your own case.) If 2 or more players want to become the Listener of the same case, the Listener is the one who first expressed that wish. That Jovan draws a Hardship card and becomes the Listener. After that, the other players no longer need to draw cards.
To draw 2 new Legwork cards. You may draw a Hardship card at any time during your turn to gain this bonus.
To gain an additional die on the trial roll. Draw a Hardship card to gain this bonus only during the Court Phase. You may not draw a card to gain an additional die after the trial roll has been made.
To swap any Evidence cards already placed next to Murder cards on your Jovan card. Draw a Hardship card to swap any Evidence cards already attached to cases. None of these Evidence cards may be returned to hand. You may simply move cards from one Murder card to another on your Jovan Dataslate Card. You may take a Hardship card to swap Evidence cards at any time during the Investigation Phase.

Hardship cards may have an instantaneous or a lasting effect. In the case of a lasting effect, place the card face up on your Jovan Dataslate Card. Keep the card as a reminder of the lasting effect and discard it when the effect ends. Place Hardship cards next to your Jovan card if there are several of them.

In the case of a lasting effect, the card takes precedence over any of your other actions. The effect of a Hardship card applies even before you can use an Evidence card, two Legwork cards or an additional die that you have just "bought". Hardship cards also apply before you can rearrange Evidence cards in play or begin the hearing of a case. Thus, it may happen that a Hardship card cancels the reward you received for drawing it.

Discard used Hardship cards face up next to the corresponding deck. If the deck runs out, shuffle the cards and form a new one.

Before the rules proper, the source sets out the background of the city: once a poorly coordinated government of all nations, states and moons held power, and people voted for it. The only thing that could have improved its work, the text says, was constant surveillance of everyone, with local authorities controlled by a federal machine and a level of control so high that nobody escaped the monitor screens. Things went wrong, then got worse, and eventually the matter came close to revolution. Now local authorities have taken everything under control, and everything happens at the level of the states or even the municipality. Many believe that power will one day pass to a transnational government, but it seems that many years will pass before that, and it is unlikely that anything will fundamentally change. Such is the era of the postmodern city-states: the arcologies.

Game Turn

Each turn of Murder City consists of an Investigation Phase followed by a Court Phase. Play each phase 6 times (that is, 6 turns) and the game ends. You may play longer if all players agree to introduce an additional number of turns. The number of turns you choose is the period of the contracts of all Jovans.

Initiative

Players take their actions during the Investigation and Court Phases according to the established Initiative order. The player with the most credits at the start of the turn goes first, and the actions of all other players are resolved clockwise from him. If several players have the same number of credits, those players each roll a die. Whoever rolls higher wins Initiative. Re-roll if they roll the same number. At the start of the game all players roll dice, since they all have the same number of credits. After all players have finished their actions during the Investigation Phase, the order of play in the Court Phase returns to the winner of Initiative for this turn, and play continues clockwise from him.

Dealing Legwork Cards

Each player draws one new Legwork card at the start of each turn. If there is a question about the order in which players draw Legwork cards, deal the new cards in the order of Initiative for this turn.

Investigation Phase

Players spend the Investigation Phase each turn gathering evidence for the cases under their contracts. In each Investigation Phase each player may draw from or take from the discard pile a total of 2 new Evidence cards from any of the 5 Evidence decks: Eyewitness, Forensics, Interrogation, Murder Weapon and Professional Opinion.

Acquired Evidence cards represent your attempts as a Jovan to investigate the murders that have occurred. The Jovan studies the crime scene, questions witnesses and suspects, visits forensic laboratories and consults professionals, trying to get to the heart of the case.

You decide for yourself from which deck or decks to draw, based on the requirements of the Murder cards you are investigating. All your cases may require Murder Weapon cards, or some of them may require Professional Opinion cards. The choice of the deck from which you draw depends entirely on you. You may take both cards from one deck or one from each of different decks.

Just remember that sometimes some decks are more necessary than others.

Each Jovan card describes Strengths, which apply in the Investigation Phase. Instead of randomly drawing an Evidence card from the deck, you may look through the discard pile and choose one card. But you may do this only once per turn. Naturally, there must be some cards in the discard pile for you to make a choice. If you do not need cards from the discard pile, you may draw a new card at random from the deck.

A World Full of Crime

The choice from the Evidence discard piles may raise the question: what does this mean within the context of the game? Given the widespread prevalence of murder in the arcology, Jovans find evidence and investigate it, wherever it leads. Not all material suits the cases currently under investigation, so evidence is collected and entered into a central database, which any Jovan can consult at any time. It is a "lost and found" of valuable evidence, a pool of resources for shrewd detectives. One detective acquires what has no significant value for other Jovans.

Each Jovan Dataslate Card also describes his Weaknesses, which apply in the Investigation Phase. You must pay 1 credit to draw a new card from a specific deck. Your detective is not an expert at gathering a certain type of evidence, information, or at dealing with a certain group of people. He has to give bribes or hire people to obtain this kind of clue, or acquire it through exchange (described a little below). For example, the Jovan Corporate Liaison must pay to draw a Murder Weapon card.

Each player may take 2 Evidence cards from the decks when the previous player has finished his action.

You may read the text of each Evidence card you draw silently before drawing the next. Reading the text of each Evidence card lets you decide which deck to draw from next.

Remember that you may also draw a Hardship card to gain an additional Evidence card in the Investigation Phase, as explained on page 14.

Evidence in Hand

The three Evidence cards you have at the start of the game combine with the two you draw at the start of the turn to form your "hand" of Evidence. You keep these cards secret from the other players. You may hold as many Evidence cards as you like, but if at the end of the Investigation Phase their number exceeds 5, you may not bring a case to court in the Court Phase that turn.

When Evidence cards are in your hand, there are various ways to use them or get rid of them.

Bringing Evidence into Play: The most important way to use Evidence cards from your hand – the best way to win the game – is to attach them to one of your Murder cards. You place a card into play by putting it on one of the empty ports next to a Murder card. For example, one of your cases requires a Professional Opinion. You have such an Evidence card in your hand, and you may place it on that case.

You may attach only one Evidence card of each type to a Murder card. That is, if a Murder card requires a Professional Opinion card, you may place only one such card on the ports of your Jovan Dataslate Card next to that Murder card.

Always place Evidence cards face down on your Jovan Dataslate Card.

An Evidence card you use in a case may match the colour of the Murder card, or may not. If the colours do not match, you must prepare a smooth account of the murder that would make weak arguments sound convincing and make them part of the charge. You will tell your story to your Listener during the Court Phase.

You may place as many Evidence cards as you like on your different Murder cards in the Investigation Phase. But you may not attach more than 3 Evidence cards to a single case, which is shown by the number of ports on your Jovan Dataslate Card.

All Evidence cards must be placed into play during the Investigation Phase. They may not be placed into play during the Court Phase. That is, after acquiring Evidence cards in the Investigation Phase, you use the remainder of that phase to attach them to Murder cards or keep them in hand.

You receive a set reward for attaching Evidence cards to Murder cards. Each new piece of Evidence added to a case earns you 1 credit from the arcology. This payment is an aid to the system created for Jovans to strengthen their motivation to investigate cases. That is, if you have a Forensics card in your hand and you attach it to a Murder card, you receive 1 credit from the city (the credit is taken from the game "bank"). Placing 3 Evidence cards into play during the Investigation Phase earns you 3 credits.

If for some reason you have an Evidence card attached to a case whose type does not suit that case (say, a Murder Weapon card in a case that requires a Forensics, an Eyewitness and a Professional Opinion), you may not bring that case to court until you remove the unsuitable card. Such an "unnecessary" Evidence card may be removed from a Murder card through the effects of Legwork, Setback or Hardship cards.

Once Evidence cards have been attached to Murder cards, you may not change their arrangement. The only way to do so is to apply a Hardship card (see page 14).

Giving the Jovan an Opportunity

During the Investigation Phase you may draw or choose new Evidence cards from the discard pile only when the player seated to your right has finished doing so. Give him the opportunity to make sure he has done everything correctly. Do not rush him when he chooses cards from the Evidence deck.

Also do not hurry to begin the Court Phase until all players have been able to take, look at and use their new Evidence cards. Players who acted first in the Initiative phase may already be ready to continue the game, but players who acted last in the Initiative phase must have some time to consider their strategy.

Similarly, when using a Legwork or Hardship card, give the target of its effects time to read and understand the card before continuing play. Everyone must be able to follow what is happening in the game and plan their actions.

Discarding Evidence

During each Investigation Phase you may discard 1 Evidence card from your hand. Place the card face up next to the Evidence deck. You may discard only 1 card per turn, unless a Legwork card allows you to do otherwise. You may discard a card at any time during the Investigation Phase.

When preparing for the game it may turn out that your Jovan has information that does not suit his current case, so he makes it available to other Jovans through the arcology's evidence database.

Once Evidence cards have been brought into play, they may not be discarded from Murder cards by the normal rules.

Discarded Evidence cards may be taken by other players through the Strengths of their Jovans.

Exchange and Sale

To be honest, the clues and information that Jovans enter into the arcology's database (the discard pile) are considered junk by those same donors. Or, at least, the Evidence cards are useless to them in the cases those donors are investigating at that moment.

But some information (some Evidence cards) is valuable or rare, and may be vitally necessary to other Jovans.

When a player attaches Evidence cards to Murder cards and discards unneeded cards on his turn, he may also exchange or sell the Evidence cards remaining in his hand. Players may exchange or sell cards at any price and under any agreement. For example, one Evidence card for another, an Evidence card for credits, an Evidence card for a random Legwork card, or even an Evidence card for a promise, a request or an agreement.

Negotiation during trading depends entirely on the players taking part, and any goods that a Jovan has on his Dataslate Card or in his hand may be used in making deals. But there are a few simple restrictions on trading and exchange.

A player may take no more than 1 Evidence card during the Investigation Phase through trading or sale. When he receives a new Evidence card in this way, he may make all other deals only using other goods, such as credits, Legwork cards or promises.
You may not trade or sell an Evidence card that you have already attached to one of your Murder cards.
When exchanging Evidence cards, players may name the type and colour of the card (for example, "blue Murder Weapon"), but they are not obliged to read out the exact text of the card (for example, "Bloodied Knife"). Information about the exact card is the responsibility of the one receiving it, because he may have to attach it to one of his cases. The value of the card – 1, 2 or 3 – may not be named before the exchange.

Players may not lie about the colour or type of a card during an exchange. Its type (for example, Eyewitness) and colour must be named correctly. Players also may not name an incorrect value for a card.

You may receive a new Murder card from another player as a result of trading. This acquisition counts as receiving a new Murder card, which is permitted once per turn. If you have already drawn a new Murder card during the Investigation Phase, you may not receive another through exchange in the same phase. Also, under the normal rules you may not have more than 3 Murder cards at the same time. If you lose a Murder card as a result of an exchange, any Evidence cards already attached to that case are discarded. They are not passed to the new owner of the Murder card, do not return to hand, and do not remain in play.
If players make deals, agreements or exchange goods, no one may demand that these agreements be kept. A player may promise to let a case pass to court in the upcoming Court Phase and then do what he promised, or he may betray his trading partner. Such is the cruel reality of Jovans.
All deals must be concluded by the end of the Investigation Phase. No exchanges or sales may be made in the Court Phase.

Exchange and sale may take place at any time during the Investigation Phase. Exchange and sale may begin as soon as the required phase begins. You may anticipate a favourable moment for trade and wait for it, but only experience of the game and your personal strategy will help you determine such a moment.

When the Evidence Deck Runs Out

Since players constantly take cards from the Evidence decks during the game, a deck may sooner or later run out. All of its cards end up owned by players or in the discard pile. An exhausted Evidence deck remains empty. The discard pile is not shuffled and does not form a new deck. If players need cards of this type, one Jovan may use his Strength to take a card from the discard pile, while another is forced to trade cards with other players.

In the distant past the local police were a poorly prepared workforce of Federals who came to the city to take on investigations of serious crimes. Local authorities received their directions from members of the so-called Judicial Officer Vanguard. If a policeman was truly good, sooner or later he began working personally with the Federals. Everyone who craved such work – detectives, intermediaries, investigators – carried out their job at the federal level.

When that system collapsed, many detectives lost their jobs, and the cities realised they had nobody for high-profile work. The Federals who had not died or gone freelance took whatever cases they wanted – murders, arson, violence – and were paid by the city government. Now anyone who passes simple tests can obtain a detective's licence, while cases that nobody wants to take on remain unsolved. Who would spend their time investigating crimes for free?

Court Phase

When the Investigation Phase ends, and each player has had time to acquire new Evidence cards and carry out exchanges, the Court Phase begins. Each Jovan may now present one of his cases to the legal system in the hope that it will return a guilty verdict and pay him.

There are several restrictions on which Murder cards may go to court.

If you have more than 5 Evidence cards in hand (those attached to Murder cards are not counted) at the end of the Investigation Phase, you may not bring a case to court during the Court Phase that turn. You are confused by such a large number of clues and information and have not been able to prepare a case for hearing.
You may bring only one case to court per turn, unless a Legwork card allows you to present more cases to the court.
A Murder card to which 3 Evidence cards have been attached must be brought to court first. That is, if you have attached 3 Evidence cards to one case, 2 to another and 1 to a third, you may not present the second and third cases to the court before presenting the first. The case with 3 Evidence cards must go to court before the others. If you have several cases with 3 Evidence cards attached to each, you must bring to court any one of those cases – which one is up to you.
A case may not be brought to court if it carries Evidence cards of an unsuitable type. For example, a Professional Opinion card has been attached to a murder that does not require Evidence of that type. Such a "mismatch" of Evidence cards may arise as a result of Legwork, Hardship and Setback cards used against you.

You are not obliged to bring a case to court if you do not want to. Naturally, this does not apply if you have a Murder card with 3 Evidence cards attached to it. Such a case must be brought to court as soon as possible.

It may happen that you want to bring a case to court, but Legwork, Hardship and Setback cards, or having more than 5 Evidence cards in hand, prevent you from doing so. You will have to wait until the next turn, when you may be able to present the case to the court.

There are also cases where a Legwork or Hardship card prevents you from presenting a particular case to the court. That case may even be a murder with 3 Evidence cards. In that case you may bring another case to court.

The first player to bring a case to court in this phase is the player who won Initiative. After him other players may try their luck in turn, following the clockwise order of play.

Hearing

Since the legal system is overloaded because of the increased level of crime, the arcology has taken improper steps to separate crimes into matters of primary importance and minor offences. In addition to the fact that Jovans have licences to investigate murders and may bring cases to court, they are also hired to review cases, to ease the work of the legal system.

This means that another player "hears" the case you want to present to the court during the Court Phase. You act as prosecutor. Your Listener hears your arguments, and then decides what to do with them.

The Listener is normally the player seated to your left. But this applies only if another player does not want to take on this role for money and prestige, or simply does not want to obstruct you. Another player may voluntarily declare himself Listener by using a Hardship card. (See page 14 for the rules on departing from the normal order of assigning Listeners.)

As prosecutor you present the evidence, charging the suspect with murder. Your job is to set out the events of the crime in detail, and to prove why, in your opinion, the suspect is guilty. You must join the text of your Evidence cards and the corresponding Murder card into a story, explaining how the Evidence is involved in the murder and what proves the defendant's guilt.

For example, you have a Murder card, Dead Parent. It requires the following Evidence cards to bring a charge: Professional Opinion, Forensics and Murder Weapon. The Murder card is red. The Evidence cards you have attached to this case are the following:

Murder Weapon: Failed Brakes (yellow) – (Cut Brake Line)
Forensics: Fingerprints (red) – (Fingerprints)
Professional Opinion: Joker 1 (wild)

Based on the text on the Evidence cards, you prepare your account. The Murder card suggests a "Child" as a possible suspect. You explain to your Listener:

"We have a case here of a murdered parent. Our suspect is a high-school student who for a long time had bad relations with his father. The disobedient suspect constantly resisted his father's repeated attempts to discipline the son and raise him to be honest and upright. Angered, the father threatened to send the son to a school on another planet if he did not stop his antics. The rebellious suspect used everything he had learned at school and damaged the brakes on his father's car. We know this because the son's fingerprints were found on the car's running gear. We also have information from a teacher that the boy was unmanageable and, in the teacher's professional opinion, capable of anything. Despite the suspect's youth, I recommend the strictest punishment for committing this premeditated murder."

In this case we have a Murder Weapon and a Professional Opinion, expressed through the damaged brakes and the fingerprints under the car. Your joker standing in for the Professional Opinion gives you complete freedom in the story, and in this case the version of the teacher's opinion of the suspect was chosen by the prosecutor.

Note that the colour of the Murder Weapon does not match the colour of the Murder card, but it is woven into the story seamlessly. Now the most important thing for you is to make sure the Listener does not notice this particle of false information.

When bringing a charge, you must also describe the types of evidence presented and how they were involved in the murder. In this case the brakes are the Murder Weapon, the fingerprints are Forensics, and the teacher is the Professional Opinion.

You do not show the Listener the colour or value of your Evidence cards.

Role Play

As you can see, there are many opportunities in the game to play a role and describe the setting when bringing a case to court. Think of Murder City as giving you the chance to use some role-playing elements within a strategic game. You may create an identity for your Jovan based on his origin, as well as on your personal preferences. And in your account of the murder you may describe the harshness of the overcrowded, technology-saturated city in which your Jovan works. Do not be afraid to embellish any facet of the dark world of the future. Clones? Cyber-technology? Aliens? Murders? As many as you like!

Listener Options

After hearing the charge, the Listener may choose one of 3 possible actions. The reasons for his choice depend entirely on him: whether to see justice done, to keep an apparently unfounded case in order to further overload the legal system, or to earn money from it.

Regardless of what happens to the case, the Listener receives 1 credit for his work. He may earn more depending on how the case progresses, or lose credits if things turn out badly for him. All credits earned for the Listener's work are taken from the game "bank".

Challenging a case: The Listener may challenge the case. He believes that false evidence was used in presenting the charge, which makes the charge unsound and means the case should be closed. The Listener evaluates your charge and the substance of the Evidence cards involved in the case. He then chooses one of these cards in the hope that its colour does not match your Murder card. Taking the example presented above, let us say it is the Murder Weapon card.

If the colour of the Evidence card he chose does not match the colour of the Murder card, your case will never be presented to the court and jury. The case is closed. Discard your Murder card and all the Evidence cards attached to it. Also draw a Hardship card as public reproach and a loss of your standing for using false evidence. Your action in the Court Phase is over.

The Listener receives a reward for professionally done work: 2 additional credits from the "bank", that is, 3 credits in total for the whole case he heard.

If the Listener chose an Evidence card whose colour matches the Murder card, your case goes to court. The Listener loses 1 credit for each Evidence card attached to the case whose colour does not match and which escaped his check. For example, in the example above, if the Listener challenges the case and chooses the Forensics card, he is wrong. He loses 1 credit for failing to find your yellow Murder Weapon. (The joker in this case counts as a red card.) Or if 2 Evidence cards that did not match the colour of the Murder card had not been chosen by the Listener, he would lose 2 credits for his careless work.

You must not lie about the colour of your Evidence cards and of the Murder card when the Listener challenges your case.
Rubber-stamping a case: After hearing your charge, the Listener may let your case proceed to court. He minimises his role. The case appears before the judge and jury without a definite opinion from the Listener (see below). The Listener may choose this option if your charge is so carefully thought out that not a single piece of information raises doubt, but the Listener instinctively senses that something in the case is wrong. In this way the Listener simply receives his 1 credit for the role of Listener, without any reward or penalty.
Endorsing a case: While considering your case, the Listener may give it his professional support. He believes the charge is built very convincingly, and the case becomes very important for the arcology, gaining fame in blogs and the mass media. The media, the population and the legal community will closely follow the outcome of this case.

Listening Rules

The Listener may not be bribed or intimidated during the Court Phase to endorse or let a case pass to court. The Listener may be encouraged before the hearing, during the Investigation Phase, with a bribe or gifts. Whether the Listener keeps his promise in the Court Phase depends only on himself.

If for some reason you cannot find a Listener (for example, because of Legwork or Setback cards played), the case automatically appears before the judge and jury and the trial roll is made.

If a player uses a Hardship card to become the Listener, but the card then prevents him from becoming one, the Listener is chosen in the normal order (to the left of the prosecutor). Or someone else may use a Hardship card to declare himself the new Listener.

Important Note: The prosecuting player describes the events of the crime, and the Listener chooses one of the 3 possible actions before any dice are rolled. This means the Listener decides whether to challenge, let pass or endorse the case, not on the basis of the result of the dice roll in the trial. The order in which these actions are resolved is extremely important, because in this way the Listener cannot make his choice based on the result of a roll. He must judge the charge relying only on his professional skills.

Trial Roll

When a murder case successfully passes through the Listener (that is, it has not been rejected along with its evidence), it appears before the judge and jury. You have already defended your case before the Listener, but the full success of the case is determined by the dice roll. The success of your roll represents how convincing your charge was in court, before the judge and jury.

Add up the values of all the Evidence cards attached to your Murder card. For each point on an Evidence card – 1, 2 or 3 – you roll 1 die. Dice may be added to or subtracted from this total for the following:

Your Jovan's Strength, used in the Court Phase (see your Jovan card).
An additional die awarded by your Listener for endorsing the case.
A Hardship card drawn voluntarily to gain an additional die.
Bonuses from any Legwork cards you use on the roll.
Penalties from any Legwork cards that other Jovans use against you.
Penalties from any Hardship cards in effect against you at that time.
Penalties from any Setback cards that affect all players.

Bonuses and penalties to the number of dice may only be obtained before the trial roll. They cannot be applied after the roll has been made (for example, another player uses a Legwork card against you, or you try to draw a Hardship card in the hope of an additional die). It is too late. The judge and jury have already heard your case and passed sentence.

When you have determined the total number of dice, roll them and add up their values. Compare the total with the number needed for a given type of charge.

Take the case of Dead Parent. For example, the case was endorsed by the Listener. The sum of the Evidence card values (3, 1 and 1) is 5, plus a die for the Listener's endorsement. You are an Analytical Alien Investigator, so you receive an additional die for the Murder Weapon among your evidence in the case. Finally, another Jovan uses a Legwork card on you which subtracts 1 die from the roll. Overall your number of dice is 6 (3+1+1+1+1-1).

Your roll – 1, 3, 3, 4, 4 and 5 – totals 20. This number exactly matches the number needed for a conviction for Murder One (Premeditated Murder). If you had rolled 16-19, you would have achieved Manslaughter. A roll of 12-15 would have given Aggravated Assault. A total of less than 12 would mean your suspect got away unpunished – he would be found not guilty or acquitted for lack of evidence.

Your Listener breathes a sigh of relief. He receives 2 credits for a Murder One conviction, since he endorsed your case.

Payouts

Your reward for a verdict is credits equal to the number after the slash on the Murder card, according to the verdict on one of the types of charge. In the case of Dead Parent, that is 6 credits for Murder One (Premeditated Murder), 4 for Manslaughter and 2 for Aggravated Assault.

If your total on the dice does not reach even the lowest charge, you receive no money, but you lose nothing either. The case is closed and the suspect goes unpunished. You receive no penalty for losing the case, since you have already been punished by the time and effort spent – all for nothing.

The Listener receives a penalty if the case he endorsed did not result in a conviction. He draws a Hardship card.

Closing the Case

When a case has been challenged by the Listener, or if the Jovan did not secure a guilty verdict in court, the case is closed. Your Murder card is discarded face up next to the Murder deck, and all Evidence cards attached to it are discarded as well.

After a case has been won or lost on the trial roll, the prosecutor is not obliged to show the colour of the Evidence cards attached to the case. Keeping information of this kind secret is a Jovan's way of protecting his reputation and making it hard for other players to tell when he is lying and when he is telling the truth.

You must discard the used Evidence cards face up next to the Evidence deck after the case is closed. But if you do not want other players to see the Evidence cards used in the case, you may shuffle them into the discard pile and return the pile to its place.

Acquiring New Murder Cards

After a case goes to court, you may acquire a new Murder card only during the Investigation Phase of the next turn. In one Investigation Phase a player may draw only 1 new Murder card, and he may take it only during his own turn in that phase. A new Murder card may not be drawn during the Court Phase or during the Investigation Phase before or after the player's turn.

There are cases where a Legwork, Setback or Hardship card forces you to discard a Murder card and all the Evidence cards attached to it before the case reaches court. You may draw a replacement for the lost Murder card during your turn in the Investigation Phase, but you may not draw any more Murder cards during that turn.

Finally, you may persuade someone to give you a Murder card in the course of trading or exchange in the Investigation Phase. Perhaps you have something special to offer in return, or you simply convince some desperate Jovan of the need! This card counts as a new Murder card that you acquire in your turn. If you have already drawn a new Murder card in the Investigation Phase, you may not receive another through trading or exchange in the same phase.

If you give up a Murder card, the Evidence cards attached to it are discarded. They are not passed to the player who received your Murder card, do not return to your hand, and do not remain in play.

By the normal rules you may not have more than 3 Murder cards.

End of Turn

A turn ends when all players have finished investigating their cases and presented them to court (or have declined to do so, or been forced to). This marks the start of a new turn.

End of Game

Play 6 turns, and all the Jovans' contracts with the arcology come to an end. The player with the most credits – the richest and most successful Jovan in the metropolis – is declared the winner.

If several Jovans have equally large numbers of credits, the one who won more cases is declared the winner. Note that cases that were rejected by the Listener or that did not result in a verdict are not counted. Only cases that reached a verdict on the charge of Aggravated Assault (and others) are counted.

If you do not remember the number of successfully completed cases, go through the discarded Murder cards and set aside those in which you achieved success.

In these days many police departments do not have their own detectives or specialists, since they have no money to train them. Detectives are volunteers working on contracts that cover one case at a time. Tired cops wear their uniforms only for the pension. Today you may obtain a Jovan's licence with or without legal experience. Cops enjoy all the advantages and disadvantages of working in a police station, while Jovans enjoy freedom and fame.

The truth is that in such a future, without proper control by the authorities, crime flourishes. This benefits both criminals and the detectives who pursue them. The work of Jovans wears them down, and sooner or later takes its toll, but the skills of murder specialists are always necessary...

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I voluntarily draw a Hardship card to take 2 additional Legwork cards during the Investigation Phase. Can I draw another Hardship card during the Court Phase to make myself the Listener of a case?

A: No. You may voluntarily draw only 1 Hardship card per turn. The card you take to draw two additional Legwork cards is the only one you may take during one turn. This means that all other rewards for voluntarily drawing a Hardship card are unavailable to you until the next turn. But you may still draw a Hardship card if the rules of the game require it, for example when the Listener successfully challenges your case during the Court Phase.

Q: Can I as Listener both challenge and then endorse the same case?

A: No. You must choose either to endorse, to challenge or to let the case pass.

Q: During the Investigation Phase, can I receive an Evidence card from a player in a trade and buy another from another player for credits?

A: No. You may exchange or buy only one card, and you may not receive more than one Evidence card per turn by purchase or exchange.

Q: May I have more than 5 Evidence cards in hand at the end of the Investigation Phase?

A: Yes. You may have any number of Evidence cards in hand at the end of the Investigation Phase. You simply may not bring a case to court during the Court Phase in that case.

Q: May I bring a case to court if only 1 or 2 Evidence cards are attached to it?

A: Yes. You may bring a case to court with any number of Evidence cards if you think you can get past the Listener and obtain a verdict from the court. You do not have to have exactly 3 Evidence cards on the Murder card.

Q: Must I wait until the Evidence deck is completely empty – when all cards are in players' possession or in the discard pile – before using my Jovan's Strength to look through the discard pile?

A: No. You may use your Strength in the Investigation Phase to look through the discard pile that has already been formed (not necessarily all of the discarded cards).

Q: Must I always tell the Listener how the murder happened?

A: In general, yes. Describing the events of the murder is an important part of the game. But if you use something like the Legwork card Bribe, your case goes straight to the trial roll. You and your Listener may agree that you do not recount the events of the murder. But the Listener may still demand your account, regardless of whether he was bribed or not.

Q: May I voluntarily discard a Murder card whose case I do not want to investigate and bring to court?

A: No. Your Jovan has signed a contract to investigate this case, and it must remain open, regardless of whether it reaches court. But you may swap Murder cards with other players during the Investigation Phase.