Of Mice and Mazes Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
  • 1. Form the crypt
  • 2. Select factions
  • 3. Prepare the row of chambers and the row of assistants
  • 4. Prepare your player board
• Ground Rules
  • Resources, Gold and Glory
  • The Crypt, Entrances and Chambers
  • Assistants
  • Camp
• Gameplay
  • Place a Paw
  • Remove Paws
• Card Effects
  • Receive Resources / Gold / Glory
  • Exchange
  • Add a Chamber Card or an Assistant Card to Your Camp
  • Open a Chamber / Open a Chamber from Your Camp
  • Hire an Assistant / Hire an Assistant from Your Camp
  • Refresh Up to 3 Cards in Rows
  • Move a Paw
• More on Effects
  • Assistants
  • Chambers
• End of Game
  • Scoring Glory
• Three-Player Game
• "Hidden Passage" Rule
• Reference

Contents

• 16 entrance cards
• 37 chamber cards
• 37 assistant cards
• 12 double-sided tokens (+10/+20)
• 20 chest tokens
• 7 hidden passage tokens (for the additional rule)
• This rulebook
• 3 player's sets, each containing:
  • Coalition Captain board
  • 1 food token
  • 1 torch token
  • 1 pickaxe token
  • 1 glory token
  • 1 gold token
  • 5 paw tokens
  • 8 ownership tokens

Setup

This setup and rules are designed for a two player game. We recommend playing your first game this way. You can find rules for a three player game below.

1. Form the crypt

a. Take entrance cards numbered 1 to 14. Put cards 3.5 and 7.5 back in the box — they are for three player games. Place entrance cards in the center of the table forming a frame, numbers facing up: from entrance card 1 on the left, then clockwise in ascending order (4, 5, 6, 7 across the top; 8, 9, 10 down the right side; 14, 13, 12, 11 across the bottom; 1, 2, 3 up the left side).

You may choose to place entrance cards not in ascending order but in the order of your choice or randomly to make your game more unpredictable.

b. The space inside the frame consists of 12 empty spots. Place a random chest token face up in each of them — you should be able to see the bonus they provide.

c. Place the rest of the chest tokens face down near the crypt — this is the shared supply of chests.

d. Place the +10/+20 tokens nearby — you will need them later to keep track of your glory.

2. Select factions

Select 6 of 12 critter factions to use in the game to your taste or randomly. For your first game select factions marked in green.

• Squirrels — Spellcasters
• Viscachas — Renowned cooks
• Porcupines — Warriors and protectors
• Rats — Crooks and conspirators
• Beavers — Unparalleled builders
• Jerboas — Skilled archers
• Capibaras — The smartest critters
• Molerats — Work underground
• Pacas — Nature whisperers
• Lemmings — Talented merchants
• Chinchillas — Clerics of the Coalition
• Guinea pigs — Amazing alchemists

Each faction has 3 chamber cards and 3 assistant cards, marked with a unique faction symbol in the top left corner. Take the cards of the chosen factions and separate them into two decks: one for chamber cards, one for assistant cards.

Add the neutral (meaning not belonging to any faction) "Sphinx" chamber to chamber cards and the neutral "Mewmmy" assistant to assistant cards. They are marked with the neutral symbol. Put unused cards back in the box.

3. Prepare the row of chambers and the row of assistants

a. Separate the chamber cards with green backs from the cards with blue backs. Shuffle separately. Then put the cards with green backs on top of the cards with blue backs — the chamber deck is prepared. Place it face down above the crypt.

b. Prepare the assistant deck the same way.

c. Reveal the top card of each deck and place it face up to the left of the deck and rotate it 90 degrees — these are discard piles.

d. Take 3 top chamber and assistant cards and place them face up to the right of their decks — these are the chamber row and the assistant row, respectively.

4. Prepare your player board

a. Each player takes a player board of a Coalition Captain, 3 different resource tokens, 1 gold token and 1 glory token. (A set of player tokens: food, pickaxes, torches, gold, glory.)

Put your player board before you. Place the glory token on 0 and the other tokens on 1. This indicates that you start the game with 1 of each resource and 1 gold. As for glory, you have yet to earn it.

b. Each player takes 5 paw tokens and 8 ownership tokens featuring their specific paw print — they should match the paw print on your player board.

Put unused components back into the box, including hidden passage tokens — they are only needed if you use the special Hidden Passage rule.

The player who was the last to find something valuable (even in themselves) becomes the first player.

Ground Rules

Resources, Gold and Glory

You don't need much to open a secret chamber: some food to refuel, a torch to light your way and a sturdy pickaxe to smash closed doors. And if there is something else you need, you can always buy it with gold!

Food, torches and pickaxes are resources. Gold is not considered a resource, but you can spend it instead of food, torches or pickaxes.

The symbol of any resource indicates that you can choose what resource to receive/spend, unless otherwise stated.

Glory is not considered a resource, but some game effects require spending a certain amount of glory.

When you receive or spend a resource, gold or glory, track it on your player board, moving tokens forward and backwards respectively. You can't have more than 9 resources or gold. Anything over 9 is lost.

If the glory token is about to move farther than 9, take a +10 token and continue to track your glory from 0. If you receive 20 glory points, flip the +10 token. You can take as many +10/+20 tokens as needed.

The Crypt, Entrances and Chambers

It's time to enter the crypt and open a secret chamber. Who knows what awaits inside? A magical item? An ancient artifact? Even if it's empty, that wouldn't be so bad, extra room for a workshop. And let every critter that pokes its snout here know who owns the place!

Entrance cards and the space between them form the crypt. The space inside the crypt consists of 12 empty spots that are filled with chamber cards during the game. If rules or effects mention crypt cards, it refers to both entrance and chamber cards.

Chamber cards show:

1. Faction symbol
2. Cost of opening that chamber and the spot for an ownership token
3. Chamber name
4. Chamber effect
5. Amount of glory received for opening that chamber

Entrance cards show:

1. Faction symbol
2. Card number (for setup)
3. Entrance card effect

Note: faction symbols and backs of some entrance cards (with green ribbons) are used with the Hidden Passage rule.

During the game you will open chambers — meaning you will place chamber cards inside the crypt. A chamber can be opened in an empty spot, where your paw is placed. The chamber belongs to a player that opened it: players mark such chambers with their ownership tokens. Each player can own up to 8 chambers inside the crypt.

Assistants

Critters of all ways of life are ready to offer you their assistance — some for food, some for gold. Each faction has their own talents!

Assistant cards show:

1. Faction symbol
2. Assistant's craft
3. Cost of hiring
4. Assistant's effect
5. Amount of glory received for hiring this assistant

During the game you can hire assistants. Most have passive effects that are triggered under certain circumstances each time until the end of the game (see Card Effects). You can have as many assistants as you like — put them above your player board as a reminder to use their effects. You can always opt not to use an assistant's effect.

Camp

Take notice of valuable assistants and good mining sites — your opponents won't be able to snatch them from your camp!

You can reserve an assistant or a chamber — meaning you take them from the row now, but pay their cost later.

Place such cards in your camp to the left of your player board. You can have up to 2 cards in your camp. If you want to reserve a new one, you need to discard one of the two you already have in your camp.

When you hire an assistant or open a chamber from your camp, spend 1 resource less.

Gameplay

Players take turns, starting with the first player.

On your turn choose one of the following actions to take:

• Place a paw on an entrance card.
• Remove all paws from cards and empty spots in any order, triggering effects of each card you remove a paw from.

Notes:

• You can choose this action only if you have at least one paw placed already.
• You have to choose this action if you have no more paws left (so you can't place them).

Both actions are described in more detail below.

Place a Paw

To enter the crypt you have to carve a path first. Critter guides have already gathered near entrances and are ready to pave the way with their nimble paws!

You can place a paw token on an entrance card if:

• This entrance card is unoccupied, meaning it has no other paws on it.
• There aren't any of your opponent's paws opposite of it, meaning on the opposite entrance card in that row or column.

Example: Andrew can place a paw on any entrance card except the three marked with crosses: entrance card 2 already has his paw on it, entrance card 6 is occupied with an opponent's paw, and there is an opponent's paw in front of entrance card 12.

Then check for intersections of your paws inside the crypt. An intersection is a spot where a line from a paw on an entrance card in a row crosses a line from a paw on an entrance card in a column. You have to place your paw on each intersection. If there are more intersections than you have paws left, choose on which intersections to place them.

An intersection can fall upon:

• An empty spot. Just place a paw there. In the future you will be able to open a chamber here.
• An empty spot with a chest token. Take it and place it face up in front of you, then place a paw in that empty spot.
• A chamber card. The owner of that chamber (according to the ownership token on the card) immediately receives 1 gold, thanks to the interest other expeditions pay to their mining site. If you place a paw on your own chamber, nothing happens. If there is a bonus-action symbol on a chamber card, a player placing a paw there can take an additional action (place a paw or remove paws) immediately after finishing this one.

Example: Helen places her paw on entrance card 6, forming an intersection with her paw on entrance card 8. Helen places her paw on the intersection and takes the chest token from it. Now it's Andrew's turn. He places his paw on entrance card 2, forming an intersection with his paw token on entrance card 14. It falls upon the chamber owned by Helen. Andrew places his paw there, and Helen receives 1 gold.

Take note:

• The Place a Paw action allows you to place a paw only on an entrance card. To get inside the crypt you need an intersection. But there are some card effects that allow you to place paws in other ways.
• You can trigger an effect of a chest any time, while taking your action. After you've triggered it, flip the token — the chest is now considered used. You can always look through your used chests.

Remove Paws

Don't forget to pick up all the riches you have found when leaving the crypt!

Remove all of your placed paws one by one in any order, triggering effects of each chamber card that you've removed a paw from. Put removed paws back to your supply.

Card effects are described in detail below.

Take note:

• When you remove a paw from an empty spot, you don't receive anything nor trigger any effect.
• Don't forget to check your assistants and trigger their effects, while taking this action.
• You can opt not to trigger any effect. Some assistants offer bonuses for doing so (it says: without an effect).

Tip: try to gather cards from different factions, when you open chambers and hire assistants. You will receive additional glory for a diverse expedition at the end of the game.

Example: Andrew removes his paws in the following order:

1. Entrance card 14 allows him to exchange any resource for gold and refresh up to 3 cards in rows. Andrew has 4 resources, he exchanges 1 resource for 1 gold. He doesn't want to refresh any cards in rows.
2. Entrance card 5 allows him to hire an assistant. Andrew takes Pyromancer from the row, pays their cost — 4 gold, receives 4 resources and places their card above his player board.
3. The Crane chamber card allows him to open a chamber in any empty spot (following normal rules for opening a chamber) and trigger its effect. Andrew takes the Living Fire chamber card from the row, pays its cost — 3 resources, receives 1 resource and places it in an empty slot. Then he applies the Living Fire effect and receives 2 resources. He also places his ownership token on the Living Fire chamber. Finally Andrew puts a new card into the row to replace Living Fire. Additionally, the Pyromancer's effect is triggered — when receiving resources Andrew receives 1 additional resource. Therefore Andrew receives 3 resources total from both effects.
4. Entrance card 2 allows him to open a chamber. Andrew looks at the cards in the row and his resources: he has 3 food, 1 torch, 4 pickaxes and 2 gold. He takes the Sphinx chamber card from the row and pays its cost (3 resources and 3 gold), receives 4 glory and, according to the rules for opening chambers, places it in an empty spot under his paw. He also places his ownership marker on the Sphinx chamber and puts a new card in the row to replace it.
5. The last paw was in an empty spot, but now it is placed on the Sphinx chamber card. Andrew removes that paw, triggers the Sphinx effect and receives 1 resource.

All Andrew's paws are removed, so he passes the turn to the next player.

Card Effects

Effects of chamber cards are triggered, when you remove a paw from them.

Effects of most assistant cards are triggered, whenever you fulfill conditions listed before the colon, doing or receiving whatever is indicated there. You immediately receive everything indicated after the colon. Effects of assistant cards in your camp don't trigger until you hire them.

Example: Andrew has the Confectioner assistant card. During his turn Andrew removes a paw from an entrance card and, according to its effect, hires an assistant. It immediately triggers the Confectioner effect, which allows Andrew to pay resources instead of gold, when hiring an assistant. Andrew wants to hire the Architect, which costs 4 resources and 1 gold. He doesn't have any gold on his player board, so he applies the Confectioner effect to pay 5 resources to hire the Architect.

General rules for effects:

• If there is a resource symbol, you receive the specified amount of any resources — of one or several types — distributing them at your discretion.
• A slash (for example 1 food / 1 pickaxe) indicates that you have to choose one of the options.
• A plus (for example 1 pickaxe + 1 torch) indicates that you receive both.
• A one-time symbol above glory indicates that the effect of that assistant is one-time and applies only once upon hiring.
• Some effects mention adjacent chambers. Adjacent chambers are those that are one step to the left, right, up, or down, but not diagonally.
• If you remove a card from the row, immediately place a new one in its place from the top of the respective deck. If there are no more cards in a deck, shuffle its discard pile to form a new one.

Below you will find the explanation of the most common effects. More specific effects are clarified in the next section.

Receive Resources / Gold / Glory

Receive the amount of resources, gold and/or glory indicated on a card.

For example, the Armory effect grants you 1 pickaxe and 1 torch. The Builder effect grants you an additional pickaxe, when you receive resources from other effects.

Exchange

To exchange means to spend the amount of resources/gold/glory indicated before the arrow to receive the amount of resources/gold/glory indicated after the arrow. You can't spend or receive more than the indicated amount.

For example, the Laboratory effect allows you to spend 1 gold to receive any 2 resources and 1 glory.

Add a Chamber Card or an Assistant Card to Your Camp

Choose any chamber or assistant card from the rows and place it in your camp to the left of your player board. You can have up to 2 cards in your camp. If you want to add a new one, you need to discard one of the two you already have in your camp.

Open a Chamber / Open a Chamber from Your Camp

To trigger this effect you need to have at least one paw in an empty spot inside the crypt.

1. Choose a chamber card in the row or in your camp. Take note, that the "from your camp" effect allows you to open a chamber only from your camp.
2. Pay the cost: spend the indicated amount of resources and/or gold. If you open a chamber from your camp, spend 1 resource less (remember: gold is not a resource). Some effects also provide various discounts for opening a chamber.
3. Place the chosen chamber card under your paw in an empty spot inside the crypt. The paw stays on this chamber card. You can trigger the effect of this chamber card in the same turn, taking a paw from it.
4. Place your ownership token on this chamber card, covering its cost — now you are considered the owner of this chamber.
5. Receive the amount of glory indicated on the card.

Hire an Assistant / Hire an Assistant from Your Camp

1. Choose an assistant card from the row or your camp. Take note, that the "from your camp" effect allows you to hire an assistant only from your camp.
2. Pay the cost: spend an indicated amount of resources and/or gold. If you hire an assistant from your camp, spend 1 resource less (remember: gold is not a resource). Some effects also provide various discounts for hiring an assistant.
3. Place the chosen assistant card above your player board. If the assistant has a one-time effect, trigger it immediately.
4. Receive the amount of glory indicated on the card.

Refresh Up to 3 Cards in Rows

Select up to 3 cards from chamber and assistant rows — it could be cards from one row or both in any combination. Discard them and put new cards from the top of corresponding decks in their places.

Move a Paw

Move any of your placed paws from a chamber card or an empty spot to another chamber card or an empty spot without a paw or a card (if there is a chest token there, you take it after moving a paw).

You can't move a paw to an entrance card or from an entrance card.

Moving a paw is not considered removing it, so card effects don't trigger.

More on Effects

Assistants

Barker. Count the number of unique (meaning not matching each other or the symbol on the opened chamber) faction symbols in adjacent chambers and receive an equal amount of resources.

Bishop, Monk, Preacher. The effects of assistants from the Chinchilla faction have a limitation: you can only use them once per turn.

Chef. The Chef's effect applies only if the hired assistant has a passive effect. It doesn't work on other assistants (with one time effects or complex effects without a colon).

Commander. This effect allows you to place 1 paw following normal rules immediately after taking the "Remove paws" action.

Infiltrator. On your turn you can place 1 paw opposite an opponent's paw, ignoring normal rules. This effect applies until the end of the game. In a three player game this effect allows you to do it for free.

Magician. Choose an entrance card with your paw and trigger its effect without removing the paw.

Profiteer. When you trigger an effect of a chest, you can choose any card from any discard pile and put it in your camp.

Ranger. If the chamber you've removed a paw from has several adjacent chambers, you can choose any one of them. It gives the owner of that chamber 1 gold.

Student. You can have up to 4 cards in your camp. After hiring the Student you receive one additional turn.

Swindler. You can choose which chest to flip. This allows you to trigger its effect again following normal rules.

Trammer. This effect gives you 1 resource for each paw you've removed from inside the crypt without triggering an effect — either from an empty spot or opting not to trigger an effect.

Tunneler. Immediately trigger the effect of the opened chamber. You may also be able to remove a paw from this chamber on the same turn and trigger its effect again this time following normal rules.

Chambers

Alchemical Workshop. Two resources you receive in exchange for the one you spend can be different as long as they are not of the same kind as the one you spend. For example, you can spend 1 pickaxe to receive 1 food and 1 torch, or 2 food, or 2 torches.

Cave-in, Tunnel. These effects allow you to choose a card from the row and trigger its effect as if you've removed a paw from it (in case of Cave-in) or as if you had that assistant (in case of Tunnel). The card itself stays in the row, and you don't receive glory for hiring/opening. For example, you trigger the effect of Tunnel and choose the Elder assistant card from the row. If you place an assistant or a chamber in your camp until the end of your turn, you receive 2 resources from the Elder effect.

Crane, Scaffolding. These effects allow you to open a chamber in any empty spot without any paws or cards (if there is a chest token there, you take it after opening a chamber).

Fair. This effect benefits both the player who triggered it (they receive 3 resources) and all other players (each of them receives 1 resource).

Kitchen. You can trigger the effect of an assistant that was already triggered during this turn without fulfilling conditions before the colon. This effect doesn't apply to one time assistants. For example, during this turn you open the Storage chamber and immediately trigger its effects (receive 2 resources) because of the Tunneler effect. Then you remove the paw from Kitchen, and its effect allows you to use Tunneler again — meaning you trigger the Storage effect one more time and receive 2 more resources.

Pawn shop. This effect allows you to exchange one chest (discarding it to the general supply) for 1 gold. You can discard any of your chests, even used ones.

Portal. This effect can only be triggered by the owner of the Portal, for other players this card doesn't have any effect. You can discard the Portal and open another chamber in its place following normal rules but spending 2 resources less. Additionally you receive 1 glory.

Privy. Discard an assistant (hired or from your camp) and spend the resources you received by hiring them. You don't lose any glory received because of their effect. You can hire a new assistant or put them in your camp following normal rules.

Stash. You can look through your used chests and choose one to flip. That allows you to use the effect of that chest again following normal rules.

Teahouse. This card's effect allows you to take an additional turn. Note, that the additional-turn symbol applies only when you place a paw on a chamber, while the effect applies when you remove the paw.

Watchtower. This effect allows you to choose which of the next effects that get triggered by removing a paw will be triggered twice.

End of Game

The game ends if one of the following conditions is fulfilled:

• there are no more empty spots inside the crypt (there are 12 open chambers)
• there are no more cards in the assistants deck (there are 2 or less assistant cards in the row and none in the discard pile)
• one of the players has received 40 glory or more

The player during whose turn one of these conditions is fulfilled finishes their action, then their opponent can take one more action. Afterwards, move on to scoring glory.

Scoring Glory

Check how diverse your expedition turned out to be!

Each player counts the number of sets of different factions first among all of their chamber cards, then among all their assistant cards. Note that each faction has a specific symbol — it is easier to use them to count. The Sphinx and Mewmmy cards can be considered belonging to any faction of the player's choice.

Each player can have several sets of cards of one type (for example 5 chambers of five different factions and additionally 2 chambers of two different factions), and they receive glory for each of these sets according to the table below.

Number of factions in a set	1	2	3	4	5	6
Amount of glory for a set	0	2	4	7	11	16

Add up the glory from your player board with the +10/+20 tokens that you received during the game.

The player who has the most glory becomes the Chairman of the Coalition of Courageous Critters! In the event of a tie, the player during whose turn the condition for ending the game was fulfilled wins.

Now you can try to play a three-player game and/or use the additional rule (below).

Example: Helen has 6 assistants and 6 chambers. Her assistants form two sets of different factions. One consists of 4 different factions (7 glory for this set), and another of 2 different factions (2 glory for this set). Helen gets 7+2=9 glory for assistants in total.

Her chambers also form two sets: one consists of 5 different factions (11 glory for this set), and another of 1 faction (0 glory). So Helen gets 11 glory for chambers and 9+11=20 glory for the diversity of her expedition in total.

She has 1 glory on her player board, one +20 token and one +10 token, meaning that during the game Helen received 31 glory. Her final score is 20+31=51 glory.

Three-Player Game

In a three-player game make the following adjustments to the setup:

• Take the entrance cards 3.5 and 7.5. Place entrance cards in ascending order to form a 4×4 grid. Place the card 3.5 between cards 3 and 4 and the card 7.5 between cards 7 and 8.
• Choose 7 of 12 critter factions to include in the game.
• Give the third player the same set of components as other players: a player board, resources, gold and glory tokens, 8 ownership tokens and 5 paw tokens.

Make the following adjustments to the gameplay:

• You are allowed to place your paw token opposite an opponent's paw, but this opponent will then receive 1 gold. If an intersection forms but it falls upon an opponent's paw, you can't put your paw there.
• The end of game conditions change: The game ends when there are 16 open chambers in the crypt or one of the players receives 30 or more glory. The third condition remains the same. After one of the end game conditions has been fulfilled, both other players can take one additional action each.

"Hidden Passage" Rule

Experienced adventurers know that you don't have to take a straight path into the crypt… it's better to dig a secret tunnel! Such stealthy tactics will cost you your reputation but think about all the riches you can find!

This rule is designed for a two player game.

It introduces the cost of 2 resources to some entrance cards. After spending it, flip the card to the other side with a more powerful effect and mark it with your ownership token. We recommend introducing this additional rule into the game only after you finish at least one two player game with normal rules.

Make the following adjustment to the setup: take 6 hidden passage tokens (7 tokens in a game with three players) and place one on each entrance card with the symbol of the chosen factions. For example, if you've decided to include the Squirrels faction into the game, place a hidden passage token on the card with the Squirrels symbol.

During the game after triggering the effect of a card with a hidden passage token you can choose to spend 2 resources to flip this card to the other side and place your ownership token on it. Put the hidden passage token back into the box. You will find more powerful effects on the backs of cards. Also each time your opponent places their paw on such a card you own, you receive 1 gold (as with chambers).

Clarification for the more powerful effects:

• Entrance card 4. You can move a paw from an entrance card, unlike the normal effect.
• Entrance cards 8, 9, 10. If you have less than 2 resources of the specified type, you receive 2 resources. If you have more, you receive 1 resource.

Reference

• Place a paw
• Remove paws
• Camp
• Hire an assistant
• Open a chamber
• Move a paw from a chamber card or an empty spot to another chamber card or empty spot (with or without a chest)
• Chest
• Place an assistant into your camp
• Place a chamber into your camp
• Hire an assistant from your camp
• Open a chamber from your camp