Open Sesame Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Goal of the Game
• Round Overview
• The Alarm Tokens
• End of a Round and Sharing
• End of the Game
• Scoring
• Variants

Contents

• 45 treasure cards, of which 9 are shiny (A), 7 noisy (B) and 5 encumbering (C). Also printed on each treasure card is the number appearing in the deck (D).
• 1 Chief Thief card (E)
• 1 Ali Baba figurine and its base (F)
• 9 Alarm tokens (G)

Setup

• The treasure cards are shuffled to make a draw pile, which is placed face-down in the middle of the table. Take the bottom eight treasure cards from the draw pile and put the Chief Thief card face-down on top of them. Then put the remaining treasure cards back on top.
• The alarm tokens are placed in the middle of the table.
• The youngest player takes the role of Ali Baba during the first round and takes the figurine, placing it in front of them. The other players will be the thieves.

Goal of the Game

A game takes place over several rounds. During each of these rounds, Ali Baba will be played by a different player.

The goal of each player, whether playing Ali Baba or a thief, is to gather as many different treasure cards as possible during the game.

Round Overview

• Ali Baba draws and reveals the first treasure card from the draw pile. He lets the thieves see that card and then places it into his hand. The treasure on that card is then no longer visible to the thieves.
• Each time Ali Baba draws and reveals a treasure card, the thief whose turn it is must, out loud and in a clear voice, list all the treasure cards Ali Baba has in his hand (including the most recently revealed treasure card). The thief uses the following formula to list the contents on Ali Baba's hand: "In the cavern there is a/an...., a/an...., and a/an....". The order of the recitation is of no matter.
• Ali Baba validates what is said by the thief as it is said by consulting his hand. He is the sole judge in regards to what is said by the thief.

Example: Ali Baba has in hand the following treasure cards: a cushion, a lion and an hourglass. The thief whose turn it is has memorized them and must say: "In the cavern there is a cushion, a lion, and an hourglass."

Note: when multiple copies of the same treasure card are present in Ali Baba's hand, they must be grouped during the recitation. For example: "In the cavern, there are two cushions...".

• When a thief has finished reciting without making mistakes, Ali Baba can draw and reveal a new treasure card.
• It's then the next thief's turn (clockwise) to list the treasure cards held in Ali Baba's hand. If the thief has made a mistake in the recitation or if Ali Baba decides not to draw, it's the end of the round (see further).

Important: Ali Baba never recites lists, he just reveals treasure cards one by one and places them in his hand. The thieves never see the revealed treasure cards afterward. They must, in turn, list the treasure cards in Ali Baba's hand.

The Alarm Tokens

• When a card with a shiny, noisy, or encumbering treasure is revealed, Ali Baba must place a corresponding alarm token next to his figurine.

Example: Ali Baba gets a noisy alarm token as he has revealed a "noisy" treasure (the lion).

• If Ali Baba gets 3 identical alarm tokens or 3 different alarm tokens, he is discovered and captured by the thieves, which ends the round (see further).

End of a Round and Sharing

Three situations may cause the end of a round. Play then proceeds to the sharing of all of the treasure cards in Ali Baba's hand.

• Case 1) After the correct recitation of a thief, Ali Baba may decide to stop drawing cards and says: "Open sesame!" When this happens Ali Baba and the thieves share all the treasure cards in Ali Baba's hand. In turn, clockwise, and starting with Ali Baba, each player chooses a treasure card until there are none left in Ali Baba's hand.
• Case 2) A thief was wrong in the recitation of the cavern's treasure cards. When this happens, Ali Baba takes 3 cards of his choice from those in his hand, then each thief other than the thief at fault, proceeding clockwise, chooses a treasure card from among those remaining. Ali Baba can end up with more than 3 treasure cards, as he also takes part in this distribution. This split proceeds until there are no treasure cards left in Ali Baba's hand.
• Case 3) Ali Baba has received 3 identical alarm tokens or 3 different alarm tokens. When this happens, each thief (excluding Ali Baba) will choose a treasure card from Ali Baba's hand, starting with the thief to Ali Baba's left and going clockwise, until there are no treasure cards left in Ali Baba's hand.

In all cases, the chosen treasure cards are placed in front of each player, face down. Depending on the round, it's possible that some players may get more than one card during a split.

Note: Once the treasure cards are placed face down in front of them, players are no longer allowed to look at them until scoring at the end of the game!

Once the distribution of the treasure cards is done, a new round may begin. The player to the left of Ali Baba becomes the new Ali Baba and places the figurine in front of them.

End of the Game

• When Ali Baba reveals the Chief Thief card, the game is near its end. The current round will be the last but still proceeds normally.
• The Chief Thief card counts as a treasure card. It must thus be listed as such.

Note: if the draw pile is empty, Ali Baba must leave the cavern and the split is done evenly (case 1).

Scoring

Each player reveals the treasure cards they've acquired during the game. That player scores 1 point for each different treasure card in their collection.

Note that multiple copies of the same treasure card are only worth 1 point total, not one point each.

Example: the player scores only 2 points as the Book treasure card is found twice. The second copy of that treasure card is thus worth no extra points.

The player with the highest score wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the most unique (x1) treasure cards is the winner.

Variants

To play with younger players: Ali Baba reveals his treasure cards as they are being listed by the thief. He then takes them back in his hand at the end of each recitation.

For experienced players: An adjective must be added to each enumerated treasure card: "A scary lion", "an enormous diamond", etc. Both item and adjective must be spoken by the thieves during the round. The thieves can also be forced to recite the treasures in the right order.

To play with 2 players: Visit our website: www.libellud.com to learn the variant rules for two players. (The 2-player rules are not printed in this rulebook.)