Project KGB: The Double Agent Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Your Assignment
• Description of the Camp
• Primary Instructions
  • Setting Up the Game
  • Identities
  • The Opening Play
  • Rules of Movement
  • Inspection of the Monitors
  • The Security List
  • Winning the Game
• Additional Instructions
  • General
  • Inspecting Monitors
  • Security Lists
  • Winning the Game
  • The Opening Play
  • Strategies and Deductions
• Sample Game and Deductions
• The Deluxe Game
  • Rules for the Deluxe Game

Your Assignment

One agent will be given the role of a Double Agent, engaged in sabotage against the camp. His identity is known only to himself, while the rest of the agents will be given roles as Security Agents, attempting to find out which one among them is the Double Agent.

All agents will inspect the camp's "monitors". These are electronic devices used for security and are installed in most of the buildings and grounds of the camp. The Double Agent will secretly attempt to sabotage these monitors without giving away his identity to the others, while the Security Agents will try to figure out who is doing the sabotage.

The assignment, therefore, is two-sided: If you are the Double Agent, you must accomplish your sabotage assignment and escape from the camp. If you are a Security Agent, your assignment is to be the one to discover who is the Double Agent and expose him.

Description of the Camp

The camp is enclosed by three brick walls and a fence. It consists of buildings and outdoor grounds, joined by concrete walkways. These 9 buildings and grounds (all those marked with names) are referred to in the instructions as "sectors". There are two exits from the camp: they are the two closed gates in the brick walls.

Note: The three open gates in the fence are not exits. They are not used, nor are the three grey squares leading to them, in the present version of this game. (Note Additional Instruction No. 4.) Also, the "X" markings on the board do not apply to the Double Agent game. For an explanation of these features, see the "Deluxe Game" section at the end of the instructions.

Primary Instructions

The Primary Instructions necessary to complete your assignment are given first. Read them carefully. Following these are the Additional Instructions, covering other points which may arise. These may be referred to before or during the course of the game. Do not let these instructions fall into the wrong hands!

Setting Up the Game

Each agent takes a coloured token, and a Security List sheet.

The monitor is adjusted by holding the centre shaft and twisting the outer disc. When the grooves on the inner and outer discs are lined up, the monitor is "ON". When the grooves on the two discs are separated (not lined up) the monitor is "OFF": it has been sabotaged.

Diagram key: "ON" — groove on inner disc lined up with grooves on outer disc. "OFF (sabotaged)" — groove on inner disc separated from grooves on outer disc.

Set all monitors to "ON" (grooves lined up). Place one monitor face down in each of the nine sectors on the board. They may be placed on any corner square in the sector that will not interfere with movement.

Identities

From the Identity Cards, take 3 "Security Agent" cards and the "Double Agent" card. Shuffle together and deal one to each agent, face down. This assigns each agent his identity for the game. Each agent will keep his card face down in front of him and his identity hidden from the others. (Handle the cards carefully so as not to crease or mark them in any way.)

If you are the Double Agent, you must keep your identity hidden until you can sabotage 5 out of the 9 monitors and then escape from the camp without being caught by a Security Agent.

If you are a Security Agent, you must be the one to discover who the Double Agent is and expose him. Therefore, you will keep your own identity hidden, since otherwise you would be eliminated from the other Security Agents' deductions.

The Opening Play

Before movement starts, the Double Agent is given the opportunity to sabotage one of the monitors on the board. This is done as follows:

One agent faces the board, while all other agents leave the room (or otherwise turn away) for a period of 15 seconds. If the agent left alone at the board is the Double Agent, he must pick up any one monitor from anywhere on the board and sabotage it; that is, rotate the outer disc so that the grooves are no longer lined up; then replace it. If the agent left alone at the board is a Security Agent, he merely waits out the 15 seconds, and does not change or look at any of the monitors. This is done for each agent in turn, so that every agent is left at the board alone for 15 seconds. In this way the Double Agent has sabotaged one monitor without revealing its location or his identity.

(The reason for this opening play is explained in Additional Instruction No. 11.)

Rules of Movement

All agents start in the gazebo (pavilion) in the middle of the Garden. Highest throw of the dice decides the first player, and the playing turn passes to the left.

When you take your turn, throw two dice. On your first turn, the first count will be the flagstone to either side of the gazebo, whichever you wish. Movement must be within the areas marked with a grid (the black squares), and in the Garden from flagstone to flagstone. Moving in and out of sectors must be through the doors or gates, if any, all of which are unlocked.

You must always use the full count thrown. You can move in any pattern you wish, from square to square, except that you cannot move diagonally. (You may move onto any square no matter what furniture or other objects it contains.)

Inspection of the Monitors

All agents will move from sector to sector, as they choose, and inspect the monitors, the Security Agents to check whether they are ON or OFF, the Double Agent to sabotage them as he wishes. On the surface, all movements and actions will be the same, so that no identities will be given away.

To inspect a monitor you must reach at least one space inside the sector, but you must use the full count thrown. (You do not have to reach the monitor.) Pick up the monitor and inspect it, without letting any other agent see it.

• A - If you are a Security Agent: Note whether the monitor is ON or OFF (whether the grooves are lined up or not), and then rotate the outer disc a half or full turn, so that the grooves are in the same position as you found it. Then replace the monitor. That is, if you find it ON, you must rotate the outer disc and reset it with the grooves lined up. If you find it OFF (sabotaged), you must rotate the outer disc and reset it with the grooves separated. The monitor must be replaced in the same condition as you found it.
• B - If you are the Double Agent: You must rotate the outer disc, but you may either reset it to the same condition (ON or OFF) or, if you choose, you can change a monitor that is ON to OFF (sabotage it). You do not have to sabotage every monitor you inspect. However, you must never reset a monitor you have previously sabotaged to ON. Then replace the monitor.

A monitor set at OFF (sabotaged) can never be reset to ON by any agent.

The Security List

In order to record the condition of the monitors and enable the Security Agents to make their deductions, every inspection of a monitor must be recorded by every agent on his Security List, as follows:

Whenever another agent goes to a sector and inspects the monitor, you make a note of it on your Security List (even if you are the Double Agent.) Mark the first 3 or 4 letters of the sector under "SECTOR", and the name or initial of the agent under "AGENT or MONITOR". These notations must be made in the order in which the inspections take place.

For example (see diagram): If John goes to the Security Building, you mark on your List: SEC - John. Then Susan goes to the Terrace, so you mark: TER - Susan.

When you inspect a monitor yourself, you also note it on your list, and circle it to make it stand out. However, your notation in this case will be as follows:

• A - If you are a Security Agent: Mark the sector under "SECTOR". But under "AGENT or MONITOR", mark the condition of the monitor (ON or OFF). For example, after John and Susan's turns, you go to the Gymnasium and find the monitor sabotaged, so (after resetting it to the same condition) you mark: GYM - Off. Circle the whole notation.
• B - If you are the Double Agent: Mark the sector. But mark the condition of the monitor when you replace it (ON or OFF). Circle the whole notation. Be careful to make your notations just as though you were a Security Agent. But your OFF notations will record which monitors you sabotaged, while the ON notations will record the ones you did not.

If you are a Security Agent, your List will record all inspections of monitors made by other agents in the order they were made, plus your own inspections and what the condition of each monitor was at that time. From this information, you will try to deduce which agent is sabotaging monitors.

If you are the Double Agent, your List is partly a bluff, but it also helps you to plan your sabotage strategy by recording the Security Agents' inspections, and it will record the monitors you have inspected, and which ones you have sabotaged. (The monitor you sabotaged in the opening play should be recorded by memory only.)

See the Additional Instructions for a discussion of "Strategies and Deductions".

Winning the Game

A - A Security Agent: Exposing the Double Agent

When you have decided that you know the identity of the Double Agent, you must reach him and land on the space he occupies (not necessarily by exact count). You then accuse him of being the Double Agent. He must turn over his Identity Card and show it to the board. If you are correct, you have won the game. If you are wrong, then you are out of the game. Play continues, but the Security Agent whose identity you exposed plays as before, only now he will be eliminated from the others' deductions.

B - The Double Agent: Completing your Sabotage Assignment

If you succeed in sabotaging 5 monitors (counting the one in the opening play) without being exposed, you must then make your escape from the camp by leaving through either of the two gates in the brick walls. If you exit safely (you must reach the point beyond the last square on the gate) you have won the game. You then indicate to the other agents the location of the 5 sabotaged monitors.

Additional Instructions

These instructions cover questions of procedure which may not arise during the course of your assignment. It is therefore not essential that you be completely familiar with them before starting the game. But you may read them before play starts, or refer to them while the game is in progress if a question arises. Nos. 12 and 13 provide an insight into the game's strategies and methods of deduction, and we suggest that you read them either before playing the game, or after you have played one game to familiarize yourself with the basic instructions.

General

(1) Once agents have left the gazebo at the start of the game, they cannot pass through it during the game.

(2) There is no significance to a doubles throw in this game.

(3) No door is considered part of a sector, and an agent standing on a door is not in the sector. Where there is a door between two adjacent sectors, the door square is in neither sector.

(4) An agent may not at any time pass through, or use as an exit, any of the three open gates in the fence along one side of the camp. Nor may he move onto the grey square that leads to each of these gates at any time. (These squares and gates are used only when playing the deluxe game.)

Inspecting Monitors

(5) At the beginning of the game, you may not inspect the Garden's monitor before moving out of the Garden first and then re-entering (in more than one turn).

(6) You may not re-inspect the same monitor without moving out of the sector and back in again (in more than one turn). You may pass through a sector if you wish, without inspecting the monitor.

Security Lists

(7) All agents must keep their Security Lists hidden from the others.

(8) Whenever you go to a sector and inspect the monitor, you should call aloud the name of the sector and your own name (e.g. "Security Building—John"). In this way, no one is likely to miss noting the inspection and marking it on his List. This makes it unnecessary for agents to keep watching the board at all times, leaving them freer to examine their Lists, and make their deductions.

(9) At the beginning of your turn, you may pause for a short time to think, before making your move. If desired, a time limit for these pauses may be set before the game by mutual agreement.

Winning the Game

(10) A Security Agent may not land on a square occupied by another agent without accusing him. The Double Agent may not accuse anyone at any time, nor land on the square occupied by any other agent. However, any agent may pass through a square occupied by another agent.

The Opening Play

(11) The monitor sabotaged in the opening play serves an essential purpose:

Without it, if the Double Agent is the first to enter a sector and he sabotages the monitor, the next agent to inspect that monitor will automatically know his identity. With it, however, a Security Agent finding a monitor sabotaged cannot automatically assume it was done by a previous agent who inspected it, since it might be the one sabotaged in the opening play.

Without it, Security Agents would not be inclined to be the first to enter a sector, since they would know the monitor is ON. With it, however, the Security Agents will be willing to do so, because it is an advantage in their deductions to be the first to find the monitor sabotaged in the opening play.

Strategies and Deductions

(12) Strategy of the Double Agent

The strategy you adopt is one of deception. Your actions and behaviour must be that of a Security Agent, even in your expressions and comments. In your movements, you must not give your identity away. You can go to sectors not yet visited by other agents as though looking for the monitor sabotaged in the opening play. But you must also be sure to make inspections following other agents, as though checking the monitor after their inspections. Actually, this will often be part of your strategy of sabotage, for the best time to do so is often after several other agents have already inspected one monitor and are moving on to other sectors.

Depending on the moves of the Security Agents, you will have to decide when to start sabotaging monitors and at what rate to do so. You will watch to see which Security Agent is the first to find the monitor you sabotaged in the opening play, since that agent will be in a better position to make deductions. You will try not to build up incriminating evidence against yourself, and you will use your Security List, by noting other agents' inspections, to decide when it is best to sabotage a monitor or not. The longer you take to complete your assignment, however, the greater chance you take of giving yourself away.

(13) Strategy of a Security Agent and Making Deductions

If you are the first agent to enter a sector and you find the monitor at OFF, you know it was sabotaged in the opening play. Therefore, any other monitor you find OFF, you will definitely know was sabotaged by an agent marked on your Security List. Other Security Agents will not have this advantage. Therefore, you should adopt a strategy combining a search for the monitor sabotaged in the opening play, and following up other agents' inspections in order to get a lead on who is the Double Agent.

The key to making a deduction is to find a sabotaged monitor that you have inspected before and found at that time was still ON. The deduction will then be that the Double Agent is an agent who inspected that monitor between your two inspections. If there was only one agent, the conclusion is automatic. If more than one, the possibilities will be kept in mind until they can be checked with a later deduction based on another sabotaged monitor. An agent common to both situations will then be the Double Agent.

Sample Game and Deductions

Let's look at a sample game and deductions. The notations at the side represent one Security Agent's Security List. The circled notations are the agent's own inspections and show the condition in which he found the monitor. This Security Agent would have made these deductions through the game:

1. Security Building - OFF. No other agent has entered this sector yet. Therefore, this is the monitor sabotaged in the opening play.
2. Garden - ON. Terrace - ON. The monitors are still working. He will be sure to inspect them later after a couple of other players' inspections.
3. Gymnasium - OFF. Even though he has not inspected this monitor before, he knows it has been sabotaged during the game, since he has already deduced that it was the Security Building's monitor that was sabotaged in the opening play. Therefore, the Double Agent is someone who has been in this sector. But on checking back on his list he finds that C, D, and R have all gone to the Gymnasium before him.
4. Garden - OFF. Sabotaged. Who inspected the monitor in the Garden since he last found it ON? R and C. So it's narrowed down to them. He will watch for an opportunity to check up on either of his suspects. C now goes to the Terrace, so he follows C to the Terrace, especially as he notes on his list that C will be the only agent to enter the Terrace since his own last inspection, when he found the monitor ON.
5. Terrace - ON. This might eliminate C, but not necessarily, since the Double Agent doesn't have to sabotage every monitor he inspects. In fact C, if he were the Double Agent, might have realized by his list that the other agent could be in a position to suspect him, and might deliberately try to throw him off the track.
6. Power Plant - OFF. Since his last inspection of the monitor in the Power Plant, R and D were the only agents to go there. Now the monitor has been sabotaged. But D has already been eliminated from his deductions (see 4 above). Therefore, R is the Double Agent.

Notations on the sample Security List (the circled entries are the agent's own inspections):

INT  ON
GAR  R
GAR  C
TER  R
GYM  D
(SEC OFF)
TER  C
GYM  R
POW  D
(GAR ON)
GAR  R
GYM  C
STO  D
GYM  R
(TER ON)
DEC  D
(GYM OFF)
DEC  R
INT  C
STO  D
(POW ON)
STO  R
GAR  C
DEC  D
DEC  R
(GAR OFF)
TER  C
POW  R
STO  D
(TER ON)
DEC  C
GYM  R
POW  D
(POW OFF)

The Deluxe Game

There are three features to be noted about the parts of your present game: (1) On the board, there are three gates through the outer fence that are not used; (2) There are 15 monitors, but only 9 are used in this game; (3) There are 6 Identity Cards, but only 4 are used in this game.

The above rules describe how four players can play a complete game of "The Double Agent" with the present package. However, these additional features are provided so that a deluxe game of "The Double Agent" can be played—if you acquire "The Secret Formula", which is Game No. 1 in the Project KGB series. It works in this way:

"The Secret Formula" is a completely different spy training game for two to four players. It has a different board of the camp, with other sectors. However, that board is also designed in such a way that the boards from the two games can be placed side by side—along the edge of the fence. Now players can move through the open gates in the fence from one board to the other. On this double-board, which represents a training camp twice as large, "The Double Agent" and "The Secret Formula" can be played, by up to six players.

Therefore, in the present game we have provided additional components so that a deluxe game of "The Double Agent" can be played. In the same way, extra components are provided in Game No. 1 for a deluxe game of "The Secret Formula". (Note that the "X" markings on this board are used only for a deluxe game of "The Secret Formula". They do not apply to the game "The Double Agent".)

Rules for the Deluxe Game

All rules for the standard game apply to the deluxe game, with the following changes:

1. The 15 monitors are placed in the following sectors: Nine on the present board, as in the standard game, and six in all the sectors on the other board except the Observation Tower, the Woods, and the Garage.
2. Four to six players may play. Use as many Identity Cards as needed, including the Double Agent card.
3. The Double Agent's assignment is to sabotage 8 monitors (including the one in the opening play) and then escape from the camp.
4. The Double Agent may escape by any of the six gates in the double-board camp (there are four gates on the other board).