Schwarzarbeit Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Object
• Scoring points
• Gameplay
  • 1. Obtain Information
  • 2. Hiring an Employee
  • 3. Using the Lawyers
  • 4. Supply for the Labour Market
• At any time: The detective
• Ending the Game
• Scoring

Components

• 60 cards "employee": each person exists three times. A set of three cards exists for each possible employee: one each for working during the day, the evening and on the weekend (see picture)
• 5 cards "company" in 5 colours
• 1 card "Ich-AG" ("Me Ltd.", a new concept of the German Federal Government)
• 10 lawyers (two wooden cubes in each of the 5 colours): You use them to defend employees who were wrongly denounced.
• 5 detectives (black eight-sided cubes): You can use them at any time to denounce a supposed illegal worker

Setup

Every player gets his own company card, the two lawyers of the same colour and one detective and places these tokens on his company card.

The card "ICH-AG" is put aside for the time being.

Sort out all 20 "weekend" cards (one from each employee) and shuffle them. Every player gets 2 (with 4 or 5 players) or 3 (with 3 players) face-down "weekend" cards, secretly looks at them and finally places them face down under his company card. These are your illegal workers. You can look at your illegal workers at any time during the game, but you should keep them secret. The remaining "weekend" cards are shuffled with the other 40 employee cards and are placed in the middle of the table as a face down draw pile.

Draw a number of cards from the draw pile equal to two plus the number of players and place them face up in the middle of the table. This is the current labour market. There should always be only one card from each employee. If you draw a second card for the same employee, place it face up into the discard pile so everybody can see this employee.

If you must discard additional cards, continue to place them face up on top of the discard pile. Only the topmost discarded card is visible.

Finally shuffle the card "Ich-AG" into the remaining draw pile. Choose a first player.

Object

To win the game you try to collect the most points by combining who are the illegal workers. Then you try to denounce as many illegal workers at other players' companies as possible while hiring as many regular employees as possible for your company.

Every player has 2 (or 3) illegal workers face down in front of him, who work during the weekend. Because of the danger of exposure you are NOT allowed to hire these employees during the day or evening or denounce them, because they will then run to the authorities and you will go directly to prison. All of these employees are illegal workers, everybody else is a regular employee. You score points by deducing the other players' illegal workers.

Important: Only the cards handed out in the beginning and put under the company cards are illegal workers. Employees denounced are not necessarily illegal and are not considered when giving information!

Scoring points

Depending on whether you employ a worker or denounce him, you receive a different amount of points (see overview):

• Legally hired regular employees are worth one point - you are helping to improve the unemployment statistics: +1 point.
• Legally hired illegal workers are removed from the company before scoring, because they are called to account for their illegal activities instead of working for your company: 0 points.
• If you hire your own illegal workers you are sent directly into prison: -99 points.
• For denouncing illegal workers you win honour, as your state needs his tax payments: +3 points.
• Denounced regular employees do not improve your prestige - after all the employer has to take care of his workers: -2 points.
• If you denounce your own illegal workers you are sent directly into prison: -99 points.

Gameplay

A player's turn is divided into four phases. After a player finishes his turn, the player to the left takes his turn:

1. Obtain information
2. Hiring an employee
3. Using the lawyers
4. Supply for the labour market

1. Obtain Information

The neighbour to the right of the active player announces the number of employees in the labour market that he can legally hire or denounce. Remember: you can never hire or denounce your own illegal workers!

Example: Tommy, Henning, Friedemann and Andrea are playing Schwarzarbeit. Tommy started the game and now it is Friedemann's third turn. On the labour market are Angelika Adam and Heinz Henn volunteering for work during the day, Christwart Casasola, Franz-Benno Faidutti and Virginia Vohwinkel are looking for a job during the evening and Sid Schmiel wants to work on the weekend. Friedemann's right neighbour Andrea employs Maureen Moon and Christwart Casasola illegally during the weekend at her game company - which Friedemann does not know of course. She can hire all the employees other than Christwart, so she announces "5" (of the six employees available).

IMPORTANT: The information refers to the number of cards you are allowed to take. So, if in the second part of the game two of the six cards on the table show the same own illegal worker (during the day- and evening-shift), you have to announce "4"!

2. Hiring an Employee

The active player must hire or denounce one of the employees from the labour market he is allowed to take himself. Denounced employees are placed face down in a staggered pile, regularly hired employees are placed face up next to each other. Once an employee is denounced you are not allowed to look at him for the rest of the game!

Example: Friedemann now knows that one of the six employees works illegally for Andrea. He cannot deduce accurately which employee, so he hires Sid Schmiel legally for work during the weekend. Because Sid wants to work on the weekend, he cannot be one of the other players' illegal workers.

3. Using the Lawyers

The active player can activate one of his own lawyers. You can place this lawyer (wooden cube) on one of the employees denounced by another player that you think is innocent. The lawyer stays on this card until the end of the game. Only one lawyer can be placed on each card.

Example: Friedemann remembers that Henning earlier denounced Sid Schmiel, when Sid looked for a job during the evening - without any good reason, as we see now. Friedemann sends one of his lawyers to poor Sid, to help him to fight against Henning's insolent accusations. He puts one of his wooden cubes onto the card showing Sid. Of course he memorized the position where Henning put Sid in the first place :)

4. Supply for the Labour Market

Draw one card to refill the market.

The first time through the draw pile, the following rule applies: If you reveal an employee who is already present on the labour market, discard the card face up into the discard pile and reveal the next card. If necessary repeat this process, until there are only different employees.

If you reveal the card "Ich-AG", all employees in the labour market are discarded. They leave the labour market to consider self-employment. After discarding draw new employees from the draw pile until there are two face up cards more than players. Remove the card "Ich-AG" from the game.

If the face down draw pile is depleted, shuffle the discard pile and place it face down as the new draw pile. From now on every employee can volunteer for two or three jobs simultaneously, there can be two or three face up cards of the same employee in the labour market. No revealed cards are discarded.

Before you continue the game, put as many cards aside onto a special face-down pile as there are detectives left in the game (0-5). Should anybody use his detective in the remaining game, refill the space on the market from this special pile.

Example: Tommy and Andrea still have their detectives, Friedemann and Henning already used theirs. Before Tommy's turn the draw pile is finished. He takes the discard pile and shuffles it. Then he places two cards onto a special pile, because there are two detectives remaining in the game. He puts rest as draw pile face-down in the middle and refills the market. Afterwards he obtains information from Friedemann.

At any time: The detective

Once per game every player can denounce a possible illegal worker out of turn order. It is possible to use that action in your own turn, so you can denounce an employee additionally to your normal hiring/denouncement.

You place your detective on one of the face up cards in the middle of the table. More than one player can play his detective in the same turn, but only one detective can be placed on each card. Whoever chooses first gets the card. If there is an argument about which player was faster, nobody gets the card, and no further detectives can be played on this card in this turn. The player who used his detective takes the corresponding employee and denounces him. He is not allowed to legally employ this employee! Detectives used are put back into the box, the spaces on the market are refilled as described under "Supply for the labour market". The active player finishes his turn. If his right neighbour has already given information before the detective action, he now does not give any information any more.

Example: During Friedemann's turn Henning suspects Franz-Benno Faidutti of working illegally for Tommy during the weekend. He quickly places his detective on that card and denounces Franz-Benno. Henning places the card face down in front of himself and puts the detective back into the box.

Ending the Game

The game ends at the end of the turn, if the number of cards in the labour market equals the number of players and the draw pile is empty.

Scoring

All remaining cards in the middle of the table and from the special draw pile are removed from the game. All players reveal their own illegal workers (remember, they are still lying under the company card) and put them face up above their company card. The players who hired these people for legal work must remove them from the game - these employees are discovered and must defend themselves instead of working for your companies! Now reveal your pile of denounced workers (the lawyers stay with their clients!).

Every player counts the points for the employees in front of him as well as for own lawyers and remaining detectives:

• Legally hired REGULAR employees: +1 point
• Legally hired OWN illegal workers: -99 points
• Denounced OTHER PLAYERS' illegal workers: +3 points
• Denounced REGULAR employees: -2 points
• Denounced OWN illegal workers: -99 points
• YOUR LAWYERS on other players' denounced REGULAR employees: +2 points
• YOUR LAWYERS on denounced ILLEGAL workers: -2 points
• PRIVATE DETECTIVE on your own company card: +1 point

Lawyers remaining on your own company card don't score any points.

The player with most points wins the game. In case of a tie the player who denounced more illegal workers wins.