The Secret of Monte Cristo Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Object of the Game
• Assembling the Action Slide
• Game Objective
• Setting Up
• The Action Slide
• Playing the Game
• Actions
  • 1 - Supply
  • 2 - Adventurers
  • 3 - Treasure Chest
  • 4 - Rearrange (Shuffle)
• Bonus Zones
• Scoring Round
  • Treasure Gathering
  • After the Treasures Gathering Phase
  • Scoring Points
• Game End

Components

• 1 board representing the Château d'If, with six dungeons (labelled A through F) and 4 bonus zones
• 1 Action slide
• 36 Adventurer pawns (9 of each color)
• 4 scoring markers (1 of each color)
• 30 Supply cards
• 20 marbles (6 red, 6 blue, 4 green and 4 yellow)
• 1 cylinder
• 30 Treasure tokens with values from 1 to 3 (the 5 kinds are: gold (yellow), ruby (red), sapphire (blue), emerald (green) and diamond (white))
• 5 Treasures markers
• 1 cloth bag

Object of the Game

Players control a number of adventurers who set foot in Château d'If. Their objective is to explore the different dungeons and gather the most valuable treasures.

They must ensure that they will have a sufficient number of adventurers on the island as well as enough bags to carry this treasure away from the island. You will strategically place your adventurers in the various dungeons, according to the treasures that can already be found there. When a new treasure is revealed, you will place them to make sure that your crew reaches it first. With the help of the Action slide, you will plan your actions to play them at the right time and gain the upper hand!

Once a player reaches 40 points on the scoring track during the Treasure chest phase, the game ends. All the treasures are added and the player with the most points wins the game.

Assembling the Action Slide

Before first use, assemble the Action slide from its cardboard pieces: fit the frame and its dividing rails together, discard the punched-out trash/recycle tab, then fold the ramp up into its final standing position.

Game Objective

Be the player with the most points at the end of the game.

Setting Up

1. Place the board in the center of the table.
2. Each player chooses one color and takes the marbles, Adventurer pawns and marker of that color. With 2 players, use the 6 red marbles and the 6 blue marbles. With 3 or 4 colors, use 4 marbles per player. (3 to 4 players: 4 marbles. 2 players: 6 marbles, red or blue.)
3. Place the Action slide near the board. The marbles used in the game are put in the bag. Then, randomly draw the marbles and place the same number in each track of the Action slide while making sure that there is at least one marble of each color in each track.
4. Place the cylinder in front of the Supply action of the Action slide. This indicates that it will be the first action played.
5. Each player puts his marker before the first place (1) of the scoring track.
6. Put the Treasure tokens in the bag. Then, for each dungeon (A to F), draw a Treasure token and put it face up in one of the dungeon's circles.
7. Shuffle the Supply cards and put them face down on the board, as illustrated.
8. Randomly place the 5 Treasure markers on the market, 1 marker per space. The market shows the value (1 to 3) of each kind of treasure. For instance, when the yellow marker is beside the 3, gold is worth 3 in the market.
9. Each player takes 2 Adventurer pawns of his color and puts them in front of themselves (personal supply). These adventurers have already made it to the island and are ready to slip in the Château d'If. Finally, each player puts his 7 remaining adventurers on Marseille (general supply). These adventurers cannot be used at this time and will first need to reach the island with the help of the boats (Supply cards).

The Action Slide

The Action slide is made out of 4 actions, played consecutively from left to right:

• Supply (mandatory): Give each player a Supply card
• Adventurers (optional): Place one or more adventurers on the board — Active player 3; other players 1
• Treasure Chest (mandatory): Put 3 new treasures in the dungeons
• Rearrange (optional): Change the position of one marble or one Treasure marker

Playing the Game

A game is played over many turns. Each turn is made out of the 4 actions found on the Action slide, starting with Supply and ending with Rearrange.

1. The cylinder indicates which action needs to be played. The owner of the marble at the bottom of the track where the cylinder is becomes the active player. The active player is the one who does the corresponding action.
2. After completing the action, he must put his marble at the end of one of the other 3 tracks.
3. To end his action, the player moves the cylinder in front of the next track of the Action slide. After the Rearrange action is completed, the cylinder is moved back in front of the Supply phase.

Turns unfold as such until one player reaches or exceeds 40 points during the Treasure chest action. As soon as this occurs, points are counted and the game ends.

Important: The following limits must be observed at all times: There cannot be more than 7 marbles in a single track and no more than 3 marbles of a single color in one track.

Actions

1 - Supply

The active player draws as many Supply cards as there are players. The Supply cards show a number of adventurers and bags of a given color. The active player chooses one of these cards and then gives one card of his choice, amongst the remaining cards, to each other player.

Each player takes as many Adventurers from the general supply (Marseille) as indicated on his card and puts them in front of him.

Players keep their card face up in front of themselves to ensure that it is easy to see the bags on it.

NOTE: When the active player runs out of Supply cards, he draws the remaining cards before shuffling the discard pile to make a new draw pile. He then draws the missing cards.

Important: A player may not have more than 7 Supply cards in front of himself. If he receives an 8th card, he must discard one.

2 - Adventurers

The active player can place 0 to 3 adventurers on the board. He may put as many adventurers as he wants in one or more dungeons of his choice. However, he can only place 1 adventurer in one of the 4 bonus zones located in the upper left corner of the board. Then, each other player, in clockwise order, can place one adventurer in one dungeon or one bonus zone.

The order in which the adventurers enter a dungeon is important. The first adventurer is placed at the top of the dungeon (with a 1) and the others are placed in line, behind him, according to the order in which they arrived.

The order is not important in the bonus zones. A player who puts an adventurer in a bonus zone immediately receives the corresponding bonus.

3 - Treasure Chest

New treasures are revealed. The active player must draw and reveal 3 Treasure tokens from the bag and then put them in 3 different dungeons (1 token per dungeon).

If after placing these tokens there are 4 treasures in one or more dungeons, a scoring round begins (see Scoring Round below).

NOTE: When there are not enough Treasure tokens, the discarded tokens are put back in the bag to ensure that it is possible to draw 3 tokens.

4 - Rearrange (Shuffle)

The active player chooses one of the following two options:

• Move down, one or two spaces, one of his marbles in its track. Marbles above this one are therefore moved up.
• Move up, one or two spaces, a treasure marker of his choice in the market.

NOTE: This action is the core of the game's mechanic. With this action, players are able to program and plan their next turn and put themselves in the best possible position to score the most points. This action is simple and easy to use but you will quickly discover how much strategy it offers!

Bonus Zones

During the Adventurers action, a player may place one adventurer on any one of the four bonus zones. Each space immediately gives a bonus to the player who places an adventurer there. There can be only one adventurer of each color in each zone.

"Wild" Bag

The player who places an adventurer in this space takes one Supply card from the pile and puts it face down with his other cards. This is a "wild" bag and counts as a bag of any color. This card must remain face down and can never be revealed. A "wild" bag is only used once, during a scoring round of the player's choice.

Disembarking at If

The player who places an adventurer in this space takes 3 adventurers of his color from the general supply (Marseille) and puts them in front of himself.

Bonus Points

The player who places an adventurer in this space immediately adds 2 points to his score on the scoring track.

Reinforcement in the Dungeons

The player who places an adventurer in this space takes up to two adventurers from his personal supply and puts them in one or two dungeons. He may not place either of his adventurers in a bonus zone.

Scoring Round

A Scoring round automatically occurs during a Treasure chest action where there are 4 treasures in one or more dungeons. Scoring is always preceded by treasure gathering.

Treasure Gathering

Treasures are collected in every dungeon, starting with Dungeon A and continuing clockwise until Dungeon F. Use the cylinder (normally used with the Action slide) to indicate the dungeon where treasures are being collected, by moving it from A to F. At the end of the gathering phase, the marker is returned in front of the Rearrange action of the Action slide.

During the Treasure gathering phase, the majority player in a dungeon can take as many treasures from this dungeon as he can and wants. Then, if there are any treasures left, it is the second player's turn to take treasures, if he wants. This is followed by the third player, etc. In case of a tie, the player with the adventurer closest to the treasure, that is to say, the highest in the room, is first.

NOTE: A player may refuse to collect treasures from a room, even if he has enough bags of the appropriate color.

In order to take one or more Treasure tokens from a dungeon, a player must:

1. For each Treasure token a player takes in a dungeon, he must remove one of his adventurers. To accomplish this, a player always moves his highest adventurer in the dungeon to Marseille.
2. For each color, discard enough bags of the treasure's color. The number of bags must be at least equal to the size of the treasure. Bags may come from any number of cards. These cards may include one or more "wild" bags. It is also possible to use one card (with more than one bag) to take more than one Treasure token. Used cards are discarded as illustrated. "Wild" cards are placed face down under the draw pile.

Example: The yellow player takes a Ruby-3 token (red) and two Emerald-(2+1) tokens (green) from Dungeon D. He removes his three highest adventurers from this dungeon. He then discards: one card with 2 red bags, one "wild" bag and one card with 3 green bags. He does not use his fourth adventurer and leaves the pawn in the dungeon.

NOTE: Extra bags can be used to grab more treasures. However, if a player cannot use the extra bags, these bags are simply lost.

After the Treasures Gathering Phase

• If there are any adventurers left in any dungeon, they are moved up to fill the empty spaces.
• If a dungeon still contains 4 treasures, these Treasure tokens are discarded face down, next to the board.
• Adventurers in the Bonus zones are returned to the general supply (Marseille).

Scoring Points

Once treasures have been collected from every dungeon, points are scored. A treasure is worth its number (written on the token) multiplied by its market value. For example, if the market value for Ruby is currently 3, a Ruby-3 token is worth 9 points (3x3=9). Each player counts how many points he has and moves his pawn the same number of spaces on the scoring track.

Treasure tokens are discarded face down next to the board. When all the tokens have been drawn from the bag, the discarded tokens are put back in the bag.

Example: Yellow gathered the following treasures: Ruby-3, Sapphire-2, Sapphire-1, Emerald-2.

He scores the following points: Ruby-3 x 3 = 9 points; Sapphire (2 and 1) x 2 = 6 points; Emerald-2 x 1 = 2 points; total = 17 points.

He moves his marker 17 spaces on the scoring track and discards the 4 Treasure tokens.

Game End

The game ends when, during scoring, one or more players reaches or passes 40 on the scoring track. In this case, the player with the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the most adventurers in the dungeons wins.