Spy Tricks
Spy Tricks Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Lay out the board flat. Each player takes five pawns of one color. Put 2 collaborator (black) pawns for three players, or 3 for four players, in the space indicated. Put the money on the board in the space indicated. For three players, take out the 1 and 2 cards and put them face down on the corresponding spaces. Choose a start player and give them the start player (white) pawn and the winner card.
Game Flow
The game is played in a number of rounds equal to the number of players. In each round, five tricks are played. First shuffle the cards (not including the face down cards if playing with three players), and deal 6 cards to each player face down. Take one of the remaining cards and place it face down under the "secret" mark on the board, and place the other two face up on their corresponding spaces.
Trick Flow
Whoever has the winner card starts the trick, and may play any card they like from their hand. Clockwise from that player, each player must play one card, following suit if able. If unable to follow suit, the player may play any card. After all players have played a card, the trick is resolved.
Suits are ordered red > blue > white. The highest number in the highest suit gets the winner card, and the lowest number in the lowest suit gets the loser card.
All played cards are then placed on the board in their corresponding spaces.
The winner then may place one of his pawns on an empty card space, a rank (number) space, or a suit (color) space on the board. A pawn may not be placed on a space that already contains another pawn. If the player has a collaborator pawn, they may place one along with their pawn. The loser may then place a pawn, following the same rules.
If five tricks have been played, the round is over, otherwise the player with the winner card then starts the next trick.
Round End
After the fifth trick, starting with the winner of the last trick and going clockwise, if a player has played no pawns, or if all pawns the player has played are misses (cannot score), that player may play a single pawn (plus a collaborator pawn if able) on any space, even if it already has a pawn on it.
Players then place their remaining cards on the board.
Players then score based on where their pawns are relative to the last empty spot (the secret card):
- A pawn on the secret card spot gets a 10 coin.
- A pawn on the rank (number) space of the secret card gets a 5 coin.
- A pawn on the suit (color) space of the secret card gets a 2 coin.
- A collaborator pawn doubles the coins obtained for the player who played it.
- All other pawns score nothing.
Return all pawns to their owners, all used collaborator pawns to the board, and all cards to the deck to be shuffled and re-dealt as above.
Players then total their score, and the players with the lowest total score get a collaborator pawn. If more than one player is lowest, all lowest scoring players get a collaborator pawn if there are enough, otherwise no one gets one.
Pass the start player marker to the left, give that player the winner card, and begin the next round, unless all players have been start player once, in which case the player with the highest total wins. If there is a tie, the player with the most coins wins.