Stalag 17 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Components description
    • Game deck
    • Double object cards
    • Object cards
    • Barrack cards
    • Information cards
    • Runaway route cards
  • Object dice
  • Runaway dice
  • Surveillance tokens
  • Prisoners tokens
• Game Set Up
• Game Phases
  • Jailbreak Plan Phase
  • Preparation and Jailbreak Phase
    • How to escape
• Roll Call Phase
  • The game deck is empty
• Surveillance Points
• End of the game
• Game Reference
  • Number of Object Dice rolled
  • Game phases (summary)

Components

Game deck with 90 cards:

• 8 Object cards: Clothes
• 8 Object cards: Food
• 8 Object cards: Document
• 8 Object cards: Tool
• 8 Object cards: Map
• 10 Double object cards
• 26 Runaway route cards
• 4 Barrack cards
• 4 Information cards

5 Object dice

1 Runaway dice with 6 faces

40 Surveillance tokens

15 Prisoners tokens (three tokens for each country)

Note: the printed component list says "Game deck with 90 cards", but the listed cards add up to 84, and the component description section of the rulebook states "There are 84 cards in the game deck." The count above is as printed.

Components description

Game deck

There are 84 cards in the game deck. There are 8 different type cards:

• Object card: clothes
• Object card: food
• Object card: document
• Object card: tool
• Object card: map
• Information card
• Barrack card
• Runaway route card

In terms of rules, all five object cards (clothes, food, document, tool and map) are considered object cards.

Double object cards

There are object cards with two different illustrations and two different icons. When these cards are discarded or used to escape (see later), players choose one of the different object types shown on the card. As other object cards, double object cards show a surveillance value.

Object cards

Each object card has two different characteristics: the surveillance value and the object icon.

• Surveillance value
• Object type (illustration)
• Object icon

The object cards are: clothes, food, document, tool and map.

Barrack cards

Prisoners hide all kinds of objects in their barracks, either to improve the captives' everyday life or to try a jailbreak. However, when these objects came to light by the German guards, the owners were highly punished, or in the case this was unknown, all the prisoners in the barrack where such belongings were found suffered the punishment.

Barrack cards in play (see later) count as any other object type card (Clothes, Food, Document, Tool or Map) when a player attempts to escape as an action. A player has to choose one type of object for each Barrack card in play. Barrack cards have two Surveillance Values. The first one (0) is used if the player has that card in hand during the Roll Call phase (see later). The second one (4) is used if that card is in play during the Roll Call phase (see later).

Barrack card icon: the Barrack card is not represented in dice and is printed just as a type recognition icon.

• Surveillance value in hand
• Surveillance value in play
• Illustration
• Icon

Information cards

In some Stalag, prisoners and German sub-officers who were in charge of the supervision of each barrack used to make friends with each other, so the prisoners could get some help from their guards. But, sometimes, what seemed to be friendship was simply espionage. Also, if any German officer with a higher rank noticed this situation, things got worse for the prisoners.

Information cards played in a discard action (see later) can be used as any object card type (Clothes, Food, Document, Tool, Map). Information cards have two Surveillance Values. The first one (4) is used if the player has that card in hand during the Roll Call phase (see later). The second one (0) is used if that card is in play during the Roll Call phase (see later).

Information card icon: the Information icon is not represented in dice and is printed just as a type recognition icon.

• Surveillance value in hand
• Surveillance value in play
• Illustration
• Icon

Runaway route cards

Runaway route cards have two values: Surveillance Value and runaway value.

Runaway route icon: the runaway route icon is printed just as a type recognition icon.

• Surveillance value in hand
• Surveillance value in play
• Illustration
• Icon

Object dice

Object dice faces show five different object icons (Clothes, Food, Document, Tool and Map) and one runaway value face (3).

Runaway dice

The runaway dice is a regular dice with different runaway values on its faces, from 1 to 6.

Surveillance tokens

The surveillance tokens are taken during the roll call phase, or in other situations (see rules below), to always mark how many surveillance points each player has. There are two values, 1 and 5. When a player earns points of surveillance, they should take the appropriate tokens to have in their player zone the total value of surveillance tokens earned.

Prisoners tokens

At the beginning of the game, each player must choose a country and take the 3 Prisoners tokens belonging to that country. Prisoners tokens have two different characteristics: the country flag illustration and the prisoner value. All prisoners tokens have prisoner value 3.

• Prisoner value
• Country flag

Game Set Up

Shuffle the game deck cards and place it within reach of any player. Then, players take 3 prisoners tokens from the same country. Now the game is ready to be played.

Game Phases

There are three game phases in every escape attempt turn:

• Jailbreak Plan Phase
• Preparation and Jailbreak Phase
• Roll Call Phase

Jailbreak Plan Phase

The first player is the player with more non-escaped prisoners tokens. In case of a tie, the starting player is the player with more surveillance points. If the tie persists, the starting player is the closest player to the player who managed to escape one of his prisoners tokens the previous turn. If the tie persists, the starting player is the closest player from the left (clockwise) to the player who managed to escape one of his prisoners tokens the previous turn. Choose the starting player randomly in the first turn of the game.

E.g.: In a game of 5 players, player A achieves to escape one of his Prisoners tokens. Players B and D have 0 Surveillance points. Player C has 3 Surveillance points and player E has 2 Surveillance points. Then, player A has 2 prisoners tokens while the others have the 3 initial ones, so, for the next turn, player C will be the starting player as he is the one with more Surveillance points.

The starting player in the turn takes as many object dice as the escapee table points out, and also takes the runaway dice. The object dice rolled depend on how many prisoners tokens among all players have escaped at the beginning of the turn, and also on the number of players, as shown in the table in the Game Reference section below.

E.g.: In a game of 5 players, at the beginning of the turn, with 4 escaped tokens, the starting player takes 4 Object dice and the runaway one. In case of 3 or less Prisoners tokens escaped, the starting player takes 3 dice and the runaway one. The starting player rolls all dice, runaway dice included. The dice result is the jailbreak plan needed to escape one of the prisoners tokens this turn. The dice are rolled every turn and depend on how many prisoners are escaped, so the jailbreak plan changes every turn. If any object dice shows the 3 runaway factor face, add the total amount to the runaway factor value shown on the regular runaway dice.

E.g.: In a game of 5 players, the starting player rolls 3 object dice and the runaway dice. The results are Clothes, Tool, Food, and the runaway dice result is a 4, so the jailbreak plan for that turn would be: Clothes, Tool, Food and runaway factor value 4. In another turn, results are Map, one 3 runaway factor face in an object die, Document and a 2 on the runaway dice. Then, the plan is: Map, Document and 5 runaway (3+2).

After rolling the dice, each player draws 2 cards from the game deck. Then, the jailbreak plan phase ends and the preparation and jailbreak phase begins.

Preparation and Jailbreak Phase

This phase is played in rounds clockwise, starting with the first player, then the next player and so on.

A player during his round has to choose one of the following actions and carry it out:

• Draw two cards from the game deck.
• Put a card in the game from his hand, face down (don't show it to the other players!), in front of him on the table, and draw a card from the game deck. Players can look at their own face down cards whenever they want.
• Discard any card from his hand and place it face up near the game deck. These cards set up the discard pile.
• Discard 3 or more cards of the same type from his hand to the discard pile. These cards have to show the same object type.
  • E.g.: You can't discard 1 card of food, 1 card of map and 1 card of tool. They have to be the same, for example 3 cards of food, or 4 cards of food, or 5 cards of food, 3 cards of map, 4 cards of map, etc.
  • Information cards can be used too as any wished object type if in hand, so any player can discard, for example, 2 cards of food and 1 information card, using the information card as Food. Information, Barrack and runaway cards are also card types, so they can also be discarded. E.g.: 3 runaway cards or 4 runaway cards, Barrack cards, etc. The discarding player chooses the order in which the cards are discarded and their position in the discard pile.
• Discard 5 or more cards of different types from his hand to the discard pile.
  • E.g.: 1 card of food, 1 card of tool, 1 runaway card, 1 card of map and 1 card of document. A player can't discard several different cards at once, although they are different: the player has to discard them one by one. E.g.: In the case of the last example, the player can't discard 1 card of food, 2 cards of tool, 1 runaway card, 2 cards of map and 2 cards of document. They should be 1 card of each type.
  • The Information cards can be used as any object card type or as Information card, so they can be used as different types of cards when discarded.
  • E.g.: A player can discard the following six cards: 1 Map card, 1 Food card, 1 Document card, 1 Clothes card, 1 Tool card and 1 Information card. Or he can discard the following seven cards: 1 Map card, 1 Food card, 1 Document card, 1 Clothes card, 1 Tool card, 1 runaway card and 1 Information card. Or, finally, he can discard 8 cards (all types) like: 1 Map card, 1 Food card, 1 Document card, 1 Clothes card, 1 Tool card, 1 runaway card, 1 Barrack card and 1 Information card. The player can use 2 Information cards when discarding, one as Information and the other as any object card chosen, for example 1 Food card, 1 Information card, other Information card as Clothes, 1 Tool card and 1 runaway card.

A player can't pass his turn and is always obliged to carry out one of the actions listed. If someone couldn't carry out an action, he can't choose that action (except a jailbreak attempt).

E.g.: If a player has no cards in hand, he can't choose to discard as an action.

How to escape

When a player chooses Attempt to Escape as an action, he shows all his face down played cards on the table and compares them with the jailbreak plan. If he has at least one card of each object in the plan and the total runaway value in runaway cards is equal to or higher than the runaway value demanded by the plan, that player takes one of his prisoners tokens and puts it in the middle of the table to mark it as an escaped prisoners token. A player may play face down more cards than necessary, or cards not included in the jailbreak plan, with no penalty. If there are several objects of the same type in the Jailbreak Plan, the player needs one card of that type for every object. E.g.: If two dice show the food icon face, the player needs two cards of food to escape.

E.g.: At the start of the turn, a player rolls 3 object dice and the runaway dice. The result is: Food, Map, Document and a 5 on the runaway dice. After some player's actions, the player B announces he attempts to escape. He shows all his face down cards: 1 Food card, 1 Map card, 1 Document card and 2 runaway cards with printed value 3 for 6 points of runaway. The escape is correct because he has the three objects needed and, at least, runaway value 5. Then, he takes one of his prisoners tokens and puts it in the middle of the table. He just needs to escape with two more prisoners tokens to win the game.

If a player attempts to escape and, when he shows the cards, they don't match the jailbreak plan dice or he doesn't reach the runaway value, the player gets 2 Surveillance points (see later) and turns the cards face down again. Then, he has to choose another different legal action.

When a prisoners token escapes, the jailbreak and preparation phase ends and the roll call phase starts. If the game deck is empty and no prisoners token achieves to escape, the jailbreak and preparation phase ends and the roll call phase starts.

When a player's three Prisoner tokens have escaped, the game ends and he wins the game. The rest of the players can, if they wish, keep playing to know how they rank at the end of the game. Adjust the dice rolled in jailbreak and preparation phase with the current number of players.

Roll Call Phase

In this phase, the player who achieved an escape with a token reveals his hand cards and adds the surveillance value of his cards (remember to add 4 points for each Information card), takes as many surveillance tokens as the total value, and puts them in front of him.

Then, the rest of the players reveal their hand cards and face down played cards in two stacks. Every revealed face down card adds 0 surveillance points, but Barracks. Barrack cards revealed from the table add 4 surveillance points; Barrack cards in hand add 0 surveillance points. They add the surveillance value of the cards from their hands. Any Information card revealed from the hand adds 4 surveillance points, and 0 points if played face down. They take away 3 surveillance points for each not-escaped prisoners token in prison. Then they take as many surveillance tokens as the total value and put them in front of them.

E.g.: Player A escapes and reveals his hand. He has one Clothes card with Surveillance value 2 and one Tool with Surveillance value 1, so he immediately takes 3 Surveillance points. Then, player B reveals his hand. He shows three runaway cards with surveillance value 1, one double object card with surveillance value 3 and one Information card that adds 4 surveillance points because it was in hand. The total surveillance points are 1+1+1+3+4=10. Player B has 3 not-escaped prisoners tokens, so he takes away 9 (3 for each token) surveillance points and he just gets 1 surveillance point. If player B has one prisoner token escaped from previous rounds, he gets 4 surveillance points.

Surveillance tokens stay in play and they stack each turn. There is a 20 limit on surveillance points for any player. If a player has 20 surveillance points, that player can't gain more points.

If any player's final surveillance value points are negative, that player loses as many surveillance points. If a player doesn't have surveillance points, he can't lose any at all.

E.g.: Player A achieves an escape. Player B has 6 surveillance points and 3 prisoners tokens. Player B's hand cards show 1 card of food with surveillance value 1 and one double object card with surveillance value 3. Player B's final surveillance points are 3-9 = -5. So player B loses 5 surveillance points and starts the next turn with 1 surveillance point.

At the end of the roll call phase, every card in hand and every card in play is discarded. Then, shuffle the discard pile with the game deck to set up a new game deck for the next turn.

The game deck is empty

If the card game deck is empty and no player has achieved an escape, the roll call phase starts and every player discards their hands and played cards into the discard pile. Each player loses 6 surveillance points for each non-escaped prisoners token. Then they start a new turn from the Jailbreak Plan Phase. If every player has equal surveillance points and the same number of non-escaped prisoners tokens, the starting player for the next turn is the same starting player as the last turn.

E.g.: Player A has 2 non-escaped prisoners and 13 surveillance points. During his round, he draws the last two cards in the game deck so the roll call phase starts. Players discard all their cards and lose 6 surveillance points for each non-escaped prisoner. Player A, in this case, loses 12 points (he has 2 prisoners). He starts with 2 surveillance points next turn. Players shuffle the discard pile and set up a new game deck. Everything is ready to play a new turn.

Surveillance Points

The Surveillance points hinder the jailbreak plan of the players and increase the runaway total value shown on the runaway dice during the jailbreak and preparation phase. Surveillance points have effect on each player depending on his own surveillance points. If someone gets surveillance points by mistake, they have effect on that player that turn.

E.g.: The jailbreak plan shows: 1 Food, 1 Document, 2 Maps and runaway value 5. Player A has 6 surveillance points, so his jailbreak plan is: 1 Food, 1 Document, 2 Maps and 11 points in runaway cards face down, because he adds his 6 surveillance points to the runaway value shown on the dice. Player B has 2 surveillance points, so his jailbreak plan is 1 Food, 1 Document, 2 Maps and runaway value 7.

End of the game

The first player who escapes his three prisoner tokens wins the game.

Game Reference

Number of Object Dice rolled

Columns give the number of escaped prisoners tokens (0 to 10). Rows give the number of players.

Number of players	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
2	3	4	4	5	5	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	3	3	4	4	4	5	5

Game phases (summary)

• Jailbreak plan phase: determine the object dice rolled. Roll the object dice and the runaway dice.
• Preparation and jailbreak phase: every player chooses and carries out one of the following actions until one player achieves an escape or the game deck is empty:
  • Draw two cards from the game deck.
  • Play one card face down from the hand and draw one card from the game deck.
  • Discard one card from the hand to the discard pile.
  • Discard three or more cards of the same type from the hand to the discard pile.
  • Discard 5 or more cards of different types from the hand to the discard pile.
  • Draw the first card from the discard pile and one card from the game deck.
  • Attempt to escape.
• Roll call phase: players get surveillance points from the cards in hand and Barrack cards in play.