The Agents Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Goal
• Setup
• Factions
• Agents
• Abilities
  • Turn
  • Kill
  • Revive
  • Extract
  • Move
• Missions
• Turn Sequence
  • 1. Actions Phase
  • 2. Missions Phase
  • 3. Points Phase
• FAQ

The Goal

The Agents is 2-5 players game of spies, secrets, and subterfuge. Your task is to use agents to further your ambitions, build factions, complete missions, and ultimately collect the most Intel Points (IPs).

When a player earns 40 or more IPs, the game continues until every player has had the same number of turns. After the last player finishes their turn, the game ends. For example, in a 4-player game, the second player collects 8 IPs at the end of his turn, bringing him to a total of 42 IPs. With his turn done, the third player takes her turn, and then the fourth player takes his turn. The game ends once the fourth player has finished his turn.

The player with the highest number of IPs at the end of the game is the winner.

Setup

The Agents includes:

• 40 Agent Cards
• 40 Mission Cards
• 5 Safe Houses
• 5 Player Aid Cards
• 50 IP Tokens (in denominations of 1, 5, and 10)

1. Shuffle the agent cards into an agents deck. Deal three cards to each player and place the deck in the middle of the table. Agent cards in a player's hand remain hidden from other players. A hand cannot have more than four agent cards at a time.

2. Shuffle the mission cards into a missions deck, draw eight mission cards and place the deck in the middle of the table.

3. Lay out the drawn mission cards facing up in the middle of the table so that every player is able to see them. You may place identical missions (i.e., missions with the same name) on top of each other.

4. Place all the IP chips in a pile in the middle of the table.

5. From the IP chips pile, hand out two chips of 1 IP to each player.

What is on the middle of the table: the eight mission cards laid out face up, the missions deck, the agents deck, and the IP tokens.

What each player gets: 3 Agent Cards, 2 - 1 IP Chips.

6. Place a safe house card between neighboring players so that each player has one safe house to his or her left—with the black token halves of the safe house directed at him or her—and one safe house to his or her right, with the white token halves of the safe house directed at him or her.

A safe house is the first card in a faction between any two players. It divides each faction into two sides. Note that for the sake of any mission conditions (see Missions) each side always includes the token halves that are on the safe house card.

Safe house setup for a 2 player game: Player 1 has a safe house (Faction A) to their right; Player 2 has a safe house (Faction B) to their left; each player sits across a single faction from the other.

There should always be as many factions as there are players in the game. Note that factions do not belong to any one player but are shared between the two players on either side of their safe houses.

The player who seems the "most suspicious" starts the game as the first player. The turn order then continues clockwise.

Safe house setup for a 4 player game: Player 1 shares Faction A with Player 4 and Faction B with Player 2, whereas Player 2 shares Faction C with Player 3, who shares Faction D with Player 4. Each player sits between the two factions they share with their neighbors, and the safe houses always sit closest to the players who placed them.

Factions

The game is played by building factions of agent cards. You share one faction with the player to your right and another faction with the player to your left (or two factions between you and the other player in a 2-player game). These two factions are considered "your" factions. Note that each of your factions is also another player's faction.

To build your factions, you can play agent cards from your hand by placing them in factions. You can only place agents from your hand to your factions, and only to either of their ends (i.e., not between two other cards) unless otherwise stated on a card.

Note: Neither side of a faction can have more than four agent cards (i.e., you cannot play or move agents to a side that already has four agents). For a 2-player game, the limit is five instead of four.

In the example on the player aid: you can place an Agent card in either end of your faction to the left, or at the right end of your faction to the right (the left side of that faction has reached its limit of four agent cards).

Agents

Each agent card features a "command" on one end, and token halves on the other. Each token half features an arrow shape inside it. Each command includes an "ability" in capital letters (e.g., KILL, TURN, EXTRACT, MOVE) and instructions on how to use it (e.g., "in this faction," "from your other faction").

When playing an agent card to any of your factions, you may choose whether to direct the command toward yourself or toward the other player sharing that faction with you.

For example: The Assassin's command is "KILL any agent in this faction," directed by the arrow at one end; its token halves sit at the other end. When The Assassin is played upside-down relative to The Hacker, the two cards' abilities and token halves point in opposite directions across the shared faction.

Once an agent card has been played, the player the command is directed toward can "activate" the command (i.e., carry out the command's ability and instructions) as an action on their turn (see Turn Sequence). A player cannot activate a command if it is not directed at them, or if it cannot be activated.

Note: An agent's command can never be activated on itself unless it is stated otherwise on the card.

When two token halves are joined together (i.e., aligned next to each other), they form a completed "data token" that can award IPs to a player based on the direction of their corresponding arrows. A data token with two halves of the same color is considered "matching," while a data token with two halves of different colors is considered "non-matching". A token half not joined with another is considered "unjoined".

Your decision when placing an agent to a faction is, therefore, contingent upon which direction you place the card: Whether to benefit from access to the agent's command, or complete data tokens that reward you IPs at the end of your turn. Remember, your decision may benefit the player who is sharing the faction with you!

In the example spanning Player 1 and Player 2's shared faction: reading from the safe house outward there is an unjoined black token half directed toward Player 1, a non-matching data token directed toward Player 1, a matching data token directed toward Player 1, an unjoined white token half directed toward Player 1, and two separate agent commands (on The Marksman and The Hacker cards) directed toward Player 2.

When an agent is in a faction, a player sharing that faction, and toward whom the command is directed, can activate the command, if it can be activated, as an action on his or her turn. When a data token in a faction is directed toward a player sharing that faction, that player receives 1 IP chip at the end of his or her turn.

Abilities

Abilities allow you to be stealthy, strategic, steadfast...and lethal! Abilities are shown in capital letters on the text of commands of agent cards. Agents feature five main abilities:

Turn

Rotate an agent card 180 degrees while keeping it in the same location.

For example: before turning, a faction reads Safe House, The Abductor, The Paramedic left to right. After turning The Abductor 180 degrees in place, the faction still reads Safe House, The Abductor, The Paramedic, but The Abductor's command and token halves now face the opposite direction.

Kill

Flip over an agent card to face down while keeping it in the same location. A killed agent is considered "dead". Dead agents can be moved, turned or extracted, but they cannot be killed again. They do not have a command, however they are still agents for all other intents and purposes, such as missions conditions and faction rules.

Note: Players may always peek at the front side of a card of a dead agent if they need to be reminded which agent it is.

Revive

Flip over a dead agent card face up. You may also choose its direction as you flip.

Extract

Pick up an agent card from a faction into your hand. When an agent is extracted from between two other cards, close the gap that is formed between the remaining cards.

Move

Move an agent card to another location, while keeping it facing the same direction. An agent can be moved to a faction's end or between two other cards within a faction (by making a gap between the two other cards).

When an agent is moved from between two other cards, close the gap that is formed between the two cards.

When moving an agent between factions of a certain player, the agent card must be facing the same way relative to that player, before and after the move. For example, if the agent's command was directed at you before the move, it must still be facing you after the move.

Missions

Mission cards can be bought and assigned to factions (see Turn Sequence). You can assign only one mission to each side of each of your factions. To assign a mission, place the mission card directed at you "below" the side that you want to assign it.

In the example: Player 1 has Mission 1 in their hand, and Mission 2 assigned to the left side of their faction. Player 1 also has Mission 3 assigned to the right side of the faction. Player 2 has their own Mission 4 assigned to the same faction (which they share with Player 1) as well as Mission 5 in their hand.

Mission cards include special conditions that, if fulfilled, award bonus IPs to the player who assigned them. If not actively removed, missions remain assigned even after their condition has been fulfilled and continue to award bonus IPs as long as their condition is fulfilled.

A mission card shows its bonus IP value and its condition (for example, the mission "Meet Your Match" reads: "If this faction has as many matching data tokens as directed at you as directed at another player," for a bonus of 3 IP).

Turn Sequence

1. Actions Phase

During your turn, you can perform a total of two actions. An action can be any of the following:

Play an Agent Activate a Command Buy a Mission Buy an Agent

PLAY AN AGENT - As an action, you may place an agent from your hand to either end of your factions. You cannot place it to an end of a side of a faction that already has four agent cards in it.

ACTIVATE A COMMAND - As an action, you may activate any command of an agent that is already in any of your factions, as long as the command is directed toward you.

Note: Sometimes a command simply cannot be activated.

BUY A MISSION - As an action, you may pick up any mission from the eight cards drawn from the missions deck that are face up on the table. You must pay 2 IPs (from the chips you've collected, back to the pile) in order to do so, and you can only buy 1 mission at a time.

When you buy a mission, that mission is yours and you can assign it and remove it from factions (see Missions Phase). When not assigned, your missions are kept hidden in your hand.

Note: Once a mission is bought, another mission card must be drawn from the missions deck and placed face up on the table next to the others.

BUY AN AGENT - As an action, you may draw one agent card from the agents deck to your hand, at no cost. Remember: You cannot have more than four agents in your hand at a time.

Note: You can perform the same action twice instead of performing two different actions. You do not have to perform two actions - you may choose to forgo any number of actions.

2. Missions Phase

After you have performed two actions, you may assign your missions to your factions (only one mission to each side), remove missions already assigned, or move missions between sides of your factions. You can do any of these any number of times, in any order, during your Missions Phase.

You cannot assign two or more missions with the same name (i.e., no player can assign more than one copy of the same mission). You can assign a mission to a side of a faction that does not have any agents in it.

3. Points Phase

After you have arranged your missions, you may collect IPs awarded to you as chips from the IP chips pile. The total value of IPs awarded to you is determined by:

A. The number of completed and matching data tokens that have arrows directed toward you, in your factions.

A matching data token, whether black or white, awards 1 IP. A non-matching data token does not award any IPs.

• Black Data Token — 1 IP
• White Data Token — 1 IP
• Non-matching Data Token — 0 IP

B. Bonus IPs for fulfilled missions. A mission is fulfilled if it is assigned and its condition is satisfied during the points phase of the player whose turn it is.

Points phase example: Player 1 has one matching data token (black) directed at them in Faction A and one matching data token (white) directed at them in Faction B. For that, Player 1 collects 2 IPs on their Points Phase (1 IP for each matching data token). Additionally, Player 1 has Missions 1, 2 and 3 assigned to their factions, yet only the conditions of Missions 1 and 2 are fulfilled. For that, Player 1 collects the bonus IPs for these missions — a total of the numbers in the data tokens on the cards of Missions 1 and 2 (4 IPs) — on the Points Phase.

FAQ

• The command of The Negotiator agent allows you to switch the location of two cards, whether they are in the same faction or not. The cards direction relative to you must remain the same.
• An agent's command can be activated as an action on a player's turn (if it is directed toward that player), even if it was previously activated on the same turn or other turns.
• Safe Houses cannot be killed, turned, moved, or extracted—they are not agent cards.
• If the agents deck is depleted, no more agent cards can be bought. Same goes for the missions deck.
• Note that unless stated otherwise on the card, a mission's bonus is awarded only once every turn, even if its condition is fulfilled multiple times.
• An agent is considered "influenced" if another agent's command causes its card to be rotated, moved, flipped or picked up (i.e., if the agent is turned, moved, killed, revived or extracted). An agent is not "influenced" if it is moved in order to close or create a gap between cards.
• Whenever there is a contradiction between the game rules and the text on a card, follow what is written on the card. If there is a dispute over the rules, the preferred interpretation is the one that provides the greatest advantage, or the highest number of IPs, to the player whose turn it is when the dispute is introduced.
• If a dispute arises over who ultimately wins, the person with the most forgettable face is victorious—for a forgettable face makes for an excellent agent.