The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Learning the Game
• Special Setup for Low Player Counts
• Object of the Game
• Before the Game Begins
• Setting Up the Game
  • Optional Module Setup
• A Game Round
  • Actions
• Incomplete Transcription

Components

• 1 - Board: On which the game is played.
• 7 - Mini Boards: Used to track various elements of the game.
• 9 - Player Pawns: Used to represent each player as they travel from England to the French countryside.
• 9 - Player Cards: Large card to describe each player's options and special ability.
• 1 - Retribution Die: An 8 sided die that determines the actions the revolutionaries take after French noble(s) are rescued.
• 1 - Rage Die: A 6 sided die that demonstrates the additional actions the revolutionaries take after too many nobles are rescued.
• 15 - Jail Tiles: Tiles that represent jails to be set up across the French countryside to exterminate nobles. Includes the cost (in resources) league members will have to pay to rescue nobles from each jail.
• 12 - Noble Meeple: Meeple indicate the location of a noble in the French countryside or shows their progress toward the chopping block at a jail.
• 1 - Dauphin Token: A small bust representing the location of the Dauphin.
• 15 - Guillotines: Models of guillotines that sit on each jail tile.
• 1 - Last Player Marker: A tile in the shape of a pimpernel, a common wayside flower, that is part of Blakeney's family crest. The Pimpernel is the last player before the board takes its turn.

Learning the Game

The league of the Scarlet Pimpernel has three different sets of rules.

• Tutorial rules for learning the game and/or playing with younger children
• Experienced rules for those that have played before.
• An optional module for more thematic play and rules for more challenging play.

Included in the game are 2 quick reference cards to remind players how to play and what the icons mean, so players don't need to constantly reference the rule book.

Special Setup for Low Player Counts

Special change for a two player game:

1. Do not place a fortress token beside the jail tile in Paris.
2. Do not use noble cards that have either 3+ or 4+ (this keeps the cities from central and southern France from being included.)

Special changes for a three player game:

1. Do not use noble cards that have 4+ (this keeps the cities from southern France from being included.)

Object of the Game

The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel is a cooperative game. You and your fellow players make up the league of the Scarlet Pimpernel. You will need to rescue the crown prince. After enough Nobles have been rescued (number of players times 2), the location where the Dauphin will be held will be revealed. Once two more Nobles are saved, the Dauphin will appear at the appointed jail. You will need to save him to end the game victoriously.

The game will end in defeat under any of the following conditions:

• Too many nobles are lost (number of players *2 + 2) this represents the loss of hope as too mantrty [sic] nobles have been killed.
• Half or more members of the league are killed. Percy could not go on after losing so many of his closest friends.
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (Percy) is killed.

Before the Game Begins

One of the most fashionable and wealthy members of the English court is the leader of the League, Sir Percival Blakeney Baronet. After hearing of the deaths of his dear French friend, the Marquis de Saint Cyr and his family, Sir Percy gathers his loyal friends together and prepares to cross the channel to save more friends from the terror. But Percy cannot tell his new wife, for she was credited with turning the Marquis over to the revolutionaries.

Setting Up the Game

1. Place the board in the center of the table within easy reach of all the players.

2. Place the thin boards along side the board.

3. From the escort deck, draw as many Escorts as there are players, and place them face up on a thin board in the spaces that show the back of the escort card.

4. From the noble deck, draw as many nobles as there are players and place them face up on top of the escort cards that you just placed on the thin board. Place the noble cards so that you can still see the icons on the left and button sides of the escort cards.

5. Place the colored meeple on the spaces on the thin boards that match their color. Place the colored disks on their spaces on their thin board.

6. Take the meeples whose color matches each space on the smaller board that has an escort card next to them and place them on the larger board in the cities that are featured in the title of the noble. The map at the bottom of the card should help you locate each city. (Example: If the Baronne de Bordeaux was placed beside the yellow meeple, the yellow meeple would be placed on the larger board on the city of Bordeaux in the south west of France.).

   The yellow meeple represents the captured noble who is to be escorted to the nearest city with a jail tile.

7. Unless you are playing a 2 player game, place a fortress token in Paris For all games, place a Jail tile in Paris, and guillotine on top of the jail tile.

8. Draw as many jail tiles as there are players and place them on the map board in the following locations: St. Malo, Reims, Limoges, Grenoble, Mulhouse, Epernay and Carcassonne.

   Only place as many jail tiles as there are players.

   (Example: if there are only three players, you will only place three jail tiles on St. Malo, Reims and Limoges).

9. Draw as many noble cards as there are players and place jail tiles on the cities in the nobles' title as you did in step 4.

Player Count	Count of noble cards to be placed on the smaller board without an escort card beneath them.	Count of nobles that start on the guillotine.	Count of nobles that start in any of the jail cells
2 and 3	0	0	0
4	1	0	1
5	2	1	1
6	3	1	2
7	4	2	2

(Example: In a six player game, the first noble card drawn was the Compte de Metz. This noble card is placed on the smaller board beside the gold meeple. After placing the jail and guillotine on Metz, the gold meeple is placed on the guillotine. The second and third new noble cards are placed beside the silver and pink meeples on the thin board. After the jail tiles and guillotines are placed on the cities featured on the nobles cards, the silver and pink meeples are placed in one of the cell spaces in both cities. For the next three noble cards that are drawn, only jail tiles and guillotines are placed. The last three noble cards are not placed on the thin board.)

9. Find Jeeves Baily from the courier deck and place him on the thin courier board on the courier card beside the red disc.

   Place the red disk in England. This represents the location of Jeeves, a courier for the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

10. Randomly choose either Jeeves Baily, Grayson Miles or Alfred Smith from the courier deck and place the selected card on the thin courier board on the courier card space beside the red disc.

11. Shuffle the:

    • remaining courier cards
    • resource cards (excluding the foppery cards)
    • noble cards (including those used to set up jail tiles that didn't get set on the thin boards)
    • escort cards .

12. Take the dauphin token and place it on the noble track on the number that is twice the number of players.

    This will be used to remind players how many nobles need to be saved till the location where the dauphin will be held is revealed.

13. Place the coffin token and the pimpernel calling card token near the noble track, these will be used to keep track of the number of nobles killed and nobles saved throughout the game.

14. Place the 8 sided retribution die beside the larger board where anyone can reach it.

15. Place the 6 sided rage die on the noble track on the number that is the same as one more than the count of players.

    This will be used to remind the players when they will be required to start rolling the rage die each time a noble is saved.

16. Shuffle, then deal out a player card to each player. One of the player cards must be Percival Blakeney.

Optional Module Setup

20. Place one of the heart tokens on the noble track on the number that is the same as the number of players.
21. Place the other heart token beside the noble track with the coffin and pimpernel calling card tokens.
22. Place the purple Marguerite cube in England and the Marguerite card near England as well.
23. Place the black Chauvelin cube in Paris.
24. Shuffle the foppery resource cards into the resource card deck.

A Game Round

Play proceeds clockwise around the table with each player taking turns in order until each player has had a turn. Then the French revolutionaries advance. Each turn the player must take any combination of the following four actions. Meaning they can do the same action many times if they chose to.

Actions

1. Move

   Players can move from England to any coastal French city. A player can also move from any French coastal city to England. Coastal cities reachable from England with this action include: Calais, Le Havre, Caen, St. Malo, and Roscoff. The dotted lines through the English Channel trace these paths.

   [Map omitted: shows the coastal paths between England and northern France.]

   A player can move from one French city along roads connecting to another French city.

   (Ex. A player in Metz could travel along the brown roads to either Strasburg, Nancy or Reims)

   A player may also use a move action to move a courier between England and any French coastal city, or they may move a courier token between connected French cities on their turn. Any courier may be moved by any player on their turn.

2. Draw Cards (3 in England or 1 in France).

   A player can draw cards from the resource deck (3 if the player's token is in England, 1 if a player's token is anywhere in France.) Each player has a hand limit of 5 resource cards. Players must discard down to this limit at the end of their turn.

   Note: It is possible to be given cards when it is not your turn and the number of cards in your hand would exceed your limit. You are only required to discard down to your limit at the end of your turn.

3. Share card(s)

   A player may share, exchange, and receive any number of their own resource cards with another player as long as they are in England together, or they are in the same French city.

   A player can take, trade, or share up to five of their resource cards with a courier as long as they are on the same French city with the courier, or they are both in England.

   A courier may never hold more than 5 cards, unless they have a double hand limit ability.

4. Duel an Interceptor

Incomplete Transcription

This transcription covers only the first 7 pages of the official rules document (part 1 of 3, BGG file 255000). It ends partway through the action "Play Foppery card" in the "A Game Round" section. The rules that follow in parts 2 and 3 (the rest of the round and the revolutionaries' advance, dueling and rescue resolution, retribution and rage dice, the end of the game, and any remaining optional-module rules) are not included here and have not been reconstructed.