The Trial Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Set Up
• Game Play
• End of the Round
• Game End
• Variant

Contents

• Secret Role Cards x10
• Public Role Cards x8
• Reference Cards x10
• Objection Cards x2
• Permit Cards x8
• Evidence Cards x30
• Case file x1
• Rule Book x1

Set Up

• Depending on the number of players, include the following roles in the game:

5 Players: 1 Judge, 2 Lawyers, 2 Defendants 6 Players: 1 Judge, 2 Lawyers, 2 Defendants, 1 Witness 7 Players: 1 Judge, 2 Lawyers, 2 Defendants, 2 Witnesses 8 Players: 1 Judge, 2 Lawyers, 2 Defendants, 2 Witnesses, 1 Jury 9 Players: 1 Judge, 2 Lawyers, 2 Defendants, 3 Witnesses, 1 Jury 10 Players: 1 Judge, 2 Lawyers, 2 Defendants, 4 Witnesses, 1 Jury

Note:

• In a 6 players game, shuffle the 4 witness secret role cards face down and take one randomly and add it to the other secret role cards without seeing it.
• In a 7-8 players game, include one good witness and one bad witness cards.
• In a 9 players game, shuffle the 4 witness secret role cards face down and take three randomly and add them to the other secret role cards without seeing them.

Return any unused secret role cards back in the box.

• Shuffle the secret role cards, and deal one card for each player face down.
• The Judge, and the Jury (if in-play) reveal themselves by turning their cards face up infront of them. All other players look at their role but must keep it secret.
• Place the public role cards for the characters in play according to the player count on the center of the table, return any unused cards back in the box.
• Each player takes a public role card matching their secret role, and places it in front of them to represent their role.
• Deal 1 permit card for each player except the judge and the jury, players must place it in front of them showing the "permit" side, return the rest back in the box.
• Deal 1 reference card for each player, return the rest back in the box.
• Shuffle the evidence cards and place them face down in the middle of the table.
• Place the case file next to the evidence cards.

Game Play

The game consists of a maximum of 5 rounds. Every round, all players must play their roles in the following order: defendants, lawyers, witnesses, jury, then the judge. The order of which defendant will go first is decided by the judge, same goes with the two lawyers and the witnesses (if in-play).

Defendants play first:

1. Draw 5 evidence cards from the draw pile.
2. After looking at them, discard 1 of them in front of you facedown on top of the last cards discarded if there were any.
3. Give each lawyer 2 evidence cards.

Lawyers play second:

1. Examine the received cards from both defendants.
2. Put at least 2 evidence cards in the case file.

Witnesses play third:

1. Secretly, look at the top discarded evidence card in front of any defendants.

OR

1. Randomly, pick a card from any lawyer's hand, then secretly, look at it.

Jury play fourth:

1. Once in the game, guess all the bad team players (defendant & lawyer & witnesses), then check their secret role cards, if you are correct, the good team wins. If you are incorrect you cannot talk or hint about their secret roles and no participation is allowed until the end of the game.

OR

1. Pass your turn.

Judge play last:

1. Take out all evidence cards from the case file and shuffle them without looking.
2. Reveal all evidence cards from the case file face up in front of you.
3. Separate each identical pair of the evidence cards as they cancel each other.
4. Declare the winning side of the round based on the majority of evidence cards, in case of a tie the bad team wins the round.
5. Start the discussion phase by interrogating each player by questioning them about the evidence.

Note: Discussion is prohibited before revealing the evidence.

6. Choose one of the evidence cards that is related to the winning team and place it face up in front of you, which indicates the winning team of the current round.
7. You may stop 1 player from playing for 1 round by giving them a warning, that player flips their permit card to the "warning side".

Note: you cannot stop the same player twice in a row.

Judge warning:

When the judge decides to stop a player for one round do the following:

• If the judge stops a defendant: as a replacement of their role each lawyer draws 2 evidence cards from the draw pile, while the other defendant plays normally.
• If the judge stops a lawyer: as a replacement of their role the judge draws two evidence cards and places them in the case file without looking at them, the 2 defendants now must draw only 3 evidence cards instead of 5, they each discard 1 card and give the other lawyer 2 cards, as the other lawyer plays normally.
• If the judge stops a witness: basically their turn will just be ignored.

End of the Round

Check if the winning condition is met, if not, do the following steps:

• The Judge places the remaining revealed evidence cards face up next to the draw pile, from now on, this is considered the discard pile.

Note: No one is allowed to look at the discard pile cards, except for the top one.

• The lawyers check if they exceed the hand limit which is 5 cards and then discard any excess cards into the bottom of the discard pile.
• The player who received a warning from the previous round flips back their permit card to the "permit" side.
• Begin a new round.

Running out of evidence cards:

In case you need to draw a card under any conditions from the draw pile and it is empty, reshuffle the discard pile with the discarded cards that have been placed in front of each defendant without exposing them, then keep playing normally.

Game End

The game ends immediately when the first team (bad or good) wins 3 rounds, that team wins the game.

Variant

For a more challenging game you can play with this variant by following these rules:

• Each Lawyer takes 1 objection card and places it in front of them on the "unused" side, the objection card is a one time use card that prevents the judge warning for any player, once it's used flip it to the denied side, in that round the judge cannot give a warning to another player.
• The judge can give a warning to a player that already received one in the previous round.
• The hand limit of each lawyer at the end of the round is 3 instead of 5.