They Live: The Card Game – Save The City/Enslave The City Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Meet the Resistance
• Overview & How To Win
• Components
• Setup
  • Invader Check
• Character Cards
  • Death
• How To Play
  • 1. New Resources
  • Turn Order
  • 2. Player Turns
  • 3. Force-Reveal
• The War Table Deck
  • City Cards
  • Weapons and Ammo
  • Hoffman Lenses & Other Resources
  • Enemy Cards
• Ally Cards
• Player Layout
• Self-Reveal
• Force-Reveal
• Ally Card Details
• Hints and Tips
• Icons
• Wave Order

Meet the Resistance

There are 8 playable characters: Nada, Frank, Holly, Gilbert, Jack, Dixon, Reddy and Billy. Any of them could secretly be an Invader!

Overview & How To Win

THEY LIVE: The Card Game is an asymmetrical multiplayer game focused on strategy, teamwork, and deceit. Working collectively is the only way to survive, but not everyone is playing for the same team...

Hidden among the group are secret Invaders who are determined to capture the city. The Humans outnumber them, but the Invaders have the advantage of knowing who the teams are.

You will start losing health shortly after the game begins: there is no avoiding it - you must act fast!

The objective of the game is different depending on if you are a Human or an Invader.

HUMANS: The goal is to keep hold of the city while exposing and eliminating the Invaders. You only win when all Invader players are defeated.

INVADERS: The goal is to remain hidden and capture the city. Once you collectively hold the same number of city areas as there are players (i.e. in a 3-player game the Invaders need 3 city areas collectively) then the invasion has claimed the city and you have won. You can also win by eliminating all the Humans, but seeing as you are outnumbered, that won't be easy!

Components

• 8x Character Cards
• 118x War Table Cards
• 16x Ally Cards
• 7x Identity Cards
• 1x Bubblegum Dice
• 80+x Damage Tokens

Damage tokens have 2 sides. For increased immersion, it is suggested that you use the "word" side for Character cards, and the "cracked" side for enemies and melee weapons.

Setup

• Each player must select a character from the Character cards and place it face up in front of them.
• Shuffle the War Table and Ally decks and place them separately to one side away from the main play area.
• Select the relevant number of Identity cards depending on the number of players (details in the table below).

Players	Human	Invader
3	2	1
4	3	2
5	3	2
6	4	3

Shuffle the Identity cards and deal 1 to each player. You must discreetly check if you are a Human or an Invader. Do not tell anyone what you are! You must then place your Identity card face down under your Character card.

In a 4- or 6-player game, you will be left with 1 spare Identity card. Place this face down to one side away from the group. Nobody must check this extra card.

Invader Check

If you are playing a 3-player game, you can skip this step.

If you are playing a game with 4 or more players, there is one more step to do - an Invader check.

The purpose of this is so that Invaders can identify who else is on their team without the Humans knowing.

One player must take charge here (it doesn't matter who) and read the following in order:

1. They start by saying "Invader check." "Everyone hide." All players must then close their eyes, drop their heads, and cover their eyes with their hands.
2. After a few seconds, "Invaders wake." Any Invader players silently remove their hands, open their eyes, and look up. This allows Invader players to identify each other.
3. The player then says, "Invaders hide." The Invaders lower their heads and cover their eyes again.
4. "Everyone wake." All players now open their eyes and return to normal.

The Invaders now know who is on their team, but the Humans are uncertain of everyone. In a 4- or 6-player game, the Invaders are now the only ones who know how many there are in each team!

Character Cards

• The number in the top right of the Character card is the maximum number of cards you can have in your hand at the end of your turn.
• Your health squares: each time you take damage, you must place a damage token on the next square (starting with the highest number and working down).
• When only red squares remain, your character is CRITICAL.

When you are CRITICAL, other players are able to spend Hoffman Lenses cards during their turn to inspect your Identity card. This is how they will know for sure if you are a Human or an Invader!

Being CRITICAL also has an impact on your allies: improving their abilities and making them more useful (more on page 22).

Death

When a character has no health remaining (they have a damage token on every health square) they have died!

If you are killed by an enemy card, the cards in your hand, and any locations you have captured, are shuffled back into the War Table deck.

If you are killed by another player, your killer takes all your cards - including your completed city locations (explained later).

When a player dies through either method, they must reveal to the group if they were Human or Invader.

In a 4- or 6-player game, when an Invader is killed, as a group you must inspect the spare Identity card placed aside at the start of the game. If the card is Human, then you know there are still more Invaders to be found...

If they were the only Invader player, then the Humans have won!

How To Play

Each gameplay wave follows these 3 steps in order:

1. New Resources: As a group, you draw cards face up in the middle of the table.
2. Player Turns: Each player takes their turn.
3. Force-Reveal: The group decides if they want to try to force an Invader to reveal themselves.

These 3 steps repeat over, until one team wins!

1. New Resources

The first step of each wave is to draw new resources. As a group, you must draw War Table cards equal to 2 x the number of players. These are placed face up in the middle of the table, so that all players can see.

For example, in a 4-player game, the group must draw 8 cards from the War Table deck.

The War Table deck is made up of a number of different cards, including city parts, weapons, ammo, and more. It also includes enemies, which will work to fight you.

For the first 3 waves of the game, if any enemies are drawn, they should be placed randomly back into the deck, and another card drawn instead. This is to give you time to build up defenses before you have to start dealing with enemies. On the 4th wave, any enemies that are drawn behave as normal.

Turn Order

The next step is for each player to take their turn. This section will explain how to determine the order that should be done.

The player with the lowest remaining health goes first.

For example: Dixon has 12 health remaining. Billy has 11 remaining. Therefore, Billy would take his turn first.

Once Billy has completed their turn, the remaining players then look at their remaining health values to determine who goes next.

If 2 players have the same remaining health, then the player with the highest starting CRITICAL value goes first (starting value is the number that first takes them into a CRITICAL state). Dixon has a starting CRITICAL value of 3. Billy has 2. If they begin a wave with the same remaining health, Dixon would go first.

During this wave, Dixon takes 2 damage from an enemy. When the next wave begins, after the resources have been dealt in the middle of the table, you must determine the turn order again. Dixon now has 10 health remaining. Billy has 11. Dixon would now go first.

2. Player Turns

Each player's turn follows this order:

(1) Gain Resources. The first thing you do during your turn is pick 2 cards of your choice from the face-up cards in the middle of the table. These are added to your hand. As a group, you are free to discuss who takes what, but ultimately it's up to each player during their turn to make their choices.

(2) Merge City Parts. The next thing to do is merge any matching city cards you have. The city is split into 9 key areas, each with 3 cards in the War Table deck. When you have 2 of the same area in your hand, you put them together and place them to the left of your character. That area is now controlled, and it will send an ally to assist you (page 22). As an Invader, capturing areas of the city is key to victory. As Humans, you want to capture the areas to stop the Invaders from taking them!

(3) Manage Inventory. You can equip weapons and ammo, and use any items you wish.

(4) Attack. You may only attack once per turn. You can either attack enemies that have been drawn with the resources in the middle, or you can attack another player.

(5) Inspect Identity Cards. If you have a HOFFMAN LENSES card in your hand, then you may play that before or after attacking. These cards are key to working out who the Invaders are. When another player is CRITICAL, you can spend a Hoffman Lenses card to inspect their Identity card. You are free to tell the group what you saw, but will they believe you?

(6) Discard Cards. The final step of your turn is to discard cards. Your Character card shows you the maximum you can hold. You must discard cards until you have equal or less than this value. Note: equipped cards and captured city areas do not count towards this value.

To summarize, the order of each player's turn plays out as follows:

1. Gain resources: Pick 2 cards from the middle
2. Merge city parts
3. Manage Inventory: Equip weapons, ammo, and use items
4. Attack enemies or other players
5. Inspect Identity cards
6. Discard cards

When the last player takes their turn, there will only be 2 cards left in the middle. The last player must take these regardless of what they are. (Note: sometimes enemies may be defeated during the wave, which leaves fewer cards in the middle. In this case, the final player just takes whatever is left, even if that is 0.)

3. Force-Reveal

Once all players have taken their turn, the final part of the wave is to decide if you want to do a force-reveal. This is when, as a group, players vote on if they want to force somebody to show their identity. This is an essential tool in outing the Invaders, but it's a risk. Force-reveals can have dire consequences if you get it wrong (page 26).

The War Table Deck

The main deck of cards you will use throughout the game is the War Table deck. These are your resources. It is made up of the following cards:

• City cards
• Weapon and Ammo cards
• Hoffman Lenses cards
• Other Resources cards
• Enemy cards

City Cards

City cards are the key to Invader victory. Each city area has 3 cards in the deck, but you only need 2 to claim the area.

When you collect 2 matching city cards, you merge them together, and you have now captured that location. When this happens, you can draw an Ally card to help you (page 22).

Weapons and Ammo

To attack enemies, or other players, you need a weapon equipped. You can only have 1 weapon equipped at a time. Equipped weapons go to the right of your Character card.

Each weapon has 1 or 2 attacks.

• The skull icon shows how much damage an attack does to an enemy or player.
• Some attacks contain a dice icon. This means that you need to roll the dice to determine the damage done.

Melee weapons:

Each melee weapon attack also does damage to itself. When the health hits 0, the weapon is broken and must be discarded.

• The cracked icon shows how much damage an attack does to itself.

Example (the Chain, which has 3 health):

• ATTACK 1: Strike. Does 1 damage to the opponent and 1 damage to itself.
• ATTACK 2: Choke. Does 2 damage to itself and you need to roll a dice. On a Chew Bubblegum, it does 1 damage to the opponent. On a Kick Ass, it does 2. You can only perform this attack if your chain has at least 2 health squares remaining.

Firearms:

Firearms need ammo to function. The icon on the top right of the card shows you what type it is. There are 4 types of firearm and ammo: Pistol, Assault rifle, Shotgun, Special.

When a firearm is equipped, you can place the matching ammo cards under it with the top bar displaying. Each gun can have a maximum of 5 ammo equipped to it at any one time.

When you attack, you must discard the required number of matching ammo cards.

Example (Pump Shotgun): The Fire attack uses 1 ammo and does 2 damage. The Combat Reload attack costs 3 ammo and does 4 damage.

Ammo cards equipped to a firearm do not count towards your max card count, but the ones in your hand do.

You can swap your equipped weapon during your turn. If it has ammo equipped, these go back into your hand.

If a melee weapon has taken damage then it cannot be swapped. If you want to change it before it has run out of health, you must discard it.

Hoffman Lenses & Other Resources

Hoffman Lenses cards are used to check other players' Identity cards. You can only check another player if their health is CRITICAL. To do this, during your turn (before or after attacking) you must discard this card and pick the player you want to check. That player must then pass their Identity card to you to discreetly check. IMPORTANT: You must NOT show anyone else the Identity card. Once checked, you are free to tell the group what you found, but will they believe you?

Kick Ass cards can be used in place of a dice roll for a guaranteed success. They can be used any time during your turn when you need to roll the dice. They are discarded after use.

Medkits can be used to heal you. They must be used during your turn prior to attacking. They are discarded after use.

Toolkits repair your melee weapons. They must be used during your turn prior to attacking. They are discarded after use.

Enemy Cards

Enemies have 2 important actions: "Counter Strike" and "Take Action."

COUNTER STRIKE: When an enemy is attacked, they instantly do damage back. This is their Counter Strike. The skull shows how much damage the enemy retaliates with. For example, an enemy might do 2 damage back whenever it's attacked.

Enemy cards have health squares. Only the ones with numbers in count.

TAKE ACTION: Enemy cards are part of the War Table deck; they will appear when placing resources at the start of the wave. The Take Action value is how much damage you receive if you "take" this card as part of your 2-card pick at the start of your turn. Taking an enemy card does damage to you equal to their remaining health. If an enemy is spawned, and not killed or taken, then the last player to take their turn will be forced to take the enemy card. The more that the team damages the enemy, the less impact it will have for the last player.

For example: In a 4-player game, you turn over 8 cards in the middle of the table. One of them is the example enemy (Counter Strike 2, health 3). You have the lowest health and so you go first. You have to make a choice:

• You could take the enemy as one of your 2 cards picked. This activates their TAKE ACTION. As the enemy hasn't been hurt, you would suffer 3 damage.
• You could, instead, attack the enemy. When you do this it activates their COUNTER STRIKE action, and you would take 2 damage. Let's say you also do 2 damage to the enemy, which reduces their health to 1. That means whoever ends up taking the enemy card will only suffer 1 damage now instead of 3.
• Or, you could just ignore the enemy and let the other players deal with it. Will that make them suspect you? Or as the lowest health player, maybe they'll understand it.

When an enemy card is taken by a player, that player receives the damage, and the card is immediately discarded.

If an enemy's health is reduced to 0 before anybody takes the card, the enemy is killed and the card discarded.

Ally Cards

Ally cards are a separate deck, and each card contains a buff that will help you through the game. Whenever you take control of a part of the city (collect 2 matching cards) then you may draw an Ally card. You can only have 1 Ally card equipped at a time, and you can't hold Ally cards in your hand. Your Ally card is placed to the left of your character.

If you have captured an area of the city, and then you find another matching part, you can add it to that stack. Doing so means you can draw another Ally card and decide which to keep. For example, let's say you find 2 matching parts of the Police Station. You put these to one side: they are discounted from your hand, and you have captured that area. You then draw an ally. Later in the game, you take another Police Station card. You add it to the other 2 and draw another ally. You can only have 1 ally at a time, so you must decide which to keep and which to discard.

Ally cards have 2 abilities: standard and CRITICAL. When your character is CRITICAL, the ally's CRITICAL ability activates instead of their standard.

Player Layout

Below is a typical example of a player layout during gameplay.

• Frank has captured 2 city locations: the Construction Site and the Camp Site. He has 2 Construction Site cards, but all 3 Camp Site cards. They go to the left, away from the ally.
• Frank's ally, Politician, goes to the left of the Character card.
• Frank has equipped a Rusted Assault Rifle and 3 assault rifle ammo. They go to the right of the Character card.
• Frank has taken 2 damage. He has 13 health remaining. His Identity card is hidden under his Character card.
• Frank has 4 cards in his hand. This is the maximum amount he can hold at the end of his turn (he can hold more during his turn, but must discard them before he finishes). Remember: the cards on the table do not count towards your hand.

Here is a 4-player game at the start of a new wave. 8 new War Table cards have been drawn to the middle.

• Frank has 2 locations and a lot of ammo.
• Gilbert has no locations and no allies, but he is packing some serious firepower.
• Dixon is lagging behind, but has several cards in his hand that he's not showing the others.
• Billy is secretly the Invader. He has captured 3 city areas already. As it's a 4-player game, Billy only needs 1 more city area to win. However, his health is low! 1 more hit and the others will be able to use their Hoffman Lenses cards to inspect him, and realize he's an Invader!

Fortunately, he has another option that could help, as the next page will explain...

Self-Reveal

When an Invader player is backed into a corner, they have one last trick up their sleeve. They can reveal themselves as an Invader!

You must do it during your turn by telling the group that you are the Invader.

The following then happens:

1. You remove all damage from your character card, and are fully healed.
2. You lose your Ally card, and are unable to gain more.
3. You no longer take damage from enemy cards. If you are forced to take an enemy card (i.e. you have your turn last, and only enemies are left) then it does not damage you and is simply discarded.

When a revealed Invader player kills a Human player, they heal 2 points of damage. If you're playing a game with multiple Invaders, the Human player heals 2 damage when they kill an Invader.

Revealing yourself is risky, as you will suddenly find yourself outnumbered and everyone pointing their weapons your way. However, it is better to reveal yourself than be uncovered during a force-reveal.

Force-Reveal

After all players have taken their turn during a wave, and before the next wave begins, the group must decide if they want to do a force-reveal. Any player who has a Hoffman Lenses card in their hand can call upon the group to vote to force-reveal any other player.

If more than half the players agree, the reveal goes ahead, and the accused player must reveal their true identity. Note: only the person initiating the reveal needs a Hoffman Lenses card. The card is spent if the reveal goes ahead.

An Invader who is revealed through a force-reveal DOES NOT heal all damage. They do, however, still lose their ally, and enemies will ignore them. As an Invader, you need to be careful not to be exposed via a force-reveal.

If however, the revealed player is Human, then everyone who voted for them takes damage! Each voter must take damage until only their CRITICAL health remains. Each player must take a minimum of 3 damage. For example, if you are already at CRITICAL or if you are 1 or 2 above it, then you take 3 damage. As well as taking damage, a failed reveal means that NO FURTHER force-reveals are allowed to be called for the rest of the game!

Force-reveals are an essential tool in exposing Invaders and starting a fight for the end. However, they are risky! Get it wrong and the consequences can be dire. As an Invader, you might want to try to call a reveal against another Human as early as possible to do maximum damage to the team.

Ally Card Details

This page covers some additional details and references for Ally cards.

• BIKER GANG LEADER: CRITICAL: For weapons that require multiple dice rolls (i.e. Flamethrower) this does 1 extra damage overall, not 1 per roll.
• COP: CRITICAL: This applies to ANY attacks, melee or firearm. They do 2 extra damage if you're attacking an enemy card, or 1 extra if it's another player.
• DOORMAN: CRITICAL: You can discard a firearm from your hand to recover 1 health. This must be done prior to attacking.
• FOREMAN: This must be done prior to attacking.
• HIPPY: When taking an enemy card from the resources, it does less damage to you.
• INVADER EXPERT: The relevant cards can be used to check another player's Identity cards or call a force-reveal. They are discarded after use.
• INVADER TURNCOAT: CRITICAL: You can attack enemy cards without taking damage back.
• POLITICIAN: This is used at the start of your turn. If the card you take from the top of the deck is an enemy, you immediately receive damage equal to its health (its Take Action) as if you had taken that enemy from the resources. With CRITICAL, if one card is an enemy and one isn't, you can choose to discard the enemy and keep the other card.
• PREACHER: Standard: Once new cards have been drawn, you must roll a dice. On Kick Ass, you take your turn first, regardless of remaining health values.
• RESISTANCE COORDINATOR: For example, if somebody has the Soup Kitchen Volunteer ally equipped, and you are using a Basic Medkit card, you can use their ability to recover 2 health instead of 1.

Hints and Tips

The game is a ticking clock. It is not possible to avoid damage - it has been designed that way. You will start losing health early on, and it will quickly reduce as the game continues. The game isn't about fighting to keep your health up or stay alive.

For Humans, it's about exposing and defeating those Invaders. Keep an eye on who is pushing for force-reveals. Is that player pushing because they genuinely suspect somebody of being an Invader, or are they the Invader and they want you to get it wrong? Don't be afraid of attacking other players. Sometimes a strategic attack to make them CRITICAL is worth it so that you can inspect their Identity card and find out if they are Human. But beware: you could leave them in a vulnerable position.

For Invaders, killing all the Humans will be tough. The easiest way to win is to capture areas of the city without giving yourself away. Careful deception and clever teamwork (without actually communicating) is the key to victory. Maybe you want to attack enemies to reduce your health and move up the turn order? This will also give the illusion that you are helping the group. But beware: if you are low on health and someone suspects you, they might attack you and make you go into CRITICAL. Or worse, take you out completely. If they are backed into a corner, a self-reveal is always the better option than a force-reveal.

Icons

Characters

• Maximum number of cards you can hold in your hand at the end of your turn
• Health square
• CRITICAL health square

Dice

• A blue Kick Ass result on a dice roll
• A white Kick Ass result on a dice roll
• Either a blue or white Kick Ass result on a dice roll
• A Chew Bubblegum result on a dice roll

Weapons and ammo

• Pistol, Assault rifle, Shotgun, Special
• The amount of damage an attack does
• Melee weapon health
• The amount of damage a melee weapon attack does to itself

Enemy

• Counter Strike: how much damage this enemy does back when attacked
• Health square and Take Action: how much health the enemy has remaining. This is also how much damage the player receives when they take this card

Wave Order

1. New Resources: As a group, draw cards face up in the middle of the table (2 x no. of players).
2. Player Turns: Each player takes their turn.
3. Force-Reveal: The group decides if they want to try to force an Invader to reveal themselves.

Turn order: (1) Gain resources: pick 2 cards from the middle; (2) Merge city parts; (3) Manage inventory: equip weapons, ammo, and use items; (4) Attack enemies or other players; (5) Inspect Identity cards; (6) Discard cards.