Tinker Tailor Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Overview of the Game
• Standard Game (3 to 6 Players)
  • Setup
  • Game Play
    • Phase 1: Picking a Role
    • Phase 2: Performing the Role
    • Phase 3: Buying Goods
  • End of Turn
• Ending the Game and Scoring
• 2 Player Variant
  • 1. Picking Roles
  • 2. Performing Roles
  • 3. Buying Action
  • End of Turn
  • End of Game
• The Rhyme

Contents

• 17 dual language Role Cards (English and German)
• 1 dual language Rhyme Card (English and German)
• 4 Pirate Cards
• 20 Money Cards (divided into 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 Coins)
• 78 Goods Cards (divided into Bread, Fish, Cloth, Wine and Gems)

Overview of the Game

Tinker Tailor is a role picking and set gathering card game for 2 to 6 players. The aim of the game is to get the most points by collecting sets of Goods Cards. The more Goods Cards of a given type a player owns (up to a maximum of 8), the greater the value of the cards. Points are also scored for each complete collection of all 5 goods (Bread, Fish, Cloth, Wine and Gems) as well as for Money Cards held at the end of the game. Each turn each player will select one role which defines the action they can take. The player who makes the best choices and plays each role to the greatest advantage will win the game.

Standard Game (3 to 6 Players)

Setup

Shuffle the Money Cards and deal out a line face up consisting of two more cards than there are players e.g. in a 4 player game deal out a line of 6 Money Cards. Place the stack of remaining Money Cards at one end of the line face down.

Now shuffle the Goods Cards and deal out a line face up directly below the line of Money Card, again consisting of two more cards than there are players. Place the stack of remaining Goods Cards at one end of the line face down directly below the stack of Money Cards. Leave a space adjacent to each stack of cards for a discard pile of each type.

The face up Goods and Money Cards are called the Market. Place the stack of 4 pirate cards next to the Market.

If any player has ever been a Tinker or a Tailor they are the first player. Otherwise randomly choose a starting player.

The Rhyme Card (which acts as a Starting Player marker) is placed face up on the table in front of the starting Player.

You are now ready to play.

Game Play

Tinker-Tailor is played in a number of rounds.

• In a 3 player game you will play 12 Rounds. (That is each player will be Starting Player 4 times).
• In a 4 player game you will play 8 rounds. (That is each player will be Starting Player twice).
• In a 5 player Game you will play 7 rounds. (That is players 1 and 2 will be Starting Player twice and players 3 to 5 only once each). As this results in an uneven number of times that a player can be Starting Player, we compensate by having players 3 to 5 each draw a card from the top of the Goods Card deck at the start of the game).
• In a 6 player game you will play 6 rounds. (That is each player will be Starting Player once).

Each round consists of 3 phases:

Phase 1: Picking a Role

The Starting Player takes all the Role Cards, shuffles them and then deals them self a hand of cards face down from the top of the Role Deck equal to two more cards than there are players e.g. in a 4 player game deal out 6 cards. Place the stack of remaining Role Cards face down next to the Market – they will not be needed this turn. The Starting Player looks through the hand of Role Cards, chooses one, and passes the others to the player to the left of the Starting Player, who also chooses a card and passes the remainder on. Repeat until each player has a single Role Card. The two extra Role Cards are placed face down on top of the stack of Role Cards.

Phase 2: Performing the Role

The Starting Player slowly reads out each of the Tinker-Tailor Roles in order from the Rhyme Card:

Tinker – Tailor – Soldier – Sailor – Rich Man – Poor Man – Beggar Man – Thief – Preacher - Pirate – Outlaw – Jailor – Old Man – Young Man – Merchant – Witch and finally Actor.

When the Starting Player reads out a role, if a player has chosen that Role Card they reveal their card, read out the text so that everyone can hear and then perform the action if possible. Whenever there is a choice as to which player receives a Goods Card or Money Card as a result of an action, the player who is playing that role may choose who takes the card.

At the end of the action, if the player has removed any Money Cards or Goods Cards from the Market the gaps are filled with replacement cards from the stack of Money or Goods Cards as appropriate. NB: when the Pirate Role is played, do not refill the Market but instead replace each card taken with a Pirate Card which will only be removed when the Pirate Role is called in the next round (even if no player has chosen to take the Pirate Role that turn).

Phase 3: Buying Goods

After performing a role action, if the player has Money Cards available, they MAY buy goods at the value shown in the circle at the bottom right hand side of the Goods card. A player may spend one or more Money Cards to buy any number of Goods cards. If the value of the Goods Cards is less than the value of the Money Cards the player may take one or more Money Cards from the Market in order to get change but may not take change from the draw deck.

E.G. The player Has a 5 Money Card. He discards the money card face up onto the discard pile next to the Money Card deck and then takes a Wine Goods Card (cost 4) and also a 1 Money Card in change from the Market.

Any card or cards collected from The Market are replaced from the matching deck after all the cards have been taken.

The player keeps any unused Money Cards for use in a later turn. The Starting Player will then resume reading out the Roles from the Rhyme Card until each player has taken a turn.

End of Turn

The rhyme card is moved to in front of the player to the left of the Starting Player and that person becomes the new Starting Player. The new Starting Player collects all the Role Cards that have been played that turn, adds them to the deck of Role Cards and begins a new turn by starting a new Picking a Role phase. Play continues in this way through all the rounds of the game.

During the game players keep secret any Goods and Money Cards they have. Players may not ask how many cards another player has unless a player is performing a role in the Performing a Role phase which requires this information be shared.

Ending the Game and Scoring

Once all the rounds have been played players count up their points.

1. Sets of Same Goods Cards. Each Goods Cards has a chart which shows how many points (bottom line of chart) Goods are worth dependant on how many cards (top line of chart) of that type a player has.

   E.G. Three Bread Goods Cards are worth 3 points whilst eight Bread Goods Cards are worth 18 points. This is the maximum, so ten Bread Goods Cards would still only be worth 18 points. Eight Gem Goods Cards are worth 90 points.

2. Collections of Different Goods. Every complete collection of the 5 different Goods (Bread – Fish – Cloth – Wine – Gems) is worth 10 Pts. Each Goods Card can be part of a Set and a Collection at the same time.

3. Money Cards. These are worth half their face value rounded up.

The player with the most points wins. In the event of a tie the player with the most Gems wins. If still tied then the player with the most Wine wins etc.

2 Player Variant

Setup the game as if 4 players were playing with 6 Money Cards and 6 Goods Cards in the Market and randomly select the Starting Player. There are 6 Rounds in the Game (so each person will be Starting Player three times). Each round of the game then proceeds as follows.

1. Picking Roles

The Starting Player takes the role cards and deals out 4. He picks one and hands the other 3 to the other player who chooses one, discards one face down and then hands one back to the Starting Player. The Starting player now adds 3 more from the deck, chooses one and again hands 3 to the other player who selects one and discards the other 2 face down.

2. Performing Roles

The Starting Player now reads the Rhyme with each player performing the Roles that they have chosen as those Roles are called out in the same way as in the Standard Game until both players have performed both their chosen roles.

Each player may benefit from having a particular combination of 2 Role Cards but will ignore any negative consequences.

Example 1: The player chooses the Preacher as well as the Beggar Man. This means that when performing the Role of Preacher, the Player can keep one Goods Card (as Preacher) as well as receiving another (as Beggar Man).

Example 2: The player chooses Jailor as well as Thief. This means that when performing the Role of Jailor the Thief will not lose a card (though if the other player has taken the Outlaw or Pirate Roles they will still lose cards as normal).

NB All Goods Cards and Money Cards taken by a player are kept together regardless of which Role the player was performing when the cards were collected.

3. Buying Action

Each Player may spend any Money Cards immediately after performing a Role in the same way as in the Standard Game. Money Cards obtained from performing one role may be spent together with Money Cards obtained from performing another Role.

End of Turn

The Rhyme card is placed in front of the second player who gathers in the Role cards that have been played or discarded and adds them to the Role Card Deck. The second player now starts a new round as the Starting Player.

End of Game

Score in the same way as the Standard Game.

The Rhyme

"Tinker Tailor" is a traditional children's counting game, nursery rhyme and fortune telling song which originated in the British Isles. An example might be counting cherry stones, buttons, daisy petals or other items to tell you what job you might get. Many versions of the rhyme have existed.

An early example of such a rhyme was in William Caxton's, The Game and Playe of the Chesse (c. 1475), in which pawns are named: "Labourer, Smith, Clerk, Merchant, Physician, Taverner, Guard and Ribald."

The first record of the opening four professions being grouped together is in William Congreve's Love for Love (1695), which has the line: "A Soldier and a Sailor, a Tinker and a Taylor, Had once a doubtful strife, sir." It was during the 19th century that we see the modern words – or something close – emerging in the USA although these are now commonly used in the UK also.