White Hat Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Setup
• Round Start
• Tricks
  • Jokers
  • White Hat
• Hacking Actions (Movement)
• Types of Spaces
• End of the Round
• Scoring
• End of the Game
• 2-Player Variant
• Critical Asset Tiles
• Optional Rule: Tracer
• Reducing Luck
• Variant: Celebrity Status
• Solo Rules
  • Setup
  • Goal
  • Play
  • The Tracer
  • End of the Round
  • Game End
• Frequently Asked Questions

Game Contents

• 100 cards: 2 alternative White Hat cards. The White Hat card is the same on both sides, and you will need one of these. 78 rank cards numbered from 1-13 (the number is the rank and there are six cards of each rank), 5 jokers, 4 reference cards, 2 Tracer cards (Standard & Slow Tracer) and 9 Celebrity Status cards.
• 1 board, combining the Game board and Score track. This board is dual-sided, one side for standard game and one for more experienced players.
• 9 double-sided game board tiles: These are used to vary the game board. You can place the tiles you like in the indicated positions. Some game effects may add tiles during play.
• 6 Critical Asset tiles to add an additional element to the end game.
• 6 markers: 3 double-sided +1/-1 markers for Exploit, 3 Tracer markers (2 for the solo game, 1 spare).
• 19 Wooden components: 2 Hats and one Disc in each of six colors (Disc for the Score track, two Hats for the main game board) and 1 Tracer Ring for the optional TRACER rules (page 11).

Setup

Each player puts one Hat on 'Internet Cafe' and 'Public Server' on the left side of the game board and their Disc on the number zero on the Score track.

Choose one of the White Hat cards to use in this game (only the art differs). If it's your first game, start the first round. If you are not playing the game for the first time, randomly draw up to five game board tiles and place them on top of the game board, on the marked locations. There is no need to fill all locations, as the game board comes fully playable. The tiles add variety and challenge.

Start the first round.

Round Start

Shuffle the deck (without the White Hat card).

Draw the topmost card, and look at its rank. Count that many players in a clockwise direction, starting from the player next to the dealer. Give the White Hat to the player where the count ends.

For example, in a 6 player game drawing a 1, 7, or 13 would give the White Hat to the player next to the dealer in clockwise direction, while a 6 or 12 would give the White Hat to the dealer.

Finally, discard the card used for distributing the White Hat. Then each player is dealt up to a total of 10 cards (so 9 for the player with the White Hat).

The player to the right of the player who was dealt the White Hat card leads the first trick.

Tricks

The active player, called the "lead", may play one or more cards. When playing multiple cards, all must be the same rank. The other players, in clockwise order, then must also play cards to the trick. They can choose to play one card or the same number of cards as the lead. After each player has played, the trick ends, and the player who played the same number of cards as the lead with the highest rank wins the round. If there is a tie for the winner, the tied player who played last will win the trick. The winner then leads the next trick.

Cards played to the trick are discarded (except in White Hat tricks, see below).

The winner of a trick is the most competent hacker and must either:

a) advance one of their own (not locked) Hats on the board, or

b) advance one (not locked) opponent Hat which is on a space with a negative value.

If neither a) nor b) are possible, the winner must draw a single card from the deck.

Jokers

A joker may substitute for any other card; for example two sevens and a joker can play as three sevens. If played as a single card or together only with other jokers, it has a value of fourteen (14).

White Hat

The White Hat card behaves like a joker. In addition, when it is played, the trick will be a "White Hat round" in which the lowest combination of the played rank wins the trick (except in Solo play). Tie breaking happens as usual, so in the case of a tie, the last cards of the same value played are considered stronger (lower). The player who played the lowest value can then choose to take all cards played and put them into their hand, including the White Hat, OR just take the White Hat and as many cards as the lead played (they cannot take Jokers) into their hand. Any other played cards are discarded as usual. This player then leads the next trick, just like the winner of any other trick.

When the White Hat is played, it must be played in a combination matching the lead. If the White Hat is the last card a player has in a round when the lead plays multiple cards, the player has to pass. (This is the only time passing is allowed.)

Note: There are no suits, the colors of the cards just correspond to their Trace Point values.

Example 1: The lead starts the trick by playing the White Hat. He cannot win that trick, no matter what, because the White Hat is 14 (when played singly, as is any joker). The lowest single card wins the trick and collects.

Example 2: The lead starts the trick with White Hat+7. It is likely that everyone plays just 1 card and the person who played White Hat ends up collecting either all cards played, or any two cards and the White Hat (for example, 12 and 9 if the player wants high cards, or 4 and 7 if the player wants fewer Trace Points, or any other combination), but he wins the trick and gets to advance on the board.

Example 3: The lead starts the trick with 7+7. The next player plays a single 6. The third player plays 8+White Hat. Fourth plays 9+9. The first person (7+7) collects cards, as specified by White Hat rules above. In this round only pairs can win, as it was lead with a pair. The White Hat changes the game only so that smallest pair wins. The single 6 played in a pair round cannot win.

Example 4: The lead plays 8+8+8, second 5, third 7. The last player has White Hat and one other card (13). He can not play the White Hat, because he can not match the suit of three cards, and can not pass, because the White Hat is not his last card. Thus, he has to play the 13.

Example 5: The lead plays 13, second White Hat (14), third 13, fourth Joker (14). The third player collects a single 13 and White Hat, or all cards. The player cannot take the White Hat and a Joker.

Example 6: The lead plays 2+2, second 2+2, third 8, fourth 2+White Hat. The fourth player collects, as he was the last player to play a pair of twos on a White Hat round. This may well be a brilliant move, as he'd then have 5 cards of rank 2, which is zero Trace Points, but a very strong suit to play.

Hacking Actions (Movement)

There can be only one Hat on each space (except for the 'Internet Cafe' and 'Public Server' start spaces). Players move Hats by one space according to the routes indicated by the arrows.

If an adjacent space is occupied by a Hat, it will be jumped over. This can happen several times in a row, so you move the Hat to the next empty space on any path chosen by you. You may only follow complete arrows (both shaft and arrow head need to be there).

Hats cannot be removed from the board unless the Tracer eliminates them (see the optional TRACER rule on page 11).

When a player has to move but cannot (all Hats are locked, e.g., on 'Honeypot' or 'Denial-of-Service' AND none of the opponent Hats are in negative spaces), the player must draw a card instead.

Types of Spaces

Each space shows a number of Trace Points in the top left corner, which is used during scoring (see page 9).

• Internet Cafe, Public Server – All Hats start the game from here. One Hat of each color on each location.
• Router, Database Server, Cell Phone – A standard component with no special effect.
• Critical Asset – The goal: A Hat entering it ends the game.
• Denial-of-Service – An attack. The player owning the Hat entering this space moves any one Hat back to 'Internet Cafe' or 'Public Server' (their choice), except the Hat that triggered the 'Denial-of-Service'. Note that no player can have two Hats on the same 'Internet Cafe' or 'Public Server' at any given time. The Hat who enters the 'Denial-of-Service' will be locked on this space for the duration of the game.
• FBI Server – This is part of the optional TRACER rule (page 11). If the rule is not in effect, treat this like a standard Honeypot.
• Honeypot – The Hat which enters the Honeypot is locked and cannot move for the duration of the game (the following Hats will just jump over it).
• Exploit – Whenever a player enters the Exploit, he or she can put an Exploit Marker face up on that space. This then adds or substract 1 from the value of the space. There can be multiple Exploits on a space, all summing up, but the number of available tokens is a finite quantity.
• Randomizer – Whenever a Hat enters the Randomizer, the player owning the Hat may draw a random game board tile. If they do, they must choose either side and put it on the game board. This may replace an existing tile, which is then available for later use. Hats that are already on that part of the board are put on the corresponding space on the new tile. Special spaces with Hats on them on the new tile then trigger in clockwise order, starting from the top left space.

End of the Round

The round ends if, at the end of a trick, any of these are true:

1. One or more players are out of cards
2. A Hat is on top of the 'Critical Asset' space (game ends)
3. All Hats of every player are unable to move (game ends)

When the round ends, scoring occurs (see below). Then all players discard their remaining cards and, if the game isn't over, a new round is started.

Scoring

Round points are scored by totalling the Trace Points on the cards remaining in each player's hand and the Trace Points for the player's Hats on the board. Each card has a number of Trace Points and each Hat accumulates Trace Points based on its current space (evidence left when hacking into the system).

The minimum Round points total is zero; negative scores count as zero.

Round points are added to the game score on the Score track.

End of the Game

When the round ends due to a Hat reaching the 'Critical Asset' or all Hats in play are locked, the game ends after scoring the round in which the game end was triggered. The player with the lowest game score wins. In case of ties, the player with the lowest round score in the last round wins.

2-Player Variant

A Robot plays the third player. This Robot is played by the player who is not on lead. (Exception: In the first round, by the player without the White Hat.) The Robot is always the second player (i.e., the turn order is lead, Robot, second player).

If the Robot wins a trick, it advances its Hats just like any other player would and stays in the control of the same player. The Lead for the next trick stays with whichever human player was previously on Lead.

• All Robot cards are constantly visible (open).
• It is possible that the Robot wins. You should be ashamed of yourself if that happens.
• The Robot can end the game.
• The Robot can also do any other special action.

We do not suggest using the Tracer with the Robot, as it leads to potentially unbalanced situations.

Critical Asset Tiles

The game comes with six 'Critical Asset' tiles. You may take one of these tiles at random and place it face-down on top of the standard 'Critical Asset' location at the beginning of the game. Do not show the other tiles to anyone. The tile effects are in addition to the standard 'Critical Asset' effect of -5 Trace Points.

Optional Rule: Tracer

The Tracer is triggered by a Hat entering 'FBI Server'. The Hat is locked on the 'FBI Server' and cannot leave. The player then places the Tracer Ring on the special Tracer card. It must be subsequently moved whenever a player who has a Hat on an 'FBI Server' wins a trick (before or after the normal Hat move). When it reaches the yellow box it is immediately moved to 'Public Server' on the main board.

When the Tracer Ring leaves the Tracer card, flip the card to show the jail. On the main board, the Tracer Ring moves to any adjacent space (even occupied ones), ignoring any arrows (but not onto 'Internet Cafe', a dark grey spaces, or off the board). The Tracer Ring ignores any blocking effects, such as Honeypots, but may not move nearer to the starting locations, only sideways or away from the start.

Should the movement end on any space where there is a player Hat, including Honeypots, FBI Servers and the Public Server, that Hat is eliminated and put in the 'Tracer Jail' (Trace Point of value 5). There is no limit on the number of Hats in the jail.

The Tracer Ring fills a space just as any Hat. A Hat may jump over it, which may be risky. If the Tracer Ring moves to the 'Critical Asset', the game ends.

Moving the Tracer Ring does not count as moving your own or an opponent's Hat; if a player is unable to move their own or opponents' Hats, the player must draw a card as normal (see the TRICKS section on page 4, item 3).

Reducing Luck

If you'd like to reduce the amount of luck in the game, you can opt to reduce cards when there are fewer players than the maximum (6). For each player fewer than six, remove one card of each rank and one Joker, down to a minimum of four of each rank and three Jokers. You will still always need one White Hat.

You may also deal fewer cards after any player's Hat entered any Honeypot (large or small). When dealing after such an event, deal half the normal hand size (e.g., 5 cards only) to every player. This is intended to decrease the luck aspect in the critical end-game.

Variant: Celebrity Status

This variant alters the aim of the game. Each player now aims for a unique score based on the Celebrity Status cards drawn.

At the beginning of the game, each player secretly draws one Celebrity Status card. These cards have values from 18 to 42 on them and represent the level of fame the hacker is most comfortable with.

At the end of the game, the player who is closest in Trace Points to the value on their Celebrity Status card wins the game. Ties go to players who are below their Celebrity Status value.

Example: The players drew status cards with values 18, 36, and 42, and end the game with 12, 38, and 40 Trace Points respectively. Both the second and third players' difference to their status aim is two, but the third player wins because they stayed below their target.

Solo Rules

Setup

Solo Mode uses the Tracer card and two cardboard Tracer markers.

Set up the board using the side without the 'Denial-of-Service' space (long green space).

Put a purple, black, white and gold Hat in the 'Internet Cafe' space and a purple, black, white and gold Hat in the 'Public Server' space. Shuffle the deck and create a Row of five face-up cards next to it. If a Joker card is revealed this way, shuffle it back into the deck and draw the next card for the Row. Repeat this process for each Joker revealed until the Row has five none-Joker cards.

Put the White Hat card next to the Row. The solo player draws up to a hand of 10 cards. Place the Tracer card next to the board and place two Tracer markers on the brown space of the Tracer card.

In the solo game the White Hat card functions just like any other joker, and does not have the 'lowest wins' effect of the regular game.

Goal

The goal of the solo mode is to reach the highest score possible. The solo player will be controlling all of the hats and at the end of the game, the color with the lowest score will determine the players final score.

If, at any point your lowest scoring color becomes locked, such as on a Honeypot or jailed by a Tracer, and there is nothing in play that can unlock them (such as a Randomizer), you will no longer be able to increase your score so the game ends at that point.

Play

The solo player will always lead and will be playing against the cards in the five-card Row (plus the White Hat card if it is still there).

The player starts by playing one or more cards. If the player plays more than one, the cards played have to be of the same rank.

After that, the Row will try to beat the player by playing as few cards and as low rank as possible. This includes playing the same number as the player to cause a tie as the last card to be played wins ties.

If the Row is unable to beat the solo player's lead, it will play a single card with the lowest rank available.

The White Hat card will work as a Joker and the Row will only play it together with another card in the Row and if it is the only way to beat the player's lead. If the White Hat card is used, the solo player puts it into their hand. The solo player may play the card alone or in combination with other cards, which defines its value upon playing.

If the solo player wins the trick they have to move one Hat of any color they choose. If they won playing the White Hat, they put the White Hat back next to the Row.

If the Row wins, the player has to move one of the Hats of the card color that was just used to win the trick.

• Purple cards = a purple Hat
• Yellow cards = a black Hat
• Green cards = a white Hat
• Orange cards = a gold Hat
• Blue cards = no Hat moves

If both Hats of the winning color are unable to be moved, ignore the movement. If the player wins the trick, they cannot choose to move a Hat which is unable to move.

After resolving the trick, refill the Row so that it contains five cards again before the next trick.

The Tracer

The Tracer markers will move in two ways.

1. After setup, if a Joker card is ever revealed to the Row, the player takes that card into their hand and moves both Tracer markers one step downwards on the Tracer card, then draws another card to the row to replace the joker.
2. The Tracer markers will also be moved at the end of every round after scoring (see below).

Once the Tracer markers have reached the bottom space on the Tracer card (named "Move to Public Server"), place one Tracer marker on the 'Internet Cafe' space and one on the 'Public Server' space. From now on whenever the Tracer markers are supposed to be moved, move both markers forward towards the closest Hat. If a Tracer marker ever occupies the same space as a Hat, remove that Hat from play. Hats removed from play won't contribute to scoring.

The 'FBI Server' space is always treated like a standard Honeypot in the solo game.

End of the Round

Once the player runs out of cards in their hand the round ends and all four colors are scored according to the spaces their two Hats are on. No cards are scored. Round points are added to the running game score on the Score track around the board.

After that, both Tracer markers are moved one step towards the closest Hat. Discard all cards in the Row and add five new cards to the Row. If the player has the White Hat in hand, they put it back next to the Row. Then the player draws up to 10 cards and the next round begins. If they already have joker(s) in hand from refilling the row the jokers count as part of the 10 cards drawn.

Game End

The game ends once a Hat has reached the 'Critical Asset' space or the card deck runs out and there are no more cards left in the Row. If there is only the White Hat card left in the Row, the game also ends since the White Hat will never be played on it's own.

The solo player should note their score and try to beat it next time they play.

Frequently Asked Questions

While we have already included all questions asked so far into this rulebook, we will continue to gather feedback and update this rulebook when need be.

The following general rules ought to be kept in mind:

• If a Hat enters any special location, the effect of that space is triggered, even if that movement to a location was not voluntary.
• Two Hats may not share any space, except the starting spaces and the Tracer jail. In any situation where a Hat would end up onto a space already occupied, the Hat must move to the next available free space following the arrows.
• When a Hat jumps over any space when the space is occupied, the jumped over space is not activated.