A cunning game of tactics for 2-5 scoundrels of 8 years and older
by Christian Fiore and Knut Happel

The night is setting in slowly on the city, but not all of its inhabitants are asleep. Under cover of darkness, several scoundrels are on their way to perform their big heist tonight. You are playing the role of one of these scoundrels on the hunt for gold and art treasures. Careful planning will let you make the big haul, but be sure not to miss the right moment to cash in your swag at a fence!

Game Components

1 Game board with 5 places

1 = City 2 = Villa 3 = Ruin 4 = Museum 5 = Harbor Money Tracker from 0 to 20 The small numbers just above the placement squares tell you how many cards will be placed there, depending on the number of players.

5 Scoundrel cards

Pascal Passepartout Hans Hammer Tommaso Tenaglia Yoshiko Yosetsuki Bobby Blueprint

1 Starting player card

30 Loot cards

Loot at the front side Money (value: 1 to 3 fields on money track) paintings, coins, gold, jewelry, statue (each value: 2 to 4 fields on money track) Protection at the back side Chest, pillar, showcase, safe

60 Tool cards

Lock pick Hammer Pliers Welding equipment Map

14 Fence cards

5 Scoundrel playing pieces

15 Scoundrel tokens

Preparing for Play

Place the game board in the middle of the table.

Each player chooses a scoundrel card and places it in front of him, along with the 3 scoundrel tokens of matching color. He places the matching scoundrel playing piece on square 0 of the money tracker on the game board.

Divide all tool cards, loot cards, and fence cards into 3 separate piles. Shuffle each pile and place it to one side of the playing field, face down.

These are the draw piles. You use them when you draw cards for your hand or when you turn cards face up. Leave some space next to the draw piles so that you can create discard piles later in the game. Whenever one of the draw piles runs out of cards, you shuffle the respective discard pile and use it, face down, as the new draw pile.

The player with the longest fingers becomes the starting player. He gets the starting player card. The starting player now draws 2 tool cards from the appropriate draw pile; the player to his left draws 3 tool cards, and all other players draw 4 tool cards. The players take these cards into their hands.

There are five places on the game board: 1=City, 2=Villa, 3=Ruin, 4=Museum and 5=Harbor. Place as many tool cards face up next to the City as instructed as per the number of players. Repeat this step for the Villa and the Museum, but use loot cards for these two places. Be sure to place these loot cards face down! Finally, you place the indicated number of fence cards next to the Harbor. These are placed face up. Now you're all set!

Playing the game

The game is played in rounds. A round consists of 3 phases:
A) Place scoundrel tokens
B) Perform actions
C) Prepare for the next round

A) Place scoundrel tokens

Placing your scoundrel tokens determines at which place and in which sequence you may perform your actions later in that turn.

The starting player begins by placing 1 scoundrel token onto the game board. In a clockwise direction, the other players now also place 1 scoundrel token each. You may never place more than 1 scoundrel token at once when it's your turn in this phase. Repeat this procedure until all players have placed all 3 of their scoundrel tokens. Once this is done, the phase is over.

Each of the 5 places has 5 squares on which to place scoundrel tokens. Each square may hold no more than 1 token. You may place more than one token at the same place, provided there are still open squares.

B) Perform actions

Each player who has placed scoundrel tokens at one of the 5 places now performs 1 action per scoundrel token. Places are resolved as indicated by their numbers.

The player who has placed his token on square 1 of the place in question gets to perform his action there first. The player with the scoundrel token on square 2 is next, followed by the player whose token is on square 3, etc. Once an action is finished, the player removes his respective scoundrel token from the game board and places it in front of him until needed again next round.

Depending on place, players may perform these actions:

1 = City

Spending 1 action allows you to take 2 of the tool cards placed here into your hand. You choose those 2 tools freely. If all tools have already been collected by other players before it is your turn, you will have to leave empty-handed.

2 = Villa

Spending 1 action allows you to take 1 of the loot cards placed here - provided you have the appropriate tools. Each loot card shows 2 or 3 tools. In order to take a loot card, you need to place the tools depicted from your hand onto the discard pile.

Take a look at your scoundrel card: It also depicts one tool. You may use this tool instead of a tool card to acquire a loot card. However, you do not need to discard your scoundrel card! You may use your scoundrel card once per round and per place, but you can't use it for more than one loot card per place, and you can't use it more than once for the same loot card.

At each loot card you can see a kind of protection:



If you get a card depicting a chest, you may cash it in immediately. Turn the card with the chest face up. Now you see a money bag and a numerical value. Advance your scoundrel piece on the money tracker by an amount of spaces corresponding to the value of the money bag. Then you place the loot card onto its discard pile.

If you acquire a card depicting a safe, a showcase, or a pillar, you may not cash it in immediately. Place the loot card face down in front of you until you can cash it in later in the game by visiting a fence at the Harbor. You may look up the value of your face-down loot at any time.

3 = Ruin

You may exchange tool cards here. Next to the squares for the scoundrel tokens, there are 5 exchange squares with different exchange rates. Take your scoundrel token for this action and place it onto an empty exchange square. Place the number of tool cards indicated by the first number in the exchange square from your hand onto the appropriate discard pile. Now draw the number of tool cards indicated by the second number in the exchange square from the draw pile.

Note: After this action, do not place your scoundrel token in front of you as usual, but leave it on the respective exchange square. This square is now closed to other scoundrel tokens. It is not until all players have finished their actions at the Ruin that they take back their scoundrel tokens.

4 = Museum

The Museum action is identical to the action at the Villa. This means you may spend 1 action to take one of the loot cards placed here if you have the appropriate tools.

You may make use of your scoundrel card here, too, regardless of whether you have already used it at the Villa or not. You may use your scoundrel card once per round at each the Villa and the Museum, but you may not use it more than once at the same place.

5 = Harbor

Spending 1 action allows you to turn 1 loot card into cash. The face of each loot card depicts the type of loot:



To cash in a loot card, a fence card with the appropriate loot type needs to be present at the Harbor. If this is the case, you turn your loot card over to its face and advance your scoundrel piece on the money tracker by an amount of spaces corresponding to the value shown on the loot card. Place the loot card and the fence card used onto their respective discard piles.

If a fence card shows the same loot type twice, you may, as an exception, sell 2 loot cards of this type to that fence for 1 action. However, you may never cash in 2 different loot types for 1 action.

If a fence card does not show a particular type of loot, then the fence does not buy loot of this type.

Some fence cards show the entries +1 or +2. Such a fence pays off bonus of +1 or +2 for the respective loot type. This means that you may advance your playing piece an additional 1 or 2 spaces on the money tracker when selling the appropriate loot card to this fence.

C) Prepare for the next round

After the actions at all 5 places have been resolved, you prepare for the next round.

Replenish the tool cards at the City until there are again as many tools there as indicated for the number of players. Repeat this process with the loot cards at the Villa and the Museum as well as with the fence cards at the Harbor. The current starting player then hands the starting player card to the player to the left, who thus becomes the new starting player in the next round.

End of Game

Once a player's scoundrel piece has passed the 20 mark on the money tracker, simply continue to advance the piece, treating space 1 as 21, space 2 as 22, and so on. Just keep in mind that this playing piece has already crossed the 20 mark. Once a player has advanced to at least 20 on the money track at the end of a round, the game ends. The player who has the most money wins. In case of a draw, all tied players win.