Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

Cards

Cards are the main weapon that the hider can use against the seekers. Every time the seekers ask a question, the hider can draw one or more cards to keep in their hand. These cards represent opportunities to accumulate hiding time, either by giving the seekers side quests that will slow them down, or simply by giving extra time at the end of the round.

There are three types of cards:

There are four different collections of cards:

  • The deck is the main body of cards to draw on
  • The hand is the set of cards a hider can make use of. It is subject to a hand limit
  • The discard pile is where cards that have been played or discarded go to. It should be empty at the start of a round. It is separate from the other collections.
  • The excluded cards are cards that are removed from the deck before the start of the game, normally covered in Game Setup. It is important that this collection be separate from the discard pile, as you can sometimes look through the discard pile.

Entropy

Before the game starts, the hider should be satisified with the level of entropy in the deck. Some like to shuffle it ahead of time, some want to use their already-shuffled deck through multiple rounds.

There is no obligation to shuffle the deck in between draws, but it can be done if the hider feels the need. That being said, the discard pile should not be shuffled into the deck during a round. The exception would be in the case of the hider running out of deck, in which case the hider should shuffle the discard pile and make it into a new deck.

Card Mechanics

When a question is asked, this allows the hider to draw cards. How many depends on the type of question, and this is summarised over at the questions summary, as well as indicated on each question page. The hider can draw and pick cards any time after the question is asked, even before they answer.

The instructions will come of the form “Draw x, Pick y”. The actions to take are as follows:

  1. The hider draws x cards from the top of the deck.
  2. Of those x cards, the hider should pick y of them to put in their hand.
  3. If the new number of cards is above the hand limit, then the hide must either discard or play enough cards to bring the hand down to the limit.

Warning

If there are several rewards, then this sequence must be completed for each reward before proceeding to the next. So if you have to Draw 3, Pick 1 twice, you must Draw 3, Pick 1, and then discard or play down to your hand limit before you Draw 3, Pick 1 a second time.

However, if a card that requires a new draw is played during step 3, such as a Discard 1, Draw 2, then this is considered part of the same sequence, and the draw can happen before the hider has completed playing or discarding down to the hand limit.

Hand Limit

At the start of the game, the hider has a hand limit of 6 cards, that is to say, they cannot hold more than 6 cards in their hand after drawing and picking.

The hand limit can be affected by some cards. Power ups such as Draw 1, Expand 1 allow the hider to increase their hand size limit for the rest of the round. Some curses, such as Curse of the Open Mind change or remove the hand limit entirely.

Important

A card that modifies the hand limit is effective as soon as it is played. This means that you can play one during step 3 of the sequence above, and the hand limit is modified from that point on.

Discarding

A card is discarded onto a discard pile, which must be kept separate from the deck. In general it will not be usable again in the game.

Playing a card

A card can be played at any time, unless that type of card is currently blocked. See Blocking Further Curses for more info on when that can happen.

In general, when the hider plays a card, a photo of that card should be sent to the seekers. The main exceptions are:

  1. If a curse has a variable condition, such as a dice roll, that fails, there is no need to notify the seekers
  2. If the card is a power up that does not affect the seekers directly, such as a Discard 2, Draw 3, then there is no need to notify the seekers.

Inappropriate Cards

If a card is inappropriate for a game, either because it was left in the deck by accident, or because it clearly does not work for reasons that have nothing to do with the players, then the hider should quietly discard it and replace it with a newly-drawn card. This should only happen before cards are picked in step 2 of the above sequence.

This only applies if the card makes no sense in the game, not because it may be inconvenient for the hider

For example, the Curse of the Touristic Consumerism is not appropriate for playing outside of the Netherlands. Similarly, if a card requires purchasing goods, and there is no chance to do so on the day the round is played, it is also inappropriate.