For tips on how to play Saboteur, see Tips_saboteur

Overview

• 3 rounds.
• The player with the most gold nuggets at the end of the game wins.
• Player roles are randomly assigned at the start of each round in secret:
  1. Gold-Diggers win as a team by forming a path from the 'start' card to the treasure card.
  2. Saboteurs win as a team if the treasure is not found.
• The treasure card is randomly assigned to one of the three goal cards at the start of each round in secret.

Roles

Saboteur 1

• 3-10 Players.
• Roles are randomly assigned in secret.

Saboteur 1: Roles

# Players	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
# Saboteurs	1	1	2	2	3	3	3	4
# Gold-Diggers*	3	4	4	5	5	6	7	7

*With the Maximum number of Saboteurs, one Gold-Digger role card is removed.

Saboteur 2

• 2-12 Players.
• Roles are randomly assigned in secret.

Saboteurs

• Win if gold is not found.

Blue Gold-Diggers

• Win if gold is found by:
  • Any player that is not a Green Gold-Digger and at least one way there does not have a green door, or
  • A Green Gold-Digger and all ways there have a blue door (and at least one of those ways does not also have a green door in series).

Green Gold-Diggers

• Win if gold is found by:
  • Any player that is not a Blue Gold-Digger and at least one way there does not have a blue door, or
  • A Blue Gold-Digger and all ways there have a green door (and at least one of those ways does not also have a blue door in series).

Boss

• Wins if gold is found.
• When the treasure is divided, gets one fewer Gold Piece than Gold-Diggers.

Profiteer

• Always wins.
• When the treasure is divided, gets two fewer Gold Pieces than the winning Gold-Diggers or Saboteurs (or one fewer Gold Piece than the Boss).

Geologists

• Not 'winners'.
• Receive 1 Gold Piece for each visible crystal.
• If both Geologists are in play, they split the Gold Pieces (rounded down).

Game play

Saboteur 1: Hand size

# Players	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
# Cards	6	6	6	5	5	4	4	4

• Players take turns to play a card or discard.
• The cards are of two types:

Path cards

• Always played in a portrait (upright) orientation.
• May be rotated 180°:
  1. Hover over the card.
  2. Select the 'rotate' arrow that appears above the card.
• Each edge must fit with the surrounding cards.
• Must be connected to the start card.
• See Saboteur 1: Know your paths for more detail on path cards.

Action cards

• See Saboteur 1: Know your actions for more detail on action cards.

Sabotage

• Break one tool of another player:
  1. Select the Sabotage card.
  2. Select the corresponding green tool symbol in another player's panel (under the score).
• A player with a broken tool cannot play a path card!

Repair

• Repair one tool of any player:
  1. Select the repair card.
  2. Select a corresponding red tool symbol in any player's panel (under the score), or a corresponding Sabotage card in front of you.

Map

• See any goal card in secret:
  1. Select the map card.
  2. Select any goal card.
  3. You see the goal card in secret.
  4. Select the "I have seen it" button at the top.
• One card fewer than in the box set, as requested by the game author.

Rockfall

• Remove any played path card for the remainder of the round:
  1. Select the rockfall card.
  2. Select any played path card to remove it.
• Note: the start card and goal cards cannot be removed.

Round end

• A path connects the start card to the treasure goal card, or
• All cards have been played or discarded.
• If the treasure card is not found, the Saboteurs get 3 gold nuggets each (or 4 gold nuggets if they are the only winner).
• If the treasure is found, the Gold-Diggers get gold cards:

Gold cards

• 28 gold cards:
  • 4 three nuggets.
  • 8 two nuggets.
  • 16 one nugget.

Saboteur 1: Gold

# Players	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
# Gold cards	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

Example

• 3 Gold-Diggers
• 2 Saboteurs
• Treasure goal card is found.
• 3 + 2 = 5 random gold cards are selected and sorted high to low: 3, 2, 2, 1, 1.
• DiggerA gets the 3 nugget.
• DiggerB gets a 2 nugget.
• DiggerC gets a 2 nugget.
• DiggerA gets a 1 nugget.
• DiggerB gets a 1 nugget.

Saboteur 2

New path cards

• See Saboteur 2: Know your paths for more detail on path cards.

Green doors

• Prevent Blue Gold Diggers from passing through.

Blue doors

• Prevent Green Gold Diggers from passing through.

Ladders

• Connect to the 'start' card.
• Allows additional paths to the gold that can be disconnected from the 'start' card.
• Cannot open goal cards.

Bridges

• Two straight paths that are not connected.

New action cards

• See Saboteur 2: Know your actions for more detail on action cards.

Theft

1. Select the Theft card.
2. Select the corresponding red gold symbol in your player panel (under the score).

• At the end of the round, allows the player to steal 1 Gold Piece from one other player who has >0 Gold Pieces by selecting another player's panel.
• Only takes effect if the player is not Trapped!.

Hands Off

• Remove Theft from another player:

1. Select the Hands Off card.
2. Select the corresponding green gold symbol in another player's panel (under the score).

Swap Your Hand

• Exchange the cards in your hand with another player:

1. Select the Swap Your Hand card.
2. Select another player's panel.

Inspection

• See the role card of another player:

1. Select the Inspection card.
2. Select another player's panel.
3. You see that player's role card in secret.
4. Close the dialogue.

Swap Your Hats

• Exchange the role card of any player with a random role card leftover at the beginning of the round:

1. Select the Swap Your Hats card.
2. Select any player's panel or your own role card.

• Note: the new role card might be the same role type!
  • e.g. a Saboteur role card is discarded and another Saboteur role card is drawn.

Trapped!

• Prevent a player from playing path cards:

1. Select the Trapped! card.
2. Select the corresponding green jail symbol in another player's panel (under the score).

• At the end of the round, a player who is Trapped! gets 0 Gold Pieces.

Free at last!

• Remove Trapped! from a player:

1. Select the Free at last! card.
2. Select the corresponding red jail symbol in any player's panel (under the score).

Saboteur 1: Variants

• The game author, Frederic Moyersoen, told us about some game variants, and we implemented all of them!
• Tell us which one is your favourite in the BGA forum.

Gold sharing

Old mine

• The old mine was not as packed with gold... sometimes all you got for your digging was worthless stones!
• 6 one nugget gold cards removed.
• 6 worthless stone cards added.

New mine

• More even gold distribution.
• Each Gold-Digger gets one gold card.

Game play

Competitive

• Any Gold-Diggers with a Sabotage card (broken pickaxe, lamp or trolley) at the end of a round do not get any gold cards.
  • i.e. the gold cards are distributed between the gold diggers who have no broken tool.
• Saboteurs are not affected by this rule.
• Sabotage your Gold-Digger team for greater reward... but not too often, or your team might lose!

Selfish Dwarf

• One Gold-Digger role card is removed.
• One Selfish Dwarf role card is added.
• If the Selfish Dwarf wins, they get 4 gold nuggets and all other players get 0 gold nuggets.
• If the Gold-Diggers win, the Selfish Dwarf loses with the Saboteurs.
• # Gold cards = # Players − 1 (the Selfish Dwarf is excluded).

Saboteur 1: Selfish Dwarf variant

# Players	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
# Saboteurs	1	1	2	2	3	3	3	4
# Gold-Diggers*	2	3	3	4	4	5	6	6
# Selfish Dwarves	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
# Gold cards	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

*With the Maximum number of Saboteurs, one Gold-Digger role card is removed.

Tournament

• 5-9 players.
• Fixed number of role cards.
• 1 Selfish Dwarf.
• If the Gold-Diggers win, the first Gold-Digger gets 3 gold nuggets and the others get 2 gold nuggets.
• If the Selfish Dwarf wins, they get 4 gold nuggets and all other players get 0 gold nuggets.

Saboteur 1: Tournament roles

# Players	5	6	7	8	9
# Saboteurs	1	2	2	2	3
# Gold-Diggers	3	3	4	5	5
# Selfish Dwarves	1	1	1	1	1

Saboteur 2: Splitting the treasure

Saboteur 2: Gold

# Winners*	1	2	3	4	5+
# Gold Pieces	5	4	3	2	1

*Note: Geologists do not count as 'winners'.

Example 1

• 1 Blue Gold-Digger
• 2 Green Gold-Diggers
• 1 Boss
• 1 Profiteer
• 2 Saboteurs
  • Both Saboteurs have a Theft.
  • One Saboteur has been Trapped!.

Gold-Digger win

• The Boss completes the path to the goal card with the treasure.
• The path is blocked by a blue door.
• The Blue Gold-Diggers have won (including the Boss and the Profiteer).
• 3 winners.
  • The Blue Gold-Digger gets 3 Gold Pieces.
  • The Boss gets 3 − 1 = 2 Gold Pieces.
  • The Profiteer gets 3 − 2 = 1 Gold Piece.
• Note: If a Green Gold-Digger had connected the treasure to the start card, the Blue team would have won anyway, as the path to the treasure is closed to the Green team by a blue door.
• The Saboteur who is not trapped takes 1 Gold Piece from any one of the other players (who have > 0 Gold Pieces).

Saboteur win

• The treasure is not found.
• The Saboteurs have won (including the Profiteer).
• 2 winners.
  • The Saboteur who is not trapped gets 4 Gold Pieces.
  • The Profiteer gets 4 − 2 = 2 Gold Pieces.
• The Saboteur who is not trapped takes 1 Gold Piece from any one of the other players (who have > 0 Gold Pieces).

Example 2

• Player1 digs a new path.
• Player1 finds gold!
• A green digger found the treasure: the green team wins this round!
• There are 4 winners this round, including 0 boss and 1 profiteer.
  • There is also 1 geologist(s) who will get gold for gems.
• Player1 is a green gold digger and earns 2 gold nuggets.
• Player2 is a blue gold digger and earns 0 gold nuggets.
• Player3 is the profiteer and earns 0 gold nuggets.
• Player4 is a green gold digger and earns 2 gold nuggets.
• Player5 is a green gold digger and earns 2 gold nuggets.
• Player6 is a Geologist and earns 3 gold nuggets.
• Player7 is a Saboteur and earns 0 gold nuggets.
• Player7 steals 1 gold nugget from Player6.
• Note: Even though there were no doors in the path to the treasure, the blue gold digger gets 0 gold nuggets because a green digger found the treasure.
• Note: Despite winning, the profiteer gets 2 − 2 = 0 gold nuggets!