Gamehelpsaboteur

Goal

Get as many gold nuggets as possible during the three rounds of the game. In order to do so,

1. if you are a gold digger, you must, in association with other gold diggers, build a path from the 'Start' card to the treasure card which can be found among the three 'End' cards
2. if you are a saboteur, you must, in association with other saboteurs, prevent the gold diggers from getting to the treasure.

Your role (gold digger or saboteur) will be randomly selected at the start of each round.

Rules summary

On your turn, you must click on a card from your hand to select it, then play this card or discard it. You can also rotate a 'Path' card before playing it by clicking the 'rotate' arrow that appears above the card.

The cards are of several types:

• 'Path' card: you can play this card to extend the maze, provided it is compatible with the cards already in place. To do this, click the location where you want to put the card.
• 'Sabotage' card: you can break another player's tool of the type indicated. To do this, click the corresponding tool in the target player's panel (under the score).
• 'Repair' card: you can repair your, or another player's, broken tool of the type indicated. To do this, click the corresponding tool in the target player's panel (under the score), or click on the 'Sabotage' card in front of you.
• 'Map' card: you can play this card on any 'End' card to discover whether or not the treasure lies there (you alone will get the information, other players will see nothing). Just click on the 'End' card that you want to know everything about.
• 'Rock fall' card: this card lets you remove any 'Path' card of the maze. Just click on the card you want to remove.

Cards in play

• 44 'Path' cards
• 9 'Sabotage' cards (three for each tool)
• 6 'Repair a tool' cards (two for each tool)
• 3 'Repair a tool among these two' cards (one for each combination of two tools)
• 5 'Map' cards (one less than in the box set, as requested by the game author)
• 3 'Rock fall' cards
• 28 'Gold' cards
  • 16 with one gold nugget
  • 8 with two gold nuggets
  • 4 with three gold nuggets

Roles

Roles are randomly selected among a set that depends upon the number of players:

• with 3 players: 1 saboteur and 3 gold diggers
• with 4 players: 1 saboteur and 4 gold diggers
• with 5 players: 2 saboteurs and 4 gold diggers
• with 6 players: 2 saboteurs and 5 gold diggers
• with 7 players: 3 saboteurs and 5 gold diggers
• with 8 players: 3 saboteurs and 6 gold diggers
• with 9 players: 3 saboteurs and 7 gold diggers
• with 10 players: 4 saboteurs and 7 gold diggers

Available variants

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

Two variants are about gold sharing:

• Old Mine: the old mine was not as packed with gold... sometimes all you got for your digging was worthless stones. In this variant, some 'Gold' cards do not yield any gold nuggets (among the 28 'Gold' cards, 4 are worth three nuggets, 8 are worth two nuggets, 10 are worth one nugget and 6 are worthless). So it is definitely best to get first to the treasure in order to be sure not to leave empty-handed!
• New mine: the new mine is more even to each gold digger. Instead of distributing as many 'Gold' cards as the number of players - which benefits most to the gold digger that gets first to the treasure as he often gets two 'Gold' cards - it distributes as many 'Gold' cards as the number of gold diggers in play. Therefore, each gold digger will get only one 'Gold' card (however, it is still best to be first go get to the treasure in order to get a card of higher value!)

Two variants are about gameplay:

• Competitive: the gold diggers who have a 'Sabotage' card (broken pickaxe, lamp or trolley) laid in front of them at the end of a round, do not receive a 'Gold' card when their team wins the round. The 'Gold' cards are distributed between the gold diggers who have no broken tool (saboteurs are not affected by this rule). Therefore, with this variant it can be interesting to sabotage some of your fellow gold diggers... but not too often, so as not to make your team lose!
• Selfish dwarf: one of the gold diggers will get a red jacket. This gold digger is a selfish dwarf: he can only win if he manages to complete the connection to the treasure himself. In this case, he gets four gold nuggets while the other players get nothing at all. If another gold digger completes the connection, the selfish dwarf takes no part in the treasure sharing (which is done with as many 'Gold' cards as the number of players, selfish dwarf excluded)

Saboteur 2

Saboteur 2 introduces additional roles and actions. Now there are six roles:

• Blue diggers (4) and green diggers (4) are the equivalent of the original gold diggers, but are now separated into two teams. They both want to reach the gold, but only the one that connects to the treasure wins. The team that wins is also affected by doors; see below.
• Saboteurs (3) want to sabotage the connection, just like in the original game.
• Boss (1) wins if either digger team wins. Profiteer (1) wins in all cases, whether it's either digger team or it's the saboteurs!
• Geologists (2) don't care about gold; they care about gems that appear on tunnels as the dwarfs dig through.

There are various new items and actions.

• The path cards are complemented with additional cards. In particular, there is a bridge card, that allows a straight connection between opposite ends, but don't merge together like a crossroad does.
• Some path cards have gems. These are only for the geologists; they don't block the path.
• Some path cards have doors. These block the path of the opposing color. Only blue diggers can pass through blue doors, and only green diggers can pass through green doors.
• Some path cards have ladders. These are connected to the starting ladder. This means you can start a path from any ladder onwards, even if it's not connected to the start. This also means doors behind ladders have no effect.
• Action cards Theft (4) allow a player to prepare a theft. At the end of the round, each player with a theft may choose someone to steal a gold from. Action card Hands Off (3) stop a player from doing a theft.
• Action cards Trapped! (3) put another player to jail, similar to a broken tool with one exception in the scoring. Action cards Free at Last! (4) free a player from jail.
• Action cards Swap Your Hats (2) change the role of a player to another. These can be played to oneself or to someone else.
• Action cards Swap Your Hands (2) allow a player to swap hands with another player. The other player gets to draw a replacement card.
• Action cards Inspection (2) allow a player to look at the role of another player.

There are new rules.

• Each player has 6 cards on their hand at the beginning.
• A player may discard 1-3 cards and draw the same number of replacement cards, instead of the original only 1.
• A player may also discard 2 cards to remove any card (broken tool or jailed) in front of them, but they only get 1 replacement card. This reduces their hand size.

And there is a completely hauled scoring method.

• If there is a path to the gold card blocked by some door, the winner is the team that is not blocked by a door of opposing color. For example, if the path to the gold is blocked by a blue door, only the blue diggers win, no matter who placed the last card. If the path is blocked by both doors, then only the boss and the profiteer wins!
• If there is a path to the gold card, not blocked by any door, then the winner is the team that makes the last connection, or both teams in case that connection is made by a non-digger. For example, if a green digger completes a path without doors, the green team wins. If a geologist completes the path instead, both teams win.
• If there is no path to the gold card when everyone runs out of cards, the saboteurs win.

• The number of winners, except geologists, is counted. This number is subtracted from 6, giving the number of gold pieces that each winner gets. For example, if the blue team with 2 people win together with a boss, then there are 3 winners, so each player gets 3 gold pieces. If there are 5 or more winners, each winner gets 1 gold piece.
• However, boss receives 1 less gold pieces and profiteer receives 2 less gold pieces (cannot go below zero). In the example above, the boss receives 2 gold pieces instead of 3.
• Geologists receive as many gold pieces as there are crystals at the end of the round. In case both geologists are present, this number is divided by two, rounded down. So if there are 5 crystals, a single geologist gets 5 gold pieces, while two geologists in play receive 2 gold pieces each.
• The number of gold pieces a player has is not revealed to others (use your memory!), unless a variant Visible golds is used.

Anthem

The Official Anthem of Saboteur designed by Dzikidon and Sikora8a

Music - Adele - Skyfall:

This is the end Hold your breath and count to ten Feel the Earth move and then Hear your axe burst again For this is the end I've digged and dreamt this moment I will repair I owe them Even tho' I'm broken Let the rock fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together Let the rock fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together At rock fall At rock fall Rock fall is where we start A thousand miles and cards apart Where roads collide and caves are dark You may fix my trolley You can break my lamp But you'll never have my gold Let the rock fall (Let the rock fall) When it crumbles (When it crumbles) We will stand tall (We will stand tall) Face it all together Let the rock fall (Let the rock fall) When it crumbles (When it crumbles) We will stand tall (We will stand tall) Face it all together At rock fall (Let the rock fall) When it crumbles We will stand tall) / x2 Where you go I go What you see I see I know I'd never be me Without the security Of your fixing cards Keeping me from harm Put your end in their straight And we'll stand Let the rock fall (Let the rock fall) When it crumbles (When it crumbles) We will stand tall (We will stand tall) Face it all together Let the rock fall (Let the rock fall) When it crumbles (When it crumbles) We will stand tall (We will stand tall) Face it all together At rock fall Let the rock fall We will stand tall At rock faaall