Welcome to Ankh-Morpork, the largest, smelliest, and most 'interesting' city on Discworld. The city's patrician, Lord Vetinari, has disappeared, and the citizens are calling out for firm leadership.

Will one of the noble families take control of the city, or will the people welcome the return of the king to restore peace? Then again, Vetinari's absence may have been temporary and his spies could be spreading around the city, ready to start pulling the levers of power for their master.

Ankh-Morpork is a relatively simple game. When it is your turn you play a card, do what it says on it, and then fill your hand back up to five cards.

The next player then does the same, and so on until someone declares that they have won the game, or the deck of cards runs out.

Components

• 4 player aid cards
• 1 standard blue twelve-sided die
• 1 map of Ankh-Morpork
• 101 Game cards
• 12 Random Event Cards
• 12 City Area Cards
• 7 Personality Cards
• 48 Minions
• 24 Buildings
• 4 Demon markers
• 3 Troll markers
• 12 Trouble markers
• 52 Coins
• Rulebook

Game Board

The board shows the city of Ankh-Morpork. The city has been divided into twelve areas. Each area is bordered either by a line or the River Ankh.

Every area has a nameplate, a number and a cost for building there.

The number in an area is used to determine where random events occur. Areas are adjacent if they share a common border or are connected by bridge.

Object of the Game

What you need to do to win the game depends on the secret personality that is assigned to you at the start of the game.

You must keep your aims secret from the other players and at the same time try to divine what your competitors are up to and make sure they do not beat you to the ultimate prize - lordship over the most unruly city in Discworld.

Setup

Each player should select a set of playing pieces of the same color. A set consists of twelve minion pieces and six building pieces. Each player should place one of their minions in The Shades, The Scours, and Dolly Sisters.

One trouble marker should also be placed in each of these three areas. Place the remaining trouble markers by the side of the board.

Place the money by the side of the board to form a bank. Each player starts with ten Ankh-Morpork dollars. During the game players cannot hide how much money they have from other players.

Place the demon and troll pieces by the side of the board. Shuffle the Random Event cards and place in a deck face down by the side of the board.

Shuffle the Personality cards and deal one to each player. You keep your Personality card secret until you either achieve the victory conditions on it or the game ends. Place the remaining Personality cards to one side, without examining them.

Separate the Player cards into two decks, the green bordered deck and the brown bordered deck. Shuffle the brown deck and place it on the table, face down. Then shuffle the green deck and place it on top of the brown deck, face down. Deal out five cards from the top of the deck to each player.

Place the remaining cards by the side of the board to form a draw pile. Place the City Area cards face up on display by the side of the map so that they can be clearly seen by all of the players.

Each player should also take one Player Aid card. This card helps to remind you about important rules. Use the die to randomly determine who will be the first player.

Playing with just two players: You will need to remove the Chrysoprase card before shuffling and dealing out Personality cards. You will also need to remove the Hubert and Cosmos Lavish cards from the draw pile (both are brown bordered cards).

Game Play

Players will take it in turn to have their 'go', starting with the first player.

When it's your turn you choose one of your cards to play. You do whatever it tells you to do on the card. You may have the option to play another card. When you have finished playing cards you then take enough cards from the draw pile to bring your hand size back to five cards.

It may be that during your turn you picked up more cards, bringing your hand size up to more than five. This is fine, you just do not pick up any more cards at the end of your turn and neither do you have to discard any.

Now the player to your left has his or her turn. Play continues in this manner until either one player declares that he or she has won (which depends on their Personality card) or the draw pile is exhausted. At this point if a player is Commander Vimes then they have won, otherwise the player with the most points wins the game.

It is very important for all players to be aware of what all of the potential victory conditions are. You must be careful not to 'gift' the game to another player by not keeping an eye on what they are doing. The victory conditions are detailed towards the end of this rule book. Please make sure you read them carefully before you start to play the game.

The key to this game is learning how the Player cards work. Nearly every such card has one or more symbols at the top.

These symbols tell you what actions you can do and the order in which they can be performed.

When you play a card you may carry out some or all of the actions indicated. The order in which the actions can be performed goes from left to right along the top of the card. You are not forced to perform an individual action, so you could choose one or more not to perform.

The only action that you must perform is the Random Event action. Once you have finished with the card you place it next to the draw pile, face-up. This is the discard pile.

Example: If you played the Bursar card then you would first draw a Random Event card, you would then have the option to swap the positions of two minions (as written at the bottom of the card).

Finally, you would have the option to play another card.

You complete one action before you start the next action.

Each of the actions is explained on this and the following page. Note that there are two 'asides', one to explain trouble markers and the other to explain City Area cards.

Place a Minion

You take one of your minion pieces and you place it in an area on the board. You must place it in either an area that you already have a minion in or in an adjacent area. There is no limit on the number of minions that can be placed in an area.

If you already have all of your minions on the board then you can remove one and then place it somewhere else (making sure you follow the other rules above). These rules apply whenever you have to place a minion, including due to the play of an interrupt card. If you do not have a minion on the board then you can place your minion in any area.

Example: Let's assume that you are the red player (for this and all other examples) and you have just played a card with the 'Place a minion symbol on it. As you already have a minion in Dolly Sisters you can legally place one in any area indicated by the arrows.

Note that areas that are connected by bridges are adjacent to each other.

Trouble Markers

Whenever a minion is placed or moved into an area that already has one or more minions in it then you must place a trouble marker in that area. An area can only contain one trouble marker.

As soon as a minion is moved or removed from an area, any trouble marker in the area is also removed (even if there are two or more minions remaining). Placing a building in an area does not cause trouble. There are two main effects of trouble.

Firstly, you can only assassinate a minion if there is a trouble marker in that area. Secondly, you cannot build a building in an area that contains a trouble marker. Trolls and demons are regarded as being minions and so will affect trouble in the same way as a player's minion.

Example: Here is an example of what happens when you place a minion in an area that already contains a minion. The picture to the left shows the /board before you have your turn, the one on the right after you've had it. As there was already a minion in Dimwell you must also place a trouble marker in the area.

A Place a Building

You can place one of your building pieces in an area that you have a minion in. You cannot build in an area that already contains either a building or a trouble marker. The cost of placing the building is shown in the area and on the matching City Area card.

You pay this amount of money to the bank. You then take the matching City Area card into your possession. If, for any reason, the building is removed later on then you must return the City Area card to the display. Place the card in front of your position, face up.

You can have up to six buildings on the board. If you already have six buildings on the board then you can choose one to remove and place in the area you wish to build in. Make sure you return the City Area card for the area that you remove your building from.

Example: In the part of the map shown you can only place a building in Nap Hill. Dolly Sisters has a trouble marker in it, Seven Sleepers already has a building, and you do not have a minion in either Unreal Estate or Dragon's Landing.

If you do go ahead and build in Nap Hill then you must pay $12 to the bank. Note that even though the yellow player has more minions than you in Nap Hill you can still place a building there. Once you have placed your building you take the Nap Hill card.

City Area Cards

Every area on the board has a City Area card. Each card grants you a particular ability. In most cases you can use this ability once per turn and you choose when you wish to use it.

What you cannot do is use the ability on a card in the same turn that you gained it. The Small Gods card is the exception and can be used when it is not your turn to react to the result of a random event.

Here is a more detailed description of each of the card abilities:

The Shades - At any point in your turn you can place one trouble marker in The Shades or an adjacent area (area must contain at least one minion).

Dolly Sisters - Once per turn you can pay $3 and place one of your minions in Dolly Sisters or an adjacent area.

The Scours - Once per turn you can discard one card and take $2 from the bank.

Dimwell - Once per turn you can pay $3 and place one of your minions in Dimwell or an adjacent area.

Nap Hill - Once per turn you can take $1 from the bank. Longwall - Once per turn you can take $1 from the bank. The Hippo - Once per turn you can take $2 from the bank. Dragon's Landing - Once per turn you can take $2 from the bank.

Isle of Gods - Once per turn you can pay $2 to remove one trouble marker from the board.

Small Gods - Whenever one of your minions or buildings is affected by a random event you can pay $3 to ignore the effect. If more than one piece is affected then you must pay $3 for each piece you wish to protect.

Seven Sleepers - Once per turn you can take $3 from the bank.

Unreal Estate - Once per turn you can draw one card and then discard a card.

• Assassination

  

  You remove one minion (but not your own) or troll or demon of your choice from an area that contains a trouble marker. Remember that this will also remove the trouble marker from the area.

• Remove one Trouble Marker

  

  You remove one trouble marker from an area of your choice.

  
  

• Take Money

  

  The gold circle has an amount of money shown in it. You take this amount from the bank.

  
  

• Scroll

  

  Perform the action described in the text at the bottom of the card.

  
  

• Random Event

  

  This is the only action that isn't optional. You must draw the top card from the Random Event deck. This will tell you which event occurs. You must then check the back of the rule book to see the effect of that event.

  Once you have completed the event you place the Random Event card to one side (i.e. each event can only occur once in the entire game).

• Play another card

  

  You play another card from your hand. You could end up playing a succession of cards that have this symbol on.

  
  

• Interrupt

  

  A card with this symbol on can be played at any time, even if it is not your turn. Most interrupt cards protect you from something bad happening to you. You may play this card at any time, even if it is not your turn.

  For example, somebody might try to assassinate one of your minions and you could play the 'Gaspode' card to stop them. Playing an interrupt card in your turn does not count as an action, Please make sure you play such a card promptly. If you forget to use a card to negate the effect of another card played against you then you cannot 'go back in time' and play the card retrospectively.

End of the Game

The game ends when either a player achieves the victory conditions on his or her Personality card OR if the 'Riot' Random Event card is drawn and the conditions on the card are met OR as soon as one player takes the last card from the draw pile.

All of the Personality cards apart from Commander Vimes state that the conditions on the card must occur at the start of your turn, not the end of it.

Lord Vetinari - you win if at the beginning of your turn you have a certain number of minions in different areas on the board (think of them as your spies). With two players you need to have minions in at least eleven different areas.

With three players you need to have minions in at least ten different areas. With four players you need to have minions in at least nine different areas. Areas must be free of demons.

Lord Selachii, Lord Rust, Lord de Worde

You win if at the beginning of your turn you control a certain number of areas.

If there are only two of you playing then you need to control seven areas, if there are three of you then you need to control five areas, and if there are four of you then you need to control four areas.

You control an area if you have more playing pieces in it than any single other player (a playing piece being a minion or a building). You would also have to have more pieces there than the total number of trolls in the area.

You cannot control an area that contains one or more demons. The presence of a trouble marker does not affect the control of an area.

Example: The Green player controls Seven Sleepers. The yellow player controls Nap Hill, even though there is a trouble marker there. The red player does not control Dolly Sisters as there is a demon there. The blue player does not control Unreal Estate as there is one troll there. If blue had another piece there, either another minion or a building, then he or she would control the area. Neither yellow nor green control Dragon's Landing.

Dragon King of Arms - If at the beginning of your turn there are eight trouble markers on the board then you win. The rationale is that the city has fallen into more chaos than normal and people want the king back (who would be controlled by you).

Chrysoprase - If at the beginning of your turn your net worth (your cash plus the monetary cost of each building you have) is $50 or more then you win the game. Please note that any loans you have taken out count as $12 against your total worth (certain cards allow you to take out loans).

Commander Vimes - you win if nobody else wins by the time the draw pile has been exhausted.

If the game ends due to the draw pile running out AND nobody has the Commander Vimes Personality card, then the winner is the player with the most points. Each minion on the board is worth five points.

Each building is worth a number of points equal to its monetary cost. Each $1 in hand is worth one point. If you have the Dent card or the Bank card then you must pay back the amount noted on the card. If you cannot do so then you lose fifteen points each.

In the case of a tie the tied player with the highest monetary value City Area card is the winner. If there is still a tie then the tied players shared the honours of a joint win.

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