Word Caper:

Thieves: Using the grid of 9 Location Cards, come up with a Word Caper you think you can pull off before the Detective can figure out your scheme. Carefully choose your targets and the crew you will use to keep the Detective on their toes and to avoid Interrogations that could get you caught!

Detectives: Use your Investigations to catch the Thief in the act of stealing a letter. When you catch them, use your deductive skills to Interrogate them and narrow down what the Word Caper is. After 4 turns, you'll only have one final chance to solve the riddle before the Thief gets away!

Word Caper is a word deduction game for one Detective and one Thief that plays in about 30 minutes. It features asymetrical roles, deduction, and hidden movement.

How to Play:

Set out 9 Location Cards in a 3x3 grid between the players.

The Thief comes up with a 5-letter word for their Caper. The word must contain one Secret Letter that isn’t on any of the word cards in the grid. Each of the 4 other letters must come from the words in the grid, but you can only steal a maximum of one letter from each word. Write down your Secret Letter and Target Word.

Thief Turn:

1)Decide what letter you are stealing and from which word. Write the letter in the grid from where you are taking it and in its spot in your yellow Caper box. Note: you may steal letters in any order.

2)Lay one of your 3 Thief Cards face-down to signify that you’ve picked your spot and letter.

3)If you pick a card with the red Detective Meeple on it, you are caught automatically. The Detective skips their normal turn and may immediately perform an Interrogation.

The Thief decides to steal the "O" they need for the Caper from the word Obtain. They write the "O" in the grid to show where they are stealing from and lay one of their Thief Cards face-down. If they are found, that card will be revealed and the Detective will know that they stole a vowel from the word "Obtain".

Detective Turn:

1.Ask a “yes” or “no” question about the cards in the grid. The question must pertain to the words themselves, not things like their positioning in the grid. Good Example: “Does the word start with a Vowel?” Bad Example: “Is it in the middle column?”

2.Depending on their answer, use your Investigate Tokens to mark cards you can eliminate.

3.You may try to guess what word the Thief is at now. If you do, skip to step 4. Otherwise, Repeat steps 1 and 2 one additional time.

4.Make a guess which word the Thief is stealing their letter from by placing your red Detective Meeple on that card.

5.If you are correct, the Thief announces that you’ve caught them.

6.If you catch the Thief, they reveal their Thief Card and you may conduct an Interrogation. If you caught them using only one question, you may also conduct an Enhanced Interrogation

7.If the Thief stole a letter on a previous turn from the word you picked, they announce that you found a Clue. Mark that word with a blue Officer Meeple.

8.You may place a blue Officer Meeple on a card anytime you are sure that the Thief has stolen from there. This helps you narrow down the field in future turns.

The Detective has narrowed down the field to two words using the following "yes or no" questions: 1) Does the word have more than one of the same letter in it? and 2) Does your word contain the letter "M"?

Interrogations:

1. After writing down the Clue, the Detective flips the 2-minute timer.

2. By the time the timer is finished, the Detective writes down a 5-letter word guess.

3. The Thief marks an "X" above any letters that are in the right spot.

4. The Thief marks an “O” over any letters that are in the word but in the wrong spot.

5. If the Interrogation gets the word correct, the Detective wins!

Strong guess! The Detective is well on their way to solving the Caper!

Enhanced Interrogations The Detective gets to ask a "yes or no" question about the Caper itself. Example: "Is it a verb?"

Thief Cards:

The Thief has 3 cards:

The Safecracker steals consonants

The Driver steals vowels

The Mastermind can steal either without revealing which.

1. Every turn, place one of these facedown that corresponds with the type of letter you are stealing.

2. If the Detective does not catch you, you may return the card to your hand.

3. When you are caught, you must reveal the card. If it is the Mastermind, it is removed for the rest of the game.

End of the Game:

• The game ends immediately if the Detective ever guesses the caper during an Interrogation.

• When the Thief has stolen all letters for their Caper, the Detective gets one final Interrogation and one final guess.

• If they guess the word, the Detective wins, otherwise the Thief wins!

Thanks so much for looking. This game is a contestant in the Word Up Challenge. Please consider voting for it!: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/contests/word-up-challenge