Dirty Money

That could have gone better

You and your crew have just pulled off the heist of the century. Unfortunately, it was sloppy and there's a trail of evidence a mile long. Now it's time to divvy up the loot, but try not to leave too many clues!

In this trick-taking card game you are splitting up your haul from the museum in four categories: Jewels, Paintings, Artifacts, and Junk from the Gift Shop. After all the goods have been handed out, whichever thief has left behind the most fingerprints gets busted. Of the remaining crew members, the one with the most valuable stash is the winner!

How to Play

Setup

First, determine how many rounds you will play. Each round takes about 10-minutes.

Short game: 1 round (10-12 minutes) Standard game: 2 rounds (20 minutes)

Once that is decided, it is time to deal the cards!

Deal each player a cleaner (the purple cards) and shuffle the rest of the deck. Remove a number of cards equal to the number of players, then deal the rest until the deck runs out. This forms your hand for the round.

Game Play

This game is played in a series of "tricks". For each trick, the lead player plays any card from their hand. The suit of this card becomes the Lead Suit for that trick. In clockwise order, each other player then must play a card from their hand which matches the lead suit. If they do not have that suit, they may play any card from their hand.

After each player has played one card into the trick, whomever played the highest rank of the lead suit takes the trick. They collect all the loot, and will add all coins and fingerprints to their total at the end of the round. That player then leads the next trick.

Cleaners and breaking suit

Cleaners act as trump cards. Each player has one at the start of each round, and they may play it at any time. When a player uses their cleaner, the lead suit is broken. This means any players after them may play any card from their hand, regardless of suit. The player who played a cleaner automatically wins the trick, and they wipe all fingerprints clean. Only the coins from this trick will be tallied at the end.

If more than one person plays a cleaner in the same trick, whomever played the last one wins the trick.

Game End

After all cards have been played in a round, each player must add up all the coins and fingerprints they have collected during the round. Cards are then shuffled and a new round is dealt in the same manner as the first (players get a new cleaner, cards are removed, etc).

Once all rounds have been completed and totaled, the player with the most fingerprints gets busted! Of the remaining players, whomever has the highest coin total is the winner!

Since a round ends when all cards have been played, adding more players does not increase the length of the game. It simply means there are less tricks in each round.

Go for second! With the twist being that whichever thief has the left behind the most evidence being eliminated, you'll need to balance collecting valuable loot without getting too many fingerprints.

Clean design - There is no text on any of the cards, so no reading to slow the game down. To make sorting your hand even faster, the suits are all color-coded.

Imperfect information - Removing a number of cards from the deck before dealing means even players who remember all the cards that have been played can't be certain that specific cards are still out there or if they have been removed.

House rules? Of course! Maybe try playing with all the cards, restoring "perfect information". Or how about removing the cleaners? Maybe each player passes three cards from their hand to left before the first trick. Make it your own!