Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Mistrial! is a Game of Courtroom Drama

You are lawyers in a murder trial. Argue to persuade the court to interpret the Evidence in your favor!

Each round, you bid for control of an Evidence tile. Winning allows you to place the tile on the Trial board and build up your case!

The Evidence

The Prosecution side of the tiles paints a picture of premeditated murder. The Defense side casts reasonable doubt, often with a different interpretation of the same events.

Are you an upstanding lawyer who relies on strong Arguments or are you a tricky lawyer who likes to bluff?

Will you try to Influence the Jury or will you let their Biases block your opponent's efforts?

Your Tools

Argument Cards for bidding are played from your hand, revealed simulaneously, and discarded after the round. Pick them up when your hand is almost empty or if you play your Losing Argument card.
Influence Cubes are gained from Jurors or by losing a round. They boost your Argument by one.
Bias Cubes block your opponent from laying a tile or they can be used to boost your Argument by one.

Gameplay

Selecting the Jury

The game comes with 6 setup cards which determine the layout of the Influence and Bias cubes on the board. Laying tiles allows you to collect Influence cubes or Bias cubes of your color. Bias cubes of your opponent's color stop you from laying tiles there!

Playing a Round

The First Player submits Evidence for consideration. The player who has the best argument wins control of that piece of Evidence. They can use the Evidence to collect Influence and Bias cubes. The loser gets influence from the supply.

Bluffing

Losing an argument on purpose? Dastardly!

Tying

Anticipating your opponent's Argument so that you can match it is also a viable strategy.

Ending the Game

Once 9 unique tiles have been played, the player with the largest number of connected tiles win! HOWEVER, the game can end sooner than that if there's a Mistrial!

Overview Video

Tabletop Simulator

Try it now here!