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 in secret.

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). A player with a broken tool cannot play a Path card.
• '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. Then click on "I have seen it" button at the top.
• 'Rock fall' card: this card lets you remove any 'Path' card of the maze. Just click on the card you want to remove.

End of a round

• A path is created that connects to the gold goal card and gold is distributed among the gold diggers.
• No more cards are available to draw and every player has passed with no action. Saboteurs split the gold.

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

With variant Saboteur 2: Gold-diggers counter-attack!

• 3 Path cards with green doors - blocking Blue Gold Diggers
• 3 Path cards with blue doors - blocking Green Gold Diggers
• 2 'Bridge' Path cards - two straight paths that are not connected
• 4 'Ladder' Path cards - Allows additional paths to the gold
• Path cards with crystals - scores for the Geologist
• 4 'Theft' cards - played on self, allows you to steal a gold from another player after the round
• 3 'Hands Off' cards - remove a theft card from another player before the round is over
• 2 'Swap Your Hand' cards - exchanges hands with another player
• 2 'Inspection' cards - Inspect another player's Role card
• 2 'Swap Your Hats' cards - choose any player (including yourself) to discard their current Role card and draw a replacement
• 3 'Trapped!' cards - Traps another player, they cannot play Path cards and if still Trapped at the end of the round do not collect gold
• 4 'Free at last!' cards - remove 'Trapped!' card from a player

Roles

Roles are randomly selected among a set that depends upon the number of players (note that one card will be left out):

• 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!

Saboteur 2: Gold-diggers counter-attack! new roles:

• 4 each 'Blue Gold Diggers' and 'Green Gold Diggers'
  • The player that reaches the gold first has their team win
  • If a door blocks the gold, only that color wins
  • Both teams win if a non-gold digger finds the gold
• 1 'The Boss' - wins whenever the Green and/or the Blue Team wins, but always gets one Gold Piece less than them
  • Sole winner if the gold is reached but behind both a blue and green door [unsure if this is true...]
• 2 'The Geologist' - is after the valuable crystals in the tunnels. For each visible crystal, receives 1 Gold Piece regardless of a Gold Digger or Saboteur win.
• 1 'The Profiteer' - always wins, no matter if The Gold-Diggers or The Saboteurs are successful. However, when the treasure is divided, gets two fewer Gold Pieces than the others.

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 dwarf 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)