Checkpoint Charlie
3 - 5 players
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In the 1960’s, at the height of Cold War tensions,
the K-Nine hound dogs
are watching Checkpoint Charlie.
Each of them is part of
a different investigation agency,
and they all want to be the first
to find the chief of spies.
Which K-Nine investigator will be able to
catch the chief of spies and
earn the recognition of his organization?
<Components>
- 32 cat suspect cards
- 5 hound dog investigator cards
- 5 hound dog investigator counters
- 1 Stasi officer card
- 5 clue counters one cloth bag
- 30 score markers
(5 of which are optional)
<Set Up>
Each player chooses
a hound dog investigator card
and places it in full view in front of themselves.
Each player also takes
the matching investigator counter.
Place all the score marker counters
face down and shuffle them.
If the optional “Stasi Officer” rule is to be used,
then leave his card near the deck of suspects
and replace one black -1 score marker
with the Stasi Officer’s score marker.
If the optional “Cafe Adler” rule is to be used,
then substitute all the corresponding
score markers as indicated below.
The player that woke up first in the morning
will be the first player of the first round.
Put 5 clue counters in the cloth bag.
Each player takes a clue from the bag
and places it under their investigator card
after having looked at it,
without letting the others see it.
The player chooses the face they want up
and that is the clue that counts.
In 5 player games,
shuffle the 32 suspect cards
and place the deck face down
in the center of the table.
In 3 or 4 player games,
split the deck of suspects into
two similar half decks.
Shuffle the investigator cards
that have not been chosen
(two of them with 3 players and one with 4 players)
into the first deck.
Place the first half deck on top of
the other to make the full deck of suspects.
The player who captured the chief of spies
in the previous round will be the new first player.
If no one discovered him,
the first player will remain
the same as the previous round.
<Game Progress>
There are two phases in each round.
In the first phase the characters
from the suspect deck are revealed
so that they can be accused, or not,
of being under suspicion as spies.
In the second phase,
the round comes to a close and
each investigator receives
the score marker they have earned.
1st Phase
: Suspect and Accusations
The Clue Counters
Each clue counter shows a characteristic
on each side of the counter
that are opposites of one another.
Players will learn a single clue
at the beginning of each round.
Each clue indicates one of the following
characteristics for the chief of spies
who is hiding among all the other suspects :
- whether he is wearing a hat or not
- whether he uses glasses or not
- whether he is wearing a raincoat or a sweater
- whether he is grey or orange
- whether he has a newspaper under his arm or not.
Suspects Revealed
Taking turns, starting with the first player
and moving clockwise,
each investigator takes a card
from the deck of suspects and
shows it to all the players at the same time.
Then, the investigator checks
whether the character shown matches
the clue under that player’s investigator card
(for example, he is wearing glasses).
If there is a match, the character is considered
a suspect and placed face up in front of that player,
near the center of the table.
If other suspect cards
have already been placed there,
the new one is placed with them
so that they are all visible in a line.
If the character does not match
the player’s hidden clue,
he is not considered as a suspect
and is placed in the discard pile
(each investigator has their own discard pile).
Players will continue playing
in this way in turns,
revealing their suspects until all the players
except one have placed their accusations.
In a 3 or 4 player game,
when an investigator card
is pulled from the deck,
a clue counter is taken from
the cloth bag and tossed like a coin.
The face that is up when it falls
shows another clue about the suspect
that will be public and known to
all the investigators from that point on.
Even if there are public clues shown,
each player must keep track of their own clue
when considering whether
a character is suspect or not.
You can look at your own
hidden clue any time you want.
Accusing a Suspect
Based on the revealed suspects,
each investigator will deduce
what the other investigators’ hidden clues
are by looking at their line of suspects.
They must follow these guesses,
together with their own clue
and the public clues to figure out
what the chief of spies looks like
and choose him from out of
all the cards shown on the table so far.
When a player thinks they
have figured out who the chief is,
they must place their investigator counter
on top of the card of the suspect being accused.
This is their accusation and it can be made
at any time during the game,
even it is not that player’s turn.
Each investigator can only make
one accusation per round,
and cannot accuse a suspect that
has already been accused by another investigator.
Even if an investigator
has made an accusation,
the player must continue pulling cards
from the suspect deck and playing them
on the table either as suspects or not.
Players must continue to do so until
all but one of the investigators
have accused a suspect.
You may not be able to put
all the clues together in time,
and another investigator may accuse
the suspect you believe is the chief of spies
before you get the chance.
Your rival will get more points for being smarter,
but you can still catch the chief’s assistants!
The assistants coincide with four
of the five clues that indicate the chief.
If you can catch these lesser spies in time,
you will still be able to win some points.
The round comes to an end
when all the investigators but
one have accused their suspects.
For example, if there are 4 players,
the round is over when three of them
have made their accusations.
The end of the round can be forced
if the suspect deck runs out of cards.
In that case all the investigators must
immediately make their accusations
(and be sure to pay attention to the order
the players make their accusations!).
2nd Phase
: Scoring
First, each player lifts up
their investigator card so that
their clue is visible.
Check the accused suspects against
the five revealed clues
(the clues of each of the players
and the public ones).
Distribution of the Score Markers
The investigator who accused the suspect
matching the five revealed clues
(thereby catching the chief of spies)
gets a random gold marker.
- The investigators who accused
a suspect matching four
out of the five revealed clues
(who catch the assistants)
get a random white marker.
- The investigators who accuse innocent cats
(suspects who match three or fewer clues)
get a black marker.
- The last investigator, who did not get to
make his or her accusation,
also receives a black marker.
- In case that one round ends
and the chief of spies hasn’t been
revealed because its card is still
in the deck of suspects,
but the players have cast
their accusations already,
then the player that did not get to make
his or her accusation receives
a white marker instead of a black one.
This is the advantage of being
wary about being too eager to cast accusations.
The markers players get are kept hidden
until the end of the game,
so that only their color can be seen.
The golden markers have 3, 4 or 5 points.
The white ones have 1 or 2 points
and the black ones have 0 or –1 points.
Some markers may allow
for special actions in this phase,
as explained below in the optional rules.
<How to Finish the Game>
The game finishes in any one
of these three situations :
- an investigator announces that
the sum of all his or her score markers
has reached 10 points.
- the score markers for any one
of the colors runs out.
- the fifth round is completed.
If the score markers for any color
are about to run out,
then they are always to be drawn
in the round’s accusation order,
and some players may not receive a marker.
The investigator who was unable to
make their accusation in that round
is the last one to draw a marker.
Finally, turn over all your hidden markers
and sum up the points you have obtained.
The player who has achieved
the most points is the best investigator.
If there is a tie score,
the player who has the most gold markers wins.
If there is still a tie,
the victory is shared and both win.
<Optional Rules>
THE STASI OFFICER
The Stasi were the secret police
of the German Democratic Republic (DDR)
and were known as one of the most
effective intelligence agencies in the world.
In your games, they will watch
all the suspects closely and pay special attention
to the foreign investigators
that get near their borders.
There is a black score marker
for the Stasi officer.
If you decide to use this special rule,
when setting up the game,
substitute a black –1 score marker
with the corresponding marker of the Stasi officer.
Leave the substituted marker in the box,
as it will no longer be used in that game.
This marker indicates that a Stasi officer
is tailing you and this limits
your investigative activities.
If you get this marker at the end of a round,
immediately show it,
then place the Stasi officer card together
with your investigator and,
once all players have collected their score markers,
return the marker face down
to the score markers pool.
You will have to play the next round
with your clue counter uncovered,
so that everyone can see it.
Once all the accusations have
been made in the next round,
but before the score markers are taken,
place the Stasi officer card
in the next suspect deck again.
You have shaken him, for now.
If you get this marker in
the last scoring phase,
you keep it with your other markers
and it has a value of –2.
CAFE ADLER
Berlin’s Cafe Adler was located
just 5 meters from the wall
and it quickly became a den of spies.
It was popular among the allied officers,
armed forces and looky-loos.
Cafe Adler offers players a unique stake out
point to monitor Checkpoint Charlie
while enjoying a tasty snack.
There are four Cafe Adler score markers:
a gold one, two white ones and a black one.
If you decide to use this special rule,
when setting up the game,
substitute a 3 point gold marker,
two 1 point white markers
and one –1 point black marker
with the Cafe Adler markers
corresponding to each color.
Leave the substituted markers in the box,
since you will no longer
use them in this game.
When one of the players
gets the Cafe Adler marker,
that player can exchange it
for another investigator’s marker
(without seeing what the other is),
so long as it is the same color.
He or she can do so right after
it has been drawn, or in any later round
(but only during the scoring phase).
In the latter case, the marker is kept
face down until it is used.
The investigator who receives
the Cafe Adler marker after it
has been exchanged must leave it face up,
and cannot exchange it.
The player who did exchange it
will keep the new marker face down, as usual.
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