In Dirty Little Secrets players are detectives with a slightly loose code of ethics. You ve used some tactics you re not proud of, but it s always gotten the job done. Now some of the other detectives are on a case that might reveal your dirty little secret. Can t let that happen, so better you expose their secret first. At least your partner has your back; seems it s hard to find someone you can rely on in this department. Players will work with their partner to use deduction and rough tactics to uncover your opponents cards, while using misdirection to cover your own tracks. Players must gather evidence, information about opponents cards, and choose the right times to make accusations. Be careful about it, though, as every action you take has a trade-off, and often this gives your opponents knowledge to use against you. Aim of the GameYou (and your partner) are trying to have the most Points at the end of the game. Points are gained by keeping your most valuable card secret until the end of the game, and using collected evidence to remove your opponents cards. During the game you ll use your chosen Action cards to gain information about opponents cards, and tactically position your cards to confound your opponents and open up new Actions for you to use. The game ends immediately after all the Evidence is collected. Gameplay OverviewEach player has the same 8 Action cards. They are each numbered with the Time – 1 a.m. up to 8 a.m. This Time doubles as the card s value in points if it scores at the end of the game. Players will choose 5 cards to play with each game, keeping their choices secret. The game begins with a shared Evidence pool and every player with five face-down hidden cards: three forming a Front Line row and two making a Back Office row. In a 3- or 4-player game, there is also a Chief s Badge in the centre of play that is given to a player whenever they lose a card. In turn, players take up to 2 unique actions: Collect an Evidence Accuse an opponent s card Use a particular card from your Front Line (Players can use 2 different cards on their turn, just not the same one twice). Or they can spend BOTH actions to: Cover their tracks (rearrange 3 of their cards and flip them upside down again) Claim the Chief s badge from another player, or use the Chief s badge as any card action (In 3- 4-player games). Early in the game, players will primarily collect Evidence and use their Front Line cards to gain information. Later, they ll manipulate setups and try to use Evidence to eliminate cards from play. Evidence Collecting Evidence is crucial to victory, because you need it to make accusations. By itself, Evidence is worth 1 point for every 2 you have. But if you successfully use one to accuse an opponent, it goes into your Evidence Locker and is worth a full point. If you accuse incorrectly, however, the Evidence goes to your opponent. Accusations To win you ll need to reduce your opponents score by eliminating their high value cards. You can make random guesses, but that wastes both valuable Evidence and actions. Instead, you ll want to spend actions using your cards to get information first. Then just before they cover their tracks to remove what you know, you make an accusation. If you re right the Evidence doubles in value to a full point. But if you re wrong, it s lost to your opponent. Or worse, if you mis-accuse their Red Herring card, they get an additional Evidence from the pool. Using a card You can use any card that s still hidden in your Front line – but be careful! Don t point at it, flip it, or do anything that might indicate WHICH card you re using. Unless, that is, you re trying to mislead your opponent. The low value/Time cards are powerful actions, as they will get you solid information like the Time difference between 2 cards of an opponent, or which cards in their Front line have finger-prints on them. T

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