Our step-by-step guide to the rules of how to play The Mansky Caper board game. This is a press your luck heist adventure set against a cool 1920s noir setting. The game is for 2 – 6 players at ages 8+. The rules for how to play The Mansky Caper do have a few twists and turns that require clarification at times but once you are up and running you will be all set.
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HOW TO PLAY THE MANSKY CAPER – WHAT IS IT?
It’s 1925. You and your “family” of “associates” have been trying to get respect for years. But the richest mobster in the country, Al Mansky, has been cramping your style. Al’s a bit eccentric. He doesn’t trust the cops or banks, so all his loot is in his mansion, guarded by a diabolical security system of explosive traps. The good news is that he is out of town.
It would be a shame if something happened to all that loot, but a Family (working together) that bested Al would make quite a name for itself. Of coarse, the most fame – and (dare we say) the leadership of the family – goes to the person who walks away from the job with the most loot.
Your collegues may not always get along, but you all owe each other favors. Calling in the right favor at the right time is what leadership is all about in the business. The key is to work together to help yourself – and to avoid getting blown up!
The object of the game is to move through the rooms in Al Mansky’s mansion, opening safes to find the valuables inside. Split loot with others in the room, and watch out for twists of fortune and dangerous traps that can ruin your plans with a bang! The winner is the player who accumulates the most loot in their private stash at the getaway car by the time Al’s mansion is completely ransacked.
HOW TO PLAY THE MANSKY CAPER – STEP BY STEP
Time Needed: Approximately 30 – 50 minutes.
This is a step by step guide for how to play The Mansky Caper the noir heist board game. Additional notions and special rules can be found below the list. These will be referenced for your convenience.
1. SETUP | Put Out Room Cards
There are a total of 10 possible room cards you can use to build out the mansion. Shuffle them up and deal out 5 face down, in two rows, leaving a gap in the middle bottom to form the play area. Keep them face down as they will be revealed throughout the game.
2. SETUP | Put Out Getaway Car
Add the Getaway Car Card to the play area in the gap amongst the five placed room cards face up. This is where players can go to stash their loot and eventually get away.
3. SETUP | Place Safes On Room Cards
Take the five empty safes and place one on each of the face down room cards. You will need to fill these as rooms get revealed.
4. SETUP | Assign Characters
Shuffle up the character cards and deal one to each player. The difference among these besides the look of the character is their special ability that other players will be able to utilize during the game. Each player chooses a color stand and takes the two stands of that particular color. Players put their card in the stand and then they take the corresponding character and also put that in a stand. Each player also takes one of the black loot bags and one favor token.
5. SETUP | Put Out Die & Components
There are a variety of components to put out for use during the game. First, there is a convenient “supply box” that has all your main tokens and gems. Then you need to put out the blue gasp cards, the red danger-danger die and the loot sack with the random loot tokens,
6. SETUP | Determine First Player
The book says the youngest player goes first but go ahead and use your randomizer of choice.
7. SETUP | Flip Initial Rooms
Two of the five rooms need to be flipped to start. The youngest player chooses one and then the oldest player chooses another. Those players move their character to their revealed room.
8. SETUP | Players Choose Starting Spots
All other players, starting with the person left of the starting player now chooses the room (of the two available options) they want to start on. One player at a time places their character on their chosen room. This is the final step of how to play The Mansky Caper setup before getting into gameplay.
9. GAMEPLAY | Turn Structure
Starting with the starting player and then moving clockwise, each person gets to take one of three actions on their turn – (1) stay put in the current room & open safe, (2) move to another room & open safe or (3) stash loot at the getaway car. You MUST take one of these actions and cannot pass your turn.
10. GAMEPLAY | Adding Materials To Empty Safes
Whenever a room is opened (2 at the start and others throughout game), its safe needs to be loaded up. The exact materials to add are what is shown at the bottom of each individual room card. The gold explosion symbol is “danger-danger” tokens, the blue symbol is “gasp” tokens and the gold symbol has to do with loot. Each spot will have a number. You add that number of that type of tokens to the room’s safe. Gasp and Danger-Danger are always the same type of tokens but loot is different. There is a “loot” sack that has a variety of different tokens. These could be gold, gems or keys (which open rooms). Take random tokens from this bag equal to the number on the symbol and without looking add them to the safe via the top. Shake it up to get ready to open.
11. GAMEPLAY | Taking From A Safe
When you take from a safe, you shake it up and without looking, you take one token out of it without looking. It is going to be one of three options that are outlined below. This pull affects everyone in the room. If it is loot, it is split evenly amongst all players there, setting aside any loot that is impossible to split for later loot splits.
12. GAMEPLAY | Pulling Danger-Danger Tokens From Safe
The dynamite looking token is “Danger-Danger”. Whenever you take one of these, you place it on the corresponding spot in the top left of the card. There are three spaces. If the token is placed on the first or the second spot, the danger-danger die is rolled. See Danger-Danger Die Rolls below for more details. If it is placed on the third and final spot, the room explodes with everyone in it losing all their loot that they have received but not yet stashed. Then that room goes away and can no longer be accessed.
13. GAMEPLAY | Pulling Gasp Tokens From Safe
Pulling a blue gasp token triggers you to take one of the “Gasp” cards from the nearby stack. These are going to be random events. Follow along with what the card tells you to do.
14. GAMEPLAY | Pulling Loot Tokens From Safe
The loot tokens can be several different things and are added blindly so you do not know what is in the safe. A loot token can be different levels of coins or gems and everything needs to be split amongst all players there. Take corresponding tokens from the supply box and place them on top of your stash bag. If it is a key, this is set aside by the player who pulled it to later unlock another room. Keys don’t ever explode and are worth 3 loot at the end if not used.
15. GAMEPLAY | Moving To A Different Room
You can choose to move to any open room without any issue, but if you want to move to a yet to be uncovered room, you need to use a “key” token to do so. These are a possible pickup from loot, so you will need to acquire one from a safe before you are able to do this. When a room is unveiled, you fill its safe based on what the card says like normal. When leaving a room, also check if any remaining loot can be split amongst the remaining players. Move your player piece to the card you intend to move to.
16. GAMEPLAY | Calling in Favors
Each player has a special ability that is printed on the player card in front of them. You cannot play these, only other players can. This is done by a player using a “Favor” token. Only one of these can be used per turn and to use it, you give the token to the player whose ability you are using. Remember, everyone starts with one favor token,
17. GAMEPLAY | Stashing Loot At Getaway Car
Moving to the getaway car is just like moving to another room. Take your player piece and put it there. When you do this, you get to take all the loot you have collected that is currently sitting on your stash bag and put it inside. Everything yet to be stashed has the chance to be stolen or tampered with so what this does is makes it harder for you to lose it.
18. GAMEPLAY | The “Hey Buddy” Rule
If two players are at the getaway car, one of those player cards can pay the other a favor token and call in the “Hey Buddy” rule. In this instance, both players dump out their stash bags and then they do a 50 – 50 split of everything. You obviously want to do this if you know for a fact you have less loot in your bag.
19. GAME END | Last Room Destroyed or Unanimous Decision
There are two events that can trigger the end of the game. If all five rooms are destroyed or if everyone is at the stash car and they all decide to end, the end of the game is triggered.
20. WINNING | Highest Loot Total
After everything is said and done, whoever has the highest overall loot total wins the game.
HOW TO PLAY THE MANSKY CAPER – KEY INFORMATION
DANGER-DANGER DICE ROLLS
Thumbs Up – Everything is ok, nothing happens
Hand – You blow up. You are moved to the getaway car to recover and you lose any loot on your bag that hasn’t yet been stashed.
Jewel – The loot of everyone in the room blows up. All loot from all those players that has yet been stashed goes away.
Explosion – The room is destroyed. All players in the room are moved to the getaway car, all loot on their sacks that has yet to be stashed is lost and the room itself (with all remaining resources) goes away.
Man With Hat – This is the worst, Al Mansky shows up. All players stay where they are, but all loot on all sacks of all players that has yet to be stashed is lost. Remaining left over loot in each room is also lost
2 PlAYER GAME RULES
How To play The Mansky Caper with two players has its own special rules. The game introduces a driver, but maintains most standard rules of the game. Each player alternates turns as the driver with the following rules.
During setup, deal three character cards: one to each player and one to the getaway car that counts as the driver. The driver gets all the normal starting stuff just as if they were another player.
If the driver is at the car, it moves to the same room as the player with the most un-stashed loot and opens the safe there. In a tie, look to who has more keys. If both players are at the getaway car, the driver skips their turn.
If the driver ever has 10 unstashed loot or more, they must move to the getaway car to stash, otherwise the driver stays in their current room and takes from the safe.
GAME CONTENTS
- 10x Room Cards
- 1x Getaway Car Card
- 8x Character Pawns
- 8x Character Cards
- 12x Stands
- 5x Safes
- 144x Coins
- 32x Danger-Danger! Tokens
- 78x Loot Tokens
- 60x Gems
- 1x Danger-Danger! Die
- 1x Loot Bag
- 6x Stash Bags
- 32x Gasp! Tokens
- 1x Supply Box
- 1x Getaway Car
- 6x Favor Markers
- 30x Gasp! Cards
HOW TO PLAY THE MANSKY CAPER – IN CLOSING
We hope you can now say you know how to play The Mansky Caper. If you are looking for a fun caper adventure with plenty of player interaction, this one might be for you. A very light game that is about taking chances and pushing you luck, this title is light and breezy. There are many components and steps to play, but don’t be intimidated, learning how to play The Mansky Caper is no trouble at all.
