Overview

One player is Mr. Jack, the other player is the Investigator.

Over at most 8 rounds, the Investigator will try to find the identity of Mr. Jack, while Mr. Jack tries to collect six Hourglasses.

Turn

There are 4 turns to a round, alternating between the Jack player and the Investigator player

Investigator starts on odd rounds, Jack starts on even rounds

Whoever starts gets 1 action, the opponent 2, then the starter gets 1 again

The actions available are randomized for odd rounds, then flipped to the other side in even rounds, thus across 2 rounds ALL actions will be played

After each round, Mr. Jack declares if the Investigator can see them, causing some suspects to be eliminated

Actions

Holmes/Watson/Toby - These work the same way, and cause that particular investigator to be moved 1 or 2 spaces clockwise around the board, multiple investigators can share the same space

Joker - The player chooses one investigator to move 1 space clockwise, Jack player also has the option to not move anyone

Rotation - The player can turn a tile 90 or 180 degrees, if two of these actions are available during the same round then the same tile can NOT be picked on both occasions

Exchange - switch the positions of two tiles but do NOT change their orientation

Alibi - If Investigator uses this, draw an Alibi card publicly, declare that character innocent and flip them down, any hourglasses on them are lost. If Jack uses this, draw an Alibi card secretly, and add the hourglasses depicted in it to their total.

Witness Appeal

Once the four turns of the round are over, it's time to find out what the Investigator knows

All tiles on the grid are made up of pathways which may or may not connect, there may even not be an entrance pathway on the exterior of the grid

EACH investigator (Holmes/Watson/Toby) is checked to see which characters are visible in a direct straight line from their origin, i.e. no peaking round corners or through walls. This could be zero!

Based on which characters are visible, Mr. Jack declares whether they are one of them or not, but not which one

If Jack is none of them, Jack takes the current turn token as an hourglass token to add to their supply, and all visible characters are flipped down to their innocent side

If Jack is one of them, Investigator takes the current turn token and flips all the NOT visible into innocents

Game End

If you are the Investigator, you win immediately if after Witness Appeal only one suspect remains on the suspect side, regardless of whether an investigator can see them or not

If you are Mr. Jack, you win immediately if after Witness Appeal you have collected 6 hourglasses between tokens AND symbols on secret Alibi cards

It is possible for both players to achieve their win conditions at the same time, as both are checked during Witness Appeal

If it is the 8th round, Investigator wins if they can see Jack, Jack wins if they are not visible

If it is pre-8th round, the game continues until either the Investigator manages to make Jack visible (Investigator win) or if Jack remains hidden until the 8th round (Jack win)