The Botch Rules

The Botch is intended to be played with a copy of the printable reference sheet available to all players. Please feel free to print/copy this sheet as necessary for personal use with your copy of the game.

Setup

First time here? Alright then. We’re going to run a Basic version of the game. You need three to five players to get started. Grab these five roles:

• The Boss
• The Heavy
• The Cop
• The Courier
• The Schmuck

And then grab these five items:

• The Evidence
• The IOU
• The Gun
• The Crowbar
• The Dog

Everyone gets to have a look at the cards at the start of the game. There’s also a Quick Reference sheet that anybody can check during play. Don’t be a jerk if somebody needs a refresher!

Turn all the cards face down and shuffle each group. Then, give everyone at the table a role card, then an item card, and two diamonds.

Everyone can peek at their face-down cards. Then, starting with the youngest player, The Botch begins.

First Turn

At the start of your first turn, you have to Swap your item with someone else’s. To Swap, take an item card from another player (if that card is face-up, turn it face down). Hold that card, and your item card, somewhere out of sight (under the table works well). You can’t look at them either!

Now that nobody knows which card is which, return one card to yourself, and one to the other player. You might have exchanged cards, or you might have left things exactly the same—nobody gets to know. But you know. You haven’t forgotten already, have you?

Once you’ve done that, flip your Role card face-up to indicate you’ve had your first turn, then pass the turn to the player on your left.

After That

After the first turn, you can choose to do ONE of the following on each of your turns. Whichever action you choose, it takes the entirety of your turn. Choose wisely!

• You can Look at your item card. You don’t have to show that card to anyone else.
• You can Swap items, as on turn one.
• You can use an Action described on your Role or Item card, if there is one. If the Action requires that you reveal the card, you can’t use the Action unless the card is currently face-down.
• If you’re playing the Advanced game, you can try to ID someone who’s got a Hidden Role. We’ll cover that in Advanced Rules.
• If you have ten diamonds (or have fulfilled a condition on your Item or Role card) you can declare that you’re going to Win the game. You haven’t won yet, though! Things might still go wrong. See the Winning and Losing section for details.

Face Down Cards

Everyone has cards that are turned face-down in The Botch. Some cards will mention flipping them, revealing them, or showing them.

Flipping a card means you turn it over, let everybody see it, then turn it down again. Flipping cards is meant to be a way to prove something, but doesn’t mean you’re stuck with it being displayed.

Revealing a card means you turn it over and leave it turned over. As long as it’s turned face up, you can’t swap it away or use Actions that require you to reveal it.

When you flip or reveal a card, you’re considered to be Showing it to any specific players you’re interacting with right now—usually someone targeted by your Action, or somebody who has called your Bluff. If there is no specific player, you’re not considered to be showing the card to anybody (even though everybody gets to see it).

Now, you may have noticed, thanks to that first swap, nobody is completely sure what other people are holding. This is where it gets messy.

Bluffing and Calling

When your item is face-down, nobody else knows what it is. Chances are, you don’t know either! So why not just claim that it’s whatever you like?

When you have the chance to use an item, you can claim that your card is any item in the game. It doesn’t matter if you think you’re telling the truth, or lying, or have no idea— if nobody calls your bluff, your card works as that item.

Calling Bluffs

If you think a player is lying about their item card, you can Call their Bluff. First, you’ll need to provoke them with some proof: you have to claim that you have the very same item they’re “using”. Somebody is definitely lying here! To find out who, you both Flip your item cards.

• If they are lying, whatever they were trying to do doesn’t work. They have to pay a diamond into the Bank, then Reveal their card.
• If you are lying, you have to pay a diamond to the Bank.
• Neither of you have the item? Then you’re both lying. The bank just got a lot richer!

Threatening

Some cards (usually weapons) and abilities let you Threaten someone. A threat is a special Action that lets you shake down other players! Just pick someone, and tell them what you’re using to threaten them, and demand a diamond.

As with other Actions, you could be lying about your card. It’s up to your victim to decide whether or not they believe you.

• If the victim believes you, they can just give you the diamond and be done with it.
• If the victim refuses to believe you, you have a standoff. Reveal your item card.
• If your item is something you can use to threaten, the victim gives you two diamonds. If it’s a Weapon, you also Hurt the victim.
• If you were lying, you have to pay the bank a diamond. The victim escapes!

When you make a threat, other players can Call Your Bluff just like with any other Action. Your victim can’t, though. Maybe they need to make a new friend real fast!

Hurt and Knockouts

Some cards let you Hurt people. When you Hurt someone, give them a Hurt marker.

If you have two Hurt markers, you lose the game. Your item and your diamonds are lost— they don’t go back to the bank or anything. That’s what happens when someone gets dropped off the pier, get it?

The Bank

The Bank is an area not controlled directly by any player. It contains no diamonds when the game starts, but it won’t stay that way for long.

The Bank is separate from the bulk of the diamonds (let’s call that “the pile”). The rules will tell you when you need to take diamonds from, or give them to, the bank (or another player). Aside from these special cases, all diamonds come from or go into the pile.

Winning and Losing

You think you’ve won the game? You think you’ve got the goods? Well… that comes with problems.

A player wins the game if they get Ten Diamonds. Some roles or items describe other ways to win, but everybody can rely on good old ten diamonds. It will, however, take your turn to do it.

When you think you can Win the game, you have to use your turn to declare it. So, even if you think you’ve got the victory in hand, there’s a risk someone can snatch it away at the last minute. Also, you have to put your cards on the table—literally. You have to reveal all your hidden cards. That might mean there’s a rude shock waiting under your item, so be careful!

If neither your cards nor the other players can stop you at the last moment, you win the game. Congratulations!

Oh yeah— you can also win by default. That is, if everyone else loses! Losing is definitely easier than winning— heck, you can do it automatically if you’re Hurt twice. Some items and roles can make it even easier for you. You’re welcome.

Advanced Rules

Once you’ve played the Basic version of the game, you might notice there are all these other cards in the game you could play with. And they look cool! Who are these people, what’s their deal, right? Right? Let’s see about that.

In your games, you can mix up roles and items however you like— use whatever you like best! However, it’s best that you don’t do anything too odd for anyone’s first time. That’s why those Basic roles are there— they’re meant to help you learn the game rules without having to deal with the more complex corner-cases.

Adding Roles and Items

There are a bunch of extra roles you can add, but some of them are a bit… weird. It’s worth checking to make sure that cards you want to use work well together.

• If a cards refers directly to one of the basic cards, it’s best to include the basic card. For example, The Detective and The Rival don’t really do anything if The Boss isn’t in play.
• Some items, like The Shame, are straight-up bad! They’re meant to be things you can sneak into someone else’s pockets to undermine them. Make sure everybody knows what’s in play, so the possibilities and risks are clear.
• Any hidden information you add to the game will add even more chaos. If you and your friends are into that, great! But if that sounds exhausting, maybe go easy on the Hidden roles in particular.

Hidden Roles

Hidden Roles are like the Open roles, except you don’t turn them face up on your first turn. You can look at your own Hidden role any time, but other people can’t.

You don’t need to add all the hidden roles at once; sometimes it’s best if there are only two or three. For maximum tension, you can keep people from seeing which hidden roles are in play. If you’re feeling really spicy, what about a game where The Boss is the only Open role going?

Who can you trust?

Bluffing about Roles

Like open roles, some hidden roles allow additional player Actions. Sometimes the action will tell you to reveal your role, but otherwise it stays hidden— just like when you use an item Action.

This means that having a hidden role allows you to Bluff about your role, just like you can with items. Of course, anyone at the table can Call Your Bluff if they think you’re lying.

A player might also use their turn to ID you, if they choose. Both cases follow the same rules. First, the other player must pay you a diamond and say whom they think you are. Then, you show them—and only them—your role card.

If they guessed wrong, they must return it face-down. If they guessed right, they have a choice:

• They can reveal your role card (it will stay revealed for the rest of the game). If this proves that you can’t perform an Action you were attempting, that action fails.
• They can hand it back face-down, so it remains secret from everybody but them.

Either way, though— you’ve got their diamond.

Makin’ Deals

Look… The Botch is a game of information, threats, and high-stakes gambling with your teeth as collateral. If we assumed you weren’t going to do some bargaining, we’d be doing you a disservice. When some gal comes knockin’ for your diamonds with a crowbar in hand, you’re maybe not gonna handle things the ‘conventional’ way.

So yeah, you can make deals. You have to do what the rules say, but you can do a whole lot more, too. See a way to help someone who’s about to die? Squeeze ‘em for the diamonds they got left. Got somebody gunning for you? Cozy up to a stronger player. You can bribe, bargain and cajole as much as the other players let you.

…And that means you you can back out of a deal, too. Hose someone who had an agreement with you. Just plain out stiff someone on a payment. You can extort, backstab and straight-up lie to whoever you like.

Of course, doing stuff like that’s going to get your door knocked on…

Watch your back, yeah?

Game Props

Since The Botch is designed to be light on your pocket in more ways than one, you’ll need to find some tokens to use as Diamonds and Hurt counters. Pretty much anything will do: coins, jellybeans, beads, counters from other games, whatever!

They don’t even need to be uniform. As long as you can tell which is the loot and which is the pain (and go for a whole game without eating them), you’re all set.

If you want something more permanent, you can order a deck of Diamond and Hurt cards from our publisher page at www.drivethrucards.com. But honestly, we think you’d be better off finding something cooler.

Of course, if you’re playing The Botch: Cryme Pays Edition, your swanky game box comes with its own pile of definitely-not-fake-diamonds and poker chip counters to serve as Hurt tokens. That is definitely something cooler!

Credits

Rules, Design & Development: Talen Lee
Illustration & Character Design: Cassandra “Requine” Marshall
Editing & Docs Design: Fox Lee

Talen Thanks: Æryn, Georgia, Kes, Ross, Fox
Cass Thanks: Aaron and Talen
They both thank: Eu, Ty, Casey, Leastwise, Purr, and Hit-Parade
With extra special fictional thanks to: Havelock, Ryan, Jericho, Val, Grace, Elise, Sarah, Anna, Hannibal