CALLING ALL AGENTS! The existence of the X-Files teeters on the brink of oblivion, and along with it the world as we know it. Through the schemer known as the Cigarette Smoking Man, the nefarious Syndicate moves to shut down this unique FBI division, which poses the biggest threat to exposing its global conspiracy. As a special agent, you are tasked with crisscrossing the United States in a race against the clock, investigating cases of unexplained phenomenon. To save the X-Files, collect enough evidence to close these cases and uncover the Syndicate’s secrets along the way. But beware, our enemies will present us with numerous obstacles and seek to destroy important evidence at every turn. TRUST NO ONE... GAME PLAY OVERVIEW In X-Files: the Board Game, 1 player takes on the role of one of the Syndicate’s key agents, the Cigarette Smoking Man, and tries to conceal evidence of extraterrestrial visits to Earth, while 1-4 other players become Mulder, Scully, and the rest of the X-Files team trying to uncover evidence before the Syndicate can bury it forever. - - 2 COMPONENTS Rulebook(1) Board(1) Agent Pawns(4) Agent Credentials(4) Plastic Syndicate Screen(1) Stands(4) 1 "Sometimes they come in real low, and "A lie, Mr. Mulder, is most convincingly they just put on the skidders right...…" hidden between two truths." "FactTHE is we've JERSEY got a cannibalized DEVIL body in New Jersey. Someone or something out there is hungry." QUESTION WITNESS HIDING THE TRUTH 0 Each Agent that investigates Investigate 2, +1 for every other When revealed, this card has no this X-File suffers 1 wound effect. 5 afterwards. Agent in this region. X-Files Agent Syndicate Cards(65) Cards(50) Cards(50) Cigarette Evidence Agent Tokens(20) Tokens(40) Token(1) Influence Token(40) Jigsaw Puzzle Wound Progress Syndicate Piece Tokens(9) Tokens(20) Tokens(40) Token(1) - - 3 GENERAL SETUP 1. Choose Sides: Choose one player (usually the most experienced player) to be the Syndicate player. All other players are Agent players. The Agent players are working together against the Syndicate player and either win or lose as a group. 2. Set Up Board and Decks: Place the board in the center of the table. Separate the Agent, Syndicate, and X-Files cards into their respective decks and shuffle them. Place the three decks facedown on the spaces indicated on the board. 3. Prepare Evidence Bag: Place the Evidence tokens (but not the Cigarette tokens) in the Evidence Bag and shake it up. 4. Prepare Token Banks: Separate the Influence tokens, Progress tokens, Jigsaw Puzzle Piece tokens, and Wound tokens into piles, and place them where all players can reach them. 5. Place both the Agent and Syndicate token on their appropriate trackers on the board. 6. Open Initial X-Files: Draw a number of X-Files cards equal to the number of Agents and place them in their respective region on the map. The Northeast, West, and Midwest regions can contain at most one X-Files card each, while the South can contain two X-Files. If a region is full and you draw another X-File belonging to that region, simply discard that card (placing it face down on the bottom of the X-Files deck) and draw again until you get enough X-Files on the board. 7. Individual Setup: The Syndicate player now performs the steps listed under “Syndicate Player Setup” below, while each Agent player performs the steps listed under “Agent Player Setup” below. 8. Time to Get Started: After the individual setup is done, play begins with the Agent player seated to the Syndicate player’s left. After each player completes their turn, play passes to the left. Note: Mulder is most useful to the Agents early in the turn, while Scully is better later in the turn, so you may wish to arrange the seating accordingly. SYNDICATE PLAYER SETUP 1. Sit so that you can easily reach all parts of the board, since you will be interacting with it the most. 2. Take the Syndicate Screen and the Cigarette tokens. Place the screen in front of you and put the Cigarette tokens behind it. 3. Draw 5 Syndicate cards, then collect Influence tokens equal to the number of Agents. You may place any or all of your cards facedown onto the board in the Syndicate spaces connected to the X-Files cards in play. If this is your first game, then just try to make sure that each X-Files card has at least one facedown Syndicate card attached to it for now – as you play the game you’ll start to better understand how to decide where to place your Syndicate cards. AGENT PLAYER SETUP 1. Choose an Agent and take that Agent’s credentials and the corresponding Agent pawn. Place your Agent credentials in front of yourself and your Agent pawn in the Northeast region space of the board. 2. Draw a hand of 5 Agent cards and collect 3 Influence tokens. Note on 2-Player Games: In a 2-player game, the Agent player should play 2 Agents instead of 1, keeping their Influence and hands of cards separate from each other. A number of cards and mechanics depend on teamwork between the X-Files Agents, so playing with only one X-Files Agent will result in a less enjoyable game experience overall. - - 5 OVERVIEW OF PLAY During the game, the X-Files Agents will move around the map, playing their Agent cards to investigate the X-Files and uncovering evidence when they solve X-Files. They will then spend this evidence to assemble pieces of Mulder’s poster, representing their progress in uncovering the Syndicate. The Syndicate player, on the other hand, will place Syndicate cards facedown on the map, attached to the X-Files, in order to make it more difficult for the Agents to solve them. In addition, as the Syndicate player conceals evidence, Cigarette tokens are added to the Evidence Bag that can slow the Agents’ investigation. While the Agents must work quickly to solve X-Files in order to win the game, all the Syndicate player must ultimately do in order to win is delay the Agents long enough. After all, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.” WINNING THE GAME The X-Files Agents uncover evidence by solving X-Files as they appear on the map. They spend this evidence in order to assemble pieces of Mulder’s “I want to believe.” poster. If they assemble all 9 pieces of the poster, the X-Files Agents win the game as a group. The Syndicate player, on the other hand, conceals evidence at the start of each of his turns for every unsolved X-File still on the map. Concealed evidence is placed behind the Syndicate Screen. If the Syndicate player ever conceals 25 total evidence, the concealed evidence is revealed, and the Syndicate player immediately wins, shutting down the X-Files for good. AN AGENT’S TURN As an Agent, take the following steps on your turn. They are described in more detail after the summary below: 1. Move or Consult Another Agent: Either move your Agent pawn to an adjacent region of your choice or trade 1 card with another Agent in your current region. 2. Plan or Act: Next, either collect 3 Influence tokens or play 1 card from your hand. 3. Replenish: Finally, draw 1 Agent card and add it to your hand. You may have any number of Agent cards in your hand. Step 1: Move or Consult Another Agent At the start of your turn, you may either: A) Move your Agent pawn to an adjacent region, or B) Trade 1 card with another Agent in your current region. If you do not wish to either move or consult another Agent, you don’t have to do either. 1A. Moving In order to investigate an X-File, your Agent pawn must be in the same region as that X-File, so you’re going to have to move around a fair amount during the game. To move, simply pick up your Agent pawn and place it in a region that is touching the region it is currently in. In general, this means that you may move from any region to any other region except from West to Northeast, and vice versa. - - 6 1B. Consulting Another Agent In order to consult with another Agent, choose another Agent player whose Agent pawn is in the same region as your Agent pawn. Then, you give that player 1 card from your hand and that player must give you 1 card from their hand. Agents may show each other their hand of cards at any time, though they may want to be careful about what they allow the Syndicate player to see and/or overhear. You cannot force another Agent player to trade with you – they must agree to do so. Step 2: Plan or Act After moving or consulting another Agent, you may either: A) Plan, collecting 3 Influence tokens, or B) Act, playing a card from your hand. 2A. Planning When you choose to plan, simply collect 3 Influence tokens from the pile of Influence tokens. If there are fewer Influence tokens than that available, then simply take all remaining Influence tokens from the pile. If there are no Influence tokens left in the pile, then you cannot collect any more until a player spends some. Influence is used to play Agent cards from your hand, and if you find that you don’t have enough to pay for the cards you want to play, you should plan in order to gain more Influence.