Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
The Arch Thief is dead, and the Pact of Thieves is broken. In accord with tradition, the leaders of the major bands of thieves have only until dawn to gather the wealth that will prove them worthy to be the new Arch Thief.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
The Arch Thief is dead, and the Pact of Thieves is broken. In accord with tradition, the leaders of the major bands of thieves have only until dawn to gather the wealth that will prove them worthy to be the new Arch Thief. They must steal from strangers and fellow thieves alike, avoid the watch, keep their gold close, and keep a very close eye on their rivals. Deck of Thieves is a fast-playing, tactical, cut-throat card game of hand-management for two to four players (up to eight players when using two game sets). Each player receives an identical deck of cards. In addition to Gold Coin cards, the action cards in the game each have up to three effects: Ability, Activate, and/or Reaction. In turn, each player may play a card to his play area and apply its Ability or Activate a card already in his play area from a previous turn. On another player's turn, players may play a card with a Reaction effect to counter an opponent's card. In addition to these three actions, during their turns, players may move Gold Coin cards around within their play areas (placing a Gold Coin card on top of a Coin Purse card for protection, for example). Example cards include Dagger, Cutpurse, Pickpocket, Lock Box, Guild Hall, Traveling Merchant, Lock Pick, Thieves' Tools, and the Dirty Thief. Using these and other cards' Abilities, Activates, and Reactions, players both seek to steal the Gold Coin cards from their opponents--adding them to their play area--and protect their own Gold Coin cards from being stolen. Once a player has 7 Gold Coin cards in his play area, the game ends after one more complete set of turns or when one player is completely out of cards. Each card in the game has a gold value; the player with the highest gold value wins the game!