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Gravediggers box art
2005 Ranked #14,212

Gravediggers

A hidden-information bluffing game has players invest coins to rob cemeteries and finish with the most money. Bidding least takes loot first, but guards, bandits, and widows can upend every raid.

Family Games Card Game Horror Auction/Bidding Betting and Bluffing

Players

2-5

Play time

Not listed

Age

10+

Complexity

1.5/5

Rating

5.74

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.1/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.6/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.4/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.7/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

In Gravediggers (or Bank Robbers), players are competing to earn the most money by robbing graves (or banks). It's a hidden information, bluffing, and deduction family game.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

In Gravediggers (or Bank Robbers), players are competing to earn the most money by robbing graves (or banks). It's a hidden information, bluffing, and deduction family game. During setup, each player receives a hand of 5 cards and 10 coins (which are hidden). Regardless of the number of players, there are always five cemeteries on the table which each receive one card at the start of the game. On a player's turn, the player reveals one of their action tiles and performs the action on it. There are four possible actions: 1. Play a card - The player plays a card from their hand face down to one of the five cemeteries and then draws back up to five cards. 2. Look at one card - The player looks at one face down card on one of the cemeteries (while not showing it to other players). 3. Reveal one card - The player has to reveal and leave face up one of the cards laying down in one of the cemeteries. 4. Rob the cemetery - The player has to choose which cemetery the players will rob. When robbing the cemetery, each player chooses the amount of money that they wish to invest in robbing it. Then all amounts are revealed simultaneously. All the cards that lay face down in the cemetery are revealed and the amount of money that can be robbed is shown. The player who bid the least takes his loot first. They take the money invested and the same amount from the cemetery following by other players. If there is insufficient money for one of the players, they take nothing from the cemetery, and so do the players after them. Apart from money cards, there are also special cards which change the outcome of the robbery: Guard - Prevent the players from stealing the money. Everyone who invested 0 in this robbery receives 5 regardless of the money in the cemetery. Bandit - Prevent the players from stealing the money and also steal the money invested in this robbery by all players. Accomplice - Reverse the order of players taking the money. Widow - Cancels all other special cards. When the deck is depleted, play continues until one of the players uses all of their cards. After that, the players rob all the cemeteries one after another and then the game is over. The player who earned the most coins is the winner.

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Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

Rulebooks, player aids, FAQs, and solo resources.

No files imported yet.

Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2–5
Best with
4–5
Play time
25 min
Age
10+
Complexity
1.5/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
Reiner Knizia

Artists

2
Miguel Coimbra Arthur Wagner

Publishers

1
Piatnik

Linked items

No published linked games yet.