Guide to A Study in Emerald 2nd Edition One-Use – This card is removed from the game after being

played. This ONLY occurs if you use the card for its TEXT
SET-UP EFFECT. Any One-Use card with VP on it is placed near your
* Take the 9 City cards and place each in its named space. Secret Identity after playing – it still counts potentially for VP
* Take the 9 Royalty cards and place each as indicated on the at the end of the game.
card.
* Shuffle the Game cards. Draw and place 3 / 4 / 5 cards in SEQUENCE OF PLAY
each space for 2p or 3p / 4p / 5p. Shuffle each spaces stack Play commences with the 1st player and continues
and place facedown with the top card of each stack face-up. clockwise. On your turn, you perform 2 actions. Once you
* If a Royalty card is turned face-up, slide it to its Royalty slot have completed 2 actions, you draw from your deck back up
above or below the space and then turn over the next card. to 5 cards.
* Place 1 Track marker on each of the 0 spaces of the
Restorationist and Loyalist tracks. If your draw deck is exhausted, shuffle your discards to form
* Each player takes a color of components – 10 Agents, 10 a new deck. In MOST cases, cards you play are placed in
Influence cubes, 1 VP disc, and 10 Starting cards. Each your discard pile.
player then places 5 of their Influence cubes in Limbo.
* Each player places the VP disc on the 0 space of the VP ACTIONS
track. 1 - Place Influence Cubes (Cube with down arrow): This
* Each player shuffles their 10 Starting cards, forming their action allows you to place Influence cubes on the board.
personal draw deck, and then draws the top 5 cards to make The main reason for doing so is to allow you to claim cards
their starting hand. (though it may also be to allow you to carry out or block an
* Shuffle the 6 Secret Identity cards and deal 1 to each assassination).
player. Players look at their Secret Identity and set it aside.
This now tells them which side they are on for the game. To perform, play 1 or more cards with the symbol. Take
* Each player takes 3 Sanity tokens and places them on top Influence cubes equal to the number of symbols from your
of their Secret Identity card. AVAILABLE STOCK (NOT Limbo) and place them in ONE City
* Randomly determine 1st Player. Starting with 1st Player, of your choice. There is NO limit to the number of cubes
each player places an Agent in one of the City spaces. Once that can go in a City and cubes from different players may go
done, repeat in REVERSE player order so that each player in the same box.
will have 2 Agents on the board. You MAY have more than 1
Agent in the SAME City. You CANNOT deliberately play more cards than you need to.
* Place the 6 Zombie pieces and Sanity die within reach. The only time you play less cubes than symbols is if you
don’t have enough cubes in supply (due to a card with 2
Cards symbols).
Each card can only EVER be played for ONE TYPE of symbol
on it OR the text effect in the text box. 2 - Claim 1 Card (Cards with 1st on it): This action allows
you to take ONE card from the board and place it on your
Action symbols are on the top left and symbols related to discard pile.
VP, Bomb points, and Sanity are on the right.
To perform, play ONE card with the symbol. You can claim a
Text Boxes – Headings card from a Game Card space if you have MORE pieces in
Action – Playing the card counts as 1 of your 2 actions. the associated City space than ANY other SINGLE player
AND at least ONE of those pieces is an Influence cube.
Free Action – Playing the card does NOT count as 1 of your 2
actions. You can play as many ‘free actions’ as you wish on You CANNOT claim a card with ONLY Agents. You CANNOT
your turn, INCLUDING before performing your 1st action. claim a card if you are tied with another player, EVEN if ALL
the player’s other pieces are Agents.
Interrupt – This card can be played during ANOTHER
player’s turn to block an action against you. If you play an You take the card and place it in your discard pile. Place ALL
interrupt, then you draw a replacement card after doing so. of your Influence cubes in Limbo. Influence cubes belonging
You ALWAYS start your turn with 5 cards in hand. to other players are placed in their Available Stock.

Benefit – This card is played to modify an action. If the card you claimed have an Agent symbol at the top,
place one (or two, e.g. Peter Rachkovsky) of your Agent
pieces in the City space from where you took the card.
If the card is marked with VP (gray, pink, or green hexes positions of the 2 markers – these will be adjusted based on
with a number), you score them IMMEDIATELY upon your Secret Identity at game end.
claiming the card. You MIGHT lose these at game end based
on your Secret Identity. 6 – Perform Assassination (A in Star): This action allows
assassinations.
If the card is marked with the Sanity symbol (yellow circle
with swirl), then you roll the Sanity die. If the result is an To perform, you MUST play a card with the symbol. You can
Insanity symbol, remove ONE Sanity token from your Secret then target either another Agent or a Royalty card in a
Identity card – Sanity will be described later. Royalty slot in the City you wish to perform the action in.

You MAY claim more than one card in this action. You can You can ONLY perform this action in a City space where you
play multiple cards with the symbol and claim cards the have more pieces (including Influence cubes) than any other
same way as circumstances allow. This is still counted as single player and one of your pieces MUST be an agent.
ONE action, even though you are taking more than one
card. To complete the action, you MUST show the correct number
of Bomb Points (bomb symbol). Each Agent you have in the
3 - Retrieve Influence Cubes (Cube with up Arrow): This City is worth 1 Bomb Point. Each card that you play that has
action allows you to return Influence cubes from Limbo to Bomb symbols, is worth Bomb Points equal to the number
your Available Stock. symbols. You do NOT count Bomb symbols on the card used
to assassinate. You may NOT deliberately overpay.
To perform, play 1 or more cards with the symbol. Take
Influence cubes from the board equal to the number of To assassinate an Agent, you must match the value (number
symbols and place back in your Available Stock. in orange burst) above the city space with Bomb Points.

You can take cubes from either Limbo or City spaces. Unlike To assassinate Royalty, you must match the value (number in
the Place Influence Cubes action, you MAY retrieve cubes orange burst) on the Royalty card. MUST ROLL SANITY – if
from MULTIPLE places on the board in a single action. you lose sanity, you ALSO remove an agent from location
and place in your available stock.
Again, you may NOT deliberately overpay.
The card that you played to allow the assassination action
4 – Move Agents (Railroad Track): This action allows you to is REMOVED from play, NOT discarded to your discard pile.
move Agents around the board, where they can be helpful Cards used for Bombs are NOT removed from play – they
in claiming cards and performing assassinations. are played in the discard pile UNLESS stated otherwise.

To perform, play 1 or more cards with the symbol. For each If you assassinate another Agent, remove another player’s
symbol played, you can move one of your Agents from one Agent in the City where you are performing the action. If
City space to ANY other City space. You can ONLY move the card you played has iconography (Agent & VP), place the
Agents on the board, not in Available Stock. card near your Secret Identity and place the Agent on top of
the Agent symbol. You then score the VP – which you may
There is NO limit to the amount of Agents that can be in a lose at the end of the game based on your Secret Identity.
City space and you may NOT deliberately overpay.
If the card you played does NOT have the iconography, you
5 – Move Markers (Green or Pink Arrow with #): The return the assassinated Agent to its owner’s Available Stock.
Loyalist and Restorationist tracks in the middle of the board
are the focus of this action. Finally, you remove ALL of your Influence cubes from the
City where the assassination was performed and place them
To perform, play 1 or more cards with these symbols, then in Limbo. ALL Influence cubes belonging to other players in
move on the track accordingly. You MAY play cards to move the City are removed and returned to their owners’
BOTH markers or move a marker more than once. Neither Available Stock.
marker can move higher than 10 (this automatically triggers
the end of the game). In this case, ALL markers are moved You MAY perform MORE than one assassination in a single
BEFORE the game ends. action. Each assassination requires you to play a card with
the symbol on it and each must be resolved in order. An
After moving, adjust VP to reflect their new positions. ALL Agent piece can be used in MULTIPLE assassinations, both to
players score the relative DIFFERENCE between the allow it and contribute its Bomb Point value.
7 – Discard Cards: You can use this action to discard 1 or  A player reaches or exceeds 28 / 24 / 22 / 20 VP in a
more cards from your hand to your discard pile. You do NOT 2p / 3p / 4p / 5p game.
pick up any more cards until the END of your turn.  One or both markers on the Loyalist/Restorationist
tracks reaches the 10 space.
8 – Card Action: Many cards allow special actions. The card  As soon as one Restorationist player is forced to
will state ‘Action’ on it indicating that it needs 1 of your 2 reveal their Secret Identity, which will occur if they
actions. If a card is just marked ‘Action’, it goes to your lose all of their Agents from the board or their last
discard pile after use. If it is marked ‘One-use Action’, then Sanity token.
you REMOVE the card from play after playing it.
Once the game ends, ALL players reveal their Secret
If the card gained you VP in any manner, either when you Identities.
claimed it or because you have just played it, then you place
it near your Secret Identity card. You do NOT lose points All players now adjust their VP scores after taking their
marked on it because you have used its One-Use function. Secret Identity into account. If the game ended due to VP,
the game STILL ends even if VP adjustments put someone
9 – Pass: Sometimes you have no other option but to pass. below the game end target.

Your Secret Identity Loyalist players retain ALL Loyalist and Neutral VP and lose
You MUST reveal your Secret Identity if: any Restorationist VP. Loyalist players retain VP on any
cards used for assassinating Agents IF the Agent piece
 Your LAST remaining Agent piece on the board is belongs to a Restorationist player. Otherwise, these points
assassinated are lost.

OR Restorationist players retain ALL Restorationist and Neutral

VP and lost any Loyalist VP.
 You lose your LAST remaining Sanity token from the
card With regards to the Loyalist and Restorationist tracks, the
highest marker determines which side retains those points.
If you reveal and are a Loyalist, you IMMEDIATELY add Thus, if the Restorationist track was 2 points higher, ALL
Agent pieces to the board to bring your total up to 3. You Loyalist players would lose 2 points.
may place these in ANY City spaces of your choice. The
game then continues as normal. Finally, after making adjustments, look to see which player
has the fewest VP. ALL PLAYERS ON THE SAME SIDE LOSE 5
If you reveal and are a Restorationist, the game ENDS VP. In case of a tie for the lowest score, the Loyalist player
IMMEDIATELY. will be regarded as having the lowest score.

Scoring Victory Points The player with the most VP is the winner. In case of a tie,
VP come in 3 types – Loyalist, Restorationist, and Neutral. the Restorationist player will be regarded as having the
This distinction is ONLY important and the end of the game. higher score. If there is still a tie, tied players are declared
joint winners.
VP are adjusted when:

 You claim a card with VP marked on the upper part

of the card.
 When markers are moved on the Loyalist or
Restorationist tracks.
 You play a card that has VP in the text box – this card
should be placed near your Secret Identity.
 You assassinate an Agent using a card that awards
VP for doing so.

ENDING THE GAME

The game ends when ONE of the following conditions are
met: