I designed the variants below in order to rectify a few issues I (and, it seems, others) have perceived with the gameplay of Android. For the most part, these problems are related to the dissonance between theme and gameplay, which is a big shame for a game that rests so heavily on its theme. Namely:

Why do players receive 4VPs for completing 5-in-a-row on the conspiracy, which has no relevance to anything?

Why does playing dark cards on another player affect your investigator’s “karma” positively?

Why does each investigator’s “day” take place consecutively rather than concurrently?

And most importantly:

Why is it that the characters are conducting a murder investigation but the players are setting up a frame job?

Most of the variants listed below are designed to address these issues. They are for the most part modular, and can be used independently according to personal taste. Where the variants are required to be used together in order to retain balanced gameplay, I have grouped them together under main headings. I have included a short section attached to each variant explaining why you might use it as well as the rationale behind its design. These notes are in italics and can be ignored for speedier reading.

I have also included a few variants that are

designed to address some balance issues I have seen arise in my games, as well as some that are designed simply to enhance the gameplay experience. Again, use each of these variants as you see fit.

Any changes from the previous version of these rules are highlighted in red.

So to begin, the biggest theme disparity of them all…

The MurderThis variant is for anyone who is dissatisfied with the “players as movie directors” explanation given for why there is no real murderer in the game, and that the players are essentially choosing (or framing) who committed the crime. It retains much of the same gameplay as the original rules while also allowing for the players to “deduce” (in a loose sense) who the real murderer might be and receive VPs for doing so. In this way, the players as well as the characters will have a real “hunch” about who the murderer might be, and feel a greater sense of taking part in an actual murder investigation

The rule changes required for this variant are as follows:

Hunches

At the start of the game, each investigator is dealt one innocent hunch only. This denotes a witness who the investigator knows is innocent and must protect throughout the game. The remaining innocent hunch is placed near the suspect sheets and denotes

the murderer. The guilty hunches are also placed in a facedown pile near the suspect sheets and may not be looked at by any player unless he is performing the “Bring It All Together” action (see below).

“Bring It All Together”

Once per game, each player may visit the Scene of the Crime and spend 1 Time to “Bring It All Together”. The player may look through the pile of guilty hunches and secretly choose one to keep. This should be the suspect who the player believes to be the murderer. The player may not choose the guilty hunch that matches his innocent hunch.

Players may not discuss which guilty hunch they have claimed. They also may not discuss which guilty hunches were already missing from the pile at the time that they Brought It All Together.

End Game Scoring

At the end of the game, reveal all hunches as well as the murderer. Scoring for the murder investigation is changed like so:

The player whose innocent hunch matches the living suspect with the lowest total guilt receives 7VPs. This suspect is the key witness.

A player whose guilty hunch matches the living suspect with the highest total guilt receives 7VPs. This suspect is the convicted.

A player whose guilty hunch matches the murderer receives 7VPs. The suspect can be either alive or dead for the player to receive these VPs.

In the event where two or more suspects are tied for the most/least guilt, they are

all considered convicted/key witnesses (as appropriate) and all players with matching hunch cards score full points for those suspects.

The idea of this variant is that, as the game goes on, players should be able to figure out by the pattern of evidence placement, hits and alibis who each other player holds as their innocent hunch. Towards the end of the game, players should be able to have a “hunch” about who they think the murderer must be and claim that guilty hunch card for themselves.

Some additional rule changes are required for this system to work correctly. They are:

Evidence Tokens

All evidence tokens are considered positive value. Simply ignore the minus sign on negative value tokens.

Alibis, Surprise Witnesses, Perjury and Strong/Weak Files

At the end of the game, when calculating the guilt of each suspect, one evidence token of the highest value is removed from the suspect’s “weak” file, and one token of the highest value in the suspect’s “strong” file is doubled.

Any surprise witness token coupled with a perjury token in the same file only cancel each other out and are removed from the suspect.

Any surprise witness tokens remaining in a file “cancel” one remaining numerical token of the highest value in that file only. Any perjury tokens remaining in a file double one remaining numerical token of the highest value in that file only.

Note: All tokens are removed (due to weak files and surprise witness tokens) before

any tokens are doubled (due to strong files and perjury tokens).

Alibi tokens are still worth –5 guilt. However, they are no longer affected by perjury tokens.

Digging Deeper

Players may no longer choose to “dig deeper” when following up a lead. Instead, whenever an investigator places evidence after following up a lead, the player’s hero marker is automatically moved to the next best conspiracy tile pile.

Hits

Hits no longer immediately kill suspects once they have accumulated three hit tokens. Instead, the suspect at the end of the game with the most hit tokens on them is eliminated. If two or more suspects are tied for the most hit tokens, then all tied suspects are eliminated.

Humanity Labour

The special ability of the Humanity Labour Location may now be used to either place one hit or remove one hit from any suspect.

Errata

Anything that references guilty hunches being worth more or less points (such as the Order of Sol link on the conspiracy puzzle) refers to both choosing the correct murderer and convicting your guilty hunch.

Any card that normally allows you to look at the undealt hunch cards instead allows you to look at the unclaimed guilty hunches only. The murderer card may never be looked at by any player for any reason until the end of the game.

Other cards that require changes to conform with these rules are:

Louis

I need to walk the streets a bit – Play during your turn. Spend one street favour to look at one random unclaimed Guilty hunch. If you wish, take that hunch card and return any Guilty hunch card you already hold to the deck.

Events

Jimmy says he’s got some real juicy info for you – Move Jimmy the Snitch to the Old War Memorial (B1). The first detective to spend one of each type of normal favour there may choose another player and look at their innocent hunch. He/she may not share this information with other players.

Murders

Revenge at the Races – If the two most guilty suspects are within 5 guilt of each other when the case is closed, then they are both convicted.

Last Call at Roxie’s – At the end of the game, all suspects that do not have the least number hits on them (not including suspects without any hits) are eliminated. If there is only one suspect left alive, then that suspect is the convicted.

Freetown Fright – Any player who follows up a lead on a residential Moon location may uncover a piece of the conspiracy as well as placing a piece of evidence. The player’s hero marker is reset to the first pile of conspiracy tiles.

The ConspiracyThis variant is for those who are dissatisfied with the 5-in-a-row rule regarding the conspiracy and its related tokens. Players will work towards gaining points from every tile placed and receive bonuses for the links that they form rather than just for making an unthematic 5-in-a-row.

These rules also temper the bonuses and points associated with working on the conspiracy, which in the base rules is much preferable to devoting resources elsewhere. Now, every tile placed will be worthwhile, rather than just those that form 5-in-a-row and, to a lesser extent, those that form links.

It should be noted that this variant makes extensive use of hero markers. If players find themselves short of hero markers then use any appropriate substitute, such as coloured tokens, to represent each player.

Following Leads

The three actions available to players when following up a lead are now:

1. Place evidence2. Minor encounter3. Uncover conspiracy

The “digging deeper” action no longer exists.

Placing Evidence

Placing evidence remains the same as in the normal rules, with the exception that the player’s hero marker now also automatically moves to the next best pile of conspiracy tiles (as with the “digging deeper” action).

Minor Encounters

When following up a lead, a player may choose to have a minor encounter. This represents the detective encountering someone or something at the location that has some kind of influence on the lives of one of the detectives (even his/her own), owes the detective a favour, or is involved in one of the detective’s plots. The lead itself, however, is a bust.

When choosing to have a minor encounter, the detective checks which pile of conspiracy tiles his hero marker is currently pointing at and receives the bonus as shown on the back of those tiles (shifting/favour/baggage). No tile is drawn, but the player’s hero marker is still reset back to the lowest pile of tiles.

Uncovering the Conspiracy

If a player chooses to uncover a piece of the conspiracy, he draws a tile from the pile next to his hero marker (which is then reset back to the lowest pile of tiles) and may choose whether or not to place it on the board, as usual.

Providing the player places the tile, he has two options:

1. Gain advantage, or2. Gain knowledge

Gain advantage

If the front of the conspiracy tile shows any bonuses that the player may receive (such as hits, dropship passes, etc) then the player may claim one of those bonuses for placing the tile (i.e, if the tile shows a hit icon and a dropship pass icon then the player may either place a hit or receive a dropship pass, not both).

Gain knowledge

The player draws a number of evidence tokens from the pool, chooses one to keep facedown on his character sheet and discards the remainder back to the pool. The number of evidence tokens the player draws is dependant on which pile of conspiracy tiles his hero marker is pointing at:

• Shift pile – 1 token• Favour pile – 2 tokens• Baggage pile – 3 tokens

Once on a character sheet these tokens are known as conspiracy tokens (the conspiracy tokens as defined by the original rules – the yellow tokens with 4VP written on them – are not used in this variant). Any game effects that affect conspiracy tokens still continue to affect conspiracy tokens as

defined by the variant rules. However, any such effects will only affect the numerical value of the token – no game effect will ever make conspiracy tokens worth VPs directly.

Conspiracy tokens are never negative value. Any negative value token drawn is considered to be of identical positive value; simply ignore the minus sign. Perjury and surprise witness tokens have no value, and therefore their value cannot be increased or decreased by any modifiers (such as Raymond’s Old Flame plot).

Note that if a player chooses to gain knowledge, he does not receive any bonuses shown on the front of the conspiracy tile (such as hits, dropship passes, etc).

The players with the highest and second-highest total value in conspiracy tokens at the end of the game will score points for the conspiracy.

Forming Links

If a player places a conspiracy tile so that it forms a new link to an organisation in the conspiracy, then the player has a third option after placing the tile (instead of gaining knowledge or gaining advantage):

3. Claim discovery

Claim discovery

The player may reveal and return one (and only one) of his conspiracy tokens to the pool in order to claim the discovery of that organisation’s involvement in the conspiracy. The player places one of his hero markers on the organisation to denote his claim.

If this is the first discovery that the player has claimed, then the value of the discarded token must be at least 1. For each subsequent

discovery the player claims, the minimum value of the token increases by 1 (so the second discovery would cost 2, the third 3, etc). The player may not discard multiple tokens to pay for this cost, and the player does not receive “change” if the value of the token he discards is higher than the amount he is required to pay. A perjury or surprise witness token may be discarded to pay for any claim, regardless of the required cost.

Players may claim discovery of organisations that have already been claimed by other players (by way of forming additional links to the same organisation) and a single player may have multiple claims on the same organisation.

The Haas and Jinteki conspiracy tiles act as normal organisations and may be “claimed” when links are formed to them.

At the end of the game, when calculating bonus points obtained from links in the conspiracy, a claim on an organisation acts as one additional link to that organisation for that player only for each of his hero markers present

Example: In a 3-player game with Raymond, Rachel and Louis there are three links to the Mayor Wells space on the conspiracy board. Raymond has two claims on Mayor Wells and Rachel has one claim. For Louis, political favours will be worth 3 VPs each (due to the original three links), for Rachel they will be worth 4VPs each (three links plus one claim), and for Raymond they will be worth 5VPs each (three links plus two claims).

Conspiracy Scoring

At the end of the game, all players reveal and compare the total value of their conspiracy tokens and scoring for the conspiracy is calculated like so:

The player with the highest total conspiracy tokens scores 7VPs.

The player with the second-highest total scores 3VPs.

If more than one player ties for first place then all tied players receive 3VPs and players in second place receive nothing.

If more than one player ties for second place then those players receive nothing.

Some additional rule changes are required for this system to work correctly. They are:

“Move Lead” Bonuses

The “move lead” bonus on conspiracy tiles is changed; it is now known as “an orgy of evidence”. It now signifies that you may take one evidence token from the pool for each suspect in the game, look at those tokens, then place one on each suspect as the type of evidence shown on the conspiracy tile.

Multiple tokens may not be placed on a single suspect and all evidence tokens must be placed.

If using this variant along with the Twilight variant, then use this rule for the “move lead” bonus rather than the one listed under Twilight.

Bonus Conspiracy Tiles

This bonus on conspiracy tiles now signifies that the player may draw an additional tile of the displayed type, immediately place it and gain all bonuses on the front and back of the tile. The player may not gain knowledge or claim links from the placement of the second conspiracy tile.

If using this variant along with the Days & Time variant, then use this rule for bonus conspiracy tiles rather than the one listed under Days & Time.

Empty Conspiracy Tile Piles

Hero markers no longer “jump over” conspiracy tile piles that have been exhausted. Players’ hero markers will always reset back to the “shift” pile, even if that pile is empty. The markers will still need to move to the “favour” pile first, even if that pile is empty. The markers may continue to move on to the “baggage” pile even if that pile is empty. Simply position the markers so that they are pointing at the empty area where the pile used to stand.

Players may continue to choose to have minor encounters of types where the relevant tiles have been exhausted.

NPC Favours

NPC favours may not be counted more than once at the end of the game when calculating points from the conspiracy. The player must choose which type of favour it is.

TwilightThe rules regarding twilight and how cards are played were originally quite different to how they are in the game as it was released. The twilight track, intended to represent an investigator’s “karmic balance” in the game, was originally going to be utilised by all light cards played by an investigator as well as all dark cards played on that investigator. In this way, in order for an investigator to play light cards on themselves, they must first have dark cards played on them by an opponent (and vice versa).

This element in the game was changed as playtesters reported that it enabled too much of a feeling of persecution when playing dark cards.

I, personally, find this adjustment to the game very strange, for two main reasons:

1) In any competitive game, the idea of the game is to win, which in almost all cases includes persecuting your opponents for your own good, and2) The mechanic in the game as it is now means that the feeling of persecution is greater than with the original rules; as it is now, playing a dark card on an opponent provides zero benefit to them and grants a bonus to yourself (the ability to play more light cards). In the original rules, at least if you played a very strong dark card on an opponent you were giving them the opportunity to come back by playing one or more light cards.

As well as this, the theme of each investigator having their own “karma” in the game is broken by the new mechanic; why should something bad happening to another investigator mean that good things are more likely to happen to your investigator?

Another unthematic rule in the game related to dark cards is in regard to the fact that when an investigator enters a seedy location, he draws an opponent’s dark card. Why should this be the case? Surely entering a seedy location is supposed to represent an increased chance of danger to that investigator?

This variant addresses both of these issues by changing the rules back to their original form and causing investigators to have their own dark cards drawn when entering seedy locations (though still providing incentives to do so). It also mitigates the “feeling of persecution” reported by playtesters by making the drawing of dark cards less personal.

Playing Twilight Cards

When you play a light card on yourself, you dark-shift your investigator, as usual. However, when another player plays a dark card on you, instead of that player light-shifting their own investigator, they light-shift your investigator.

Ritzy / Seedy Locations

Whenever an investigator enters a seedy location, that player may draw a light card and their investigator must dark-shift (if possible). When an investigator enters a ritzy location, another player must draw one of that investigator’s dark cards (if possible, see “Drawing Dark Cards” below) and the investigator may light-shift (if possible).

The order that events occur in when entering a location is:

1) Light/dark shift2) Draw cards3) Play cards

Drawing Dark Cards

At the beginning of the game, each player places one of his hero markers on the board just to the left of the space that holds Floyd’s dark cards. The markers must be placed in a row running from top to bottom, with the order they are placed in determined randomly (have one player hold the markers in his hand out of sight while another player picks them out one at a time randomly). This row of markers is known as the dark card row.

Whenever a player is required to have one of his dark cards drawn, the card goes to the first eligible player whose hero marker is closest to the top of the dark card row. That player then moves his hero marker to the bottom of the row (moving all other markers up to fill the gap).

An eligible player is any player who is not currently at their hand limit, not including the player whose detective is shown on the back of the dark card.

Example: In a 5-player game, the hero markers are currently in the order Raymond, Floyd, Rachel, Louis, Caprice. Floyd enters a ritzy location, and so one of his dark cards must be drawn. Floyd checks down the row of hero markers, starting with Raymond; Raymond is at his hand limit and so is skipped. Floyd cannot draw his own dark card and so is also skipped. Rachel has space in her hand to hold another card, so she is the one to draw one of Floyd’s dark cards. Her hero marker is then moved to the bottom of the row (moving Louis and Caprice up to close the gap), meaning the markers are now in the order Raymond, Floyd, Louis, Caprice, Rachel.

Note that this does not affect card text that specifies who should draw a card (such as “the player to your left draws two of your dark cards”), nor are the hero markers used or affected when a player is permitted to draw dark cards due to the effect of a card that he played. The hero markers are used only when the drawing player is unspecified.

Light/Dark-Shifting

Whenever a player is required/allowed to light or dark-shift, that player’s twilight token moves two spaces on their twilight track instead of one. This includes shifting due to entering ritzy/seedy locations or from the bonus granted by the first pile of conspiracy tiles. It does not affect the twilight cost of cards.

Twilight Track

There are now two additional spaces on the twilight track – one at each end – meaning that if a player is completely light-shifted then an opponent can (for example) play a 6-cost card without needing to discard any cards. Simply move the twilight marker slightly off the end of the track to signify this.

Twilight Card Costs

Twilight cards no longer cost 1 Time to play; all cost zero Time (and are considered to be 0-Time actions if using the Days & Time variant).

However, players may no longer discard cards to reduce the twilight cost of a twilight card they wish to play. The entire cost of the twilight card must be “paid for” by the target player’s twilight track.

The cost of a twilight card is still reduced by 1 if it matches the target player’s current plot.

Downgrading Cards

A player may, at any time during their turn, sacrifice a light card (for 0 Time) in order to draw a dark card from the deck of the player whose hero marker is closest to the bottom of the dark card row (not including their own). Their hero marker is then moved to the bottom of the dark card row.

Moving Leads

Players are no longer required to pass leads that are being moved to the player to their right. The player following up the lead moves the lead himself.

When moving a lead, the only restriction is that the player may not move it to any location in their own district or an adjacent district. Districts on the Earth and the Moon are not considered adjacent to each other. The Beanstalk is considered adjacent to its connecting districts. The colour of the origin and destination locations is no longer relevant, and players may even place leads in locations that already contain one or more leads, if they wish.

“Move Lead” Bonuses

The “move lead” bonus on conspiracy tiles is changed. It now signifies that you may take an evidence token from the pool, look at it, and place it on any suspect as that type of evidence.

Fights

Choosing light or dark tactics in a fight no longer affects your - or any other player’s - twilight track.

Errata

Louis

She’s why I keep doing this crummy job – Play when you get in a Fight. If you choose light tactics, completely light shift. If you choose dark tactics, choose another player to completely dark shift. In either event, you cannot gain trauma from this Fight.

Floyd

Try out that new emotion algorithm, okay? – Place this card faceup in front of you. While it is in play, dark cards played against you by other players cost 1 more to play.

Murders

Revenge at the Races – Each time a player enters a seedy or ritzy location, he dark shifts by one space (after light or dark shifting as usual due to entering the location).

Days and TimeThis variant is designed to address one specific problem with the game, particularly for games with higher numbers of players: downtime. Although the variant does not reduce the actual amount of downtime overall, it reduces the apparent amount of downtime by breaking up each player’s turn into smaller chunks and interspersing them among each other.

The variant also provides a more thematic feel to the way days and time operate in the game. Rather than each investigator experiencing their game “day” sequentially, they take place concurrently. One player’s moves will immediately affect all players in a “real-time” way, rather than only affecting the next in player order.

It also reduces the “clumping effect” of leads, due to one player moving many leads at once.

Actions

Actions are now split into three types:

1) Movement actions2) Normal actions3) 0-Time actions

The different actions available to each player are categorised like so:

Movement Actions

Movement actions include:

• Movement by car• Movement by Beanstalk• Movement by dropship

Normal Actions

Normal actions include:

• All non-movement actions listed on the Time Sheet (except discarding a card, see “Ending Your Turn” below)• Spending/sacrificing Time (as required by a card or some other game effect)

0-Time Actions

0-Time Actions include:

• Ending your turn• Spending/sacrificing items• Placing baggage

“Getting A Jump On The Case”

Any player who “Gets a Jump on the Case” claims the First Player token immediately. This player is then known as Lead Detective.

Player Turns

Instead of passing the Time Sheet around, at the start of the game place it in a central location where it can be reached by everyone. At the start of each day, each player places one of their hero markers pointing at the “0” time space. As investigators use time, they move their marker up the time track (rather than down) to keep track of how much they have used.

Instead of a player taking all of their actions uninterrupted as their turn, a player’s actions will be split up across multiple turns over the course of a single day. A player’s turn now consists of:

1) One or more movement actions, then2) One action of any other type.

Therefore, a player may make multiple movement actions as the first part of their turn to move across the board quickly, but then take only one “other” action.

The order players take their turn in is determined by the position of their hero marker on the time sheet. Whichever player has so far used the least amount of time this day will be the next player to take their turn. In the case of ties (as will be the case at the start of each day), the Lead Detective (i.e, the player holding the First Player token) decides the order tied players take their turns in. The Lead Detective may not choose the same player to take a turn twice in a row.

If an investigator ever receives more time due to the effect of a card, that investigator’s hero marker is moved back down the Time Sheet towards 0. The only exceptions to this are cards that take their effect at the start of an investigator’s day – these cards simply add their Time to the investigator’s total allowance for that day. An investigator my never move his hero marker below 0 Time.

Once a player reaches their maximum time for the day, they may not take any more actions (of any kind, including 0-Time actions) or turns.

Example: Using the 3-player game example above, Raymond is the Lead Detective and decides to move first (as all players start tied on the 0 space on the Time Sheet, the Lead Detective gets to decide who takes their turn next). He moves twice to a seedy location and follows up a lead. His turn ends and he has now used 3 Time (2 for moving and 1 for following up the lead).

Rachel and Louis are now tied on 0 Time. Raymond decides that Louis should go next.

Louis’ hand is full and he wants to get rid of something to make space for a light card next turn. He decides to end his turn (a 0-Time action) in order to discard a card.

Louis and Rachel are still tied on 0 Time. However, seeing as the Lead Detective cannot choose the same player to take a turn twice in a row, Rachel must take her turn next. She moves once and follows up a lead. Her turn ends and she has used 2 Time.

It’s Louis’ turn again, as he has used the least amount of Time of all three investigators. He decides not to move and just draw a light card as his action. His turn ends, and he has used 1 Time.

It’s Louis’ turn again as he has still used the least time of all the investigators. He moves once to the Scene of the Crime and Gets a Jump on the Case, becoming Lead Detective immediately. From now on, Louis will get to decide the order tied players on the Time Sheet take their turns.

It is Rachel’s turn again (as she has only used 2 Time so far – both Louis and Raymond have used 3). She does not move and just draws a dark card by spending 1 Time.

Now all players are tied on 3 Time. Louis decides that Raymond has waited long enough, and decides to allow him to have his turn next.

Raymond moves three times, taking his total up to 6 Time. This is Raymond’s total Time allowance for the day. His turn immediately ends and he may not perform any more actions (including 0-Time actions) or take any more turns.

And so on…

Ending Your Turn

A player may choose to end their turn as a 0-Time action. However, if they do this they must either:

1) Discard one of their light cards and draw an opponent’s dark card

or

2) Discard any card.

If the player holds no cards in their hand, then they may end their turn for no cost. This replaces the entry on the Time Sheet that allows a player to discard a card for 1 Time.

“Day” vs. “Turn”

Any card that references “turns” is now interpreted to mean “day”. You can turn a card over or upside down to show that it has used any once-per-day ability it might have.

The only exceptions to this are cards that specify that they may be played at the start of a player’s turn. These may be played at the start of a player’s turn as defined by the variant rules, not just their first turn of the day.

Bonus Conspiracy Tiles

The “bonus puzzle piece” icon no longer provides a bonus conspiracy tile to the player who draws it. Instead, it only provides the bonus as shown on the back of that tile type (i.e, instead of a player drawing a tile from the “favours” pile of conspiracy tiles, he instead simply receives one favour of his choice).

Errata

Floyd

You’d better get that looked at soon – Maintenance: Play at the start of Floyd’s day. Floyd must either end his day at Haas-Bioroid (D7) or, if Simmons is alive, at the NAPD (I3). If he cannot, Floyd must discard one Tech card of your choice.

The circuit is burning out! – Maintenance: Play at the start of Floyd’s day. Floyd must either end his day at Haas-Bioroid (D7) or, if Simmons is alive, at the NAPD (I3). If he cannot, choose one of Floyd’s Tech cards and place this card on it. That Tech card cannot be used and cannot be discarded from play for the rest of the game.

FightsThis variant is for those who would like their Fight cards to feel more like real fights. Rarely does anyone in a fight get to choose the outcome, and this variant reflects that.

This variant also allows for a small balance correction; with many Fight cards, one option is obviously preferable to the other. Sometimes the choice is situational, but the fact still remains that one option will always be of more or less benefit than the other. Using this variant, players may no longer receive the outcome that they were hoping for.

Fight Cards

Whenever a Fight card is played, the target of the card no longer chooses whether to use light or dark tactics. Instead, the following method is used to determine whether the light or dark portion of the card is carried out:

The target of the card determines his opponent for the fight. If it was a dark card that was played, then the opponent is automatically the player who played the dark card. If it was a light card that was played, then the opponent is the player with the most cards in hand. If there is a tie for the player with the most cards, the First Player decides who should be the opponent from among all tied players.

Both players involved in the fight secretly choose a number of cards from their hand to fight with. Each player may choose any number of cards from those they have available, but they must choose at least one.

If either combatant holds less than two cards at the start of the fight, he may draw cards from either his own light deck or his

opponent’s dark deck until he holds exactly two. However, at the end of the fight he must discard any cards he has remaining in his hand.

Once both players have chosen, they both simultaneously reveal and total up the twilight costs of the cards they picked.

If the total twilight cost of light cards played in the fight from both players is more than the total cost of dark cards, then light tactics are used for the fight. If the total cost of dark cards from both players is more than the total cost of light cards, then dark tactics are used for the fight.

If the twilight cost is tied, then the type of card of which there were the most played wins the tie. If the number of cards played is still tied, then the target of the card may choose light or dark tactics as normal.

The player who played cards with the highest total twilight cost is the winner of the fight (or if twilight totals were tied, the player who played the most cards is the winner). The winner returns all played cards to his hand and his opponent discards all played cards. If there is no winner in the fight (due to both twilight costs and number of cards played being tied) then both players must each discard one random card.

Example: Louis plays a light Fight card on himself – Time to pay the piper, Tanaka. A light tactics outcome will mean Tanaka is eliminated but Louis gains 1 Trauma. A dark tactics outcome will mean Tanaka is eliminated but Louis gains 1 guilt.

Raymond and Rachel are both tied for holding the most cards in hand. Raymond is the First Player, so he decides that Rachel should be Louis’ opponent for this fight.

Louis and Rachel secretly decide which cards they are going to commit to the fight and arrange them under the table.

Louis’ current plot doesn’t have guilt as conditional baggage, so he would prefer the dark outcome. Rachel sees this and so obviously would prefer that Louis receive the light outcome. However, she doesn’t have many light cards in her hand and so instead decides to just try and beat Louis in the fight.

Louis commits 3 cards to the fight, with the following values:

Dark 3Dark 2Dark 1

Rachel decides to commit 4 cards to the fight:

Light 2Light 1Dark 2Dark 1

First, the values of the light and dark cards are totalled together. The total value of all light cards played in the fight is 4. The total value of all dark cards played in the fight is 9, so dark tactics are used for this fight.

Next, the twilight values of all cards played by each player are totalled. Louis played cards with a combined twilight value of 6. Rachel also played cards with a combined twilight value of 6. However, Rachel played four cards, whereas Louis only played three. Rachel is the winner of the fight and returns all of her cards to her hand. Louis must discard all cards he played in the fight.

NPCsThis variant is not to correct any disparity between gameplay and theme. Instead, this variant is simply to enhance the gameplay experience and attempt to supply more theme.

I was quite disappointed with the way NPCs work in Android. They do little more than act as event location markers. You could easily have two generic numbered tokens and they would do the same job equally well.

I developed this variant as a way to make the NPCs appear more involved in the story of Android. They are living their own lives, moving around New Angeles. They may even occasionally bump into other detectives going about their line of work!

Use this variant if you would like the NPCs to have more involvement in your game of Android.

NPC Movement

Whenever a game effect occurs that requires that a particular NPC be alive (i.e, either a light/dark card is played, or as the effect of a plot), or if a game effect grants an NPC favour to a player, move that NPC’s token to the location of the investigator receiving the effect. For example, if a dark card is played on Louis that says “play if Sara is alive…” then move the Sara token to Louis’ location.

If the NPC token is moved as the result of the investigator being the target of a twilight card or receiving a favour, that investigator must place one of his hero markers pointing at the NPC token (after any other effects of the card are resolved).

After an NPC is moved, any hero markers

at the previous location of the NPC are returned to their owners.

NPC tokens may be moved from off the board (if they have not yet entered play) to locations on the board. NPC tokens are never removed from the board unless the NPC is eliminated.

During their turn, any player may (for 0 Time) discard any twilight card that mentions an NPC by name in its effect text (not the flavour text) to move that NPC as if it were a lead.

Movement Clarifications

Simmons only appears at the NAPD if Floyd chooses to go there rather than Haas-Bioroid. Simmons never moves from NAPD (meaning hero tokens are never removed from him).

The cards dealing with Louis going on a date with Sara will move Sara’s token twice; once when the card is first played (“play if Sara is alive”) and once when Louis collects her favour from the board.

Parsons is never moved by the effect of a card; no cards state “if Parsons is alive”.

Encountering NPCs

A detective at the same location as an NPC may encounter that NPC providing the detective does not already have one of his hero markers pointing at the NPC token. An encounter can take a number of different forms:

1. Event encounters2. Favour encounters3. Plot encounters

All three types of encounter have one thing in common: whenever a detective has an encounter, he places one of his hero markers

pointing at the NPC he has just encountered. This signifies that the detective may not encounter this NPC again until the NPC next moves.

Event Encounters

Any events in play that reference an NPC on the board are no longer dependent upon the NPC’s location (with two exceptions – see below). If there is an NPC’s event in play and the NPC later moves, the event text may still be triggered at the NPC’s new location. There may even be two events in play both relating to the same NPC, either of which can be activated at the NPCs current location.

A detective may encounter an NPC to trigger the text on one event card in play relating to that NPC. If the event is only available to the first player to carry it out, turn the event card facedown once it is resolved.

The Time cost to have an event encounter is stated on the event card.

Note: The two “Director Haas/Chairman Hiro are touring the facilities” cards are the only exception where the NPC token is required to be at the location in order to receive the benefit of the event card, as it specifies this on the card itself.

Favour Encounters

A detective may encounter an NPC in order to receive one of that NPC’s favours. A favour encounter costs the detective 2 Time.

Note that any detective can gain any NPC’s favour, even if that detective is not normally associated with the NPC. Floyd could gain a Sara favour, for example.

If ever an investigator who is associated with an NPC should receive one of that NPC’s favours, and there are none in the

supply due to other players holding one or more, then the player may take one of those favours from a player of their choice.

Example: Louis is currently holding one Mr Li favour. Raymond and Rachel are also each holding one Mr Li favour. Louis plays a card that allows him to collect another Mr Li favour. Seeing as there are none in the supply, he may take one from either Raymond or Rachel. Louis could also do this if he encountered Mr Li on the board and paid 2 Time to receive a favour.

Plot Encounters

If you are using The Director’s Cut – Alternate Plots, some plot cards refer to encountering NPCs in order to place good or bad baggage. The cost to have a plot encounter is 1 Time. There is no

other benefit associated with having a plot encounter – the detective simply pays his Time, places his hero marker and carries out the instructions associated with the plot.Note that instructions on plots can reference encounters in two different ways:

“…may encounter [NPC] in order to…” – this signifies a plot encounter. The detective is encountering the NPC in order to carry out the effects on the plot; he receives no other benefit.

“…each time he has an encounter…” – this does not necessarily indicate a plot encounter. The detective can have an encounter of any kind to satisfy this condition. He may still have a plot encounter with an NPC (spending only 1 Time), receiving no other benefit, in order to satisfy this condition.

Example: Floyd’s What Makes A Soul? plot states “Floyd may encounter any NPC to place two good baggage on this plot”. If Floyd chooses to do this, he pays 1 Time and places 2 good baggage on his plot. He receives no other benefit for encountering the NPC, such as receiving a favour or triggering an event’s effect text.

Example: Raymond’s Old Flame plot states “Raymond gains one bad baggage each time he encounters Kate”. Raymond will gain 1 bad baggage each time he encounters Kate, regardless of what type of encounter it is; whether he is gaining a favour from the encounter, or triggering the effect of an event.

Errata

Floyd

You’d better get that looked at soon – Maintenance: Play at the start of Floyd’s day. Floyd must either end his day at Haas-Bioroid (D7) or, if Simmons is alive, at the

NAPD (I3; only move Simmons at the end of Floyd’s day to NAPD). If he cannot, Floyd must discard one Tech card of your choice.

The circuit is burning out! – Maintenance: Play at the start of Floyd’s day. Floyd must either end his day at Haas-Bioroid (D7) or, if Simmons is alive, at the NAPD (I3; only move Simmons at the end of Floyd’s day to NAPD). If he cannot, choose one of Floyd’s Tech cards and place this card on it. That Tech card cannot be used and cannot be discarded from play for the rest of the game.

Major LocationsI’ve found in my games that many of the major locations are rarely used. In particular, Monroe & Associates is never used (why would you go out of your way to visit M&A, pay 1 Time and a favour, in order to save 2 Time at a location you’re likely only going to visit once?), and the three nightlife locations that grant baggage are pretty much ignored. This variant provides a little more incentive for using major locations.

Major Location Costs

The costs on major locations are now divided into their component pieces, separated by “OR”. For example, the Wyldlife location may be used by spending 1 Time OR 1 society favour.

The exceptions to this are restricted locations (Jinteki, Haas-Bioroid, Order of Sol and Humanity Labour) – these locations still require all printed costs to be spent.

Two locations require amendment with these rules: Starlight Crusade and NAPD. These locations now require two of either Time or favours in order to use their ability.

Restricted Locations

An investigator may not choose to enter a restricted location at all unless he/she has a warrant there. Investigators may still be moved to restricted locations by the effects of a card.

Errata

Floyd

Perhaps I can sneak past – This card costs 0 Time to play. You may play this card to enter a restricted location without a warrant.

Thematic VariantsThese are just some changes to game effects or cards where the theme as it stands seems to be a little “off”. There are also a few variants thrown in to correct some potential balance issues.

Sacrificing Dark Cards

Whenever a plot requires players to sacrifice dark cards to place bad baggage, those dark cards must always match the investigator of the plot the baggage is being placed on.

The theme of opponents discarding dark cards to place bad baggage is supposed to represent the fact that other bad things could have happened to that investigator, but instead their plot is resolving negatively (it’s as if those cards had the text “play this card at any time to place a bad baggage on one of X’s plots”). If players are allowed to discard any dark cards, then this theme is lost.

Ending Your Turn

If a player is forced to end their turn by the effect of a card, they instead lose 3 Time.

There are some cards that seems unnecessarily harsh, with the potential to end a player’s turn before they have even used 1 Time. This variant tempers that slightly.

Broadcast Square

You must draw the conspiracy tile from the pile next to your hero marker (the marker does not reset). You do not get the bonus on the back of the conspiracy tile when using the ability of Broadcast Square.

The ability of Broadcast Square seems overly powerful, especially as you can immediately reclaim the favour you just spent by choosing the middle pile of conspiracy tiles. This variant reduces the power of Broadcast Square.

Baggage

Each player can only have one type of baggage on their plot at any one time. If a player has good baggage on their plot and they are instructed to place bad baggage, they instead simply remove good baggage instead (and vice-versa).

This is simply so that players can more easily keep track of who is currently succeeding and failing in their plots with a quick glance around the table.

The following change to Caprice’s Descent Into Madness plot is required if using this rule:

Descent into Madness – Courage & Trust: When this plot accumulates two good baggage, discard that baggage and raise Caprice’s Sanity by 1. Betrayal & Rage: When this plot accumulates two bad baggage, discard that baggage and lower Caprice’s Sanity by 1.

The Beanstalk

To move from one Beanstalk location to any other Beanstalk location costs 1 Time. The detective does not have to enter the intervening locations.

We’ve found that it simply takes too long to travel between the Earth and the Moon by Beanstalk – typically a detective’s entire day. This variant addresses this and is also more thematic, as it more accurately symbolises the “express elevator” nature of the beanstalk. Travel by Beanstalk is still less desirable than travel by dropship, as the crossover can only be made from a single point on the board.

The following change to one of Raymond’s memory cards is also required if using this rule:

Raymond

Sea of Night – Play this card when Raymond enters Starport Kaguya (G5). Raymond ends his turn and discards his hand. Afterward return this card to the box.

Lily Lockwell

Whenever a detective enters the same location as Lily, he must spend 1 Time if possible. He may then choose any one file on any suspect and turn all evidence tokens in that file faceup.

Lily serves almost no purpose in the game if using the original rules. The benefit she provides is almost non-existent, and her penalty – being forced to spend 1 Time – is the most minor of minor speed bumps that is unlikely to be encountered due to her being only at one specific location. This variant gives her a little more use.

New Angeles

Detectives may move directly from the Church of St. Theresa (L3) to Adams Garden (A3) and vice versa for 1 Time.

This is to make the “shape” of New Angeles more accurately reflect the shape of an actual city. We were finding while we were playing that New Angeles felt a little long and thin, and that the locations at each end of the city – particularly the major locations such as City Hall and Eastside Tenements – weren’t getting used as much as other locations. With this rule, the board “wraps around”, thus making the city more circular in shape, with the Beanstalk at the centre of that circle. The fact that the two crossover points are towards the top of the board means that it is quicker to circumnavigate the city across the top (i.e, the inner part of the city “circle”) and longer across the bottom (the outer edge of the circle), further reinforcing the idea of a roughly circular city.

If using this rule with the Twilight variant above, the following rule is also required:

The Church of St. Theresa is considered adjacent to the red district, and Adams Garden is considered adjacent to the green district.

Louis

Louis is in a bad mood – This card begins the game in play with this side faceup. Dark cards played on Louis by other investigators cost 1 more or 1 less. If a light card is played by Louis, turn this card over.

It seems more thematic if it is easier to play dark cards on Louis while he is in a bad mood, and that you need to play a light card on him to lift him out of his “funk”. I, personally, prefer playing with this variant, as it feels like Louis is more of a flawed character, and you actually feel his mood swings. In the original rules, whether he is in a good or bad mood, it is always an advantage, which is less thematic.

Caprice

Any card that instructs a player to name a plot is amended. Instead, the player holding the cards chooses the required number of cards themselves. Then, the guessing player must choose a number. If the twilight cost of any of those cards matches the chosen number then the effect of the card triggers.

This is for players who do not want to have to worry about remembering the titles of plots. It also gives a little more control and tactical choice to the player whose mind is being read; they can choose to either select three cards that they are not interested in keeping, but are all likely to have different values (and so a higher chance of Caprice being correct) or they can choose to select three cards that all have the same value (and so less chance of Caprice being correct) but are likely to include cards that they want to keep.

Rachel

See what you can dig up – Greed: Rachel gains one bad baggage each time a documentary lead is placed on a seedy location.

The conditions for placing good or bad baggage on this plot are insane. As written, all that is required for bad baggage to be placed on this plot is for any lead to be moved to a seedy location. This is likely to happen multiple times in the turns between the end of one of Rachel’s turns and the next. To place good baggage, Rachel needs to sacrifice 2 Time. This is insanely unbalanced – only three leads need to be moved to seedy locations each round in order to make Rachel automatically fail her plot. For this reason, I have changed the conditions to only documentary leads (in line with the title of the plot).

You stupid hunk of junk – Play when Rachel enters a location. Place this card faceup in front of her. While it is in play, it costs Rachel 2 Time to move by car instead of 1. She may discard this card by spending $2,000.

As written, this card also affects Rachel when moving by Beanstalk or dropship, when it is supposed to represent her car breaking down. This variant changes this so that the card only affects her when moving by car.

How much for the painkiller gland? – Cyberware: Spend $2,000 while you are in Olivaw’s Robotics (E2) or Armitage Software (F7) to play this card. Place this card faceup in front of you. Whenever you receive trauma, you may prevent that trauma by instead placing it on this card. Discard this card once it has four trauma on it.

A thematic correction, in that a painkiller

gland shouldn’t be able to have any effect on trauma that occurred days ago. The card will now only prevent trauma as it happens, discarding the card once four have accumulated.

Raymond

Wrapped up in himself – Once per turn, Raymond may draw two light cards for 1 Time.

The fact that Ray can draw other player’s dark cards doesn’t really gel with the theme of being “wrapped up in himself”. Therefore, Ray may only draw light cards using his special ability.

Hang on. This is gonna take some fancy flying. – Play during your turn. Move directly to any location on the same planet (Earth or Moon).

No matter how fancy Ray’s flying is, his car can’t travel through space. This change reflects that. It also encourages Ray to either accumulate more dropship passes, or else use the Beanstalk, meaning that his memory card that triggers from the Challenger Memorial is more likely to see use (whereas in the original rules, it is hardly used at all).

Specific Events

Noise is cooking up something nasty – Anyone may spend 2 Time at Olivaw Robotics (E2) to move Noise to the NAPD (I3) while there is no lead in the NAPD. Noise may not move in any other way. If noise has not moved by the end of day three of this week, place a trauma token on Noise’s picture on the murder sheet. At the end of each player’s turn, that player must remove any one evidence token (without looking at it) from the suspect indicated by the trauma token, then move the trauma token to the

next suspect down (returning to the top after leaving the last suspect in play).

A few people have pointed out that this event is extremely powerful and can completely undo a lot of players’ hard work throughout the first ¾ of the game, rendering that effort worthless and leading to a negative play experience. This variant brings the power of the card back under control a little.

Anyway, that’s it for my variants. I hope that you enjoy them as I have – they have certainly increased my enjoyment of Android by a significant amount and have turned it into the game I was hoping it would be when I first heard about it.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions, I am only too glad to hear them. My e-mail address is bleachedlizard@googlemail.com.

Happy gaming,Chris Davis.

Floyd

Try out that new emotion algorithm, okay? – Place this card faceup in front of you. While it is in play, dark cards played against you by other players cost 1 more to play.

You’d better get that looked at soon – Maintenance: Play at the start of Floyd’s day. Floyd must either end his day at Haas-Bioroid (D7) or, if Simmons is alive, at the NAPD (I3; only move Simmons at the end of

Floyd’s day to NAPD). If he cannot, Floyd must discard one Tech card of your choice.

The circuit is burning out! – Maintenance: Play at the start of Floyd’s day. Floyd must either end his day at Haas-Bioroid (D7) or, if Simmons is alive, at the NAPD (I3; only move Simmons at the end of Floyd’s day to NAPD). If he cannot, choose one of Floyd’s Tech cards and place this card on it. That Tech card

cannot be used and cannot be discarded from play for the rest of the game.

Perhaps I can sneak past – This card costs 0 Time to play. You may play this card to enter a restricted location without a warrant.

First Directive – Floyd automatically uses light tactics during fights.

Caprice

Any card that instructs a player to name a plot is amended. Instead, the player holding the cards chooses the required number of cards themselves. Then, the guessing player must choose a number. If the twilight

cost of any of those cards matches the chosen number then the effect of the card triggers.

Descent into Madness – Courage & Trust: When this plot accumulates two good baggage, discard that baggage and raise Caprice’s Sanity by 1. Betrayal & Rage: When this plot accumulates two bad baggage,

discard that baggage and lower Caprice’s Sanity by 1.

Raymond

Wrapped up in himself – Once per turn, Raymond may draw two light cards for 1 Time.

Hang on. This is gonna take some fancy flying. – Play during your turn. Move directly to any location on the same planet (Earth or Moon).

Sea of Night – Play this card when Raymond enters Starport Kaguya (G5). Raymond ends his turn and discards his hand. Afterward return this card to the box.

Rachel

See what you can dig up – Greed: Rachel gains one bad baggage each time a documentary lead is placed on a seedy location.

You stupid hunk of junk – Play when Rachel enters a location. Place this card faceup in front of her. While it is in play, it costs Rachel 2 Time to move by car instead of 1. She may discard this card by spending

$2,000.

How much for the painkiller gland? – Cyberware: Spend $2,000 while you are in Olivaw’s Robotics (E2) or Armitage Software (F7) to play this card. Place this card faceup in front of you. Whenever you receive trauma, you may prevent that trauma by instead placing it on this card. Discard this card once it has four

trauma on it.

Errata Summary

Louis

I need to walk the streets a bit – Play during your turn. Spend one street favour to look at one random unclaimed Guilty hunch. If you wish, take that hunch card and return any Guilty hunch card you already

hold to the deck.

She’s why I keep doing this crummy job – This card costs 0 Time to play. Play when you get in a Fight. If you choose light tactics, completely light shift. If you choose dark tactics, choose another player to

completely dark shift. In either event, you cannot gain trauma from this Fight.

Louis is in a bad mood – This card begins the game in play with this side faceup. Dark cards played on Louis by other investigators cost 1 more or 1 less. If a light card is played by Louis, turn this card over.

This one’s for Jim! – Louis automatically uses dark tactics during fights.

Events & Murders

Terrorists have struck the city, people – Guilty hunches are worth -2 VP for both the murderer and the convicted.

Jimmy says he’s got some real juicy info for you – Move Jimmy the Snitch to the Old War Memorial (B1). The first detective to spend one of each type of normal favour there may choose another player and look at

their innocent hunch. He/she may not share this information with other players.

Revenge at the Races – If the two most guilty suspects are within 5 guilt of each other when the case is closed, then they are both convicted.

Revenge at the Races – Each time a player enters a seedy or ritzy location, he dark shifts by one space (after light or dark shifting as usual due to entering the location).

Last Call at Roxie’s – At the end of the game, all suspects that do not have the least number hits on them (not including suspects without any hits) are eliminated. If there is only one suspect left alive, then that

suspect is the convicted.

Freetown Fright – Any player who follows up a lead on a residential Moon location may uncover a piece of the conspiracy as well as placing a piece of evidence. The player’s hero marker is reset to the first pile

of conspiracy tiles.

Noise is cooking up something nasty – Anyone may spend 2 Time at Olivaw Robotics (E2) to move Noise to the NAPD (I3) while there is no lead in the NAPD. Noise may not move in any other way. If noise has

not moved by the end of day three of this week, place a trauma token on Noise’s picture on the murder sheet. At the end of each player’s turn, that player must remove any one evidence token (without looking at it) from the suspect indicated by the trauma token, then move the trauma token to the next suspect down

(returning to the top after leaving the last suspect in play).

Errata Summary