Dark Deeds

About this board game

Dark Deeds is a darkly humorous card game of skulduggery and suspicion for 2 to 5 players, with games lasting about 60 minutes. Each player becomes a minion serving a powerful, mysterious, and unmistakably villainous patron.

The patron demands deeds of infamy, violence, and coercion. To succeed, minions must avoid the authorities, do-gooders, and—most of all—one another while pursuing valuable targets throughout the city. Success brings rich rewards, but failure can lead to horrific punishment.

Two decks drive the action. The street deck presents prospective targets such as clerics, artisans, and merchants, along with protective guards from the city watch. It also contains nemeses: princes, politicians, and do-gooders whom the patron wants eliminated.

• Tavern deck: Find potentially useful loot and plot cards to help complete your schemes.
• Dark Deeds: Take on specific missions to eliminate particular nemeses.
• Street movement: Watch the scene change as cards leave the street and new characters enter.

Dark Deeds missions offer a tempting but dangerous choice. Completing one earns a rich reward, yet a Dark Deed cannot be discarded. Any incomplete missions still held at the end of the game bring a heavy price from the patron.

The street’s constantly changing layout is central to the game. At the end of each turn, the card closest to the end leaves, the remaining cards move up, and empty spaces are filled from the deck. Minions enter from one end and must get past intervening guards to reach their targets, creating a shifting challenge of timing, suspicion, and survival.