Gentlemen Thieves

About this board game

Gentlemen Thieves is a 45-minute board game for 2–5 players featuring secret identities, bluffing, shifting alliances, and theft inspired by Arsène Lupin and the characters of Maurice Leblanc.

Each player secretly takes one of five colored burglar tiles and receives helping hand tokens. Five locations are prepared with equipment and special tokens, while three equipment tokens remain face up for players to choose from. At the beginning of each round, the matchmaker secretly divides the burglars into two provisional alliances.

Players work together—or pretend to—to prepare a robbery. On a turn, choose a face-up equipment token and place it beside a location, draw the top token from the stack and place it, or spend a helping hand token to move or add a special token. When all five equipment types are present at a location, a burglary begins.

• Secret identities: Hide your burglar’s color while judging who may be on your side.
• Changing alliances: The matchmaker rearranges the provisional teams each round.
• Special tokens: Locks, tunnels, and a car alter where and how robberies happen.
• Loot and bluffing: The alliance with the stronger presence claims the stolen goods and divides the loot among its members.

A lock prevents a location from being robbed until it is moved. A car can relocate equipment, while two tunnels link locations so their equipment counts together—unless a lock blocks the theft. These effects create opportunities for clever timing and misdirection.

When the brigadier appears among the final equipment tokens, the game ends immediately. Players reveal their identities, and the player with the most loot wins. In Gentlemen Thieves, every placement can help an ally, expose a rival, or disguise your own plan.