Outfoxed! Board Game: Rules and Instructions for How to Play

Objective of Outfoxed!

The objective of Outfoxed! is to try and figure out who stole Mrs. Plumpert’s pot pie before the thief escapes.

Setup

Place the gameboard in the center of the table.
Each player chooses a detective hat. They will place their hat on the center space of the gameboard.
Place the fox pawn on the start space (fox icon).
Shuffle the Suspect cards. Then place them face down randomly around the edges of the gameboard. There should be four cards on each side. Choose two of the cards to turn face up.
Shuffle the Thief cards. Randomly draw one and insert it into the Clue Decoder without looking at it. You should insert the card so the red Gamewright logo is visible.

Return the rest of the Thief cards to the box without looking at them.
Shuffle the Clue markers and place them facedown in a pile next to the gameboard.
Set the dice on the table where everyone can reach them.
The player that most recently ate pie starts the game. Play moves clockwise throughout the game.

Playing Outfoxed!

To begin your turn you will decide whether you are going to “Search for Clues” or “Reveal Suspects”. If you are searching for clues you hope to roll footprint symbols. If you chose to reveal suspects, you hope to roll eye symbols. You will announce your decision to the rest of the players.

After you have announced your decision, you will roll the three dice. Set aside the dice that match the symbol that you are trying to roll.

First roll of the dice — This player has decided to reveal suspects. They rolled only one eye symbol. They will keep that die and roll the other two dice for their second roll.

You can then roll the dice two more times. After each roll you can set aside dice.

After three rolls you will see if you rolled a matching symbol on each dice. If you rolled a matching symbol on each of the dice, you will get to take the corresponding action (see below).

Successfully roll three of the same symbol — This player has rolled three eye symbols on the dice. They will get to take the reveal suspects action.

If you do not roll three dice that match your decision, you will move the fox pawn forward three spaces on its track. Your turn then ends.

Failed rolling three of the same symbol — This player was unable to roll three of the same symbol. Therefore they do not get to take an action on their turn.

Moving the fox in Outfoxed! — Since the player failed to roll three of the same symbol, they had to move the fox forward three spaces on the track.

Search for Clues

When you choose to Search for Clues and you roll a footprint on each of the dice, you get to take this action.

Count up the number of footprints that you rolled on the dice. The number of footprints you rolled determines how many spaces you get to move your detective pawn.

Determining the number of spaces you can move your pawn — This player rolled four paw prints. They can move their pawn up to four spaces on the board.

You can move your pawn vertically or horizontally up to the number of symbols your rolled. Players may never move their pawns diagonally. You do not have to move all of the spaces that you rolled. You can move to any space including spaces on the fox’s path.

Moving your pawn in Outfoxed! — The yellow player has moved their pawn four spaces from the start space. As they landed on a paw print space, they can search for a clue.

Finding a Clue

If you land on a space that has a paw print, draw the top clue marker. Place it on top of the corresponding spot on the Clue Decoder.

Placing a clue marker on the Clue Decoder — This player drew the monocle clue marker. They place it on the corresponding spot on the Clue Decoder.

Then slide open the door on the side of the Clue Decoder. After you fully slide open the door, you will look to see if you see a green colored dot.

If you see a green dot, it means the thief was wearing the clothing pictured on the clue marker.

Determining a piece of clothing the thief was wearing — As a green dot is visible in the Clue Decoder, the thief was wearing a monocle.

If you do not see a green dot, it means the thief was not wearing the pictured clothing.

Determining the thief wasn't wearing this piece of clothing — There is no green dot in the Clue Decoder. Therefore the thief was not wearing a cape.

Next you will look at all of the faceup Suspect cards around the gameboard. You will remove any Suspect cards that were eliminated due to the results of the clue marker.

If you saw a white space, eliminate any Suspect cards that have the clothing item pictured on the clue marker.
If you saw a green dot, eliminate any Suspect cards that do not have the pictured clothing.

Eliminating suspects in Outfoxed! — These three Suspect cards are currently visible. It was determined that the thief was wearing a monocle. Therefore Daisy and Arthur could not be the thief. Their cards are removed from the table.

After you have dealt with the clue you received, close the slider. Then remove the clue marker and place it on your current footprint space.

Placing a clue marker on the board — After eliminating any suspects that didn’t have a monocle, the player places the clue marker on their current space on the gameboard.

Your turn then ends.

Reveal Suspects

When you choose to reveal suspects and you roll an eye on each die, you get to choose two suspects to reveal.

Reveal suspect die roll — This player rolled eyes on all three dice. Therefore they can take the reveal suspects action.

Choose two of the face down Suspect cards that are around the board. Flip them over so you can see the suspect on the card.

You will then look at all of the face up clue markers that have been placed on the board. You will see if any of the suspects that you revealed can be eliminated by any of these clue markers. Try to remember what the answer was for each of the clue markers so you can eliminate the right suspects.

Eliminating revealed suspects — This player just revealed Lily and Belvedere with their reveal suspects action. Based on the monocle clue from above, the players can already eliminate Lily as she doesn’t have a monocle.

Your turn then ends.

End of Outfoxed!

Outfoxed! can end in three different ways.

If all of the players think they know who the thief is, you can call out their name. You will then reveal the Thief card from the decoder.

If you were right, all of the players win the game.
If you were wrong, all of the players lose the game.

Winning Outfoxed! — The players have guessed that Maggie is the thief. Since this matches the Thief card in the Clue Decoder, the players have won the game.

If you eliminate all but one of the Suspect cards from around the gameboard, you trigger the end game. You will remove the Thief card from the decoder.

If the Thief card matches the remaining Suspect card, all of the players win the game.
If the two cards don’t match, all of the players lose the game.

If the fox reaches the the foxhole (last) space, the Thief escapes and all of the players lose the game.

Losing Outfoxed! — The fox pawn has reached the final space on the gameboard. All of the players have lost the game.

Variant Game

If you would like to make the game more difficult, you can change the number of spaces to move the fox each time you fail to roll three of the same symbol.

First you can increase the number of spaces from three to four. If you want the game to be even harder, you can increase the number of spaces to five.

Outfoxed! FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play Outfoxed!, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

16 Suspect Cards
16 Thief Cards
12 Clue Markers
4 Detective Hat Pawns
3 Custom Dice
Fox Pawn
Clue Decoder
Gameboard
Instructions

Year: 2014 | Publisher: Gamewright | Designer: Colt Tipaton-Johnson, Shanon Lyon, Marisa Peña | Artist: Mélanie Grandgirard

Genres: Children’s, Cooperative, Deduction, Family

Ages: 5+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 20 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light-Moderate | Luck: Moderate

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