The Mole Board Game: Rules for How to Play

If you have a question about The Mole that wasn’t answered in this post, leave a comment below and I will try to answer you question as quickly as I can.

Setup

Sort all of the location cards into piles so each pile only has cards from one location. There should be seven cards for each location.
For each group of Location cards, count out a number equal to the number of players minus one. Insert the cards for each location into a different card holder. For example if there are five players, place four of each Location card into each card holder. Place the cards facedown in the holders so when the cards are taken out none of the players can see the locations on them.
Place one mole card in each card holder.
Choose a player to be the dealer.
The dealer places the Location List in the middle of the table so everyone can see it. Players should study the list of locations which will help them catch the mole or remain hidden as the mole.

For each round there are a number of setup steps that players need to be follow.

The dealer shuffles up the card holders and randomly picks one. They remove all of the cards making sure not to look at the location on the back of the cards. They will shuffle all of the cards. Then they will then deal one card face down to each player.
Each player should look at their card. They should not let the other players see what is on the other side of their card.
The dealer should shuffle all of the Question cards. They will deal five cards to each player.

How to Play The Mole

At the beginning of each round all of the players receive a Location card. The card each player receives determines their role in the game.

All but one of these cards will feature a location on them. These players are spies and know the current location of all of the other players. They need to figure out which other players are spies so they can figure out who is the mole.

One player is dealt a Mole card. They don’t know where the players currently are. They need to try and figure out where everyone is without letting the other players know that they are the Mole.

When all of the players are ready, someone starts a ten minute timer. The player to the left of the dealer gets to start the round.

Asking a Question

On your turn you will choose one of the Question cards from your hand. You will choose one of the other players to ask the chosen question.

The player that is asked the question needs to answer. They need to be smart in how they answer the question though.

If they are a spy, they should know the answer to the question. They should give a truthful answer so the other spies know that they are a spy. They want to be vague in their answer though. If they are too specific in their answer, the mole might be able to figure out the current location. Spies should try to work in their fake role (printed at the bottom of the card) in order to give hints to their other teammates.

Asking a player a question — The player with the role of scientist was asked what was the most satisfying part of their job. They could respond with something like “making the world better/safer”. This gives the other spies an indication that they know where they are, but is vague enough not to tip off the Mole.

If you are asked a question as the Mole, you don’t know where you are. If you are paying close attention to the other players’ answers, you should be able to narrow down the possible locations. You likely won’t know for sure though, so you can’t for sure give a truthful answer. You should give a vague answer but try to craft it around your suspicions on what the location is.

After a player has answered a question, it is their turn to ask a question. They choose one of the cards from their hand to ask one of the other players. They can ask the player that just asked them a question, or they can ask any of the other players.

The rules do not specify whether you get to draw a new Question card whenever you use one of your Question cards.

Nominating a Mole

At any point during a round, any player can call for a vote. Each player can only call for one vote during the round though.

When a player decides to call a vote, they will pick one of the other players that they think is the Mole. They will tell the other players which player they are accusing as the Mole.

A countdown then begins with the nominating player saying “one, two, three – vote”. Once the player says vote, all of the players choose whether they agree with the nominating player that the player they chose is the mole. Anyone who agrees with the nomination raises their hand.

If one or more players that weren’t the nominated player don’t raise their hand, the vote fails. Players will then return to the normal gameplay with players taking turns asking other players questions.

If everyone except the nominated player raises their hand, the players have decided to accuse the player of being the Mole. See the Accusing a Player section below for more details.

Running Out of Time

Should the time run out and none of the players were unanimously accused of being the Mole, the players will hold a final vote. The dealer counts down “one, two, three – vote”. All of the players point to a player. If all but one of the players point to the same player, they will accuse that player of being the Mole. See the Accusing a Player section below for more details.

If the players can’t agree on one player as the Mole (there is more than one player that doesn’t agree with the rest of the players), the Mole wins the round. They will score two points.

Accusing a Player

The accused player reveals the card they were dealt at the beginning of the round. What happens next depends on what role the chosen player was.

If the accused player was the Mole, the spies have won the round. Each spy player scores one point.

Accusing the Mole — The players accused this player of being the Mole. Since this player was the Mole, all of the spies receive one point.

If the accused player was not the Mole, the Mole wins the round. The Mole scores two points.

Accusing a spy — The players accused this player of being the Mole. They were a spy, so the Mole player wins the round. The Mole scores two points.

The round then ends. Follow the round setup rules that were used for the first round. The role of the dealer passes one player to the left.

Guessing the Location

At any time during the round the Mole player can make a guess at the current location. They can either do this if they are pretty sure of the location, or they think they are close to being caught. If they choose to take this action, they will reveal their Mole card.

They will then make a guess at the current location. The current location is one of the locations listed on the Location List in the middle of the table. The Mole chooses one of the locations.

If they correctly guess the location, they score two points. If they guess incorrectly, the spies each score one point.

Guessing the location — The Mole player has decided to try and guess the location. They have decided to guess the Zombie Apocalypse. They were correct, so they score two points.

In either case the current round ends. Follow the round setup rules used for the first round. The role of the dealer passes one player to the left.

Winning The Mole

The game ends when one player scores five points. The first player to score five points wins the game.

Components

112 Location Cards
16 Mole Cards
16 Card Holders
80 Question Cards
Locations List
Instructions

Year: 2020 | Publisher: Clarendon Games

Genres: Deduction, Party

Ages: 17+ | Number of Players: 3-8 | Length of Game: 15 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.