Are you looking for a specific Trial By Trolley rule? | Setup | Playing the Game | Innocent Cards | Guilty Cards | Pleading for Your Characters Lives | Setup For Next Round | Winning the Game | Variant Games | FAQ | Components |
Objective
The objective of Trial By Trolley is to receive the least death tokens during the game.
Setup
- Whichever player most recently pondered “murderin’ folks” starts the game as the Conductor.
- Place the track mat on the table so the one track side is facing the Conductor.
- Separate the cards by their types and shuffle each deck separately. Place each deck face down on the table where everyone can reach them.
- All of the players who aren’t the conductor will divide into two teams. These teams don’t have to be even, but they should be as close as possible. The teams will change each round of the game.
How to Play Trial By Trolley
To begin each round one player from each team will draw three Innocent cards. They can look at the cards, but they should keep them secret from the other team. Next another player from each team draws three Guilty cards which they can look at but shouldn’t show the other players. Finally a different player from each team draws three Modifier cards. They can look at the cards but they shouldn’t show them to the other team.
If a team has less than three players, the players on the team can draw and play the cards together. If there are more than three players on a team, the extra players will draw three Modifier cards and play them.
After all of the cards have been drawn, the players will start playing cards to the tracks.
Playing Innocent Cards
First each team randomly draws an Innocent card and places it face up at the beginning of their track.
The player from each team that drew Innocent cards then chooses one to play. You probably want to choose one that you think the Conductor won’t want to kill. They will place their chosen card on their track next to the previously placed Innocent card.
Discard any unused cards.
Playing Guilty Cards
After two Innocent cards are added to each track, the players that drew Guilty cards will look through their cards. They will choose a card that they think the Conductor is willing to kill. After you have chosen a Guilty card, you will place it at the end of your opponent’s track.
Discard any unused cards.
Playing Modifier Cards
Finally each player that drew a Modifier card will choose one to play. They can play their chosen card on any of the cards played to the tracks. They can play a Modifier card to one of the cards on their track, or the other team’s track. When choosing which card to pick and where to play it, you want to make your track harder for the Conductor to kill, or the other teams track easier to kill.
Discard all unused cards.
Pleading for Your Characters Lives
After the players have played all of their cards, the two teams try to plead their case to the Conductor. They can talk about why their track should be saved, and/or why their opponent’s track should be chosen.
After both teams have made their case, the Conductor has to choose one of the two tracks. Their choice will kill everyone on the chosen track. All of the players whose track is chosen receive a death token.
Setup for Next Round
Discard all cards played during the round and any cards left in the players’ hands. Should a draw pile ever run out of cards, shuffle the corresponding discard pile to form a new draw pile.
The player to the left of the previous Conductor, takes on the role for the next round. Turn the track board so the side with one track faces the new Conductor. The rest of the players are divided into two teams. You should mix up the teams so players are on different teams each round. The next round is then played in the same way as the first round.
Winning Trial By Trolley
The game ends when everyone has had a turn as the Conductor. If there are only three or four players, each player should be the Conductor twice.
All of the players will then count up the number of death tokens they received during the game. The player that receives the least death tokens wins the game. If there is a tie, the game doesn’t really provide a tiebreaker.
Variant Games
If you would like to change up the gameplay, you can choose to use one of these variants.
Trolley Tom
If you choose to use the Trolley Tom variant, at the start of each round figure out which player has the most death tokens. The player with the most receives the Trolley Tom token. Whichever player has the token draws three additional Modifier cards at the start of the round. When Modifier cards are played, they will get to play an additional Modifier cards than they normally would get to play.
Accomplices to Murder
With the Accomplices to Murder variant, every player (except the Conductor) draws three Modifier cards each round. When Modifier cards are played, each player gets to choose one Modifier card to play.
Trial By Trolley FAQ
If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.
Components
- 200 Innocent Cards
- 125 Guilty Cards
- 175 Modifier Cards
- 26 Death Tokens
- Track Mat
- Instructions
Year: 2020 | Publisher: Explosm Games, Skybound Tabletop | Designer: Scott Houser | Artist: Trisha Romo, Stacey Silva, Denise Magdale, Paul Blair, Autumn Netherton, Steve Steinaway, Chance Kubesh, Geoff Galt, Cara Curley
Genres: Party
Ages: 14+ | Number of Players: 3-13 | Length of Game: 30-90 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.