The game can be played as an introductory or advanced game. The aid is laid out for the introductory game with advanced mode changes generally flagged with "(Advanced)".
- Place the board with Eugene of Savoy face up.
- (Advanced) Use side with the Prater instead.
- Set aside 1 secret information tile of each type.
- Fill the bag with the 40 remaining secret info. tiles and all 30 flag tiles.
- Draw secret information tiles and place them on an empty square space starting at the top left and proceeding to the bottom right.
- Draw and place flag tiles in the same manner as the secret info. tiles.
- Place the storage board next to the game board with the side showing
the ferris wheel symbol face up.
- (Advanced) Use the side with the Prater face up.
- Shuffle the cards and stack them face down in their space on the
storage board.
- (Advanced) Shuffle in the 85 advanced cards (no. 91-175) with the introductory cards.
- (Advanced) Form 2 draw piles on the storage board of roughly the same size.
- Sort the bribes by type and create a supply of them on the storage board.
- Place the secret information board near the game board.
- Place the 5 secret information tiles on the starting spaces (to the left of the track), matching their color.
- Place the investigator on the starting roof space of the secret info. board.
- (Advanced) Place 5 purchase tiles and 2 payday tiles on the spaces of the roof on the secret info board based on the table below.
- Place the investigation tile at the top of the secret info. board.
- (Advanced) Place the next-door house board next to the storage board.
- (Advanced) Sort the coins and store them on the next-door house.
- (Advanced) Sort the 60 mission tiles by letter (A/B/S) and shuffle
them separately.
- Set aside the "S" tiles.
- Place the "A" and "B" mission stacks face down on the storage board.
- Place the top 2 tiles of each stack on their matching spaces in the top right of the main board ("A" on the left, "B" on the right).
- Each player chooses a color and:
- Takes 1 desk and place it in front of themselves.
- Takes 7 agents, with 6 placed above their desk and 1 on the
zero space of the score track.
- (Advanced) Place 5 agents above your desk and put 3 agents on the next-door house.
- Takes 1 bribe token of each type.
- (Advanced) Takes 1 side table, placed next to the next-door house board.
- (Advanced) Takes 4 desk tiles, placed on the designated spaces of the next-door house board.
- (Advanced) Takes 1 coin.
- (Advanced) Takes 1 random starting mission from the "S" tiles
set aside above. Place it on the mission space of the player board.
- Return any remaining "S" missions to the box.
- Takes a "100" scoring marker and sets it near their desk.
- Randomly assign 1 secret information tile to each player. Return any remaining tiles to the box.
- Determine a 1st player and give them the city crest.
Players 
2 Spaces B, C, D, G, H Spaces E, H 3 Spaces B, C, E, I, J Spaces G, J 4 Spaces B, D, F, J, L Spaces H, L - Place the board with Eugene of Savoy face up.
The game is played over a number of rounds, with each round consisting of 3 phases. The end of the game is triggered when the investigator moves to their final space on the roof track.
- The supply of bribes is considered to be unlimited.
- Phase 1: Cards
- Each player draws 3 cards from the draw pile.
- If the draw pile is empty, shuffle the discards to make a new draw pile.
- (Advanced) If you have your telephone, you can draw 4 cards instead of 3.
- All players simultaneously assign each of their 3 cards face
down to each of the 3 action spaces above their desk showing
a half card back.
- (Advanced) If you have the telephone, discard the remaining card.
- Each player draws 3 cards from the draw pile.
- Phase 2: Actions
Starting with the 1st player (city crest), each player performs all of their actions before moving to the next player.
Action 1: Place 1 card in a drawer
- Move the card assigned to action 1 (left most) into any drawer
below your desk, leaving the lower half visible.
- During rounds 1-3, you must fill the empty slots.
- In rounds 4+, you must exchange a card in a drawer for the new card, discarding the old one.
- You may never have more than 1 copy of an ability in your drawers.
- Abilities can be used any time they are appropriate.
Action 2: Obtain a bribe
- Reveal the card in action slot 2, take the bribe shown in the top left of the card and discard the card.
Action 3: Place 1 agent or take 2 bribes of 1 color
- Place 1 agent, either from your supply above your desk or from
another location on the board, onto any building on the main board
and pay 2 bribes matching the color of building's background.
- Note that you can move agents even if you have agents in your supply.
- You may only have 1 of your agents on any building.
- Multiple players may have agents on the same building.
- If you now have agents surrounding a secret info. tile (1
agent on each connected building), immediately collect that
tile and place it near your player board.
- Gain the number of points shown on the space (2/3/4).
- It is possible to collect more than 1 secret info. tile by placing a single agent.
- Surrounding an empty square gains you nothing.
- (Advanced) You may take 1 mission or resolve any/all
missions with a flag matching the building where you placed
your agent.
- If you accept a mission, take 1 coin for an "A" mission and 2 coins for a "B" mission. Then replace the mission from the appropriate stack.
- To resolve a mission, you must show that you have all
the displayed requirements, but you do not spend them.
- You may resolve multiple missions.
- The same bribe/secret info. token can be used for multiple missions.
- Gain the reward(s) shown in the upper right of the mission tile.
- After resolving a mission, remove it from the game.
- Reminders:
- If you have the cash box, gain 1 additional coin, which must be placed under the cash box. If the cash box already has the max of 12 coins, you do not get this bonus.
- If you have the seal, gain 3 additional points.
- (or) Take any 2 identical bribes from the supply.
- (Advanced) You may take 2 coins instead of 2 bribes.
Action 4: Move 1 Secret Info. Tracking Token
- Move the secret info. tracking token on the secret info. board
1 space to the right matching the token shown in the upper right
of the card in action space 4.
- When any tracking token crosses a threshold for the 1st
time in a round, move the investigator 1 space on the roof
track and flip the investigation tile to its opposite side.
- (Advanced) If the investigator lands on a space with a purchase/payday tile, place it on the investigator tile as reminder for phase 2.5.
- When any tracking token crosses a threshold for the 1st
time in a round, move the investigator 1 space on the roof
track and flip the investigation tile to its opposite side.
- Gain 1 point for each secret info. token in your supply matching
the moved tracking token.
- Important: You get these points for each space you move a tracking token during your turn (for matching tokens in your supply). This is often due to abilities on cards.
- If a tracking token is in the last space of its track, it is not moved any further, but you still score points.
- Move the card assigned to action 1 (left most) into any drawer
below your desk, leaving the lower half visible.
- (*Advanced*) Phase 2.5: Purchase or Payday
- This phase is done in player order.
- The last space has 2 tiles on it. Resolve the purchase tile 1st (2nd to last round) and the payday tile in the final round.
Purchase Tiles
During a purchase phase, players can make exactly 1 purchase:
- Hire 1 agent for 1 coin, taking 1 of your agents from the next-door house and adding it to your personal supply.
- Buy your telephone fo 2 coins. A player with their telephone draws 4 cards in phase 1. Only 3 cards are played, with the 4th being discarded.
- Buy your road map for 2 coins. A player with their road map can use bribes as coins (1 to 1) for purchases and paying agents.
- Buy your cash box for 2 coins.
- Players can hide coins under the cash box instead of in plain view. This can only be done when obtaining the money. You cannot add coins later.
- The cash box can hold a max of 12 coins.
- Players with a cash box receive 1 extra coin when resolving
a mission, even if the mission does not reward coins. This
coin must be placed under the cash box.
- If you have reached the max of 12 coins in your cash box, you do not get this 1 coin bonus.
- Money in the cash box cannot be used for purchase/payday.
- Each coin in the cash box is worth 2 points at game end.
- Bribes cannot be put in the cash box.
- Buy your seal for 2 coins. A player with a seal gains 3 additional points when resolving a mission, even if the mission does not grant points.
- Buy your side table for 3 coins.
- Place it on the right side of your desk.
- This provides a 4th space for missions.
- This also provides a 4th drawer for abilities.
Payday tiles
- Players must pay 1 coin for each of their agents on the game board.
- If you cannot pay for all agents, remove any unpaid agents from the board.
- Players must pay for their agents. Money cannot be held back to voluntarily remove agents.
- Reminder: A player with a road map may use bribes instead of
coins to pay for agents.
- Players are not required to use bribes to pay for agents if they are out of coins.
- Phase 3: City Crest
- Flip the investigator tile to the side without an "X" on it (if applicable).
- The 1st player passes the city crest to the left.
- If the investigator has reached the game end space on the roof
track (see table below), play 1 more round and proceed to final
scoring.
- Otherwise, return to phase 1.
- In the very rare case that all tracking tokens have reached the 6th space, this will also trigger the game end (play 1 more round).
- (Advanced) Each player removes 1 agent from the main board for each unresolved mission they have.
Players End of Game Space 2 space H 3 space J 4 space L
- Gain 10 points for each set of different secret info. tokens.
- Gain 1-6 points for each secret info. tile based on the position of the matching tile on the secret info tracking board.
- (Advanced) Gain points based on number of desk tiles (telephone,
cash box, road map, seal) you have.
- 1 tile: 1 point
- 2 tiles: 3 points
- 3 tiles: 6 points
- 4 tiles: 10 points
- (Advanced) 2 points for every coin in your cash box. Discard these coins after tallying points.
- (Advanced) Gain points based on your rank in terms of number of
agents you have on the main board, based on player count (see table
below). In case of a tie:
- The player with the most coins on their player board.
- The player with the most bribes.
- Add the points of the tied players' ranks and divide them equally (rounded down).
Players 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 2 8 pts. 0 pts. - - 3 12 pts. 6 pts. 0 pts. - 2 12 pts. 8 pts. 4 pts. 0 pts. The player with the most points wins. If there is a tie:
- (Advanced) The player with the most money on their desk.
- The player with the most bribes wins.
- (Introductory only) The player with the most agents on the main board wins.
- The player later in turn order wins.