Draw
Automatically draw two operation cards. Resolve any drawn Headline immediately, then resume the interrupted draw.
01 / The field guide
Your first case starts here.
Six players share a table, but not a motive. Learn the current MVP 1.0 rules from the opening deal to the final verdict.
Before the first dispatch
The opening deal
Six players receive three operation cards each. Two secretly serve Baker Street, two Moriarty, and two begin with Fleet Street. Six different characters are assigned concealed; your character and allegiance are independent.
How the deck sets the pace
The 60 operation cards contain five functions, each with three copies of every colour/route combination. After dealing 18 cards, the remaining 42 are divided into six seven-card segments. A Headline is inserted into each with at least two operations before and after it. The first five Headlines are randomized; The Final Edition is always in the sixth segment.
The server commits to a hidden Baker Street/Moriarty Seal before play. It resolves a later score tie.
Four slots. One winning colour.
Baker Street wins when a current member holds four blue intelligence cards. Moriarty needs four red on a current member. The whole current faction wins together. Intelligence split between teammates does not form a four-card dossier.
Wrong-colour intelligence occupies one of your four public dossier slots. It does not eliminate you. A full dossier cannot receive another card.
Fleet Street has no independent victory. Join a side during your action, or be aligned by a Headline. Your own dossier majority determines the permitted side; equal counts allow either. Joining is permanent. Explore all three allegiances →
One turn, four phases.
Act
Take one action: play an eligible function, reveal your character, join a faction, use Press Leak, or pass.
Transmit
Send one hand card as intelligence, using its route. Resolve the whole delivery. With no hand cards, this step is skipped.
Tidy
Discard down to seven cards—or your active cover limit—then pass the turn to the next seat.
Action limits and responses
You cannot play a function that spends your last hand card. Revealing your character consumes your action, permanently removes your cover ability, and grants its once-only revelation. All mandatory costs and targets must be legal before revealing.
Decode and Diversion are recipient responses, not action-phase functions. There are no response chains or victory-cancellation windows.
What happens when the deck runs out?
Only an empty deck reshuffles the operation discard pile. If both piles are empty, draw as many as possible and stop. Resolved Headlines never return to the deck.
The city moves with you
Six Headlines change the case.
Scotland Yard Breakthrough
Fleet Street players with more blue than red intelligence join Baker Street together.
Moriarty’s Offer
Fleet Street players with more red than blue intelligence join Moriarty together.
Public Inquest
Every full dossier discards its newest intelligence.
The Great Fog
Mandatory transmissions become Cipher until the current player’s next turn begins.
The Blue Carbuncle
The current player places the latest operation discard in a legal dossier. No card or no space means no effect.
The Final Edition
Remaining Fleet Street players align by dossier majority. Tied players choose secretly; all changes are applied together before adjudication.
If The Final Edition does not end the game, finish the turn in progress. Starting with the next seat, each player takes one final turn—including the player who triggered the Headline. Then adjudicate finally.
The verdict follows the facts.
Check only after a complete effect. Never end halfway through a multi-player effect or while final secret alignment choices remain pending.
- If exactly one side has a qualifying four-card dossier, it wins.
- If both qualify, compare all blue intelligence held by current Baker Street players against all red held by current Moriarty players.
- A score tie is broken by the previously committed Seal.
- At the final deadline, if neither qualifies, use that same total-score comparison and Seal.
Every normally completed game has one winning side. An abandoned game has no winner.
Stay at the table.
Enter as a guest with a detective name, or sign in. Quick Match prioritizes humans and fills remaining seats with AI after waiting. Private Room lets friends gather at the same six-seat table.
- Your turn shares a 45-second decision budget. Other recipients have eight seconds per decision.
- The server chooses a legal fallback on timeout. Speech and animations do not delay the deadline.
- AI takes over a disconnected seat while preserving its identity, character and allegiance. Reconnect before the run ends to regain control.
- When the last human disconnects, play pauses for 90 seconds. If nobody returns, the case is abandoned without a winner or normal rewards.
Quick statements are claims and may be lies. Public dossiers and the case record are confirmed facts.