Honeypot

To set up Honeypot, each player receives a character identity card, a matching secret cache folder, and two swiping tokens. Any remaining swiping tokens are placed in a general supply within reach of all players, along with the 'Bees' token. The round bonus cards are shuffled, and five are dealt face-down to the center of the table, with the rest returned to the box without looking. All Honeypot cards are thoroughly shuffled and placed face-down in one or more stacks to form the Honeypot deck. Finally, one player is randomly chosen to be the first player and receives the turn rotation marker, placed with the clockwise side face up.

The objective of Honeypot is to become the secret agent with the most victory points after five rounds. Players achieve this by strategically collecting sets of 'Good Intel', 'Codebooks', 'Berries', and 'Honeydippers', while minimizing negative points from 'Bad Intel' and avoiding the 'Bees' token. Players must also manage their secret caches and utilize swiping tokens effectively to outwit their opponents.

Each round consists of four phases. First, all players draw six Honeypot cards from the deck. If the deck runs out, the discard pile is shuffled to form a new deck. Second, players privately arrange these six cards in any order to form their secret cache within their folder. They then simultaneously pass their folder to the player indicated by the turn rotation marker (clockwise or counter-clockwise). Third, starting with the first player, players take turns revealing the top two cards from the folder they received. They decide whether to keep these two cards or discard them to reveal the next two. This continues until two cards are kept, with the last two cards in the folder always kept. Action cards are resolved immediately upon being kept. Fourth, any unkept revealed cards are discarded. If a folder still has cards after a player has kept two, the next player in turn order can choose to 'swipe' the remaining cards by spending a swiping token, revealing them two at a time and deciding whether to keep or discard. If no one swipes, the remaining cards are discarded.

At the end of the game, players first receive 2 points for each leftover swiping token. Then, points are tallied from collected card sets: 'Good Intel' cards (1, 2, or 3 points each) grant an additional 3 points if a set of all three types is collected. 'Bad Intel' cards (1, 2, or 3 negative points each) are removed if a set of all three types is collected, negating their negative points. 'Codebook' cards score 7 points per set of two. 'Berry' cards score 2, 5, 9, or 14 points for collecting 1, 2, 3, or 4 berries respectively, but 0 points for 5 berries, with sets resetting. 'Disguise' cards (A, B, C, D, E, and a wild) score 1, 4, 8, 12, or 18 points for collecting 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 unique types. 'Honeydipper' cards score 6 points for one, 3 points for two, and 0 points for three, with sets resetting. 'Honeycomb' cards score 3 points each. The 'Bees' token, if held, results in a -7 point penalty. Finally, 'Ruby' icons on cards are tallied: the player with the most gets 6 points, second most 4, third most 2, and others 0. Ties for rubies are broken by adding points for tied placements and those below, then dividing by the number of tied players.

The game concludes after five rounds have been played, which is signaled when the last of the five face-down round bonus cards has been claimed. Once the game ends, players proceed to the final scoring phase. All points from collected cards, remaining swiping tokens, and ruby majorities are tallied. The player with the highest total score is declared the winner. In the event of a tie, the player with the most rubies wins. If there's still a tie, the tied players share the victory.