Ludexv2026.11.01-65114139 Mr. Jack PocketOfficial rulebook ↗

Visitors

Loading…

Learn
Setup
Rules
Teach the Game
Turns and Actions
Game End and Scoring
Solo
Cards & Components
Tips & Strategy
Videos
Help
FAQ · 10
About & Notice

Setup

Choose the player count, then tick steps off as you go. Ticks are kept on this device.

Tap a step's number to zoom into it on the rulebook's setup picture.

First game

District tiles (Suspect side up): 9
Turns at most: 8

The district

Shuffle the 9 district tiles and lay them in a 3 × 3 square, Suspect side up, each turned at random.
The Investigator puts Holmes beside the top-left tile, Watson beside the top-right tile and Toby below the bottom-middle tile, then turns those three tiles so each detective faces a wall.

The players

Choose who plays Mr. Jack and who plays the Investigator.
Mr. Jack draws one Alibi card, looks at it and keeps it face down: that suspect is his secret identity. Its hourglasses never count for him.
Put the other 8 Alibi cards face down next to the district as a draw pile.

Time

Lay the 8 Turn tokens face up in a row from 1 to 8; keep the 4 Action tokens ready. The Investigator starts turn 1.

The district

Shuffle the 9 district tiles and lay them in a 3 × 3 square, Suspect side up, each turned at random.
The Investigator puts Holmes beside the top-left tile, Watson beside the top-right tile and Toby below the bottom-middle tile, then turns those three tiles so each detective faces a wall.

The players

Choose who plays Mr. Jack and who plays the Investigator.
Mr. Jack draws one Alibi card, looks at it and keeps it face down: that suspect is his secret identity. Its hourglasses never count for him.
Put the other 8 Alibi cards face down next to the district as a draw pile.

Time

Lay the 8 Turn tokens face up in a row from 1 to 8; keep the 4 Action tokens ready. The Investigator starts turn 1.

On this page

The district
The players
Time

Unofficial fan reference. Mr. Jack Pocket © Hurrican. Rules paraphrased from the official rulebook; component pictures are taken from it and remain © Hurrican. FAQ from theBoardGameGeek rules forum. Disagree with something here? Tell me.
Ludex is created by Maurizio Masini · logo meeple from Tabler Icons (MIT)

Rules

Teach the Game
Turns and Actions
Game End and Scoring
Solo
Cards & Components
Tips & Strategy
Videos
About & Notice

↑↓ to move · Enter to open · Esc to close

Drag to move · tap to close