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The Cleaner Rules, v5.5 (08262018)
Co-designed by Martin Gonzalvez | BGG: DrHenryArmitage |
mgonzalvez@gmail.com​ and Janine Viglietti | BGG: thevig
Graphic Design by Janine Viglietti
Comments and feedback: ​The Cleaner Work-in-Progress Thread on
Boardgamegeek

Game Idea

The Cleaner is a solo race against time to use the right equipment, to
clean up crime scene evidence, before time runs out and the police arrive.

Objective

You are ​The Cleaner​. Your job is to clean up evidence from crime scenes in
which murders have been committed. You must grab your Equipment cards,
make your way to the crime scene, use your equipment efficiently, and
clean up as much Evidence as possible — before time runs out and the
police arrive. The more evidence you leave behind, the lower your score.
Can you sanitize increasingly difficult crime scenes, to become the
greatest Cleaner in the city?

Print and Play Components (v5.5)

Components Print and Play Instructions

- 36 Evidence Tiles (17 for Print one copy each on plain
Crime Scene 1, 19 for Crime paper or card stock, cut
Scene 2), front and back each tile and glue to card
stock or cardboard
- 12 Basic Equipment Cards Print one copy on card
(plus 3 optional Basic stock, double-sided with
Collector’s Edition cards) + card backs
backs
- 7 Advanced Equipment Cards
(plus 2 optional Advanced
Collector’s Edition cards) +
backs
- One Player Board with Crime Print one copy on card
Scene Time Tracker and Bonus stock, mount on cardboard
Tracker
- One Crime Scene 1 Game Board Print one copy of each half
- One Crime Scene 2 Game Board on card stock, mount on
cardboard.
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Player provides:
⁃ Yellow Effort cubes​ (Small Effort)*
⁃ Orange Effort cubes​ (Medium Effort)*
⁃ Red Effort cubes​ (High Effort)*
⁃ Blue Effort cubes​ (Very High Effort)*
⁃ Green Effort cubes​ (Intense Effort)*
⁃ Black Effort cubes​ (Inhuman Effort)*
⁃ 1 Time Tracker Cube
⁃ 1 Bonus Tracker Cube
⁃ at least 7 Six-sided dice (d6)*

*Cubes and dice are not meant to be limited, provide as many as needed (in
general, eight of each cube color should be enough)

Game Setup (v5.5)

Crime Scene 1 Crime Scene 2

Victim Tiles (marked with 1 required. We included an 2

“1” or “2” on the back) optional second victim in
case you want to increase
difficulty.

Murder Weapon Tiles (marked 1 2

with “1” or “2” on the back)

Evidence Tiles (marked with Easy Difficulty: 6 Easy Difficulty: 8

“1” on the back for Crime Normal Difficulty: 8 Normal Difficulty: 10
Scene 1, or “2” on the back Hard Difficulty: 10 Hard Difficulty: 12
for Crime Scene 2) Insane Difficulty: All 14! Insane Difficulty: All 15!

Equipment Cards 12 Basic (up to 3 optional 12 Basic + 7 Advanced (up to

Basic Collector’s Edition 5 optional Basic + Advanced
cards) Collector’s Edition cards)

Effort Cubes Yellow (Low Effort) Yellow, Orange and Red plus:
Orange (Medium Effort)
Red (High Effort) Blue (Very High Effort)
Green (Intense Effort)
Black (Inhuman Effort)

1. Decide if you are playing Crime Scene 1 or 2.

2. Place the ​Victim​ and ​Murder Weapon Tiles ​for your selected​ Crime Scene ​on the
corresponding ​Crime Scene Game Board, ​in the center of the play area.
3. Separate the ​Evidence Tiles​ into two piles (​Crime Scene 1 and 2​) and shuffle.
4. Draw a number of ​Evidence Tiles​ based on selected game difficulty, place face-up on
matching spaces on selected ​Crime Scene Game Board​.
5. Place ​Equipment Cards​ in play area.
5A. If you are playing Crime Scene 1, take the ​Basic Equipment Cards ​only,
shuffle, and place face-down in your play area.
5B.If you are playing Crime Scene 2, combine the ​Basic and Advanced Equipment
Cards​, shuffle, and place face-down in your play area.
6. Place ​Effort cubes​ in a supply beside the play area.
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7. Place the ​Player Board ​face up in your play area, within easy reach.
8. Place the ​Time Tracker cube​ on the starting time (default: 60 minutes) on the ​Crime
Scene Time Tracker​.
9. Place one ​six-sided die​ within easy reach, in your play area. Place the others in a
supply beside the play area.
10. You are now ready to play The Cleaner.
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Playing The Cleaner

Part 1: Clean The Crime Scene

Each turn at the Crime Scene consists of two phases: an Action Phase and a
Refresh Phase.

Action Phase

Take four actions, in any order​. ​You may repeat the same actions in a
turn. If at any point the Equipment deck runs out, shuffle the discard
pile to make a fresh Equipment deck.

A. Place Equipment Card​ - Draw the top two cards from the Equipment deck.
Choose one card, discard the other. Place the chosen Equipment card in an
open hand slot on your Player Board.

B. Activate Equipment Card​ - Activate an Equipment Card already in a hand

slot on the Player Board from a previous action or turn. Roll the Effort
D6, gain Effort cubes (if any) and adjust remaining time as indicated on
the Equipment card. Discard Equipment card immediately after activation.

Note:​ If you want, you may pay 2 time and return the top Equipment card to
the box (remove it from the game), to acquire a Bonus cube to place on the
Pocket Watch space on your Player Board.

Spend a Bonus cube on your Player Board at any time to either re-roll the
Effort d6 (you must accept the result, good or bad), or to flip the die
180 degrees (a 1 becomes a 6, a 2 becomes a 5, etc.). This does not count
as an action.

C. Clean Evidence​ - Take Effort cubes from any space on your Player Board,
place on matching spaces on a single Evidence Tile. You may not distribute
Effort cubes among multiple Evidence Tiles in a single action.

Note:​ You may store Effort cubes on your Player Board for use in a later
turn. However, storing cubes will cost you time, as explained in the
Refresh Phase.

D. Combine or Split Effort​ - Move Effort cubes to the Combined Effort

space on the Player Board. Combine two cubes of lower Effort to
immediately produce one cube of greater Effort. Or, split one cube of
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greater Effort to produce two cubes of lower Effort. Refer to the Effort
cube conversion table printed on the Player Board. Lower remaining time by
one minute for each Effort cube combined or split, multiplied by each
cube’s Effort level multiplier (see table below).

Cube Color Effort Level Effort Level Multiplier

yellow low Effort x 1

orange medium Effort x 2

red high Effort x 3

blue very high Effort x 4

green intense Effort x 5

black inhuman Effort x 6

Example 1: Claire combines two orange (medium Effort) cubes to create

one red (high Effort) cube. Claire lowers remaining time by 2 orange
cubes x 2 (medium effort) = 4 minutes.

Example 2: Mark splits one blue Cube (very high Effort) to create two
red (high Effort) cubes. Mark lowers remaining time by 1 blue cube x
4 (very high Effort) = 4 minutes

E. Replace Equipment​ - Discard two unactivated Equipment cards currently

in hand slots on your Player Board. Immediately draw the top two Equipment
cards from the Equipment deck, place in hand slots. Lower remaining time
by three minutes.

F.​ ​Perform Card Action​ - Certain cards, when combined with certain other
cards, allow you to perform an action printed on the card. For example,
the Scrub Brush, combined with a Bucket of Water, produces 1 cube of any
color. The Hoover, combined with Deodorizer, produces two cubes of any
color. These card actions do not require a die roll, but they do use up an
action. Discard both Equipment cards immediately after use.
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Refresh Phase

Once you have taken four actions, perform the following checks to refresh
for the next turn:

● Check that you have discarded any activated Equipment cards

● Remove from the crime scene any Evidence Tiles whose Effort cubes you
have completely covered, return Effort cubes to the supply
● If any Effort cubes will be stored on the Player Board for a later
turn, you must lower remaining time by one for each Effort cube,
multiplied by the cube’s Effort level (yellow cube = 1, orange cube =
2, red cube = 3, blue cube = 4, green cube = 5, black cube = 6).
○ Example: Corey left two orange Effort cubes on the Player Board
at the end of a turn. Lower time by 2 cubes x 2 = 4 minutes).

Continue playing the Action and Refresh phases, until you have either
removed all Evidence tiles, you decide to leave the crime scene, or you
run out of time. If you managed to clean all the Evidence Tiles from the
crime scene, well done! Proceed to ​Scoring.

If at any point during the Action Phase, your Time Tracker cube lands on
the last space on the Time Tracker​,​ the police arrive, arrest you at the
crime scene, and you ​lose the game​.

Before time runs out, you must declare -- ​before​ starting the next turn --
that you are leaving the crime scene. Discard all remaining equipment
cards and unplaced Effort cubes, and proceed to ​Part 2: Police
Investigation.

Make a note of the time remaining as you declare that you are leaving the
crime scene -- this will count toward your final score.

Note: ​If you leave the crime scene without disposing of the Victim and/or
the Murder Weapon​, you lose the game!
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Part 2: Police Investigation:

The more Evidence Tiles you leave behind at the Crime Scene, the more
chances you give the police to find those pieces of evidence. Resolve the
Police Investigation as follows:

● For each Evidence Tile left behind at the scene, you will
simultaneously​ roll a number of d6’s matching the number of uncleaned
spaces on that tile.

● Resolve each Evidence Tile, one by one, in any order you choose,
until all the tiles have been resolved.

● For each Evidence Tile, note the colors of the uncleaned spaces. The
color of the space determines the outcome of the die roll results,
whether the police find that piece of evidence or not, according to
the table below.

Color of uncleaned space on Evidence Police find that piece of Evidence on a

Tile result of...

Yellow 1

Orange 1 or 2

Red 1, 2 or 3

Blue 1, 2, 3 or 4

Green 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5

Black If uncleaned, police automatically find

this piece of Evidence

● For each Evidence Tile, you may assign die roll results to colored
spaces on the tile, in any order.

● If police fail to find evidence on a tile, remove that Evidence Tile

from the crime scene, return any cubes to the supply.
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Example: in the Evidence Tile pictured above, Thomas left two

colored spaces uncleaned: a yellow space, and an orange space.
He rolls 2d6, and gets a “2” and a “3”. Thomas assigns the “2”
to the yellow space, and the “3” to the orange space. Thomas’s
cleaning was sufficient to escape police detection! He may
remove this Evidence Tile from the Crime Scene.

● If police find the evidence on an Evidence tile, place a number of

dice on that tile matching the number of pieces of evidence (colored
spaces) the police found.
● Once you have resolved all Evidence Tiles and marked with dice all
the pieces of evidence found by the police, proceed to ​Scoring​.
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Scoring:

After the police finish investigating the Crime Scene, it’s time to tally
your score:

1. Take your remaining time, in minutes, when you declared you were
leaving the crime scene
2. Add 20 if you played on Insane Difficulty, add 10 if you played on
Hard Difficulty. Subtract 10 if you played on Easy Difficulty.
3. Subtract from your score the corresponding values in the table below
for each piece of Evidence (colored spaces) found by the police:

Color of space found by police Subtract from score:

yellow -2

orange -4

red -6

blue -8

green -10

- Now compare your score to the ranking table below to see how well you
stack up as a Cleaner:

Score Rating

30+ Immortal Cleaner​. No one will ever catch

you, your record is “spotless”.

20-29 Elite Cleaner​. You “clean up nicely” in

this line of work.

10-19 Veteran Cleaner​. You’ve “gotten your nose

dirty” once or twice.

1-9 Sanitation Worker​. Other cleaners would

“wipe the floor” with you.

0 or lower Janitor​. You couldn’t clean your way out

of a paper bag.
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Acknowledgments

Thanks to you, for playing The Cleaner! Thanks to our play testers and
rules reviewers: Thomas More, Mark Tuck, Corey Hastings, Brian Garthwaite,
Claire Thacker, Jasmine Hweh, and David (BGG: badgerking). Thanks to Pasko
Zhelev for setting up the digital version of The Cleaner on Tabletop
Simulator. Special thanks to Rachel Bruner for her unwavering support!
Thanks to everyone who posted in our thread, provided feedback, moral
support or just sent some love our way on this crazy cleaning journey!

Please send your comments, questions and feedback to Martin and Janine,
care of our ​work-in-progress thread​ on Boardgamegeek.com