Full manual text

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“What is this crap?!” you hear across the room as soon as you walk
through the front door of the Los Angeles Police Department. No one
even bats an eye, it’s your chief probably shouting at someone again.
Another typical morning in the office. Dozens of desks are covered
with hundreds of papers and folders. The so-called IBM era is on the
horizon, but for now, paper and field work have to suffice.
The corruption and drugs on the streets doesn’t make the job easy.
That’s why even the best detectives have to bend the law a little in a
constant attempt to rid the streets of the scumbags. It is what it is,
you have to adapt to the standards of these harsh times. But it doesn’t
mean that the gig is stress-free, oh no, far from that. It’s even more
stressful when you have to make sure no one sees you while you break
a few protocols.
You approach your workspace and quickly hide the brandy bottle you left
sitting on top of your desk after another late night at the office yesterday. You
shut the drawer and open the files on your desk, ready to start the day. That’s
when you notice Chief James Bradley waving at you to come into his office. You
walk slowly wondering what you did wrong this time…
WELCOME TO THE LAPD
SETUP
Set up the game following the same steps as in the base
game, but make sure to use the game board, character
tiles, and case decks from this expansion. Treat the
Police Station as your new Headquarters - this is where
you will be starting each day, including the first day
of your first set up. Set aside the Technology () Skill
tokens - these will not be needed in this expansion
unless you are specifically instructed to use them.
NOTE: A Wild Skill token can be used as a substitute
for the three remaining Skill tokens: Research (),
Questioning (), and Perception ().
Important: There are 5 Special tokens (01-05) in the
base game. This expansion will often ask you to place
a Special token on the board for different purposes, and
in rare cases you might run out.
If this happens, use any replacement marker (this can be
a token from another game, a coin, etc.). Special tokens
should be unlimited.
L.A. Crimes is an expansion for Detective: A Modern Crime
Board Game. It has the same concept and uses most
of the base rules, with a few changes depicted in this
rulebook.
The Investigative Team still works together and shares
all Stress, Authority, and Skill tokens. You still will not be
able to go through the entire deck, so you will need to
deduce your answers. Every case consists of 36 cards - a
cover and 35 “lead” cards. Remember what you learned
before, it is always good to cast a wide net on your case -
no single card provides an answer to the case.
COMPONENTS
▸▸The game board (double sided)
▸▸5 Character Tiles
▸▸3 Case Decks
▸▸Rulebook

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OVERVIEW
Your time is still limited by the number of days stated in
the introduction to each case. Although it is the LAPD in
the ’80s, you will still be using the Antares website - the
website appearance will change slightly after choosing
the L.A. Crimes campaign. As in the base game, you will
use the site as usual and file the “Final Report” in an
attempt to answer questions related to the case, which
will determine your final score.
Important: L.A. Crimes does not contain a casebook
- all of the introductions to each of the cases will be
available on the Antares website and all of the files will
be downloadable as PDF files, ready to print if you want
a hard copy.
DAILY ACTIVITY
During each workday, players still perform actions as one
team, discussing and deciding what to do next together.
In addition to all of the actions you may take from the
base game, you may now also:
▸▸Take Stress tokens to perform an action specified on a card
▸▸Make a decision now
▸▸Assign surveillance
There’s a small change to the Write a report action. You
can now perform this action ONLY in the Police Station,
which has been indicated on the game board.
REMINDER: Once the day ends, you and your team still
have to perform each and every one of the following
steps:
▸▸Move the Day marker to the next day on the Day tracker
▸▸Reset the Time tracker to 8:00 AM
▸▸Move the IT marker back to the Police Station
▸▸Sort notes and discuss what you have learned that day
▸▸Write down all possible leads to keep track of what is
available to you
#playtestingtip
This expansion is set in the ‘80s, so you will not have
access to the Antares technology that you used during
questionings, just good old cop intuition. This will create
new difficulty in perceiving a character’s emotions
during questioning and while analyzing their stress
levels. Use your deduction skills to figure out whether
characters are lying or whether they are simply mistaken
and not seeing the big picture.
THREE BASIC RULES
The three basic rules from the base game: Clues, Time, and
Location stay intact. The database on the Antares website
will be used as usual, as well as the General knowledge.
You can still use Google maps, Wikipedia, or any other
source of data you may need. Please keep in mind that
though we are still using the mechanism of ‘Breaking the
fourth wall’ and you will occasionally be instructed to check
Google maps, the streets and locations you will find may
have looked drastically different in the past. Sometimes our
aim is for you to simply get familiar with where a certain
place is, or to see its location and distance in relation
to other locations. As for the information found on the
internet, we have only used information that would have
been known at the time.
NEW GAME BOARD
You are the detectives working at the Los Angeles Police
Station, that is why you will always start every day there
unless instructed otherwise. Also, since Los Angeles is the
second most populated city in the US, we can distinguish
two different field areas, Downtown, and Suburbs. There is
also a Laboratory. It may not be as advanced as you would
like it to be, but it gets the job done. Moving between these
locations works the same as it did in the base game. The
game board is double-sided; for the first two scenarios you
will be using the side with the usual Time track (1), then flip
the board and use the other side for the third scenario (2).

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2
NEW ACTIONS
All of the new actions described below can be found
on the Lead cards. These cannot be performed until
revealed.
TAKE STRESS TOKENS TO PERFORM AN ACTION SPECIFIED
ON A CARD
Sometimes you will be presented with an option to do
something off the books. Something that, if you were to
get caught by your boss, wouldn’t play out nicely. These
actions will always generate some Stress tokens, so be
careful. If you get too much attention and your stress
hits the limit for the case, you might be forced to write
up the Final Report before you learn all the facts.
MAKE A DECISION NOW
This action will always have at least two options to
choose from. When having to make a decision right away,
choose the option before continuing to any other actions
on the card. Some of these options will generate Further
Leads, so if you choose this option, write the Lead down
and you can visit it at any point in the future, as with any
typical Further Lead - note, this Lead is only available
if you choose this option. Additionally, decisions
will sometimes generate a new option of assigning
surveillance to the person or location described.
ASSIGN SURVEILLANCE
In times when there are not many cameras on the
streets, you will sometimes need an extra set of eyes
to help you gather the information you need. Assigning
an officer to run surveillance will usually cost at least 1
Authority token - their report will be found on your desk
the next morning.
WORKING HOURS
Whenever you need to place a Special token on a specific
space on the Time track, always count from your current
hour forward.
NOTE: Some of the actions will contain a new term called
working hours. Only the hours from 8 AM to 4 PM count
as working hours. Sometimes this might mean that a
marker gets placed two days away or will not be able to
be placed with the time remaining in the case.
EXAMPLE: It is 1 PM and your team has revealed a card
that tells you to place a Special token on a space 6
working hours away. This means you count the 3 hours
starting from 1 PM until 4 PM and then continue again
from 8 AM counting 3 additional hours, placing the
Special token on the 11 AM space. The token will be
reached at 11 AM of the next day and the card will let you
know that you will read a FILE upon reaching or passing
the Special token on the Time track.
Important: Some cards may require you to place the
Special token 8 or more working hours away. In these
situations the token could end up on a space meant to
be one or two days away, meaning the Time marker will
pass this space once, before resolving the Special token
on the second encounter. In such cases either remember
this is the situation, or place another Special token on
the space as a reminder that you have to complete a
full day first and resolve the action once you reach that
space again.
#playtestingtip
Since it is the ’80s and not everyone may remember
those days, it is a good idea to set the mood for the
game! Find a playlist on Spotify or YouTube with music
from the era and play it in the background at a volume
that will not disturb any conversations. It really helps
the overall experience!

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NEW INVESTIGATORS
In L.A. Crimes we have a new set of investigators, each
with unique abilities described on their tiles. If you have
any questions about how they work, please refer to the
FAQ on the Antares website.
ADJUSTING GAME DIFFICULTY
NEW ON THE STREETS - MAKING THE GAME EASIER
You can choose this difficulty if you lose a case and want
to replay it or if you think you just need a hand. When
choosing this mode, you can add three more hours to
the last day before you tackle the Final Report. Keep in
mind that the additional hours will not add any Stress
tokens, even though the time marker moves into the
overtime spaces.
FEARLESS DETECTIVE - MAKING THE GAME HARDER
As opposed to the New on the Streets difficulty, you
can face a challenge by reducing your last day of the
case by two hours. When you move the marker past the
newly established time limit on the last day, add the
appropriate amount of stress tokens to your Token pool.
CREDITS
GAME DESIGN: Ignacy Trzewiczek
GAME STORY: Ignacy Trzewiczek, Mateusz Zaród
DEVELOPMENT: Matt Dembek
ART DIRECTING, GRAPHIC DESIGN: Rafał Szyma
RULEBOOK: Matt Dembek
ENGLISH TEXT TRANSLATION: Luke Otfinowski
ENGLISH TEXT EDITORS: Zara Otfinowski and Vincent Salzillo
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Grzegorz Polewka
PHOTO COPYRIGHTS:
GAME BOARD: Photos under the Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) license
by Alan Light, Eric Fisher, JIRCA Library
CARDS: Photos under the Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) license by: Alan
Light, Eric Fisher, Seattle Municipal Archives, dave_7, Jeremy Levine, Texas
State Library and Archives Commission, sv1ambo, Barbara Ann Spengler, rick,
David Merrett. Additional photo material under public domain license.
CHARACTER ID TILES: Photos under the Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
license by:
R. D. Irving tile: Alan Light, Per Egevad
W. Waschington tile: Alan Light, Dunedin City Council Archives
E. A. Phillips tile: Alan Light, Seattle Municipal Archives
J. Morresy tile: Alan Light, Infrogmation of New Orleans
E. Grunberg tile: Alan Light, 888bailbond,
G. Ford tile: Robert Taylor, Seattle Municipal Archives, Eric Fisher
B. Reynolds tile: Alan Light, Seattle Municipal Archives, Eric Fisher
B. Tiere tile: Ken Marshall, Seattle Municipal Archives, Eric Fisher
J. K. Hudson tile: Seattle Municipal Archives, Eric Fisher
Additional photo material under public domain license.
RULEBOOK: Photos under the Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) license by
Alan Light (photos of L.A.), Eric Fisher (the background photo).
© 2019 PORTAL GAMES Sp. z o.o.
ul. Św. Urbana 15, 44-100 Gliwice,
Poland. All rights reserved.
Reprinting and publishing of game rules, game components, or illustrations
without the permission of Portal Games is prohibited.
Dear Customer, our games are assembled with the greatest care. However, if
your copy lacks anything, we apologize. Please, let us know:
portal@portalgames.pl
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Lee Clinard, Christopher Rucco, Colton Crowther,
Matthew Sumski. We would also like to thank Mr. Alan Light, whose pictures
- both used in this game and other ones - gave us a unique chance to travel
through time and space to the streets of Los Angeles in the 80s.
We’d like to thank playtesters who made this expansion so much better:
Kasia, Owczy, Jacek, Alicja, Tomek, Paxu, Adam, Zbyszek, Piechu, Gloomy,
Jagódka, Ola J, Agnieszka M, Dawid J, Mazi, Marjan, Olga, Pako, Marek, Merry,
Greg, Iwona W., Alicja and Jasiek.
Our WEBSITE: portalgames.pl/en/
Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game WEBSITE:
detectiveboardgame.com
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production
are fictitious and are in no way related to the ones shown on the pictures.
No identification with actual people (living or deceased) or products is
intended or should be inferred. Portal Games’ intention of using the images,
based on public domain or CC BY 2.0 license, is to deliver an immersive over-
view of the ‚80s by exemplifying the reality of the times. Portal Games does
not intend to violate the privacy or the moral rights of the depicted people.

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