2 to 5 Players

(A) Game Setup

Place the Player Aid card in the middle of the table for all players to refer to. Flip the card as necessary to refer to the information on both sides anytime.

Shuffle the 16 Guardian cards face-down. Deal 3 cards face-down to each player. Players should pick up their cards with the backs facing them and the faces visible to others. Do not look at the faces on your own 3 cards. Place the remaining cards face-down spread out individually in the middle of the table to form the card area.

Decide on a starting player, preferably the last player to watch a fantasy movie.

You are ready to play Secret Guardians!

(B) Flow of the Game

Beginning from the starting player, each player takes a turn in order until one player has correctly declared a win to end the game. A player turn is described in detail below:

(C) Flow of a Turn

1. Draw a Card

First, the player draws one of the face-down cards in the card area. They may not draw a card the last player discarded. Make sure the backs are facing you!

2. Name a Guardian

Then, name one of the 4 guardians you think are on your card faces. The 4 guardians are: Garuda, Kirin, Merlion and Cheonyong. The other players must tell you honestly if the guardian you named is on at least one of your face-out cards. If you are correct, then go to step 3. If not, go to step 4.

Note about the cards: The backs (cities) denote the possibility of that guardian being found in that city.

For example, there is a 50% chance that there is a Merlion on the front of a card with a Singapore back.

3. Carry out an Action

If the player successfully names a guardian on their card faces, they may carry out one of the 3 actions below:

Flip a card

The player may choose one of their 4 cards to flip around such that the back is facing outward and the front is facing them. The player can now see the win condition. A card with the front facing the player is known as a flipped card.

Swap a card

The player may swap any one of their 4 cards with a card in the card area, or with a card in another player’s hand. They may NOT swap with a card that is flipped, or that was swapped in the previous turn.

Declare a Win

The player may declare a win by choosing a win condition on one of their flipped cards.

They then unflip all their cards such that all their card fronts are facing the other players.

If the win condition is met, the player immediately wins the game.

The win conditions are:

Have 4 guardians of the same colour

Have 4 guardians of different colours

Have 2 pairs of guardians in different colours

4. Discard a Card

The player chooses one of their 4 cards to discard into the card area. They may not discard the card just unflipped (if any), or the one that was drawn this turn — they must place it in now.

It is now the next player’s turn clockwise!

(D) End of the Game

When one player has successfully declared a win, the game ends and that player is the winner!