How to play Art Heist
For 5 players
SET UP
Place the five decks of cards (paintings around the room, front side facing outwards. At the start of the game each player is assigned a number from 1 to 5. Each player takes a voting card (ace through five) of every value other than theirs. This becomes relevant later.
Then each player draws a roll card. If you draw a king, you are a museum-goer, and are on the innocent team. If you draw the joker, you are the thief.
HOW TO PLAY
The thief must try to inconspicuously “steal” all five paintings by flipping them so that their back side or ‘imitation’ side is facing outward. This game is best played at a party or other crowded social gathering so that players can be easily distracted. If the thief steals all the paintings or 20 minutes has expired, they win!
The museum-goers’ goal is to catch the criminal in the act and get them voted out of the museum. At any point when someone spots a stolen painting (yes, the thief can self report) or someone catches the thief in the act, the timer is paused and all players must gather. They will have two minutes to discuss who they think the thief is. After two minutes have elapsed, the players will vote using their voting cards for the player they think is the thief.
If the voted out player was a museum goer, they are not out of the game and can still vote, but they cannot speak during the discussion periods anymore.
This would be a great game for a party and it sounds like a lot of fun. It reminds me of Among Us, and there’s a reason why it was so popular
This was a very fun game to play. I lked the idea of it not being a stay in place game. Though I think adding in more art pieces would be beneficial.
I love the idea of having imitation paintings to replace the real paintings. That kinda reminds me of an idea I had but I never figured out how to incorporate it in mine. I also love that not everyone’s goal is to steal a painting. The fact that the museum goer can vote out the theif is a cool touch.
One other thing I would say is, typically a theft like this would happen at night when the museum goers aren’t in the museum due to it being closed. Maybe instead you could have the people turning them in (voting them out) be overnight workers, janitors, guards, etc.