Mistrial!

2 Players
20 Minutes

A head-to-head game of
bidding, bluffing, and bias
Designed by Donnie Coleman

Play it now on Tabletop Simulator!

Hear ye, hear ye!

Mistrial! is a game of courtroom drama.
You are lawyers in a murder trial arguing to persuade the court to interpret the evidence in your favor!

Each round, you bid for control of an Evidence tile. Winning allows you to place the tile on the Trial board and build your case! You win by building the best case or forcing your opponent to fumble theirs!

What's in the box!?

■ 2 Boards Halves
■ 13 Double-Sided Evidence Tiles
■ 32 Evidence Cards
■ 12 Argument Cards
■ 6 Jury Selection (Setup) Cards
■ 1 First Player Marker
■ 10 Gray Influence Cubes
■ 2 Red Bias Cubes
■ 2 Blue Bias Cubes
■ 1 Rule Book

The Evidence

The Prosecution side of the tiles paints a picture of premeditated murder. The Defense side casts reasonable doubt, often with a different interpretation of the same events. Are you an upstanding lawyer who relies on strong Arguments or are you a tricky lawyer who likes to bluff? Will you try to Influence the Jury or will you let their Biases block your opponent's efforts?

Your Tools

Argument Cards for bidding are played from your hand, revealed simultaneously, and discarded after the round. Pick them up when your hand is almost empty or if you play your Losing Argument card.
Influence Cubes are gained from Jurors or by losing a round. They boost your Argument by one.
Bias Cubes block your opponent from laying a tile or they can be used to boost your Argument by one.

Gameplay

Setting Up / Selecting the Jury

The game comes with 6 setup cards which determine the layout of the Influence and Bias cubes on the board. Laying tiles allows you to collect Influence cubes or Bias cubes of your color. Bias cubes of your opponent's color stop you from laying tiles there!

Playing a Round

The First Player submits Evidence for consideration. The player who has the best Argument wins control of that piece of Evidence. They can use the Evidence to collect Influence and Bias cubes. The loser gets an Influence cube from the supply. (click to get a closer look)

Bluffing an Argument

You can lose an Argument on purpose! Dastardly! (click to get a closer look)

Tying Your Opponent

Anticipating your opponent's Argument so that you can match it is also a viable strategy. (click to get a closer look)

Ending the Game

Once 9 unique tiles have been played, the player with the largest number of connected tiles win! HOWEVER, the game will end sooner than that if there's a Mistrial! (click to get a closer look)