500c

Under Current

諜報密檔

You pass one intelligence card; your opponent decides whether to seal it away or let you use it. There is exactly one way to be eliminated — and the moment it happens, the game is over.

Year: 2026
Item no.: SS202606UC
Players: 3-8
Play time: 15 min
Age: 10+
Designer: Tsai Huei-Chiang, Chang Yu-Di
Artist: Tsai Huei-Chiang

One action a turn, but the decision belongs to your opponent — what you really play is how they will choose
Four factions, four different victory conditions: Blue and Red count, Yellow wants a tie, Green has its own path
Role cards always outnumber players, so faction sizes stay genuinely unknown
RETIRE is the only way anyone is eliminated — and it ends the game the instant it lands
Eliminated players can still win: being caught is not the same as losing
3 to 8 players in 15 minutes; the more people, the murkier the information

Under Current is a game of espionage and faction rivalry between intelligence organizations. You are a secret agent whose identity must stay hidden, and the Central File Row in the middle of the table slowly fills with archived intelligence — at the end of the game, the colours in that row decide who wins.

Each turn you do exactly one thing: choose 1 of your 2 cards, pass it face down to any player, and ask “would you like to place this into the Central File Row, or let me use its effect?” The decision is theirs, and the choice they make is itself a piece of intelligence.

Blue and Red compete on sheer card count. Yellow automatically props up whichever side is behind and wins on a tie. Green needs its own colour to reach the archive — or must name both Informers exactly. There are always more role cards than players, so nobody can be sure how many allies are really in the room.

Goal

Each faction has its own victory condition, all resolved together at the end of the game:

Blue / Red: your colour has more Intelligence Cards in the Central File Row than the other.
Yellow: after the Yellow Auto-Balance Rule is applied, Blue and Red totals are exactly equal.
Green: at least 1 Green card is in the Central File Row. If there are none, Green players may reveal their role cards and take a Declaration Action — naming 1 Red Informer and 1 Blue Informer. Get both right and Green wins.

Components

32 Intelligence Cards (11 Blue, 11 Red, 5 Green, 5 Yellow)
9 Role Cards (Chief / Agent / Informer across the Blue, Red, Yellow and Green factions)
3 rulebooks (Traditional Chinese, English and Japanese)

Setup

Using the Role Card Configuration Table, take the number of role cards matching your player count, shuffle them and deal 1 to each player to hold secretly. Place the remaining role cards face down to the side as Reserve Role Cards.
Remove Intelligence Cards by player count: 3–5 players remove every card marked 6+ and 8+; 6–7 players remove every card marked 8+; 8 players use them all.
Shuffle the remaining Intelligence Cards face down as the Intelligence Draw Pile, then each player draws 2 as their starting hand.
Clear a space in the centre of the table for the Central File Row.
The oldest player, or a randomly chosen one, becomes the Starting Player.
Important: there are always more role cards than players, so nobody can be certain of the real size of any faction.

Identity Confirmation

Performed once at the start of the game. One player acts as moderator and reads the following aloud for everyone to follow:

Everyone places one hand in the centre of the table and closes their eyes.
Players holding the Thumb Symbol raise their thumb.
Players holding the Eye Symbol open their eyes to see each other and who has a thumb raised.
Everyone closes their eyes and lowers their thumbs.
Everyone opens their eyes. The game begins.

Turn structure

Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each turn has three steps:

① Pass a Card: choose 1 card from your hand and pass it face down to another player, asking “would you like to place this into the Central File Row, or let me use its effect?”
② The Opponent Chooses: they must pick one. “Place it into the Central File Row” leaves the card face down in the row and its effect does not activate. “Let the player use the effect” reveals the card, and the active player immediately resolves it.
③ Draw Back Up: at the end of your turn, draw until you have 2 cards in hand. If the deck is empty, no cards are drawn.

The Central File Row

The row may hold a maximum of 2 face-down cards at a time. When a 3rd face-down card is added, the oldest one is revealed — and so on from there.

Example: Amy passes a Blue / SCAN card (“look at another player’s entire hand”) to Brian. If Brian chooses to place it into the Central File Row, the card enters face down and nothing happens. If Brian lets Amy use the effect, Amy may choose any player and look at their whole hand.

Card effects

SWAP: you and a chosen player each pick 1 card from hand and exchange them simultaneously.
SCAN: look at all cards in 1 player’s hand.
PEEK: look at all face-down cards in the Central File Row.
SPY: look at 1 player’s role card.
FLIP: exchange role cards with another player, or with a Reserve Role Card.
DROP: place 1 card from your hand face down into the Central File Row without activating it.
SNATCH: choose a player with 2 cards in hand, randomly take 1 and place it face down into the Central File Row without activating it. That player immediately draws 1 replacement card.
FETCH: take 1 card from the Central File Row into your hand, whether face up or face down.
BURN: remove 1 card from the Central File Row from the game, whether face up or face down.
RETIRE: the Central File Row must contain at least 2 cards for this to work. Publicly declare a player’s faction. If correct, that player is eliminated and the game ends immediately; if incorrect, nothing happens.

End of the game

The game ends immediately when either condition is met:

A player is correctly identified by the RETIRE effect and eliminated.
The Intelligence Draw Pile runs out — all players finish one final round and the game ends.

Final scoring

Reveal all face-down cards in the Central File Row.
If the eliminated player was an Informer, remove all cards matching that faction’s colour from the game.
If there is at least 1 Green card in the row, the Green faction wins.
If there are no Green cards, Green players may reveal their role cards and take a Declaration Action: name 1 Red Informer and 1 Blue Informer (Reserve Role Cards may be chosen). If every declaration is correct, Green wins.
If Green does not win, apply the Yellow Auto-Balance Rule, then compare Blue, Red and Yellow.
Whichever of Blue or Red has more cards wins; if both totals are equal, Yellow wins.
Eliminated players still score with their faction — being caught is not the same as losing.

Yellow Auto-Balance Rule

When counting Blue and Red cards, Yellow cards automatically support whichever side has fewer, until both sides are equal.

Example: the Central File Row contains 4 Blue, 5 Red and 2 Yellow. Yellow balances the lower side first, so Blue becomes 4 + 1 = 5 and Red stays at 5. Both sides are tied, so the Yellow faction’s condition is met.

Gallery

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