How to play
At the start of each round everyone is secretly dealt a role: Digger or Rat. One role card is left over, so nobody knows exactly how many Rats there are. Diggers want to lay a tunnel from the ladder to the golden egg, hidden under one of the three goal cards on the far side. Rats want the cards to run out first.
On your turn, play one card or throw one away, then draw. A tunnel card must fit every card beside it and join the tunnel back to the ladder. You can turn it round before laying it. Dead ends fit too, but lead nowhere.
Broken tools (pick, lamp or cart) are played on another player: until a matching fix is played on them, they can’t lay tunnels. A cave-in removes one tunnel card. A map lets you peek at one goal card. Only you see what’s under it.
When the tunnel reaches a goal card, it turns over. Stone just joins the tunnel; reaching the egg wins the round for the Diggers, who get 2 nuggets each, and 3 for whoever reached it. If every hand runs out first, the Rats win and share the nuggets: 4 each for a lone Rat, 3 each for two or three, 2 each for four. Three rounds; the most nuggets wins.
Tips
Rats do best by looking helpful early on and blocking late, when the tunnel is close to the goals. Watch who lays dead ends near the front of the tunnel or breaks the tools of busy diggers, and break theirs. If you’re a Digger with a map, dig towards what you saw, and others may follow.