The Red Claw

You are in great danger, agent! A defector has betrayed you to the syndicate, and revealing the identity of yourself and 1 to 3 other agents, ages 8 and up. The syndicate's most ruthless agent, known only as the "Red Claw", is now on your trail. Do whatever is necessary to make sure you he doesn't find you!

You have numerous contacts available to help you in your escape, but with each meeting you risk leaving clues behind. Will you betray your fellow agents in order to save yourself from the Red Claw? Find out in this confrontational pocket-sized game!

What's in the box?

Click to enlarge

What's the escape plan?

For your escape you'll need fake ids, money, transportation, and disguises. You'll get these from your contacts. Each one will bring you one step closer to safety. But with each step you also run the risk of the Red Claw tracking you down!

Click to enlarge - The main play area consists of 4 rows of 7 cards each, representing your contacts.

On their turn, each agent will visit one of their contacts who provides them with 2 options on how to escape. But beware: since you are all part of the same network, the other agents are using the same contacts!

You play the card on the left, and take the cards on the end of the 2 rows matching the played symbols/colors.

When all the contacts in a row have been taken, the Red Claw gets closer to tracking you down. Specifically, the agent with the most contacts from that row is incriminated. If you're incriminated 10 times, you're captured by the Red Claw!

Agent X has the most red cards in their hand and takes the first incrimination token. Agent Y and Z both have 2 red cards, but Z has the higher numbered card and therefore receives the second incrimination token. Agents X and Z both discard all their red cards.

Sometimes it may even be necessary to try to attract the attention of the Red Claw: If, for example, you have the opportunity to cover your own tracks. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and you may even be tempted to incriminate one of your fellow agents in order to save your own skin.

The incrimination tokens at the end of each row are drawn randomly. In addition to those that give incrimination points (which you want to avoid), there are also tokens that can negate incriminating evidence and fake evidence tokens that you can use to incriminate another player.

The Red Claw is getting closer - you can almost feel him breathing down your neck. Use your adrenaline to spur you on to peak performance and escape your pursuer!

Click to enlarge -
The more incrimination points you receive, the closer you are to capture. But you also gain access to new abilities that will allow you to influence the game, or even to play with hidden cards!

What are you waiting for - get running!

Click on the image below for a look at the current rulebook:

And try it yourself online with Tabletopia:

Impressions and reviews of The Red Claw

We're currently working on getting the first prototypes out to reviewers. Over the course of this project we'll add the results of their investigations here.

Our goals on Spieleschmiede

"No wasted box space!" That was our plan when we made Side Quest, a real pocket-sized dungeon crawl. Our newest project is even more ambitious: this box is packed full of game and designed to fit without bursting at the seams! Unfortunately, a game of this size would be completely lost in game stores next to the usual huge boxes of mostly air. With your support, we want to release a first edition of the game in German and English, to give it the attention it deserves.

About Corax Games

Corax Games is a 2016 founded publisher based in Merseburg. In the past few years, and with the help of Spieleschmiede, we've been able to get our start releasing great games such as Champions of Midgard (on Spieleschmiede now), Trickerion, Tudor, Half-Pint Heroes, Viral, Chronicles of Crime, and Not Alone.

The Red Claw, by Antoine Noblet is an exciting and fast playing family game for 2 to 4 agents ages 8 and up. A game lasts around 40 minutes and is full of difficult decisions that constantly make you feel like you're jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire! Just like the agents must feel who are fleeing for their lives while attempting to cover their tracks. But the bright side is that only 1 agent will lose - the one captured by the Red Claw!

Delivery in November 2018

Our realistic goal is to deliver the Red Claw in November 2018. As a young publisher, we depend on selling our games at conventions. We also want to present and sell Red Claw in Essen for SPIEL`18, and we ask for your understanding if the Spieleschmiede supporters don't receive their games until after the fair. Of course, if there are any delays, we will let you know immediately on Spieleschmiede. Spiele-Offensive.de will handle the delivery of the rewards. Backers in Germany will receive everything shipped for free. For other countries see this postage cost table.

Please do not add the postage costs to your pledge amount yourself. Spieleschmiede will automatically calculate and add them based on your delivery address.

Watch out, the Red Claw is after you!

Support The Red Claw by backing this project. You can also help us greatly by telling others about the project - whether by posting in your favorite forum, linking it from your website, or sharing it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. There are many ways to contribute to the project's success.

If you're excited about The Red Claw then use one of these avatars for your profile on your favorite social networks! Just right-click on the image and choose "Save Image As..." (the option may be slightly different depending on your browser).

Support The Red Claw now and reserve your copy of this pocket-sized spy hunt!

This project is run by Corax Games, Schokholtzstraße 6, 06217 Merseburg

All images are of the current state of development and are still subject to change before delivery of the game.