
- BGG rating
- 7.7
Mayday!Mayday!: Expansion set for a 9th/10th player
- 5–10 players
- 30 min
- 2013

2013
Rules assistance for Mayday!Mayday!
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
For 5 players

What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Mayday!Mayday! is a board game released in 2013 for 5–8 players, 25 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. It was designed by Corné van Moorsel and its main mechanics are Simultaneous Action Selection, Team-Based Game, and Voting.
In Mayday!Mayday! all players are flight crewmembers aboard flight LK-886, on which the pilot has suddenly died. A heart attack? Poison? Murder? The copilot must now take the lead, but other crewmembers distrust him. The crew believes there are infiltrators amongst them. But who? A skirmish occurs. Will all infiltrators get exposed? Each crewmember either belongs to the honest crew, or is among the few infiltrators who know one another. At the start you receive 3 identity cards, 2 or 1 honest and 1 or 2 infiltrator. The card you have double, determines your identity. You place these secret cards, mixed, face down in front of you. Then each player looks at 1 card per neighbor. By placing a knowledge tile at a card, you show (or perhaps lie about) what you see. You'll never see more than 1 of another player's 3 cards. So you must combine your own knowledge with the claims of others! But who can you trust?? In order to keep from being unmasked, the infiltrators will naturally act as if they're trying to deduce who might betray the crew. During skirmishes, some crewmembers will receive first the "Benefit of the Doubt", then they can graduate to a status of "Reliable", and then one of these two reliable crewmembers will become the new Captain. This Captain must start to form a final crew that excludes the infiltrators from access to the cockpit. With each skirmish, a player sees one identity card held by another player and shares this knowledge (but possibly lies). So each player knows cards self and must value the claims of others. With all players knowing different things, the deductive logic gets deeper and deeper as you theorize about who is who, while also holding possible lies in mind! Will you make it back to the ground safely?
Mayday!Mayday! supports 5–8 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Mayday!Mayday! is 25 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Mayday!Mayday! for ages 10 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Mayday!Mayday! has a complexity rating of 1.9 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Mayday!Mayday! belongs to these categories: Deduction, Bluffing, and Aviation / Flight. Its main mechanics are Simultaneous Action Selection, Team-Based Game, and Voting. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Mayday!Mayday! are: Corné van Moorsel. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Mayday!Mayday! as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.