
- BGG rank
- BGG #17,119
- BGG rating
- 7.3
BARPIG: After Hours
- 3–7 players
- 30–75 min
- 2019

2017
Rules assistance for Top Hats And Treachery
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

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Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Top Hats And Treachery is a board game released in 2017 for 2–6 players, 15–45 minutes per game, and ages 14 and up. It was designed by Andrew Prowse and its main mechanics are Hand Management, Take That, and Dice Rolling.
From the publisher: Top Hats And Treachery (T.H.A.T. for short) is a tongue-in-cheek Victorian game of social climbing, wicked misadventure and ridiculously-fun story-telling! Created by Andrew Prowse and presented from Rogue Artist Creations Ltd. YOU control a fashionable piece of real estate in Old London Town. Your goal is to rent rooms to the BEST clientele with the FINEST reputations. Each turn, you play Rumours cards to enhance your own Guests' reputations, while whispering scandalous stories about rival hotels' Guests to ruin their repuatations and ensure that your Hotel comes out on top! Players start the game with an Upper Class, Middle Class and Lower Class character. Over the game, they play Event Cards to raise and lower the target characters' Reputations. Play positive cards on your own characters and negative ones on your rivals. Play Grim Reaper cards to kill off characters; whereupon they are replaced with new ones, but the players can sacrifice cards to gain a chance of getting a higher-class replacement. At the end of a (short/long) game, total all the points and modifiers: the player with the highest total has earned Queen Victoria's favour as the finest Hotel in the land and wins! Huzzah!
Top Hats And Treachery supports 2–6 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 Top Hats And Treachery is 15–45 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 Top Hats And Treachery for ages 14 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.
Top Hats And Treachery has a complexity rating of 1.3 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.
Top Hats And Treachery belongs to these categories: Card Game, Humor, and Number. Its main mechanics are Hand Management, Take That, and Dice Rolling. 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 Top Hats And Treachery are: Andrew Prowse. 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 Top Hats And Treachery 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.