This is an official rules reference for Sleeping Gods by Red Raven Games.
It’s great for finding a specific rule quickly. It’s also an excellent supplement to the rulebook included in the box, when watching a how-to-play video, or while teaching the game.
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Credits
Game Design and Illustration: Ryan Laukat
Writing: Malorie Laukat, Ryan Laukat, Brenna Asplund
This card has a fate number of 5. When you “draw fate,” you draw an ability card and use this number.
This card has a savvy skill symbol. When equipped, it gives a crew member +1 savvy.
To equip this card to a crew member, you must pay 2 command.
When this card is equipped, it gives the crew member the “Triage” ability. It costs no command to use once equipped.
Secret
Players must keep their abilities cards in hand secret until they are played. They may not show them or give them to other players.
Hand Limit
Each player has a hand limit of 3 ability cards. If after drawing new Ability Cards your hand size has exceeded the limit, you must immediately discard down to 3 cards. You may select the card(s) to discard.
Ability Card Abilities
Equipped Crew Member
Abilities on ability cards generally only apply to the crew member to which they are equipped unless otherwise specified on the card.
“You”
If an ability description says “you,” it means the player that controls the crew member to which the card is equipped.
Instant Effect
Apply the effect the moment that you equip the ability card.
Specific Card: Surprise Strike
Discard the card to deal 1 damage (no enemy counterattack). You do not need to draw fate or use a combat action token to deal this damage.
Note: Each time you reach the end of the event deck (except the last time), be aware that the storybook will instruct you to discard all of your equipped ability cards.
Captain Odessa is always controlled by the active player as indicated by the captain token.
The active player chooses where to place damage on failed challenges and which crew members are targeted by enemies at the end of combat rounds.
At the end of your turn, pass the captain token to the player on the left. That player is now the active player.
Adventure Cards
Adventure cards represent the people, equipment, knowledge, and totems you find on your journey. When you gain an adventure card, place it near the other adventure cards you own, face up near the ship board. You can use the abilities on these cards by placing command tokens on them (except weapons, which are explained below). You gain adventure cards by exploring or by purchasing market cards (market cards are a type of adventure card). Any player can use adventure cards you own at any time, even to help another player in a challenge or combat.
Totems: You must find as many totems as possible. The number of totems you find will determine the story finale at the end of the campaign. Totems have a special “totem” symbol in the top left corner of the card. All totems are adventure cards.
Command cost to activate the card. Place the command on the card when you use it.
You can activate this card to either gain 3 savvy during a challenge (after drawing fate) or gain 2 block during combat. This card also has a “passive” ability, which means that it is always active and you do not need to spend a command to use it.
Card type and adventure card number.
This adventure card lets you redraw fate and keep the highest result.
This is a weapon. You can equip this to a crew member (or give it to a different crew member) at any time outside of combat. Slide it underneath their crew board so that only the weapon info is showing.
This is a recipe. When you activate this card, you can pay 3 of any type of food (meat, grain, vegetables) to remove 3 fatigue from crew members and remove 1 low morale status token.
When you activate this card, it gives a crew member +3 temporary block. You can only use block in combat. Block allows you to ignore damage.
Market cards have a cost in the bottom right corner. Market cards are adventure cards that you can purchase using a “Visit a Market Location” action.
With this recipe, you must pay 3 grain. You may remove 3 fatigue and restore 3 health. You may divide these benefits among different crew members.
Designer’s Note: In the later stages of your campaign, it is likely that you will have twenty or more adventure cards. To keep the play area organized, you may wish to place some of the cards that you don’t plan to use in a pile to the side. For example, you might own two recipes that are very similar except one of them is obviously better. In this case, you likely won’t need the inferior recipe and can place it to the side, to clean up the play area.
In each combat round, players may use their combat action tokens in any order to have crew members attack…
Place combat action token
First, place a combat action token on a crew member you control and choose one of their weapons to use. If a crew member already has 2 combat action tokens, they cannot attack again until the next combat round. (Remember: If you are the active player, you control Captain Odessa.)
Choose an enemy card to be the target of the attack.
Draw fate
Draw fate and add that number to the weapon’s accuracy number. This total must meet or exceed the targeted enemy defense number in order to hit. Otherwise, you miss. After you draw, you may use adventure card and crew board abilities that add to accuracy.
Place damage tokens
If you hit, place a number of damage tokens on the enemy card equal to the damage on the weapon you used. When placing damage on an enemy card, you must place all damage from the same attack adjacently (think of it as one slash or hit). You cannot place damage diagonally, and each square can only hold one damage token. You cannot place damage on or skip a square that already has a damage token. The damage does not need to be placed in a straight line (you can change directions, make “T” shapes, etc.). If every square containing a heart symbol is covered, the enemy is defeated. Return the defeated card to the enemy deck and slide any remaining enemy cards together so that they are adjacent.
Splash Damage: When placing damage on an enemy card, you may place some of it on adjacent enemy cards as long as it follows the damage-adjacency rule and at least half of the damage (rounded up) is dealt to the enemy card that you originally targeted.
Covering Enemy Squares: Each enemy square can only hold 1 damage token. When you place a damage token on a square, all abilities in the square are disabled.
Double or Triple Hearts: Some enemy hearts have a number 2 or 3 on them. These hearts require a hit of 2 or 3 damage to cover (although you still only place one damage token on the square).
Enemy damage
Counterattack: If the enemy card you attacked was not defeated, it counterattacks immediately. It deals damage equal to its basic attack damage plus any uncovered damage symbols on its card. Place this damage on the crew member who attacked. Apply any block from the weapon you used, which lets you ignore 1 damage per 1 block. You may also use block from adventure cards and crew abilities at this time. If the crew member runs out of health, choose another crew member to take any remaining damage, and so on.
Missing: If you miss, you still get to deal 1 damage, after the enemy counterattack (you deal 0 damage in this case if you have 2 fatigue). Abilities that increase attack damage can be used even if you miss.
After all players have used their combat action tokens, all enemies that have not yet been defeated attack the crew and activate their end of round abilities.
Block
Block prevents incoming damage to a crew member during combat.
Draw 1 ability card and gain the specified number of command tokens. Also remove any command tokens placed on all crew members (even those controlled by other players) and adventure cards and return them to the supply.
Challenges
A challenge is a test of skill that you must overcome. Each challenge is associated with one of the five crew skills: strength, cunning, savvy, perception, or craft.
A basic challenge looks like this:
STRENGTH 5
Fail: −3 health
In this example, you must achieve a total of 5 strength or higher. If you fail you will take the failure consequence.
To overcome a challenge, follow these steps:
Place fatigue
Decide which of your crew members participate (from crew members that you control and Captain Sofi Odessa). Crew members with 2 fatigue cannot participate. You cannot use a crew member more than once per challenge. Place 1 fatigue token on each crew member that participates. You can choose to have no crew members participate and simply move on to the draw fate step.
If another player wants to use the crew members they control to participate in the challenge, they must pay 1 command. This cost is the same no matter how many crew members they use. They must also give each of their participating crew members 1 fatigue.
Example: Tom is the active player and chooses Captain Sofi Odessa to participate. Zoey decides to participate with two of her crew members, and she pays 1 command to do so.
Determine the sum of the specified skills on participating crew members (which is usually 1 per crew member plus any relevant equipped ability cards they have) and move to the next step.
Draw Fate: Draw a card from the ability deck and check the fate number in the top left corner of the card. Add the participating crew skill to this number. The resulting number is your total skill.
You may now use crew abilities, adventure cards, and equipped ability cards to alter the outcomes of the fate draw by spending command to activate their abilities. Any player may also discard ability cards in hand to give +1 skill of the type specified on the card. Players may discard any number of ability cards.
If the final skill number is equal to or greater than the required challenge number, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail and must take consequences.
Discard the ability card used for “drawing fate.”
Pass the Challenge
If you obtain a high enough skill number, ignore any listed failure consequences. Read the next line and follow the instructions.
Failure
If you fail, apply the consequences listed after the word “fail.” These are some of the possible consequences:
−X health: You must take crew damage. Damage must be applied to any crew members that participated first. The active player decides where to place damage. Example: Cid, Jamey, and Zoey achieve 8 skill, but they needed 9 to pass the challenge. The fail consequence is −9 health. They each participated with one of their crew members and decide to split the damage between them. Each crew member takes 3 damage.
Ship Damage: You must take the listed ship damage. Remember to draw fate for each damage cube so that you know in which room to place it.
Turn to X: Some fail consequences require you to turn to a different story number than if you had succeeded. You must turn to the specified “fail” story number (in italics), instead of the number listed on the next line (if any).
Gain Venom/Weakened/Frightened/Madness/Low Morale: Place the appropriate status token on one of your crew members. Place it on participating crew members first, if they don’t already have the same status. (Remember that a crew member cannot have 2 of the same status token.)
If a consequence lists a specific crew member, apply the effects to that crew board.
Sometimes there will be a “Failure Description” listed to describe what happened in the story. Read this only if you fail.
After applying the consequences for failing, if you were not instructed to turn to a different story number, apply any effects on the next line and continue reading as if you had succeeded.
Designer’s Note: Failure doesn’t always mean that you aren’t able to complete your task. Occasionally it does, but often it just means that you suffer injury or negative consequences in your effort to complete the task.
Combat Rounds
Start the first combat round and continue with combat rounds until either all enemy cards are defeated or all crew members have 0 health. A combat round consists of the following:
Attack and Counterattack: Players may use their combat action tokens in any order. Each attack action is (often) followed by a counterattack from a targeted enemy.
End of Round: After all players have used their combat action tokens, all enemies that have not yet been defeated attack the crew and activate their end of round abilities.
Check For Victory / Start New Round: If any enemies remain, reclaim your combat action tokens and start a new round of combat. If all enemies are defeated, place them back in order in the enemy deck and remove all combat action tokens and synergy tokens from crew boards. Then complete your story in the storybook.
See rulebook pages 26–27 for examples.
Combat Setup
When a story section ends with the word COMBAT, followed by a list of numbers, you must start a combat and defeat enemies before you can continue your story. Follow these steps to set up combat.
Retrieve the listed enemy cards from the enemy deck. The deck should be in order, face down. Look through the cards until you find the listed numbers. (Do not look at the fronts of the other cards in the deck, only the backs.) Shuffle the cards you just retrieved and place them face up in a row in the center of the table, without any space between cards. (You may place these on the atlas if there isn’t room on the table.)
Retrieve the 4 combat action tokens and distribute them among players.
Four players: each player gets 1 token.
Three players: the active player gets 2 tokens, the other players each get 1.
Two players: each player gets 2 tokens.
One player: the player gets all 4 tokens.
Place each crew member’s synergy token on their crew board.
Command
Command represents your crew’s readiness and ability to work together. You must pay command to activate crew abilities and adventure cards, to equip ability cards to crew members, and to help other players on their turn by using your crew members.
You may spend command at any time, even on other players’ turns (with some exceptions, as explained below).
Equip an Ability Card
Play an ability card from your hand to one of your crew members. This is known as “equipping an ability.” This represents time that the crew member spends training and readying for adventure. Pay the command cost listed at the top right of the ability card to the supply. Then tuck the ability card beneath the bottom edge of the crew board so that the skill icon and any ability is showing.
Equip ability cards to any crew member, including the captain and other players’ crew members.
Each crew member can have a total of 2 equipped ability cards at once (not including any level cards or weapons the crew member has). The player who controls the crew member may discard equipped ability cards at any time.
Each equipped card increases the crew member’s skill number by 1 in the type shown on the card.
Some equipped cards also give the crew member (or player that controls that crew member) an ability. Most of these abilities do not require you to spend command to use them once they are equipped.
You may not equip an ability card in the middle of combat or in the middle of a challenge.
Place 2 command on Laurent to gain 1 meat or to add 1 to his accuracy.
Activate Crew Ability
You may pay command to activate one of your crew member’s abilities. Place the required command on their crew board to indicate that they have used an ability, then gain the effects. You may not use another ability on this crew member until all command tokens have been removed from their crew board.
Activate Adventure Cards
Place 1 command on this card to redraw fate.
You may pay command to activate an adventure card ability. Place the required command on the adventure card to indicate you have used its ability, then gain the effects. You may not use this ability again until all command tokens have been removed from this adventure card. All players share ownership of adventure cards. Any player can use adventure cards you own at any time, even to help another player in a challenge or combat.
While in combat, you cannot cook recipes or activate adventure cards that allow you to move the ship.
While performing the explore action, you cannot activate adventure cards that allow you to move the ship. You can, however, cook recipes in the middle of an explore action.
Activate Ability Card Abilities
Some ability cards require you to spend command to activate their ability after they have been equipped to a crew member. You do not need to place this command on the ability card (just return it to the supply). You may not spend command that has been placed on a crew board or adventure card.
Other Command Uses
You may also spend command to:
Give another player your unused combat action token during combat.
Have your crew members participate in a challenge on another player’s turn.
Important: Any time you must “pay” or “spend” command, return it to the supplyunless you are using it to activate an ability on an adventure card or crew board. When activating an ability on an adventure card or crew board, place the command on the card/crew board.
This can only be added to an attack the crew member performs. The damage cannot be dealt by itself, and it cannot be added to another crew member’s attack.
Block
You cannot use this to block damage dealt to another crew member.
+1 Accuracy
You cannot use this on another crew member’s attack.
Remove Status
This can be used to remove status from any crew member.
+1 to Fate
This can be used on any fate card draw, even if drawn by another player.
If you draw fate 1, you may use this ability to redraw fate.
Damage & Health
Damage
Damage is physical and mental injury to a crew member or an enemy, represented by damage tokens (the blood drop). If the storybook or a card says “−1 health,” it means take 1 damage. When a crew member takes damage, place the indicated amount of damage tokens on the crew board.
When you are instructed to “Restore health” to a crew member, remove the specified number of damage tokens.
This symbol represents the amount of damage dealt by a crew member or enemy card in an attack.
Health
Health is the amount of damage a crew member can take and still function normally. If a crew member has damage equal to their health (known as having 0 health), they can no longer attack, participate in challenges, or activate any of their crew board abilities or ability cards until they regain at least 1 health. Thematically, at 0 health they are nearly unconscious, able to speak and move, but badly hurt.
If all crew members have 0 health, you are defeated.
A crew member’s damage cannot exceed their health—any excess must be placed on another crew member.
Gain the specified number of command tokens. Also, you may draw up to 3 search tokens. Draw each token one at a time before deciding to continue drawing or stop. Apply any ship damage shown on all tokens, but keep the rewards from only one token. After applying the effects, place the search tokens in a discard pile. If you run out, shuffle the search tokens and make a new draw pile.
Draw a card from the ability card deck and check the number in the top left corner. Immediately discard this card. You draw fate for skill challenges, attacks, and more.
Designer’s Note: In this deck, 1s and 6s are half as common as the other numbers.
Note: Players can choose to skip to the end of round phase even if they haven’t used all of their combat action tokens in a round.
Each enemy attacks one at a time and in order from left to right, dealing damage to crew members.
The active player decides which crew members are attacked by each enemy card.
Damage from one enemy card must all go to one crew member. Status tokens can go to any crew member.
Do not apply any weapon’s block at this time. You can, however, apply block from adventure cards, crew abilities, or block that applies to “end of round enemy attack.”
If a crew member runs out of health while taking damage, any remaining damage must be dealt to another crew member, and so on.
Now players reclaim their combat action tokens and a new combat round begins.
Enemy Cards
Enemy Name, Level, and Number
Enemy Health: Each heart must be covered to defeat the enemy.
Synergy Point: Cover squares with synergy points to gain bonuses.
Uncovered extra enemy attack damage.
The hourglass indicates an end of round ability. The “madness” symbol indicates a status token given to the crew during end of round damage.
Enemy Defense: Crew members must meet or exceed this number in order to hit an enemy.
Enemy Basic Attack Damage: This enemy deals 2 damage plus 1 or more for every uncovered attack symbol on their card.
Enemy Damage
Enemies deal damage equal to their basic damage plus any bonus damage on squares. If a square with enemy damage is covered by a damage token, this bonus damage is disabled.
This activates at the end of each combat round. Any enemy cards adjacent to this card deal +1/+2 damage during their end of round attack.
Adjacent Regen 1
This activates at the end of each combat round. Remove 1 damage token from each enemy card that is directly adjacent to this enemy card (the active player chooses which).
Disarm
This activates at the end of each combat round. Remove 1 equipped weapon card from a crew member (the active player chooses which). You can equip this again after combat ends.
Discard Ability
This activates at the end of each combat round. Discard 1 equipped ability card from a crew member (the active player chooses which).
First Strike
This ability is active until disabled. Any time a crew member attacks this enemy, the enemy counterattacks first.
Flying
Enemies with a wing symbol have the flying ability, which means they have +1 defense against any weapons that do not have the “ranged” attribute .
Frighten
This activates at the end of each combat round. A crew member gains 1 frightened status token (the active player chooses who).
Lose 1 Resource
This activates at the end of each combat round. Return 1 resource to the supply.
Low Morale
This activates at the end of each combat round. A crew member gains 1 low morale token (the active player chooses who).
Madness
This activates at the end of each combat round. A crew member gains 1 madness status token (the active player chooses who).
Regen 1/3
This activates at the end of each combat round. Remove 1 or more damage token(s) from this enemy card (the active player chooses who).
Resist 1
This enemy blocks 1 damage each time a crew member deals damage to it, until this ability is disabled.
Venom
This activates at the end of each combat round. A crew member gains 1 venom status token (the active player chooses who).
Weaken
This activates at the end of each combat round. A crew member gains 1 weakened status token (the active player chooses who).
Enemy Difficulty
Often before combat starts, you can see the combined levels of the enemies. Here is a helpful chart to give you a general idea of how difficult the combat will be.
Draw the top card of the event deck and read it aloud. Apply the effect or complete the challenge.
Some event cards have multiple choices. In this case, choose one and apply the effect.
If you draw an event card with the word “ongoing,” place it face up near the ship board. Apply the effects until you’re able to discard the card. (The way to discard the card is described on each card.)
You cannot ignore an event card. If it only has 1 challenge listed, you must complete it.
Event Deck
Over the course of each campaign, you will go through the event deck 3 times. Each time you reach the end of the event deck, follow these instructions:
First Time: After you have drawn all cards from the event deck, finish the current player’s turn. On the next turn, read paragraph 1 in the storybook instead of drawing an event card.
Second Time: After you have drawn all cards from the event deck, finish the current player’s turn. On the next turn, read paragraph 1.2 instead of drawing an event card.
Third Time: After you have drawn all cards from the event deck, finish the current player’s turn. On the next turn, read paragraph F1 instead of drawing an event card.
Event Cards
When you draw this event, place it face up near the ship board. The effect applies until you are directed to discard the card. At the end of each player’s turn, that player may attempt a CRAFT 6 challenge. If the challenge is successful, discard this card.
When you draw this event, place it face up near the ship board. The “turn end” effect applies until you are directed to discard the card. As an action, you may attempt a STRENGTH 7 challenge to discard this card and the serpent token. Hunting Serpent Special Rule: For this event, if you turn to a new page of the atlas, place the serpent on the region your ship starts in.
When you draw this event, choose to take 1 ship damage or attempt a STRENGTH 6 challenge.
Explore one of the locations with a red circle outline on the region where the ship is located. When you explore, you make choices, complete challenges, and/or participate in combat.
First, choose a location to explore and open the storybook to the paragraph number listed on the location on the map.
Read the first box of text in the story (read aloud unless you are playing solo). At the end of each story paragraph, one of the following will occur:
Make a choice. This may include a challenge or combat. After completing the challenge or combat (if any), turn to the listed story number.
Gain rewards or suffer negative effects. These are listed in italics.
The end of each explore action is indicated by the phrase, “Return to the ship.” The active player continues their turn as normal (or ends it, if they have taken two actions).
Keywords: Sometimes, a story will refer to a keyword found on a quest card.
Note: Do not read ahead or turn to any further paragraphs until you have made your choice or completed your challenge. You are not meant to know what comes in a future paragraph before you make your choice.
Exploring a Town/City
When you explore this location (40), the story starts with the town name “City of Ashes.”
Some stories start with a town or city name in bold. In this case, the story structure often allows you to select all of the various choices in the same visit, one by one. You may not, however, select the same choice more than once during each explore action at the town/city.
Explore Tokens
Sometimes a story will say “gain explore A,” or another letter. In this case, gain the explore token with the appropriate letter. Follow the instructions if a paragraph mentions a specific explore token.
When you return to the ship, return all explore tokens to the supply.
Fatigue
When crew members participate in challenges, they gain fatigue, represented by a fatigue token. Each crew member can hold up to 2 fatigue tokens.
Each fatigue token is double-sided. If a crew member has only 1 token, place the blank side face up. If a crew member has a 2nd fatigue token, it should have the “−1 damage” side face up. This causes the crew member to deal −1 damage in combat. A crew member with 2 fatigue tokens cannot participate in challenges, but can continue to participate in combat.
Draw 2 ability cards (1 ability card if playing with 1 or 2 players) and gain the specified number of command tokens. Also, you may discard exactly 1 ability card from your hand to remove 1 fatigue from any crew member.
Journey Log
When you start a new campaign, write your name and date on a new journey log sheet. You use this sheet to track certain information when you save your game during the campaign (and also as a memento of your journey). You can also keep notes on the world map to help you remember important information. You can use world map notes from previous campaigns when you play a new campaign.
Journey Log front
Journey Log back
Level Cards
XP Cost
When you take a “visit a port” action, you may pay XP (experience points) to buy level cards for your crew members. Each crew member has specific level cards. You may look through these cards at any time.
Keep track of XP you gain on your journey log sheet. Cross off or mark when you spend these points buying level cards.
When you buy a level card, immediately equip it to the associated crew member. You can equip an ability by tucking the card beneath the crew board so that the character image on the card is hidden. This card remains equipped for the remainder of the campaign. (Do not shuffle it into the ability deck at any time.) Level cards do not count toward the 2-card limit for equipped ability cards. Once equipped, you may not discard level cards to use other abilities or to add to an attack.
The ship must be in the same region as a market location.
Draw 7 cards from the market deck (market cards are adventure cards that you can purchase). You may purchase any number of them according to their cost listed in coins on the card near the card name. Place any that you purchase near the ship board, next to your other adventure cards, face up. Place any cards that you do not purchase from the market at the bottom of the market deck.
Exception: If you purchase a weapon, equip it to one of your crew. Each crew member may equip any number of weapons.
The ship must be in the same region as a port. You may then perform any or all of the following actions once. (Port actions are listed on the port board.)
Inn: Pay 4 coins. Each crew member restores 2 health and removes 1 fatigue.
Shipyard: Pay any number of materials resource tokens or coins to the supply to repair 1 ship damage per materials token/coin you pay (in any combination).
Healer: Pay 1 coin to restore all health to a crew member. You can do this for any number of crew members at a cost of 1 coin per crew member.
Spend XP: You may spend XP to purchase level cards for any crew members.
Draw 1 ability card and gain the specified number of command tokens. Also, remove any 3 command tokens (2 if playing with 1 or 2 players) placed on crew members (even crew members controlled by other players) and adventure cards and return them to the supply.
Quest Cards
Active Quest Symbol: This means that this quest is an active quest and you can travel somewhere to complete it. Quest cards without this symbol generally only need to be referenced when you check to see if you have a specific keyword.
Quest Description
Keyword
Quest Card Number
When the storybook says “Gain quest x,” retrieve the matching quest card from the deck and place it face up near the atlas. (Keep all other quests secret and in order.)
When the storybook says “Lose quest x,” or “Complete quest x,” place the specified card in the used quest box. Once quests are in this box, you cannot retrieve them (unless you are resetting the game for a new campaign).
Keywords
Sometimes, a story will require you to have a keyword in order to read it, or you will need a specific keyword to make a choice.
Keywords are located on quest cards that you own. If you own the quest card, you have the keyword.
If a story paragraph starts with, If keyword X, turn to X, then you must follow these instructions if you have the listed keyword. If there are multiple keyword instructions at the start of a story, resolve them in order.
If a choice says Requires keyword X, it means that you must have a specific keyword to choose it. Even if you have the specified keyword, you are not forced to select that choice. You may select another choice.
A region of the sea on the atlas. Regions are separated by dotted lines, land, the spiral binding of the atlas, and the edge of the page. The ship cannot reside on or move through land, only sea regions.
Resources
As you explore locations and complete event cards, you sometimes gain these useful resources.
Grain (food): One of the ingredients used when activating recipe adventure cards.
Meat (food): One of the ingredients used when activating recipe adventure cards.
Vegetables (food): One of the ingredients used when activating recipe adventure cards.
Materials: When taking a port action, you may return these to the supply to repair the ship.
Coin: You may spend coins during a port action to remove ship damage, remove fatigue, and restore crew health. You may also spend coins when you visit a market location to gain more adventure cards.
Artifacts: These tokens can be spent as 2 coins at any time. There are also some special locations that allow you to spend artifacts to gain rare treasures or effects.
A Note on Rewards
The words “materials” and “vegetables” are short for “materials token” and “vegetables token.” Each token represents a variety of building materials or vegetables. “Gain 1 materials” means “Gain 1 materials token.”
You may never give command tokens or ability cards to other players. If the supply of command tokens runs out, you cannot gain any until more tokens are returned to the supply. If the ability deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to make a new ability deck.
If you cannot take an action because all rooms have 2 damage, move the ship action figure to one of the rooms, but take no ship action.
Ship room effects vary depending on the number of players in the game. When a room shows two numbers over the command token symbol, check the player count symbol at the top right corner of the ship board. This tells you what amount of command to take (depending on the number of players).
When playing with 3–4 players, use the side of the ship board that has this symbol.
On this side of the ship board, the Quarters room gives 4/5 command tokens. If playing with 3 players, you gain 4 command when you use this room, and 5 command if playing with 4 players. Also, you return 3 command on cards to the supply.
Ship Board
There are five rooms on the ship. Each room contains an action that you can take at the start of your turn. Each room also contains spaces for ship damage. A room with all damage spaces filled may not be used for a ship action. Once the ship has 11 damage, you are defeated!
Each turn draw and resolve an event card from the event deck, placed here.
After taking a ship action and drawing an event card, perform two of these actions.
Ship Damage
When instructed to take ship damage, draw 1 ability card per damage, then place a cube on the room(s) with a matching fate number. Each ship room can only take 2 damage and the hull can take 1 damage. If a room already has 2 damage, you may choose where to place the damage. If a room has 2 damage, it cannot be used during the ship action phase. If the ship ever has 11 damage cubes, you are defeated.
Repair refers to removing ship damage. If you “repair 2,” you remove any 2 damage from the ship.
Draw 1 ability card and gain the specified number of command tokens. Also, restore 1 health to any crew member.
Skills
There are 5 types of crew skills in the game. Most crew members start with 2 to 4 skills.
Strength: Used when anything requires physical effort or endurance.
Perception: Used to search, use hand-eye coordination, detect, or use senses. Also used to hide and sneak.
Savvy: Used when anything requires knowledge, either from study or experience.
Craft: Used when something must be built, repaired, taken apart, maintained, or refined. Also used to run the ship’s engines and to travel.
Cunning: Used when you must convince, lead, speak, deceive, devise, or plot.
Status
There are five types of status tokens in the game. When a crew member gains a status, place the appropriate token on their crew board. Each crew member can have multiple status tokens, but may not have more than one copy of each status. Crew members gain status tokens in stories and combat. Crew members can remove status tokens through character and adventure card abilities.
Venom: The crew member takes 1 damage at the start of each player’s turn. Once a crew member with venom reaches 0 health, ignore the token until the crew member has at least 1 health.
Frightened: The crew member cannot be used for attack actions.
Weakened: −2 to each of the crew member’s skills.
Madness: The crew member takes 1 damage when they participate in skill challenges.
Low Morale: You must pay 1 extra command to use the crew member in skill challenges.
Supply
When the game refers to “the supply,” it means the components that you currently do not own. For example, if you are instructed to “return a meat token to the supply,” you take the token from your ship board and return it to the pile of components off to the side of the board. When you are told to “pay,” “discard,” or “remove” something, it means to return it to the supply.
Limited Components: All components are limited, which means that if you run out, you cannot gain or use more, with one exception: damage tokens. If you run out of damage tokens, use something else to keep track.
Synergy Tokens
At the start of each battle, make sure that each crew member’s synergy token is on the matching crew board. Note: when not in combat, these tokens do not need to be on the crew boards and you may place them to the side to save space.
If a crew member ever places damage on a square with a synergy point , they place their synergy token on a different crew board.
If a crew member has a synergy token from a different crew member on their board, they may return it to the matching board in order to use the ability listed on the token (this is called “activating” the synergy token). Synergy tokens can be activated afterdrawing fate.
Crew members cannot use the ability of their own synergy tokens.
A synergy token can be returned at any time to the matching crew member without activating it.
Synergy Token Abilities
Audrie: When activated, the crew member deals +1 damage during their attack.
Captain Odessa: When activated, the crew member may place damage diagonally.
Gregory: You may activate this token when the crew member reaches 0 health. Restore 2 health to the crew member.
Kasumi: When activated, the crew member deals +1 damage during their attack.
Laurent: When activated, the crew member deals +1 damage during their attack.
Mac: When activated, the crew member gains +2 accuracy during their attack. You may activate this after drawing fate.
Marco: When activated, the crew member can deal an extra 2 damage during an attack. This damage may not be placed on enemy heart symbols (but can be placed on enemy abilities and attack damage). This damage must be placed adjacently to the other damage in the same attack, as normal.
This action allows you to move the ship to a new region. Regions are separated by dotted lines, land, the spiral binding of the atlas, and the edge of the page. Whenever you travel, you perform a CRAFT challenge:
First decide if you want one of your crew members (with a craft skill) to participate. If so, place 1 fatigue token on their crew board. (You may travel without using a crew member.)
Next, draw fate. If you used a crew member, add 1 for each craft symbol they have. You may also discard ability cards with craft symbols from your hand to add 1 per card to the total. Check the result on the travel table on the ship board (see above) for the distance you may travel. For each distance you may move to 1 adjacent region. For example, a result of 8 would allow you to travel up to 3 distance.
Hazards: If you move into a region with a hazard, you must successfully complete the hazard’s challenge or take negative consequences. The challenge type and difficulty are on the left of the icon, and the consequence for failure is on the right. If it is a damage icon, take ship damage. If you are successful in the challenge, do not take the consequences.
Edge of the Map: If you reach the edge of the map and want to keep going in the same direction, you may do so as long as there is an icon indicating which page to turn to (although some pages are unavailable unless you have the Tides of Ruin expansion). Follow these steps:
First, remove the ship token from the map.
Turn to the page in the atlas as specified on the edge you are crossing and place your ship token on that page.
You always enter the map on the opposite side of where you left. For example, if you cross the northern edge of the atlas, you enter on the southern edge on the new page, etc. If there are multiple regions on the new edge, you choose which to start on. See the examples.
Designer’s Note on Travel: The Manticore has enough coal in its stores to last you the entire trip, so you do not need to worry about fuel.
Turn Overview
Starting with the first player, players take turns in clockwise order. Follow these steps on your turn:
Ship Action. Choose a ship action. Move the ship action figure to one of the five ship rooms and apply the effect. You must move the ship action figure to a new room each turn (you cannot repeat the same room two turns in a row).
Event. Draw an event card and read the effect. Events may present a choice, a challenge, consequence, or other effect. Resolve the event card before continuing your turn.
Two Actions. Perform two actions. Available actions are listed on the bottom of the ship board. You may perform the same action twice in one turn.
End of Turn. After you have performed your two actions, pass the captain token to the player on the left. That player is now the active player and starts their turn.
Extra damage: You may discard 1 equipped savvy card (but not a level card) from this crew member to deal +1 damage when you attack with this weapon. You may not discard a card from hand to deal the extra damage. The ability card must be equipped to discard it.
You can equip an adventure card weapon to a crew member (or give it to a different crew member) at any time outside of combat.
Ranged Weapons
Flying enemies have +1 defense against any weapons that do not have the ranged attribute.
World Map and The Tides of Ruin Expansion
In Sleeping Gods, the atlas includes 9 maps to explore, but if you examine the map on your journey log, you can see that this is only part of the game world. These extra maps and locations are included in the Tides of Ruin expansion.
Setup
Follow these instructions if you are starting a new campaign. If this is your first campaign, we recommend using the quick start guide first. If you are setting up the game to continue a campaign see: Resetting.
Place the atlas in the center of the table and turn to pg. 2. Place the ship in the sea region that contains the number 2 location.
Place the ship board near the atlas. Place the correct side face up depending on number of players, 1–2 or 3–4, listed in the top right corner of the ship board. Place the ship action token on the ship board. Place 3 coins and 1 grain on the ship board. You start the game with these resources.
Place the Captain Sofi Odessa crew board near the ship board, in the center of the table. Distribute the remaining 8 crew boards among the players as evenly as possible. Each player places their crew boards in front of them. Place the synergy tokens nearby.
Shuffle the ability deck and place it near the ship board. Decide who will be the first player and give them the captain token.
Separate the event cards by type (mild, perilous, deadly). Shuffle each pile separately. Draw 6 deadly cards and place them face down in a new deck. Draw 6 perilous cards and place them face down on top of the deadly. Draw 6 mild cards and place them face down on top of the perilous. You should now have a deck of 18 event cards. Place this deck face down on its slot on the ship board. Place the unused cards in the box.
Place the starting adventure cards near the ship board. These cards are: Gloria, Soup, Gear, and Flapjacks (you can find these cards in the market deck). Place the magnetic card box that contains adventure and quest cards nearby Important: Do not change the order of cards in the quest card and adventure card decks, and do not look through the cards unless instructed.
Place the deck of enemy cards near the board, face down. Important: Do not change the order of cards in this deck and do not look through this deck unless instructed.
Place the storybook near the board.
Shuffle the search tokens and place them in a stack, face down, near the ship board.
Place the level cards near the ship board. You may look through these at any time. Place all remaining tokens near the board.
Retrieve a new journey log sheet for your campaign. Decide if you will be playing normal or brutal mode and check the appropriate box. Write the date at the top of the sheet and write in all players’ names at the bottom of the sheet.
Saving the Game
At the start of any player’s turn, you can decide to stop playing and save your game. You only need to do this if you want to pack up the game. This is simply a way to keep track of your progress so you can continue another time. A campaign takes around 10–20 hours to complete, so if you have a dedicated space to keep the game set up, you do not need to save the game.
To save the game and pack up mid-campaign, follow these steps:
On the next available line on your journey sheet, write down your ship’s location, the ship’s current damage, and the last ship action that was used. Also write down which ability cards each player has in their hand, and how many unspent command tokens they have.
Place all of your resources, adventure cards, ability cards in hand, unused command tokens you own, and quest cards in the campaign box. When placing adventure cards in this box, put them in their own bag, and put any that have command tokens on them face down in the pile. Place the current event deck in this box as well.
Place the ability card draw deck in a plastic bag. Place the ability card discard pile face up in the bag (keep the draw deck face down). Indicate the bottom of this pile by placing a synergy token at the bottom.
Clean up the rest of the game components.
Setting Up a Saved Game
Place the atlas in the center of the table and turn to the page of the location indicated on the most recent save line on the journey log sheet. Place the ship token in the listed region.
Place the ship board near the atlas. Place the ship damage markers as indicated on the most recent save line of the journey log. Place any resources from the campaign box on the ship board.
One by one, remove the crew members and all associated tokens and cards from the crew bags. Keep all associated tokens and cards with each respective crew member. Place the Captain Sofi Odessa crew board near the ship board, in the center of the table. Distribute the remaining crew boards among the players as evenly as possible. Each player places their crew boards in front of them.
When you last saved, the ability card draw deck was placed face down, while the discard pile was placed face up. Now place these two decks near the atlas, but keep them separate.
Place the event deck from the campaign box on the ship board.
Place your adventure cards near the ship board, face up. Place a command token from the supply on all adventure cards in the campaign box that were face down in the deck (indicating they had been used).
Place the deck of enemy cards near the board, face down. Important: Do not change the order of cards in this deck and do not look through this deck unless instructed.
Place all of your current quest cards near the ship board. Place the magnetic card box nearby. Important: Do not change the order of cards in the box, and do not look through the cards unless instructed.
Place all remaining tokens and the storybook near the board.
Shuffle the search tokens and place them in a stack, face down, near the board.
Decide who will be the first player. Give the starting player the captain token. Give each player their hand of ability cards and command tokens according to the most recent save line on the journey log (player 1, player 2, etc).
Adding & Removing Players
You can add or remove players at the end of any turn. Follow these steps to add a player:
After the current turn ends, split up crew boards and assign them to each player as evenly as possible (except Captain Odessa, who is always controlled by the active player).
Follow these steps to remove a player:
After the current turn ends, reassign crew members to players as evenly as possible (except Captain Odessa, who is always controlled by the active player).
The player that is leaving must discard 1 ability card and all of their command but 1. The active player decides how to distribute the remaining cards and command token to the other players.
Note: Remember to turn the ship board to the correct side depending on the number of players in the game.
Resetting the Game for a New Campaign
To reset the game for a new campaign, follow these steps:
Return all adventure cards to the adventure deck. Make sure all cards in this deck are in numerical order (starting with 1 when face down).
Return all quest cards to the quest deck (including quest cards from the used quest box). Make sure the cards are in numerical order (starting with 1 when face down).
Whenever you find a totem, mark the appropriate box on the achievement sheet. When you complete various campaign endings, mark the specified endings boxes on the achievement sheet. As you discover totems and endings, you gain “unlocked cards”.
Unlocked Cards
Unlocked cards are specific cards in the quest deck. Mark the unlocked cards you achieve when you have the specified number of totems/endings.
Examples: To gain the unlocked cards “quests 171–172,” you would need to have discovered a minimum of 4 totems/endings. To gain the “quests 169–170” unlocked cards, you would need to have discovered a minimum total of 7 totems/endings.
Each time you start a new campaign, check the achievement sheet to see which unlocked cards you start with. You do not gain these cards during a campaign, only when you start a new campaign.
Once you have gained an unlocked card, it forever remains “unlocked” and you can use it in all future campaigns. You may choose which unlocked cards to use at the start of each campaign.
Defeat
Your main goals in Sleeping Gods are to find totems and survive the dangers of the Wandering Sea. As you journey, there are a number of ways that you can meet defeat. Defeat means something different depending on the mode you are playing (normal or brutal). There are two ways you can be defeated:
If playing normal mode, the game is more forgiving when you are defeated. In story terms, if crew members’ health is reduced to 0, the crew somehow escapes, wandering back to port, but it takes days. If the ship takes 11 damage, the crew barely keeps her afloat, limping back to port for repairs, but they lose quite a bit of time doing so.
After checking a “defeat” box on your journey log, follow these instructions when you are defeated in normal mode:
All crew reduced to 0 health: Move to the nearest port and remove all crew damage and fatigue. Discard 6 event cards from the top of the event deck. Start a new turn.
Ship has 11 damage: Move to the nearest port and remove all ship damage. Discard 6 event cards from the top of the event deck. Start a new turn.
If the event deck runs out while discarding, count the remaining event cards you need to discard and place an equal number of damage on the event deck slot. The damage is placed here to remind you how many cards you must discard the next time the storybook instructs you to make a new event deck. However, if this is your third time through the event deck, you don’t need to keep track because you won’t be making a new event deck.
If playing brutal mode, the game is more realistic, ending in complete failure when you are defeated. The campaign ends and you must reset the game and start a new campaign to play again.
Make sure to mark any totems you found on your journey on the game achievement sheet. Write down your final score on your journey log.
Errata
Rule book errata has been incorporated into the entries throughout this site.
Cards
Adventure Card 20: Add the following text to this card: ‘Return this card to the box after completing quest 74.’
Adventure Card 28: This card should say: ‘Gain 1 fatigue after you deal damage with this weapon. If you already have 2 fatigue, you cannot use it.’
Adventure Card 74: Change printed ability to: ‘Ignore the effects of the event card you draw this turn.’
Market Card (Tincture Recipe): This card has an outdated materials symbol used in the prototype and should have the final symbol.
Storybook
Story 4.3: The text says, ‘Draw 8 adventure cards,’ but it should say, ‘Draw 8 market cards.’
Story 58: Add a note at the start of this story: ‘Note: This location is treated as a town. You may only make each choice once per explore action.’
Story 58.1: Add an option D that says: ‘Do not bid. (Turn to 58)’
Story 72: After the phrase, ‘Gain Dinosaur Egg Token,’ add this text: Return to the ship.
Story 82.4: The text should say to ‘turn to 82.6’ instead of 84.6.
Story 98: Just before it says, ‘Gain 1 materials. Return to the ship,’ it should say, ‘C. Leave this place.’
Story 146: Choice B should be CUNNING 6.
Story 160.9, 160.10, 160.11: Gain adventure card 16 instead of the listed 23.
Story 208: Gain adventure card 90 instead of the listed 192.
Story F1: Add the following to the defeat instructions: ‘…journey log sheet and start at F1 again. In addition to removing all of your crew damage, ship damage, and fatigue, remove all status effects and return all command to the supply. Collect 7 extra command and 10 XP. If you are defeated a 2nd time, simply mark a defeat and continue to F2. If you are defeated while playing brutal mode…’
Box
Player count: This should be listed as 1-4, not 2-4.
Frequently Asked Questions
General
Does Gloria’s ability let you draw 2 cards on a fate draw, or draw 2 cards into your hand?
Gloria’s ability lets you draw ability cards into your hand. Her ability cannot be used on fate draws. You can use it at any time. Note: Remember hand limit of 3, so if you ever have 4+ cards in hand, you must discard down.
If player 1 purchases a weapon from the market, can player 2 equip the weapon onto one of their crew instead? If one of the crew from player 1 has a weapon can they just pass that weapon to another crew member?
Yes, any player can equip the weapon. Players decide together who gets each weapon (in the case of a dispute, the Captain player decides). Yes, you can pass weapons to other crew members at any time except during combat.
Can players swap crew members during their turn between players?
No, players cannot swap crew members between turns.
How does Laurent’s Watchful skill work?
When you use the deck, draw 1-3 tokens as normal. After this, draw 1 extra token. The damage from this token does not apply. Then, as normal, choose the reward from 1 token. This ability is useful because it means you could draw 2 tokens when using the Deck action but only take damage from the first (if it has damage). Only 4 tokens have a negative effect, so your chances of taking damage go down quite a bit. Also, if you’re looking for specific food or resources, this helps you find it.
We finished our first campaign and are restarting. We noticed the rules don’t start you with Quest 1 and Quest 2. Should you start with them?
Yes, you should start with them. (Note: The intro scenario in the Quick Start Guide gives you quests 1 and 2.)
The Refine ability lets me spend 1 command to repair the ship. Since I don’t put spent command on ability cards, I can always repair the ship as much as I want, at any time, as long as I have 1 command to spend. Is that right?
Right. There are intentionally several ways for players to repair ship damage.
Travel
If there is a Hazard in the first space I enter, can I travel more than 1 space after I resolve the challenge, no matter if I win or lose it?
Yes. If you enter a hazard space you must complete the hazard’s challenge or take negative consequences (and you always draw fate even if you decide not to fatigue anybody). After that you can take the remaining movement.
Challenges
Does at least 1 crew member need to “participate” and gain fatigue in each challenge?
No. You can choose to not give any crew member fatigue and simply move on to the draw fate step of the challenge.
For the rare challenge that is restricted to one person, if that person is controlled by the non-active player are they forced to spend a command token to have them participate or does the story condition override that rule?
In this rare case, the non-active player doesn’t need to spend a command.
I recently came across a SIGHT challenge; is this the same as perception?
As for the “sight” challenge, that is something we missed. It should be “perception.”
Combat
Can I place damage over the top of previously-placed damage?
No, you may not. If, for example, you place 1 damage in a corner that is already surrounded by damage tokens from previous attacks, any unused damage is simply not placed.
How do weapons work in combat?
You don’t have to choose one weapon per fight, but you do have to choose one weapon per attack action. Stats from equipped weapons don’t stack.
Can you move weapons between crew during combat, or only outside of combat?
You can only move weapons between crew members outside of combat.
Can a crew member have multiple synergy tokens on their crew board?
Yes, a crew member can have multiple synergy tokens, and they can even use them together on the same attack.
Let’s say for example Rafael has a synergy token on Sofi’s board. If Rafael is then reduced to 0 health, does his synergy token remain available to use on Sofi’s board?
Even if Rafael is reduced to 0 health, you can still use his synergy token on Sofi’s board. Thematically, when a character reaches 0 health, it means that they’re just really hurt (instead of knocked out or dead).
Let’s say Rafael still has his synergy token on his own board. If he then misses an attack and is reduced to 0 health by the counterattack, then places a damage token on a space with a synergy symbol - do I still get to place Rafael’s synergy token on another character board?
If Rafael misses an attack and is reduced to 0 health by the counterattack, but then places damage on a space with a synergy symbol, you still get to place Rafael’s synergy token on another character board.
How does Marco’s synergy token really work?
When used, add an extra 2 damage to your total. Of that total, 2 must be placed in squares that aren’t hearts.
If you use an adventure card that deals damage without an attack to cover a synergy point (e.g. Stone of Blood), who gets to give their synergy token?
Any one crew member (you choose).
Can Stone of Blood (45) be combined with an attack that does 1 damage to cover a heart worth 2?
Yes.
A crew member attacks with Adrenaline active and hits. Base damage is 2, so I place 3 damage. Then, I discard the Adrenaline ability for an extra damage. Can I place that extra damage (4 total), or is 3 total damage still correct?
You trigger abilities sequentially, so you can get the bonus damage from Adrenaline, then discard it for another damage, for +2 total (4 total damage in the example above).
A crew member attacks, misses, then resolves damage first due to the Rapid Strike ability. During the damage resolution, I discard Rapid Strike to get +1 damage. Does the damage still get applied first?
Yes. Once you’re in the “apply damage” phase, you can use various abilities and discard cards, but it won’t modify what combat step you’re in.
Which goes first: Rapid Strike crew ability, or First Strike monster ability? Does it matter if it’s a hit or a miss?
First Strike goes first. Doesn’t matter if it’s a hit or a miss.
Recipes
Can you use the Alzarrian Cookbook to cook a one ingredient recipe using zero food?
Yes, you could cook these recipes with no food tokens.
Can you use the Alzarrian Cookbook to cook a recipe that already has a command token on it?
Yes, you can.
When can I cook a recipe? In the middle of a noncombat challenge? In the middle of an exploration before making a choice? After reading text?
Any time, except during combat. “During combat” means any time after you’ve looked at the enemy cards and before they are defeated. If you see there is combat about to happen, the game rules allow you to eat before fighting (thematically, you ate the food before the fight started).
Events
The Lost Sailor mild event card goes away when you “visit” a port. What does that mean exactly?
When you take a port action or explore a location with a port symbol.
Event Card Merchant Vessel: ‘Buy Food’ Pay 1 coin to gain 2 grain… Can I pay 2 or more coins for more food, or is it only 1 coin for 2 grain ONLY?
You can only pay 1 coin for 2 grain in this event (you cannot repeat it and buy more grain).
Variant Rules
Easy Mode
Sleeping Gods is designed to be challenging. Normal mode can be quite difficult, especially for your first campaign. For a slightly easier campaign, apply the following rules:
When starting easy mode, begin with 20 XP, 20 extra starting coins, +1 meat, +1 grain, and +1 vegetables. You may spend this XP as soon as you perform a Visit a Port action.
When your crew reaches 0 health, do the following (in addition to the standard instructions): gain 5 XP, remove all status effects, gain 7 coins, and gain 8 command.
You can implement these changes even in the middle of a normal mode campaign if you’re finding it too difficult. Just be sure to write easy mode on your campaign sheet. Place the letter E after your final score when you complete the campaign (this is for final score comparison purposes).
Brutal Mode
If playing brutal mode, the campaign ends when you are defeated. You must reset the game and start a new campaign to play again.
Dice
If playing with this variant, you may roll a six-sided die any time you must draw fate, instead of drawing fate.
Designer’s Note: Some groups may prefer this, but the downside is that it adds more chaos to the game. In the current system, you can manipulate your ability deck somewhat by holding onto low numbers in hand, or equipping low numbers to crew members so they are not in the deck. You can also make rough calculations based on how many 1s and 6s you’ve seen drawn (because 1s and 6s are half as common as other numbers). When using dice, you lose these benefits.
Strategy Tips
Remember to equip ability cards early on in each event deck. They drastically improve your ability to succeed at challenges, but it’s easy to forget to equip them. Also, at the end of each event deck, you’ll have to discard all equipped ability cards, so it’s a good idea to equip them early on in each event deck.
If you find yourself constantly running out of health or have too much fatigue, use the ship’s deck action more often so you can get food. Use your recipes, and go to the market to get better recipes that more efficiently replenish health and remove fatigue.
The further you venture from the starting region, the harder things get. If you are having trouble surviving, try to obtain a few useful adventure cards and buy one or two level cards before venturing to a new map.
When you’re presented with combat, you can always see the difficulty level before you start. Use the enemy difficulty table to gauge if you’ll be able to deal with it. Level 3-8 is fairly easy. Level 14+ is very hard! Many times, you have the option of avoiding combat. If so, you may want to take this option if you’re not ready (even though you usually earn fewer rewards).
If you can’t avoid combat and you die, don’t worry too much. The game was designed knowing that this would happen sooner or later. Follow the directions to return to the nearest port and remove all damage.
Sleeping Gods is all about balancing resources. Don’t use crew members on every challenge. Sometimes it’s better to just draw fate without gaining any fatigue if the failure consequences aren’t too bad (for example, 1-2 damage) or the skill number is low (4-6). Save your resources for when you really need them.
If things are consistently too hard, slow down. Don’t leave the starting maps too early. Spend some turns just building up command and equipping ability cards to crew members. It’s important to equip ability cards and level cards so that crew members have a lot of one type of skill (like 3 or 4 strength on one crew member, for example).
Try to get some better recipes in the early maps before moving on to the other maps. The further you get from the starting area, the harder things get.
Make sure to use Gloria! Her ability is extremely useful.
Getting better weapons makes a huge difference in combat. Try to buy or find at least one weapon before leaving the starting maps.
Plan out your attacks during combat so that you take advantage of synergy tokens. Use splash damage to hit enemies with high defense. Careful planning with the other players can lead to much lower crew health loss. Winning combat also gives you more XP, which is important for your long-term success.
Players cannot give each other ability cards in hand, but there are some exceptions: Players can equip their ability cards in hand to other players’ crew members. Also, any player can discard ability cards from hand to add skill to a challenge on another players’ turn.
Zoey moves the ship to a region with a hazard of ghostly fog. She must attempt a challenge of CUNNING 5. She places a fatigue token on Captain Odessa to add her cunning. She draws a fate of 1. Captain Odessa has 1 cunning, so 1+1=2, a failure (she needed 5 or more). Zoey takes 1 low morale token and places it on Captain Odessa.
Zoey moves the ship to a region with a hazard of rocky shores. She attempts a SAVVY 5 challenge. She chooses Gregory and Kannan to participate, giving her 2 savvy. She draws 2, so the total is 2+2=4, so she must take 1 ship damage. If she had obtained at least 5, she would have ignored the ship damage.
Zoey wants to travel to a new map. She decides to move across the western edge of the current map. This leads to pg. 13 (as indicated by the blue arrow), so she turns to pg. 13. She must enter on the opposite side of this new map, so she starts on a region bordering the eastern edge. She can choose to start on either region, and she chooses the northern region.
Place equipped ability cards in the top two slots. (This is to remind you that you may not equip more than 2 ability cards per crew member.)
Place level cards below equipped ability cards, like this (unless there are no equipped ability cards, in which case you can place them directly beneath the crew board). An easy way to tell ability and level cards apart at a glance: level cards have a yellow strip on the bottom and ability cards have a turquoise strip.
Attack Damage: The amount of damage tokens dealt by a crew member or enemy.
Block: Ignore this amount of damage from an attack.
Accuracy: Add this number to your “draw fate” when you attack.
Health: On enemies, cover each heart symbol with damage to defeat it. On crew, this is the amount of damage tokens they can hold.
Discard Ability Card from Hand
XP Cost: Experience points you must pay to buy this card.
Flying: While uncovered, this enemy has +1 defense vs. weapons without the “ranged” attribute.
Remove 1 Frightened
Remove 1 Madness
Remove 1 Venom
Remove 1 Weakened
Remove 1 Low Morale
End of Round Enemy Ability: At the end of each combat round, the ability in the same square as this symbol activates.
Synergy Point: If a crew member places damage on this, place their synergy token on another crew member.
Totem
Fate
Redraw Fate
Redraw Fate if 1: If you draw 1 fate, you may use this ability to redraw fate.
Craft Skill
Cunning Skill
Savvy Skill
Perception Skill
Strength Skill
Remove Fatigue (1 unless specified)
Command Cost to Activate
Ranged Weapon Attribute
Coin Cost
Grain (Food)
Vegetables (Food)
Meat (Food)
Food (Any type)
Materials
Mild Event
Perilous Event
Deadly Event
90 Adventure Cards
32 Market Cards
180 Quest Cards
(Mild)
(Perilous)
(Deadly)
78 Enemy Cards
60 Ability Cards
24 Level Cards
Ship Board
9 Crew Boards
Journey Log Sheets
Port Board
Diving Suit Token
Pollen Potion Token
Dinosaur Egg Token
Sea Serpent Token
9 Search Tokens
11 Ship Damage Cubes
Ship Action Figure
35 Damage Tokens (wooden)
7 Five-Damage Tokens (cardboard)
Status Tokens (8x low morale; 4x venom, madness, frightened, weakened)
14 Command Tokens
8 Explore Tokens
Captain Token
18 Fatigue Tokens
4 Combat Action Tokens
Ship
Gain 1 meat and 1 grain.
Gain 2 vegetables.
Gain 1 meat and 1 vegetable.
Gain 1 coin or 2 materials.
Gain 1 coin and 1 low morale.
Gain 1 coin and take 2 ship damage.
Gain 1 meat and take 1 ship damage.
Gain 1 vegetable, 1 meat, and take 1 ship damage.
Gain 2 grain or 2 materials.
When playing with 3–4 players, use the side of the ship board that has this symbol.
