Adamastor Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements and Credits
• Components
• Setup
• Important Concepts
  • Sailing Cards
  • Learning Skills and Gaining Traumas
  • Morale
• The Adventure Row
• Game Turn
  • 1. Sunrise
  • 2. Actions
    • Draw a Card
    • Swap a Card
    • Navigate
    • Other important rules
  • Encounters
    • Step 1: Gain Morale and Experience
    • Step 2: Resolve the Encounter
    • Step 3: Mark the Encounter space
  • 3. Events
  • 4. Sunset
• Winning or Losing
• Scoring
• Traumas
• Skills

Acknowledgements and Credits

I want to thank my wife, Joana, for her unconditional support throughout all these years. Adamastor was the first game I released (as a print-and-play), and she always encouraged me to pursue my dreams. I also want to thank my children, Afonso and Inês, for inspiring me. The joy they bring into my world makes all obstacles feel lighter.

I would also like to thank everyone who played the original version and helped playtest the new version of the game, especially César Maciel, Hélder Sá, Diogo Barros, Nuno Seleiro, César Mendes, Mike Martins, MAF, Angelika Froehlich, Anderson Lopes de Oliveira, and Enoch Wright.

Finally, the dream of publishing a new version of the game that started it all for me as a designer would not have been possible without the support and care which the Ludonova team put into this project. Thank you for believing in it and for making it a reality.

Ludonova would like to thank all the people who have participated in the playtesting, and in particular the author himself for trusting us and for his constant dedication to make Adamastor the best game possible.

Author: Orlando Sá Illustrations: Jorge Tabanera Graphic design and layout: David Prieto Development and rulebook: Juan Luque and Rafael Sáiz Translation: Jayne Broomhead

© Ludonova S.L., 2025. All rights reserved. San Pablo 22 – Cordoba – Spain

Components

• 15 Regular Map Cards
• 3 Final Destination Map Cards
• 40 Sailing Cards
• 45 Encounter Cards
• 1 Game Turn Card
• 1 Navigation Costs Card
• 1 Weather Card
• 1 Events Card
• 1 Experience Card
• 12 Campaign Cards (A-H)
• 4 Cards to save the campaign
• 1 Ship
• 30 Multipurpose Tokens
• 1 Campaign Upgrades Sheet

Setup

1. Shuffle the Regular Map Cards and place 3 of them face down in a row. Then shuffle the Final Destination Map Cards and place 1 of them face down at the right end of the row. Make sure all cards are correctly oriented, with the illustration facing upright. Finally, reveal the leftmost card in the row. These cards form the map for this game. Remove the remaining Regular and Final Destination Map Cards from the game.

   Note: For a more difficult game, build the map with 4 Regular Map Cards and 1 Final Destination Map Card.

2. Shuffle the Sailing Cards and reveal the top 3 to form a row. Then arrange those 3 cards in descending order (from highest to lowest) from left to right, based on the number shown in the top-right corner. These cards form the Adventure Row. Place the deck to the left of the row and leave space on the left of this for the Discard Pile.

3. Draw the top 3 cards from the Sailing Deck to form your starting hand. We suggest leaving space on both sides of your hand to place the Skills you learn and the Traumas you gain during the game.

4. Shuffle the Encounter Cards and place the deck, with the Encounter side facing up, next to the Map.

5. Set the Multipurpose Tokens to one side of the game area.

6. Place the Game Turn Card, Navigation Costs Card, Weather Card, Events Card, and Experience Card as shown in the illustration, though you may rearrange them if you prefer.

7. Determine the weather: place a token on the Weather Card space that matches the combination of Weather icons shown in the top-left corners of the cards in the Adventure Row. Next, take the same number of tokens as actions indicated by the Weather Card. From now on, the token on the Weather Card will remind you of the weather effects each turn.

8. Finally, place the Ship on one of the semicircles along the left edge of the revealed Map Card.

Important Concepts

Sailing Cards

Sailing Cards are the core of the game and can be used in multiple ways. They fall into two categories, based on the colour of the stripe on their right edge: Skill cards have a green stripe, and Trauma cards have a grey stripe. Let's take a closer look at the different elements that make up these cards:

1. Title
2. Weather icon
3. Card number
4. Threat icons
5. Motivation icon
6. Navigation Points
7. Atmosphere text
8. Trauma
9. Skill and cost
10. Illustration

Learning Skills and Gaining Traumas

When you learn Skills or gain Traumas during the game, rotate the corresponding card 90° and place it in its assigned area next to your hand. If you already have cards in that area, overlap the new card with the previous ones, leaving only the section showing the Skill or Trauma visible.

Morale

Your crew's morale is represented by the number of cards remaining in the Sailing Deck. Throughout the game, you'll be instructed at different moments to gain or lose Morale:

• Losing Morale: For each point of Morale lost, discard that number of cards one by one from the top of the Sailing Deck and place them face up in the Discard Pile.
• Gaining Morale: For each point of Morale gained, return that number of cards one by one from the top of the Discard Pile to the bottom of the Sailing Deck, face down.

The Adventure Row

The Adventure Row always consists of 3 cards. During the game, it will change multiple times for different reasons. Whenever that happens, check the order of the cards by their number: they must always be arranged in descending order (from highest to lowest) from left to right. If they're not, rearrange the row.

Game Turn

Adamastor is played over a series of turns, which thematically represent weeks, until you either win or lose, it's that simple! Each turn is divided into 4 phases:

1. Sunrise
2. Actions
3. Events
4. Sunset

Note: Skip the Sunrise phase during the first turn of the game, start directly with the Actions phase.

Each of these phases is explained in detail below.

1. Sunrise

This phase consists of 2 steps:

a) Draw the top card of the Sailing Deck and add it to the Adventure Row so it contains 3 cards again (as you'll see later, after each Sunset phase there are always 2 cards left in the row).

b) Determine the weather for the current turn based on the combination of Weather icons shown on the cards in the Adventure Row: move the token to the matching space on the Weather Card and take as many tokens as the weather allows for actions. When determining the weather, keep in mind that if your Ship is in a space with storm clouds, each icon in that space turns one white cloud in the Adventure Row into a storm cloud.

Once the weather has been determined, it does not change during the turn, even if the Adventure Row changes.

As you'll see on the Weather Card, the worse the weather, the fewer actions you'll have during your turn. You may also receive a penalty that increases Navigation Costs. The Navigate action will be explained later, but keep in mind that +1 Navigation Cost means that moving the Ship will cost 1 additional Navigation Point for each Map space.

2. Actions

In this phase, you may perform as many actions as you have tokens available after determining the weather. Some Skills and game effects may grant you additional actions. Discard one token each time you perform an action. The phase ends when you can no longer, or no longer wish to, perform actions. If you have unused tokens, you must discard them.

There are 3 types of actions in the game. You may combine them freely and repeat the same action as many times as you want. Each is explained below.

Draw a Card

Draw the top card of the Sailing Deck and add it to your hand. If the deck is empty, you cannot perform this action. There is no hand limit during this phase, this is only checked during Sunset.

Swap a Card

Swap a card from your hand with one from the Adventure Row. This action is very useful, as it allows you to acquire specific cards from the row, influence the weather for the next turn, or replace threat icons with more favorable ones, among other possibilities.

Navigate

To navigate, discard as many cards from your hand as you wish. Add up their Navigation Points, this is your total for the action. Then move the Ship across the map, spending those points. You're not required to use all of them.

Each type of space has a different Navigation Cost:

• An empty space costs 2 Navigation Points.
• A space with fog costs 3 Navigation Points.
• A space with an island costs 3 Navigation Points.
• A space with currents costs 1 Navigation Point if you move with the current, or 4 Navigation Points if you move against it. The wave patterns indicate the direction of the current.

Let's look at the current in more detail:

• Entering this space in the direction the arrows show costs 1 Navigation Point (you're moving with the current).
• Entering this space in the direction the arrows show costs 4 Navigation Points (you're moving against the current).

If you choose to stop the Ship before using all your Navigation Points, the remaining points are lost.

Other important rules

• Discard order: When discarding cards to navigate, place them face up on top of the Discard Pile in the order you choose. This may be important when gaining Morale.
• Map exploration: If you reach a semicircle (considered an empty space) on the right edge of a Map Card, reveal the next card. When this happens, you may discard additional cards from your hand to gain more Navigation Points and continue moving the Ship on the new card (as part of the same Navigate action).
• Factors that may affect navigation:
  • Weather may increase the Navigation Cost of each space by 1 (see SUNRISE).
  • Storm clouds do not affect Navigation Costs; they are only used when determining the weather during Sunrise.
  • Anchors do not affect Navigation Costs, but they mark Encounter spaces. To trigger an Encounter, you must stop the Ship on one of these spaces.

You choose to navigate and discard 2 cards that give you a total of 4 Navigation Points. You first take advantage of the current, spending just 1 point, then reach an island with an anchor, using your remaining 3 points, and stop there to trigger an Encounter.

Encounters

An Encounter occurs when you stop the Ship on a space with an Anchor icon:

• If the anchor is on an island, it's a Land Encounter.
• If the anchor is at sea, it's a Sea Encounter.

Step 1: Gain Morale and Experience

As soon as the Encounter begins, you gain Morale and Experience. The amount depends on how many Encounters have already occurred on the same Map Card:

• First Encounter: Gain 1 Morale and 1 Experience.
• Second Encounter: Gain 2 Morale and 2 Experience.
• Third Encounter: Gain 3 Morale and 3 Experience.

Place as many tokens as Experience gained on the Experience Card (each token represents 1 point Experience). You may spend these tokens at any time during the turn, in any quantity, to:

• Gain 1 Morale by discarding 1 token.
• Perform 1 additional action by discarding 2 tokens.
• Remove 1 of your Traumas from play by discarding 3 tokens.

Step 2: Resolve the Encounter

1. Draw the bottom card of the Encounter Deck.
2. Read the section that matches the type of Encounter (sea or land) and follow its instructions. You may have to decide whether to flip the card to resolve its effect.

If you have a Task Card in play (a special type of Encounter), you may choose to complete it either before or after resolving the current Encounter.

If an Encounter Card tells you to remove it from the campaign, ignore that instruction in Classic Mode and simply remove it from play.

Step 3: Mark the Encounter space

After resolving the Encounter, place a token on the space where it took place. The space can still be used for navigation, but no further Encounters can happen there.

3. Events

Check the Events Card and go through each event from top to bottom to see if any are triggered. An event is triggered if the required number and type of icons are in play: to do this, check the Threat and Motivation icons on the cards in the Adventure Row, as well as any icons shown on your Traumas. Each event can only be triggered once per turn.

Here are the events to check, in order:

1. Learn a Skill: If there are 2 or 3 Motivation icons in the Adventure Row, you may learn the Skill on a card in your hand that requires the same number of Motivation icons or fewer. You can only learn 1 Skill per turn.
2. Crew Unrest: If there are 5 or more Unrest icons in play, discard the lowest-value card from the Adventure Row and gain it as Trauma if it's a Trauma, or simply discard it if it's a Skill. Then, draw 1 new Sailing Card and add it to the Adventure Row.
3. Disease Outbreak: If there are 5 or more Disease icons in play, lose 1 Morale for each of your Disease Traumas. The discarded cards are removed from play.
4. Exhausted Sailors: If there are 5 or more Fatigue icons in play, lose 3 Morale.
5. Mutiny on Board: If there are 3 or more icons of each type of Trauma (Unrest, Disease, and Fatigue) in play, you immediately lose the game.

At the start of the Events phase, you check and see that you can learn a Skill from your hand, since there are 2 Motivation icons in the Adventure Row and you have 2 Skills in your hand that require exactly that. Since you may only learn 1 Skill per turn, you choose the one that allows you to ignore 1 Fatigue icon and place it in the appropriate area.

After adding the card, there are now 5 Disease icons in play: 2 in the Adventure Row and 3 on your Trauma cards. This triggers the Disease Outbreak: you lose 3 Morale (because you have 3 Disease Traumas), and must remove the discarded cards from play.

Then you evaluate Crew Unrest. There are 6 Unrest icons in play: 4 in the Adventure Row and 2 on your Traumas. The event is triggered: you discard the rightmost card in the Adventure Row, and since it's a Trauma, you gain it as a new Trauma. To complete the event, you draw a new card and add it to the Adventure Row.

Next, you check for Exhausted Sailors. Only 3 Fatigue icons are in play, so the event is not triggered. Finally, you verify the risk of Mutiny. There are 3 or more of each Trauma icon in play, but the Skill you just learned allows you to ignore 1 Fatigue icon, bringing the total to just 2. Thanks to that, you avoid losing the game.

4. Sunset

Discard the lowest-value card in the Adventure Row (the rightmost card):

• If it's a Trauma, gain it as Trauma.
• If it's a Skill, simply discard it.

Then, check your hand. If you have more than 3 cards, discard until you only have 3.

Winning or Losing

You can only win the game by reaching the Final Destination, represented by a continent with a flag. As soon as the Ship enters one of the 2 land spaces on the continent, each costing 3 Navigation Points, like an island, you immediately win the game, without needing to complete your turn.

On the other hand, you can lose the game in two ways:

• If the crew becomes demoralized, that is, if the Sailing Deck is empty and you're instructed to draw a card but cannot do so.

OR

• If the crew mutinies during the Events phase.

In either case, you lose the game immediately.

Scoring

Adamastor is a game of exploration and survival, focused on reaching your Final Destination. The following scoring system is optional and not required to win or complete the game. However, you may use it to track your performance across multiple plays.

If you decide to keep score, use the following system:

• If you lost the game, you score 0 points.
• If you won the game, you score:
  • 1 point for each Experience token remaining on the Experience Card.
  • 4 points for each Encounter completed during the game (count the total number of tokens placed on Encounter spaces on the map).

Traumas

Traumas are represented on the grey stripe on the right side of Sailing Cards. Below are the types of Traumas you may face during the game:

• The Disease, Unrest, and Fatigue icons each represent a Trauma of the indicated type.
• Sunset: -1 Morale. You lose 1 Morale at the end of each Sunset phase.

Skills

Skills are represented on the green stripe on the right side of Sailing Cards. Below are the Skills you may learn during the game:

• Sunset: +1 Morale. Gain 1 Morale at the start of each Sunset phase.
• Sunset: 4 cards in hand. You may keep up to 4 cards in your hand instead of 3 when checking your hand during Sunset.
• +1 Navigation Point. Add 1 extra Navigation Point to your total every time you navigate.
• Draw 2 cards and keep 1. This modifies the regular draw action: whenever you draw, take 2 cards, keep 1, and place the other at the bottom of the deck.
• Ignore 1 / 2 Storm Cloud icons from the map. Ignore 1 or 2 Storm Cloud icons in the space where your Ship is located when determining the weather during Sunrise.
• Ignore 1 Unrest icon. When checking Events, ignore 1 icon of the indicated type in play (Adventure Row and your Traumas).
• Ignore 1 Disease / Unrest / Fatigue icon. When checking Events, ignore 1 icon of your choice among the indicated types in play (Adventure Row and your Traumas).
• +1 Action. Add 1 additional Action token to those granted by the weather on each turn.
• Each Skill costs -1 Motivation icon. Each Skill you learn costs 1 fewer Motivation icon.
• Place all Map Cards face-up. Flip all Map Cards (including the Final Destination) face up as soon as you learn this Skill, they remain face up for the rest of the game.
• Remove this card from play to get +3/+5 Navigation Points. You may add 3 or 5 Navigation Points to your total during a Navigate action. If you choose to do so, remove the card from play immediately afterward.