Adamastor Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1. Objective of the Game
• 2. Components
  • 2.1. Card Anatomy
    • 2.1.1. Player Cards
    • 2.1.2. Map Cards
• 3. Game Setup
• 4. Morale
• 5. How to Play
  • 5.1. Sunrise
  • 5.2. Action Phase
    • A) Draw 1 Card
    • B) Swap Cards
    • C) Navigate
  • 5.3. Event Phase
  • 5.4. Sunset
• 6. Winning or Losing the Game
• 7. Events Reference
• 8. Skills Reference
• 9. Variants
  • 9.1. Historical Scenario
  • 9.2. Less Luck Variant (inspired in a proposal of Paolo Morganti)
  • 9.3. 2 Player Game (Cooperative)
• Round Structure (Reference Card Summary)
  • 1. Sunrise
  • 2. Action Phase
  • 3. Event Phase
  • 4. Sunset
  • Navigation Costs (Reference Card Summary)

1. Objective of the Game

You are the Captain of a Portuguese Fleet in the Era of the Portuguese Discoveries.

Each time you play, the map is different, and you'll try to lead your crew into the final destination, as required by the King.

Each round the weather will impact your actions and you'll have to manage the cards in your hand and the cards in play, so that you can keep the morale of your crew high and advance through the seas into your final destination. During the game you'll gain traumas that will make things even more difficult. But don't be afraid! You'll also be able to learn skills that are going to make your task (slightly) easier. There's only one way to win: arriving to the final destination. There are several ways to lose: If the morale of your crew reaches 0 (check 4.Morale) or if there is a riot on board (check 5.3.Event Phase).

2. Components

54 cards

• 40 Player Cards (Golden Back)
• 13 Map Cards (Blue Back)
• 1 Reference Card (double sided)

5 Cubs (or coins if you have no cubs)

1 Pawn (or 1 coin if you have no pawns)

1 Captain Token (for the 2 Player Variant)

2.1. Card Anatomy

Adamastor is a multi-use card game, where cards can be used in several ways. Let's understand the cards better:

2.1.1. Player Cards

1. Title
2. Weather Icon
3. Threat Icon
4. Motivation Icon
5. Card number
6. Navigation value
7. Land Bonus
8. Trauma
9. Skill
10. Skill cost
11. Background

2.1.2. Map Cards

12. Map Card Type - Regular (R), Final Destination or Historical. They can also be distinguished by their back.
13. Final Destination (where you must arrive to win the game)
14. Sea spaces (check 5.2.Action Phase)

3. Game Setup

1. Take all 13 Map cards but leave the 3 Historical Map cards in the box. Randomly draw 1 Final Destination Map card and:

   • 2 Regular Map cards for an easy game;
   • 3 Regular Map cards for a regular game;
   • 4 Regular Map cards for a hard game;

   Put the remaining cards back in the box. Place the chosen cards face down in a line with the Final Destination Map card on the rightmost space.

2. Reveal the leftmost Map card and place the pawn in one of the half sea spaces on the leftmost edge of the revealed card. This pawn represents your fleet.

3. Take the 40 Player cards, shuffle them, draw 3 cards and place them face up in a line. This line will always have 3 cards during the game and it's called the Adventure Row.

4. Order the cards in the adventure row by the number on their bottom left corner: the highest numbered card on the left side, the lowest numbered card on the right side.

5. Draw 3 Player Cards. This will form your starting hand

6. Take the remaining 34 cards and form a face down deck.

7. Leave a space for future Skills and and 8) Traumas.

8. Place the reference card and 5 cubs near the play area.

4. Morale

In Adamastor, the crew's Morale is represented by the deck. The game will tell you several times to win or lose morale. Each time you lose a certain number of morale, simply discard that same number of cards from the top of the deck and place them on the discard pile. When you win a certain number of morale, take that number of cards from the top of discard pile and place them on the bottom of the draw deck.

5. How to Play

Adamastor is played during several rounds (that thematically correspound to weeks) until you win or you lose - yes, as simple as that! Each round is divided in 4 Phases: Sunrise, Action Phase, Event Phase and Sunset. We will explain them in detail:

5.1. Sunrise

Draw the top card of deck and add it to the Adventure Row (skip this in the first round of the game). Now, look at the card's numbers (bottom left corner) and re-arrange the 3 cards in the adventure row in descending order from left to right (highest card on the left, lowest card on the right).

Add the Weather Icons (top left corner) of each of the cards and determine the weather for the round. The total number of black clouds on the weather icons and on the sea space where the pawn currently is, determines if you will face a storm, or not. A single black cloud has no effect. Black clouds on the sea space where your pawn currently is, transform regular clouds (in the adventure row) in black clouds. They never transform sun icons into black clouds. Take a cube and place it on the corresponding space on the Reference Card (Weather Reference side). This will remind you of the effects of the weather during the round.

5.2. Action Phase

Take a number of cubes equal to the number of actions determined by the weather, so that you keep track of your actions available.

Each time you perform an action, discard one of the cubes. When you have no cubes left, you must proceed to the Event Phase. If you still have cubes but decide that you don't want to perform any more actions, simply discard them and advance to the Event Phase.

The weather conditions remain the same as determined in the Sunrise even if during the Action Phase the cards in the adventure row change and the combination of weather icons changes.

The 3 types of actions you can perform are:

A) Draw 1 Card

Draw the top card of the deck and add it to your hand.

B) Swap Cards

Swap one card from your hand with one card from the Adventure Row. Re-arrange the 3 cards in the adventure row in descending order from left to right (highest card on the left, lowest card on the right) if needed.

C) Navigate

Discard cards from your hand and add the total navigation values of all the discarded cards. This is your Navigation value. Then, advance your pawn if your navigation value is equal or higher than the Navigation cost required to enter the sea space(s) you wish to enter or cross. You can navigate through several sea spaces if you can afford the cost.

Types of Sea Spaces: These are the costs to enter/cross the different sea spaces:

• Empty Sea Space: Navigation Cost 2
• Sea Space with an Island: Navigation Cost 3
• Sea Space with Fog: Navigation Cost 3
• Sea Space with a sea current: Navigation Cost 1 (if entering from a direction equal to the sea current orientation) or Navigation Cost 4 (if you are entering from any other direction different from the sea current orientation - example costs in green and red)
• Black Cloud: Black clouds in a sea space have no impact on its Navigation cost (only to determine the weather on the Sunrise)

Image 4 - These are the Navigation costs to move between some of the sea spaces on the map: If you would move from A to B you would have to spend 3 Navigation Points. From A to C you would spend only 1 navigation point because you enter the space in the same sense of its sea current. From A to F, passing through C, you would spend only 2 navigation points because, you would be be sailing in the sense of the current. From E to D you would spend 3 navigation points. From D to E you would spend 2 Navigation Points. And from D to F, you would spend 4 navigation points because you would be entering the F sea space contrary to its sea current. With 4 navigation points, you could go from A to D, passing through C (1 to enter C and 3 to enter D). Also, with 4 navigation points you would be able to sail from A to E, passing through C and F (1 to enter C, 1 to enter F, and 2 to enter E).

Edge Sea Space: When you reach a sea space on the right edge of the map card (half sea space) reveal the next map card next to it. The combination of both half sea spaces of both cards, creates a full sea space. If you have any remaining navigation value after sailing to this space you may continue to navigate to an adjacent sea space if you can still pay its cost with the remaining navigation value.

Land Bonus: When you enter a sea space that depicts an island (or half of an island), draw a number of cards equal to the numeral value on that space (the Roman Numerals I, II or III meaning 1, 2 or 3 cards). Then, from the cards drawn, choose one to keep in your hand and gain its land bonus (bottom right corner). Place the other cards drawn (if any) in the bottom of the draw deck. You may, if you wish, forfeit your Land bonus (or part of it) - if there are very few cards in the deck and the bonus allows you to draw extra cards, for example.

Example: On the map above, if you would enter space D you would draw 3 cards, choose one to keep and gain its Land Bonus. The other 2 would be placed on the bottom of the deck. If you would enter space G you would draw 1 card and gain the Land Bonus of that card.

Weather Impact: Depending on the weather, sometimes there is a +1 cost when performing the Navigate action. This means that each sea space costs 1 extra navigation point.

5.3. Event Phase

Take the Reference Card (Event Side) and starting from the top event see if any event triggers.

There is 1 good event ("Learn a Skill") and 4 bad events that can possibily be triggered.

An event triggers if the number and type of icons required to trigger each specific event are in play (cards on the adventure row, traumas and skills).

After checking an event (and performing it, if triggered), check the following event in the list, until you have checked all 5 events.

Image 5 - During a game: Threat icons on the cards on the adventure row on the left, and gained traumas on the right

Example: In the Event Phase, these are the threat icons in play. The first Event "Learn a Skill" will trigger because there are at least 2 motivation icons in play. If you had a card in your hand with a skill that required 2 motivation icons in play to be gained, you would be able to gain that card as a skill.

Then you would check the next events on the Event reference card. Event "Unrest among the crew" wouldn't happen because there is only 1 unrest icon in play (in the traumas). The next event, "Disease Spreads", wouldn't trigger either because there are 4 disease icons in play (3 in the adventure row and 1 in the traumas). Unfortunately for you, the "Tired Crew" event would trigger because there are 5 fatigue icons in play (3 in the adventure row and 2 in the traumas). As consequence you lose 3 morale, and to do that, you discard the top 3 cards from the deck. Then you would check the last event "Riot". Fortunately for you, despite there are at least 3 Disease and 3 Fatigue icons, there is only 1 Unrest icon in play, so the event doesn't trigger. If there would be 2 more Unrest icons in play, you would lose immediately the game.

5.4. Sunset

Every Sunset the morale drops!

Discard the lowest value card in play (the card on the rightmost space):

• If this card has a Trauma (red section on the right side of the card) it becomes a trauma. It is placed on the traumas section rotated 90° tucked under any other trauma cards leaving only visible its trauma icon (red icon on the right side of the card).
• If this card has a Skill (green section on the right side of the card), simply discard it to the discard pile.

Image 6 - Example: During the sunset cards number 32, 19 and 9 are in the adventure row. You discard the rightmost card (card number 9). Because it has a trauma you place it in your traumas area.

End the round by checking if you have more than 3 cards in your hand. If that's the case, discard until you have no more than 3 cards in hand.

6. Winning or Losing the Game

To win the game you must reach the final destination. That means any of the land spaces that belong to a peace of land with the Final Destination Icon (see 2.1.2.Card anatomy – Map cards).

Image 7 - Example: if during your navigate action you would reach one of the following spaces I, J or K, you would win immediately the game because these 3 spaces are connected with the piece of land that has the end destination symbol.

There are 2 ways of losing the game:

• If Morale is reduced to 0 (see 4.Morale), i.e. if you have to draw cards from the deck and there are none.
• If there is a Riot during the Event Phase (see 5.3.Event Phase)

7. Events Reference

LEARN A SKILL: If there are 2 or 3 Motivation icons in play, gain 1 card from your hand that has a skill. If the skill requires 3 Motivation icons (the requirement for each skill to be gained is depicted on the top right corner) there should be precisely 3 Motivation icons in play. If the skill requires 2 Motivation icons, there should be at least 2 Motivation icons in play. Take the card from you hand and place it sideways on your skill area. You can only gain 1 skill per round. Check the next event.

UNREST AMONG CREW: If there are 5 or more Unrest icons in play (adventure row + traumas), discard the lowest card in play (rightmost card) and gain it as a trauma or discard it (if is a skill card). Draw 1 new card and re-arrange the cards, if needed. Check the next event.

DISEASE SPREADS: If there are 5 or more Disease icons in play (adventure row + traumas), lose 1 morale for each disease trauma you have. The discarded cards are removed from the game. Check the next event.

TIRED CREW: If there are 5 or more Fatigue icons in play (adventure row + traumas), lose 3 morale. Check the next event.

RIOT: If there are 3 or more Unrest, Disease and Fatigue icons in play (adventure row + traumas), you immediately lose the game.

8. Skills Reference

LAND BONUS +1 CARD: When you arrive to an island space and you draw cards to gain their respective Land Bonus, draw 1 extra card. You still only keep 1 card and its bonus.

1 NAVIGATION: When you perform the Navigate action, add 1 to your total navigation value. If you gained 2 times this skill (there are only 2 in the deck), you always add 2 to your total navigation value.

DRAW ACTION: DRAW 2 KEEP 1: The card you don't keep is placed on the bottom of the deck.

IGNORE 1 BLACK CLOUD: Treat 1 black cloud in play (on the cards on the adventure row or on a sea space where you are) as if it was a normal cloud.

IGNORING ICONS IN PLAY: When a skill allows you to ignore a certain type of icon in play, you must choose on which card you will ignore that icon (from the cards on the adventure row or in the traumas).

• 1 ACTION: You get an extra action every round

EACH SKILL -1: When you perform the "Learn a skill" event, it requires less 1 motivation icon in play to gain a skill

9. Variants

9.1. Historical Scenario

The setup is the same as the regular game, except that the map is formed by the 3 Historical Map cards, placed as shown in the following image. Place the pawn in "Lisbon". To win you must reach "Calicut" and the losing conditions are the same as in the regular game: Morale droping to 0 or a Riot during the Event Phase.

Image 8 - Map Setup for the Historical Scenario

9.2. Less Luck Variant (inspired in a proposal of Paolo Morganti)

During the Setup, after drawing the 3 cards to form the Adventure Row, draw an extra card and place it on the right side of the draw deck.

Every Sunrise, when you must draw a card and place it in the adventure row, you take the card on the right side of the draw deck instead. You immediatly draw a new card and place it on the right side of the deck.

This variant gives you more control, since you know in advance which card is goind to be added to the adventure round in the next round.

9.3. 2 Player Game (Cooperative)

Setup the game as normally and find a token to represent the Captain. Randomly choose a first player and give him the Captain Token. Each player starts with 3 cards in their hand.

During the game, everything is shared by both players (the draw deck, gained traumas and skills) except the cards in the hand of each player.

During the Action phase, starting by the player with the Captain token, players alternate turns performing 1 action on their turn until they have performed the number of actions available for that round (determined during the Sunrise).

If a Land Bonus or a skill instructs a player to draw cards, players draw the indicated number of cards and share them, deciding who keeps what.

In the End of the Sunrise, the captain token is given to the other player

All the other rules stay the same, as well the winning and losing conditions.

Round Structure (Reference Card Summary)

1. Sunrise

Determine Weather

Determine number of actions available for the Action Phase

2. Action Phase

Perform actions:

• A) Draw 1 card
• B) Swap cards
• C) Navigate

3. Event Phase

Check events and apply consequences (if events are triggered)

4. Sunset

Discard lowest value card in play (rightmost card):

• a) If it's a Trauma: add to traumas
• b) If it's a Skill: discard to discard pile

Discard down to 3 cards in hand

Navigation Costs (Reference Card Summary)

• Empty Sea Space: 2
• Sea Space with an Island: 3
• Sea Space with Fog: 3
• Sea Space with a sea current: 1 (with the current) / 4 (against the current)
• Black cloud has only impact to determine the weather

Threat/Motivation icons: Unrest, Disease, Fatigue, Motivation