Bargain Quest: Sunk Costs
Bargain Quest: Sunk Costs Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 10 item cards
- 8 Hero Cards
- 6 Employee Cards
- 6 Monster Cards (2 each of Rank I, II, III)
- 12 Supply Ship tiles
- 1 Rulebook
Supply Ships
The Supply Ships game mode is an alternate way to play Bargain Quest that significantly changes the way players collect item cards during the Supply Step.
Note that some monsters and employees have abilities that interact specifically with the Supply Ships Game Mode. The following cards should not be used outside of the Supply Ships Game Mode:
- Sea Serpent (monster card)
- Giant Kraken (monster card)
- Contrabandist (employee card)
- Shipping Expert x2 (employee card)
- Customs Officer x2 (employee card)
Setup
When playing with the Supply Ships Game Mode, add the following step during setup:
- Take the supply ship tiles, shuffle them, and place them in a facedown stack within easy reach of all players.
Step 1 - Supply
At the start of this step, if the top card of the monster deck is facedown, flip it faceup as normal. During the Supply Ships game mode, players do not draft item cards as described on Page 5 of the Bargain Quest rulebook.
Instead, each player is dealt 2 item cards from the top of the item deck. Players take these cards into their hands, without showing them to the other players.
Next, reveal a number of supply ship tiles from the supply ship stack equal to the number of players. Place 1 item card facedown on each supply ship.
Then, starting with the player who has the quest token and proceeding clockwise, each player takes a turn.
During a player's turn they must perform one of the following two actions:
- Load Cargo: place item cards from your hand on available supply ships of your choice.
- Claim a Supply Ship: take 1 available supply ship and all item cards on that ship. Pass your turn for the remainder of the Supply Step.
These actions are explained in further detail on the following page.
Once a player has finished their turn, play proceeds to the next clockwise player. That player takes a turn, choosing to either load cargo or claim a supply ship. This continues until each player has claimed a supply ship.
Proceed to Step 2: Display (As described in the base game rulebook.)
Load Cargo
If a player chooses to load cargo, that player places each card in their hand, one at a time, faceup on an available supply ship of their choice. Then, that player is dealt 2 item cards from the top of the item deck.
Each supply ship can hold a maximum of 4 item cards. If, after placing one card in a ship, all of the available supply ships are full, then that player keeps the remaining card in their hand and their turn ends immediately.
If all of the available supply ships are full, players cannot choose to load cargo during their turn.
Note: Players can always look at the faceup cards on available supply ships.
Claim A Supply Ship
If a player chooses to claim a supply ship, they must discard all cards in their hand and choose 1 available supply ship and move that supply ship in front of their shop. Then, that player takes all of the cards on that supply ship and places them in their shop facedown as though they had been drafted. Once a supply ship has been claimed it is no longer available and cannot be claimed or loaded again this round.
Once a player has claimed a supply ship, that player must pass for the rest of the Supply Step and does not take any further turns.
Note: Some supply ships have additional effects when they are claimed, other ships provide effects that persist until the end of the round.
Step 6 - Storage
At the end of the Storage Step each round, shuffle each player's supply ships back into the supply ship stack.
Sunk Costs and the Black Market Expansion
If you are playing with the Black Market Upgrade and black market item cards from The Black Market Expansion for Bargain Quest the following additional rules apply.
At the start of the Supply Step, do not place an item card from the top of the item deck on supply ships with the black market icon, instead, place 1 black market card facedown on each supply ship with the black market icon.
A player with the Black Market Upgrade can add black market item cards to their hand at the start of the Supply Step. Black market item cards can be placed on ships using load cargo like any other item card, however, whenever a player places black market item cards onto a ship those cards are always placed facedown.
An Expanded Hero Deck
The Sunk Costs expansion introduces 8 new heroes to Bargain Quest! However, all good adventurers know that a balanced party is the key to success, and if there are too many heroes in the deck there is a risk of only 1 or 2 classes being represented in a given game, and that's bad for business! (It is also bad for gameplay.)
Therefore, if you are playing with an expanded roster of hero cards, (either from this expansion, or others, such as the Chaotic Goods expansion) it is recommended that you replace Step 9 of Setup with the following:
- Sort the hero cards into stacks based on their class icons. Single class heroes should be sorted into four separate stacks, one for each of the four class icons. All of the remaining hero cards (those with multiple or no class icons) are sorted into one stack.
Shuffle each stack facedown and randomly select a number of cards without looking at them. For the single-class heroes select 2 cards from each of the four stacks. For the remaining heroes, select a number of cards equal to twice the number of players.
Shuffle the selected cards together and place them facedown within easy reach of all players. This is the hero deck. Return the unused hero cards to the box without looking at them.
Advanced 2 Player Variant
When playing the Supply Ships game mode in the Advanced 2 Player rules, observe the following rules changes:
At the start of the Supply Step, reveal 2 Supply Ships per player. While Loading Cargo, each Supply ship can hold a maximum of 3 item cards. (The Cargo Carrack still holds 5.)
A player can claim up to 2 supply ships. They do not discard their hand or pass their remaining turns until after they have claimed their second supply ship.
Clarifications
Draft an Additional Card
While playing with the Supply Ships Game Mode, if a game effect instructs a player to "draft an additional card" during the Supply Step, the player instead chooses 1 card from their hand and place it facedown in their shop during their turn, in addition to loading cargo or claiming a supply ship. That card will be considered drafted for the purposes of card effects such as the Bag of Holding item card.
Effects that resolve when an item card is drafted
While playing with the Supply Ships Game Mode, effects that resolve when an item card is drafted such as the Backpack or Bag of Holding instead resolve when a player claims a supply ship that contains that item card.