Delve Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Credits
• Contents
• Component Anatomy
  • Faction Mats
  • Delver Tokens
  • Gold Cards
  • Treasure Cards
  • Encounter Cards
  • Dungeon Tiles
  • Dungeon Tile Icons
  • Combat Dice
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • I. Place a Dungeon tile
  • II. Draw a Dungeon tile
  • III. Place a Delver
  • IV. Resolve completed rooms
• Encounter Cards
  • Succeed
  • Fail
  • Fight…
  • Test
• XP Tokens
• End of the Game

Object of the Game

In Delve, players guide their band of adventurers through the dungeons of Skull Cavern. Each turn, place a dungeon tile and an adventurer, to explore the dangers below and search for loot. When a room is completed, delvers must fight for their share of the gold and treasure. But if a player manages to complete a room alone, they must overcome dangerous encounters before collecting their riches.

Delve combines tile-laying and an immersive narrative experience in a new and exciting way.

Credits

Game Design: Richard Launius and Pete Shirey

Game Development: Travis R. Chance and Nick Little

Illustration: Gong Studios

Art Direction: Travis R. Chance

Graphic Design: Scott Hartman

Playtesters: Brian "Big Mac" McCarthy, Asher Pinsler, Darrell Simmons, Hillary Wilson, Christian Wilson, Mark Zoghby, Ryan Launius, Steve Avery, Joe Vigil, Joshua Githens, Bill Beckman, John Emory, Scott "Scooter" Smith.

Contents

1 Game Board

4 Faction Mats — These contain a special ability for the associated faction as well as player references.

1 Entrance Tile

75 Dungeon Tiles

20 Delver Tokens — Five tokens for each of the four factions: Sellswords (black), Kobolds (teal), Wraiths (white), Forestfolk (yellow).

8 Cubes — Two cubes in each of the four faction colors.

85 Gold Cards

20 Treasure Cards

9 Combat Dice — Five white dice, two red dice, and two purple dice. These are rolled when resolving Battles, Fights, and Tests.

40 Encounter Cards

1 Sun Marker

25 Experience Tokens

1 First Player Marker

Component Anatomy

Faction Mats

Faction mats have five pieces of information:

1. Name of the faction
2. Faction ability
3. Faction color (background)
4. Delver tokens: Each faction has a slightly different configuration of Delvers.
5. Player aid: You can find important info about the rules of the game here.

Delver Tokens

Delvers are the members of your team that you will place on the Dungeon tiles to fight for gold and treasure.

Note: Before play, place one front sticker and one back sticker on each plastic token according to the faction color of the token.

1. Name
2. Color: Indicates to which player the Delver token belongs (background).
3. Dice: Indicates how many and which dice you will roll when this Delver is involved in a Battle, Fight, or Test.
4. Magic Rift: A Delver with a Magic Rift gains +3 Combat when in a Battle or Fight in a room with a Magic Rift.

Gold Cards

These cards range in value from 1 to 3 points. Keep their values hidden from other players until the end of the game.

1. Value: This is the number of points the Gold card is worth at the end of the game.

Treasure Cards

Treasure cards have four parts:

1. Name
2. Ability: Most Treasure cards have an ability.
3. Image
4. Value: This is the number of points the Treasure is worth at the end of the game.

Encounter Cards

Encounter cards have three parts:

1. Story: This should always be read when an Encounter card is drawn.
2. Option 1: Read just the title aloud.
3. Option 2: Read just the title aloud.

Dungeon Tiles

Dungeon tiles have three different sections that will form the rooms of the dungeon where the players will battle to gather gold and treasure. These tiles come in many different configurations and have several different icons.

Sections: Tan Section, Corridor, Blue Section.

Dungeon Tile Icons

Gold Bag: After completing a room, players will divvy out Gold cards equal to the number of Gold Bag icons in the room.

Treasure Chest: After Succeeding in an encounter or winning a Battle, draw one Treasure card for each Treasure Chest in the room.

Fast Movement: After you play this tile, take another turn after the current turn is finished.

Magic Rift: Each Delver with a Magic Rift icon gains +3 Combat at the start of a Battle or a Fight while in a room with a Magic Rift.

Sun: After a tile with a Sun is placed, advance the Sun marker.

Door: Doors complete rooms of corridor sections.

Torch: After a tile with a Torch is placed, all Delvers in the room with the Torch are turned faceup. Delvers played into rooms with a Torch must be placed faceup. If Dungeon tiles are played in a way that makes a room contain a Torch, all Delvers in the room are turned faceup.

Combat Dice

Combat dice are rolled whenever you are in a Battle, Fight, or Test. If you ever need to roll more dice than are included with the game, keep track of what dice you are owed and just roll those dice when you are done rolling the first time.

Dice types: White Dice, Red Dice, Purple Dice.

Each color of die contains different amounts of the following icons:

Combat Icon: Gain 1 Combat for each instance of this symbol that you roll.

Spoils Icon: Gain 1 Spoils for each instance of this symbol that you roll.

Reroll Icon: When you roll this symbol, gain Spoils and Combat equal to what is showing on this die, and roll this die again. Gain the results of the second roll also. This symbol may cause you to roll this die several times.

Setup

1. Each player chooses a faction and takes that faction mat, the corresponding five Delver tokens, and the two cubes in that faction's color.
2. Give each player three XP tokens.
3. Set the game board to one end of the play space.
4. Each player places their cubes on the 0 spaces of the Combat and Spoils tracks.
5. Place the Sun marker on the Sun track space corresponding to the number of players in the game.
6. Place the entrance tile against the bottom of the board with the corridor pointing away from the game board.
7. Shuffle the Gold cards together facedown to form the Gold deck. Place it next to the game board where it says "Gold."
8. Shuffle the Treasure cards together facedown to form the Treasure deck. Place it next to the game board where it says "Treasure."
9. Shuffle the Encounter cards together facedown to form the Encounter deck. Place it next to the game board where it says "Encounters."
10. Place the Combat dice and remaining XP tokens to the side of the game board.
11. Shuffle the Dungeon tiles and place them facedown in a couple of stacks near the play space.
12. Each player draws three Dungeon tiles.
13. Randomly determine a first player and give them the first player marker.

Gameplay

During the game, players will take turns in clockwise order. During each player's turn, that player completes the following actions in order before the turn passes to the next player:

1. Place a Dungeon tile.
2. Draw a Dungeon tile.
3. Place a Delver.
4. Resolve completed rooms.

Placing Dungeon Tile Note: There is no requirement that tan sections, blue sections or empty spaces need to be aligned when placing tiles.

For example, a tile may be placed with a blue section that abuts a tan section and/or an empty space of the adjacent tiles.

I. Place a Dungeon tile

The first action a player must do on their turn is to place a tile. To do this, choose one of the three tiles in your hand and add it faceup to the dungeon. When placing a Dungeon tile, you must abide by the following rules:

At least one edge of the tile must be adjacent to one edge of a tile already in the dungeon.

• You cannot place a tile where it touches no other tiles or only touches on the corner.
• You cannot place a tile so that any one side of the tile touches more than one tile.

Corridors must always align with other corridors.

• You cannot place a tile so that it is cutting off a corridor on a tile already in the dungeon.
• Also, you cannot place a tile so that the corridor on that tile connects to a part of the dungeon without a corridor.
• You may place the tile so that a corridor ends at the game board. Other sections of the tile do not have to align when placing tiles.

Dungeon tiles cannot be placed above the line formed by the bottom of the game board.

• The bottom of the game board is considered to continue on in both directions indefinitely for the purpose of placing tiles.

If the tile placed has a Sun icon on it, advance the Sun marker on the game board's Sun track.

• When the Sun marker reaches the end of the track, the game is over at the beginning of the first player's next turn.

If the tile placed has a Fast Movement icon on it, you will take an extra turn after this turn is finished.

If the tile placed has a Torch icon on it, turn faceup all Delvers on tiles in the room that contains the Torch.

• Delvers placed in rooms with Torches must be placed faceup.

Placing Tile Example 1

A. In the example to the left, the new tile can be placed in four of the five possible locations.

B. Additionally, it could be rotated in any orientation and still be legally placed in any of these four locations.

C. This is the only location this tile could not be placed because it would block the corridor regardless of the new tile's orientation.

II. Draw a Dungeon tile

If there are ever no Dungeon tiles able to be drawn, shuffle all of the discarded Dungeon tiles to create a new Dungeon tile stack.

III. Place a Delver

After you place a tile, you may place one of your Delvers facedown on that tile. The Delver must be placed on only one section of the tile (blue, tan, or corridor). Delvers cannot be placed on the empty space. The Delver must be placed on the tile you placed this turn. Some sections of a Dungeon tile might be too narrow to entirely fit a Delver. In that case, just do your best to make it clear which section your Delver is on.

Rooms

A room is one or more contiguous tile sections of the same type: blue, tan, or corridor. Rooms are completed when there is no possible way to add more sections of the same type.

Note: Rooms may be completed by the bottom edge of the game board.

Corridors

Corridors are completed when both ends have terminated, typically when doors are placed on each end. Corridors can also be terminated at the bottom edge of the game board. They may be terminated by another section of a tile placed using XP tokens that ignore the corridor placement rules (covered on page 11).

Corridors and Rooms Note: When you see the word "corridor" on a card, it refers only to corridors.

However, the word "room" refers to all three types of sections (blue sections, tan sections and corridors) of a Dungeon tile.

Completing a Room Example

When this Dungeon tile is placed, the tan room is completed (there is no way to place another tan section contiguously to the two tan sections).

Completing a Corridor Example

When this Dungeon tile is placed, a corridor is completed (there are doors at both ends).

Placing Tile Example 2

In the example to the right, a corridor tile is being placed and therefore the options are more limited.

A. The tile could be placed here as the corridors align with both corridors already in play.

B. The tile is legal as well because the orientation has the corridor aligning with the already played corridor tile. Note that the tile could be placed in any orientation so long as the corridors align.

C. The tile is legal to place in either of these locations because the empty space is placed adjacent to the existing tile and the corridor sides do not violate any other rule.

D. The tile could not be placed in this location because the corridor cannot align with the empty space. Note that it could be rotated so that the empty space on this tile aligns with the edge.

IV. Resolve completed rooms

If the tile you placed completed a room, resolve that room by performing the following:

1. Turn all Delvers in that room faceup.
2. Complete an Encounter, or Battle, based on the number of players with Delvers in that room (see below).
3. Return all Delvers in the completed room to the corresponding player(s).

Placing a tile can result in multiple rooms completing on the same turn. The current player determines the order in which the completed rooms are resolved.

Once there are no completed rooms with Delvers in them, the current player's turn ends.

For more information about keywords on Encounter cards, see page 10.

Completing a Room With:

Zero players with Delvers in it — Nothing happens.

One player with Delvers in it

When only one player is in a completed room, the player to the left of that player draws an Encounter card and reads the story section of the card aloud to the player in the completed room.

The reader lists the titles (bolded text) of the two options on the card but does not read the possible results. Then the player in the completed room chooses one of the two options and resolves the text of that option.

Once an encounter is resolved, the Encounter card is discarded faceup next to the Encounter deck. If the Encounter deck is ever empty, shuffle the discarded Encounter cards to form a new deck.

One Player Completing a Room Example

Alan places a tile that completes a room in which only he has a Delver. Alan reveals that Delver, a Brute.

Betty is to Alan's left. Betty draws an Encounter card. After reading the story section of the card concerning a crazed goblin, Betty asks Alan whether he wants to "Lose the loot" or "Fight the goblin."

Betty now reads the result for "Fight the goblin." The goblin is going to roll two purple dice, and if Alan Succeeds at defeating the goblin, he'll collect one additional Gold card.

Alan rolls his three white dice for his Brute. Those dice give Alan combat, combat, combat, combat, and spoils.

Betty rolls the two purple dice for the goblin. The goblin's roll is combat and spoils on one die, and spoils and reroll on the other. Betty rerolls one die, because of the reroll icon, and adds another combat. Her total is combat, combat, and spoils, spoils.

Alan knows that since the second option starts with "Fight…" he'll be rolling the dice shown on his Brute (three white dice) against Betty who'll be rolling some amount of dice for the goblin. He's not sure which dice she'll roll, so that goblin might be pretty tough. Alan doesn't like the idea of losing his loot, so he chooses to fight.

Alan has Succeeded at defeating the goblin so he collects a Treasure card for each Treasure Chest in the room, a Gold card for each Gold Bag in the room, and an additional Gold card as a result of the Encounter card.

The goblin rolled more Spoils than Alan, so Alan will not receive any additional loot for his Spoils.

Two or more players with Delvers in it

When two or more players have Delvers in a room that is completed, those players must Battle for the loot in the room.

In player order, starting with the current player, each player will roll the dice indicated on the Delvers they have in the completed room. After each player has rolled their dice, that player uses their cubes to mark their total Combat and Spoils on the game board's Combat and Spoils track.

Once all of the players who have Delvers in the completed room have rolled their dice, a winner is determined. All ties are broken based on player order with the current player taking precedent.

Deal out Gold cards equal to the number of Gold Bag icons and Treasure cards equal to the number of Treasure Chest icons in the room.

Magic Rift Note: Delvers with the Magic Rift icon gain +3 Combat while in a room that also has a Magic Rift icon.

This effect is gained only once per Delver with this icon, even if there is more than one Magic Rift icon in the room.

The players receive the following rewards based on their results in the Battle:

• Highest Combat Total: This player receives all of the Treasure cards and half of the Gold cards, rounded down.
• Second Highest Combat Total: This player receives half of the remaining Gold cards for the room, rounded down.
• Third Highest Combat Total: This player receives half of the remaining Gold cards for the room, rounded down.
• Highest Spoils Total: This player receives additional loot. If their Spoils total was 1-4, they collect one additional Gold card. If their Spoils total was 5 or higher, they collect one additional Treasure card. If multiple players tie for the highest Spoils total, no one receives the additional loot.

Return any remaining Gold cards to the Gold deck.

Two or More Players Completing a Room Example

Alan, Betty, and Cedric have Delvers in a room that was just completed by Alan. That room contains two Treasure Chests and nine Gold Bags.

After rolling dice for his Kobold Delver in the room, Alan has the highest Combat total of 7. He collects the two Treasure cards in the room. He also collects four Gold cards, which is half of the nine Gold cards rounded down.

Betty and Cedric tie for having the second highest Combat total at 5. Betty's turn is next so she holds the tiebreaker. Betty collects half of the remaining Gold cards rounded down. There are five Gold cards remaining, so Betty collects two cards.

Cedric now receives half of the three remaining Gold cards, which is one card.

The final two Gold cards are returned to the Gold deck.

Cedric had a higher Spoils total than Alan or Betty, with a total of 2. Cedric collects a Gold card for having the highest Spoils.

Using Treasure Cards Note: Some Treasure cards have abilities when they are collected. If you collect a Treasure card with one of these abilities, you must reveal it to the other players and resolve the ability listed.

Other Treasure cards will state when their ability can be used.

Encounter Cards

Here are some important terms found on the Encounter cards:

Succeed

You may Succeed in a few different ways: passing a Test, winning a Fight, or choosing an option that results in a Succeed.

• When you Succeed, you collect one Treasure card for each Treasure Chest and one Gold card for each Gold Bag in the completed room.

Fail

You may Fail in a few different ways: not passing a Test, losing a Fight, or choosing an option that results in a Fail.

• When you Fail, you collect no Treasure cards. However, you do collect Gold cards equal to half the number of Gold Bags in the completed room, rounded down.

Fight…

When you choose the Fight option on an Encounter card, you will exchange blows with one of the monsters lurking in the dungeon.

• First, you roll the dice shown on all of your Delvers in the completed room. Use your cubes to mark your total Combat and Spoils on the game board's Combat and Spoils track.
• Then the reader of the Encounter card rolls the dice shown for the monster on the Encounter card. That player uses their cubes to mark the monster's total Combat and Spoils on the game board's Combat and Spoils track.
• If your total Combat is greater than or equal to the Combat of the monster, you Succeed. Otherwise, you Fail.
• Whether you Succeed or Fail, if your Spoils total is greater than that of the monster, you collect extra winnings from the Fight.
  • If your Spoils total is 1-4, you collect one additional Gold card. If your result was 5 or more, you collect one additional Treasure card.

Test

When you choose an option on an Encounter card that leads to a Test, you will roll the dice shown on all of your Delvers in that room.

• Tests require your Delvers to roll a certain amount of Combat or Spoils results.
• If you roll the required amount (or more) shown after "Test," you Succeed. If you do not roll the required amount, you Fail.

Test Example

If you choose the "Try a Costly Escape" option that states:

Test: (three spoils icons)

you will roll all the dice shown on your Delvers in that room. You need to roll three or more Spoils to Succeed. Otherwise, you Fail.

XP Tokens

Players will start the game with three of these tokens. Any number of tokens may be used in a turn in the following ways:

Discard and draw Dungeon tiles: Before placing a tile, you may spend an XP token to discard any number of Dungeon tiles from your hand. Then, draw an amount of Dungeon tiles equal to the number you discarded. Discarded Dungeon tiles should be placed faceup next to one of the Dungeon tile stacks.

Place a Dungeon tile that violates the corridor placement rule: When placing a tile on your turn, you may spend an XP token to place a tile ignoring the normal corridor placement rules.

Roll additional white dice: Before you roll for a Battle, Fight, or Test, you may spend an XP token to roll two additional white dice for that Battle, Fight, or Test.

Retrieve a Delver: Before placing a tile, you may spend an XP token to return one of your Delvers from the dungeon to your hand. You may then place that Delver later this turn as normal.

Use your ability: Each faction has an ability that is listed on their faction mat. This ability states a time when you can spend an XP token for a specific effect.

End of the Game

The game ends at the end of a round when either the Sun marker has been advanced to the final space on the Sun track or when there are no more Gold cards left in the Gold deck.

• When either event occurs, play continues until it would be the first player's turn again, then the game ends (so that each player takes an equal number of turns). Even if a Gold card is returned to the Gold deck after it has been emptied, the game will still end at the beginning of the first player's next turn.
• If you would collect Gold cards when the Gold deck is empty, for each Gold card you would collect, instead turn one of your Gold cards faceup for the rest of the game. Those cards are worth one additional point at the end of the game.
• If you would collect Treasure cards after the Treasure deck is empty, turn one of your Treasure cards faceup. Treasure cards turned faceup in this way are worth two additional points.

To determine a winner, simply add up the points from your Treasure and Gold cards.

• The player with the most points wins the game.
• If multiple players are tied, the player with the most Treasure cards among the tied players wins. If there is still a tie, all of those tied players share a victory.