Escape Tales: Low Memory Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• About the Game
• Components
• Game Setup
• Goal of the Game
• Playing the Game
• The Story Book and the Paragraphs
• Game Board
• Locations
• Exploring Locations
• Stress Cards
• Game Cards
  • Map Cards
  • Puzzle Cards
  • Item Cards
  • Story Cards
  • Condition Cards and Pending Cards
• Puzzles and the App
• End of the Game
• Saving the Game
• Differences from The Awakening
• Credits

About the Game

Escape Tale: Low Memory is an escape room in a card game form for 1 to 4 players. Apart from challenging puzzles, the game mainly focuses on engaging storyline, which you will influence as you play. Many puzzles await – and each of them requires no more than your heads and maybe some paper and pencils – and along with them, many tough decisions that will determine the course of your adventure.

Components

• 22 Action tokens
• 4 Progress tokens
• 148 Game cards
• 14 Stress cards
• 19 Location cards
• 1 Game board
• 3 Story Books
• 1 Rulebook

Game Setup

Remember! Do not peek at the fronts (the side with the text) of the cards as you prepare them.

1. Select the story you want to play.

   Important! It does not matter how much time you take between the stories, but it is crucial that you play them in the following order:

   • Tutorial and Elizabeth Weber
   • John Barns
   • Black_Princess

2. Place the Game Board within easy reach of all players.

3. Next to the Game Board, place the following:

   • A. Action Tokens.

   • B. Progress Tokens.

   • C. Game Cards in ascending order (from C001 on top to C148 at the bottom).

   • D. Stress Cards in ascending order:

     • Tutorial and Elizabeth Weber: cards S0 to S5.
     • John Barns: cards S10 to S14.
     • Black_Princess: cards S20 to S22.

   • E. Location Cards in ascending order (from L01 on top to L19 at the bottom).

   • F. Story cards with the :*, :# and :< symbols received in previous stories – if you have any.

     Important! Whenever you receive any of these cards never discard them, even after you finish a story, unless the game specifically instructs you otherwise.

   • G. Story Book for the correct story.

4. Prepare a mobile device or a computer to check Puzzle results (you will find out more about the App on page 5).

Important! We prepare each copy of the game with great care. Regrettably, mistakes can still happen. Therefore, during setup, please make sure that you are not missing any cards. This will ensure that your experience is not spoiled by a missing component. Remember to only check the back of the cards! If you notice any damaged or missing components, contact us via the customer support form found at https://boardanddice.com/customer-support/

Goal of the Game

Escape Tales: Low Memory is a cooperative game. This means that you will make all decisions together with other players. Unless you are playing the game solo, make sure to discuss the locations and puzzles with other players. The end of each story depends on choices you make together.

Escape Tales: Low Memory is a game you cannot "lose". However, your decisions will influence the final outcome of each story. For better or worse, each ending is up to you.

Playing the Game

Start each story by reading out loud the prologue, which you can find in the Story Book of the story you play. There you will also find out which paragraph entry you should start with.

From that moment on, you will be playing following these steps:

1. Read the indicated Story Book paragraph and follow any instructions provided.
2. Perform any of the following actions until a game component instructs you to go to the Story Book (in which case return to the first step of this list).
   • a. Explore the Board: Place one of the available Action Tokens on an unexplored area of the Map Card and read the indicated paragraph in the Story Book.
   • b. Take a Stress Card: If you do not have any Action Tokens and you want to explore a Location, take the top Stress Card, read it and follow its instructions.
   • c. Solve Puzzle: Open the chosen puzzle in the app and perform any of its available actions (like giving an answer, checking for required cards or taking a hint).
   • d. Fulfil a Condition: If you have any Condition Cards and you fulfil their criteria, you may read indicated paragraphs in the Story Book.
3. If you are doing everything right, this is the step you will never reach :)

All paragraph entries look similar. Each paragraph consists of: Number A, Story Text B, Actions C. Whenever a game effect sends you to a paragraph, you will find it by its unique number. When reading through a paragraph entry, be sure to start from the Story Text, as it contains puzzle hints, and details important events, which may influence your future decisions. Once you are done with the Story Text, resolve all Actions listed under it in order. It may also happen that there are no Actions under the Story Text. This means that exploring this area requires no further actions. However, note that the Story Text may still contain valuable information.

The Story Book and the Paragraphs

The end of the prologue will instruct you how to start the story. Each paragraph is assigned a unique number with a preceding letter (for example: P854). Paragraph entries describe events in the story of the main character, and their distribution in the Story Book is random. When reading an entry, try not to look at other paragraphs on the same page. If you do, you may spoil the story!

The margin of each page in the Story Book lists all the paragraph numbers on that page. This should make finding the right paragraph easy.

Game Board

The Game Board is used as a surface to place Location Cards and to explore parts of locations. Cards are placed on the Game Board according to Map Cards (you will find out more about card types on page 4).

During the game, some of the rules of Location Cards or using the Game Board may change. When such a rules conflict appears, always follow the new rules introduced in the Story Book or on the Cards.

Locations

New puzzles, items and story fragments are discovered on Location Cards.

A paragraph that introduces a new location will also instruct you to take Location Cards together with the indicated Map Card and a number of Action Tokens (you will find out more about Action Tokens in the Exploring Locations section of these rules, found on page 4).

Unless specifically instructed otherwise, always take cards from the appropriate decks and reveal them immediately.

Next, following the instructions provided by the paragraph, place the Location Cards on the Game Board following the layout depicted on the Map Card showing the location. The layout is usually divided into 12 squares, referred to as "areas". The Map Card should be placed next to the Game Board so that the orientations of the card and the board are the same. By doing this you have prepared the location, and you are ready to explore.

Remember! The decisions you make will lead you to only some of the Location Cards – you will not see them all!

Exploring Locations

Important: It is always a good idea to look closely at the Location Cards and discuss your next steps.

Once you have decided to explore an area, place one of the available Action Tokens on the Map Card and read the paragraph section assigned to the area. While exploring, you may receive one or more Game Cards.

You will never have enough Action Tokens to explore every nook and cranny of each location. Not every corner needs a close examination, which is why it is important to wisely select the areas you approach. If you run out of Action Tokens, you can draw Stress Cards.

Important: If you still have Action Tokens when advancing to a new location, do not discard them! If you are instructed to take Action Tokens by the Story Book, simply add the new ones to the ones you already have.

Stress Cards

Stress Cards allow you to continue the game after you run out of Action Tokens. Whenever you wish to explore another area (or perform any other action that requires you to discard Action Tokens) and you are out of Action Tokens, you must draw the top Stress Card from the deck and read all of its contents (including the small texts in the bottom of the card).

The top part of the Stress Card contains the story, and the bottom part lists effects which need to be resolved in order from left to right.

Remember, that each story has its own Stress Cards - so when starting new story, discard all of the Stress Cards from previous story and take the appropiate set (S0-S5 for Tutorial and Elizabeth Weber, S10-S14 for John Barns and S20-S22 for Black_Princess).

Be cautious with Stress Cards! Using too many will influence how your story unfolds – and how it ends!

Remember! You are not allowed to draw a new Stress Card if you still have any unused Action Tokens.

Game Cards

During play, different effects and paragraph entry texts will tell you to take Game Cards (marked with the letter C). After drawing a Game Card reveal it immediately. Game Cards should be stored in an easy to reach location. They remain face up in play until an effect from the Story Book tells you to discard them (usually immediately after use). Upon conclusion of a story, discard all of your cards except Story Cards (cards with the :*, :# or :< symbols).

The Game Cards deck contains the following cards:

Map Cards

These cards display a grid like the one printed on the Game Board, and a smaller version of the illustration from the Location Cards. To explore a location, you will place Action Tokens on those cards. Map Cards are usually drawn with Location Cards. They demonstrate how to place Location Cards on the Game Board.

Puzzle Cards

These cards are marked with an icon on a pink background, situated in the bottom right corner. A puzzle may comprise one or more cards. It is best to group these cards by their icons, so that elements of the same puzzle are stored next to each other.

During the game some of the rules of Location Cards or using the Game Board may change. When such a rules conflict appears, always follow the new rules introduced in the Story Book or on the Cards.

Item Cards

Recognizable by their background, the Item Cards always contain item illustrations. Some Item Cards are marked with an icon on a yellow background found in the bottom left corner. Item Cards may become useful later in the game – they may remain with you across different locations, but they never remain beyond the conclusion of the current story.

Story Cards

This is a special type of cards which highlight story elements crucial to the narrative. These cards always have the :*, :# or :< symbol. Story Cards are also the only type of cards which you keep between different stories. Keep them nearby at all times, as they may become useful at any moment of play.

Important: One card may belong to several types. For example, an Item Card may also be a Puzzle Card or a Condition Card. In such a case, the card combines all of the features of each of its types.

Condition Cards and Pending Cards

These cards introduce an effect (like reading a new paragraph) which you are allowed to resolve only if you have the proper card(s) and/or symbol(s) in your play area, or when you accrue a certain number of Progress Tokens on a given card.

Important! When placing tokens on Pending Cards (cards that require you to place a certain number of tokens on them before being resolved), use only Progress Tokens.

Puzzles and the App

Puzzles in Escape Tales consist mainly of Game Cards, but they may also use some other elements. Each puzzle consists of at least one card (marked with an icon printed in the bottom right corner). Each answer must be fed to the App.

The game includes puzzles which are essential to progressing the story, as well as puzzles that will help you in a different way. Because of this, you should not be afraid to leave a puzzle unsolved. The game will not let you go any further without solving the puzzles essential to the story.

The Escape Tales App is presented in the form of a website which you can add to the main screen of your mobile device, to be used as an application. The App also works offline: a single visit to the website will allow you to use the App without an active internet connection.

You can find the App at: https://app.escape-tales.com

When starting the website/app for the first time, select the Low Memory game and the language matching the language version of your game box.

The main menu of the App displays symbols of all puzzles, which you can browse freely. Whenever you discover a new puzzle symbol, you should open the puzzle in the App and read its menu.

Important! Nothing you do in the App requires Action Tokens or comes with negative consequences, so you can perform any App actions at will.

A puzzle menu consist of 3 main areas: Answer Space, Required Cards and Hints.

• A. Answer Space: This is the space you will use to type in a password or a code that solves a puzzle. The number of individual symbol spaces is different for each puzzle. This means that if the Answer Space displays 3 spaces for symbols, then the answer consists of exactly 3 symbols, letters, numbers, etc. After providing the correct answer the App will direct you to the proper paragraph entry in the Story Book.

  A hint of the answer format may appear next to the Answer Space. This hint does not influence the solution of the puzzle – it merely instructs you on how to properly input the answer in the App.

• B. Required Cards: This option allows you to learn how many cards and which other game elements are required to solve a given puzzle. You may ignore it completely and try to use logic or follow the story to gather all the hints but remember that without all of the required cards you will not be able to solve any puzzle.

• C. Hints: This button opens a new menu where you can request a hint. This menu contains the Take a Hint button, which will produce a hint helpful in solving the puzzle. Upon taking a few hints (usually between two and four - depending on the puzzle) the button will change into the See Answer button. This should be your last resort, used only when you are otherwise unable to solve a given puzzle. Pushing this button does not have any negative impact on play.

End of the Game

Escape Tales offers multiple different endings in each of its Story Books. Your actions and decisions will make you reach one of them. This will end the current story and - in the case of the final story - also the game. The choices you make during the first two stories, as well as their conclusions, will influence the final ending of the game.

After concluding the first and second story remember to store the Story Cards you have separately. If you are playing a single story over multiple sittings, you can keep the Story Book under the Location Cards in the game box. Any other discarded Game Cards will no longer be needed, so there is no need to add them back to their deck.

Saving the Game

A game of Escape Tales: Low Memory can be paused at any time to play another day. All you need to do to save the game is to fill out the table on the last page of these rules. When setting up next time, simply follow the information in the table to continue your game. However, we recommend pausing the game between stories or immediately upon leaving a location. This way you will not forget details of unsolved puzzles.

Escape Tales: Low Memory is not only longer, but also more difficult than Escape Tales: The Awakening. If you are up for it, you can try to go through all three stories in one sitting, but we believe that it is better to play through each of them on separate occasions.

The save table (last page) records, for each saved game and location: Gathered Cards, Recent Read Paragraph, Location Cards on Map Card, Top Stress Card, and Saved Action Tokens – with six blank save slots provided, plus a Checked Paragraphs column for tracking.

Differences from The Awakening

We are happy to have you back with us for another adventure! :) Below you will find all of the information an Escape Tales veteran needs to jump straight into Low Memory. Everything else you know about Escape Tales remains unchanged!

• Doom Cards are now Stress Cards (that work identically to Doom Cards). Each story now comes with its own pool of Stress Cards.
• Apart from Action Tokens, the game also comes with Progress Tokens. Use them only when the game specifically tells you to.
• The game consists of three stories which make up one whole. You will need to crack them in the right order, so make sure you setup each game properly. Make sure that you are using the right Stress Cards for each story.
• There are no Exit Cards in Low Memory. For story reasons there is no way to delay moving into new locations.
• In Low Memory puzzles never expand beyond a single Location. Their elements may appear on different cards, but never in different Locations.
• There is a new card type in Low Memory: a Story Card. Jump to page 5 to find out more about them.
• After concluding a story we recommend that you save the game and continue with the next story on another occasion. Low Memory is much longer (and more difficult!) than The Awakening!

Credits

Game Design: Jakub Caban, Bartosz Idzikowski Game Development: Małgorzata Mitura Illustrator: Magdalena Klepacz Graphic Design: Mikołaj Ławnicki, Zbigniew Umgelter Story Books written by: Szymon Stoczek, Jakub Caban, Bartosz Idzikowski Translation and additional writing: Błażej Kubacki

Board & Dice:

• Executive Manager: Andrei Novac
• Head of Localization and Art Direction: Kuba Polkowski
• Head of Marketing: Filip Głowacz
• Head of Sales: Ireneusz Huszcza
• Head of Development: Błażej Kubacki