Expedition: Famous Explorers Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Set-Up
• Scoring Track
• Expedition Cards
• Locating Places On The Board
• Playing The Game
  • Green Dots
  • Red Dots
  • Resolving Loops
  • All Arrows Have Been Placed
• Scoring Points
  • Cards Played From The Hand
  • Public Destinations
• Spending Tickets
  • Add An Arrow To Any Destination
  • Remove An Arrow From The End Of Any Expedition
  • Discard An Expedition Card From Your Hand
• Ending The Game
  • Final Scoring
• Advanced Rules
  • New Rules
  • Explorer And Event Cards
  • Secret Destinations
• Credits

Components

• 1 Game Board Map
• 36 Destination Tokens
• 1st Player Token
• 135 Arrows
• 30 Ticket Tokens
• 6 Wooden Score Tokens
• 79 Expedition Cards
• 7 Explorer Cards
• 10 Event Cards

Game Set-Up

1. Place map board in the middle of the table within reach of all players.

2. Separate the arrows by color and place them in three piles next to the board.

3. Each player selects a player color and takes all six Destination Tokens of that color. Each player also takes three Ticket Tokens ('Tickets').

4. Expedition Cards are shuffled and dealt to each player as follows:

   • 2-3 PLAYER GAME - Each player receives 12 cards
   • 4-6 PLAYER GAME - Each player receives 9 cards

   Player's hands are private and not shown to the other players.

5. Public Destinations. Six of the remaining Expedition Cards are placed face-up near the board for all players to see. These are called Public Destinations. If any of the Public Destinations is within 2 spaces of the Start Location, discard it and draw a replacement; for convenience, such cards show the near-start symbol. Reshuffle any discarded cards back into the Expedition deck and place this deck face down near the board.

The Youngest player goes first, or you may use some other method to select starting player. Give that player the 1st Player Token.

6. Each player places Four Destination Tokens: Moving counter-clockwise around the table, each player chooses a location on the board that corresponds to a card in his hand, and places a Destination Token of their color on that location. This becomes an 'Important Destination' for that player and will score double points if claimed. As with the Public Destinations, Important Destinations must be at least 3 spaces from the Start Location. If you have an Expedition Card with a near-start icon at its top left, this indicates that this card cannot be chosen as an Important Destination or a Public Destination.

Wrong! Two tokens on the board of the same color within one location of each other.

OK! Two different colored tokens on the board within one location of each other.

Players proceed to choose Important Destinations until each player has placed FOUR of their Destination Tokens. When placing Important Destinations, a player may place an Important Destination within one location of another player's Important Destinations, but he may not place two of his own Important Destinations within one location of each other. For purposes of placing Important Destinations, do not treat red or green dots as locations. In other words, if a red or green dot is between two locations, the two locations are still regarded as next to each other, and a player may not place an Important Destination token on both since they would be considered within one location of each other. A player may discard and redraw Expedition Card(s) if it is not possible for them to place four Important Destinations that are not next to each other.

Cards that have the near-start icon represent locations within 2 spaces of the Start Location. Cards with this icon cannot be selected as one of your Important Destinations. Also, when revealing Public Destinations at the beginning of the game, any card showing this symbol must immediately be discarded and a new card drawn to replace it.

The Advanced Game uses Secret Destinations, Explorer Cards and Event Cards. Rules for these can be found under Advanced Rules. For your first game of Expedition, we suggest you play without the Advanced Rules.

Scoring Track

The Scoring Track, located on the main board and numbered from 0-28, is not essential in the Basic Game of Expedition, although we suggest using it so that all players may easily determine the current scores of others. When playing with the Advanced Rules, players should always use the Scoring Track.

To use the scoring track simply take the matching wooden token of each player's color and stack them at 0. When a player scores points, move the token accordingly on the scoring track.

Expedition Cards

Locations on the map correspond to the locations on the cards. These will either be specific geographical locations, such as cities, or they may also be the names of Famous Explorers who are linked in some way to that location.

Each card shows a Title, Location, and Description.

Locating Places On The Board

Each player should take some time to locate areas on the board matching the Expedition Cards in their hand. To help with this, each region of the board is color coded. Also written under the title of each card is the name of the ocean, city, country or some other identifying element indicating where the location or name is on the map. Use these two elements and the pictures on the board to find locations. North American locations are BLUE. South American locations are GREEN. European locations are RUSTY RED. African locations are YELLOW. Asian locations are PURPLE. South Pacific and Australian locations are ORANGE.

Playing The Game

For the first turn, the youngest player places an arrow - of any color - pointing outward from the Start Location on the board (in Europe). The arrow is placed on the dotted line with the arrowhead pointing to the next Location, or Red or Green Dot. Unless the player wants to spend one or more Tickets, his turn is now over.

The second player may add a second arrow to the existing Expedition, or may choose to start a different colored Expedition from the Start Location, as described above. Play continues with each player adding one arrow to any existing Expedition or starting a new Expedition (note that there can never be more than three Expeditions, one of each color).

The three Expeditions continue in this manner, with players taking turns to place arrows that advance an Expedition to a new location. Each Expedition is always considered to be located at the dot that the arrowhead points to, and the Expedition must continue in that direction. An Expedition of the same color may not double back on itself, or continue from anywhere other than the last placed arrowhead, although the Expedition may create a loop. Expeditions of different colors may run parallel, either in the same or opposite directions, but arrows of the same color may not run parallel.

Wrong! Parallel lines of the same color running in the same or opposite directions.

OK! Parallel lines of different colors running in the same or opposite directions.

Green Dots

A player who leads an Expedition to a Green Dot may immediately add another arrow to any of the three Expeditions. See Advanced Rules for more options using Green Dots.

Red Dots

A player who leads an expedition to a Red Dot immediately gains 1 Ticket from the supply. This includes the six Red Half-Dots on the sides of the board, which are also used to 'wrap around' the edges of the map. An Expedition that reaches a Red Half-Dot may be continued from the opposite side of the map. To help distinguish Red and Green Dots, Red Dots are encircled on the map.

Resolving Loops

If an Expedition loops back on itself, the player who laid the arrow that caused the loop immediately places another arrow of the same color branching from any point off the loop, pointing in a new direction. The new arrow must not create a second loop, and cannot run alongside another arrow of the same color. The tip of the new arrow becomes the new location for that Expedition and indicates the new direction that Expedition will continue. Two loops cannot be created on the same Expedition during a single player's turn.

After a loop is formed a player must immediately add an arrow branching anywhere off the loop. The newly placed arrow must not form a second loop.

A loop may also be formed by removing the last arrow from an Expedition when spending a Ticket. If players are unsure whether or not a loop has been formed, an easy way to make this determination is to see if there is an arrow with a free tip. If there isn't a free tip, then a loop has been formed and the player immediately places a new arrow as shown here.

IMPORTANT: If the arrow that creates a loop ends at a Red or Green Dot, the player also takes the bonus action, as well as laying a new arrow off the loop. If this happens a player may get to lay more than one additional arrow or collect one or more tickets.

All Arrows Have Been Placed

An Expedition is over when all arrows of one color are placed on the board. Players continue the game using the remaining Expedition(s).

Scoring Points

Points are scored by placing arrows that lead Expeditions to Locations on cards in a player's hand, or to Public Destinations.

Cards Played From The Hand

Whenever an Expedition reaches a Location that matches an Expedition Card in your hand - it does not matter who placed the arrow - place that card face up in front of you and score 1 Point. If the Location was one of your Important Destinations, you score 2 Points; remove your Destination Token from the map and place it on top of the matching Expedition card to remind you it is worth 2 Points.

NOTE: You may score a card from your hand, including an Important Destination, at any time, even if the Expedition was passed through during a previous turn. See Advanced Rules for a variant upon this rule.

Public Destinations

During setup, six Expedition Cards are placed face-up in view of all players as Public Destinations. Any player may score a Public Destination, but, unlike cards played from a player's hand, they may do so only on their own turn when they place the arrow leading to that Location. The player takes the Public Destination card and places it in front of him, scoring 1 Point. A player may not go back and score a Public Destination after moving past the Location; that Public Destination card remains available.

When a Public Destination is scored, another card is drawn from the Expedition deck to take its place. There will always be six Public Destinations in play, unless the Expedition deck is depleted.

Spending Tickets

Players may spend a maximum of two tickets on their turn. Tickets are used to carry out extra actions or, if using the Advanced Rules, to buy Event and Explorer Cards (see Advanced Rules). When spending a ticket, place it on the board for all to see. This will help keep count of how many tickets a player has spent on his turn.

When spending a ticket, one of the following actions (described below in more detail) may be taken:

1. Add an arrow to any Expedition.

2. Remove an arrow from the end of any Expedition.

3. Discard an Expedition card from your hand to draw two Expedition Cards, keeping one of the drawn cards and discarding the other.

4. Optional rule: buy an Event or Explorer Card if using Advanced Rules.

Add An Arrow To Any Destination

Placing an arrow continues that Expedition. If the arrow lands on a Green Dot or a Red Dot, carry out the associated action (i.e. adding another arrow if landing on a Green Dot, or taking a Ticket if landing on a Red Dot).

Example: An Expedition is in Siem Reap (Asia). The current player points an arrow in the direction of the red dot to the right, and takes a ticket. He uses the ticket immediately to add another arrow. To do so, he takes an arrow, spends the ticket he just acquired, and points the arrow to Oceania. The player then decides to spend another Ticket from his supply to place another arrow on the same Expedition. He points this new arrow towards the green dot below Oceania. This in turn allows him to place yet another arrow, but he decides to place this new arrow on another Expedition using a different colored arrow.

Remove An Arrow From The End Of Any Expedition

Removing an arrow from an Expedition will cause that Expedition to return to the previous Location or Dot. If this causes the Expedition to return to a Green or Red Dot, then that player carries out the associated action as described above.

Example: An Expedition is in Timbuktu. The next player places a ticket on the board and removes the last arrow in this Expedition. The Expedition now returns to the red dot above Timbuktu. This gives that player a ticket. He then conducts his actual move by placing a new arrow on another Expedition in North America.

Discard An Expedition Card From Your Hand

Players may also spend a ticket to discard and redraw. After discarding one Expedition Card, the player then draws two cards and looks at both, keeping one and discarding the other.

Note that a player may discard one of his Important Destination cards, but the associated token stays on the board and will score a negative point at the end of the game (see 'Final Scoring', below).

Ending The Game

There are two ways to end the game:

1. When a player has scored the last Expedition Card from his hand, the game ends after all players have had an equal number of turns. The First Player Token should be used to determine when all players have had an equal number of turns.

2. If all arrows from all three Expeditions have been used, the game ends immediately.

Final Scoring

• As described earlier, scored Expedition Cards, either from a player's hand or Public Destinations, are worth 1 point each, while Important Destinations (marked with a Destination Token) are worth 2 points.

• Players lose 1 Point for every Expedition Card still in their hand at the end of the game.

• Players also lose 1 Point for each Token of their color still on the board at the end of the game.

• In the Advanced Game, players score points for Secret Locations, and Explorer and Event Cards (see the Advanced Rules for details).

Advanced Rules

If you are new to Expedition it is advised that you play with the basic rules first.

When playing with the Advanced Rules, players should use the scoring track located on the board. Whenever an Expedition Card is played into a player's scoring area, that player (or a designated scorekeeper) must add the number of points scored to the track.

Each of the following elements is optional and can be used singly or in combination. We recommend using ALL of the Advanced Rules. They make for a very interesting game.

New Rules

These two new rules are designed to prevent players from "gaming" the original rules.

1. In the original rules, a player may score Expedition Cards from his hand at any time if an Expedition location has already been traveled through. With this new rule, however, a player may score only one previously traveled through Expedition Card per turn, and the card must be scored on that player's own turn. Note that this rule applies only to Expedition Cards scored from the player's hand after a location has been traveled through. This prevents a player from saving his cards for scoring until the final round of the game.

2. A player may not spend a Ticket to place a new arrow leading an Expedition to a Red Dot. This prevents players from spending Tickets to advance an Expedition to a Red Dot and gaining a Ticket for the sole purpose of preventing others from gaining a Ticket by traveling to that Red Dot.

Explorer And Event Cards

Explorer Cards grant bonus points at the end of the game if certain conditions are met, as described on each card. Event cards have various abilities that affect game play. Simply follow the instructions on the cards. Some Events apply immediate effects, while others can be saved for use later in the game.

During setup, randomly place SIX Explorer Cards face up next to the board for all to see. Discard the seventh Explorer Card back into the game box. It will not be used. Shuffle the Event Cards and place them in a deck face down next to the Explorer Cards.

On a player's turn he may purchase an Explorer Card by spending 2 Tickets. The buyer then places the purchased Explorer Card face up in front of him, and no one else may purchase that card. After an Explorer card is purchased, fill the empty spot with a face-up Event Card from the top of the deck.

Event Cards cost 1 Ticket each and are purchased in the same manner as Explorer Cards. Replace purchased Event Cards with new Event Cards from the deck, so that there are always six cards face up (unless the Event Deck runs out).

A player may purchase only ONE Event or Explorer Card on each one of his turns. Remember that players may not spend more than 2 Tickets in total on any of their turns.

Secret Destinations

When placing the six Public Destination cards next to the board, keep two of the cards face down and hidden from all players. When a player leads an Expedition to a Green Dot, he may forfeit the bonus that allows him to place an additional arrow, and may instead peek at one of the Secret Destinations (without showing the other players). After a player has looked at a Secret Destination, he should place one of his spare Destination Tokens on the card as a reminder that he may look at that card at any time. It also reminds the other players who has looked at which Secret Destination.

A player may claim a Secret Destination when they place an arrow pointing to the appropriate Location. They may do this only on their own turn, and at the moment the arrow is placed. They may not claim the Secret Destination after the Expedition has moved on. The player reveals the Secret Destination card and places it in his scoring area. Secret Destinations score 2 Points instead of the usual 1 Point; the card should be placed sideways in the scoring area to remind players of this.

In the unlikely event that a player turns over a Secret Destination that does not match the current position of any of the three expeditions, that player is penalized by having their score marker moved back one space on the Scoring Track. If the player's score is still at "0" he must instead remove one of his Important Destination Tokens from the board. If any other player(s) have a Destination Token on the incorrectly revealed Secret Destination, they immediately gain 1 Point on the Score Track.

When a Secret Destination is revealed, whether correctly or incorrectly, another Secret Destination is drawn and placed face down in the vacant spot.

Credits

Expedition: Famous Explorers is Copyright 2013 Forgotten Silver, Inc. & 8th Summit. Game Design by Wolfgang Kramer. Development: Jason Maxwell and Shane Myerscough. Artwork: Guri Mond and Julia Semionova. Rulebook: Mathew Hobson. Editor: Dan Booth.

FOR QUESTIONS PLEASE CONTACT US THROUGH OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.8THSUMMIT.NET. Or at this email: [email protected].