Expedition: The Roleplaying Card Game
Expedition: The Roleplaying Card Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Prerequisites
To play, you'll need a copy of the Expedition cards. You can:
- Buy a copy from the Expedition store or Amazon.
- Or, print and play your own cards. If you print and play, you'll also need to find at least one d20 die and a dozen tracking clips (such as clothes pins or paper clips).
You'll also want to print out these rules for reference while playing.
If you enjoy the timed aspect of Expedition, you'll also want to find a 10 second or 30 second timer.
Setup
Once you're ready to play, each player besides the GM should:
Adventurers
Select one adventurer of your choice from the deck, set it face up in front of you and pass the deck along.
If playing with only one player: Select and set up two adventurers.
If playing with The Horror: Draw a persona card, set it face up in front of you, and attach a clip at "Base".
Clip a health tracker onto your adventurer at full health (12).
If playing with only one non-GM player: Draw and set up two adventurers.
Abilities
Draw the starting abilities listed on your adventurer.
If playing with The Horror: Draw an additional Influence ability and shuffle it into your ability pile (start with 7 abilities).
Read through your abilities. You may mulligan (redraw all) once if desired.
Shuffle them into a stack face-down in front of you.
Sundries
Draw a Helper card. Place the d20 die in the center. If you have extra d20, you can give one to each player.
The Adventure
Without the app, Expedition works like a traditional tabletop RPG. One player acts as a GM, telling the story and letting the players know the outcomes of their decisions.
Unique to Expedition, when the GM handles skill checks (such as attempting to sneak past a guard), they may let you use your skills to modify your attempt.
If playing with The Future: You can use the provided Skill cards and their types (Athletics, Charisma, Knowledge) for your skill checks. Players would then increase their roll by the highest level of any skill they have of that type.
For example, they might let you increase your roll by +1 for each ability of a relevant type you have:
| Ability class | Types of skill checks it could benefit |
|---|---|
| Melee | Strength, endurance, constitution, intimidation |
| Ranged | Dexterity, stealth, perception, climbing, acrobatics, thievery |
| Magic | Intelligence, knowledge, lore, history, wisdom |
| Music | Charisma, diplomacy, persuasion, negotiation |
The GM might also allow you to use one of your specific ability cards as a "shortcut" — for example, instead of trying to use brute strength to break down a door, you could try to cast Fireball at it.
Combat
Setup
The GM will occasionally create combat scenarios. The difficulty is determined by the "tier sum" of all enemies in play. For example, a Tier 3 Giant Rat plus a Tier 1 Zombie Hand is a tier sum 4 encounter.
Generally speaking, you will want players' first fight to be tier 2-3, increase the tier by 1 each fight, and have the boss fight be tier 6-9. If you reward players with extra loot outside of combat, 4 tiers of loot allow you to increase one fight's difficulty by one tier.
Each Round
During each round of combat, you will:
- Pick Abilities
- Check for an enemy surge
- Roll and resolve your abilities
- Calculate enemy damage
- Stop if you have won or lost. Otherwise, repeat.
Picking Abilities
Each player should, at the same time:
Shuffle your ability draw pile. Keep abilities played this combat in a separate discard pile. If you run out of ability cards in your draw pile, shuffle your discards into a new draw pile.
If you're playing with a timer:
- Pre-draw your hand of three abilities face-down from your draw pile. Do not look at these cards until you start the timer.
- Start the timer.
- Play one ability from your hand.
- If the timer runs out, multiply damage received this round by 1.5 (rounding up).
If you're playing without a timer:
- Draw your hand of three abilities.
- Play one ability from your hand.
Surges
Surges occur every 4th round (every 3rd round if you'd like to play on "Hard"). We recommend using the back of an Encounter card to count up to 4. If you don't like them being predictable, you can also roll a d20 and surge whenever it's 5 or less — but this will result in a less-balanced game.
On a surge, immediately follow the surge action listed on all remaining encounter cards. Some Undead surges apply after they've been knocked out.
Surge effects happen before abilities. Abilities that apply "this round" do not affect surges (however, loot may still be used during a surge). If you are knocked out during a surge, do not resolve your abilities.
Rolling and Resolving
If playing with The Horror: Adventurers at Min persona must resolve their persona effect and reset to Base persona before resolving abilities. Adventurers at Max persona may choose to resolve and reset now or in a later round.
Roll: Each adventurer rolls a die for each ability they played. If roll ≥ X, the ability succeeds. Ability cards may list additional effects based on the roll, even if they fail.
Resolve: Resolve your abilities in any order. You may change the resolution order during the round, even after some abilities have been played.
Discard all abilities resolved this round. Shuffle the rest of your hand back into your draw pile.
Modifiers: Enemies may have modifiers on their cards that affect the damage they receive. The modifier applies to the final damage value of each card played against them.
Loot: Loot may be used at any time, and does not count as an action.
Calculating Damage
After you have resolved your abilities, the enemies deal the party damage. All adventurers take equal damage based on the following table and a d20 roll.
If you'd like combat to be easier, use the table for 1 fewer players. If you'd like it to be harder, use the table for 1 more players.
1 - 2 Players (2 Adventurers)
| Tier Sum | Roll: 1-4 | 5-8 | 9-12 | 13-16 | 17-20 | (average) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.6 |
| 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1.6 |
| 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2.6 |
| 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| 7 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3.6 |
| 8 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| 9+ | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4.6 |
3 Players
| Tier Sum | Roll: 1-4 | 5-8 | 9-12 | 13-16 | 17-20 | (average) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.8 |
| 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1.4 |
| 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2.2 |
| 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2.6 |
| 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3.4 |
| 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3.8 |
| 7 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4.4 |
| 8 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 4.8 |
| 9+ | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5.4 |
4 Players
| Tier Sum | Roll: 1-4 | 5-8 | 9-12 | 13-16 | 17-20 | (average) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1.6 |
| 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2.4 |
| 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3.6 |
| 6 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4.2 |
| 7 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 4.8 |
| 8 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5.4 |
| 9+ | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 |
5 Players
| Tier Sum | Roll: 1-4 | 5-8 | 9-12 | 13-16 | 17-20 | (average) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1.8 |
| 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2.6 |
| 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3.2 |
| 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3.8 |
| 6 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4.4 |
| 7 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| 8 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5.8 |
| 9+ | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6.4 |
6 Players
| Tier Sum | Roll: 1-4 | 5-8 | 9-12 | 13-16 | 17-20 | (average) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1.2 |
| 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2.8 |
| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3.6 |
| 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4.2 |
| 6 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 4.8 |
| 7 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5.6 |
| 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6.4 |
| 9+ | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 |
Victory
You win if all enemies reach 0 health. At this point:
Shuffle all of your ability cards back into your ability draw pile.
All adventurers heal to full health (even if at 0 health), unless the GM says otherwise.
Loot: The party now draws loot — use the table below to determine the total amount of loot you receive. The party should draw from the top of the (shuffled) loot pile until the total tier amount equals the value from the table, skipping over any loot whose tier is above the number that needs to be drawn (for example, if you only earned a total of 2 tiers of loot, skip over any tier 3s and put them on the bottom of the pile).
Divide the loot amongst adventurers. It can be used at any time and does not cost an action (unless otherwise specified).
| Combat Tier | Loot Reward |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 3 |
| 5 | 3 |
| 6 | 4 |
| 7 | 4 |
| 8+ | 5 |
Leveling up: The party gains experience equal to the combat's tier sum. Keep track of experience on the back of an encounter card or sheet of paper. On the back of a separate encounter card, keep track of the experience required to level up. This starts at 4 and increases by 1 each time you level up.
When you level up, all adventurers may learn a new ability:
- Draw 3 abilities from one of the decks listed on your adventurer card. If you are playing with The Horror: All adventurers may also draw from the influence deck.
- Add 1 to your ability deck, and place the remaining 2 at the bottom of the deck you drew from.
- You may choose to discard an ability.
If playing with The Horror: Instead of learning an ability, you may also choose to increase your Persona 2 levels.
If playing with The Future: Instead of learning an ability, you may also choose to learn a skill (draw 3, keep 1) or increase the level of an existing skill by sliding it one mark to the right.
Defeat
You lose combat if all adventurers reach 0 health. At this point, the GM decides what happens to you — for example, if you're taken prisoner, left knocked out in a collapsing tunnel, or the quest is over.