Explorers
Explorers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Setup
Each player receives 1 player board, 1 Provisions scoring tile, 1 Villages scoring tile, 1 Gemstones scoring tile, 8 terrain tiles (numbered 1 to 8), and 1 dry erase marker.
The player who has most recently traveled to a foreign country begins the game and receives the First Player token.
Before beginning setup, decide together which side of the player board and scoring tiles you will use. Important: All players must use the same sides!
For your first game, we recommend using the sides pictured in the following setup. This setup will be referenced in the following instructions. For future games, any combination of sides may be used (see Expert Rules on page 8).
A Place the player board face up, as shown. Insert the scoring tiles into the corresponding spaces on the player board. Place the Provisions scoring tile on the left, the Villages scoring tile in the middle, and the Gemstones scoring tile on the right.
B The First Player chooses 4 terrain tiles and places them face up in the empty map space on their player board. Tiles may be placed in any orientation. Other players then place their corresponding terrain tiles in the exact same order and orientation on their own player board. The 4 terrain tiles now form a map that can be divided into 4 quadrants (A/B/C/D).
To match the order and orientation of the terrain tiles used by the first player, subsequent players should use the numbers on the Village squares (1-8) as a guide. For example, if the First Player uses a terrain tile with the number 3, places it in the B quadrant of the map space on their player board, and orients the tile so the 3 is upside down, subsequent players select their own number 3 terrain tile, place it in the B quadrant, and orient the tile so the 3 is upside down. All tiles should be matched in this manner.
Put the remaining terrain tiles back into the box. They are used only when playing using the Expert Rules (see page 8).
C Each player uses their dry erase marker to mark the village closest to the center point of the completed map on their player board with an X. This is where the journey begins. If there are multiple villages with the same distance from the center point, the First Player chooses which village to use.
D Each player then chooses one of the four terrain types (Prairie, Water, Desert, or Mountain) and marks 3 spaces with an X, starting from their initial village. Each X must be placed next to the first village or another X (see page 4-5 for complete X placement rules).
E For 3 players: Cross out the number 10 under all 4 Temple icons. For 2 players: Cross out the number 10 and 6 under all 4 Temple icons.
We use water-based dry erase markers for your health and the environment. In order to preserve the game material for a long time, please wipe the playing surfaces with a dry paper towel immediately after each game. Should you forget this, you can use a slightly damp cloth.
How to Play
Each game consists of 4 rounds. Each round contains 7 turns.
At the beginning of each round, the First Player shuffles all 8 Exploration cards and discards 1 card (face down). Place the remaining Exploration cards face down into a draw pile.
Each turn consists of 2 phases.
Phase 1 – The active player chooses a terrain type
In the first turn of the first round, the First Player is the active player.
They reveal the top Exploration card from the draw pile and select one of the two terrain types on that card. Lay the card out in front of the active player and rotate the card so that the chosen terrain is at the bottom (pointing towards the active player). This makes clear which terrain was selected by the active player.
Example: Daniel draws the Mountain/Desert card. He chooses the Mountain terrain and lays the card down so that the Mountain terrain faces him.
There are four terrain types: Prairie, Water, Desert, and Mountain. Villages do not count as terrain types and cannot be marked by an X (with the exception of the initial village).
Phase 2 – All players place Xs
All players play simultaneously. The active player places 3 Xs on their chosen terrain type on their map, following the rules for placing Xs (see page 4-5).
The remaining players can then choose one of two options:
- Option 1: Place 2 Xs on the same terrain type chosen by the active player.
- Option 2: Place 3 Xs on the terrain type the active player did not choose.
In a 3-player game there is no active player in the final (7th) turn of the last (4th) round. On the 7th turn, each player chooses their desired terrain type from the Exploration card and places 3 Xs on their maps.
Rules for placing Xs:
- An X must always be placed vertically or horizontally (not diagonally) next to an existing X (this may include the initial village).
- New Xs do not all have to be placed adjacent to each other. (See Olivia's map below).
- Each X placed in the same turn must be placed on the same terrain type. (Exception: Wild Card, see below).
Example: As the active player, Daniel selects the Mountain terrain and marks the corresponding spaces on his map. Olivia then chooses the Desert terrain and marks 3 corresponding spaces on her map. Finally, Noah also chooses the Mountain terrain, but can only mark 2 spaces on his map because it was the active player's original terrain choice. However, Noah marks a space with a Horse, which allows him to immediately place an X on another space of his choice (see Horse, page 6).
Wild Cards:
Some Exploration cards contain two pairs of terrain types. Players choose one pair and place their Xs following the standard placement rules, but may mark both types of the terrain in the selected pair.
Example: Noah is the active player and chooses the Prairie/Mountain pair. He places 2 Xs on Prairie spaces and 1 X on a Mountain space. Olivia selects the Desert/Water pair, and places 2 Xs on Water spaces and 1 X on a Desert space. Finally, Daniel chooses the same terrain pair as Noah (Prairie/Mountain), so can only mark 2 spaces. Daniel marks 2 Mountain spaces.
Places and Objects
Xs placed on a space containing an object provide various bonuses:
Key: Circle an unused Key on the Key track at the top of the player board. A Key can be used to open a Temple space at any point during a player's turn (including the turn the Key is first circled).
Scroll: Circle an unused scroll on a Scroll track at the top of the player board. A Scroll can be used during a later turn to ignore the terrain types on the Exploration card. Instead, place an X on the circled Scroll to mark 4 spaces of a single terrain type of your choice. Follow the standard rules for placing the Xs on the 4 spaces.
The active player must select a terrain type on the Exploration card when using the Scroll (even though they will not be using that terrain during the turn), so that the remaining players know whether to mark 2 or 3 Xs.
Horse: Immediately place an X on any terrain space of your choice, next to an already existing X. If that space contains an object, apply its effect. If you still have Xs to place, continue with your turn.
Provisions (apple/carrot/fish): Cross out the corresponding provision on the Provisions scoring tile on your player board. There are four columns, one for each round.
You may only place an X on a space containing a provision if the corresponding provision type is still available (has not been marked out) on the scoring tile column for the current round.
At the end of each round, gain 2, 5, or 10 points respectively for having placed an X on 1 (2 points), 2 (5 points), or 3 (10 points) different provisions during that round.
Example: Olivia places an X on an apple in her landscape and the scoring tile. Since there are no more apples available in the current column, she can no longer place Xs on spaces with apples before the next round.
Gemstones: When a Gemstone is found, cross out a Gemstone on your scoring tile. At the end of each round, each player counts the total number of Gemstones they have crossed out during the game up to that point (including Gemstones acquired in previous rounds), and receives 1 point per Gemstone.
Example: In round 1, Olivia crosses out 2 Gemstones and earns 2 points at the end of the round. In round 2, she crosses out 1 Gemstone, and earns 3 points (2 + 1) at the end of the round.
Temple: Players may only place an X on a Temple space if they have an unused Key (circled and not crossed out) available on their Key track.
Cross out a circled Key on the Key track. Locate the Temple icon on the side of the player board that corresponds to the quadrant in which the Temple is located (A/B/C/D). Circle the highest number available. At the end of the game, players total the number of Temple points circled and receive that many points for exploring the Temples.
At the end of the turn, announce that the Temple in the quadrant (A/B/C/D) has been explored. All other players must cross out the same number of points on their own boards; it is no longer available to them, and if they explore a Temple in the same quadrant on their own map on another turn, they must circle the next available number on the list.
If multiple players explore the same Temple during the same turn, they all circle the highest number available and receive those points at the end of the game. The remaining players cross out as many numbers on the Temple icon list as the number of players that explored that Temple during the turn, moving down from the highest available number. (If 2 players explored the same Temple, the remaining players cross out 2 numbers under the corresponding Temple icon list; if 3 players explored, 3 numbers are crossed out from the list.)
Example: Daniel and Noah place a cross on Temple A in the same round. They each get 12 points. The other 2 players have to cross out 12 and 10 points for this temple.
Village: At the end of the game, count the number of Xs placed in the single squares above, below, and to the sides of each Village space. (Xs diagonal to the Village space are not counted.)
Each Village on the map gains 3 (1 square), 5 (2 squares), 7 (3 squares), or 10 (4 squares) points, depending on the number of surrounding Xs.
The number on each Village is only used during setup and can be ignored during rest of the game.
End of the turn:
Once all players have placed their Xs, the turn ends.
The player sitting to the left of the active player now becomes the active player. They reveal the top card from the Exploration card draw pile and start the next turn.
End of the round:
Once all 7 Exploration cards have been played, the round ends. Each player counts their Provisions and Gemstones points (see page 6 and page 8) and records the total points gained in the corresponding space for the round at the bottom of those scoring tiles. Finally, the First Player gives the First Player token to the person on their left. That player is now the First Player for the next round.
End of the Game
The game ends after the fourth round. After scoring the round per the End of the round rules, add all points from the Provisions and Gemstones scoring tiles and record the totals in the Total boxes located under the scoring tiles at the top of the player board. Next, add up the points for Villages using the Villages scoring tile at the top of the player board and record in the Villages Total box below the tile. Add up the Temple points and record in the Temple Total box at the bottom left of the player board. When playing using the Expert Rules, add up the Achievement points and record in the Achievements Total box at the bottom right of the player board.
Add the points in all Total boxes to calculate the final score.
The player with the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the player who marked fewer scrolls overall wins the game. Unused keys and maps do not give any more points.
Expert Rules
Any combination of the board and tiles may be used when using expert rules. All players however must use the same setup.
Provisions: At the end of each round, gain 1, 4, 9, or 16 points respectively for gathering 1, 2, 3, or 4 of the same provision during each round. In the first round, no provisions are collected and no points are given.
Gemstones: When a Gemstone is marked, locate the next available number on the Gemstone scoring tile, starting in the top left corner and following the line. If the number is negative, cross it out. If the number is positive, circle it. At the end of the round, if there are remaining negative numbers, total them to gain a negative result. If there are circled positive numbers, total them to gain points.
If you have crossed out all negative Gemstone numbers but have circled no positive ones, you gain 0 points for this round.
Temples: Use the standard Temple rules, but each Temple now scores 8 points. In addition to the points, each player who explores the same Temple receives an additional number of Xs: 3 for the first player exploring a Temple, 2 for the second, 1 for the third. These Xs are placed at the end of the turn on a single terrain type of the player's choice, following the standard rules for placing Xs. Note that the fourth person to explore a Temple receives only the 8 points, and no additional Xs.
Villages: Score only a single Village. You must choose the Village with the lowest number of surrounding Xs. Gain 12, 18, 26, or 40 points respectively for 1, 2, 3, or 4 Xs (diagonal Xs are not counted).
Achievements
When you feel ready for an exploration challenge, try playing with Achievements. After the terrain tiles have been placed in the map space, decide how many achievement tiles (1-3) to use. Draw that number from the leftover tiles and turn them over. The reverse side depicts a goal for all players. All players may earn achievement points.
Achievements are scored at the end of the game unless otherwise indicated.
Enter the points gained in the appropriate Total space on your player board.
Achievements Overview
Gain 6/8/16 points respectively if the object shown on the card has not been marked with any Xs on the map.
Gain 10 points if you have placed at least one X in all areas on the map for the illustrated terrain type.
Gain 12 points if you manage to cross the entire map either horizontally or vertically (complete a full row or a full column of 16 Xs). This Achievement can only be gained once.
At the end of the game, gain the points that correspond to the number of the illustrated item crossed out on the map. The last 4 illustrations correspond respectively to "Sets of 3 different provisions", "Villages surrounded by 4 Xs", "Temples with at least 2 Xs in any spaces adjacent to them", and "Marked corners of the map."
Scoring for these achievements follows the rules of the temple scoring. Achievements are scored at the end of the turn, and multiple players can receive the points if they both completed the achievements. (If 2 players earn the same Achievement, the remaining players cross out 2 numbers (highest available) on the Achievement tile; if 3 players earn the points, 3 numbers are crossed out from the list.)
The last 4 illustrations correspond respectively to "At least 1 X next to all Villages", "At least 1 X next to 3 Villages and 3 Xs on Temples", "At least 1 X on each edge of the map", and "At least 3 Xs in each map quadrant."
Gain 1 point for each X in the longest horizontal/vertical/diagonal line.
Identify the largest solid square of Xs on the map and count the number of Xs. Gain that many points.
Solo Variant
Follow the base game rules, with the following exceptions:
- At the beginning of round 2, 3, and 4, cross out the highest available points for the Temples on the player board that have not been explored. If using Achievements, cross out the highest available points on each Achievement that has not been completed.
- At the beginning of each turn, draw the top Exploration card and place it face down in front of you. Turn it face up and lay it down. The terrain type at the bottom of the card (facing you) is automatically selected for the round. You can choose to mark 3 spaces of this terrain type, or 2 spaces of the other type. You may not change the orientation of the Exploration card after turning it face up. In the solo variant there is no active player.
Solo Explorer Rank (add 10 points for each achievement used in the game):
| Score | Rank |
|---|---|
| < 80 | You've got a lot left to explore—come back soon! |
| 81 – 90 | You're getting the hang of this! |
| 91 – 100 | You're quite the seasoned explorer! |
| 101 – 110 | Alexander von Humboldt would be proud of you! |
| 111 – 120 | They will name a continent after you! |
| > 120 | There is no doubt: you are the greatest explorer of all time! |
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