Forsaken

Forsaken Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Game Setup
Overview and Objective
Core Concepts
How to Play
- The Action Step
Actions Summary
Actions Summary (cont.)
- Resources and Buying Assets
- Encounter Cards
The Encounter Step
Combat
- Overwhelming an Enemy
Game End and Final Scoring
- The Golden Rules
Solo Mode
Class Modules
- Class Module Setup
- Class Module Gameplay
Glossary
Quick Reference

Components

Cards

24 Infamy/Grudge cards (double-sided)
8 Ruin cards
6 Defeat cards
18 Job cards
10 "L" Reserve cards
45 Asset cards
19 Starter cards
48 "C" Reserve cards
33 Faction Spoils cards (11 per faction)
6 Rival cards
11 Plot cards
78 Character cards (3 Story and 10 Feats per character)
10 Bounty cards
115 Encounter cards
8 Reference cards
12 Faction Persona cards (4 per faction)
36 Class Module cards (4 Story and 2 Feats per module)

Miniatures and standees

6 Miniatures
3 Persona standees
1 Bounty standee

Miscellaneous

1 Resource bag
14 Dice (6 white, 6 blue, 2 yellow)

Tiles, tokens and trackers

54 Rep tokens
33 "S" Reserve tiles
15 Boost tokens
12 Vision tokens
12 Transponder tokens
3 Scrap tiles
40 Player markers
15 Fungalyte tokens
4 Legend trackers
4 VP trackers
4 Vitality trackers
40 Resources (29 Scrap and 11 Particle)

Game Setup

The Game Trayz in Forsaken are designed to be set up however you like on the table. For your first time playing, we recommend you lay out the Trayz and the components in them as described below.

1. Lay out the Game Trayz

A. Thyrria Planet Tray - Place this tray in the center of the play area, and mount the 3 Thyrria board tiles into it.
B. Port Ambition & Mycoid Verge Moon Trayz - Place these Trayz on either side of Thyrria and mount their appropriate moon board tiles into them. Place these moons so their "transmaterial portal" graphics line up with the matching graphics on the Thyrria board (blue for Port Ambition, green for the Mycoid Verge).
C. Asset Tray - Place this Tray off to the side. During play, you may end up passing this free-floating tray around between players.
- i. Shuffle all asset cards together to form the asset deck and place it face down beside the asset tray.
- ii. Deal 1 card from the asset deck face up to each of the 5 slots on the asset tray. This forms the queue.
D. Faction Tray - Place this Tray off to the side. This is another free-floating tray that players will need to reference during play.
- i. Separate all faction spoils and faction persona cards by their faction. A card's faction is indicated by the crest featured on its front and back: Mezmora Cartel, The Ebon Eye, and Sanction.
- ii. Shuffle all Mezmora Cartel spoils cards together to form the Cartel spoils deck and place it face down in its slot in the faction tray (as noted in the diagram below). Repeat this process for each deck seen in the example to the right.
- iii. Reveal 1 card at random from each persona deck and lay them face up on top of their matching decks. These cards will serve as the personas during your session.

We recommend that you play with personas that have different letter designations (as seen in their top left corners). If you reveal 2 or more that share a letter, redraw until each persona has a different letter designation.

2. Construct the dice tower and place it to the side of the play area.

A. Place all 14 dice beside the dice tower.

3. Assemble the bounty deck.

A. Shuffle all bounty cards together to form the bounty deck and place the deck face up beside Thyrria. The face up bounty card is the current bounty.
B. Place the bounty tracker token on the topmost space of the current bounty's bounty track.
C. Place the bounty standee on the current bounty's featured landmark (see the bounty card for its location; the example shown is "The Shale Flats").

4. Build the encounter decks.

A. Separate out all Thyrria, Port Ambition, and Mycoid Verge encounter cards and shuffle each separately to form each world's encounter decks.
B. Place each encounter deck face down in the slot beside its appropriate tray. For example, the Thyrria encounter deck should consist only of cards with "T" reference codes and should be shuffled and placed face down beside Thyrria.

Encounter reference codes

Each encounter card has an alphanumeric code that indicates where that card belongs during setup and often links to other components.

"T" - Thyrria encounter deck
"P" - Port Ambition encounter deck
"M" - Mycoid Verge encounter deck
"R" - Reserve (set aside during this step)

5. Assemble the Reserve

The Reserve is a set of components that are not used during the game unless they are specifically called upon by other components or events in play. This Reserve remains off to the side and should be organized by reference code for easy access.

A. Take all cards and tokens designated for the Reserve and set them aside. Do not shuffle them! Since the Reserve components are called upon by their reference code, they will be easier to find if they are in order.

Reserve components

43 "R" coded encounter cards
48 "C" coded Reserve cards
10 "L" coded Reserve cards
33 "S" coded special tokens

Important: Cards from the Reserve are often shuffled into these encounter decks during play. Before beginning your session, look through each encounter deck and make sure there are no cards that belong in the Reserve (or to other planets).

These special tokens come in various shapes.

6. Place Persona standees.

A. Mount each persona standee on its plastic base and place it at its starting landmark. Each persona card features a patrol path on its bottom edge. Persona standees begin the game at the start of these paths.
- Cartel: Empyriad Slag Trench
- Ebon Eye: Empyriad Seed Vault
- Sanction: Empyriad Strip Mines
B. Reminder - the bounty standee should be at the landmark listed on the current bounty card.

7. Place Scrap tiles.

Place 1 tile at each Scrapyard location on the game board, except for the Scrapyard on Port Ambition.

8. Mix all resource cubes together in the resource bag and set the bag aside.

9. Choose a first player.

If you insist we choose for you, the player who traveled the greatest number of light years in the last standard solar day is the first player.

10. Assemble your personal play area.

A. Take a player tray and place it in the center of your personal play area.
B. Choose your character and player color. Forsaken's core game features 6 playable characters. Choose 1 character to play and choose your player color, then collect the following components:
- i. Your character's player board.
- ii. 1 player board base.
- iii. 1 legend tracker, slotted into the first space of your player board's legend loop (which features the Legend icon).
- iv. 1 vitality tracker slotted into the highest available numbered space on your vitality track.
- v. 10 player markers in your color.
- vi. Any components indicated under "starting resources" on the back of your player board. Resource cubes are taken from the bag and must match the type/color indicated.
- vii. Your character's story deck - Take your character's story cards and slot this deck into your player tray. The top card of your story deck should be your "Chapter 1" card face-up.
- viii. Your character's feat deck - Take your character's feat cards and store them tucked into your player tray under the slot labeled "feat deck."
- ix. 1 starter feat - Take one random card marked with an "S" on its back from your feat deck and place it face up in your play area.
- x. Your character's starting gear - Collect the starter gear indicated on the back of your player board and place them all in your hand.
- xi. Your character's starting weapon as indicated on the back of your player board, slotted into your player tray.
- xii. 2 double-sided reference cards.

Note: These setup instructions are for your character's tailored story module. If you wish to use a special class module for a different story arc, see page 28 for special setup instructions.

C. Place your pieces on the board: place your character figure on its starting landmark (as indicated on the back of your player board). Then place the VP tracker in your player color beside the Thyrria board's VP track.

Overview and Objective

Every character has their own reasons for being on this husk of a world, but your goals are the same: to live your lives in such a way that you are never forgotten.

As you progress in your story and accomplish remarkable things, you will accumulate victory points (VP), and the player with the most VP at the end of the game wins. FORSAKEN is a "sandbox" game, meaning that you will have many options and lines of play available that can progress you towards a win.

The game end procedure begins when any one of the conditions below is met. To perform game end procedure, see "End Game and Final Scoring" on page 25.

If any encounter deck is entirely emptied.
If a player reaches the end of their personal story line (see "Your Story Module" below).
If a player's VP tracker reaches the VP threshold. Choose your group's preferred game length:
- Standard game (recommended): the threshold is 15 VP. Some (but not all) players that focus on their personal story lines are likely to have an opportunity to reach the conclusions of those stories at this game length. However, it is possible for the game to end without anyone reaching their story's conclusion.
- Short game: the threshold is 12 VP. It is unlikely that any players will reach the conclusion of their personal story lines at this game length.
- Legendary game: the threshold is 18 VP. One or more players will almost certainly reach their story's conclusion before the threshold is reached.

Forsaken is an enormous game with a bazillion moving parts. If you dive right in, you might feel like you were just dropped on a strip-mined planet and left for dead. If you'd like guidance, we suggest you scan this QR code and follow our scripted tutorial.

Core Concepts

This rulebook lays out a foundation of base systems first, and then tells you how to play. If you would prefer to learn the other way around, skip to page 15 and then refer back to the Core Concepts section when you feel like you're missing context!

Your Story Module

During setup, you choose either your character's tailored story module or a custom class module (see page 28). This module represents a set of branching narrative paths, each fitted with matching objectives and encounter guide passages that come together to tell your story.

Your story always begins on Chapter 1, and you will always begin the game with a starter ("S") feat card. Feat cards represent the tasks you must complete in order to advance your personal story line, and completing them is also an effective way to gain VP.

The bottom of each story card features a section that tells you what you need to do to advance your story. This will typically be to complete all of the tasks on your current feats. When the story card's conditions are met, it will refer you to a section in the encounter guide called your vignette - a cut scene that describes the results of your efforts and instructs you how to set up your next chapter.

Some vignettes feature a set of choices for how you proceed in your story. This choice will take you down a different narrative branch, which will result in a different spread of story and feat cards (and impact the world around you in different ways).

Example vignette: Z4 - The X-93 Pod

When the encounter guide instructs you to proceed to a story card, it will indicate that card's alphanumeric code. Take the following steps:

Archive all completed story and feat cards from your last chapter. (To archive a component, set it aside and remove it from the game.)
Pull your next story card as instructed by your vignette and place it face up in its slot on your player tray.
Pull the feat cards indicated on your new story card from your feat deck and place them face up beside your player tray as your active feats.
When a story card features an "S" feat, shuffle all of your as yet unused "S" feat cards together and randomly draw 1. Any other letter-coded feats are unique.
On a turn where you have read your vignette, you cannot have any further encounters. (For more on encounters, see: Encounter Step.)

Example feat: Acquire Splicer Hardware (Chapter 2a, Feat S/A)

For example (using the images in this section), Mandorax completes the feat in his play area, allowing him to score 2 VP. This fulfills the condition on the bottom of his Chapter 1 story card, and he immediately reads the indicated vignette entry, "Z4" in the encounter guide. The outcome of that vignette instructs Mandorax to proceed to story card "MX-2" which is his Chapter 2a card titled "Acquire Splicer Hardware." He returns his completed feat and Chapter 1 story card to their decks, then pulls the cards labeled "S" and "A" from his feat deck. The "S" feat is chosen at random from among the "S" feats he has not yet completed.

Completing a feat earns 2 VP, which can put you well on your way to victory, but remember that Forsaken is a sandbox game! Your personal story is not mandatory for play, and it is possible to win without focusing on it!

Vitality, Damage, and Defeat

Your character's vitality track represents their physical well-being. Your vitality tracker begins at your maximum vitality value. When an enemy or event causes you to take damage, your vitality tracker moves downward. Inversely, if an effect allows you to heal damage, your vitality tracker moves upward as you recover lost vitality.

If your vitality tracker drops to 0 or below, you are defeated and must immediately draw and resolve a defeat card. Then, shuffle the drawn defeat card back into its deck. The cards in the defeat deck have a variety of outcomes, but most will interrupt your turn!

For example, the "Injury" defeat card appears 3 times in the deck, and will cause you to set your vitality to 1 and move to the Clinic. This also results in the loss of any fights in which you were involved, and causes you to lose any remaining actions on your turn.

Injury defeat card:

If you drew this during a fight, you lose that fight.
Lose all remaining actions.
Set your vitality to 1.
Move to the Clinic.

Shuffle this back into its deck.

Being defeated can be a setback, but you are never eliminated from the game. In fact, some defeat cards can even be favorable depending on their timing!

Fungalyte

Fungalyte is an infectious organism that originated during the Mycoid Verge's terraforming process. If an encounter or special effect causes you to gain fungalyte, take a fungalyte token and place it in the highest slot on your vitality track. This permanently reduces your maximum vitality. If your vitality tracker is currently at its maximum, the fungalyte now occupies that space and pushes your vitality tracker down to its next highest value.

Note: Fungalyte will only physically fit into the green-tinted spaces on your vitality track. If all appropriately-shaped spaces on your track are occupied by fungalyte tokens, you can no longer gain fungalyte.

Boosts, Visions, and Transponders

These tokens represent different objects or concepts you can acquire during play and exchange for special effects at a time of your choosing. When gained, these tokens are stored in the appropriately-shaped slot on your player tray, and returned to the supply when spent.

Token	How to use	How to acquire
Boost	As a free action, spend 1 boost to move 2. Activates the Sanction persona's special bonus.	Gain 1 boost each time you rest. Connecting with the Sanction persona.
Vision	Used commonly by encounters and feats to unlock additional options. Activates the Ebon Eye persona's special bonus.	Connecting with the Ebon Eye persona.
Transponder	Required to interact with the Ruins location. Interacting with the Ruins always yields 2 legend, plus another unknown reward.	Transponders are not usually available in any clear or repeatable way! Search the world around you for these rare tokens.

Note: Encounters and special effects (e.g., from gear cards) will often yield these tokens as rewards.

Gear and Weapons

You begin the game with at least 2 gear cards and 1 weapon card. During play, you can acquire additional gear and weapons (and other types of cards) which make you more powerful and more effective at pursuing your goals.

Gear cards remain hidden in your hand until they are played. Each gear card features the following:

A name (e.g., Omni-Kit)
A type, and sometimes a subtype (e.g., "Starter Gear")
An illustration
A timing window, which tells you when you may play the gear card (e.g., "Before you roll" on the Omni-Kit means it can be played just before you roll dice).
An effect, which tells you what the gear card does when played (e.g., "Roll +1 die" on the Omni-Kit means that it allows you to roll extra dice during a challenge).

Gear cards from the asset deck feature a cost, which indicates the total value of resources required to buy that gear. (For more, see: Resources and Buying on page 21.)

Once played, a gear card is placed in your discard pile and cannot be used again until it is recovered. Gear is most commonly recovered by beginning your turn adjacent to a Pylon.

Important: A gear limit of 5 cards applies at all times, between your hand and discard pile. If you would ever gain a gear card in excess of 5, you must immediately archive (permanently lose) gear until you have only 5 cards.

While gear gives you special abilities and flexibility that apply to a variety of situations, your weapons determine your power in combat. For more, see: "Combat" and "Dice and the Dice Tower".

Your weapons are slotted into your player board, with your starter weapon considered your equipped weapon. Each time you acquire a new weapon card, you may rearrange your weapon cards and choose a single weapon to equip. Your other weapon cards serve as mods, which add icon-based bonuses in combat.

Your equipped weapon determines the base number of dice you roll during combat and also your special weapon ability. Meanwhile, weapon mods are flipped and tucked under your equipped weapon in a spread, and their icons add on to your combat values in different ways. For more, see: Iconography.

Weapon cards feature the following:

i. A name (e.g., Pulse Rifle).
ii. A type, and sometimes a subtype (e.g., Weapon - Asset).
iii. A base dice value, which determines the base number of dice you roll in combat while the weapon card is equipped.
iv. An ability, which applies in every fight while the weapon card is equipped.
v. A mod type icon (if any). You cannot have more than 1 mod attached to your equipped weapon of each of the 4 different mod types.
vi. A mod effect. These mod effect icons cumulatively apply their bonuses in combat.
vii. A cost icon (appearing only on assets).

Player Boards, Character, and Legend

Your player board includes the following features that are unique to your character:

A talent, printed beside your character illustration. This talent is a special ability that is always available to you. It is possible to gain additional talents during play. These are placed in the space beside your player board.
A legend loop: a circular series of spaces around your character illustration that often feature special effects printed beside them. While every character's legend loop begins with a Legend space, the rest of your loop is unique to you.
A vitality track (see: "Vitality, Damage, and Defeat" pages 9-10). Each character has their own maximum health, and a maximum number of spaces on their vitality track that can host fungalyte tokens.

Your character will also determine your starting location and resources, and your class module options.

Legend is a reward that you will receive during play whenever you leave a mark on the world around you. When you gain legend, advance your legend tracker clockwise on your legend loop that many spaces, and gain all bonuses on the spaces you land on or pass over. Each time you complete a lap around the loop, you will earn VP.

While there are typically no easily-repeatable ways to gain legend, you will often gain it as a reward for making bold choices during encounters. Other sources of legend may emerge during play as stories take shape!

The Dice Tower

Challenges in Forsaken - both combat and noncombat - are typically resolved through the use of the dice tower.

When dice are thrown into the tower, they will spill out across the landing area's different zones. The zone that a die comes to rest in will determine its output in strength (strength icon) and/or damage (damage icon).

Example (see next page): die A has come to rest in the zone with a strength icon. Its strength value is 1, and since its zone has no damage icon, it has no damage value. Note that redundant icons in a zone do not count twice!

Die B is a critical result (crit), meaning that its strength and damage values are doubled. This die is worth a total of strength 4.

The total value of all blue dice rolled is strength 8 and damage 2.

Note: White dice and blue dice are identical. They are only colored differently so that they can be identified when rolled in combat or other simultaneous rolls. Yellow "advanced" dice are only rolled by non-player enemies late in the game - see: Combat (page 24).

Dice tower diagram key

I. Landing area
II. Zones
III. Strength and damage value icons
IV. Critical (crit) result
V. Blank result

The meaning of strength and damage are determined by the challenge that called for the dice roll. In general, strength measures the success of your roll, while damage has a separate effect.

To resolve combat, roll the number of dice showing on your equipped weapon. Your opponent will simultaneously roll their dice (in a different color, so they can be differentiated in the landing area). The damage showing on your dice are dealt to your opponent, and the surviving combatant with the highest strength wins the fight. For more in-depth information on combat, see: Combat (page 25).
For non-combat challenges (like scrounging for resources at a scrapyard), only your dice are rolled. The number of dice rolled is determined by the challenge itself. For example, scrounging at a scrapyard allows you to roll 2 dice (as shown on the scrap tile).
- The challenge will indicate the meaning of the total strength you roll. For example, while scrounging at a scrapyard, the value of your roll is the number of resources you draw from the bag.
- Unlike in combat, you take all damage shown on your dice. This represents the many hazards that abound on Thyrria and its moons!

Many gear, weapon, and talent effects can manipulate dice results - either before or after you roll. To ensure the best odds, make sure to acquire weapons early and don't let your gear sit too long in your discard pile!

An effect that allows you to Shift will allow you to move any die in the tray from its current zone to an adjacent one (below, above, or beside it). The facing on a shifted die is not changed.
An effect that allows you to Reroll a die will allow you to take it from any zone and roll it in the tower again. Other dice are not touched, but their zone or facing may be changed if a rerolled dice strikes them!

Status, Infamy, and Faction Grudges

Infamy and Faction Grudges are two of the many status cards that appear in the game. Players acquire status cards only when a game component or effect instructs them to, and they are placed beside their player Trayz.

Infamy can be gained by making nefarious choices during play, but you cannot exceed your limit of 4 infamy cards. If you would gain infamy beyond your limit, you instead gain 1 legend. However, if another player defeats you in a fight, that player gains 1 legend for each of your infamy, then you lose all but 1 of your infamy (returning them to the supply).

Infamy status card: Limit 4. Gain 1 legend if you would exceed your infamy limit by 1 or more. Another player gains legend equal to your infamy after they win a fight against you. Then lose all but 1 of your infamy.

Faction Grudges (found on the back side of Infamy cards) are gained only through specific events and are inserted into your job slots. They will hinder you from taking work or associating with their faction, but can be removed if you pay the faction off.

Encounter Summary

During your encounter step (see: pages 22-23), you may have an encounter. To resolve an encounter, you will draw and read the top card of your current planet's encounter deck. These encounters come in several different types.

Example outcome boxes: "Bow Before Jagga Rawk" (1), "Get an Autograph" (2), "Offer a Record Deal" (3).

A set of boxes like this on an encounter card indicates that the encounter has multiple possible outcomes. Whether you choose that outcome or it is the result of a challenge, the number below the outcome box indicates the outcome that another player will read to you from the encounter guide.

To find the correct entry in the encounter guide, you will need to look it up by the encounter's alphanumeric reference code in its top left corner. For example, this code would direct you to entry 15A in the "T" section of the encounter guide ("T" for "Thyrria").

Some entries in the encounter guide (like vignettes and other special cases in the "Z" section) are not keyed to specific encounter cards. In these cases, the entirety of the encounter text - and often its outcome options - are mounted in the encounter guide.

How to Play

Beginning with the first player and proceeding clockwise in order, players take turns and continue until one of the game end conditions is met (see: "Overview and Objective" on page 8).

Your turn consists of 2 steps:

The Action Step: when you spend your actions exploring and interacting with the world around you.
The Encounter Step: when you resolve an encounter (if one is available to you).

After your Encounter Step ends, play continues to the next player in clockwise order.

The Action Step

During your Action Step, you will take 3 actions. However, before you begin spending those actions, you may be able to recover your gear at a Pylon.

If you are in a space adjacent to a Pylon at the start of your Action Step, you may recover all gear from your discard pile and return it to your hand. (See: Gear and Weapons, page 11.) Make sure to stop at Pylons frequently to maximize your efficiency!

The actions available to you during your action step may change depending on the locations and features adjacent to your character. However, some actions are always available.

You may take any combination of the actions noted below any number of times (with the exception of the Rest action, which consumes all of your remaining actions). Actions include:

Move - allows you to move your character around the map.
Connect - allows you to make contact with the Factions and accept jobs.
Interact - allows you to use the abilities of adjacent locations.
Rest - consumes all remaining actions to heal some of your vitality and gain a boost.
Summon Transport - allows you to pay a resource to travel to the Transport Hub.
Confront a Bounty - allows you to fight the current bounty for rewards.
Special Actions - appear on various components and allow you to take the actions as printed.

Free actions are only available through components that allow for them (like gear), and do not require you to actually spend an action to gain the indicated effect. You may take as many free actions as you like during your action step, but only during a time when you could take an action normally. This means you cannot take a free action in the middle of a die roll or after you spent all 3 of your actions on your turn.

Actions Summary

Move: Move your character's figure up to 2 spaces (see below for more on how movement works).

Navigating the Worlds Around You

The events in Forsaken take place on a planet called Thyrria and its 2 terraformed moons: Port Ambition and the Mycoid Verge. While these worlds are technically a planet and 2 moons, they are commonly referred to as "planets" in game text. Empyriad stellar cartographers classify terraformed bodies as planets despite the classical differences.

These worlds bear the following features that are important to understand during play.

Spaces. Your character figure rests and moves among spaces, which are separated by borders. A single move action allows you to cross up to 2 borders. Spaces separated by a single border are considered adjacent to one another.
Elevation. Some sections of the board are elevated on different levels due to how they are mounted in the Trayz. Spaces separated by a difference in elevation are still considered adjacent, and that border can be traversed as usual.
Planet border. The planet border is a special border. It cannot be crossed.
Encounter nodes can be found on borders, and are considered to touch each of the spaces separated by that border. These represent places where encounter cards can resolve, and their color indicates their type: outland (red) or settlement (blue).
Landmarks indicate important features on each planet. While these have no specific impact on the game, many game elements (like jobs and personas) will refer to them. Note: red landmark icons are found on Thyrria, blue are found on Port Ambition, and green are found on the Mycoid Verge.
Transmaterial portals are graphic features on the map that represent locations where old Empyriad installments allow for instantaneous travel. A board space touching a transmaterial portal is considered adjacent to the space touching the matching transmaterial portal.
Special Tokens can be placed on the board during play by a variety of effects. These will add to, modify, or replace the elements printed on the map. Their effects are stated when they are called into the game, and summarized on the token itself.

Other Actions

Rest: Heal 2 damage and gain 1 boost. However, taking a rest action will consume all of your remaining actions (and cause you to proceed immediately to your Encounter Step).
Summon Transport: Take this action only if your character is at a landmark. Pay 1 resource to move your character to the landing pad space adjacent to the Transport Hub location on Thyrria.
Special Action: Special actions appear on game components. They produce the effect printed on that component. These special actions most commonly appear on gear, but can appear on other elements (like events, special tokens, and feats).
Confront a Bounty: Take this action only if your character is in the same space as the bounty standee. Initiate a fight against the current bounty. A bounty's combat stats are outlined on its card.
- If you win a fight against a bounty, gain all rewards along the bounty's left edge that the bounty tracker has reached or passed. Archive that bounty, reset its tracker, and reveal the next card in the bounty deck, and move the bounty standee to the landmark shown on the new bounty.
- If you lose a fight against a bounty, advance the bounty tracker.

The bounty tracker and escaped bounties

Certain effects and events (including losing to the bounty in a fight) will cause the bounty tracker to advance. When this happens, move the bounty tracker from its current space on the bounty card down to the next space in order. The farther this tracker is down its track, the more rewards the bounty will yield when defeated.

If the tracker ever reaches the bottom space of its track, the bounty will escape. Read and resolve the indicated encounter entry, then reset the tracker and replace the bounty with the next card in the bounty deck.

Connect

Take this action only if your character is in the same space as a faction persona standee. To connect with a faction, take the following steps in any order:

Take a job

Draw the top card of the job deck, and either keep it or place it on the bottom of the job deck.
If you did not keep it, draw another card from the job deck. You must keep the second job you draw.
When you keep a job, place that job card into the appropriate slot at the bottom edge of your player tray. Each faction has its own reserved slot on your tray. When you take a job, place it in the same slot as the faction with whom you connected.
If you already have a job in a faction's slot when you keep a new job, you may choose to keep the job you already have or replace it with the new one.

Gain a persona bonus

Refer to the faction tray to find the persona that matches the faction you connected with. That persona will feature 2 options - choose and gain 1 of those bonuses:
- Its main bonus, shown in the top half of its text box. Each persona in a faction shares the same main bonus: Cartel will allow you to scrounge 2, Ebon Eye allows you to gain 1 vision, and Sanction allows you to gain 1 boost.
- Its special bonus, shown below the main bonus. Each persona has a unique special bonus, but the costs are the same per faction: Cartel always costs a particle resource, Ebon Eye always costs 1 vision, and Sanction always costs 2 boosts. You cannot gain a persona's special bonus unless you pay its indicated cost, and you cannot pay the cost more than once to gain the bonus multiple times.

Move the persona standee

The bottom of each persona card features a patrol path that consists of a series of 3 landmarks. Move the persona standee to the next landmark in that series.
- If the persona is already on the rightmost landmark on its patrol path, begin the patrol again starting with the leftmost landmark in the series.

Factions

After the Empyriad left the system for dead, new factions rose to fill the power vacuum. Each of these 3 factions have great influence, and allying yourself with them can yield great rewards.

The factions

The Mezmora Cartel is a network of smugglers and traffickers based on Port Ambition. Their greatest asset is their access to space travel, which they guard closely. The Cartel is known for their love of cybernetic augmentations (augs) and their passion for profit above all else.
Sanction is a faction formed from ex-Empyriad enforcers, and resort to extreme violence to maintain what order they can on Thyrria. While their numbers are too few to keep every element and natural force at bay, their vigil over Tranquility Settlement provides some measure of protection... at a price.
The Ebon Eye is a bizarre faction of seers originally engineered by the Empyriad for risk assessment. Once abandoned, the seers enraptured The Mycoid Verge with their foresights. The Ebon Eye is best known for its reverence of the fungalyte, and for their assassins that keep fate on its prescribed path.
The Empyriad is not an active faction. They were once the dominant force in the system, employing a workforce 200,000 souls strong in the centuries-long process of extracting every resource of value from Thyrria. Then, just 10 standard cycles ago, the Empyriad determined that its operations in the system were no longer cost effective, and they abruptly departed the system. In their wake, they left their nonessential personnel and equipment stranded on these dying worlds.

Jobs and Reputation

By using the connect action to contact a faction through its persona standee, you can gain bonuses and accept jobs to work for the factions. (See: Connect, page 18.)

Each job card features a specific condition and 1 or more places (landmarks, locations, etc). By meeting the condition on the card as printed at the place indicated, you complete the job and gain its rewards.

For example, the job pictured (Clever Diversion, Job - Crisis, Port Ambition) wants you to take a special action at the Lux Luminara landmark and pay 2 boosts. Other jobs may want you to visit a set of places during a single turn, or take a special action to fight an enemy at a specified location.

Unless otherwise printed on the job card, the reward for completing the job is to immediately gain 1 legend and 2 rep (reputation) with that faction. You will know which faction asked you to do the job by its slot on your player tray. Special jobs that are not slotted into your player tray do not grant these base rewards.

To gain rep, take rep tokens from that faction and insert them into your player tray in the space beside that faction's job slot. You may hold no more than 5 rep with each faction at any given time.

Taking an interact action at a faction's headquarters (HQ) allows you to spend 2 rep in that faction to gain 1 VP and gain a faction spoils - a powerful gear, weapon, or talent card! For more, see: Interact - Faction HQ.

Actions Summary (cont.)

Interact: Take this action only if your character is adjacent to a location. Each different location has its own unique ability. When you interact with a location, take that ability as outlined below.

Note: While Pylons are locations, their ability is special. You cannot interact with a Pylon.

Note: The Clinic is the only location that does not rest on a border. You can interact with the Clinic if you are in its space.

Location	Ability
Clinic	Heal all damage.
Transport Hub	Pay 1 to move to any landmark on any planet.
Faction HQ	Pay 2 rep in this faction to gain 1 VP and gain 1 faction spoils. To gain faction spoils, look at the top 2 cards of that faction's spoils deck, place 1 on the bottom of that deck, and keep the other.
Bazaar	Buy any number of gear and/or weapons from the asset queue.
Scrapyard	See the steps below.
Black Market	Buy any number of gear from the asset queue. Your particle resources are worth +1.
Armory	Buy any number of weapons from the asset queue. Your particle resources are worth +1.

Scrapyard. You cannot interact with a Scrapyard unless a scrap tile is at that location. At any given time, 3 of the 4 Scrapyards will have a scrap tile. Take the following steps in order:

Roll 2 dice and take all damage as normal.
Scrounge resources from the bag equal to the total strength from your dice (even if you were defeated by the damage you took).
Pick up the scrap tile from this Scrapyard and place it at the Scrapyard that did not have a scrap tile.

Cantina. Gamble! Take the following steps in order:

Pay 3. Particle resources are worth +1.
Roll 2 dice against 3 dice from the house.
Take all damage showing from the house's dice. The Cantina is a rough establishment!
If your dice show more strength than the house's, you win! The house wins ties.
If you win, gain 1 legend and buy 1 card from the asset queue at no cost.

Note: You may use cards and abilities to manipulate your dice as usual during this roll. Cheaters prosper!

Resources and Buying Assets

Scrap and unsequenced particles are the currency of choice on Thyrria and its moons. When you gather these resources from locations like the Scrapyards - or stumble across them out in the wild through encounters - you can later trade them for powerful upgrades.

When a game effect instructs you to scrounge, you will draw resources from the bag in some way. A flat number beside the keyword (e.g., scrounge 2) means you draw that many resource cubes at random from the resource bag. Meanwhile, a dice value (e.g., scrounge with a dice icon) means that you will roll the indicated number of dice and gain resources based on your roll (see: the Dice Tower, pages 12-13). Resources you acquire are stored on your player tray, which has room for up to 8 resources. If you ever acquire resources in excess of 8, choose and return resources from your tray to the bag until you have 8.

By interacting with certain locations (like the Bazaar, Black Market, Armory, or Uplink), you can buy cards from the asset queue. The cost of each card is indicated by the value in its cost frame (a hexagonal cost icon). These resources are paid from your tray and shuffled back into the bag.

Unless otherwise stated on an effect (like at the Black Market), particle (yellow) resources have a value of 2. If you overpay (like spending a particle resource on something that only costs 1), you do not receive change from the bag. Scrap (grey) counts as 1.

Any gear cards you buy are added to your hand.
Any weapon cards you buy allow you to rearrange your weapon stack and set the new card as your equipped weapon or a mod.
Any DATA cards you buy allow you to immediately gain their effect, then archive the card.

Encounter Cards

Encounter cards describe the strange adventures you have on your journey. These cards can have many different features, and may resolve differently depending on their layout.

Some encounters are tailored to your character. In this case, the entire encounter will be mounted in the encounter guide. Look up your character's section, then find and resolve the numbered entry shown at the bottom of this card. For example, "Grash 3" if you are Grash.
Resolve the half of the encounter matching your node - settlement or outland. Encounters with both the settlement and outland icons resolve the same regardless of what type of node triggered the encounter.
Similar to special actions, special encounters are defined by components (including whether or not they are mandatory).

Once an encounter has fully resolved, it is archived immediately unless the encounter card or guide entry say otherwise.

Finally, refill any empty spaces in the asset queue with new draws from the asset deck. Then your turn ends and play passes clockwise to the next player in order.

Note: Certain events, like resolving your personal story line's vignette, may cause you to skip your Encounter Step entirely!

The Encounter Step

After you have taken your 3 actions, your Action Step ends and your turn proceeds to the Encounter Step.

Each turn, you may have an encounter. Some encounters are optional, while others are mandatory. Possible encounters include:

If you are adjacent to a settlement encounter node icon, you must draw the top card of your planet's encounter deck and resolve its settlement encounter (marked by this same icon).
Outland encounter nodes function identically to their settlement counterparts, with the difference being that you resolve the portion of the drawn encounter card marked by the outland encounter icon. Also, outland encounters tend to be slightly higher risk and higher reward than settlement encounters.

If you share a space with another character, you may optionally choose to instead encounter that player (even if there is a settlement or outland encounter node adjacent to your space). When you encounter a player, you initiate combat with them (see: Combat).

Important: You cannot encounter a rival player while at the Clinic. It is the one safe place in this blasted world.

Note: There is no innate reward for defeating another player in a fight. However, game elements (like "Infamy," see page 14) can have a way of coming together to drive players into conflict.

Plain text in boxes like these are effects that resolve as printed. Italicized text that is not surrounded by a frame is flavor text. Read this aloud when you encounter the card so the other players know what is happening!

Encounters that feature a set of narrative choices will ask you to make a selection. Once you have made your selection, the appropriate entry in the encounter guide will be read to describe the outcome. A fight icon beside an option will indicate the potential for a fight, and an exclamation icon indicates some unknown risk or challenge.
A yellow-framed encounter that features a COMBAT BAR represents an enemy that you must fight. The combat bar includes the following combat stats:
- The dice it rolls.
- Its overwhelm target (see: Combat).
- A printed special ability.
- A set of encounter guide sub-entries. Refer to the encounter guide and resolve the appropriately-numbered entry to match the outcome of the fight (whether you win, win with overwhelm, or lose).
- Other encounters and components may feature combat bars, but those components will describe when and if the fight is necessary.
Some encounters feature an optional effect that you can only gain by spending visions. This effect will often alter the way the encounter resolves in some way.
Choices featuring the cost icon require you to pay the indicated component to access that outcome!
As part of their effects, some encounters will instruct you to move the card to a zone called the Event Row beside the game board. Cards with "Event" boxes will alter the rules or context of the game in some way for as long as they remain on the event row.
"Finale" boxes are similar to Event boxes, with the key difference that they only apply at the end of the game - usually allowing for additional VP scoring opportunities.

Combat

A fight occurs under the following conditions:

An encounter card or entry indicates a fight.
You choose to encounter a rival player.
An action (like Confront a Bounty) or an Elimination job's special action initiates a fight.

Once a fight is initiated, resolve the following steps in order:

PLAY EFFECTS: This is the time to play any "before you roll" effects (e.g., Omni-Kit).
GATHER DICE: Each side collects their dice and prepares to roll them. A player cannot roll more than 6 dice.
- The active player always rolls the white dice, and the opposing encounter or player rolls the blue dice. They are the same: their color only serves to tell them apart after the simultaneous roll!
- Players' base number of dice are determined by their equipped weapon, but may include more from effects like weapon mods, talents, gear, etc.
- Non-player combatants' (like enemies in encounters) dice are determined by their component or entry.
  - Non-player combatants will roll yellow advanced dice against you as long as you have 6 VP or more. For each overwhelm icon your VP tracker has reached or passed, all non-player enemies roll 1 advanced die in addition to their normal dice (and can even cause their total dice to exceed the normal limit of 6).
  - Advanced dice feature extra critical faces, and also a purge (X) face. ALL other dice that share a zone with an X result are removed immediately.
ROLL DICE: Simultaneously roll your dice and your opponent's dice into the dice tower.
PLAY EFFECTS: This is the time to play any "after you roll" effects.
APPLY MODIFIERS: Make sure to count all extra modifiers from things like weapon mods. Some non-player combatants will have card text that provides additional modifiers beyond their dice.
DEAL DAMAGE: Combatants simultaneously deal the damage shown on their dice to their opponents.

Remember: Strength is the value that determines who wins the fight... but damage can earn extra rewards or even end the fight before strength is compared!

Player vs. Player (PvP) Gear Timing: During "Play Effects" windows in PvP combat, the active player begins with an opportunity to play 1 gear card or to pass, then passes priority to the opponent to do the same. This repeats until both players pass consecutively.

Overwhelming an Enemy

Non-player enemies almost always feature an overwhelm target value. If you deal enough damage to them during the fight to meet or exceed their overwhelm target and you win the fight, you will be rewarded with a better outcome than you would have gotten had you just won the fight without overwhelming the enemy. These extra rewards are outlined on the enemy's component or entry.

Game End and Final Scoring

The game end procedure begins when a player triggers one of the following game end conditions during their turn: the VP threshold (15 VP for a normal game) is reached, the last encounter in a deck is resolved, or they complete their personal story line by satisfying all objectives printed on their Chapter 3 story card. When this occurs, take the following steps in order:

FINISH PLAY: Finish the current turn, then each other player takes 1 final turn.
RESOLVE "FINALE" EFFECTS: Check the event row for components, and apply any effects as shown in their teal "Finale" boxes.
SCORE MISCELLANEOUS SOURCES: Check your play area for components that feature end-of-game effects and resolve those as printed.
END GAME RESOLUTION: Open the encounter guide to the "End Game Resolution" section and check the list for all conditions met by the end game state. These conditions can include characters that have completed their personal story lines, as well as finale effects currently in the event row.

For each condition that is met, read its corresponding End Game Resolution story entry. These entries will describe the impact of players' actions over the decades and centuries to come!

Finally, the player with the most VP wins. If 2 or more players are tied for the most VP, the tied player that has amassed the highest total quantity of cool stuff wins. These components include talent and status cards, gear, weapons and mods, resources, rep, visions, transponders, and boosts.

If there is still a tie, the victory is shared.

The Golden Rules

If 2 or more effects would appear to occur at the exact same time, the active player chooses the order in which they resolve.
Effects that say "cannot" supersede other effects.
Effects printed on components and the encounter guide supersede the rules in this manual.

Solo Mode

When playing Forsaken with a single player, the rules in this section add to or overwrite the other rules in this manual.

Solo Setup

CHOOSE YOUR RIVAL: Choose one of the rival cards and place it face up beside the game board. The yellow pips along the rival's left edge indicate its relative difficulty (with 1 pip being the easiest and 6 pips being the most difficult). Do not choose your own character as your rival, because that would be really creepy.
BUILD THE PLOT DECK: Refer to your rival card's "Setup" section and build the plot deck using the indicated lettered plot cards. Shuffle these cards together and place them face down in a deck beside your rival.
SPECIAL SETUP: Follow any additional instructions in your rival's "Setup" section.
Place any 1 unused VP tracker near Thyrria to track the rival's score.

Solo Overview and Objective

The rival and plot deck will produce a series of effects that impact the game, advance the rival's VP tracker, and present you with additional challenges.

Forsaken's solo mode ends under the same conditions as normal (see: page 8), and you will still win if you have the most victory points (VP). However, you lose the game if either of the following happen:

If you ever must draw and resolve a card from the plot deck, but the deck is empty.
If you resolve a fifth plot card without resetting the plot deck.

Solo Gameplay

After you finish each of your turns, the rival will take their turn. Take the following steps in order:

RESOLVE A PLOT CARD: Draw the top card of the plot deck and lay it out onto the plot row beside the deck. The number of cards in this row is important, so leave them splayed out for easy counting.
- If the plot deck is empty and you cannot perform this step, you lose the game. If you reset the plot deck too many times, you can run out of cards! Try to wait as long as possible to reset the deck.
- If this is the first card in the plot row, its objective (along its top edge) becomes the active plot objective. Completing this objective allows you to reset the deck - see below.
- Follow the instructions in the plot card's current action line and resolve its effects from left to right. The rival gains any VP showing in that action line. Action lines are resolved in progressive order according to the number of cards in the plot row. For example, if two other cards are already in the plot row and you draw and resolve a third, then you would resolve the new card's third action line.
- Important: action lines become progressively more powerful. The fifth line on every plot card causes you to lose the game!
CLEANUP: Refill the asset queue as normal (unless the plot card tells you otherwise).

Then play proceeds back to you, and continues in this pattern until the game ends.

Plot Objectives and Resetting the Plot Deck

The plot objective on the first card in the plot row is the active objective. Ignore all other objectives in the plot row. If you ever complete the active objective, you must immediately archive the active objective's plot card, then shuffle all remaining plot cards to reset the plot deck.

This is critically important, because if a fifth card is ever added to the plot row, you will lose the game. However, since a plot card is permanently archived every time you complete an objective, timing is also important. You can also lose the game if the plot deck does not have enough cards remaining to draw!

Rival Abilities

The rival card's abilities appear frequently among plot cards' action lines. These represent the special abilities showing on your rival card.

When the ability icon appears in an action line, for example, you should refer to your rival card and perform the matching ability as printed.
Note: ability icons never appear before the third action line!

Example rival ability: "Punish the Corrupt" - Advance the bounty tracker. If the bounty escapes, Grash gains 2 VP.

Reading the Encounter Guide

Since no other players are available to read your encounter guide entries to you, consider using an encounter card to shield your view of each entry and ensure you don't accidentally read any of the outcomes before choosing them.

Class Modules

Forsaken's Class Module system provides an alternate story deck and feat cards that can be used with any character. This will overwrite your character's core story arc (see: page 8). When using a class module, note the instructions on this page.

Class Module Setup

Choose your module: Choose your story module and collect its story and feat cards.
- Each story module's name will appear on the front faces of each of its cards. For example, the story card below shows "Sanction Deputy" in its blue side bar.
Return your character's story cards to the box. Your module's story deck will replace it.
Add your module's feat cards to your character's feat deck. You will use your character's "S" feats as normal, but your module's story will not call on any of your character's other feats ("A" through "F").

Example class module story card: "The Firm Hand of the Law," Chapter 1, Feat S, from the Sanction Deputy class module.

Class Module Gameplay

Class modules work in the same way as your character's basic story (as seen on page 8) with one exception.

Rather than you choosing your branch in your vignettes, the bottom of each story card will direct you to a different vignette depending on your character's class. This class - STRONG, CLEVER, WISE, or FIERCE - can be found on your player board.

For example, Grash is a "Strong" class character. After completing the feat to finish the first chapter of her story module, she would proceed to story entry Z31.

Example class module story card: Complete 1 feat. Then immediately read the entry matching your class icon: Z31 or Z30.

Glossary

ACTION: A unit of opportunity used to progress your character through the play experience. You have 3 actions to spend each turn. See: pages 15-21.
ARCHIVE: The permanent removal of a component from the game session.
ASSET: A deck of gear, weapon, and data cards that fill the asset queue.
ASSET QUEUE: A set of face-up asset cards available to be bought.
BOOST: A token that, among other uses, can be spent to move as a free action. Represented by the boost icon. See: page 10.
BOUNTY: A wanted criminal with a price on their head. The bounty standee indicates the bounty's location on the map, and the current bounty card features its effects. See: page 17.
BUY: The act of paying resources to acquire cards from the asset queue. See: page 21.
CLASS: A character trait: Strong, Wise, Fierce, or Clever. Your class determines the flow of your personal story when you use a class story module.
CONNECT: An action that, when taken in the same space as a faction persona standee, allows you to gain that persona's bonus and gain a job with that faction. See: page 18.
CRITICAL (CRIT): A starred die facing. Indicates that the die's value is doubled.
DAMAGE: A loss of vitality, often inflicted during combat or other dice challenges. Damage against a non-player enemy is typically counted towards an overwhelm target. Represented by the damage icon.

Quick Reference

Quick reference icons

Settlement encounter (slightly less dangerous)
Outland encounter (slightly more dangerous)
Hazard - indicates a possible fight
Boost
Vision
Transponder
Sanction (faction)
The Mezmora Cartel (faction)
The Ebon Eye (faction)
Cost - number indicates resource value
Weapon mod types - max 1 mod attached per type
Strength
Shield - prevents damage
Particle - resource worth 2
Scrap - resource worth 1
Victory point
Reputation - rep tokens (gray means you choose)
Legend - advances your tracker clockwise on your legend track
Dice
Damage/vitality

Locations

Clinic - Gain max vitality.
Transport Hub - Pay 1 to move to any landmark.
Ruins - Pay a transponder to draw 1 Ruins card.
Headquarters - Pay 2 rep with this faction to gain 1 VP, then draw 2 spoils and keep 1.
Scrapyard - If a scrap token is at this location, roll dice and scrounge equal to your strength. Then move the scrap token.
Pay to play - Cantina - Highest strength wins. (You may use your cards as normal to improve the odds.) The house wins ties. Pay 3 (particle worth 3). Reward: buy 1 card at no cost and gain 1 legend.
Buy any number from the queue - Armory (Weapons; particle = +1), Uplink (Data), Bazaar (Gear and Weapons), Black Market (Gear; particle = +1).

Pylon

If you start your turn adjacent to a Pylon, you may return all gear from your discard pile to your hand.

On your turn

Take 3 actions each turn. Actions can include:

Move - Move your character up to 2 spaces.
Interact - Interact with an adjacent location.
Rest - Skip all remaining actions and gain 1 boost and heal 2.
Transport - Pay 1 to move to the Transport Hub's landing pad.
Connect - If a persona standee is in your space: gain that persona's main or special bonus; take a job with that persona's faction; move the persona along its patrol path.
Confront a Bounty - Fight the bounty if it is in your space.
Special Actions - Take a "special action" as shown on a component.
Check for an encounter - After all actions are spent, choose and resolve an adjacent encounter (an encounter node, a rival, or a special).

Combat summary

Gather dice - Your dice are determined by your weapon and any modifiers. Non-player dice are determined by their component or entry. Blue and white dice are identical, and only used to identify ownership after the roll. Non-player enemies will roll extra advanced (yellow) dice while you have 6+ and 11+ VP.
Roll dice - Simultaneously roll all combatants' dice into the tower.
Apply modifiers - Add any modifiers from your play area (like weapon mods).
Deal damage - Combatants simultaneously deal damage shown on their dice to their opponents. Shields prevent damage.
Check for defeat - After damage is applied, draw and resolve a defeat card if your vitality is 0 or less. Defeat cards will often cause you to lose the fight immediately.
Check for victory - The surviving combatant with the highest strength wins the fight. If you win against a non-player enemy and deal damage equal to or greater than their overwhelm target, you will often gain extra rewards.

Note: The quick reference's advanced-dice thresholds (6+ and 11+ VP) differ from the Combat section (page 24), which gives 6 VP and per overwhelm icon reached. Both are transcribed as printed.