Journey in the Underworld Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• To Win
• Game Setup
  • Adventurer Card
  • Encounter Card and Favor of the Gods Card
  • Remaining Decks
• Game Phases
  • 1. Locations
  • 2. Combat
  • 3. Favors of the Gods
• End of the Game
• Journey Index

To Win

You must make your way through nine different locations in Hades, combatting a variety of encountered creatures and, in the final location, fight Thanatos - God of Death, to rescue your beloved.

Game Setup

The 54 game cards divided into separate decks 15-20 six-sided dice 1 eurocube to track your health or one 20-sided die

You may also wish to sacrifice a goat to provide some needed luck, but I will leave that up to your local community's rites and rituals!

Adventurer Card

Place the Adventurer card in front of you, choosing either the Hero or the Heroine as your adventurer and place the eurocube marker on the upper left-most circle representing your beginning with a full 20 health points (HP). If your health ever goes past the red tear you have lost and are dead. (alternately you can track your health with a 20-sided die, beginning on the '20' side, and increasing/decreasing the die value as needed.

The health track path starts at the starting space for health tracking. If your health passes the red tear you have died and your beloved is lost.

You may never heal yourself beyond your initial 20 health points.

The Adventurer card shows the initial number of dice you will roll during combat (4), that you may "hit" on a roll of a 5 or 6, and that additionally any combination of three dice showing a 5 or a 6 is a critical hit and adds +1 to the total damage count. More on this in the Game Phases section of the rules.

Encounter Card and Favor of the Gods Card

Next, place these two cards next to your adventurer. The Encounter and Favor charts are explained in the Game Phases section of the rules.

Remaining Decks

Lastly divide the remaining 4 types of cards into separate decks:

1. The Location Cards show the nine locations in Hades. Each Location Card shows an Encounter Number and the name, and an image, of the location. A number of cards also show a special rule symbol at the bottom. Refer to the Journey Index for a complete glossary of all these special rule symbols.

   The Encounter Number will be used during Combat to determine the number of creatures encountered.

   Separate the Thanatos card from the others Location Cards, shuffle the remaining deck, and place them face down next to you, placing Thanatos on the bottom of the deck face up. At the beginning of each game phase you will turn one card face up and journey to that location to combat the creatures there. Thanatos will be encountered, as well as other creatures, in the final location.

   The Thanatos card shows 8 creature dice, and Thanatos is hit on a roll of 4, 5 or 6.

2. The Resources of the Gods Cards are your initial hand of resources you may draw upon during the game. As you defeat creatures you will gain additional resources. Your three Patron God resources are:

   • The Glory of Zeus
   • The Might of Ares
   • The Wisdom of Athena

   These resources are used in combination to grant you extra dice during combat, heal you, and provide different bonuses you can utilize during your journey. You begin with six double-sided resource cards in your hand and after defeating creatures you gain additional resources which are sometimes mixed on a card. These are also placed in your hand. For each card you discard, you may only use one type of resource on that card. One of the Creature Cards below (the Warrior) shows one Glory of Zeus and two Might of Ares resources on it. If you were to discard that card from your hand you could use it either for the Ares resources or the Zeus resource but not both together from the same card.

3. There are two types Creature Cards in the game. Those with images of creatures in black are used in the Basic Game. Those with images of creatures in red are for the Advanced Game. Divide the creatures into two separate decks (Basic and Advanced), shuffle the Basic Creature Cards and place them face down next to the Location Cards. If you desire to play the Advanced game, shuffle the Advanced Creature Cards into the Basic deck as well. The Advanced Creature Cards provide no Resources of the Gods to aid you in your journey and the creatures are much harder to defeat in combat.

You are now ready to begin your Journey in the Underworld.

Game Phases

During each Game Phase you will do the following:

1. Locations

Turn over the next Location Card and consult the Encounter Number at the top. Count the number of Resource of the Gods and defeated Creature Cards in your hand and cross-reference with the Encounter Card to determine the number of Creatures you will combat in this location. As an example, you have journeyed to the Abyss of Tartarus which has an Encounter Number of 4. You currently have 4 Resources of the Gods Cards and 3 additional defeated Creature Cards in your hand, for a total of 7 cards. Cross-referencing the Encounter Card shows you must encounter 5 Creatures at this location and try to defeat them.

Encounter chart (on the front of the Encounter Card):

Resource and defeated Creature Cards in your hand	Encounter 1	Encounter 2	Encounter 3	Encounter 4
0-3	1	1	1	2
4	1	1	2	2
5	1	2	2	3
6	2	2	3	4
7	2	3	4	5

Consult the bottom of the location card to determine if there are any special rules to apply during combat in this location. Our example location, Tartarus, will not allow you to use any Might of Ares resources during combat.

Turn face up the number of creatures to be encountered at this location and begin Combat.

2. Combat

A. Strike - You will roll your 4 initial combat dice (as well as any additional dice you have gained with resources) separately for each creature as well as rolling their own combat dice as marked on the Creature Card (Their dice also count as their health (HP) in the game. Removing all of their dice defeats them). Each single combat strike is simultaneous. Count up the number of 'hits' you have given to the creature as well as the number they have give to you and consult the Damage Chart on the back of the Encounter Card.

B. Damage - The total number of hits you have made (and each Critical Hit counts as 1 extra in this count) are listed on the right-most column of the chart. The column to the left of this shows the number of dice to remove from that creature's future rolls.

The creature's hit column is on the left of the card and the number of health points (HP) of damage you receive is to the right of this column. Some creature will do additional HP damage if they make a Critical Hit.

All damage is simultaneous during any one Strike.

Damage chart (on the back of the Encounter Card). A blank cell means no entry is printed for that row.

Number of successful hits during the creature's strike	Amount of health point (HP) damage you take	Number of dice to remove from the creature you are striking	Number of successful hits during your combat strike
1-2	1	1	1
3-4	2
5	3	2	2-4
6	4
7+	5	3	5+

C. Result and Strike Again - After you have rolled for your strike and the creature's strike, and distributed any designated damage, proceed to the next creature, repeating a new combat strike round. You will combat each creature in turn this way until you either defeat them all, they defeat you, or you flee. If you are successful in defeating a creature you may immediate take the card into your hand and use any Resources of the Gods on it. Any Sacred Treasures won from individual creatures or the location will be distributed after you have successfully defeated all the creatures at this location.

3. Favors of the Gods

At any point during combat, either before it begins, during a strike, or after a strike, you may discard your Resources of the Gods cards to gain certain combat bonuses as well as use any of your Sacred Treasures. The Favors of the Gods card shows the bonuses you can buy with a discard of resources. Each of these favors can only be used during the current combat, they do not carry over to the next location. For each card you discard, you may only use 1 type of resource on that card. Refer to the Journey Index for all the icons on the Favors of the Gods and Sacred Treasure cards.

Favors printed on the Favors of the Gods card:

• Add one extra die to the total number of player's dice during this entire Combat Phase at a cost of 2 Ares resources. Player may make cumulative purchases for additional dice.
• Re-roll any one die, once per each Combat Strike roll, during this entire Combat Phase at a cost of 2 Zeus resources. Player may make cumulative purchases.
• Player may 'cascade' any single roll of a "6", thereby rolling the die again (each 6 rolled by this die may be rolled again and used as a "hit"), during this entire Combat Phase at a cost of 2 Athena resources. Player may make cumulative purchases.
• Block - Player may disregard all "hits" by a single Encounter Creature after a single Combat Strike roll at a cost of 1 Ares and 1 Athena resource. Player may make cumulative purchases.
• Flee - Player may flee from Combat at this Location at a cost of 1 Ares, 1 Zeus resource, and 1 health point of damage. Player may not receive any further treasure or other bonus at this Location.

End of the Game

If you have successfully journeyed to the ninth and final location card in Hades you will encounter a number of creatures as well as Thanatos, who is on the bottom of the Location Card deck. If you can manage to defeat him during this final combat (it does not matter if you have not yet defeated the other creatures at this location, though you must still battle each creature in series) you win back your Beloved as well as victory in the game.

If you die at any point along your journey, your quest has failed and your Beloved is doomed to spend eternity by the side of Thanatos, God of Death.

Journey Index

The Journey Index is the glossary of all the icons on the location, creature, favor and treasure cards. Icons are described in words below.

• The Might of Ares resource - Fist icon.

• The Glory of Zeus resource - Lightning-bolt icon.

• The Wisdom of Athena resource - Spiral icon.

• Encounter number at this Location - Burst icon bearing the Encounter Number.

• If player prevails in Combat they may draw a Treasure - Treasure icon (orange burst).

• Player may not use any Might of Ares resources during this combat - Ares icon crossed out.

• Player may not use any Wisdom of Athena resources during this combat - Athena icon crossed out.

• Player may not use any Glory of Zeus resources during this combat - Zeus icon crossed out.

• If player prevails in Combat at Acheron they may skip the next Location if they choose to do so - Three empty boxes.

• Any resource may be used as any other resource during Combat in this Location - Three resource icons arranged in a triangle (Ares, Zeus, Athena).