Looting Atlantis Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Set-Up
• How to Loot Atlantis! (Turn Sequence)
• Using Your Ill Gotten Goods (Using Equipment)
• Atlantis is Sinking! (Second Phase of the Game) (We're All Doomed!!!)
• Making Your Getaway (Fleeing Atlantis)
• Equipment Card Explanations
• Special Rules for Two and Three Atlantians
• Goodbye Atlantis, Hello Fame and Fortune (Game End)

Components

Game board: The board features a central area with a volcano and tracks. These are the lava tracks and the four spaces marked with triangles are where the lava starts. The outer edge of the circle features twenty spaces which make up the city of Atlantis. Three of the corners of the board represent other more primitive parts of the world.

4 Air cars: One for each Atlantean.

48 Lava markers

80 Equipment cards: The cards represent the various pieces of advanced technology that the players will be taking from the city of Atlantis. The cards come in six different technologies (suits) and feature scoring information, card abilities and a symbol at the top.

Set-Up

Shuffle the eighty equipment cards and deal out four cards to each of the twenty spaces of the city of Atlantis. Place the cards face-up but fanned out in such a way that the top color bar of each card is visible in the stack. Place the lava markers to the side of the game board. Give each Atlantean an air car and randomly determine a first player. The player to the right of the first player then places their air car on one of the twenty Atlantis city spaces on the board. The player to their right then does the same with the restriction that they can only place their air car in an unoccupied city space. After the first player has placed their air car the game begins.

Equipment Card Set Up Example (figure caption from the booklet; the photograph is not reproduced here)

How to Loot Atlantis! (Turn Sequence)

Each Atlantean does two things on their turn. First, they must place a lava marker on the board. After that, they perform two actions.

• Placing lava markers: The first lava marker must be placed on one of the four lava track spaces that are marked with an orange triangle. Only one lava marker goes on each space and further lava markers must be placed in the next open space(s) on the same lava track, including continuing through city spaces once reached, or used to start a new lava track.

• Taking actions: Each Atlantean may perform two actions after placing a lava marker:

  1. Move: They may move their air car from one space on the city of Atlantis to any other city space as long as that space hasn't been covered with a lava marker. Players may place their air cars in spaces currently occupied by other player(s) air cars.

  2. Claim an equipment card: They may take the top equipment card from the stack on the space where their air car currently rests and place it face-up in front of them along with any other previously claimed cards.

The same action may be performed more than once in a turn, so a player may, for example, choose not to move and claim the top two equipment cards at their current location instead.

Once an Atlantean has placed a lava marker, taken their actions, and optionally used an equipment card, play passes to the Atlantean on their left.

Using Your Ill Gotten Goods (Using Equipment)

Once per turn, an Atlantean may use an ability of one of the equipment cards they have previously claimed. If a card is discarded as part of its effect, it is placed at the bottom of the stack in the space that the Atlantean's air car currently resides. Using an equipment card for its ability does NOT count as an action. Some equipment cards may be played on another player's turn. The one equipment card per turn rule also applies to any players who decide to use such a card.

Atlantis is Sinking! (Second Phase of the Game) (We're All Doomed!!!)

Eventually, a lava marker will be placed on one of the city spaces on the board. When this happens the following rules go into effect:

1. If the space where the lava marker is placed has any remaining equipment cards on it, they are discarded from the game. If there is an Atlantean's air car or air cars on the space, remove them from the board and return them to their owner(s) who sets the air car on its side in front of them with their equipment cards. That space is no longer accessible to players for the remainder of the game. This same rule applies to any further city spaces covered by lava markers for the rest of the game.

2. Each Atlantean now begins taking three actions on their turn instead of two. They may take actions in any order they wish and may take the same action more than once.

3. An Atlantean who has had their air car placed in front of them as the result of being hit by lava must, as the first action on their next turn, stand their air car upright (the time it takes to fix the air car), as their second action they then move their air car to any remaining city space on the board. They may then take any action they wish as their final action for that turn. An Atlantean who starts their turn with their air car off the board due to being hit by lava cannot flee Atlantis on that turn.

Making Your Getaway (Fleeing Atlantis)

At any point in the game an Atlantean whose air car is on the board may opt to skip all of their actions and forego using an equipment card to flee Atlantis. They place their air car on one of the three primitive kingdoms on the corners of the board. The point value of that kingdom will be added to their score at the end of the game. There is only room in each kingdom for one super powerful Atlantean so, once a kingdom is claimed no other Atlantean may go there. An Atlantean in a primitive kingdom still takes the first part of their turn to place lava but does not perform any further actions.

Equipment Card Explanations

Mental Amplifiers (Brown, Rectangle): These cards are worth 7 victory points each. A player that is on the same space as another player may give this card to that player in exchange for any card that the player with the Amplifier wishes. The receiving player must accept the Amplifier and cannot refuse the trade unless they have a Quantum Nullifier they wish to use.

Quantum Nullifier (Green, Pentagon): These cards score as the square of the total number of green cards you have at the end of the game. The chart on the card makes this calculation easier. A green card may be discarded during another player's turn to prevent that player from using a card ability. The active player retains the nullified card and can not use a card ability for the remainder of that turn. Playing a Quantum Nullifier does not count as an equipment card play, thus a player could discard as many Quantum Nullifiers as they wish. You may not nullify another Quantum Nullifier card.

Personal Force Field (Red, Triangle): These cards are worth 25 victory points for every set of three such cards you have rounded down. These cards may be played during another player's turn to change the placement(s) of a lava marker for that player's turn.

Mass Energy Converters (Blue, Donut and Solid Dot): These cards consist of two types, the regular cards with the solid dot icon and the multiplier cards with the donut icon. On their own, the solid dot cards score 5 points each. The first multiplier card (donut) you have makes each solid dot card worth 10 points each. The second multiplier makes each worth 15 points and, the third makes them worth 20 points each. The multiplier cards (donuts) score no points on their own. You may discard a blue card to claim any card at your current location (not just the top one).

Fusion Batteries (Yellow, Plus Sign): These cards score based on the chart on the cards themselves. Note that they tend to be less valuable until you get a large number together, at which point their value goes up rapidly. A player may discard one of these cards to gain two additional actions on that turn.

Unified Field Generators (Blue, Red, Green, Yellow): These cards score 4 points on their own but, go up to 20 if a player has collected one each of all of the other colors except for brown. One set of these cards will allow a player to score all of their Unified Field Generator cards as 20 points instead of 4 (i.e. you do not need one set of the four colors for each UFG card). The player still scores cards of the other collected colors as per the previously described rules. Unlike the other cards, the UFG card has no play ability.

Example of equipment card play. In a four player game it is Diane's turn and she starts by placing a lava marker. Jim decides he wants to use a Personal Force Field to change the placement of her lava marker. As he attempts to do so, Diane decides to discard one of her Quantum Nullifiers to prevent the use of Jim's Force Field. Jim keeps his card and Diane discards the Quantum Nullifier in the space where her air car currently resides. If Jim had another Personal Force Field he could not attempt to play it as that would be violating the one equipment card per turn rule (even though it is not his turn). However, one of the other two players could play one to change Diane's lava placement and Diane could discard another Quantum Nullifier to stop them as Quantum Nullifiers do not count as equipment card plays. She will be forfeiting a number of points to do this, so her lava placement had better be worth it. Neither player decides to play a Personal Force Field so Diane's lava placement stands. She then takes her turn which includes an equipment card play because, again, Quantum Nullifiers do not count as equipment card plays.

Special Rules for Two and Three Atlantians

Two players: Play the game exactly as described above with one change. During each player's turn, they place two lava markers instead of one. Also, only Egypt is available for fleeing.

Three players: Play the game exactly as described above with one change. When the second phase of the game begins, players now place two lava markers at the start of each of their turns instead of one. Also, only Egypt and China are available for fleeing.

Two and Three player rules for Personal Force Field: When used at a point when players are placing two lava markers per turn, a Personal Force Field allows the player who uses it to place both lava markers for the opposing player.

Goodbye Atlantis, Hello Fame and Fortune (Game End)

The game ends when the last Atlantis city space is covered with lava or when all of the equipment cards have been claimed. Each Atlantean then separates their equipment cards by color and tallies the victory point on the cards. Atlanteans who fled Atlantis add the value that appears on that kingdom to their score. For the green, red and yellow equipments you can not score more points than the highest total given on the scoring table for that color. The Atlantean with the most points wins (although all the players have kind of won compared to the other residents of Atlantis).