Maeshowe: an Orkney Saga

Maeshowe: an Orkney Saga Rulebook

Table of Contents

Component List

1x Double-sided game board
36x Core game cards
9x Expansion cards
4x Health tokens (blue)
4x Health tokens (red)
4x Food tokens
7x Passage tokens
1x Jarl token

Setup

(See the "2-Player co-op" section of this rulebook for a 2-player setup.)

Place the game board in front of you with the 1-player side facing up.
Shuffle the 36 core game cards and place them face down as your draw deck. The 9 expansion cards are split into 3 sets (Gluttony/Garner, Crumble/Conservation and Horror/Hope). Those sets can be shuffled into the draw deck to your liking. It is recommended to only use the core game cards for your first game. For future games, it is recommended to use only one of the 3 expansion sets at a time, but it is possible to play several or even all of them at once.
Place four health tokens in the color of your liking on the game board filling up all four spaces of the health track. Four is your maximum health at the start of the game.
Place the food tokens on the game board filling up all four spaces of the food track. Four is your maximum amount of food throughout the game.
Place the passage tokens on the game board, filling up the according spaces from left to right. Depending on your chosen difficulty you will need a different number of passage tokens (3=Easy, 4=Medium, 5=Hard, More than that? Good luck!). Put the rest of the passage tokens back in the box. You never can have more passage tokens on the game board than the amount with which you started the game.
Dedicate some space for the card row.
Dedicate some space for the discard pile.
Draw the top five cards of the draw deck. This is your starting hand of cards.

You are now ready to play.

Game Overview

In real life, it took Harald three days to break out of Maeshowe. You have little more than this before you succumb to weakness, thirst and starvation.

Each turn, you must play one card and discard another card from your hand.
You may choose in which order you discard and play a card.
When you play a card, place it face up in front of you to the right of any previously played cards, making sure that all previously played cards are still visible. This is called the card row and playing a card here is called playing to the row.
When you play a card to the row perform the effect next to the "effect when played to the row" icon (if any).
When you discard a card, place it face up into a separate discard pile.
When you discard a card, perform the effect next to the "effect when discarded" icon (if any). If a card effect forces you to put one or more additional cards into the discard pile from anywhere, do not perform the discard effect of those cards.
You may always play and discard any card from your hand, even if it doesn't have an effect.
After playing and discarding, draw cards from the draw deck to replenish your hand back to five cards. If the draw deck is depleted at this point, you cannot replenish your hand back to five cards.
Now check the rune icons of your hand of cards. If all five cards have the same rune icon in the top corners (red or blue), you go mad (see below). If you have less than five cards in your hand (e.g. because the draw pile is depleted) you cannot go mad.
Whenever you go mad, perform the following steps: Discard your hand of cards. Shuffle the discard pile into the draw deck to form a new draw deck. Draw a new hand of 5 cards. Lose 1 health permanently by putting the rightmost health token from your health track back in the box. Your current health will be reduced by 1. Your maximum health will be reduced by 1 for the rest of the game. Note: Even if all cards drawn have the same rune icon, you do not go mad a second time.

Game End

If you successfully remove all passage tokens from the game board, you instantly win. This is done by playing four Excavate Passage cards in a consecutive row several times.

Harald and Rögnvald have escaped from the tomb alive and their names will live on in the Sagas.

If you are unable to both play and discard a card during your turn or you lose your last health, you lose.

Harald and Rögnvald have failed to exit Maeshowe before they lost their strength. Their bones will join those already there and, one day, confuse archaeologists.

2-Player Co-Op

Place the game board in front of you with the 2-player side facing up.
Set up and shuffle the draw deck as usual. Deal five cards to each player.
Each player chooses a color (red or blue). Place three health tokens each on the game board filling up the spaces 1 to 3 of the health track of the matching color. Your maximum amount of health is four each at the start of the game. Keep the fourth health token nearby.
Place 1 food token on the first space of the shared food track. Your maximum amount of shared food is four throughout the game. Keep the rest of the food tokens nearby.
Place the passage tokens on the game board applying the rules of the general setup. The difficulty level is adjusted to a 2-player game (4=Easy, 5=Medium, 6=Hard, 7=Ridiculous).
Choose one player to be starting player. That player receives the Jarl token.

The gameplay proceeds as described in the single player rules, with each player taking turns to play and discard a card. The following adjustments apply to the 2-player co-op game:

Both players play to the same row but each player has his own discard pile.
If a player is in possession of the Jarl token, they may choose to pass the Jarl token to the other player instead of playing and discarding cards during their turn.
If either player is unable to play and discard a card during their turn or loses their last health, both players lose.

Variants

Solo/2-player co-op variants

Players can opt to use one or more of the following setup rules to alter their game. Each setup rule is associated with a specific expansion set. It is recommended to only use one of the setup alternatives - the one associated with the expansion set used.

After shuffling the draw deck but before drawing your starting hand, put the top 5 cards of the draw deck into the discard pile (Crumble/Conservation).
Start the game with 3 health and 3 food if playing solo and 2 health each and 3 food if playing 2-player co-op (Gluttony/Garner).
Start with 1 more passage token than normal (max. 7) (Hope/Horror).

2-player co-op variant "Fear of the Dark"

In this variant players are not allowed to talk or communicate about the game state or the cards in their hand. They do not use the Jarl token in this variant.

During their turn players may choose to not discard a card but instead pass one of their hand cards to the other player. That player must immediately discard a card from their hand to bring the number of cards in their hand down to 5. The player receiving the card may discard the card just received.

Card Effects

Discover treasure

When played to the row, lose two health. When discarded, lose 1 health.

Passage collapse

When played to the row, lose two health and add 2 passage tokens back onto the game board up to your maximum chosen at the start of the game. When discarded, lose 1 health.

Eat

When played to the row, you may choose to lose any amount of food and gain 1 health for each food lost this way.

Raven

When played to the row, gain 2 health.

Excavate passage

Whenever you play the fourth Excavate Passage card consecutively (without other types of cards in between), you must remove the leftmost passage token (two if all 4 have the same rune icon) from the game board. Once a set has been used to remove passage tokens once, those 4 cards do not count towards future sets.

Run out of Food

When played to the row, lose all food. When discarded, lose 1 health.

Goose

When played to the row, gain 1 food.

Sleep

When played to the row, gain 1 health.

Expansion Card Effects

Horror

When played to the row, go mad. When discarded, lose 1 health and 1 food. This card counts as both red and blue rune icons when checking if you go mad after drawing up to hand size.

Crumble

When played to the row, put the top 5 cards from the draw deck into your discard pile. When discarded, put all cards in hand into your discard pile. Do not trigger the discard effects of these cards.

Hope

Play to the row as an Excavate Passage card of any rune type. When discarded, look at the top two cards of the draw deck. For each card you may choose to put it in your discard pile or back on top of the draw deck. If you put both back on top you may choose the order. This card has no rune icon on it and so it never counts when checking your hand for going mad.

Conservation

When played to the row, you may return another card from the row to your hand. When discarded, you may return another card from any discard pile to your hand.

Gluttony

When played to the row, lose two health. When discarded, lose all food. You must have at least 1 food, otherwise you cannot discard this card.

Garner

When played to the row, spend any amount of food, return up to twice that number of discarded cards to the draw deck and shuffle the draw deck. When discarded, gain 1 food.

Hints & Tips

If you would play the Horror card before discarding a card for the round, perform all the actions for go mad and continue the round normally by discarding a card and then draw up to five and check if you go mad again. You could potentially go mad twice in a round this way.

Symbols

Effect when played to the row.
Effect when discarded.
Add a passage token.
Remove a passage token.
Gain health.
Lose health.
Gain food.
Lose food.
All.
Red rune icon.
Blue rune icon.
Wildcard (rune icon of any color).
Discard pile.
Draw deck.
Hand of cards.
Card row.
Check the number of consecutive Excavate Passage cards in the card row.
Go mad.
Shuffle cards from your discard pile into the draw deck.
Put cards from your discard pile into your hand.
Put cards from your hand into the discard pile.
Put the top cards from the draw deck into the discard pile.
Look at the top cards of the draw deck, choose for each whether to put it into the discard pile or to put it back on the top of the draw deck (you may put both back on top in any order).