Outpost: Siberia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Round Sequence
  • Your Hand
  • The Supply
• During Your Turn
  • Phase 1: Draw Cards
  • Phase 2: Attack Threats
  • Phase 3: Use Equipment
  • Phase 4: Endure Expedition Card
  • Phase 5: Exhaust Character Card
• Example Turn
• The End of the Round
• The End of the Game

Components

• 6 Life tokens
• 6 Character cards
• 18 Threat cards
• 15 Good Event cards
• 15 Bad Event cards

Character cards show a Character Icon, Character Name, Health Points ("HP"), and an Ability Text.

Threat cards show a Threat Name, Combat Value, Health Points, Ability Text, an Outpost Icon, and an Item Name.

Event cards (Good and Bad) show a Good Event or Bad Event Icon, an Event Name, an Expedition Icon, an Event Payment Ability, and an Ability Text. Good Event cards are marked with the Good Event Icon; Bad Event cards with the Bad Event Icon.

Game Setup

Building the Decks (Normal Example)

1. Separate the cards into 4 piles:

   • Characters
   • Good Events
   • Threats
   • Bad Events

2. Each Player chooses 1 Character card to be their identity in the game. Place a Life token on the start of your Life counter. Return the remaining cards to the box.

3. Shuffle the Good and Bad Event decks separately.

4. Choose a difficulty level and select Event cards:

   • Easy - Randomly select 8 Good Event cards and 4 Bad Event cards.
   • Normal - Randomly select 6 Good Event cards and 6 Bad Event cards.
   • Hard - Randomly select 4 Good Event cards and 8 Bad Event cards.
   • Customize your own Difficulty by randomly selecting a total of 12 Event cards.

5. Add the selected Event cards (without revealing them) to the Threat cards and shuffle them together. This will be the Expedition deck. Keep the deck facedown, so the top card is hidden from all Players.

6. Combine the rest of the Event cards and shuffle them together. This is the Outpost deck. Place this deck facedown near the Expedition deck.

Your Character

During the game, you will assume the role of one of the unlucky scientists trapped in the outpost. Your Character card shows two important things:

• Health Points ("HP"): This shows how tough your character is. If your Health Points are ever reduced to zero, your character is killed—and everyone loses the game! Fortunately, it is possible to recover lost Health Points (by using a First Aid Kit, for example). But, you can never have more Health Points than the number you start with.

• Ability: Each character has their own unique Ability, which you can use to help your team survive. Using your Abilities effectively is a key to winning the game!

Playing the Game

Outpost: Siberia is a cooperative game: all of the Players either win or lose the game as a team! In order to win, all of the Players must survive until you reach the end of the Expedition deck. If even a single Player is knocked out, everyone loses!

The game is played over a number of Rounds. In each Round, every Player takes one Turn. Each Round, you choose the order that the Players take their Turns. At the end of the Round, any Threats in play will act against the Players, increasing the danger to the outpost…

Playing Hint: Choosing the best order to take your Turns can be a huge advantage, so choose wisely!

Round Sequence

At the beginning of the Round, the Players (as a group) choose which Player will take the first Turn. After that Player completes their Turn, another Player is chosen to take the next Turn, and so on.

Once all Players have taken their Turns, any Threats in play are endured. Then the next Round begins.

Your Hand

During the game, you will hold a number of cards in your hand. You can only use these cards to attack a Threat during your Turn, using the Combat Value ("CV")—the number in the yellow section of the card.

The Supply

The cards face-up on the table are called the Supply. These cards are available to all Players during their Turn, and can only be used as Equipment—the word in the yellow section identifies what kind of Equipment is represented by the card.

During Your Turn

On your Turn, you must play through these five phases, in order:

1. Draw Cards (required)
2. Attack Threats (optional)
3. Use Equipment (optional)
4. Endure Expedition card (required)
5. Exhaust Character card (required)

Phase 1: Draw Cards

Begin your Turn by drawing the top 2 cards from the Outpost deck. Add 1 of these cards to your hand, and place the other face-up on the table. These cards are called the Supply.

Some Threats may force you to draw only 1 card on your Turn. If so, you choose whether to add that card to your hand or to the Supply.

If the Outpost deck runs out of cards, re-shuffle the Discard pile to create a new Outpost deck. If there still aren't enough cards, draw as many as you can. Any excess card draws are lost.

Phase 2: Attack Threats

After you draw cards, you may choose to play any number of cards from your hand to attack any Threat cards in play. You may attack any number of Threats during your Turn, as long as you have cards to play.

Tuck any cards you use to attack partially under the Threat card, so all CV values are visible.

Playing Hint: Just playing cards to attack a Threat won't be enough to defeat it—you'll also need the right Equipment (see Phase 3). But that doesn't mean that attacking isn't important! You cannot defeat a Threat until the total of all CV values played against it is at least equal to its Health Points.

Phase 3: Use Equipment

After you attack (or choose not to), you may use any number of Equipment cards from the Supply. Used Equipment cards are placed on the Discard pile, next to the Outpost deck.

There are three kinds of Equipment that you can use:

• Flare: Choose 1 Threat in play. The effects of that Threat are ignored for the rest of the Round.
• First Aid Kit: Choose 1 Player to recover 1 Health Point, up to their starting value.
• Weapon (Ice Axe or Flamethrower): Choose 1 Threat in play that has already been attacked with cards that have a total CV equal to or greater than its Health Points to defeat that Threat. Place the Threat card, the Weapon, and all attack cards played against the Threat into the Discard pile.

Phase 4: Endure Expedition Card

When you are done using Equipment for your Turn, draw the top card of the Expedition deck:

If the revealed card is an Event:

1. You must discard the Food or Water listed in the pay tab in the blue (Good Event) or red (Bad Event) section of the Event card from the Supply, or choose 1 character to lose 1 Health Point.
2. Then, follow the instructions on the Event card written in the blue (Good Event) or red (Bad Event) section of the card.
3. Finally, place the Event card on the Discard pile.

If the revealed card is a Threat:

You must place the Threat card face-up on the table in the Threat Area.

Then choose 1 Player who has not gone yet this Round (i.e. their character is not exhausted) to take the Threat's CV as damage to their Health Points. If all Players are exhausted, you may choose any Player other than yourself.

Phase 5: Exhaust Character Card

Turn your Character card sideways to indicate your turn is completed. If all characters are exhausted proceed to end of Round before continuing. If a Threat was drawn, the Player who took its attack goes next. Otherwise the active Player chooses an unexhausted Player to go next.

Example Turn

It's Survivalist Dana's Turn. There are 2 Threats in play, and the top card of the Expedition deck is a Bad Event. It's a tough time for the scientists!

Phase 1: Survivalist Dana first draws 2 cards from the Outpost deck. She adds the card with CV 3 to her hand, and places the other in the Supply. It's an Ice Axe, and she has plans for it.

Phase 2: She has 2 good attack cards in her hand, so Survivalist Dana would love to take a whack at the Siberian Moose, since it can only be defeated with an Ice Axe, but she decides that the Rough-Legged Buzzard can't be allowed to scavenge the outpost's supplies. She plays both cards from her hand on the Buzzard, which makes a total CV of 5, which is more than the Buzzard's Health Points of 4.

Phase 3: Tracker Tanaka is in pretty bad shape, so Survivalist Dana uses the First Aid Kit in the Supply to give him back 1 Health Point. The First Aid Kit goes into the Discard pile. Then she uses the Ice Axe she added to the Supply in Phase 1 on the Buzzard, which defeats it. The Ice Axe, the Buzzard, and both attack cards go into the Discard pile.

Phase 4: Now Survivalist Dana has to face the Bad Event on the Expedition deck: Frozen Solid. First she has to discard 1 Water from the Supply, but there's no Water there! That means she has to choose a Player to lose 1 Health Point. Since Survivalist Dana has the most, she takes the hit herself.

She also has to discard an Ice Axe from the Supply, but she already used the only Ice Axe in Phase 3. She discards the top card from the Outpost deck instead.

Phase 5: Now that Survivalist Dana has completed her Turn, she turns her Character card sideways to indicate that it is exhausted. Since the Expedition card she drew was a Bad Event, and not a Threat, Dana will choose an unexhausted character to be the next active Player.

Example: It's late in the game and things are looking grim: There are 3 Threats in play. Fortunately, the Tiger and the Siberian Moose are happy to lurk out in the darkness. They don't affect the Players at the end of the Round. But the Raging Boar is hungry: The Players must discard 1 Food or Water from the Supply, or else 1 Player must lose a Health Point!

The End of the Round

After all Players have taken their turns and exhausted their characters, all of the Threats in the Threat Area take effect. You must follow the instructions of each Threat's Ability Text, one at a time.

The End of the Game

The game can end in one of two ways:

The Scientists Survive!

If the last card in the Expedition deck is drawn and successfully endured, the storm lifts enough that the rescue helicopter can land near the outpost and the scientists escape! The Players win!

The Outpost Falls!

If any Player is reduced to 0 Health Points at any time, or if there are 5 Threats in play at the end of any Player's Turn, the scientists succumb to the hazards of the Siberian tundra. The Players lose!

Suggestion: Once you win the game, why not try again at a harder difficulty level?