Return to Dark Tower: Expeditions
Return to Dark Tower: Expeditions Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 4 hero boards
- 4 hero figures & bases
- 1 Brinewraith figure
- 6 gear upgrade tokens
- 12 virtue tiles
- 5 alternate locked virtue tiles
- 4 expedition boards (2 double sided boards)
- 1 expedition mover
- 60 path tokens (15 for each expedition)
- 48 major reward cards (12 for each expedition)
- 48 minor reward cards (12 for each expedition)
- 8 major reward tokens
- 9 minor reward tokens
- 6 runic menhir tokens
- 6 dark altar tokens
- 6 lotus workshop tokens
- 6 guardian statue tokens
- 20 torment tiles
- 18 gear cards
Game Setup
Follow the base game setup with the following changes:
- Complete app and game setup from the core rulebook as normal. (This expansion is completely analog; you do not need to indicate you are using this expansion in the app.)
- Choose one of the four expeditions and take the board, path tokens, site tokens, and reward cards for that expedition. Return the other expedition boards and their associated components to the box.
- Place the expedition board near the main board.
- Place the expedition mover on the starting space of the chosen expedition board.
- Randomize the path tokens and place one face up in each empty path space.
- On reward spaces, place minor, major, and unique site tokens according to the icons on the space.
- Separately shuffle the minor and major expedition reward cards and keep them near the expedition board.
- Choose a difficulty level according to the table below. Randomly choose a torment for each foe and a number of global torments according to the chosen difficulty level using the table below. Place the foe torments next to their respective foe cards. Place the global torments face-up near the play area.
Torment Setup by Difficulty Level
| Narrative | Easy | Medium | Hard | Nightmare | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foe Level 2 | None | Lesser | Lesser | Greater | Nightmare |
| Foe Level 3 | None | Lesser | Lesser | Greater | Nightmare |
| Foe Level 4 | None | Greater | Greater | Nightmare | Nightmare |
| Adversary | None |
Example: If you chose medium difficulty, you would randomly choose one lesser torment each for your level 2 and level 3 foes, a greater torment each for your level 4 foe and the adversary, and 2 global torments.
Overview
The Tower's rising power is represented by torments, unique effects that make the game more challenging. Outside the Four Kingdoms lie new empires with new potential allies. With this expansion, you will commit resources to an expedition to one of the distant lands. Hopefully, it returns with even greater rewards to aid you in your fight against the Tower.
To the north are the Gasping Mountains, home to the aether monks, giants who live among their snowy peaks in pursuit of the perfect alignment of mind and body. The spirits of the fallen are entombed within towering statues that watch over their charges as they did in life.
To the east are the Inkstain Isles, home to freebooters, freeloaders, and the enigmatic Madame Dolo, whose undying smiths fashion accursed altars from the driftwood of the ships that crash upon the rocks.
To the south is the Brassbound League, a loose alliance of city-states amidst the sands. The barren landscape has led its people to ingenuity and a knack for negotiation and trade. Renowned for their lotus-shaped workshops, their artisans can make almost anything … for a price.
To the west lies the Umberwood, an ancient forest of towering trees, cyclopean fungi, and lurking fauna. Ancient ruins are home to mysterious stone menhirs carved with inscrutable runes and infused with primordial power.
Torments
Torments are negative effects that make the game more challenging. They remain in effect for the rest of the game. Each expedition has major reward cards that will let you remove a torment or offer an alternate beneficial effect. These rewards are the only way to remove torments. A torment on a foe applies only to that foe. Global torments apply to all heroes.
Going on an Expedition
Committing Resources: When you gain potions, treasures, gear, spirit, or warriors, you may send them to the expedition instead. Place them in a supply near the expedition board. If you gain more than 1 of anything at a time (such as with warriors), you may divide what you keep and what you send to the expedition as you like.
You may only commit resources to the expedition when you gain them. For example, if you Reinforce at a village and gain 6 warriors, you could commit none, some, or all of them to the expedition. You could not add warriors you have that you gained previously.
Once resources are committed to the expedition, they cannot be reclaimed.
Advancing the Expedition: You may spend your moves to advance the expedition – one space on the expedition board for every move you spend. Only moves generated by your move value can be used this way, including if you spend a spirit to double your move or if your move value is modified, e.g., by trusty maps. You may not spend moves gained from other effects such as the potion of one thousand strides. You can advance the expedition at any time during your turn as long as you have moves remaining.
On the expedition board, costs are represented by squares, and rewards are represented by circles. When you spend a move to advance the expedition, you may move the expedition marker to an adjacent space on the expedition board.
- Path tokens have a cost on them (see below). Pay the indicated resources from the expedition supply, returning them to the regular supply (or place skulls from the supply if that is the cost). You cannot move to a space with a path token on it unless you can pay the cost. Path tokens do not get removed from the expedition board when you resolve them. They stay on their spaces; you must pay the cost each time you enter those spaces. (The "Unexpected Shortcut" minor reward will let you remove a path token from the expedition board.)
- Reward spaces have no cost to enter. When you do, remove the reward token from the expedition board and place it in a separate spoils section near the expedition board.
- One-Way Paths: Some expedition boards contain one-way paths. You can only travel along those paths in the direction indicated by the arrow.
Icons Used on Path Tokens and Locations
Expedition Costs (these are inside square spaces):
- Spirit: Pay the indicated amount of spirit from the expedition supply.
- Warriors: Pay the indicated amount of warriors from the expedition supply.
- Potions: Pay the indicated number of potions from the expedition supply.
- Skull: Immediately place a skull from the skull supply in your current kingdom.
- Gear: Pay the indicated number of gear from the expedition supply.
Expedition Rewards (these are inside round spaces):
- Minor Reward: Take the token and add it to the expedition spoils.
- Major Reward: Take the token and add it to the expedition spoils.
- Site Token: Take the token and add it to the expedition spoils.
Completing An Expedition
The expedition ends when the mover returns to the starting space on the expedition board. After the current player completes their turn but before dropping a skull in the Tower, it's time to split the rewards.
For each major and minor reward token, draw and reveal a card of the appropriate deck. The player whose turn it is resolves any events, distributes any items among players, and places special reward tokens on the game board. This is not considered trading, and heroes do not need to be in the same space to gain rewards. Players should collaborate as to who gets what and where the special reward tokens go, but the final decision is up to the person who completed the expedition.
Expedition Rewards
The different types of rewards are as follows:
- Events: These are found in the major and minor rewards decks. All events are resolved when distributing the expedition rewards, in any order the players want. After resolving them, return them to the box. Major reward events give players the option to remove a torment or an alternate beneficial effect. This is the only way to remove torments.
- Expedition Items: These are powerful items found in the major rewards deck. Expedition items are items but do not count against a hero's treasure limit.
- Site Tokens: Each expedition comes with a set of unique site tokens, each with a unique effect. When you gain one, place it on a vertex where the corners of three spaces in the same kingdom meet (see example below).
- Resources: Any resources that are in the spoils are distributed to players. Resources remaining in the expedition supply are not spoils and cannot be reclaimed.
Site Tokens
Inkstain Isles - Dark Altar: When you remove a skull from a building, you may place it on a dark altar in the same kingdom as that building. Dark altars can have up to 3 skulls on them. When you take a heroic action in a space adjacent to a dark altar, you may return any number of skulls on that altar to the supply to gain +1 Wild Advantage for each skull returned.
Umberwood - Runic Menhir: During your turn, you may spend 3 warriors while in a space adjacent to a runic menhir to treat that space as having all terrain types for the rest of the turn.
Brassbound League - Lotus Workshop: While in a space adjacent to a lotus workshop, you may use your Reinforce action to gain the free effect from any building (1 gear, 1 potion, 1 spirit, or 6 warriors).
Gasping Mountains - Guardian Statue: At the start of your turn, when a foe is in a space adjacent to guardian statue, you may pay spirit equal to the foe's level to remove the foe from the board. You cannot remove the adversary this way. (Remember to remove the foe on the foe status screen in the app.)
Example of where you could place a site token on the board:
[Image omitted: a detail of the main board with a red circle marking a vertex where three spaces meet, showing where a site token may be placed.]
Heroes
There are four new playable heroes: Grizzled Mariner, Enlightened Ascetic, Clever Tinkerer, and Jocular Druid. These new heroes can be used in any combination with the base game heroes or the heroes from any expansions in all modes of play.
Grizzled Mariner
This hero hails from the Inkstain Isles to the east. No one knows for certain whether he is the living or dead or whether his soul has merely been corrupted through too many ill-fated bargains. He captains The Brinewraith, a spectral pirate ship that is bound to him through his mystical amulet.
The Brinewraith travels across the Four Kingdoms at the command of the Grizzled Mariner. It starts the game in the same space as your hero figure. As a banner action, you may move The Brinewraith up to 3 spaces; that is the only way you can move it. The Brinewraith is not itself a hero and is not affected by foe events.
With your Commanding virtue, you can take your heroic actions as though the Grizzled Mariner is in the Brinewraith's space. When you do, use the Brinewraith's position for any effects that care about where your hero is, such as your champion virtue.
Enlightened Ascetic
This hero hails from the Gasping Mountains to the north. He is considered small among the aether monks whose order calls them home, but he towers among most anyone he meets in the Four Kingdoms. Like others of his kind, he is himself a walking army, eschewing magical trinkets for inner strength.
The Ascetic only has 1 treasure slot and starts the game with 1 spirit and no warriors. In place of his other treasure slots, the Ascetic has two additional slots for virtues. At the beginning of the game, choose two alternate locked virtues from the five extra locked virtues and place them on their locked side in your extra virtue slots. Return the unused virtues to the supply. With his Centered starting virtue, the Ascetic only spends 4 spirit to unlock his virtues, rather than 5 spirit.
The Ascetic's Banner action and many of his virtues get more powerful based on how many virtues you have. This includes your starting, pre-printed virtues and your champion virtue. So, at the start of the game, you have 3 virtues, and you could remove a skull up to 3 spaces away with your Banner action. For the Harmonious virtue, it does gain a Wild Advantage for itself before locking.
Clever Tinkerer
This hero hails from the Brassbound League deserts to the south. She is young (though not as young as she appears) but often uses that to her advantage as others underestimate her.
Her banner action lets you gain a gear card from the market. With her Astute virtue, she tinkers with her gear to give them additional abilities. You start the game with a supply of upgrade tokens that add effects to the gear card to which they are applied. After taking the Reinforce action, you can spend one of your gear to upgrade another one. Choose one of your available upgrade tokens and add it to the gear you are upgrading. Each gear can only have one upgrade token.
Gear keeps its upgrade when traded. If upgraded gear is lost or spent, return the upgrade to your supply of upgrade tokens.
Jocular Druid
This hero hails from the Umberwood to the west. She always sports a smile, though it's often hard to tell if she's being silly or sly. She is as chaotic as nature itself, and the very lands shift beneath her feet at her whim.
The Druid's Banner action lets her change the terrain of the space she is in to a new terrain type of your choice. It loses the terrain type it had. The effect ends when you drop a skull in the Tower at the end of your turn (or if another effect changes it before that).
The Druid's Affable, Gregarious, and Vivacious virtues refer to your "champion terrain." This is the terrain referred to in your champion virtue.
New Gear
There are six new types of gear in the game. At the start of the game, randomly pick six gear types from among this new gear and the gear in the base game to be available. The rest are out of play. You may encounter certain quests, dungeon rooms, or other effects that require specific gear that is not in the market. You will have to find clever ways to overcome such challenges.
You may choose to play with the new gear even if you are not playing with the expeditions expansion. If you are playing with expeditions, there are some expedition rewards that will let you get gear from outside the game.