The Lost Expedition
The Lost Expedition Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Designer Notes
The expedition in this game is modelled after one of the most famous lost expeditions of all time: Percy Fawcett's final attempt to find El Dorado, which he just called "Z". He took his son Jack and his son's friend Raleigh Rimmel, never to return again. Like Amelia Earhart's vanishing, this was quite a hot topic in the 30s.
David Grann's brilliant book The Lost City of Z inspired me to design this game. It was soon clear to me that I wanted to design a cooperative game that mirrored what expeditions in the Brazilian jungle might encounter. It features many more calamities of course, but one important point was to only feature creatures and events which are real. There are no dangers in this game that were impossible for Fawcett to encounter.
The local tribes were another important point for me. All tribes mentioned in the game are from the area that Fawcett visited. If possible I used the original sources to depict them as either more aggressive or friendlier towards outsiders. This should not be misunderstood as a judgement on my part. It is important to show respect towards the tribes, especially in a game about invading their territory. Fawcett was known to have always shown respect for natives and I hope the game reflects his attitude.
During the research for the game I also learned that you can burn away a hookworm using gunpowder. Who says gaming is not educational?
Have fun!
Peer Sylvester
Components
- 6 Explorer cards
- 9 Expedition cards
- 56 Adventure cards
- 28 Health tokens
- 21 Food tokens
- 12 Ammunition tokens
- 2 Pawns
- 1 Morning/Evening token
- 1 Expedition Leader token
- 2 Player Aids
Game Overview
In The Lost Expedition you will be leading a team of three explorers to follow the path of Percy Fawcett on the road to El Dorado. To win the game, simply get to the lost city with one of those explorers still alive!
You'll have to make the best use of your Expertise and Resources to survive as you head deeper into the jungle. Resources are represented by tokens. Expertise is represented by symbols on the cards. There are three types of each:
- The Resources are Food, Ammunition, and Health.
- The areas of Expertise are the Jungle, Navigation, and Camping.
Each explorer is a specialist in one area of Expertise, as represented by the symbol on their card. The explorers are otherwise identical. If an explorer loses their last Health token, they die. They are removed from the game and cannot return. If all three explorers die, the players immediately lose.
The Adventure Cards
The core of the game is the adventure cards. Each one represents an encounter in the jungle. To succeed you'll have to make sure these encounters happen in an order which the explorers can survive. Sometimes the cards will be obviously positive or negative, but usually they will be a mix of both. Each card has a name and a number (on the bottom), and a series of caption boxes (near the top).
The caption boxes represent the things which will happen to the explorers when you encounter this card. Each caption box has a number of symbols, which tell you which actions you must take when the caption box is triggered. You must respond to each symbol in a caption box in order from left to right. There are three types of caption box: Events, Choices and Options. Many cards will have multiple types of caption box. In these cases, they must be resolved in this order: Events, then Choices, then Options.
- Events (yellow) are compulsory. You must trigger every yellow box on a card you play. Triggering means taking all the actions within that box.
- Choices (red, jagged) are also compulsory, but you must choose a single red box to trigger per card, ignoring any other red boxes on that card.
- Options (blue, curling) are optional! You may choose to ignore, or trigger, each blue box on a card.
Card Symbols
Each caption box has a number of symbols. These symbols are also listed on the player aids and at the back of this rulebook. About half relate to Expertise and Resources, while the others affect the path of cards itself, or the expedition as a whole. Each Resource and Expertise symbol has two versions: gain and spend.
Resources: Food, Ammunition, Health (each has a Gain and a Spend version).
When you gain or spend a Resource, you take the matching token from the supply and put it in your team area, or vice-versa. Each explorer cannot go above four Health, but there is no upper limit to Food and Ammunition. If you need to spend a Food and have none remaining, you must spend one Health instead. The Health token can be taken from any living explorer. If you have no Ammunition, you cannot trigger a caption box with a 'spend Ammunition' option.
Expertise: Jungle, Navigation, Camping (each has a Gain and a Spend version).
When you gain Expertise, you take the card itself and add it to your team area. Do this once all the other triggered symbols on the card have been resolved. When you spend Expertise you have three options:
- Discard a card from your team area with the matching gain symbol.
- Lose one Health token from an explorer with the matching Expertise.
- Lose two Health tokens from another explorer.
When a card in your team area has multiple gain symbols on it (e.g. 1 – Abandoned Camp) that card can only be used and discarded once. Cards with more than one type of gain Expertise symbol are more flexible, but cannot be reused.
The Path
Each of these symbols affects the other cards on the table:
- Skip — You must discard the next card in the path.
- Swap — You may swap any two cards later in the path, should you wish.
- Remove — Discard the last card in the path (not including the current card).
- Add — Draw a card from the deck, and add it to the end of the path.
If there are too few cards remaining in the row for a symbol to take effect, ignore it, but if there are enough cards, the action must be taken.
The Expedition
These two symbols affect the expedition:
- Advance — Move your pawn to the next expedition card.
- Death — Remove one of your explorers from the game.
Advancing through the expedition cards is the only way to win the game! Both of these symbols happen immediately, before you trigger the rest of the symbols on a card. This means that it's possible to win the game before hitting a card or a symbol which would cause you to lose.
Examples
The explorers discover an abandoned camp! They must learn what they can from it, or loot its resources. Depending on which red caption box you choose you will either get two Ammunition tokens, or you will keep the card itself for its gain Expertise symbols, putting the card in your team area. This card has all three gain Expertise symbols, but it can still only be used once. This means that the card can be used when you need to spend any single Expertise, and is then discarded.
The explorers must take shelter during a storm! First, they will skip the next two cards. Then they must either take shelter, or get injured.
Cooperative Rules (2–5 players)
Setup
Take one explorer of each Expertise and put them on the table to form your team area. It doesn't matter how many players are playing, you always use exactly three explorers. Take three Ammunition tokens and four Food tokens from the supply and add them to your team area. Shuffle the adventure cards, deal four to every player, then place the remaining deck face-down.
If playing with two players, deal six adventure cards to each player.
There are three difficulty levels for the game: easy, which we recommend only for people who are learning to play the game, normal, and a hard mode for experienced explorers.
- Easy – use seven expedition cards. Place four Health tokens on each explorer.
- Normal – use nine expedition cards. Place four Health tokens on each explorer.
- Hard – use nine expedition cards. Place three Health tokens on each explorer and take one extra Food token.
Place your expedition cards in a row in the centre of the table, ending in the lost city, and place a pawn on the first expedition card at the opposite end. Place the Morning/Evening token on 'Morning', and put the remaining tokens aside as a general supply. Choose a player to go first, and give them the expedition leader token. Return any extra pieces to the box.
If playing with five players, remove one Food token from your team area before play.
Goal
You need your pawn to reach the final expedition card, the lost city of Z, before your team of explorers dies, or runs out of time. You'll need to strike a balance of steady progress, without taking too many risks which may injure your explorers. Players will discuss tactics and the cards on the table at multiple points during the game, but you must never reveal any details of the cards in your hand.
The Lost Expedition is played in a series of rounds, which represent a day in the life of the explorers. Each round consists of two hikes, Morning and Evening, and after each hike the explorers must eat. At the end of the round, players will draw a new hand of cards.
Morning
Starting with the leader and going clockwise, each player plays one card at a time face up into the middle of the table until each player has played two cards. The cards should be in a single row visible to everybody. This forms the path the explorers are taking for this hike.
In a two-player game, play three cards each.
Once this is done, arrange the cards in numerical order from lowest to highest. It may be easier to put the cards in order as they are played, rather than waiting until everyone has finished playing their cards.
Now resolve each card one by one, in order from left to right. Once you are finished resolving a card, if you haven't gained it due to an Expertise symbol, then discard it. In all cases, players should discuss any choices they have to make, but the leader has the final say. Once all the cards have been resolved, flip the Morning token to Evening – the team now loses one additional Food.
In the Morning cards in the path are rearranged in numerical order.
Evening
Evening is similar to Morning, with two exceptions – players will be playing all of the remaining cards in their hand, and cards now remain in the order in which they are played. Each new card is added to the right of the previous one, and they are not rearranged by number. Resolve the cards as normal, then flip the Evening token back to Morning – lose one additional Food.
In the Evening cards in the path remain in the order in which they are played.
Ending the Round
At the end of every round pass the leader token to the next player clockwise, then each player draws four cards from the adventure deck. If the adventure deck is empty, the players immediately lose one Food, and then shuffle the discards to form a new deck. If the deck is empty for the second time in the game, the players immediately lose.
In a two-player game, each player draws six cards instead.
Ending the Game
The game ends in three possible ways:
- The moment the pawn gets to the lost city of Z, the players win.
- If all three explorers are dead, the players lose.
- If the adventure deck runs out cards for a second time, the players lose.
Solo Rules (1 player)
In this version you will work alone to keep your explorers alive and bring them glory. These rules are broadly similar to the cooperative version, and those rules should be read first.
Setup
Choose one explorer of each Expertise, then take three Ammunition tokens and three Food tokens to form your team area. Place three Health tokens on each explorer. Lay out all nine expedition cards in the centre of the table, ending in the lost city, and place a pawn on the first expedition card. Shuffle the adventure cards and deal yourself six. In this version the rules for Morning and Evening are slightly different.
Morning
As usual, in the Morning, the cards will be rearranged in number order as they are added to the path. However you'll be playing cards from your hand and from the top of the deck.
First, draw two cards from the deck, and place them on the table to form the start of the path. Next play two cards from your hand to the path. Then draw a third card from the deck and add it to the path. Finally, play a third card from your hand to the path.
Resolve the cards from left to right, and remember to lose one Food when you finish.
Evening
In the Evening, cards will remain in the order in which they are played; however, you may now add to either the start or the end of the path. Begin by playing one card from your hand to form the path. You may now either draw a card from the deck or play a card from your hand, and place it to the left or the right of the path cards already on the table.
Repeat this until you have played all the cards in your hand and drawn three cards from the deck, creating a path which is six cards long. Resolve the cards from left to right, and remember to lose one Food once you have finished. Then draw another six cards for your hand, and begin a new Morning.
In the Evening you may take a card from your hand or the top of the deck, and place it to the left or right of the cards in the path.
Game End
As with the cooperative version, the game ends in three possible ways:
- The moment the pawn gets to the lost city of Z, you win.
- If all three explorers are dead, you lose.
- If the adventure deck runs out cards for a second time, you lose.
It's also possible to score points in this version. At the game's end, score one point for each remaining Food and Ammunition token, one point for each unused Expertise card in your team area, and five points if you have not yet shuffled the deck. Multiply your points by the number of surviving explorers to get your final score.
Head-to-Head Rules (2 players)
In this version two players will compete to be the first to get their team of explorers to the lost city. To win, you will need to beat the other player in a race to the city, or to survive longest. These rules are broadly similar to the cooperative version, and those rules should be read first.
Setup
Before you set the game up, quickly run through the deck of adventure cards and remove any card with an exclamation mark in the title. There are six of these cards: 1, 8, 17, 33, 41, and 52.
Set up two team areas, and choose a pawn each. Each player should take one explorer of each Expertise, three Ammunition tokens and three Food tokens for their team area. Place four Health tokens on each explorer.
Lay out seven expedition cards in the centre of the table, ending in the lost city, and place both pawns on the first expedition card. Shuffle the adventure cards and deal six to each player. Flip the leader token to decide who will be the first expedition leader.
Two Paths
Each round takes the same format of Morning and Evening, and ends the same way. However, for both Morning and Evening each player has a choice of two paths to add cards to: one path above the row of expedition cards, and one path below it. There is no limit to how many or how few cards can be added to each path. Each player will take one of the two paths, but they do not yet know which.
The leader always plays first. In the Morning they will play one card to begin the first path. The other player will then either add a card to the same path, or begin the second path. Play then alternates, adding one card at a time to either path.
Once three cards each have been added, and the cards have been rearranged, the leader has a decision to make. The leader can either choose which path they want to take now, or allow the other player to choose a path. Regardless of which player chooses a path now, the opposite player will choose which path to take in the Evening.
This means that the player who will choose a path should want the two options to be as uneven as possible in terms of the mix of positive and negative cards, while the other player will want to make the two paths as even as possible. Whichever player chooses a path goes through their cards first, and waits for the other player to complete the other path before moving on. When the round ends each player draws six cards from the deck, and the leader passes the expedition leader token to the other player.
The leader can choose which of the two paths to take, or can allow the other player to make the decision for now.
Ending the Game
The game ends in three possible ways:
- If a pawn reaches the final expedition card.
- If all three explorers from a single team are dead.
- If the adventure deck runs out cards for a second time.
If a player ends the game, the other player should complete the path they are currently on, until they reach a game end condition or the path is complete. If the end is triggered by loss of Food at the end of Morning or Evening, the game immediately ends.
- Ending 1 – if one player reaches the lost city, they win. If both players reach the lost city in the same Morning or Evening, the player with the most surviving explorers wins. If this is a tie, the player with more cards left in their current path wins. If there's still a tie, the player who started as leader loses.
- Ending 2 – if all of one player's explorers die, that player loses. If all six explorers are dead by the end of the same Morning or Evening, the player closest to the lost city is the winner. If this is a tie, the player who started as leader loses.
- Ending 3 – if the adventure deck runs out a second time, the player closest to the lost city is the winner. If this is a tie, the player with the most surviving explorers wins. If there's still a tie, the player who started as leader loses.
Clarifications
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Can I spend one Expertise instead of one Health? No. Only Health can be spent for the lose Health symbol, or for times when you are out of Food.
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If I want to avoid spending Health from the explorer with a certain Expertise, can I take one Health from both other explorers instead? No, you must take both Health tokens from one other explorer.
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Why are there so few gain Ammunition symbols? Bullets are difficult to come by in the jungle! Use them sparingly.
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Where do I play cards in the Evening? Make sure you're adding card to the right of any existing cards as those cards are oriented. This may be different to your right if you are sitting opposite another player, and are looking at the cards upside-down.
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Do I have to make a swap? No, the swap is the only symbol which is always optional.
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In the head-to-head, do I have to spend the Food at the end of the Morning or Evening if the game is ending? No. You must complete the path, which may result in a tie, but you stop there.
A Note on the Explorers
While all characters and events depicted in this game are entirely fictional, they are inspired by historical people and events. If you are interested in science and adventure at the turn of the last century, we encourage you to find out more about them!
Rules to Remember
- You must trigger every yellow box, and any number of blue boxes, but only ever one red box.
- Spend one Food at the end of every Morning and Evening.
- If you run out of Food, spend a Health from any explorer every time you would spend a Food.
- If you run out of Expertise, take one Health token from the explorer with the matching Expertise symbol, or two Health tokens from another explorer.
- Each adventure card in the team area can be used only once, regardless of how many gain symbols it has.
- You must not discuss the cards in your hand.