Venturesome Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Player's Turn
  • End of Round and Preparing the Next
• End of Game and Scoring
• Character Card Effects
• Threat Cards
• Credits

Contents

63 character cards (9 in each of 7 colors)

Character cards depict the expedition members you will gather during the game. Each character has a unique color (in the background of its symbols), a unique effect, and one of the symbols listed below:

Map, 1 Gem, 2 Gems, 3 Gems, Ankh, Chalice, Ring, Statuette.

12 threat cards

During the expedition you will encounter various dangers, represented by threat cards.

6 intimidation cards

Intimidation cards are tied to the effect of one specific character card (the Artifact Hunter — see the help sheet, Character Card Effects).

Card anatomy

Each character card shows: its symbol, its color, and a color marking, with the character card's effect printed on its back. Each threat card shows its effect on its back. Each intimidation card shows the intimidated character on its back.

Setup

1. Shuffle all character cards and form a face-down character deck.
2. Deal 6 character cards to each player (in a 2-player game, deal 9 cards each). Players may look at their own cards but should not reveal them to the others.
3. Next to the character deck, prepare a space for a discard pile of character cards. All discarded character cards go here. This pile is public — players may look through the discarded character cards at any time.
4. Shuffle all threat cards and form a face-down threat deck.
5. Next to the threat deck, prepare a space for a discard pile of threat cards. This pile is public — players may look through the discarded threat cards at any time.
6. Reveal as many cards from the top of the threat deck as there are players in the game, and lay them out where all players can see them.
7. Form a face-down intimidation card stack — there is no need to shuffle it.

Now choose the first player. It can be whoever looks the most adventurous.

Gameplay

The game consists of three rounds. In each round, players take their turns in order (clockwise) until the round's end condition is met.

On each turn, your task is to play 1 character card from your hand in front of yourself (that is, into your expedition) and apply its effect. Turns will keep looking like this, so your expedition will grow with each new card. At some point in the game, however, playing another card will become impossible. When that happens, you end your participation in the current round, resolve 1 of the available threat cards, and set aside the members of your expedition you have gathered onto your private treasure pile — these cards will earn you points at the end of the game. The other players continue playing without you (unless, of course, they finished earlier) until everyone has ended the round in their own time.

Player's Turn

Your turn consists of three steps, which must be resolved in the following order:

I. Play a chosen character card into your expedition

Choose 1 card from your hand and lay it face up in front of you. The cards lying in front of you make up your expedition.

If your expedition already contains some cards, the card you are currently playing must be placed at the left or right end of the whole row of previously played cards — you may not place a new card between cards already laid out. The way the cards are arranged in your expedition can matter when resolving certain threats.

Note: You may not play a character card from your hand in the same color as one already in your expedition.

Example: If the Professor is in your expedition, you may not play another Professor from your hand.

Note: The restriction above may mean you cannot play any of the cards in your hand. In that case, skip steps I and II and go straight to step III.

Note: If you play the last character card in your hand, skip step II and go straight to step III.

II. Resolve the effect of the played character card

After playing a character card, you MUST resolve its effect (detailed descriptions of the effects are in the help sheet, Character Card Effects section).

Remember that when you play the last card from your hand, you must skip resolving its effect.

III. Resolve a threat

This step is generally skipped, unless one of the following two situations occurs:

1. While performing step I, you play the last character card you have in hand.
2. You are unable to perform step I because none of the character cards in your hand may be played — in that case, immediately reveal all the cards in your hand and discard them onto the character card discard pile.

Resolving a threat:

1. Choose 1 of the revealed threat cards and resolve its effect (a detailed description of the effects is in the help sheet, Threat Cards section).
2. Turn the resolved threat card face down (it will no longer be available to other players).
3. Set aside onto your private treasure pile all the character cards remaining in your expedition (you may look through the contents of your own pile at any time; you may not look through other players' piles).
4. Wait for the other players — the round ends once everyone has resolved a threat.

Note: Players who have already resolved a threat do not take part in the current round and cannot be the target of other players' card effects. When only 1 player remains in the round, they may still play cards that affect other players, but the effects of those cards (namely the Adventurer, the Aviator, and the Collector) must be skipped. That player keeps taking their turns until they, too, must resolve a threat.

End of Round and Preparing the Next

When all threats have been resolved, the round comes to an end.

1. Discard the resolved threat cards onto the face-up threat card discard pile.
2. Reveal from the threat deck as many cards as there are players in the game. If the threat deck runs out of cards, shuffle the discarded threat cards, form a new deck from them, and continue revealing cards.
3. Deal everyone 6 character cards again (9 cards in a 2-player game). If the character deck runs out of cards, shuffle the discarded character cards, form a new deck from them, and continue dealing cards.
4. If an intimidation card is face up, turn it face down.
5. The new round is started by the player sitting to the left of whoever was the last to resolve a threat in the previous round.

Important: In the last (third) round of the game, the character deck may run out of cards, making it impossible to deal the correct number to every player. In that case, deal cards so that everyone receives an equal number (fewer than normally required). Leave any indivisible remainder in the character deck.

End of Game and Scoring

When the third round comes to an end, victory points (VP) are tallied. Whoever has gathered the most, wins!

To count your points, reveal all the cards from your treasure pile and tally your VP as follows:

• 1/2/3 VP respectively for each of the following symbols: 1 Gem, 2 Gems, 3 Gems.
• 1 VP for each artifact symbol (Ankh, Chalice, Ring, Statuette), AND additionally 4 VP for each set of 3 identical artifacts (regardless of color).
• 1 VP for each card in the color of a map (each map counts itself, as well as other maps in the same color).

A single card can be a source of points more than once. For example, a blue card with the 2-Gems symbol is worth 2 VP by itself, but it will also earn you 1 VP if you have a blue card with the Map symbol.

In case of a tie, the winner among the tied players is whoever has gathered fewer cards in their treasure pile. If it is still a tie, victory goes to whoever earned fewer VP from gems. If this still does not settle it, the tied players are disqualified for point collusion, and the win goes to whoever earned the fewest VP. If everyone is disqualified, the tied players share the defeat. True adventurers never end in a tie.

Character Card Effects

The character names below are a faithful translation of the Polish card names; the printed titles on the English-edition cards may use slightly different wording for the same characters.

Guide

You must return a chosen card from your expedition (other than the one you just played) to your hand. If you return a card from between other cards, slide the whole row together so that your expedition again consists of a series of adjacent cards.

If you play the Guide into an empty expedition, ignore its effect.

Reporter

No effect.

Adventurer

Choose any fellow player. You swap all the cards you each hold in hand. You do not reveal the swapped cards to the other players.

Professor

You must draw the top card of the character deck. Then place 1 card of your choice from your hand on the bottom of the character deck (this can even be the card you just drew).

If you draw the last card from the deck, you must still place a card on the bottom. If the character deck is empty, ignore this effect.

Aviator

You must swap 1 chosen card from your expedition (other than the one you just played) with 1 card of your choice from another player's expedition. Place the card you are giving up in the same spot in your opponent's expedition that you are taking a card from. Likewise, place the card you take in your own expedition, in the spot of the card you gave up. It is allowed for this effect to result in an expedition containing several character cards of the same color.

If you play the Aviator into an empty expedition, ignore its effect.

Artifact Hunter

From the entire intimidation stack, choose any character and place their card face up on top of the intimidation stack. From that moment, the character shown by the revealed intimidation card may not be played from hand by any player. This effect lasts until the end of the round, or until any player plays another Artifact Hunter and changes the revealed intimidation card. It is allowed to repeatedly choose the same intimidation card with this effect.

It may happen that the Artifact Hunter causes you to be unable to play any of the cards in your hand during step I of your turn. In that case, follow the general rule — skip steps I and II and go straight to step III.

Collector

You must hand a chosen player 1 card of your choice from your hand (do not reveal it to the other opponents). In exchange, the chosen player must give you a different card of their choice from their hand. Before handing over their card, that player may look at the card they received from you.

Threat Cards

Trap

Discard from your expedition the first and last character card (in other words, the outermost characters of the expedition). Discard none if your expedition contains only 1 card. (Discard both if your expedition contains only 2.)

Bog

Discard from your expedition all character cards with the Chalice symbol and characters with the Statuette symbol.

Sandstorm

Shuffle all the character cards in your expedition and randomly discard 2 of them. Discard none if your expedition contains only 1 card. (Discard both if your expedition contains only 2.)

Spider's Nest

Discard from your expedition all character cards with the Ring symbol and characters with the Statuette symbol.

Rope Bridge

Discard from your expedition 2 adjacent character cards. Discard none if your expedition contains only 1 card. (Discard both if your expedition contains only 2.)

Collapsing Temple

Discard from your expedition all character cards with the Chalice symbol and characters with the Ankh symbol.

Jaguar

Discard from your expedition all character cards with the Map symbol.

Volcanic Eruption

Discard from your expedition all character cards with the Ring symbol and characters with the Ankh symbol.

Emergency Landing

Discard from your expedition all character cards with the 1-Gem symbol and characters with the 2-Gems symbol.

Snow Avalanche

Discard from your expedition all of the following character cards, if present: Adventurer, Collector, and Artifact Hunter.

Native

Discard from your expedition all character cards with the 1-Gem symbol and characters with the 3-Gems symbol.

Storm

Discard from your expedition all of the following character cards, if present: Guide, Aviator, and Professor.

Credits

Publisher: Lucrum Games sp. z o.o. Development: Lucrum Studio. Game design: Michael Rieneck. Game development: Sebastian Oliwa. Project manager: Marcin Tomczyk. Rulebook: Bartosz Chlebicki, Łukasz Gralak. Illustrations: Paulina Opak. DTP layout: Maciej Zasowski.