Abyss

1.Setup

• The Exploration deck has 71 cards: 65 Allies divided into five races (crabs, shellfish, octopuses, jellyfish and seahorses) and 6 Monsters. Each race has thirteen cards: one worth 5, two worth 4, three worth 3, three worth 2 and four worth 1.
• The board goes in the middle; the Exploration deck goes at the start of the Exploration track.
• Shuffle the 35 Lords: reveal 6 at the Court, the rest form a draw pile.
• Shuffle the 20 Locations into a pile and reveal the top one.
• The 20 Monster tokens are shuffled face down; the 10 Key tokens form a supply; the Threat track gets its marker.
• Each player gets a cup and a pearl; the other pearls form the Treasury.
• The first player is chosen at random.
• 2 to 4 players, ages 14 and up.

2.How to play

• Plotting at Court, optional: at the start of your turn, you may pay a pearl to the Treasury to add a Lord to an empty Court space, as many times as you can pay.
• Then one compulsory action, of your choice: explore the depths, request support from the Council or recruit a Lord.
• Explore: reveal cards one by one on the track. Each Ally is first offered to the opponents, clockwise; the first to buy it pays the active player: 1 pearl for the first purchase of the turn, 2 for the second, 3 for the third. Each opponent may buy only once per turn.
• If nobody buys, the active player either takes the Ally, which ends their turn, or reveals another. On reaching the last space of the track, they must take it and gain a pearl.
• A revealed Monster is fought or ignored. Fighting it earns the reward shown by the Threat track (pearls, Monster tokens, keys), sends the marker back to the start and ends the turn; ignoring it moves the marker up one space. On the last space of the track, it must be fought, with a bonus pearl.
• At the end of the exploration, the Allies left on the track go face down onto the Council piles, one per race; Monsters are discarded.
• Council: take a whole Council pile into your hand, without having looked at it.
• Recruit: discard Allies from your hand to pay for a Lord at the Court, with exactly the number of different races required, including the mandatory race, for a total value at least equal to the cost. A pearl makes up each missing point, but each required race must be paid with at least one Ally.
• The lowest-value Ally used for the payment is affiliated: it stays in front of you. The others are discarded, with no change given.
• After a recruitment, if only two Lords are left at the Court, the recruiter gains 2 pearls and the Court is refilled.
• Controlling Locations, compulsory: as soon as you gather three keys, between your free Lords and your Key tokens, you take control of a Location, either one already face up or one chosen from one to four Locations drawn. The Lords used slide under the Location: they lose their power and their key, but keep their points.

3.Scoring

• Before scoring, everyone affiliates the weakest Ally of each race still in their hand; the other Allies are discarded.
• The score combines four sources of Influence Points: the Locations controlled, the Lords recruited, the best affiliated Ally of each race and the Monster tokens.
• In Marquoir, enter these four totals for each player.

4.End of the game

• Two events trigger the end: a seventh Lord recruited by the same player, or a Court that must be refilled without enough Lords left in the pile.
• That player finishes their turn, then each opponent plays one last turn.
• The highest total wins. On a tie, the most pearls wins, then the highest-value Lord.

House rules and pitfalls

• Lords belong to six guilds: soldiers, merchants, politicians, mages, farmers and ambassadors. A power marked with an arrow applies only once, when recruited; the others last as long as the Lord hasn't been used to control a Location.
• Monster tokens are worth 2, 3 or 4 points and are kept face down.
• If the Exploration deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to make a new one.

Frequently asked questions

The box

Released

2014

Age

Ages 14+

Designers

Bruno Cathala, Charles Chevallier

Artwork

Xavier Collette

Publisher

Bombyx

Mechanics

Hand ManagementSet CollectionPush Your Luck

Contents

• 1 board
• 71 Exploration cards: 65 Allies of five races and 6 Monsters
• 35 Lords and 20 Locations
• 20 Monster tokens and 10 Key tokens
• 1 Threat track and its marker
• Pearls and cups

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