Terra Incognita

Setup

There are 1 to 3 players and the game master. The game master creates the labyrinth, which is designed rectangular with one or more floors surrounded by monolithic wall with one exit on one of monolith wall – lock on this wall. It could be internal walls between cells. Every cell in the labyrinth is set by game master in the beginning of the game. It belongs to one of the following types:

• Empty cell
• Wormhole. Each wormhole will lead to the next, last to the first, like I->II->III->IV->I …
• River. River consists of several cells arranged in a chain. River cannot intersect itself. River has a fixed direction from its source to its end.
• Hospital. Player will be healed there after injury and can carry things from Arsenal and a Key
• Arsenal, which contains gun, knife, grenade and boat, so called arsenal kit.
• Key. Placed on any cell it will be picked by unwounded player from this cell.

Then game master will put walls between cells. Players should be able to proceed from any cell to any cell to ensure that it will not be dead end. Game master randomly places players in the labyrinth. Suggested sizes for labyrinth are easy: 1 floor: 3x3, 4x4, medium: 2 floors 3x3, hard: 1 floor: 5x5, 2 floors: 3x4, 3 floors: 3x3. See examples of one floor and 2 floors labyrinths in the game manual.

Play

Players make their moves in turn. They can: make a step (by issuing request/directive/command "up", "down", "left" and "right" or skip their step (request "skip a step")

They can also use things:

• Gun can be used by player after the move to fire in left, right, up, down direction. If another player will be on the way of the bullet and no wall will be between players, then this player will be wounded and drop arsenal kit and the Key. The wounded player should go to Hospital to be healed, then go to Arsenal to pick new arsenal kit. Key will stay on the same place where it was dropped, any not wounded player could take it. Once used Gun will be removed from player things.
• Knife has the same effect as gun, but players should be in the same cell. Once used Knife will be removed from player things.
• Grenade should be used to blow the wall between cells. Once used Grenade will be removed from player things.
• Boat should be used to swim once against the current of the river. Once used Boat will be removed from player things.

Then the game master announces the result. The result could be

• "step executed" (or "moved" or "done")
• "step executed, wormhole" (or "arsenal" or "river, move next cell" or "river, river end" or “hospital” or “key” or “exit, key required” or “exit, game is over)
• "step impossible, wall" – Player marks this wall with
• "step impossible, monolith" – Player marks this monolith with

The consequences of the step:

• If player's marker moved to the Wormhole then the marker is automatically moved to the cell with the next Wormhole in that Wormhole cycle. If current position is the last one in the chain, the marker is moved to the first Wormhole of the chain (hence the "cycle"). Player also can decide to skip the step part and then his marker will also automatically move to the next Wormhole in the cycle.
• If marker is moved into a River, it is then automatically moved to the next cell down the River chain. If one of these cells is the River end then the marker stops there. If marker was already in the River (but not at the River end) the player can elect to skip the step - then the marker will flow down the River accordingly.
• If marker is in the Arsenal then his starting kit is restored or he is granted an additional kit.
• If a wounded player is in the Hospital his/her health is restored. A wounded player cannot use weaponry or carry the Key.
• If a player carries Key and he is wounded, Key stays in that cell until it is picked up.

Each player is building player’s view of the labyrinth and marks other players, exit, walls and monolith walls based on other player’s discoveries using meeples and cardstocks.

Game win

To exit the labyrinth player needs to find exit on one of the monolith wall and have the Key.

Game variations

• Labyrinth can be populated with "creatures". An example – Bear . Bear moves around labyrinth either via some fixed trajectory or it simply repeats (when it can) other players' moves. If a player and Bear are in the same cell, the player is wounded. If Bear is wounded, it is immediately moved back to his Bear Cave (some cell pre-selected by the game master) and from there it starts its trajectory all over again. Other type of "creature" (much friendlier) is Leprechaun who when encountered will reveal to the player the location (relative to player's current position) of the nearest Treasure - but it will not disclose the way of getting there. Leprechaun's trajectory is defined by some simple preset rules. Leprechaun can be killed
• Using two Hospitals and Arsenals
• Arsenal could have bags of "cement" that will allows to build up walls
• If there are many Arsenals, some of them could carry guns only or grenades only, etc.