Near and Far

Edition and modes: This entry follows the publisher-linked reprint_v02 base-game rulebook for BGG 195421. The base game supports 2–4 players and includes four formats: First Adventure uses Map 1; Campaign Mode travels across Maps 2–11 in ten sessions; Character Mode links character quests across multiple maps; and Arcade Mode uses its own deck instead of storybook encounters. Dusk Town is the default town. Day Town, Amber Mines, and extra stories are optional rules or expansion content.

Setup: Place 7/10/13 quest tokens for 2/3/4 players on book-icon spaces, at most one each. Each player starts with a board, companion, character, 3 coins, 14 camps, zero Hearts and zero Reputation. Sort Threats from 4 to 15 with 4 on top. Deal two Advanced and five Basic Artifacts; draft Basic cards by selecting one and passing left until all five are chosen, then discard at least one Advanced. Basic cards may also be discarded now; unpurchased cards retained later cost 1 Journey Point each at game end.

Choose one main action: Visit Town or Adventure. Every mode requires visiting town in the first round. Move to a building and take its action; the character stays in town afterward, choosing another building or an Adventure on a later turn. Return from any map location with a Visit action, without walking back. Occupied buildings usually require a duel; the Saloon can be visited without one, and a character starting in Jail can visit without dueling. Both duelists roll plus Swords; ties favor the defender and only the challenger may spend Hearts. A losing challenger goes to Jail without using the building.

Party and movement: When leaving town, the player may rearrange active and inactive characters, then resets Hearts from the symbols on the active party and cards, up to 13. Hearts left from the previous expedition do not carry into this reset. Base movement is 2, increased by a pack bird and arrow symbols on active characters. A party contains no more than four active members including its animal companion, and it cannot have two active Adventurers of the same faction. Pay 1 Heart when leaving a space without any camp, except your turn’s starting space even if empty; town is also exempt. Reaching zero Hearts has no automatic return-to-town effect.

Threats and camps: Threat icons lie between spaces. Cross an active icon by fighting the top Threat; it becomes inactive when both endpoint spaces have any camps, with town treated as camped. Roll plus active-party and applicable card Swords, then optionally spend 1 Heart per extra point. Success claims the Threat and places your next camp on its card, not on the path; failure ends the turn and returns you to the space before that crossing. A shield, a permitted card power or sacrificing a pack bird can bypass a Threat without claiming it. At your final uncamped space, after any quest, spend 3 Hearts to build a map camp; do not move again afterward.

Quests: Stop on a space with a quest token to attempt it; merely passing is insufficient. The left-hand player reads the introduction and bold choices with difficulties, withholding reactions and rewards. Choose, pay any prerequisite cost, roll and add Hands for Skill or Swords for Combat, then optionally spend Hearts at +1 each. Meet the threshold for rewards and exceed it by at least two for the bonus. Ordinary failure gives no reward and skips the reaction; remove the token either way. Character quests still read a failed reaction, record the next quest and award experience. Arcade uses its cards instead of the storybook.

Artifacts, Chiefs, and routes: Buying an Artifact is a free action during the active player's Turn, but the player must pay its required resources and meet any additional condition; only then does its ability work and its points count. The first player to collect four matching faction banners claims the corresponding Chief, using Adventurers and faction tokens as specified but not the banners printed on purchased Artifacts. A trade route has two marked spaces and needs a camp on each. If one player controls both ends, that player receives the larger value; if two players control one end each, both receive the smaller value.

End and scoring: One player placing their own fourteenth camp triggers the end, counting map, Mine and Threat-card camps, never fourteen camps combined across players. Finish the round through the first player’s right-hand neighbor for equal turns; use spare camps if needed. Each placed camp and unused faction token scores 1, each Chief 5, and every two coins/gems combined 1; Food and Adventurers do not score by themselves. Add completed routes, purchased Artifacts, Threats and card bonuses; subtract 1 per unpurchased Artifact. Placing all fourteen camps adds 2, and owning three Treasures adds 5.

Across-session rules: Campaign and Character Mode preserve character or chapter progress between sessions. First Adventure is a standalone introductory game, so campaign persistence should not be applied automatically. Day Town, the pack tortoise, a platypus companion, extra stories, and the long-game option are separately identified as optional material in the base rulebook. Choose the mode and optional modules before setup, then use the matching map, deck, and records rather than treating campaign-only quests as rules for every one-session adventure.

Town supplies and Reputation: Saloon recruits one Adventurer, discounted 1 coin per owned matching banner to a minimum zero; refresh its row once per visit for 1 Food. Stables sells one pack bird for 1 Food, maximum three, each giving +1 movement and one Treasure capacity. Farm yields Food per applicable Hand. General Store gives 1 coin or four Artifacts with deck counts chosen before drawing; Mystic needs a bird to draw Treasure. Mine uses Skill to place a camp in a legal dig site. Town Hall permits one trade, one Artifact discard and one Reputation purchase, in any order. Dusk Reputation 4–5/6–7/8–9 gives 2/3/4 points, continuing along the track for higher tiers without summing tiers. Score ties compare Reputation, then coins/gems, unless a card overrides. In two players, Town Hall starts occupied by an unused character and still requires a duel: challenge the opponent if present, otherwise they roll for the unused character without Swords or Hearts.

Map and continuing-mode rules: Apply the selected map’s special conditions. Map5 toxic-water spaces cost 1 Heart when entered or passed even if camped; without payment return to the previous space. On Map10, lacking a camp on any mammoth space costs 8 at game end. Campaign Map11 adds player-count-specific Boss cards that may replace a normal Threat fight. Character quests earn experience even on failure; Campaign awards one experience per three encounters. Talents are normally bought between sessions and remain active. After the final Map11 session, total Journey Points across all sessions to determine the campaign or character-mode champion.