Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood

Company and chapters: The Free Company always contains four Oathsworn, regardless of the number of players. Full characters and simplified Companions may be mixed. The group makes story choices together unless the text assigns a decision to a particular character, then sets up the encounter as instructed by the chapter.

Exploration: Visit only locations that still have a location token on the map. On arrival, move that token to the next space of the time track, resolve immediate effects, then read the location entry. Travel time does not depend on map distance; follow the story’s directions for routes and events.

Combat rounds: Normally proceed through Refresh, Oathsworn, Encounter, and End of Round. Refresh restores the specified Animus and returns ability cards at cooldown position 0 to hand; other cards do not automatically move down. The Encounter phase resolves enemies through their stage card, followed by Minions. An ambush skips the first two phases of the opening round.

Turns and cooldowns: During the Oathsworn phase, take repeated turns clockwise until everyone chooses to stop. On each turn, a full character may move once and play at most one ability card, paying its Animus cost. The ability enters its indicated cooldown position and moves only the other cards already at that position one step lower; it does not cascade into further positions. Companions follow their simplified card rules.

Attacks: Choose your Might-card draw in advance, using the colours allowed by your Might track and adding white cards as desired. After redraws, two or more blanks make the attack miss; blanks on extra cards drawn from criticals do not cause a miss. On a hit, divide total damage by the target’s defence and round down to find Hit Points lost. Breaking an enemy location may trigger an immediate reaction.

Ending and resolving encounters: Remove all Hit Point dice from the encounter board to win; if all four Oathsworn are Unconscious, lose. If both happen together, treat it as a win. After victory, remaining Minions flee and play moves to the chapter’s epilogue. After defeat, follow the rules to continue or retry. Resolve levels, loot, Knockout records, injuries, and lost items as instructed in the epilogue, then save the company’s progress.