Paleo

The standard base game is cooperative for two to four players. Collecting the fifth victory token wins immediately, while collecting the fifth skull loses immediately. Gaining the fifth skull and fifth victory token during the same action is a win.

Normally choose two modules and prepare them with the base cards as directed; keep human, dream, idea and secret sets separate. Each player starts with two humans and their tools, and the camp starts with five food. Deal exploration cards facedown as evenly as possible. For a first four-player game, two players should share one group, leaving three groups in play.

During the day, everyone simultaneously chooses one of their top three cards by its back only, returning unchosen cards without changing their relative order. Reveal together, agree on resolution order and choose one option on each card. You may still choose when fewer than three cards remain.

An ordinary action card lets you resolve an action, help another group or ignore it. Meet all ability requirements and pay all costs before receiving rewards. Abilities are thresholds and do not consume humans; discard costs must come from the revealing player’s own deck top.

Pay discard costs facedown without viewing card fronts. Each red-backed card discarded causes one separate damage. Danger cards cannot be ignored: if a positive action cannot be completed, choose a negative action under its rules, resolving as much as possible if full resolution is impossible.

A player choosing help adds their group’s abilities and advantages to the assisted group, can use tools, take damage and share rewards, but cannot pay that player’s card-discard costs. Tools cannot simply be traded or gifted. Multiple groups may help one player.

All damage from a single card goes onto one human and cannot be split. If damage remains after all hearts are filled, place one damage on the skull: that human dies, enters the graveyard and adds a skull token; ignore excess damage. Draw a replacement human after the last human in a group dies.

Use a craft action to pay for ideas on the workbench and gain tools; torches, hand axes and spears are available initially. A tool’s symbols determine whether using it spends it; abilities without a spending arrow can be reused. A tool paid as a cost cannot also provide its ability.

An empty deck sends your group to sleep, preventing further actions or help. Before choosing a card, you may instead discard your remaining deck facedown without effect to sleep early. Once everyone sleeps, pay one food per human; each unfed human adds one skull but does not die. Then resolve every mission and night card.

Choose and resolve one action on each mission/night card; they cannot be ignored. Missions remain for later nights unless instructed otherwise. Finally shuffle the faceup and facedown wilderness discards together and redeal as evenly as possible for a new day. Cards removed to the graveyard are not reshuffled.