ABYSS



OBJECTIVE OF ABYSS: The objective of Abyss is to be the player with the most influence points by the end of the game.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 4 Players

MATERIALS: 20 Location Tiles, 25 Lord Cards, 71 Allies Cards, 50 Pearls, 20 Monster Coins, 10 Key Coins, 1 Gameboard, 1 Score Sheet, 5 Shell Plastic Cups, 1 Threat Track, 1 Threat Coin, and 1 Rulebook

TYPE OF GAME: StrategyBoard Game

AUDIENCE: Ages 14 and Up


OVERVIEW OF ABYSS

The role of ruler is open, and it has come your time to win it! Win or buy votes in the council, swaying the vote in your favor. Players take control of locations in the underwater city. Use your cards to acquire the locations and put yourself in the winning position for when the game finally ends. Will you come out on top, or will you drown with your opponents?

SETUP

Firstly, put the board in the center of the playing area, within reach of all of the players. All of the exploration cards are shuffled and placed facing down on the exploration track. Create a deck on the lord’s space using the shuffled deck of lord’s cards, face down. Reveal the six cards on the top of the deck, placing them in the court face up.

Form a stack of location tiles to the side of the board. Reveal the top card of the deck. Place the monster tokens to the side of the game board, facing down. Each player will then take one pearl, storing it in one of their plastic cup. The players will randomly choose a starting player. The game is ready to begin.

GAMEPLAY

 During their turn, players will complete the following steps: plot at court, take an action, and control locations. At the beginning of their turn, a player may decide to pay a pearl into the treasury in order to add a lord to the court. This may be done as many times as the player likes as long as there are empty spots available.

Next, the player must decide to explore the depths, request council support, or recruit a lord.

Explore the Depths

The exploration deck is made up of five allied races and six monsters. When exploring, the top card of the exploration deck is revealed and placed on the exploration track. If the revealed card is an ally, then the player’s opponents get a chance to buy the ally, ensuring that all players get the chance.

The first ally that is purchased costs one pearl, and it increases by one until the turn comes to an end. Each player may only buy one ally each turn. If nobody wants the ally, then the player may keep it or leave it on the board to reveal the next card.

If the card is a monster, then the player must fight it or continue exploring. If the player decides to fight, then they immediately win the reward found on the threat track. If they decide to continue exploring, then the threat token is moved one space and the player continues revealing cards. The player’s turn then comes to an end.

Request Support from the Council

If the player decides to request support, then they will collect all of the cards in one deck found in the council. All of these cards are added to their hand.

Recruit a Lord

In order for a player to recruit a lord, they must play enough Ally cards from their hand to pay for the Lord. The cost of the lord is found on the card. All of the ally cards are placed in the discard pile. The powers of the lords are available to the player.

Finally, then a player gathers three keys, they can take control of a location. The player may then collect one of the locations that are revealed, or they may draw up to four locations and choose a single location to keep. Once the keys on lords have been used, they may not be used again. The player’s turn comes to an end.

The player to the left will then begin their turn, completing the same steps. Gameplay continues in this manner until the game comes to an end.

END OF GAME

The game comes to an end when a player recruits their 7th lord or when there are no more lord cards left to fill the board. Each player will complete one turn. Each player will then place their lowest scoring ally, while all others are discarded. Players will then tally their influence points. The player with the most points, wins the game!

Nakoa Davis
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