Cartographers FAQ
134 questions players ask · Updated Nov 7, 2026 · Full rulebook
Game Setup
Drawing Shapes
- If a shape on the explore card can legally be drawn, must I draw it instead of a 1x1 square?
- Can one shape mix terrain types, such as the Fishing Village or a Village-or-Forest card?
- Must a new shape be drawn next to shapes already on my map?
- Can I rotate and flip shapes, and what counts as flipping?
- When I cannot draw any shape and must draw a 1x1 square, what terrain can it be?
- If I must draw a 1x1 square instead of a coin shape, do I still gain the coin?
- If only one of the two shapes on a card fits, must I draw that one?
RuinsExpansion
- Can I draw over a ruins space when no ruins card was revealed?
- When the ruins shape cannot cover a ruin, or no open ruin is left, what do I draw?
- If a ruins card is out, must I draw a shape over a ruin whenever one of the shapes can cover it?
- What happens when two ruins cards are revealed in a row?
- If an ambush card is revealed after a ruins card, must the monster cover a ruin?
- Do ruins cards count toward the season time?
- If the first card of a season is a ruins card, does it still apply?
- If I have already covered my ruins before a ruins card comes up, what do I draw?
- Does a Rift Lands card revealed after a ruins card have to go on an open ruin?
- Does a ruins space still count as a ruin after I draw on it?
- Does a ruins card still apply when a skill changes the shape I draw?
Ambush and Monsters
- If the ambush monster cannot fit on a neighbour's map, what do I draw?
- Is an ambush card removed after it resolves?
- Can an ambush monster be drawn over a ruins space on an opponent's map?
- Can the monster shape be rotated or flipped when drawn on a neighbour's map in multiplayer?
- What can be in the gap of the Bugbear monster shape?
- Is there ever a reason to draw monster terrain on my own map?
Terrain Types
- Where is the Rift Lands 1x1 drawn, and can it be a monster?
- Which spaces count as filled?
- Does a single space count as a cluster?
- Do spaces that touch only at a corner count as adjacent?
- Do monsters and wasteland count when surrounding a mountain for its coin?
- Can a combined-terrain shape count as both of its terrain types?
Coins
Scoring Cards
- Does Borderlands score any complete row or column or only the outer ones?
- How does Great City treat a village cluster touching a mountain?
- Does Great City score with only one village cluster?
- If two village clusters tie for largest, which does Great City score?
- How does Shieldgate score when two village clusters tie for largest?
- Does Shieldgate score with only one village cluster?
- Which terrains count as different types for Greengold Plains?
- How does The Broken Road count diagonals?
- How does Stoneside Forest score?
- How does Lost Barony score?
- How does Wildholds score and do touching village groups merge?
- How does The Cauldrons score an empty space surrounded by monsters?
- Does Mages Valley count spaces or clusters?
- How does Canal Lake count?
- Can clusters touching other terrain still score for Shoreside Expanse?
- How does Greenbough score?
- Does The Golden Granary score if the ruin was covered without a ruins card?
- Must a scored area match the pattern drawn on the scoring card?
End of the Season and Game
- Do things already counted in an earlier season score again?
- Does an empty space next to several monsters cost more than one star?
- Does the edge of the map count as an empty space for the monster penalty?
- What happens if my map is completely filled before the cards run out?
- How is a tie broken?
- Does the season end as soon as the time total is one short?
Solo Mode
General
Cartographers: Map Pack 1 – Nebblis: Plane of FlameExpansion
- Can lava spread through spaces destroyed by a Hero or monster?
- What terrain type is the Volcano space on Nebblis?
- Do revealed Volcano cards leave the game or go back into the explore deck?
- Can Nebblis lava shapes be rotated and flipped?
- If a lava flow shape has no legal placement, can it be drawn over filled spaces?
- Can a Volcano shape be drawn over monster spaces?
- Can Cure Wounds draw lava after a Volcano card?
- Can Subvert replace a Volcano shape with a square?
Cartographers: Map Pack 2 – Affril: Plane of KnowledgeExpansion
- Can I draw on an Affril space partly covered by island art?
- How is an ambush placed in solo Affril?
- Do island edges count as map edges for scoring?
- Do rows and columns continue across adjacent islands?
- What happens when I cannot draw a shape on Affril and must connect an island?
- Can I fill several connection dots at once on Affril?
- Can a Hero attack pattern reach another island on Affril?
- Can a cluster span two islands on Affril?
- When do I gain a coin from a shape?
Cartographers: Map Pack 3 – Undercity: Depths of SabekExpansion
- Where does each player start on the advanced Undercity side?
- Must every piece of a disconnected shape connect back to the gate?
- Do monsters have to connect to the gate too?
- Does the ground line block adjacency, paths or monster effects?
- Can a Hero attack mark cross the ground line?
- Can destroyed spaces and mountains be part of the path to the gate?
- How is a monster placed in solo Undercity?
- If a Ruins card cannot be satisfied while connected to the gate, what do I draw?
- How does The Pit score?
- How does Ancient Sepulchre score mountains and ruins?
Cartographers: Map Pack 5 – Kethra's Steppe: Redtooth & GoldbellyExpansion
- Do destroyed spaces form a cluster for Summit's Splendor?
- Is a mountain next to a lighted beacon a separate cluster for Summit's Splendor?
- Must a cluster lie wholly within the beacon range for Summit's Splendor?
- Are goblin attack spaces that touch only diagonally one cluster or several?
- Is the Everburning Flame penalty applied once per space or per lighted beacon?
- In solo, do I still subtract a beacon card's value if I never light a beacon?
Cartographers: Map Pack 6 – Hornhelm: Wasteland MarketExpansion
- Do item effects trigger when a shape is drawn during an ambush?
- Does a Hero drawn next to a monster still earn the Bestiary point if it destroys that monster?
- Does drawing next to a destroyed former monster space earn the Bestiary point?
- Does Bestiary give more than one point if a shape touches several monsters?
- Does a Zombie Plague spread that draws next to a monster earn the Bestiary diamond?
- Can I ignore the Compass ruin override and draw the 1x1 wildcard?
- When is the Compass scored relative to ambush end-of-season effects?
- Can I buy a merchant item in the middle of a season?
- Can I draw a 1x1 forest and destroy it for the Machete journal point?
- What does a destroyed space count as?
- What counts as surrounded for Spyglass?
- How does the Canoe Cart earn a journal point?
Cartographers: Skills Mini ExpansionExpansion
- How many skills can I use per season, and can several players use the same one?
- What happens to coins I pay for a skill?
- Can skills be used on ambush draws?
- How does Acrobatics work against an ambush?
- Does Negotiation earn the coin of the shape it replaces?
- Does Concentrate give the coin of a coin shape twice?
- When can I use Diplomacy?
- When can I buy skills like Acrobatics or Concentrate?
- Can Search's extra square cover a ruin?
- Can Move Silently overhang the edge, or be used on monsters?
- Does a skill replace or add to my normal action?
- How do I mark that I used a skill that costs no coins?
- Which terrain can Cure Wounds pick?
- Can a Concentrate redraw go anywhere after a ruins card?
Cartographers: Skills Mini Expansion 2Expansion
- How can Manipulate split Timber Grove?
- Can Manipulate be used on an ambush in solo?
- Can Sleight of Hand be used on Hero cards?
- When can Disguise be used and do I still draw the shape?
- Which Skills 2 cards work with ambushes, and how does Summon work?
- If one player uses Acrobatics and another Summon on the same draw, which resolves first?
- Does Skills Mini Expansion 2 require Heroes?
- How many skill cards exist?