Caves of Rwenzori Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components and Setup
  • Game Set Up
• Goal of the Game
• Game Play
  • LAY
    • Normal Cave Tiles
    • Obstacle Tiles
    • Save Tiles
    • Illuminate Tiles
    • TNT Tiles
    • +1 / +2 Action Tiles
  • Move
  • Going In Blind
  • Penalties
• Special Gear Cards
• End Phase & Winning the Game
• What If I Am Completely Blocked?
• Summary
  • Taking a Turn
  • Lay a Tile
  • Moving Your Meeple
  • Going In Blind
• Next Challenge
• Solo Mode
  • Set Up
  • Game Play
  • Difficulty Levels
• Expansions
  • The Lava River Expansion
    • Cutting the board
    • Cutting the passage
    • Surrounded!
    • Lay the Lava River
  • The Hidden Passages Expansion
  • The Treasure Hunter Expansion

Components and Setup

Welcome to the Caves of Rwenzori universe. This rule book is designed to allow you to learn to play the game quickly. Once you have read it, you will be able to explain and play the game.

Inside the box:

• Normal cave tiles x20
• Obstacle tiles x26
• Illuminate tiles x7
• Save tiles x16
• TNT tiles x2
• +1/+2 Action tiles x11
• Start tiles x5
• Escape tile x1

Cave Tiles: Total 88

There are 10 cards & 5 boards in the game:

• Character cards x5
• Special gear cards x5
• Quick reference boards x5

Each character has a special ability that affects their, another, or all players' hands. It can be used ONCE in the game and cannot be used in the end phase.

• 5 different colored meeples
• 50x Dark tile indicator tokens

Game Set Up

1. Deal 1 character card and 1 special gear card to each player face down (Keep it a secret from the other players)
2. Give 1 quick reference board & 10 Dark tile indicator tokens to each player
3. Lay out 1 start tile per player, ensuring they are connected in a row in the center of the table. (i.e. 2 players = 2 start tiles, 4 players = 4 start tiles etc.). Leave any unused start tiles in the box.
4. Place 1 meeple per player on each start tile.
5. Place the Escape tile to the side of the table.
6. Shuffle the remaining 82 tiles face down and deal 4 to each player. This is your start hand.
7. Deal the remaining tile to each player so that every player has a tile stack with the SAME number of tiles in it. Leave any excess tiles in the box.
8. The player(s) in the middle of the start tile row go(es) first.
9. Now you're ready to play!

Goal of the Game

The goal of Caves of Rwenzori is to be the first to lay all your tiles. Only then can you play the Escape tile and win the game!

Game Play

A game of Caves of Rwenzori is played in clockwise direction from the starting player. Three action options are available to players on each turn.

In each turn you can choose 1 action to take: LAY a tile, MOVE your meeple, or, GO IN BLIND. NOTE: When you lay a tile immediately pickup. You should always have 4 tiles in your hand.

LAY

Normal Cave Tiles

1. Must be laid adjacent to the tile your meeple is on in a way that the cave passage connects.
2. Once laid, put your meeple onto the normal cave tile you have just laid. Note: Save tiles and illuminate tiles can be laid as Normal Cave tiles.

Obstacle Tiles

Dark Tiles (laid face down), Dead ends, and flooded caves:

Dark tiles:

1. MUST be laid face down adjacent to a tile that another player's meeple is on, blocking a cave passage. Then place your dark tile indicator token on it. Note: You do not need to use the tokens. They are a memory aid. You can play more Dark tiles than you have tokens.
2. CANNOT be placed adjacent to your meeple.
3. CANNOT be placed adjacent to an unrevealed Dark tile or a tile with a red penalty symbol on.

Dead Ends & Flooded Caves:

1. MUST be laid adjacent to a tile that another player's meeple is on, blocking a cave passage.
2. CANNOT be placed adjacent to your meeple.

Save Tiles

Save tiles enable players to pass obstacle tiles without being penalized.

1. The required Save tile is indicated on the Dark tile or Flooded cave tile with an icon in a colored square.
2. Save tiles are laid past the obstacle tile which is blocking you.
3. Once laid, put your meeple onto the save tile. (Note: Save tiles can be laid as Normal Cave tiles.)

Illuminate Tiles

Illuminate tiles reveal a Dark tile without going in blind.

1. To play the illuminate tile, it is discarded from the game and the Dark tile is revealed.
2. The Dark tile MUST be adjacent to the tile your meeple is on to illuminate it.
3. Do not move onto the revealed Dark tile in the current turn. Your turn is over.
4. You decide next turn whether to play a Save tile, move back through the cave, or stay still and play an Obstacle tile on another player. Note: Illuminate tiles can be laid as a Normal Cave tile.

Which Dark tiles have a negative effect to illuminate?

1. When a normal cave passage Dark tile is illuminated you need to use a turn to MOVE into it in order to play. These are better to go into blind, and then lay immediately.
2. When the explosion Dark tile with the no entry penalty symbol is illuminated it will set off the explosion causing a cave-in and blocking the cave passage.

TNT Tiles

1. Lay the TNT tile on top of an adjacent connecting tile to your meeple that has ALREADY been laid.
2. If the TNT tile leads out into free space you can lay 1 extra tile connected to the TNT tile.
3. Move your meeple onto the last tile you laid. Note: If another player is on the connected adjacent tile, you CAN still use the TNT. Put the TNT tile under their meeple.

+1 / +2 Action Tiles

These allow you to lay 1 or 2 additional tiles in a turn.

1. These MUST be laid adjacent to the tile your meeple is on.
2. Once placed, move your meeple onto it.
3. Draw a tile from your stack, so you have 4 tiles in your hand again.
4. Lay another tile or move. (Note: obstacle tiles can be played on other players)
5. Draw a tile from your stack. If you initially laid a +2 you can play again and repeat the above process. (Note: multiple +1 & +2 action tiles can be laid in the same turn.)

Move

1. You may move your meeple any route and across as many tiles as you wish but you MUST stop on a tile if there is an available cave exit to lay a tile or an unrevealed Dark tile.
2. Previously passed obstacle tiles navigated by yourself or other players have no effect.
3. Once you have moved that is the end of your turn. You CANNOT lay a tile on the same turn.

Going In Blind

If there is an unrevealed Dark tile adjacent to the tile that your meeple is on you can choose to go in blind.

1. Go in blind and flip over the Dark tile.
2. The affected player chooses the Dark tile's orientation but the orientation MUST affect the player.
3. The required Save tile is indicated on the Dark tile by an icon in a colored square.
4. If you have the relevant Save tile, or if no Save tile is needed (i.e. x3 Dark tiles are normal cave passages) then you can lay past the revealed Dark tile and put your meeple onto the last tile you laid.
5. If you don't have the relevant save tile you will be affected by a penalty indicated by an icon in a red hexagon. One penalty is a circular red no entry sign.

Penalties

1. +1 = Pick up 1 tile AND you are blocked. Pick up the first non-dark tile from the stack of the player that placed that Dark tile. Remember which Dark tiles you have laid or use the indicator tokens provided. If it is in the end game phase (see p.6) they choose which tile to give you from their hand. If they only have Dark tiles you do NOT pick up a tile. You are also blocked, and still need the appropriate Save tile to continue. Do NOT carry on play next turn past this Obstacle tile.
2. Hand = You are blocked and still need the save tile to continue. Do NOT carry on play next turn past this obstacle tile.
3. Clock = Do not lay a tile this tun (If you have gone in blind, do not lay a tile this turn. Wait and lay on your following turn. If you have revealed the tile with an Illuminate tile, or it is revealed but has no tile beyond it, you can choose to MOVE onto the tile, not lay a tile that turn, and then lay a tile on your next turn. Note: If it has been navigated and there are tiles on both sides the penalty has no effect on players moving through it.)
4. No Entry Sign = The explosion happens if a player enters the tile blind, or plays the Save tile and passes the tile. The explosion area is permanently blocked and is considered a cave-in, blocking the passage. A player may be trapped either side of the block depending on whether they played a Save tile, or not. If an illuminate tile is played to reveal the Dark tile with this penalty, the explosion goes off and the way is blocked. Only TNT can reopen the blockage.

Special Gear Cards

Each player has a special piece of gear. Keep this secret and use it only ONCE in the game.

• Medical Bag and Pickaxe: Convert any non-obstacle tile into a pickaxe save tile or avoid a +1 penalty, through your path will still be blocked.
• Sturdy Boots: Tiles with a red clock penalty have no effect, you may play-on as normal and are not affected.
• Spare Torch: As a free action: Turn over a Dark tile adjacent to your character. You can then play your regular turn.
• Chocolate: Gives energy and focus, convert any normal cave passage tile to a Swing, Dive or Jump save tile.
• Map Fragment: You have a burst of speed following the map: Convert a +1 Action into a +2 Action.

End Phase & Winning the Game

This is where the game heats up, and it's very much up for grabs as to who wins. When the first player has laid their entire deck of tiles, and they ONLY have 4 tiles or less left in their hand, the other players can then pick up ALL their tiles from their own stacks. The first person to lay all their tiles and be able to lay the one Escape tile, is the winner. The escape tile must be laid adjacent to your meeple following the rules for placing a Normal Cave tile.

The Escape tile may be laid on the same turn as playing the last tile in your hand. E.g. if the last tile you play is TNT, +1 or +2 Action tile, then you lay the Escape tile treating it as a tile that is in your hand. If the last tile you lay does not allow you to lay an extra tile wait until your next turn before you can lay the Escape tile.

The Escape tile stays at the side of the table until a player can lay it, and win the game. It is NEVER added to any player's hand.

If you lay the Escape tile, CONGRATULATIONS! You are the winner, and first to escape the Caves of Rwenzori!

What If I Am Completely Blocked?

1. If a player gets completely trapped in any way and cannot play, that player misses a turn, on the second turn they can put the 4 tiles in their hand to the bottom of their stack and take the top 4. If they draw an appropriate Save tile that allows them to continue, they play that tile on the NEXT turn. Players can continue returning 4 tiles and drawing 4 tiles for as many turns as they want. At any time other players can do actions 2 & 3 below.
2. Giving a "hand": If a player is completely blocked and another player has TNT or the Save tile they need, as the action on their turn the player can offer the trapped player their entire 4 tile hand unseen including the tile they need for escape. The trapped player may refuse and other players can choose when/if to offer the trapped player their hand. The receiving player puts their current x4 tile hand to the bottom of their stack, takes the new hand, ready for their next turn.
3. Setting them free with TNT: If a player frees another player using TNT, even if it was them who trapped them, that player can discard 4 tiles from their hand, as well as the TNT tile they laid. Discard the tiles one by one, drawing from your stack each time, until 4 tiles have been discarded. If you are in the end stage of the game, and can see all your tiles, you can choose: Discard tiles out of the game, do NOT lay on the board, or give to the freed player.

Summary

Taking a Turn

• Lay, Move or Go in Blind

Lay a Tile

• You must ALWAYS lay a tile adjacent to a tile with a meeple on it in a way that makes the cave passages connect.
• Normal cave tiles, +1/+2 Action tiles, or Illuminate tiles and Save tiles being played as Normal Cave tiles must be placed adjacent to your meeple and your meepe is put onto the new tile in that turn.
• Obstacle tiles must be placed adjacent to an opponent;s tile.
• Save tiles are laid past the Obstacle tile.
• Illuminate tiles, used to illuminate a Dark tile, are discarded from the game. They are not laid.
• A Dark tile cannot be laid adjacent to an unrevealed Dark tile, or a tile with a red penalty symbol on,
• Flooded caves and Dead Ends CAN be played adjacent to a tile with a red penalty symbol on IF there is a player on that tile. (i.e. the red clock Penalty tile, or they have entered blind and been stopped.)
• Obstacle tiles remain active obstacles until a Save tile is played past them.

Moving Your Meeple

A player may move their meeple any route and across multiple tiles but MUST stop on a tile if there is an available cave exit that they can lay a tile off of or an unrevealed dark tile. Previously passed Obstacle tiles, passed by you or other players have no effect. Only the permanently-blocked penalty (no entry sign) would prevent movement.

Going In Blind

If there is an unrevealed Dark tile adjacent to the tile that your meeple is on you can choose to go in blind. If you have the relevant Save tile, or no Save tile is needed then you can lay past the revealed Dark tile and put your meeple onto the last tile you laid. If you do not have the relevant Save tile you are affected by the penalty.

Next Challenge

After a few games on a large table where space is no consideration, start playing with the included play sheet and let the adventure begin again!

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for playing Caves of Rwenzori and we truly hope that this will bring many hours of great memories. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us via our website.

Solo Mode

Set Up

• Place 1 start tile in the center of the play area and return the other 4 to the box.
• Place your meeple of choice on the start tile.
• Separate Obstacle tiles, Normal Cave passage tiles, +2/+2 Action tiles into their own stacks.
• Separate each Save tile type into its own pile and line them up at one side of the game area. This is the UNPLAYABLE SECTION.
• Randomly select x8, 5, 3, or 0 Normal Cave tiles depending on the difficulty level chosen and shuffle into the stack of Obstacle tiles (that's all dark tiles, flooded cave tiles and dead end tiles. Place this tile stack to the side, face-down. This is the Cave Deck.)
• Difficult levels = 8 EASY, 5 MEDIUM, 3 HARD, 0 CRAZY HARD.
• Now set up your ACTIVE SELECTION:
• Place the Normal Cave tile stack in front of you, face-up, and turn over 2 tiles (so that you have the choice to select from those 2 (8, 9 in picture above) or the 1 face-up on the top of the stack (7 in picture above).
• Place the +1 Action tiles in a pile in front of you, face-up (5 in picture above).
• Place the +2 Action tiles in a pile in front of you, face-up (6 in picture above).
• Place x1 Illuminate tile in front of you, face up (4 in picture above).
• Now select x3 other Save tiles from the lined up piles and place them in front of you face up (1, 2 & 3 in picture above).
• You are now ready to play.

Game Play

FOLLOW THE NORMAL RULES. ANY RULE DIFFERENCES FOR SOLO MORE ARE LISTED BELOW.

(LAY, MOVE & GO IN BLIND work the same as in the main rules).

Goal of the Game: Lay all your tiles and the escape tile before the Cave Deck runs out of tiles. If the Cave Deck (Obstacle tile stack + (8, 5, 2, or Normal Cave tiles) are all laid, RWENZORI wins!

The player takes a turn & then the caves take a turn.

The Player's Turn

• The player may choose to select any of the tiles in their active selection.
• If 1 of the 3 Save tiles are played, the player chooses another from the unplayable selection to fill its place.
• Ensure that Normal Cave tiles not in the stack are replaced from the stack once played, until there are none remaining in the stack.
• If the Illuminate tile is laid, another takes its place in the active selection until there are no more Illuminate tiles left.
• The player can choose to spend their turn exchanging up to 3 Save tiles from their active tiles with the unplayable selection, instead of laying a tile.
• If you play a Save tile over a tile that requires a save to pass, that tile is placed back under the CAVE DECK. (Note: The clock penalty, dead ends, and dark tiles that have a normal cave passage CANNOT be removed back under the CAVE DECK.)
• +1 Penalty means that another CAVE DECK tile is laid. If any penalty is incurred from going into a Dark tile, place a Dark tile indicator token on it to indicate that it cannot be removed from the game.
• If the CAVE lays a Normal Cave tile adjacent to the tile you are on (if the cave can it should), you can choose on the next turn to play past that tile (i.e. you don't need to use a turn to move into it), however, if there is another exit you can also choose to play down the new route.

The Cave's Turn

• Always place the Cave tile where you would most want to go.
• A Cave tile is always laid. If it is not possible to lay a tile from the CAVE DECK adjacent to the tile your meeple is on, then lay it on the nearest available cave exit.
• Following the core rules, lay Dark tiles face-down, DO NOT lay a Dark tile adjacent to an unrevealed Dark tile or a tile with a red penalty icon.
• If a Normal Cave tile is drawn, lay adjacent to the tile your meeple is on if possible.

Difficulty Levels

• EASY - Add 8 Normal Cave tiles to the CAVE DECK
• MEDIUM - Add 5 Normal Cave tiles to the CAVE DECK
• HARD - Add 2 Normal Cave tiles to the CAVE DECK
• CRAZY HARD - Add 0 Normal Cave tiles to the CAVE DECK

Expansions

The Lava River Expansion

The Lava River Expansion brings an extra challenge to the Caves of Rwenzori. There are a few ways in which to use the Lava River expansion.

Cutting the board

If you are using the advanced mode play sheet, after every round players take turns to place a lava tile down. One tile per round.

Place the first tile on the Caves of Rwenzori logo at the top of the sheet, the second on the Caves of Rwenzori logo on the bottom of the sheet. Keep placing alternately top and bottom until the river has been joined up cutting the board in two. The river MUST join. When placing the tiles, you can place on top of tiles already laid. You must always move down or up a row, never place lava tiles in the same horizontal level. Using this play mode, NOTHING can pass the lava.

Cutting the passage

Place a lava tile on the tile behind each player cutting them off from going back. There is no save tile to pass lava. Shadow Apes cannot get past lava. Set a timer, and every time the alarm goes off every player has a lava tile placed behind them. 5 and 4 Players = 10 minute timers (use 10 or 8 tiles). 3 Players = 7 minute timers (use 9 tiles), 2 players every 5 minutes (use 10 tiles).

Surrounded!

A simple way to use Lava River Expansion. Set the tiles out to surround the start tiles. Any jump save tile allows access to cross the lava river at one point. Once that person is through, that becomes an open way out for all to use. For set up place the start tiles at the end with the rock fall facing outwards. For 5 player set up also add in a dead end tile. TNT could get you through that but not lava. For 2 and 3 player, the start tiles should be completely surrounded.

Lay the Lava River

If using the play mat, before playing the game, start by taking turns to lay the lava river. The first player places a lava river tile, at either end of the start tile row. Take it in turns until the lava river is laid. Each lava river tile must connect to one that is laid. The Lava River can follow any route. Once the last lava river tile is laid the next player begins play.

The Hidden Passages Expansion

The six hidden passage tiles are shuffled into the game tiles. These can be laid as a normal cave passage, after which you may lay +1 tile.

Or if there are other hidden passage tiles laid, when you lay a hidden passage you may move your meeple to another hidden passage tile of your choice and on to the nearest available cave exit or unrevealed dark tile, where you can immediately lay again or go in blind.

The same applies for moving through a hidden passage. Follow the normal move rules, however, if you can move to a hidden passage tile, you can then move to any other hidden passage tile, and then onto the nearest cave exit or unrevealed dark tile. Unlike the normal move rule where your turn would be over, you can now also lay a tile or go in blind.

The Treasure Hunter Expansion

The Treasure Hunter Expansion is designed to play with the advance mode play sheet and rewards precision cave exploring.

During the set up stage, place the 5 treasure tiles on the play sheet face up on the hexagons marked with a pile of treasure. If you can build into the tile exactly (i.e. you cannot orientate the treasure tile to suit your angle of approach) then on the turn that you lay the connecting tile you are allowed to lay +3 tiles.