Death Valley
Death Valley Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
18 Desert Feature Cards
(3 Animal, 4 Flood, 5 Terrain, 6 Heat)
Card Anatomy
Each Desert Feature Card shows:
- Hazard Type: the icon in the upper-left corner.
- Quantity of this type in the deck: the number beneath the Hazard Type icon.
- Reminder icon for ongoing abilities: a small icon on the lower-left of the card's text box, shown when the card has an ongoing ability.
- Points (if in your Journey at the end of the game): the stars in the upper area of the card.
- Interesting facts: flavor text on the right side of the card.
- Card ability: the rules text at the bottom of the card.
For example, the card Devil's Cornfield has a Heat hazard type, a quantity of 6, is worth 2 points (two stars), has the ongoing-ability reminder icon, and its card ability reads: "After you rest, you may swap the face-up Desert card with a card in your Journey."
Setup
Shuffle all 18 cards together into a deck and place it face down between both players.
Flip the top card face up and place it beside the deck. This face-up card and the top card of the deck form the Desert.
Set aside space for each player's Journey, Scrapbook, and discard pile.
The player who most recently drank water plays first.
Journeys and Scrapbooks
Each player has two rows of cards face up in front of them. The first row, closer to their opponent, is the ever-changing Journey that describes their trip. The Scrapbook is below the Journey, and contains gathered memories.
Cards are always added as the rightmost card in their row. The rows are arranged like a grid, with the leftmost card in a player's Journey directly above the leftmost card in that player's Scrapbook and so on. Whenever cards are removed from a Journey, shift cards to the left as needed to close gaps between remaining cards.
Adjacent: When a card's effect mentions adjacent cards, it refers to that card's orthogonal neighbors directly to the left, right, above, and below. Cards are never adjacent to hidden cards or to the face-up card in the Desert.
Hidden: When a card is hidden underneath another, it loses all attributes (it does not have a hazard type, name, ability, and so on).
Gameplay
Players take turns shaping their Journeys and Scrapbooks until there is only 1 card remaining in the Desert. Each turn, the active player chooses one of the following actions:
Travel: Choose either card in the Desert (the face-up card or the top card of the deck) and add it face up to their own Journey.
Rest: Move one card from their Journey to their Scrapbook. They may then hide additional cards from their Journey underneath that card. They may also shuffle any number of remaining Journey cards back into the deck.
Some cards have abilities that can replace the normal actions above, or that provide additional effects after an action is taken.
End of the Turn
Once a player has taken their action and resolved any after action abilities, they will check to see if they bust, and then refresh the Desert, if needed. Then, their turn ends.
Busting
If the active player has 3 cards of the same hazard type in their Journey and Scrapbook, that player busts and must clear their Journey as follows:
First, they take the rightmost card of that hazard type in their Journey. Then, they flip that card face down and place it in their discard pile. Lastly, they shuffle all remaining cards from their Journey back into the deck. (A player's Scrapbook is not affected when they bust.)
EXAMPLE: The active player has 1 Flood and 2 Heat in their Journey, and 1 Animal and 1 Heat in their Scrapbook (Journey: Badwater Basin, Devil's Cornfield, Eureka Dunes; Scrapbook: Snakes, Super Bloom). Since the 3 Heat cards make them bust, they must discard the rightmost Heat in their Journey (Eureka Dunes) and shuffle the other two Journey cards (Badwater Basin and Devil's Cornfield) back into the deck.
Refresh
If there is no face-up card in the Desert (as it was placed in a player's Journey), flip the top card of the deck to replace it.
Winning the Game
After a turn ends, if there is only 1 card remaining in the Desert, the game ends. Each player scores the visible cards in their Journey and Scrapbook as follows:
- Each star on a Journey card adds one point (ignore stars in Scrapbooks).
- Each card with a scoring ability can add or subtract points from the score.
The player with the most points wins! If players tie, the player who busted the fewest times wins. If they still tie, players share the victory.
Backseat Driver Variant
If you want to really press your luck and give up a little control, try out this variant. When a player Travels in this variant, they may choose to add the face-up card to their opponent's Journey instead of their own. When checking for busting, check to see if either player busts.
Solo Play (Backseat Driver)
Face off against a tireless robotic explorer that never rests in its pursuit of adventure!
Setup: Follow the base game's setup, except that the AI will not build a Scrapbook.
Gameplay: You play first. Take your turns as in the Backseat Driver Variant.
On each of its turns, the AI takes one action based on the face-up card in the Desert:
Check for Bust: If that card would bust you or the AI when added to your respective Journeys, add that card to your Journey.
No Hazard Match: Otherwise, if that card's hazard type doesn't match any of the AI's cards, add it to the AI's Journey.
Hazard Match: Otherwise, that card matches the type of one of the AI's cards. Add the cop card of the deck the AI's Journey.
Card Abilities: Ignore abilities (but not hazard types) on the AI's cards during the game.
Scoring: Score your cards as in the base game. The AI scores 1 point for each star in its Journey, and they score points equal to the positive numbers in the scoring abilities of their cards. For example, they score +2 points for Super Bloom but ignore the -2 on Devil's Golf Course.
Increasing Difficulty: Play with one or both of these modifiers for a harder game.
- The AI scores 1 point per card in each discard pile.
- Unless the AI busted more than you, it wins regardless of score!
Credits
Design: Kevin Ellenburg
Art: Fachri Maulana
Rules Editing: Michael Lee
Solo Design: Kevin Ellenburg & Mike Mullins
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