Landmarks Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Legend
Setup
How to Play
Team vs. Team Rules (Competitive)
Credits

Components

1 cloth island mat
1 tracker board
32 landmark tiles
150 map cards
1 dry-erase marker
1 card stand

Legend

Treasure — Find these and get out alive.
Water — Refill tiles to your water limit.
Trap — Lose a tile, reduce your water limit.
Curse — You lose if you leave while cursed.
Amulet — Cure one curse.
Exit — Leave the jungle and split the treasure.

The Pathfinder is the player giving clues; the Party is everyone else, working together to explore the island.

Setup

Place the island mat in the center, either side up. One side is just a bit more decorated than the other, there's no other difference.
Choose a player to be "The Pathfinder" who will give clues to guide the Party. All other players are "The Party."
Give the marker to the Pathfinder.
The Pathfinder takes 1 map card at random, keeping it hidden from the Party. Use a green card for beginner co-op mode and yellow for regular co-op mode. The red cards are for the competitive mode.
Find the 3 starting words on the map card. Write each of them on a separate tile.
Place these tiles on the corresponding locations of the island mat (with the words face-up). These words are now the first 3 Landmarks you'll use to guide your party to fortune and glory!
Place the tracker board near the Party, co-op side up.
Place 7 blank tiles on the tracker board and keep the rest of the tiles off to the side. Important: The Pathfinder will only write on tiles from the tracker board to give clues to the Party.

How to Play

Prefer a video? See http://floodgate.games/landmarks

In each round, you'll:

Give a Clue — The Pathfinder thinks of a one-word clue, then writes it on a tile taken from the tracker board.
Place the Clue — The Party decides together which space they think the Pathfinder is guiding them to and places the tile in that space.
Explore the Island — The Pathfinder tells the Party what's in the explored space (curse, amulet, trap, water, treasure, nothing, etc.) according to the map. Mark the effect on the tracker board.
Check — See if you've won or lost, ending the game. If not, keep going! Continue to another round so you can further explore (and hopefully eventually leave) the island.

1. Give a Clue

The Pathfinder attempts to guide the Party to an unexplored island space by thinking of a one-word clue to give the Party. Write the one-word clue on a tile taken from the tracker board. This clue should relate to or thematically connect to Landmarks (already written words) on the board, and direct the Party to the space the Pathfinder wants them to explore.

Only one-word clues are permitted ("babysitter" is a valid clue, "heavy metal" is not). Acronyms are ok ("NASA", "SCUBA", etc.), but initialisms which aren't pronounced as words are not ("FBI", "ATM", etc.)
Only write the clue (you can say it, too), with no additional context (don't say something like, "If you watched The Matrix, you'll get this").
Don't use any part of a word that's already written on the board (if "knowledge" is written, you can't say "unknown," "knew," "know-how", etc.).
Clues must relate to the meanings of the words. Don't give clues based on rhymes, number of letters, position of existing words, features of the board, or the direction you want the players to go.

Example: With the Landmarks PIE, MOVIE, and DOLLAR on the board, the clue "CAMERA" relates only to MOVIE, not PIE or DOLLAR — a good clue to guide the party to a space adjacent to MOVIE only. The clue "TICKET" can relate to both DOLLAR and MOVIE — a good clue to guide the party to the space adjacent to both.

2. Place the Clue

The Party discusses which space they think the clue word belongs in (without giving suggestions for future clues, of course). You can explore any space that's adjacent to any existing Landmark. Once the Party agrees, place the tile in that space. This new word becomes a Landmark to help you navigate the island in future rounds.

Example: The clue "AMERICAN" was placed in a spot adjacent to PIE, MOVIE, and DOLLAR because the Party felt it related to all three Landmarks.

3. Explore the Island

The Pathfinder consults the map to see what's in the space the Party has explored. If it's an item or hazard, they announce it ("It's a trap!" or "Treasure!" or "Well, well, well, what's this?" or "Nothing here, let's keep going") and applies the effect:

Treasure — Mark 1 treasure on the tracker board. There are 3 in a beginner game, 4 in a standard game. Find as many as you can before you leave the island.
Curse — When you uncover your first curse, you must uncover an amulet before you can leave the island. If you can't, or you find a second curse, you lose immediately.
Amulet — Cures 1 curse, allowing you to ignore its effect. Whether you find it before or after a curse, mark it on the tracker board and ignore the first curse you find.
Trap — Causes you to remove 1 tile from the tracker board and permanently reduce your water refill limit (on the tracker board: X-out the top water limit space that doesn't have an X in it).
Water — Refill tiles on the tracker board from the tiles on the side. You can have tiles on the board up to the number of water limit spaces that aren't X'd out.

Example: Placing AMERICAN revealed an amulet — if the Party later discovers a curse, they'll be safe from it. The next clue is CANADIAN, and the Party places it next to AMERICAN only. This space reveals a trap: remove a tile from the tracker board and X-out the top water limit space (permanently reducing how many tiles you'll refill to when finding water).

If you've found a water space, refill tiles on the tracker board so there are a number equal to your water refill limit (found at the top-right of the tracker board), then continue to the next round.

On the island, water is life! If you run out of tiles on the tracker board before finding the exit, you'll die (and lose)!

Important! The Pathfinder may only reveal what's discovered in the new space, not whether or not it was the space they intended.

4. Continue Your Trek

If you did not find the exit and you don't have any more tiles on the tracker board, you LOSE. Try again, and maybe stop for water more next time? Otherwise, continue your trek by playing the next round!

If you did find the exit:

With more curses than amulets, you LOSE. Try again, you got this!
Otherwise, check to see how you did:

Treasures Found	Result
0	You LOSE!
1	I suppose that's a win…
2	Solid Success
3	Impressive Feat
4*	Legendary Victory!

* Regular mode only.

Team vs. Team Rules (Competitive)

Split up into 2 teams of 2 players or more. Choose 1 red competitive map card, use the COMPETITIVE side of the tracker board, and follow the standard game rules with a few exceptions. The first team to find 4 treasures (without being cursed) WINS!

Overview

The 2 teams are competing against each other to find 4 treasures before the other team. Both teams have a Pathfinder, both referencing the same map card. Randomly select a team to decide which team goes first; the team going second begins the game with 1 amulet — mark off 1 space on their side of the tracker board.
Teams take turns where their Pathfinder gives a one-word clue, writing it on a blank tile, and having their team's Party decide where to place it. New clues can relate to any Landmark tile on the island.
Tiles are not kept on the tracker board, use any blank tiles to give clues.
There are no water spaces, traps, or exit on the map.

Finding Treasures

There are 4 green team treasures, 4 blue team treasures, and 2 gold treasures (which will be claimed by whoever finds them).
Every revealed team treasure is claimed by the team whose color matches it, no matter which team finds it. The gold treasures are neutral and are claimed by the team that reveals them.

Curses, Amulets, & Winning!

The team going second starts with 1 amulet. This means they can find 1 curse and ignore its effect. As normal, a revealed amulet goes to whichever team found it, but so do curses.
The first team to have a curse that can't be ignored by finding an amulet (because the amulet was already found) LOSES and the other team WINS!
The first team without a curse to find 4 treasures (in any combination of their team color and gold treasures), WINS. If your team is cursed when their 4th treasure is found, you LOSE and the other team WINS. Be sure to find the amulet before your 4th treasure is found (by you or the other team)!

Credits

Game Design: Danilo Valente & Rodrigo Rego
Illustration: Aeron Ng
Visual Design: KOMBOH / Michael Mateyko
Writing: Nathan Thornton
Editing: William Niebling
Development: Ben Harkins, Rich Gain, Ian Birdsall
Publisher: Floodgate Games