Mountains of Madness Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Overview and Goal of the Game
• Game Elements
  • Mountain Board
  • Player Board
  • Sled Board
  • Airplane Figurine
  • Leadership Tokens
  • Penalty Die
  • Relic Tokens
  • Encounter Tiles
  • Equipment Cards
  • Arcane Equipment Cards
  • Injury Cards
  • Relic Cards
  • Madness Cards
• Setting Up the Game
• Gameplay
  • Movement Phase
    • The "Edge of Madness" Tile
    • Discarding a Leadership Token
    • Empty Tile Space
  • Encounter Phase
    • Action
    • Discarding a Leadership Token (Encounter Phase)
    • Playing an Injury Card
  • Resolution Phase
    • Overcoming a Challenge
    • Success
    • Failures
    • Drawing a Madness Card
    • Rolling the Penalty Die
    • Discarding a Leadership Token (Resolution Phase)
    • End of the Resolution Phase
  • Draw Phase
    • Discarding a Leadership Token (Draw Phase)
  • Rest Phase (optional)
  • End of Phase
• The End of the Game
• Expert Variant

Contents

• 1 Mountain board
• 5 double-sided Player Boards
• 1 Airplane figurine
• 1 Sand Timer (30 seconds)
• 1 Sled board
• 6 Leadership tokens
• 1 Penalty die
• 36 Encounter tiles: Coast x12, Mountain x8, City x4, Edge of Madness x4, Escape x8
• 66 Madness cards (including 6 blank ones): x20, x20, x20 (plus 6 blank)
• 11 Relic tokens: Specimen x4, Ruin x4, Knowledge x3
• 48 Equipment cards: Crates x10, Tools x10, Weapons x10, Books x10, Arcane Equipment x8
• 11 Relic cards: Specimen x4, Ruin x4, Knowledge x3
• 15 Injury cards

Overview and Goal of the Game

The goal of your expedition is to recover the relics hidden on the mountain. What you do not yet know is that it also hides terrible secrets that are better left untouched.

As members of this strange expedition, you will face challenges whose horror you cannot fully comprehend. By using the equipment on your cards, you must work together to overcome these horrifying challenges. Do your best, since time matters! Each challenge overcome makes the road to victory easier, but if — despite your best efforts — you do not succeed, you will suffer injuries or even lose your sanity. The closer you get to the summit, the greater your madness will become. And as madness seizes each member of your team, it becomes that much harder to communicate with each other, as you head towards your inevitable demise…

If, by chance, you manage to escape, you will need to assess your team. At the end of the game, if you have more Relic cards (Specimen, Ruin, Knowledge) than Injuries, your expedition was a success and you win the game. If the opposite is true, the expedition turned out to be much too costly for the few discoveries made and you lose the game. But that is nothing compared to losing all hope of surviving in this hostile terrain…

Game Elements

Mountain Board

The game board represents the mountain that you are trying to scale, starting from the coast and ultimately escaping by airplane off the summit.

The board features: Injury Deck, Arcane Equipment Deck, Relic Deck, Leadership token discard area, Mountain Tiles, Coast Tiles, Challenge Values, City Tiles, Edge of Madness tile, Equipment Deck, Escape Tiles, Equipment discard, Sand timer space, Level 3 Madness deck, Level 2 Madness deck, and Level 1 Madness deck.

Player Board

The double-sided Player Boards represent the characters you can play during your expedition on the mountain. A player aid is also on each Player Board.

Sled Board

The Sled Board goes in front of the Leader for the current turn. Two spaces are drawn on this board: the round space is for the Leadership tokens available, and the rectangular space is for Equipment cards played during the Encounter Phase.

Airplane Figurine

The Airplane indicates which part of the mountain you are exploring on the current turn. You move it from place to place, following the path you wish to take on your expedition.

Leadership Tokens

These tokens represent the Leader's ability to motivate the group. They can be used in different ways to facilitate your ascent. You may only use them when they are on the Sled Board. After you use a token, place it in the Leadership token discard area. Sometimes you will need to return a Leadership token to the box, out of play.

You should use these sparingly: If you have to return the last token to the box, the expedition loses all hope of surviving in the hostile terrain and you lose the game as Madness defeats you!

Penalty Die

The Penalty Die, as its name suggests, determines what Penalties you suffer during the game. There are 3 faces: Accident, Confusion, and Loss of Confidence.

Suffice it to say that rolling the die is never a good thing!

Relic Tokens

These tokens remind you that the mountain is cruel, and reduce your abilities as a Leader bit by bit when they cover parts of your Player Board.

• Specimen token
• Knowledge token
• Ruin token (covers Crates, Tools, Weapons, or Books)

Encounter Tiles

The Encounter tiles show the places you can explore during the game. There are 4 different regions of increasing hostility: Coast, Mountain, City, and Edge of Madness.

Each tile shows the following information:

• Name of the tile
• Excerpt from the book that inspired this game that relates to the tile
• Challenge Values you must overcome:
  • Type of equipment required
  • Value of equipment required (exact or range)
• Reward if you succeed

There are also Escape tiles, which represent the last places you explore while trying to escape from the Mountain. These tiles have the same elements as the other Encounter tiles, except they do not always have a Reward if you succeed.

Equipment Cards

Equipment cards represent the various gear available to you while scaling the mountain: Crates, Tools, Weapons, and Books.

Each Equipment card has a value from 2 to 6. There are ten cards of each type of Equipment (2 per value). They each also have a name and an excerpt from the book that inspired this game.

Each card shows: Value, Type of Equipment, Name, and Excerpt.

Arcane Equipment Cards

These cards are used just like Equipment cards. The only difference is that they are of better quality, since they each have a value of 10. At the beginning of the game, they are stacked in their own deck. You must discover them during the expedition in order to add them to the Equipment card deck.

(Examples: Elder Sign, Alien Device, Fungal Honey, Necronomicon.)

Injury Cards

Injury cards represent your physical condition. The further the Expedition progresses, the more Injury cards you will receive, and the more you will be handicapped. Take care not to receive too many Injuries or the Mountain will get the better of you!

Relic Cards

Relic cards are the reason for your expedition: they can win you the game. Relics come in three categories: Specimen, Ruin, and Knowledge. Every Relic card shows:

• An action you must take immediately when you acquire the card
• And a constraint that will affect you for the rest of the game.

When you gain a Relic card, leave it face up in front of you. It is not part of your hand.

Madness Cards

These cards represent the degradation of your sanity, and describe more and more challenging madnesses that deteriorate your ability to communicate. They each show:

• A level,
• A name,
• A description of the Madness.

Always leave your Madness card(s) face down near your Player Board. They are not part of your hand. Only you can know what they say. Do not show them to other players!

Madness cards affect your ability to communicate during the Encounter Phase (while the Sand Timer is running) by imposing certain restrictions on you. You may never discuss your Madness with the other players: When the Sand Timer is not running, you must act as though you do not recall acting strangely. Other players can only speculate about the Madness that controls you.

Each Madness card shows a Level, a Name, and a Description of the Madness. There are three levels: Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3.

Setting Up the Game

1. Place the Mountain Board in the middle of the table.

2. Choose a Player Board and put it in front of you, with whatever side you wish up.

3. Sort the Encounter Tiles by type and place them randomly on the matching spaces of the board, face down. Use: Coast x11, Mountain x7, City x3, Edge of Madness x1, Escape x3. Return the unused tiles to the box without revealing them.

4. Make a face-up Injury Card deck.

5. Make a face-up Arcane Equipment Card deck.

6. Make a face-up Relic Card deck.

7. Shuffle the Equipment Cards and make a face-down deck.

8. Draw as many Injury Cards as there are players. Put them face up in the Equipment discard.

9. Sort the Madness Cards by level and shuffle each stack separately to make three face-down decks.

10. Deal each player a number of Equipment Cards according to the number of players:

    • 3 players: deal 5 cards each
    • 4 players: deal 4 cards each
    • 5 players: deal 3 cards each

    Keep these cards in your hand. You can look at them, but do not show them to other players.

11. Put the Sand Timer on its space.

12. Put the Penalty Die and the Relic Tokens near the board.

13. The player who most recently reached the summit of a mountain assumes the role of Leader for the first turn. Put the Airplane and the Sled Board in front of them and put 6 Leadership Tokens on the corresponding space of the Sled Board.

14. The Leader deals Madness cards to players, according to the number of players:

    • 3 players: deal no Madness cards
    • 4 players: deal one Level 1 Madness card to each player except the first Leader
    • 5 players: deal one Level 1 Madness card to each player

Gameplay

The game plays over several consecutive turns. Each turn has 5 phases:

Turn Overview: Movement, Encounter, Resolution, Draw, Rest (optional).

Movement Phase

During the Movement Phase, the Leader decides which direction to move the expedition. Over the course of the game, you start from the Coast, scale the Mountain, enter the City, and reach the Edge of Madness before making your escape across the sky.

NOTE: On the 1st turn, you must start on any one of the Coast tiles at the bottom of the board. The Leader puts the chosen tile in front of them and puts the Airplane on the now-empty space before proceeding to the Encounter Phase.

Example: You are the first Leader. You decide to begin the expedition by placing the Airplane on one of the Coast tiles accessible on the 1st turn (the bottom row).

Discussion: You can make this decision collectively. Take the time to reflect on the best direction to take. But, even if everyone else disagrees, the Leader has the final say since they are the one who moves the Airplane.

Decision: Once the decision is made, the Leader chooses a space adjacent to the one the Airplane is on. If the space where the airplane moved had a tile (now in front of the leader), you will face the Challenges on the tile during this Phase. If you moved the plane to a space that didn't have a tile (because you were there earlier in the game), you will face the Challenges on the space instead. Most of the time you will be facing the Challenges on the tile. These Challenges will be a surprise when the tile is turned face up. You can decide to continue the ascent, to descend, or to stay on the same level, but you cannot stay on the same space. Proceed to the Encounter Phase.

Example: As the Leader, you can move the Plane onto any adjacent space, whether it is empty or has a tile.

The "Edge of Madness" Tile

Once the expedition has reached the Edge of Madness tile, you can no longer descend. You must now escape by moving onto the next Escape tile for each of the next 3 turns. At the end of the turn where you moved onto the 3rd Escape tile, the expedition escapes from the mountain (see "The End of the Game").

Discarding a Leadership Token

During the Movement Phase, the Leader can decide to discard one or more Leadership tokens. Every token discarded allows one player, chosen by the Leader, to ignore their Madness card(s) for the rest of the turn. Move any discarded Leadership tokens from the Sled Board to the Leadership token discard area on the board.

Empty Tile Space

If you move onto a space without a tile, there is no reward to gain but you still have two challenges to overcome. You therefore still risk suffering Failures.

Encounter Phase

The Encounter Phase begins as soon as the Leader turns over the Encounter tile in front of them and ends as soon as the Sand Timer runs out.

Discussion: First, turn over the Sand Timer, and, if necessary, turn over the Encounter tile in front of the Leader. From this moment on, all players with a Madness card must apply its effect and play accordingly!

The current Encounter tile or space occupied by the Airplane shows two or three Challenges, represented by symbols for Crates, Tools, Weapons, and Books.

These symbols are always accompanied by a number or range of numbers, called the "Challenge Value". This indicates the total quantity of equipment required to overcome the Challenge.

Example: A tile shows two Challenges to overcome. To succeed, you will need a total of between 10 and 12 Weapons and an exact total of 14 Crates.

You only have the time allotted by the Sand Timer to gather the necessary Equipment. Use this time to discuss which Equipment you have in hand and are able to spend to overcome the Challenges. Your team is united, so you can share all of the information present on your cards without actually showing anyone else your cards.

There are two rules you must follow no matter what:

1. The text on your Madness card(s) overrules all other rules.
2. Most of the time, Equipment cards in your hand must remain a secret.
3. The only time you are able to communicate anything about them is during the Encounter Phase while the Sand Timer is running, before any cards have been played. Any discussion relating to cards in your hand during any other time is strictly forbidden.

Action

At any time during this Phase, any player may play Equipment and/or Injury cards (see Playing an Injury Card) from their hand face down on the Sled Board. All players must immediately cease all communication.

All players can continue to play cards from their hand face down on the Sled Board, without communicating in any way with the other players, until the Sand Timer runs out completely. You can play cards in the order of your choice, even playing multiple cards or adding cards after others have played.

IMPORTANT: If a player speaks while communication is forbidden, you must immediately roll the Penalty Die and apply its effects (see Penalty Die).

Example: In an expedition with three players, you feel that discussions must end before it's too late to act, playing 2 cards face down on the Sled. Everyone stops talking. Danforth adds 2 cards, while Dyer adds no cards. Before the Sand Timer ends, Danforth decides to add 1 last card.

Once the Sand Timer runs out, stay silent for a couple seconds to give the Leader time to decide if they will discard a Leadership token or not. The Leader must make this decision alone.

Discarding a Leadership Token (Encounter Phase)

When the Sand Timer runs out, the Leader has several seconds to decide whether they will discard a Leadership token. If they decide to discard one, they take a Leadership token from the Sled Board and place it in the Leadership token discard.

A token discarded in this way allows you to restart the Encounter Phase. Flip over the sand timer and start the Phase over. This means players can talk again up to the point when one player plays a card. The Leader can use multiple tokens to restart this Phase multiple times, each time making the decision when the timer has run out.

The effects of Leadership tokens discarded in this turn's Movement Phase remain active during the entire Encounter Phase, even if you prolong it by discarding Leadership tokens.

Playing an Injury Card

Injury cards are parasitic cards: Their only purpose is to inefficiently fill your hand. You can, however, play them during the Encounter Phase just like Equipment cards to get them out of your hand. However, they might return to a player's hand if they are not healed before the Rest Phase.

Resolution Phase

The Resolution Phase begins as soon as the Sand Timer runs out. During this Phase, you will determine if you successfully overcame the challenges you faced in the previous Phase, then gain any earned Reward, and finally suffering any potential Failures.

Overcoming a Challenge

The Leader reveals all of the cards played on the Sled Board and compares them to the Challenge Values of each Challenge:

• If the total value of the cards matching the required Equipment type equals (or falls within the range of) the required Challenge Value, the challenge was a SUCCESS.
• If the total value of the cards matching the required Equipment type is above or below the required Challenge Value, the challenge was a FAILURE.

Example: The Airplane is on the space that had the Seals tile, which requires 7 to 9 Tools and 7 to 9 Books. You reveal the 5 cards played on the Sled: There is a Barometer 6 (Tools), Scales 3 (Tools), Laboratory Equipment 4 (Books), Pencils 2 (Books), and an Injury. You succeed in the Tools Challenge, but you failed the Books Challenge.

Success

If you successfully overcome at least one of the Challenges on the Encounter tile, you gain the reward shown on the bottom-right corner of the tile.

There are different types of Rewards offered on Encounter tiles: Relic, Search, Arcane Equipment, Heal, Praise.

Relic (Specimen/Ruin/Knowledge)

The Leader takes the card listed from the deck of Relic cards, and chooses one player (including themselves) who takes the Relic card and places it face up in front of them. This card is not part of the player's hand, but has a direct impact on this player when they are the Leader.

If you receive a Relic card, you must immediately draw a Madness card (see "Drawing a Madness Card"). Also, take the Relic token that matches the card you received and place it on your Player Board, covering the space indicated by the card. You cannot use a Leadership Token during this Phase for the rest of the game.

You can have several Relic cards in front of you. If you receive a Knowledge card when you already have at least one in front of you, do not take another Knowledge token.

Example: You succeeded against at least one of the two Challenges on the Icy Cape tile, which rewarded your expedition with the Specimen B card. The Leader takes the card from the Relic card deck and chooses to give it to you. You place it in front of you, then you put your Level 1 Madness card back in the box and draw a card from the Level 2 Madness deck which you place face down in front of you. Finally, you take a Specimen token, which you place on your Player Board covering the "RESOLUTION PHASE" in the Leadership Token column.

Search

The Search ability lets you scope out a section of the mountain before traveling there. The Leader chooses a face down Encounter tile. This tile does not have to be adjacent to the one the Airplane is on. Turn over this tile at the same time as the Sand Timer. You now have 30 seconds to memorize the information on the tile (without moving the Airplane). Once the Sand Timer runs out, turn the tile back face down. You cannot discard Leadership tokens to turn over the Sand timer and look at the tile again.

Arcane Equipment

The Leader chooses an Arcane Equipment card of his choice from the deck of Arcane Equipment cards and adds it to the Equipment card discard pile.

Heal

Look in the Equipment card discard pile for an Injury card. If there is at least one, put it back in the Injury card deck. You can heal an Injury card played during this turn.

Praise

Take up to two Leadership tokens from the discard area and put them back on the Sled Board.

Failures

After potentially gaining your reward, you must suffer any Failures you got this turn.

For each Challenge you failed to overcome, the Leader chooses one of these consequences:

1. One player chosen by the Leader draws a Madness card (see "Drawing a Madness Card"). NOTE: If all players already have a Level 3 Madness card, you cannot choose this consequence. You must therefore choose consequence 2: the Leader rolls the Penalty die.
2. The Leader rolls the Penalty die (see "Rolling the Penalty Die").

If you must suffer multiple Failures, choose the consequence for the first Failure and apply it. Then choose the consequence for the second Failure and apply it. Continue in this way until you have suffered the required number of Failures. You can choose the order of the Challenges for which you must suffer a consequence.

Unlike Rewards, which you can only earn a single time per Encounter tile, you must suffer a Failure each time you fail a Challenge.

Drawing a Madness Card

The Mountain is making you more and more mad, endlessly penetrating your spirit and degrading your sanity. Madness cards affect your ability to communicate during the Encounter Phase (while the Sand Timer is running) by imposing certain restrictions on you. It is very likely that one of you will have to draw a Madness card during a turn (whether by failing a Challenge or by gaining a Relic card).

• If you must draw a Madness card and you don't have any, draw a Level 1 Madness.
• If you must draw a Madness card and you already have a Level 1 or 2 Madness, put your card back in the box and draw a card from the next level up.
• If you already have a Level 3 Madness, the Leader cannot choose you to draw a new Madness card.

If all players already have a Level 3 Madness card when one must be drawn, discard a Leadership token from the Sled Board instead. If there are no more Leadership tokens on the sled, put a Leadership token from the discard back in the box instead. If you must put your last Leadership token back in the box, the expedition is lost (see "The End of the Game")!

You can never talk about your Madness with the other players. When the Sand Timer is not running, you must act as though you do not recall acting strangely. Other players can only speculate about the Madness that controls you.

Rolling the Penalty Die

When the Leader chooses to roll the Penalty die, you only get one roll. You must then apply the effect indicated by the symbol on the die:

Accident: Draw 2 Injury cards from the Injury card deck and add them to the Equipment card discard pile. If you must draw an Injury and the Injury card deck is empty, the expedition succumbs to the harsh terrain (see "The End of the Game")!

Confusion: Draw a number of cards from the Equipment deck equal to the difference between the total value of cards played with the required Equipment type and the Challenge Value number or range. If the total is less than the range, refer to the lower number. If the total is more than the range, refer to the higher number. Discard all of the cards drawn.

Loss of Confidence: Discard 2 Leadership tokens from the Sled Board. If there are less than 2 Leadership tokens on the sled before the Loss of Confidence, return 1 token to the box instead. If you must return your last Leadership token to the box, the expedition collapses to infighting and strife (see "The End of the Game")!

Example: You seriously lack coordination. On the Bleak Coast, you supplied 11 Weapons and 5 Crates. Both Challenges ended in failure. Every player already has a Level 3 Madness. The only possible consequence then is to roll the die for these two Challenges. The Leader decides to roll the die for the Crates Challenge first. He rolls Loss of Confidence. He decides to discard the last Leadership token to reroll the die. Unfortunately, the die shows the same result! You must now suffer Confusion, and discard the first 3 cards from the Equipment deck (8-5=3). Now he rolls the die for the other failed Challenge. He rolls Accident. You draw 2 Injuries from the Injury deck and put them in the Equipment card discard.

Discarding a Leadership Token (Resolution Phase)

During the Resolution Phase, the Leader can decide to discard one or more Leadership tokens from the Sled Board and place them in the Leadership token discard.

Each token discarded in this way lets the Leader ignore the result of the Penalty Die and reroll it. He then applies this new result or discards another Leadership token. The Leader can discard a token then wait to see the new result of the die before discarding another token.

End of the Resolution Phase

• Discard all cards played during the Encounter Phase.
• Set aside the Encounter tile: It is no longer in play.

Draw Phase

The Leader deals Equipment cards to every player (including themselves) from the Equipment deck until all players reach the hand size limit or the deck is empty.

• 3 players: each player can have up to 5 cards in hand.
• 4 players: each player can have up to 4 cards in hand.
• 5 players: each player can have up to 3 cards in hand.

If there are not enough cards in the deck for everyone to reach the hand size limit, the Leader chooses who receives cards.

Discarding a Leadership Token (Draw Phase)

During the Draw Phase, the Leader can decide to discard one or more Leadership tokens from the Sled Board and place them in the Leadership token discard.

Each token discarded in this way increases the hand size limit for all players by 1 card until the next Draw Phase. They then deal an extra card to everyone to reach this new limit.

If there are not enough cards in the deck for everyone to reach the new hand size limit, the Leader chooses who receives cards.

It is possible (and allowed) for you to exceed the hand size limit if you do not play Equipment cards the turn after a Leadership token was discarded in this way. However, you do not draw or receive new Equipment cards as long as you remain above the permitted limit.

Rest Phase (optional)

This is the only moment when you can breathe a little in this hostile terrain… As the Leader, you can decide to have the expedition take advantage of a moment's rest.

If you decide to do so, follow these three steps in order:

1. Take 1 Leadership token (either from the discard area or from the Sled Board).
2. Move any remaining Leadership tokens in the discard pile to the Sled Board.
3. Shuffle the Equipment card discard pile with the rest of the Equipment card deck and make a new Equipment deck that you put back on the board, face down.

IMPORTANT: If you only have one Leadership token remaining (either in the discard pile or on the Sled Board) you cannot take a Rest Phase, since doing so would require you to put your last Leadership token in the box and therefore lose the game.

End of Phase

If the Airplane is now on the third Escape tile, the expedition escapes the Mountain (see "The End of the Game")! Otherwise, whether you rested or not, the Leader passes the Sled Board to the player on their left, who will be the Leader for the next turn.

The End of the Game

The expedition to the Mountains of Madness can end in several ways:

• If you must return your last Leadership token to the box, you immediately lose the game.

  "You lost all hope of survival, lost in this cruel vastness."

• If you must draw an Injury card and the Injury deck is empty, you immediately lose the game.

  "Weakened and overwhelmed with injuries, the group struggles to advance. In the end, this inhospitable Mountain will get the better of you."

• If you are on the third Escape tile at the end of a turn, you managed to escape the Mountain.

  • If the expedition gathered fewer Relic cards than there are Injury cards in the Equipment deck, Equipment discard, and all players' hands combined, you lose the game.

    "You returned alive, certainly. But at what cost? The few scientific discoveries are not worth the heavy losses you suffered."

  • If the expedition gathered as many or more Relic cards than there are Injury cards in the Equipment deck, Equipment discard, and all players' hands combined, you won the game!

    "You returned alive. Maybe you'll never be the same, after seeing such horrors. But the discoveries you uncovered have an immeasurable scientific value. The whole world is talking about you."

To measure the success of your expedition, refer to the table below (Number of Relic cards minus Number of Injury cards → Result):

Number of Relic cards minus Number of Injury cards	Result
Less than 0	Embarrassed by the failure of the expedition, you are forced to resign your post at the University.
0	Protected by tenure, you keep your post… barely.
Between 1 and 3	Your discoveries appear in several journals, but have little impact.
Between 4 and 7	Suddenly famous, you are the toast of academia thanks to your finds.
Between 8 and 10	You tour the world giving presentations of your remarkable finds.
11	Your irrefutable proof of pre-human civilizations has overturned centuries of historical thought!

Expert Variant

After several successful expeditions, if entering the Mountains of Madness doesn't present the same challenge as it used to for you, you can add this rule which will make your expeditions much more daring:

When you must draw a Madness card of the next level, do not discard the card you already have. During the Encounter Phase, you must apply the effects of all the Madness cards you have.

If any Madness cards contradict each other, refer to the higher level card.