Near and Far FAQ
247 questions players ask · Updated Nov 10, 2026 · Full rulebook
Overview
- Can you lose a quest or die in Near and Far?
- What is the goal of Near and Far?
- Is there a solo mode for Near and Far?
- Are Quest 129 and Side Quest Q9 missing content from the storybook?
- Do all storybook stories have reaction text for failure as well as success?
- Is there hidden information between players in Near and Far?
Setup and Components
- Does a player's camp color affect their faction?
- What carries over from one game to the next in Campaign or Character Mode?
- What is the symbol card in the rulebook?
- Does the first player token change hands during the game?
- How is the starting player chosen at setup?
- How many quest tokens are placed on the map at setup?
- Does Pack Bird Breeding count a pack bird you buy during the same Stables visit?
- Are bread, fish and bacon different types of food?
- Are the Chief cards optional in setup?
- What are pack tortoises, and are they used in standard setup?
- Which spaces get quest tokens during setup?
- Does Storytelling's bonus apply if you are tied for the highest reputation?
Playing the Game
- Do you keep keywords from a failed quest in Character Mode?
- When a choice requires two keywords joined by 'and', must you have both?
- Do keywords pay off rarely in Campaign Mode, and is that intended?
- Do adventurers and pets carry over between maps, and do they have names or stories?
- Is there a limit on how many hearts you can spend to boost a roll?
- Can you spend hearts to raise a die roll on a card or talent, such as Spelunking or Fire Bomb?
- Can you use hearts left over from a journey, or from a newly recruited adventurer, in a duel in town?
- After an artifact lets you re-roll, must you use the new result?
- After losing a duel and going to jail, can you visit an occupied building on your next turn?
- Do all players have to visit town during the first round of the game?
- What happens when you run out of hearts while adventuring?
A Player's Turn
- Do you pay a heart for the empty space you leave or the one you enter, and what about your starting space?
- Do you pay hearts for the whole move up front, or as you go?
- What happens if you fail to defeat a threat while moving, and is the heart you spent refunded?
- When you lose a threat, do you pay the heart to step onto the empty space before it?
- If you spend hearts to beat a threat, do you stay past it or go back?
- Can you cross the same threat or treasure space more than once in one turn?
- Does collecting a treasure or winning a fight end your turn?
- Does unused movement carry over to your next turn, and must you use all of it?
- Can you move through other players' camps on the map without paying hearts?
- Does moving through your own camp save a movement point?
- Is a threat or treasure still active when camps sit on both neighboring spaces?
- What happens when every threat card has been defeated or the threat deck runs out?
- Do you place a tent on every threat card you defeat?
- Does a Shield skill let you skip several threats in one turn?
- Can you sacrifice a pack bird or use a shield after you have rolled a threat fight?
- When a pack bird is returned to pass a threat, does it go back to the Stables or out of the game?
- When you sacrifice pack birds, are the treasures attached to them discarded?
- If you sacrifice a pack bird mid-turn, does your movement drop for the rest of that turn?
- Can you buy more than one pack bird in a single turn, or several food for several birds in one visit?
- Can you replace a pack bird with a pack tortoise, and do you keep the treasure the bird carried?
- At the Mystic's Hut with every treasure slot full, can you look at the new treasure before choosing what to discard?
- Do you have to discard a treasure every time you gain a new one?
- Do you have to perform a building's action when you visit it, or can you skip it?
- If a card gives you food for visiting the Stables, can you spend that food on a bird in the same visit?
- When can you buy artifact cards during your turn, and can you buy more than one?
- Is the reputation requirement on an artifact card spent when you buy it?
- Do banners on purchased artifact cards count toward adventurer discounts or claiming a Chief?
- What is food used for in Near and Far?
- Do skills on purchased artifacts, treasures and world cards count toward the Farm and the Mine?
- Do you pay hearts to build a camp in the mine?
- Does mining earn eye symbols the way camps do?
- What do the small reputation (fire) icons in the mine mean?
- When Spelunking gives you an extra gem, must you be on a gem space in the mine?
- How many coins or gems do you get when you build a camp on a coin or gem space?
- Can you keep moving after building a camp in the same turn?
- Can you attempt a quest and then build a camp on the same space, whether you pass or fail?
- Does attempting a quest end your whole turn, and can you move on afterwards?
- Must you attempt a quest when you reach its token, and does failing it end your turn?
- Can you attempt a second quest in one turn, including when a quest reward moves your character?
- Where can a quest reward that moves your character put you, and can you build a camp there?
- Can you attempt a quest if your party has no swords or skill for it?
- Can you spend extra hearts to reach a quest's bonus, and do you get both base and bonus rewards?
- Do you have to declare the bonus option before rolling on a quest?
- Is there a limit on how many quests a player may attempt in a game?
- If a quest tells you to turn immediately to another quest, do you complete one quest or two?
- Do side quests carry over to the next map in a campaign?
- If you fail a side quest, can you try it again later, and is it marked as completed?
- After you complete a side quest at a named location, do you discard its quest token?
- How else can you get faction tokens besides trading?
- Do the swords on a defeated threat card count toward your combat total?
- Does the Adorable Kitten's heart bonus apply if you build a camp after ending on an empty space?
- Do treasure and artifact effects that say 'build a camp' apply to camps placed in the mine or on threat cards?
- What does the rainbow symbol on the Dice Tower promo adventurers mean?
- Can you trade many goods for many goods at the Town Hall?
- Can you trade any token type for another at the Town Hall, such as coins for gems, and do the board's columns restrict it?
- Can a Town Hall trade overpay, with no change given back?
- Can you choose only some of the actions when you visit the Town Hall?
- Can you spend coins or gems at the Town Hall to gain or lose reputation, and do it again in the same visit?
- Can you exchange gems for coins at the Town Hall more than once in a turn?
- Can you trade five gems for five coins in one Town Hall trade?
- How are multi-unit food and coin tokens counted when trading?
- At the General Store, can you take every offered item or only one?
- Do you score a trade route if you have built only one end of it?
- Is dueling mandatory when visiting the Saloon?
- Is the Saloon adventurer row refilled right away when you recruit an adventurer?
- Can you refresh the row, recruit and duel in one Saloon visit?
- Can faction banner discounts take an adventurer's cost below zero, and do you get paid for recruiting?
- Do adventurers in reserve count toward skills and combat?
- When can you change your active party?
- Can you move or remove your animal companion in your active party?
- Can you stay in town for another turn, and what happens if the building you want is occupied?
- How do you return to town from the map, and what can you do when you get there?
- Can you leave town and keep moving in the same turn?
- When do your hearts reset, and do you start the game with any?
- When you leave town, do leftover hearts from the last trip add to your new total?
- Do hearts from a treasure, artifact or adventurer you gain on the map count right away?
- In a town duel, does the loser stay in the building, and what happens if the active player loses?
- Can the defender spend hearts in a duel?
- When several players are in one town building, who must you duel, and who picks the defender?
- Does the defender go to jail if they lose a duel?
- Do you move your standee to a building when you win a duel there?
- Can more than one character occupy a space on the map, and does arriving on an occupied space start a duel?
Game End
- Does the game end as soon as someone places their 14th camp?
- Does the game end only after all quest tokens are taken from the map?
- Which direction do turns go, and who gets the last turn when the game ends?
- Is there an overall winner after a whole campaign?
- If you place your 14th camp on a defeated threat card, does the game end immediately?
- Can you place more than 14 camps if you run out?
- What if no one can place a camp because the mine, board and threats are full?
- Do you score 5 points for owning three treasure cards at game end?
- How do you score journey points for coins and gems at game end?
- How is a tie for score broken?
Game Modes
- Is Story Mode the same as Character Mode?
- How long do Campaign Mode and Character Mode last?
- Can you play a single map as a one-off game using its storybook stories?
- Can you combine Campaign Mode and Character Mode in one playthrough?
- How many maps does Character Mode take?
- When does a Character Mode player switch to Arcade Mode cards?
- What happens in Campaign Mode when every experience box on your card is filled?
- Do World Cards carry over from one map or game to the next in a campaign?
- In Character Mode, do you still gain experience and move your story on after failing a quest?
- Do you gain experience for a failed quest in Campaign Mode?
- How much experience do you earn per quest in Character Mode versus Campaign Mode?
- Can a new player join a campaign partway through?
- What do you do when a campaign player misses a session?
- Can some players skip Character Mode games while others play every game?
- Do Character Mode and Campaign Mode share stories or characters?
- In two-player Character Mode, how many games does it take for both players to finish their 8 character quests?
- What carries over from one campaign or character game to the next?
- How do you move from one campaign map to the next?
- Do side quests count toward experience, and do they replace the regular quest on that space?
- Do you get a side quest if you fail the quest that rewards it?
- Do unfinished side quests carry over into the next game or map?
- Do pack birds refill between campaign games?
- How many quest tokens does the Extra Stories variant add?
- Do hearts granted as a quest reward go into your heart total right away?
- Can you read the story for a quest that has no quest token placed?
- Does the campaign include Map 1, and does it count toward campaign experience?
- In Character Mode, can you go to The Last Ruin before every player has finished their first eight quests?
- Do you gain experience for Arcade Mode cards in Character Mode?
- What does the 'keep this card' text on an Arcade quest's treasure bonus do?
- Do all encounter boxes on the campaign card have to be filled by the Last Ruin game to get the 7 bonus points?
Character Cards
- What does the HAT keyword option on Shardling's S10 do?
- Can you use Rin and Eyim in the same game, and is Rin and Shardling only for two players?
- Do you read every story entry of a character in Character Mode?
- Does the Bounty Hunting talent let you choose the threat before or after rolling?
- When can you spend experience on talents in Character Mode?
- In Kiku's Character Mode, how do you reach quest K9?
- How do you get the Platypus animal companion?
- Do Martial Arts and Taunting add to threat fights as well as duels?
- Do Martial Arts and Taunting apply when you are the defender in a duel?
- Does Pack Bird Breeding trigger when you sacrifice a pack bird to pass a threat?
- Does Spelunking trigger when you enter the Mine but build no camp?
- Do pack tortoises count for the Pack Bird Breeding talent?
- How does the Scrounging talent's extra treasure slot work with pack animals and the Mystic's Hut?
- Do inactive party members count toward faction bonuses, and do they contribute their abilities?
- What does the coin icon on the Bounty Hunter character tile mean?
- Where does the coin paid for the Bribing talent go?
- Can a player buy the same talent twice?
- Can Meditation's food-as-hearts be used more than once per turn?
- Can gems spent as coins count as coins for a scoring card?
- Does the Politics talent let you visit an occupied Town Hall without dueling the occupant?
- Do you have to finish both final character quests on the last map to finish a character?
Artifact and Treasure Cards
- Can you hold more than one copy of the same treasure card?
- If you lose or return a pack bird, must you discard the treasure it was carrying?
- When your treasure slots are full, can you look at a new treasure card before deciding whether to keep it?
- Can you keep a treasure card if you have no pack bird or pack tortoise to carry it?
- Must you spend faction tokens to buy an artifact with a faction symbol, and can banners on adventurers or chiefs count?
- Can you spend faction tokens to buy artifact cards, and do unspent tokens score at game end?
- Where do discarded artifact cards go, and are they kept face up?
- Does the Goods Wagon add 1 trade value per trade or per good traded?
- How does Bounty Contract score in a two-player game, including ties?
- Must you use the Fire Bomb treasure if you have it?
- Does the Mercenary Contract's camp cost 3 hearts to place?
- Does the downward-pointing sword on an artifact like Flame Crossbow have a special meaning?
- Does the Mirror Hat's 7 reputation count as a cost that you spend?
- Can you refresh the Saloon row before recruiting an adventurer?
- How do you tell the basic artifact cards from the advanced ones?
- For the Ancient Compass's +4 points for most unspent coins and gems, are coins and gems combined?
- Can you take the General Store's normal power in the same visit as Brush and Paint?
- Can you trade a faction token of one colour for a different colour at the Town Hall?
- Can you build more than 14 camps in one game?
- Does Noose Trap, which gives food when you gain a treasure, trigger when you gain Noose Trap itself?
- With the Rusty Bell treasure, can you dig in the mine and recruit in the same visit, and spend coins from the mine on the recruit?
Advanced Town
- What does a pack tortoise cost, and what does it do?
- When the treasure draw pile runs out, are the discarded treasure cards reshuffled?
- Can you swap a pack bird for a pack tortoise, and keep the treasure it was carrying?
- Can you sacrifice a pack tortoise to skip a threat and still use its empty-space pass later that turn?
Maps
- Can you replay a map and place quest tokens on spaces you have not seen before?
- How many quests are on each map, and how many quest tokens go out in a 4-player game?
- What does the water symbol on the Toxic Desert map cost, and do you pay again each turn you stay on it?
- If you defeat a threat but cannot pay the heart for the toxic water beyond it, what happens?
- What does the beggar option in Glogo Caverns Quest L require, and do the 4 and 6 mean a skill check?
- On Quest T6, which action number succeeds the quest and which earns the bonus?
- On Mammoth Jungle, does every player with no camp on a mammoth space lose points?
- Where do the threat cards go on Fire Delta, which has no space for them?
Near and Far: Amber MinesExpansion
- Does the Amber Mines co-op mode work with campaign mode?
- Where does a character start a Mine visit if it has camps inside the mine?
- Do you have to duel to enter the Mine when another character is already there?
- When you build a camp on an Amber Mines card, do you multiply the reward by your search (eye) icons?
- What is the difference between building and placing a camp in Amber Mines?
- Do treasure and artifact camp-building rewards apply to camps built inside the Amber Mines?
- Do you need to buy an artifact to get the expert die at the Amber Mines General Store?
- Does the Numbat have a hand skill icon?
- In co-op, can you trade with another player when you only pass through their space on the map?
- Do the gray and blue tents on the new Amber Mines threat cards work differently?
- Does Amber Mines add a new threat deck, and can you use it with the original threats?
- When a co-op Mine Minion removes a camp from the mine, where does that camp go, and does it still score?
- In two-player co-op with character or campaign mode, what happens when you fail a map?
- In two-player co-op, is there an NPC at the Town Hall, and must you duel it?
- At the Amber Mines General Store, must you take every listed action?
- What does buying an artifact involve when it is used to place a camp at the General Store?
- In co-op, do you score the amber points when at least one player has amber?
- How many treasure cards can you keep at the Amber Mines Mystic's Hut?
- In Amber Mines co-op, which bosses do you face, and must you defeat them on every map?
- Is there an optional rule that each threat can only be faced once?
- Do you refill hearts when you enter the Amber Mines from town?
- Does your full movement count when you explore the Amber Mines?
- Can you play the co-op mode without the Amber Mines module?
- Do Miner and Magic Teacher adventurers go into the adventurer bag at setup?
- When do face-down spell cards turn face up again in Amber Mines?
- Can a spell be used again on the same turn after the Mystic's Hut turns it face up?
- Can you cast Rejuvenation during a threat fight after you have already spent hearts?
- Does Gilded Armor count as two hearts toward the party heart maximum?
- Does the Merchant Pack still need three pack animals for the end-game bonus for three treasures?
- Does the Arcane Memory talent let you choose from three spells?
- What are the talent cards for, and do they stay with the character?
- Can a non-active player in a duel reroll an expert die by paying food?
- Can you build a camp on a mine card you were bumped back to after a failed roll?
- Does Vampire Pendant's +2 magic for defeating a threat also apply when you defeat a boss?
- Do you lose anything in the Mine if a treasure effect costs hearts, and must you use treasure cards?
- How do you decide whether the co-op players win in Amber Mines campaign or character mode?
- Does Near and Far: Amber Mines come with new storybook stories, and can you still play the base stories?
- In Amber Mines, if two players tie for the most amber, does the third player still score the second-place points?
- In Amber Mines, do you need hearts to make a skill or combat check in the Mine?
- In Amber Mines, if a Divining Rod moves you onto a spell spot on the magic track, do you gain the spell immediately?
- Can the Amber Mines co-op mode be played solo?
- Can you use the new Mystic's Hut without the Amber Mines mine?