Ohio Bob Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• 1 Player Setup
  • Difficulty Levels
• The Goal of the Game
• Game Principles
  • Rooms & Levels
  • Rest
• Equipment Cards
  • Move
  • Exploration
  • Rock
  • Key
• Special Cards
  • Sledgehammer
  • Rope
  • Torch
  • Temple Map
  • Super Gear
  • Multicolored Gem
• Special Spaces
  • Ration (Bonus)
  • Chest (Bonus)
  • Colored Chest (Bonus)
  • Pit
  • Trap
  • Teleporter
  • Staircase
• End of the Game
  • Victory
  • Defeat
• 2 Player Setup
  • How to Win
  • Special Rules for Playing with Two
• F.A.Q

Components

• 2 sets of 4 starting cards (Easy face light, Difficult face dark): Energy, Amulet, Level, Super Gear
• 2 sets of 17 Equipment / Temple cards (each set has a different coloured temple floor and backpacks). Equipment: 4 of each colour and 1 multicoloured
• 1 Connecting room card (for 2 player game only)
• 2 Pawns (Ohio Bob and Idaho Joe)

1 Player Setup

1. Take one set of 4 starting cards. For your first game, it is recommended to use them on their EASY side (light side).
2. Place the Level card on the Energy card so that the Level 1 cursor (LVL 1) points to the 6 on the Energy card.
3. Choose one of the two challenges on the Amulet card and place the visible one under the Energy card.
4. Take the Super Gear card in hand.
5. Choose one set of 17 Temple cards (green floor or blue floor) to form a deck (the draw pile) with the Equipment side visible.
6. Draw the first two cards without looking at their Temple face. Choose one to add to your hand. Turn the other one over and place it in the center of the table with the temple side facing up. The Temple cards are always placed horizontally with the staircase on the bottom line.
7. Choose one Pawn and place it on the staircase.
8. Keep an area free for the Resolution Stack.

Difficulty Levels

Once you have managed to win in easy mode, you can increase the difficulty by flipping one or more starting cards to their HARD side (only the Super Gear card does not have a hard side). The more starting cards you choose to place on their HARD side, the greater the game's difficulty will be.

The Goal of the Game

Your goal is to explore the 3 Levels of the Temple and successfully deactivate the trap of the Amulet without running out of energy.

To deactivate the Amulet trap, you will need to retrieve the necessary Gems into your hand, depending on the challenge chosen during the game setup (see "End of the game").

Except for the Super Gear card, all the cards have a Gem of a specific color.

Example: In the pictured configuration, you will need to collect 3 yellow Gems and 3 others of the same color to deactivate the trap and win the game!

Game Principles

Each turn, you must play an Equipment card from your hand onto the resolution pile. Each Equipment card offers you 2 choices (A or B) for its use. Choose the option that suits you best and then apply the effect(s) of the card from left to right. No effect is mandatory, you can choose not to apply any of the effects if you wish.

In general, the effects of the equipment allow you to move your pawn, who must then apply the effect of the space it lands on. When you have explored a certain number of Rooms, you will be able to access the next Level by going to the staircase space.

Rooms & Levels

The Temple is composed of 3 Levels (LVL). Each Level is composed of several Rooms that you will explore with the help of your equipment in hand. Each explored Room allows you to earn new cards and finally move up to the next Level by going up the stairs of the very last explored Room.

The number of Rooms (cards) to explore depends on the Level you are currently traversing. At the beginning of the game, you are at Level 1. The number of Rooms per Level is defined by the number on the right of the Level card. Thus, you need to explore 5 Rooms during Level 1. When you explore the final Room of a Level, the card representing this Room must be placed horizontally with the Staircase on the topmost line.

Example: You are in the 4th Room of the 1st Level and are conducting an Exploration. You are therefore adding the 5th Room of the Level. This card is placed with the Staircase on the topmost line. When you go up this Staircase, you move to the next Level.

Rest

You will need to Rest during the game. When your hand is empty, or when you do not wish to play your remaining cards, you must Rest.

To Rest, take all the cards from the resolution pile back into your hand and lose as much Energy as indicated next to the Level card's symbol.

Example: If you are at Level 2 of the Temple, when you rest, you lose 2 Energy. In the pictured example, the Level card has been shifted from 6 to 4 Energy.

Equipment Cards

Equipment cards have icons that allow you to perform certain actions. The Compass symbol reminds you that Exploration is possible during a Move.

Move

Move is a crucial action. It allows you to move around and explore new Temple Rooms. To advance to the next level of the Temple, you must explore a certain number of Rooms indicated on the Level map.

Move your pawn to an adjacent space in one of the directions indicated by the arrow. Apply the effect of the space you land on (see effects below).

Your pawn cannot move through a wall.

Exploration

If your pawn has to move outside of a Temple card, you perform an Exploration instead. An Exploration is only possible if the maximum number of Rooms for the Level has not already been reached.

During an Exploration, draw the first card from the deck (draw pile) and flip it to show the Temple side. Orient it horizontally and with the Staircase on the bottommost line. Place the card adjacent to your current card, in the location where you should have moved.

Example: the player has chosen to move to the right using a Move. The rightward movement is not performed. Instead, a new Temple card is revealed.

Last room of the current level: If the Room to explore is the very last one on the Level, place the Staircase on the topmost line instead! This is the space through which you can go up to the next level.

Example: The player reveals the 5th Room of Level 1 of the Temple. He places this card with the Staircase on the topmost line.

Rock

The Rock allows you to deactivate a Trap and therefore move on it without losing Energy.

NOTE: It is allowed to move on a trap without Rock but you will lose one Energy in this case.

Key

Some walls have a locked door. It is possible to open these doors by using a key. Opening a door allows you to move your pawn through, then the door closes behind you.

Special Cards

Sledgehammer

Move your pawn through an adjacent wall. If there is no adjacent wall, this action has no effect.

You can explore through a wall. It is possible to pass through a wall with a locked door.

Rope

Move your pawn twice in a row if the spaces are empty or contain a Pit. The Rope allows you to cross (or stay) over a Pit without needing to Rest. You cannot explore with a rope (indicated by the gray arrows).

Torch

Copy the effect of the card on top of the deck (draw pile). If the deck is empty, this action has no effect.

Temple Map

Take the first card from the draw pile and place it face Temple adjacent to the card you are on.

To do this, you must have a clear view of the edge of your current Temple card. This means that no wall should be between your pawn and the edge of the card. With this action, you don't need to be on a map border to play a new Temple card as you would with the Exploration action.

Super Gear

Move your pawn to an adjacent space, ignoring the effects of Pits (Rope) and Traps (Rock). You can explore (Compass) or borrow a locked door (Key) but not pass through a wall.

Multicolored Gem

This card gives one lateral movement, but it counts as a color Gem of your choice when deactivating the Amulet (see later).

Special Spaces

When you finish moving onto one of these spaces, immediately apply its effect.

Warning: Bonuses only "recharge" when you leave the Room. To get the same bonus again, you must therefore leave the Room you are in, and then enter it again.

Ration (Bonus)

A Ration allows you to restore 1 Energy. If your Energy is already at its maximum, the bonus is lost.

Warning: In HARD mode, Ration spaces should be considered empty spaces on the first Level of the temple!

You do not collect any [icon omitted in source text] if you stop on a Ration space.

Chest (Bonus)

You immediately take the top card from the draw pile and put it in your hand on the Equipment side. You can use it immediately.

Colored Chest (Bonus)

Same effect as the Chest, except you take the first card from the top of the draw pile that has the same color as the Chest you are on (without changing the order of the cards). The Multicolored Gem card is considered to be of all colors. If no card in the deck matches the desired color, take the first card from the deck instead.

Pit

You must rest immediately. You will not be able to play the cards you have left in your hand.

Reminder: the Rope or the Super Gear allow you to ignore this effect.

Trap

You lose 1 Energy immediately.

Reminder: the Rock or the Super Gear allow you to ignore this effect.

Teleporter

Move your pawn to the corresponding space on a Temple card adjacent to the one you are on (not diagonally). Apply the effect of the arrival space as usual. One exception: if the arrival space is also a teleporter, it has no effect.

Staircase

When your pawn enters a staircase on the bottom row of a card, nothing happens (except on the 3rd level, see below).

If the staircase is located on the topmost line (thus from the last Room of the current Level), you can decide to go up to the upper Level. If you do:

• Move the Level card to the next level
• Reset your Energy to its initial value
• Take all the cards from the resolution pile back into your hand and count the number of Equipment cards you own (including the Super Gear card)
• Compare your number of cards to the MAX indicated on the current Level card. You must discard cards of your choice above the MAX.

Take the explored Level Temple cards as well as any discarded cards and shuffle everything. Place the shuffled cards with the Equipment side face up under the draw pile.

If you were on the third Level, move to the Amulet phase, otherwise move to the next Level.

To move on to the next Level: choose one of the first two cards from the draw pile and flip it over to its Temple side in the center of the table: place your pawn on the Staircase.

End of the Game

Victory

To get out alive (and rich!), you must deactivate the trap of the Amulet at the end of the 3rd Level!

The Amulet: Once you arrive at the staircase of the last Level, you will find yourself at the foot of the Amulet! This last one is trapped. To deactivate its trap, you need to gather the indicated Gems on the starting objective (Amulet card). Each Equipment card is colored and represents a Gem. You must have enough Gems of the correct colors in your hand to deactivate the Amulet. If you have the necessary Gems, you win the game immediately!

NOTE: Some missions have white icons: these can be any color, but they must all be the same color.

Defeat

You lose if:

• You fail to deactivate the Amulet.
• Your Energy reaches 0.
• The draw pile is empty and you haven't finished exploring the 3rd Level.

You failed to find the exit by spending too much time collecting the Gems!

2 Player Setup

One day, Ohio Bob and his friend Idaho Joe stumbled into a mysterious Mirror Temple! Lost in its confusing rooms and twisted passageways, will they ever make it out together?

1. Each player takes a complete set of Temple cards (as shown by the colour of the floors).
2. Each player chooses a pawn, and their own set of 4 starting cards as in a 1 player setup.
3. Both players must choose the same difficulty level (including for the Amulet card - note that these are slightly different for each player).
4. Players should sit facing each other, if possible.
5. At the start of the game, and at the beginning of each level, both players place the first card of their temple on the table as per the solo game, but now, the connecting room of the temple is placed between the players (as shown in the illustration).

How to Win

When playing with 2 players, both players must cooperate. In order to win the game:

• Both players have to reach the third level of the temple
• Both players have to fulfil their Amulet card objective
• Both players have 3 cards from their partner's starting deck in their final hand

Special Rules for Playing with Two

During the game, players can take their turns simultaneously as much as they want to, but it is suggested that the players should keep an eye on each other in order to do well.

When a player is about to Rest and recycle their hand of cards, they should pause and wait for their teammate to also need to Rest before proceeding.

The rules are the same except for the following:

• When you collect a Ration (+1 Energy bonus), it's given to your partner! Exception: You keep it for yourself if your partner already escaped the current level.
• When you escape the current level, you can give one of your Energy points to your partner! Exception: You can't do it if you have only 1 Energy remaining.
• Both player pawns may never occupy the same space on the cards, however each player may move onto their teammate's temple cards whenever they wish (and gather the bonuses on them).
• Once per level, at the very end of a card activation, if both player pawns occupy adjacent spaces, both players may exchange one of their cards (either still in their hand or already played in their resolution pile). The card each player receives is put in their hand and may be used immediately (you need to do this once per level in order to get the 3 cards from your partner that are required to win). To be "adjacent", both pawns must be on neighbouring spaces in the temple (diagonally adjacent doesn't count!) that are not separated by a wall or a door.
• To escape a level, each player must still explore the specified number of rooms from their own deck.

If you would like a challenge, start the game with the connecting room on the "hard" side that features a locked door in its middle!

F.A.Q

Do I have to perform all the movements or effects of a card in order to use it? No, you can choose to perform only the actions that interest you on a card.

Can I use the Rope's movements even if the spaces have objects (chest, ration, trap...)? No! The Rope allows you to either move on empty spaces or move over pits without suffering the consequences.

Should I empty my hand before resting? No. You can keep cards in hand and decide to rest.

Can I win a bonus that I have already redeemed? Yes, as long as you leave the Room and enter it again. If this is not the case, no effect is applied.

I used a sledgehammer to open a passage between two walls. Is this passage still open? No, you will have to reuse the sledgehammer if necessary. You are still in a magical temple!

Should I apply the effect of a pit or trap that I have already triggered before? Yes, absolutely!

If a locked door is on the border of a temple card and is pointing toward a standard wall of another temple card, can I use a Key or the Sledgehammer to pass through? Yes you can! This double wall is considered to be a unique one with a locked door in it.