Sleeping Gods
155 questions players ask about Sleeping Gods. Pick one for the answer. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-11-02.
Setup and Components
- Do you still use all nine crew members in a solo or small-group game?
- Can you play Sleeping Gods with 5 or 6 players?
- Can you play without the meat food tokens?
- Where are the four starting cards (Gloria, Soup, Gear, Flapjacks) kept during setup?
- What if a rulebook picture (enemy card, level card, player board) differs from the real component?
- How much is a big coin worth compared to a small coin?
- What are artifacts for, and can they be spent as coins?
- If a story makes you lose coins and you only have artifacts, do you lose artifacts?
- What is the open-book icon in front of bold text in the storybook?
- How many ability cards can a player hold in hand?
Turn Structure and Ship Actions
- Can you take the same ship action (Bridge, Galley, ...) two turns in a row?
- Can you take "gain 1 command" as one of your two actions?
- Does an event card that says "Action" cost one of your two turn actions?
- Can you apply ship action effects in any order, e.g. discard for fatigue at the Galley before drawing?
- Where does the Cargo Bay card go, and does it cover other ship spaces?
- How do you clear the command token on the ship board's redraw-fate spot?
- How do search tokens work with the Deck ship action, including Laurent's extra token?
- Who takes the Low Morale from a Deck search token, and do you take it from every flipped token?
- What if an event makes you lose more food than you have, or an option needs food you lack?
Events and the Event Deck
- What happens when the last event card is drawn — when do you read the storybook paragraph?
- Are old event cards reshuffled when a new event deck is built, and where are the rules for it?
- Do ongoing event cards leave play when the event deck runs out?
- What does the Stone of Time do — does it skip the event draw, and can it be abused?
- Do cards like World Wisdom that let you skip an event stop you drawing it?
Travel and the Atlas
- In a Travel action, who can add their craft to the challenge, and who can discard craft cards?
- Do you have to face a hazard in a region you only pass through, or are moved into by an event or the Gate Stone?
- After resolving a hazard in the first space you enter, can you keep traveling?
- Do you have to draw fate to travel when you only want to move one space?
- Can a travel or challenge total go below zero?
- Can the Gate Stone take you to any port, and do you pay anything to use the port?
- How do you cross from one atlas page to another, and which region do you enter?
- Does the atlas binding or a dotted line count as a region border?
- Can you travel overland across land between regions?
Exploring, Towns and Ports
- Can you explore the same location again to collect its rewards?
- Can you choose the same option twice during one Explore action in a town?
- Is the Auction House (location 58) part of the town of Glance for the once-per-explore rule?
- Can you see a challenge's skill requirement before picking an Explore option?
- At the Inn, does the heal apply to all crew or only your own?
- Can you spend XP to level up a crew member another player controls?
Crew, Health, Fatigue and Status
- When does venom deal its damage — each combat round or each turn?
- What happens to venom when the poisoned crew member is at 0 health? Is the damage passed to someone else?
- If a crew member takes more damage than their remaining health, where does the excess go?
- What can a crew member at 0 health still do?
- Can a crew member at 0 health receive a status token?
- How many fatigue can a crew member have, and how are the two fatigue tokens used?
- What if you must gain fatigue but every crew member you control already has 2?
- How does the Weakened status work?
- Can a crew member hold two copies of the same status (two Low Morale, two Venom)?
- How do you remove status tokens, and does the healer or Inn do it?
Command, Abilities and Equipment
- How many ability cards can a crew member have equipped, can they hold duplicates, and can you move them?
- How many weapons can a crew member have equipped, given that the designer and publisher answers differ?
- Can players swap crew members between each other?
- Does a crew board ability stay active after you spend command, and can you use another one meanwhile?
- Can an ability card or adventure card be used again while it has command on it?
- Can you spend command on other players' turns, or in the middle of a ship action?
- Can you spend your command to activate a crew ability of a crew member another player controls?
- Can any player use or pay for an adventure card, including during someone else's challenge or combat?
- Can an ability card's or crew ability's effect be used on a crew member other than the one it belongs to?
Skill Challenges
- Can you attempt a skill challenge with no crew member taking part?
- Do you always draw fate in a challenge, even if the result is certain or you would rather take the consequences?
- Can you add a crew member to a challenge after drawing fate?
- Can you use a crew member's abilities in a challenge they are not part of?
- Can you discard ability cards from hand to add to a challenge, and does it cost command?
- Can you equip an ability card once a challenge or combat has started?
- How much command does it cost for another player's crew to join my challenge, and what about low morale?
- Do skill icons on equipped ability and level cards add to a challenge?
- Where can fate-redraw and fate-modifying abilities be used?
Combat: Attacks and Damage
- If my attack misses, do I still deal damage?
- Can you deliberately miss an attack, e.g. to trigger Rapid Strike or Counter?
- Can I discard an equipped ability card for extra damage, and how many per attack?
- What do the numbers on enemy hearts and flame icons mean?
- How must I place damage tokens on an enemy card?
- How does splash damage onto adjacent enemies work?
- Can I combine the stats of several weapons in one attack?
- How many attacks can the crew make per combat round, and can one crew member attack twice?
- Can you flee a combat, and what happens to defeated enemies if you lose and fight it again?
- In what order are enemy cards laid out, and when does combat start?
Combat: Enemies, Counterattacks and Block
- Does an enemy counterattack if I hit it but do not defeat it?
- When an enemy is defeated, do the remaining enemies slide together, and can a defeated enemy be regenerated?
- Who takes counterattack and end-of-round damage, and can it be split?
- What happens in the end-of-round enemy phase, and do hourglass icons trigger on counterattacks?
- What do the Discard Ability and Disarm enemy effects take?
- How does an enemy's First Strike interact with its counterattack?
- What does Flying do, and what does the Ranged attribute change?
- How does block work — one attack only, stacking, weapon vs equipment?
- How long does an adventure card or command-paid effect last in combat?
Combat: Synergy, Weapons and Special Cards
- How do synergy tokens work — zero health, stacking, timing and resets?
- How do Marco's +2 damage token and Rafael's token interact with hearts and end-of-round attacks?
- Can the Stone of Blood be used separately and in combination with an attack?
- Does damage from an adventure card like Stone of Blood have to be placed adjacent to other damage?
- Can non-weapon damage adventure cards add damage in the middle of an attack?
- When does the Axe of the Cinderlands give fatigue, and can I use it at 2 fatigue?
- How does Power Strike work?
- Is there an official way to make combat easier?
Totems, Quests and Keywords
- In what order do I follow keyword prompts, and what does "Unavailable if keyword X" mean?
- Can I use a keyword in the same explore action I earn it, and do keywords from completed quests still count?
- What if the storybook tells me to gain a quest I already have or have completed?
- Do I have to complete the starting quests, and do I take Quests 1 and 2 every campaign?
- Do base-game quests ever lead into expansion map areas?
- What does the Gate Stone allow, and does using it have limits?
- How do the Life Seed, Stone of Bargaining and weapon totems work?
- Can the Stone of Undeath heal a crew member who is already Frightened?
- Is a crew member unavailable for challenges and combat until a quest says so?
Storybook Errata and Printing Mistakes
Campaign, Saving and Defeat
- What happens when all crew or the ship are defeated?
- If fewer than 6 event cards remain when I am defeated, how many do I discard?
- After reading paragraph 1 (or 1.2) and rebuilding the event deck, do I always discard 6 events?
- What happens if I lose the F1 finale combat in normal mode?
- How long is a campaign, and how do I win?
- How do the achievement sheet and unlocked quest cards work, and what if the rulebook and the sheet disagree?
- What carries over into a new campaign?
- How do I save a game, and what gets bagged?
- Do market and starting cards count as adventure cards for final scoring?
- How is the second and third event deck built?
Sleeping Gods: DungeonsExpansion
- How do I add Dungeons content to the base game?
- Do I stumble into a dungeon, or must I choose to enter it?
- How does the Camp action work, and what stops unlimited dungeon actions?
- What does "Continue exploring" mean in a dungeon, and where do missing explore tokens come from?
- Do Dungeons items and command-gaining abilities work in dungeons?
Sleeping Gods: Tides of RuinExpansion
- How do I add Tides of Ruin to the base game, and does it add rules?
- What do the R numbers, atlas pages 30-31 and open-water market icons mean?
- How do I get back to the surface after visiting every Underworld location?
- Are the compass directions in Tides of Ruin quests 204 and 206 wrong?
- How does the Stone of Screaming's "empty square" work, and can I retry an entry?