Survive: Escape from Atlantis! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal
• Contents
• Game Setup
  • Important Note About Explorer Tokens
• Game Overview
  • 1. Play a Terrain tile from your "hand"
  • 2. Move your Explorer and/or Ship tokens
  • 3. Remove a Terrain Tile
  • 4. Roll the die and move a creature
    • Using a Die Result
• Moving Explorers and Ships
  • Explorers on Land
  • Explorers on Sea (Swimmers)
• Ships
• Reaching a Safe Isle
• Using Information from a Terrain Tile
  • Tiles to be Played Immediately (green outline)
  • Tiles to be Played at the Beginning of your Turn (red outline)
  • Tiles to be Played Outside of your Turn (defensively) (red outline)
• End of Game
• Two Player Games
• Challenges
  • Challenge #1: Overpopulated!
  • Challenge #2: To the last!
  • Challenge #3: All equal!
  • Challenge #4: Atlantis submerged!
• Credits

Goal

At the end of the game, flip over all of the Explorer tokens you have managed to get to safe isles and total the points printed on the bottom of these Explorers. The player with the highest total (and not necessarily the most Explorers saved) wins the game.

Contents

• 1 game board;
• 40 Terrain tiles (16 Beach tiles, 16 Forest tiles and 8 Mountain tiles);
• 40 Explorer tokens (10 of each color);
• 5 Sea Serpent tokens;
• 6 Shark tokens;
• 5 Whale tokens;
• 12 Ship tokens;
• 1 Creature dice;
• 1 Rulebook.

Game Setup

1. Place the 5 Sea Serpent tokens on the spaces of the board with the Sea Serpent symbol in them.

2. Shuffle the Terrain tiles face up (showing the Beach, Forest or Mountain side), and place them randomly on the black-bordered sea spaces of the game board. This way, you'll create an island made of Beach, Forest and Mountain tiles with a Sea Serpent placed on a sea space in the middle.

3. Each player chooses a color and takes the 10 corresponding Explorer tokens.

4. Each player gets 2 Ship tokens.

5. The remaining Ship tokens, as well as the Shark and Whale tokens are set aside for the moment (they will come into play during the game).

6. Choose or randomly select the player who will play first (quite logically called "first player" from here on). Under each of your Explorer tokens is a number from 1 to 6. Take a good look at your tokens, but don't reveal those numbers to the other players. Try to remember throughout the game where you place each of them during setup, as the higher the number is, the more points the explorer is worth when you manage to get the token to a safe isle, as this number represents the amount of treasures the explorer carries with him.

7. Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, the players each place an Explorer token on an empty Terrain tile (meaning a Terrain tile which doesn't contain an Explorer token). Take care not to reveal the numbers printed on your Explorer tokens when you place them. Placement continues until each player has placed all 10 of their Explorer tokens. When playing with less than four players, some Terrain tiles will remain empty.

8. Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, the players in turn place one of their Ship tokens on a free sea space (meaning that a space that doesn't contain a Ship token or a Sea Serpent token) adjacent to a Terrain tile. The placement continues until each player has placed both of their Ship tokens.

Important Note About Explorer Tokens

Once the game has begun, you can no longer look at or reveal the value of your Explorer tokens, even if they've reached a safe isle or have been removed from the game.

Game Overview

The players will now, starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, take their turns. During your game turn, you must perform these actions in order:

1. Play a Terrain tile from your "hand"

Once and once per turn only, you may play a Terrain tile you've obtained during a previous round. Naturally, you'll skip this step during your first turn as well as on any turn in which you don't have a Terrain tile "in hand".

2. Move your Explorer and/or Ship tokens

You may move any combination of Explorer and/or Ship tokens. You are allowed three spaces of movement in total, on land or sea. For example, you can move two Explorer tokens one space each to get them onto a Ship, and then move the Ship in question one space. The goal is to get your Explorers onto the Ships and get them to neighboring isles. Read the "Moving Explorers and Ships" section later for more details.

3. Remove a Terrain Tile

You must carefully remove a Terrain tile from the island. Any Explorer on that tile is now on the sea space it previously occupied. Take a look at the back of the tile without showing it to other players and refer to the "Using Information from a Terrain Tile" section later on for more details.

You must respect two conditions when you remove a Terrain tile. First, you must choose a tile adjacent to at least one sea space (even if it's a space which previously had a Terrain tile). Second, all of the Beach tiles must be removed first, followed by the Forest tiles, and finally the Mountain tiles – this is to represent the Terrain being closer to the sea sinking first. If a Beach tile is completely surrounded by Forest and/or Mountain tiles, remove it as the last Beach tile (even if it not adjacent to a sea space). The same goes for any Forest tile surrounded by Mountains.

4. Roll the die and move a creature

You must roll the Creature die. Then, you may move a Creature (Sea Serpent, Shark or Whale) corresponding to the die result and already on the game board one or more sea spaces in order to attack another player or protect one of your own Explorers. Read the "Using a Die Result" section below for more details.

Using a Die Result

The Sea Serpents, Sharks and Whales have no effect on each other. They can occupy the same sea space. If the Creature rolled isn't present on the board, nothing happens.

Sea Serpent — If the die result is a Sea Serpent, move one of these creatures one sea space. If the Sea Serpent enters a sea space occupied by a Ship containing passengers, remove that Ship and any passengers from the game. Also remove any Swimmers on the sea space. If it was an empty ship, it remains in play.

Shark — If the die result is a Shark, move one of these creatures one or two sea spaces. If the Shark enters a sea space occupied by one or more Swimmers, the Shark's movement ends. Remove all Swimmers from the sea space when the Shark has stopped. If the space on which the Shark is contains a Ship, the Shark doesn't affect it (or any passengers it may have).

Whale — If the die result is a Whale, move one of these creatures one to three sea spaces. If the Whale enters a sea space occupied by a Ship containing one or more passengers, its movement ends: the Ship is removed from the game and its passengers become Swimmers. If the sea space also contained a Shark, the Swimmers are removed from the game. A Whale doesn't affect Swimmers or empty Ships on the same sea space as itself.

Moving Explorers and Ships

Explorers on Land

• You can move an Explorer token from a Terrain tile to an adjacent Terrain tile, even if the latter is already occupied by one or more Explorer tokens.

• You can move an Explorer token from a Terrain tile to a Ship located on an adjacent sea space.

• You can move an Explorer token from a Ship to another Ship on an adjacent sea space.

• You can move an Explorer token onto a Ship already occupied by Explorers of another color (but no more than 3 per Ship).

• You cannot move another player's Explorer tokens.

• Once an Explorer token leaves the island (by getting on a Ship or becoming a Swimmer), it can no longer return onto a Terrain tile.

Explorers on Sea (Swimmers)

• Explorer tokens become Swimmers when they move into a sea space from an adjacent Terrain tile, when they jump from a Ship into the sea space on which that ship is, when they fall into a sea space when a Terrain tile is removed, or when a Whale capsizes their Ship and makes them fall into the sea space it occupied.

• You can move a Swimmer only one sea space on your turn. When a Swimmer goes from a Terrain tile or Ship into a sea space, it's considered to be a movement of one sea space.

• You may not move a Swimmer from a sea space into a Boat in an adjacent sea space (since this would be considered 2 movements, and a Swimmer may move only one sea space in a turn). You can only move a Swimmer onto a Ship when they occupy the same sea space.

• A sea space can hold multiple Swimmers.

• If you move a Swimmer into a sea space containing a Sea Serpent or a Shark, the Swimmer is immediately removed from the game. Consequently, Swimmers cannot cross that kind of sea spaces.

Ships

• When a Ship is empty, any player can move it from one sea space to another, as desired (at the cost of one movement per space).

• A given sea space can only contain one Ship at any time.

• Each Ship can only carry a maximum of three Explorer tokens (regardless of color).

• When a Ship contains Explorers belonging to more than a single player, it's the player with the most Explorers on board who controls the Ship. When you control a Ship, you're the only one who can move it.

• When multiple players have the same number of Explorers in a Ship, each player controls the Ship.

• If you move a Ship containing one or more Explorers into a sea space containing a Sea Serpent or a Whale, the Ship is immediately removed from the game, its passengers becoming Swimmers (don't forget that if the sea space contains a Shark or Sea Serpent, these Swimmers are immediately removed from the game).

Reaching a Safe Isle

• Explorers can disembark from a Ship placed on one of the two sea spaces adjacent to one of the safe isles. Each Explorer token leaving the Ship costs one movement. The Ship remains on the same sea space until moved again.

• Moving a Swimmer onto a safe isle from one of the two adjacent sea spaces costs one movement.

• Your Explorers can disembark on any safe isle, not just the one in front of you.

Using Information from a Terrain Tile

When you remove a Terrain tile (step #3 from the Game Overview, seen previously), discreetly look underneath it without showing it to the other players. There are three types of tiles, each of which is played differently:

1. To be played immediately.
2. To be played at the beginning of your turn.
3. To be played outside of your turn (defensively).

Tiles to be Played Immediately (green outline)

If you see one of these icons, immediately reveal the tile to the other players, perform the actions given below, and then remove the Terrain tile from the game.

• Shark: Take a Shark token that had been set aside and place it on the sea space that had been occupied by the Terrain tile. Any Swimmer on that sea space is removed from the game.

• Whale: Take a Whale token that had been set aside and place it on the sea space that had been occupied by the Terrain tile.

• Ship: Take a Ship token that had been set aside and place it on the sea space that had been occupied by the Terrain tile. If that sea space contained one or more Swimmers, place them on board the Ship. If the sea space contained more than three Swimmers, it's the player who has revealed the Terrain tile who chooses which ones get on board.

• Whirlpool: remove from the game all Swimmers, Sea Serpents, Sharks, Whales, Ships and Explorers from the sea space the Terrain tile used to occupy, as well as from all adjacent sea spaces.

• Volcanic Eruption: refer to the "End of Game" section later for more details.

Tiles to be Played at the Beginning of your Turn (red outline)

If you see one of these icons, place the tile face down in front of you (in your "hand" of tiles). Then, once per turn, during step #1 of your game turn, as indicated in the Game Overview section, you can play one (and only one) of these tiles from your hand. Once a tile is played in this manner, remove it from the game.

• Dolphin: A dolphin comes to help one of your Swimmers! Move one of your Swimmers 1 to 3 sea spaces.

• Winds: The winds favor you! Move a Ship you control 1 to 3 sea spaces.

• Sea Serpent: Move the Sea Serpent of your choice (already present on the game board) to any vacant sea space of your choice.

• Shark: Move the Shark of your choice (already present on the game board) to any vacant sea space of your choice.

• Whale: Move the Whale of your choice (already present on the game board) to any vacant sea space of your choice.

Tiles to be Played Outside of your Turn (defensively) (red outline)

Finally, if you see one of these icons, place the tile face down in front of you (in your "hand" of tiles), as the side with the icon should remain hidden. These tiles can only be played during another player's turn, and not on your own. They are considered to be "defense" tiles, as they are played in reaction to a creature's movement made by an opponent. Once such a tile has been played, remove it from the game. Here's how they should be resolved:

• When another player moves a Shark onto a sea space occupied by one of your Swimmers, you can play this Terrain tile to remove the Shark from the game (before your Swimmer is removed from the game by the Shark). All Swimmers remain in the sea space.

• When another player moves a Whale onto a sea space occupied by one of your Ships, you can play this Terrain tile to remove the Whale from the game (before it gets to capsize your Ship). Your Ship remains in the sea space.

End of Game

Under one of the Mountain tiles is a volcano icon. As soon as this tile is revealed, a volcanic eruption destroys what remains of the island as well as any Explorers who haven't reached safe isles. The game ends. At the end of the game, flip over all of the Explorer tokens you have managed to get to safe isles and add up the number of points printed on them. It's the player with the highest total (and not necessarily the most Explorers saved) who wins the game. It's possible that you might not have any Explorers left to move while the game is not yet over. In that case, continue playing, but skip step #2 of the Game Overview (Move your Explorer and/or Ship tokens) during your game turns.

Two Player Games

If you're playing with two players, you can decide to use two colors for each player. This will keep the island from being underpopulated and make the game more fun. At the end of the game, total up the points earned by each color of Explorer tokens.

Challenges

Here are a few variants, or challenges, which will add a bit of variety and complexity to the game.

Challenge #1: Overpopulated!

During the game setup, the players can place up to two Explorer tokens on Terrain tiles, except for those adjacent to sea spaces, on the island's coast, where only one Explorer token can be placed.

Challenge #2: To the last!

The game ends when the last Explorer token is removed from the game board (by being saved or removed by a creature or whirlpool). When the Volcanic Eruption tile is revealed, treat it as a Whirlpool tile and continue the game if Explorer tokens remain on the board.

Challenge #3: All equal!

The winner of the game is the player with the most Explorer tokens on the safe isles when the game ends. The numbers printed under the tokens are ignored.

Challenge #4: Atlantis submerged!

The game ends immediately when the last Terrain tile is removed from the board. When the Volcanic Eruption tile is revealed, treat it as a Whirlpool tile and continue the game if any Terrain tiles remain on the board.

Credits

• Game Design: Julian Courtland-Smith
• Development: Kevin Nesbitt and Stephen M. Buonocore
• Artwork and layout: David Ausloos (www.ausloosdesign.be)
• Production Directors: Stephen M. Buonocore and Kevin Nesbitt
• Creatures designed by: Andrew White
• Revision: Eric Franklin
• 30th anniversary edition artwork: Jean-Brice Dugait and Stéphane Gantiez
• 30th anniversary edition layout: Asmodee

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