Unsettled: Gniir

Unsettled: Gniir Rulebook

Table of Contents

Quick Setup

Each player places an exposure card near their dashboard and then places one of the protected tokens on the designated spot with the protected side face-down.
Place one of the protected tokens onto the Scarab tile with the protected side face-up.
Place the snow behavior card within easy reach of all players. It doesn't matter which side is up. If someone in your group starts making a big deal about which side is up, remove them from your group.
Place the mystery cards face-down in the area designated for planet-specific cards.
The discovery chits have identical backs. Shuffle them up before placing them in the tray face-down (identical backsides showing).
On Gniir you must begin with Survival Task A. Do not play tasks B or C first.

Planet Primer

Overview: Paradise Frost

Surviving Gniir is about seeking protection from the elements: those you can see, and those you can merely sense. Simply existing in this world—with your soft minds and softer bodies—is dangerous. The strange presence haunting the surface will unnerve you, causing you to gain distress on each of your turns unless you're able to find ways to attain the protected property for yourself and your crewmates.

This won't be easy. Snow will impede your movement. Snow that moves on its own, and that seems deeply dedicated to getting in your way.

Snow

Gniir is covered with an abundance of thick, heavy snow that makes movement more time consuming. As you explore, effects will add snow to the environment and then move that snow around, making navigation increasingly difficult and unpredictable.

Story-wise, snow is always present everywhere, but game-mechanic-wise, snow deep enough to affect movement is represented by black markers ("snow"). If an effect adds or removes snow from a node, add or remove that number of markers.

Each snow adds a time to each of that node's edges. When you MOVE, advance time by 1 for each snow on your node and your destination node.

Example of movement with snow: This movement would advance the time marker by 3.

Glacial Pillars and Obelisk

The two node cards shown in the movement example are printed as follows.

Glacial Pillars

The snow swirls more densely here.

When entering: [pink icon; see note below]

Obelisk

The obelisk hums like a tuning fork.

Explorers on this node may perform the below free action:

PLAY A SONG TO ACTIVATE OBELISK

Resonant Required

Replace this card with Mystery Card B.

If 2 obelisks are now activated, also reveal Mystery Card C.

Note: the pink icon on the Glacial Pillars card is too small to read reliably in the booklet's printed image, so it is not transcribed. Check the printed card.

Protected

Simply being on the surface of this planet exposes you to the strange presence that haunts it, causing you to gain distress each turn (see: Exposure and Snow Behavior below), unless you find ways to shield yourself by acquiring the protected property.

PROTECTED

See framework rulebook pg. 23 for a refresher on properties.

"Gain protected"

Some effects will instruct you to temporarily "gain protected." When this happens, flip your protected token so the protected side is face-up.

The protected token's exposure card reads: "Flip this when an effect says 'gain protected'."

Distress

Distress does not resolve when gained. Instead, distress resolves as part of the exposure card resolution (see below).

Exposure and Snow Behavior

Each player has an exposure card near their dashboard. When you REGROUP, place your focus onto your exposure card as a reminder to resolve that card's effects. Then, resolve the steps of that card in order:

First, resolve the snow behavior card by rolling a discovery die, performing the resulting effect, and then flipping the card.
Then, if you do not possess protected, gain a distress.
Then, if your protected token is face-up, flip it face-down (protected side down).
Then, resolve any distress you have in whichever order you choose.

The printed exposure card shows the same numbered steps, plus the setup instruction "Place personal protected token here during setup."

Snow Behavior Card

Roll a discovery die to reveal the snow's behavior. Resolve that effect, then flip this.

The three printed behaviors are:

With silence-breaking crunches, waves of snow roll in all around you. Place 2 snow onto your current node.
Flurries flurry on the horizon; the snow is trying to block you in. Place 1 snow onto each adjacent node (revealed or unrevealed).
The presence in the snow pulses against your emotions, sensing your vulnerability... Place 1 snow onto your node for each distress you have. (ex: if you have 3 distress, place 3 snow)

Granular Details on Snow

Exposure effects and distress (see: Exposure and Snow Behavior) don't care how much snow is on your node.
When you are "placed" onto a node you do not resolve snow-induced time. Snow only affects you when you MOVE / TRAVERSE.
Snow can be placed on unrevealed nodes. Just put it on the card back. When that card is revealed the snow remains on it.
Snow can be placed on the Scarab.
If a node offers protected (see: Protected above), snow can still be placed on that node as normal.
If you need to place a snow, but no markers are available, instead remove all snow from the board and place 2 on each explorer's node. (i.e., 2 snow per explorer, so if 2 explorers are on one node, place 4 there.)

Granular Details on Exposure and Snow Behavior

If a snow behavior effect cannot be resolved—ex: it tells you to place a snow where you cannot (like off the map)—then ignore that part of the effect. Remember, there's a rule for if you run out of snow cubes (see: Granular Details on Snow, above).
Resolution of the various exposure and snow behavior effects can be interrupted by free actions.

Advice

Free Actions

There are many free actions available on Gniir. Remember: you can perform free actions at any time, on anyone's turn, and they can "jump ahead" of—or interrupt—other effects.

Opportunities

Gniir is a particularly harsh world. Investigate your environment for every advantage you can find.

Workshop, Laboratory, Research Hut

Take the time to build the science structures. They will help.

FAQ

Node Replacement

In the event that a node is replaced with a different card, then any snow or resources currently on it are placed on the new card.

Random Discoveries

Some effects on Gniir will require you to do things like "place 6 random discovery tokens here."

Since all the tokens are randomized face-down in the tray during setup, this should be easy. Just grab any 6 discoveries from the tray, don't look at them, and place them face-down as directed by the effect.

Traverse and Snow

Remember: the TRAVERSE action is another MOVE action. As such, snow effects you when you TRAVERSE.

Reminders

A few quick reminders:

Start at the Beginning

On Gniir, it is essential that you begin with Survival Task A.

Snow

Each snow advances time by one when you move onto and/or off of that snow's node.
Treat snow like it's adding time symbols to all of a node's edges. "Place" effects therefore ignore snow in the same way they ignore node-edge symbols.

At the End of Your Turn

Regroup your focus to your exposure card, then do what that card says:

Resolve the snow behavior card.
Gain a distress if you aren't protected.
Flip your protected token face-down if it is face-up.
Resolve any distress you have in whatever order you wish.
All these effects may be interrupted by free actions.

Further Resources

Every module and planet in Unsettled® has a database of how-to-play videos, a living FAQ, and an errata document on our website! orangenebula.com/unsettledDB