Welcome to the Wandering Sea: A Sleeping Gods Guide!

Ahoy, adventurers! Welcome aboard the Manticore! If you've found yourself lost in the mysterious Wandering Sea, fear not! As your trusty BoardGameBot editor, I'm here to guide you through the captivating world of Sleeping Gods. Get ready to explore exotic islands, meet intriguing characters, and maybe, just maybe, find your way home. This isn't just a game; it's an epic campaign waiting to unfold, one thrilling session at a time!

Objective of the Game

Your grand quest in Sleeping Gods is to survive the myriad dangers of the Wandering Sea and, most importantly, find eight totems before the colossal monster, the Hectakron, catches up and destroys your ship. The ancient gods of this strange realm have summoned you to awaken them from their slumber by finding their totems. But beware! The Hectakron has other plans and is relentlessly pursuing you, gathering strength with each passing moment to sink your beloved Manticore.

This game is designed to be a challenge, so don't be discouraged if your first campaign ends in a watery grave or a failed mission. Each journey, successful or not, will arm you with invaluable knowledge and experience for your next attempt. Think of it as a grand, unfolding story, where every choice matters and every discovery brings you closer to, or further from, home.

Preparation (Setup)

Alright, Captains, let's get this ship ready to sail! Here’s how you set up your first campaign:

1. Place the atlas in the center of your table and open it to page 2. Place the ship token on location number 2.
2. Place the ship board near the atlas. Set the ship damage marker on space 11 of the health track. Place the morale token on space 5 of the morale track. You start with 3 coins and 1 grain on the ship board.
3. Place the Captain Sofi Odessa crew board near the ship board. Distribute the remaining crew boards as evenly as possible among players, who then place them in front of themselves.
4. Shuffle the ability deck and place it near the atlas. Decide who goes first. That player draws 3 ability cards and receives the captain token.
5. Shuffle the market deck and place it nearby.
6. Prepare the event cards:
   • Separate them by type: Mild, Perilous, Deadly.
   • Shuffle each pile individually.
   • Draw 6 Deadly cards and form a new deck.
   • Draw 6 Perilous cards and place them on top of the Deadly cards.
   • Draw 6 Mild cards and place them on top of the Perilous cards.
   • You should now have a deck of 18 event cards. Place this deck on its designated slot on the ship board. Unused cards go back in the box.
7. Place the starting adventure cards (Gloria, Soup, Gear, and Flapjacks) near the ship board. Place the deck of undiscovered adventure cards nearby, facedown. (Important: Do not change their order or look through them unless instructed!)
8. Place the deck of enemy cards near the board, facedown. (Important: Do not change their order or look through them unless instructed!)
9. Place the deck of quest cards near the board, facedown. (Important: Do not change their order or look through them unless instructed!)
10. Place the combo point card near the board, with its marker on 0. Place all remaining tokens (like resource tokens, damage tokens, fatigue tokens, status tokens, armor tokens, enemy damage tokens) near the board. Place the storybook nearby.
11. Mix up the search tokens and place them in a facedown stack near the ship board.
12. Assign player cards (Player 1, Player 2, etc.) based on turn order.
13. Place the level cards near the ship board (you can look through these anytime).

You're all set! The Manticore is ready to sail into the unknown!

The Turn of Play

Turns proceed clockwise, starting with the first player. Each player's turn consists of five steps:

1. Draw 1 Ability Card: Draw one card from the ability deck. If you have more than 3 cards in your hand after drawing, you must immediately discard down to 3.
2. Gain 3 Command Tokens: Add 3 command tokens to your personal supply. Remember, you can't give command tokens to other players, and if the supply runs out, you can't gain more.
3. Draw an Event Card: Draw the top card from the event deck and read its effect. These cards might present choices, require you to complete a skill challenge, or trigger other story elements.
4. Perform Two Actions: This is where the magic happens! You can perform any of the available actions twice, or two different actions. Here's what you can do:
   • Travel: Move your ship to an adjacent region on the atlas. Regions are separated by dotted lines, land, or the edge of the page. You can't move through land.
     • Hazards: If you enter a region with a hazard, its effects activate. You might be able to avoid them by discarding a specific ability card.
     • Edge of the Map: If you reach the edge and want to continue in the same direction, turn to the indicated page in the atlas. You always enter the new page on the opposite side from where you left, choosing your starting region if multiple are available.
   • Explore: Choose a location with a red circle outline in your current region. Open the storybook to the listed paragraph number and read the first box of text aloud (unless playing solo). You'll then make choices, face challenges, or engage in combat. Rewards or negative effects might also occur. The story ends when instructed to "Return to the ship."
   • Prepare: Remove all command tokens from your crew members and any adventure cards you own (all players share ownership of adventure cards) and return them to the supply. This clears them for future activations.
   • Search: If your ship is in a search location, draw a search token and immediately apply its effects. This is a great way to gather resource tokens, but some tokens have negative effects. Discard the token after use.
   • Gain Command: Simply gain 1 command token.
   • Visit a Market: If your ship is in a market location, draw 7 cards from the market deck. You can purchase any of these adventure cards by paying their listed cost. Purchased cards are placed face up near the ship board. Unpurchased cards go to the bottom of the market deck.
   • Visit a Port: If your ship is in a port location, first pay 5 coins to the supply. Then, you can perform any or all of these actions:
     • Inn: Restore 1 health and remove 1 fatigue from each crew member.
     • Shipyard: Repair 1 ship damage. You can also pay any number of materials resource tokens to repair 1 ship damage per token paid.
     • Spend XP: Spend experience points (XP) to purchase level cards for your crew members.
5. Pass the Captain Token: After your two actions, pass the captain token to the player on your left. Their turn begins!

Spending Command & Challenges

Command tokens are crucial for activating crew abilities and adventure cards. You can spend them at almost any time, even on other players' turns!

• Train (Equip an Ability Card): On your turn, you can play an ability card from your hand to one of your crew members (including Captain Sofi Odessa). This costs the command listed on the card. Each crew member can have two tucked ability cards (not counting level cards or weapons). Tucked cards increase a crew member's skill in the type shown on the card and may grant special abilities.
• Activate Crew Ability: Place the specified amount of command tokens on a crew board to activate an ability. If a crew board already has command tokens, you can't activate its abilities until they are removed via a "Prepare" action.
• Activate Adventure Cards: Place the specified amount of command tokens on an adventure card to activate it. Similar to crew abilities, if a card already has command tokens, you must "Prepare" to clear them first.

Skill Challenges: These are tests of your crew's abilities, usually encountered in the storybook or on event cards. To overcome a challenge:

1. Choose Participants: Select crew members you control (and Captain Sofi Odessa) to participate. Each participating crew member gains 1 fatigue (a "tired" token). If they already have "tired," they gain an "exhausted" token, which gives -1 damage in combat. Crew members with two fatigue tokens cannot participate. Other players can contribute their crew members by paying 1 command.
2. Calculate Skill Sum: Add up the appropriate skill value (Strength, Perception, Savvy, Craft, or Cunning) from all participating crew members. Remember, "tired" crew members who become "exhausted" have -1 to their skills.
3. Draw Fate: Draw a card from the ability deck and add its fate number (top-left corner) to your skill sum. Discard the ability card.
4. Succeed or Fail: If your total sum is equal to or higher than the challenge's required skill number, you succeed! Ignore any failure consequences. If you fail, you must apply the listed consequences, which can include health or ship damage, gaining status tokens (Venom, Frightened, Weakened, Madness), or being directed to a different storybook paragraph.

Combat!

When the storybook screams "COMBAT!", it's time to fight! Here's the rundown:

1. Set Up Enemies: Retrieve the listed enemy cards from the enemy deck (which is numerically ordered, so don't peek!). Shuffle these specific enemies and place them face up in a row.
2. Distribute Combat Action Tokens:
   • 4 players: 1 token each.
   • 3 players: Active player gets 2, others get 1.
   • 2 players: 2 tokens each.
   • 1 player (solo): All 4 tokens.
3. Combat Rounds: Continue rounds until all enemies are defeated or all crew members are at 0 health.
   • Player Attacks: Players use their combat action tokens in any order. Place a token on a crew member and choose one of their weapons to attack an enemy.
     • Attacking: Draw fate and add it to your weapon's accuracy. If the total meets or exceeds the enemy's defense number, you hit! Place damage tokens on the enemy card equal to your weapon's damage, placing them adjacently. If all heart symbols are covered, the enemy is defeated.
     • Missing: If you miss, you still deal 1 damage after the counter-attack.
     • Counter-Attack: If the enemy you attacked is not defeated, it immediately counter-attacks the attacking crew member. Apply any block from your weapon. If the crew member runs out of health, remaining damage goes to another crew member.
     • Splash Damage: You can place some damage on adjacent enemy cards, as long as at least half (rounded up) hits the original target.
     • Armor: Silver hearts are armor. Place armor tokens on these at the start of combat. When you deal damage to an armored square, remove the token instead of placing a damage token. All armor tokens must be removed to defeat an enemy, but the symbols don't need to be covered by damage tokens.
     • Flying Enemies: Enemies with a wing symbol have +1 defense against non-"ranged" weapons.
     • Covering Enemy Squares: Placing a damage token on an enemy square disables any abilities in that square.
   • Enemy Attacks: After all players use their combat action tokens, any remaining enemies attack. The active player decides which crew members are attacked. Damage from one enemy must go to a single crew member. If they run out of health, damage spills over. Enemies also activate their end-round abilities.
   • New Round: If enemies remain, reclaim combat action tokens and start a new round.
4. Victory! When all enemies are defeated, you win! Return their cards to the enemy deck (in order) and continue the storybook.

Combo Points: Track these on the combo point card. You start each battle with 0. Each time you cover an enemy square with a combo point symbol, move the marker up 1 space. Any player can spend all current combo points to activate one of the abilities on the card (e.g., +1 accuracy for 2 points, +1 damage for 3 points, +1 Combat Action for 4 points). You can never have more than 4 combo points.

End of Game and Scoring

Sleeping Gods is a campaign game, so it doesn't have traditional "scoring" in the session-to-session sense. Your ultimate goal is to find eight totems and then decide to end the campaign at any time before the event deck runs out. When you do, you turn to paragraph F1 in the storybook to see your ending!

However, your campaign can end in failure in several ways:

• If the ship's health reaches 0, the Manticore sinks.
• If every crew member's health is reduced to 0.
• If your morale track reaches 0 and a fate draw of 1-3 results in a mutiny.
• If you run out of event cards for the third time, the Hectakron destroys your ship instantly.

Finding totems is key! Each totem you find shuffles 2 mild event cards from the box into the top of the current event deck, effectively buying you more time to complete your quest.

The game also tracks achievements on a separate sheet. Marking these can unlock new game modes for future campaigns!

Tips for Winning

The Wandering Sea is unforgiving, but with