Map Phase

The start of every Game Turn: the Turn Track, Port of Entry and Patron, feeding the expedition, Disease and Horror, moving on the map, deciding terrain, and Bad Luck.

Turns and rounds

• A Player Turn is one player’s move and actions.
• A Round is one Player Turn for every player, in Turn Track order.
• A Game Turn starts with one Round called the Map Phase, when every Explorer enters a new region. The following Rounds are the Matrix Phase, when everyone searches their region in their own Matrix (Matrix Phase), until every Time marker has reached Stop.

The turn track

At the start of every Game Turn:

1. Roll a d6 and put the Disease marker on that slot of the Turn Track. Roll again for the Horror marker; if it rolls the same number, it goes one slot further down.
2. With 2 or 3 players these rolls get −1; solo −2. A result of 0 or less counts as 1.
3. Fill the empty slots, from the top, with the players’ Turn markers: fewest DP first, ties random. That is the order of every Player Turn this Game Turn.
4. Disease and Horror leave the track after the Map Phase; the Turn markers leave at the end of the Game Turn.

Port of Entry and Patron

Once per game, before the first move and in Turn Track order, each player:

1. Puts their Explorer on an unoccupied Port of Entry — one of the five regions already covered in terrain (Khartoum, Fernando Po, Angola, Zanzibar, Mocambique). They are explored.
2. Takes one Patron from the Patrons’ area and keeps it at that port all game.

When you find something your Patron cares about you “draw attention” and add an extra 3 DP on top of the usual DP (2–3 players: 2 DP; solo: 1 DP). Find something that an opponent’s Patron cares about and you get nothing extra, but that opponent loses 1 DP from shame (never below 1).

Then everyone equips their expedition (20 Credits).

Food

The first thing in your first Player Turn of each Game Turn: pay Food for the whole Game Turn — 1 per Askari and 1 per Porter (8 Askaris and 10 Porters eat 18).

• Askaris eat first. Short of Food, pay what you have.
• Askaris fed but some Porters not: +1 Discontent. Not even the Askaris fed: +2.
• With Fishing you never take more than 1 Discontent for missing Food, wherever you are.

Disease and Horror

Still before you move:

• If your Turn marker is below the Disease marker, make a Health-roll.
• If it is below the Horror marker, make a Sanity-roll.
• Below both: make both, starting with the marker higher on the track.

Moving

Your Explorer must move into an adjacent region.

• If that region is already explored you may hurry across it into the next region for 1 Time — at most two regions in one Map Phase, and never across an unexplored one.
• Ending in an explored region: gain 20 Food, but no DP and no Matrix Phase for you this Game Turn. If another Explorer is there, you both enjoy a “Dr Livingstone, I presume” moment: 2 DP each.
• Borders covered by a Lake or Marsh can only be crossed with Canoes; crossing a border with no water on it makes you return your Canoes (Blocked borders).

Deciding terrain

Entering an unexplored region, decide its land terrain first, then its water (Rivers).

1. Presumed Terrain. If the region shows a printed terrain square, roll a d6: on 1–2 that terrain is confirmed. Otherwise, or if there is no square, go on.
2. Color Code. Draw one Color Code Marker. If the same symbol is on one of your region’s borders, your region gets the terrain of the region across it (even a presumed one). Where a green Color Code is printed beside your Presumed Terrain, a drawn green marker confirms that Presumed Terrain anyway. No matching symbol, or no terrain across it: go on.
3. Terrain chart. Roll a d6: 1 Jungle, 2–3 Savanna, 4–5 Veldt, 6 Desert. Reroll a Jungle where the square shows Desert, and a Desert where it shows Jungle.

• Jungle is never placed next to a Desert region (actual or presumed): place Savanna instead. Desert next to Jungle becomes Veldt.
• If no marker of the result is left, go to the next step (in step 3, reroll).

Place the Terrain Marker (covering any square) and score:

Terrain	DP	Also
Savanna or Veldt	1	—
Jungle	2	Lose 1 Time unless you have a Machete
Desert	2	Lose 1 Time unless you have a Canteen

Your Player Turn ends once terrain and any Water Markers are placed. When everyone has moved, the Matrix Phase begins.

Bad Luck

With 3 or more players only. After any die roll, another player may hand that player their Bad Luck marker to force a reroll of one die (the giver picks which). The receiver keeps it and can play it later. You can’t play one to reroll a reroll, give a player back their own colour, or play one against a player with fewer DP than you.