Matrix Phase

Searching a region in your Matrix: the Discovery Procedure, placing and returning Encounters, moving, the two Events of each Player Turn, the Guide, activated Rumors and the Wasteland, and Humility.

The Matrix on your Expedition Sheet is a close-up of the region you just explored: 5 slots across and 4 down, with “Start here” at the top centre and “End here” at the bottom centre. Slots 1–6 in the lower half are numbered for the Rumor.

Discovery procedure

Once per Game Turn, just before your first Matrix Player Turn:

1. Draw one Event chit for every slot except “Start here” and “End here”, placing them row by row from the top-left.
2. Return them all except the Discoveries (red edge) that are legal: one of their terrain dots matches your region. These are the wonders waiting in your region.

Terrain dots

A chit with dots is legal if any one of its dots matches your region.

Placing encounters

At the start of every Matrix Player Turn, draw Encounter chits into the two slots closest to your Explorer in each direction — up, down, left, right — except the direction you came from. Mark that one with your Arrow marker in the slot you left, pointing at you. On your first Player Turn, place in all three directions from “Start here”.

• Never diagonally. Fill slots strictly row by row, left to right, like reading a page.
• Only empty slots; never replace a chit.
• With a Telescope, also draw one Encounter for one empty slot diagonally next to you.

Returning chits

Then return every chit that is:

• illegal (no dot matches your region),
• under the Arrow, or
• three or more slots away from you (counted straight, never diagonally).

Discoveries — and an activated Rumor — stay where they are until an Explorer enters them. A returned chit goes back to its own bag or cup.

Movement

Move one slot up, down, left or right — never diagonally, but you may go back where you came from. You must move; only on “End here” may you stay.

Rhythm of play

Each Matrix Player Turn:

1. Place Encounters and return chits (above).
2. Draw your first Event, while still in your old slot.
3. Pay 1 Time and move one slot; put the Arrow in the slot you left.
4. Draw your second Event, now in the new slot.
5. Deal with the chits in your new slot: any Finding first, then the Encounter. You can’t refuse to deal with a chit, unless it disappears first.

Then the next player in Turn Track order takes a Player Turn. Your last Player Turn is the one in which your Time marker moves from 1 to Stop (Time is up).

Events you draw

You draw two Events each Player Turn and must deal with both (all Events).

• Incident (black square behind the picture): apply it. Keep the first one until the second is drawn.
  • If both Events are Incidents and both cost you something (Food, Gifts, an Askari, a Porter, Health, Sanity, a Resource or Time), gain 1 DP.
  • If the second is the same Incident as the first, either apply it (even without effect) or ignore it and return a random Resource of yours, if you have one.
  • A second Incident that wasn’t ignored stays out until you have dealt with the Encounter: some change it.
• Finding (green edge): place it in the Matrix (where). As a first Event it may not go in your slot; as a second Event it may only go in your slot. Never on a slot that already has a Finding; return it if it can’t be placed.
• Discovery (red edge): drawn now, it is returned and ignored. Discoveries only appear through the Discovery Procedure.

Dealing with a Finding or Discovery: gain 2 DP and lose 1 Time (the hourglass on the chit), then move the chit onto your region on the map.

Guide

With a Guide and your Time at 8 or less, you may add 2 Time at the start of a Player Turn, once per Game Turn: flip the Guide to remember. Whether flipped or not, the Guide is returned when your Time is up. You can gain a new one at a Village or Kingdom only if you have none.

Rumors and the Wasteland

A Rumor Event is placed on a Village Encounter or a Kingdom Discovery that has no Rumor yet (first Event: not in your slot; second Event: only in your slot). When that Village or King likes you, they tell you more:

1. Roll a d6 and move the Rumor to that numbered slot (reroll if you or a Discovery are there). It is now activated. Return every other Rumor in your Matrix, and any you draw later this Game Turn.
2. The activated Rumor creates a Wasteland: its slot and the next slot in each straight direction (a cross). No Encounters or Findings may be placed there; any already there are returned (Discoveries stay).
3. Each time you deal with a Finding or Discovery from then on, first roll a d6 and move the activated Rumor to that slot (it may stay put; reroll if you or a Discovery are there). The new Wasteland returns the Encounters and Findings in it — even in your own slot, before you deal with them: no DP for them.

Entering an activated Rumor

Draw your second Event and apply it as usual. Then return the Rumor and draw a Special Discovery (all 16), place it on your region and apply it. An Impassable doesn’t stop this. Your Time is then up: move your Time marker to Stop (only the Wildman can save you).

Humility

At the end of a Matrix Player Turn in which your Time isn’t up, you may target a player who has 6 or more DP more than you: pay 1 Time and draw 3 Events. You may make that player suffer one Incident among them (they can’t refuse). Return all three. You may do this against several players, but only once against each on the same occasion. Not used solo.