How to play

This is a competitive tabletop adventure for 2–10 adventurers. Play against computer rivals in FFA, or join computer teammates in Teams. The first player or team to complete any one of these goals wins.

Computer adventurers receive a strategy when the match begins. Builders expand income and pursue gear mastery; Raiders seek rival kills and stolen resources; Slayers hunt for Fire Protection and prepare for the Ash Tyrant. Their player cards identify their strategy. Every strategy can seize another route to victory when the opportunity arises.

1. Prepare your expedition. This lobby is single player: you face three computer rivals by default, each with a random name and appearance. Add or remove rivals in FFA to face between one and nine opponents. In Teams, choose a balanced format such as 2v2, 3v3v3 or 5v5, then assign each adventurer to a team. The format sets the number of seats; every team must have the same size. Your own seat stays in place. Use the icon beneath a character to cycle appearances; this changes no stats. Names can contain up to 32 characters.
2. Choose your realm. Select a random realm or a locally saved custom realm. Random realms allow every tile count from 19 to 127; the default is 61. The count includes one Ashen Hollow.
3. Set the coast. Choose Compact realm · no sea gaps, Irregular coast · 15% sea gaps, Broken coast · 30% sea gaps. Sea gaps expand the footprint while preserving the selected land count. Random land stays connected, with the five resource types distributed as evenly as possible. Generation spreads matching resources apart, separates 6, 7 and 8 tokens, and mixes strong and weak numbers around shared corners. Production odds are balanced across resource types. Saved custom terrain and numbers are used as painted.
4. Choose setup visibility. Tile resources, tile numbers and ordinary monster identities can each be shown or hidden independently. All are visible by default. Every monster site is marked from the beginning; hidden identities appear as question marks. Ordinary monsters arrive after three completed rounds. Ashen Hollow tiles and Ash Tyrant stay visible. Tile resources and numbers are revealed once everyone has placed a starting Flameward and the camera has returned to the full map. Computer players use the same visible setup information.
5. Place one free Flameward each, in reverse turn order. The starting order is randomized. Teams shuffle both the team order and each team's members, then alternate teams: Team 1 A, Team 2 A, Team 3 A, Team 1 B, and so on. Click or tap a highlighted corner. Your character starts there, and this first Flameward remains your original home. The camera visits each spawning adventurer, then shows the full map. After three seconds, the first player in the randomized order takes their turn; play continues forward through that order.

You begin as an unarmed Adventurer with 7 HP, no resources, no equipment drops, no kills and all gear sets at level 0. Starting placement gives no resources. Your first Flameward must touch no more than one resource tile.

The command dock beneath the board leads you through these steps. A turn belongs to one adventurer; a round is a pass through the seating order.

At the start of each turn, the camera smoothly focuses on the active adventurer. Their turn announcement fades in and out above their head before play resumes. Computer players wait for this sequence to finish before rolling.

1. Roll

   Roll two six-sided number dice. Every total, including 7, pays eligible players. On 2 or 12, summon or renew your Astral Projection if you stand at a corner of a 2 or 12 hex, or own a Flameward at one of those corners.

2. Move or stay

   Choose one highlighted corner up to 2 connected steps away, or select Teleport anywhere for 2 essence, or select Skip move. Instant travel between your Flamewards is also a move. Walking or teleporting keeps your full action.

3. Take one action

   Gather with a button on a nearby resource hex, or press a sword beside an outlined target and choose an attack style. The bottom bar offers one button per food type and Travel for delayed Flameward travel. You must take an action before End turn becomes available. A failed gather, zero-damage attack or interrupted delayed Flameward teleport still spends the action.

4. Build, upgrade & exchange

   After using your action, the left drawer opens. Buy one gear level or build one Flameward, plus one market exchange per turn. Collapse it any time to see the map, then end your turn with the button at the bottom.

5. End turn

   Choose End turn. Your Astral Projection attacks nearby rivals first if in reach, then the Ash Tyrant, then ordinary monsters. Burn ticks afterward if you survive. The game passes to the next living or returning player.

Income from every player’s roll

For each tile matching the dice total, a living character on one of its corners earns 1 of that tile’s resource. Each of that player’s Flamewards on the tile also earns 1. These payments stack: standing on your own Flameward gives 2 from that tile; touching several matching tiles pays from each.

Ashen Hollow has no resource or number. Dead players receive nothing from their character or Flamewards. Astral Projections and ordinary monsters do not block income or gathering. All resource numbers from 2 through 12, including 7, can pay out.

Gathering as your action

Stand on a resource tile’s corner and press its gathering button on the hex. This immediately rolls one six-sided number die, independently of the tile’s number. Meet or exceed the target below to receive 1 resource. Failure gives nothing and still uses the action. You cannot gather from Ashen Hollow.

Warrior gear improves logs and ore, Healing improves fish and wheat, and Wizard gear improves essence. Archer gear does not improve gathering. Higher levels improve the success chance; each successful gather yields 1 resource at every level.

Characters stand on corners and walk along the edges connecting them. You get one optional movement attempt before acting: select a destination one or two steps away. The game chooses a shortest connected route. Sea gaps cannot be crossed where an edge is missing. Characters and Flamewards do not block walking or sharing a corner.

You cannot split movement into two separate clicks. A one-step move ends the movement stage; a two-step move is chosen as one destination. After either move, you can still gather, attack, start a delayed Flameward teleport or eat as your action. Instead of walking, you may spend 2 essence to teleport anywhere during the movement step. Instant travel between your own Flamewards also replaces walking.

Leaving an opponent’s reach

For every living rival, ordinary monster, a hostile Astral Projection or the Ash Tyrant whose attack range you leave, roll one combat die. No roll is needed if that opponent can still reach your destination. Walking checks each step separately, including enemies first encountered on the intermediate corner.

• Disengage dice always have 3 swords, 2 shields and 1 blank. Roles, gear and opponent type never add swords or shields or convert the blank.
• Every sword deals 1 damage. Any sword blocks that step. Shields and blanks do nothing; there is no defence roll, combat-triangle conversion or Fire Protection.
• All required dice for that step are rolled, even if an earlier one blocks you. Further damage stops once you are dead.
• If the first step fails, you stay at the starting corner. If the second fails, you stay at the intermediate corner. Either way the movement attempt is spent, but a survivor still has the full action.
• A rival who deals the lethal disengage hit gains a kill and all your resources. A lethal projection hit credits its owner with a rival kill, but does not transfer resources.

After your action, choose Build Flameward to immediately create one at your character’s corner. The corner must be empty of Flamewards, with none on a directly connected corner. The Ash Tyrant’s tile is permanently off limits for Flameward placement.

The second Flameward uses the base price. Each one you own after the first doubles the next price; opponents’ Flamewards do not affect it. Flamewards pay resources on matching rolls, give you teleport destinations, survive your death, and cannot be upgraded or destroyed. Building another adds a respawn choice without changing your original home.

The Caravan Market

Exchange 3 of a single resource for 1 of a different resource. Choose the resource to give and the resource to receive, then exchange. You may trade once per turn during the buying stage, from any corner; you do not need to visit a market tile. Trades do not use another action, and passives such as Fire Protection cannot be traded. You can give or receive logs, ore, fish, grain (wheat), or essence. Open the left drawer after your action to build, level up, or trade. You can collapse it to view the map; the End turn button stays at the bottom.

Choose Teleport anywhere during the movement step, or open Travel to zoom out and highlight your available Flamewards on the board. Press a highlighted Flameward to choose it, or cancel without spending anything. Instant Flameward travel is available during movement when standing on one of your own Flamewards; interruptible travel is an action. Your current corner is never a destination. After arriving, the camera pans and zooms to your character before play resumes.

Gear sets are personal upgrades available from anywhere during the buying stage. Each begins at level 0 and can reach level 6. Buy levels one at a time; each level costs the base price × the new level. You can buy one gear level or build one Flameward per turn, sharing the same purchase limit.

Your first Warrior gear, Archer gear or Wizard gear upgrade automatically equips its combat role if you are still unarmed. Later upgrades keep your chosen role. Each combat gear level adds the next item in the progression above, keeping every earlier item. The Wizard's orb is held in the other hand from the staff. Capes arrive at level 6 for all three roles. Healing adds a single food dish tucked into a small belt pouch with any role. Each Healing level makes the dish richer, adding cheese, greens, grilled fish, roast vegetables and finally a feast with fresh garnish.

Gear is layered over your base character. Upgrading or changing combat roles keeps the same body, face and hair; equipment never adds facial hair or changes your character's identity.

Health from combined gear levels

Start with 7 HP. Every 3 combined levels across all four gear sets add 1 maximum HP. When an upgrade raises that maximum, it also restores 1 HP immediately. Other upgrades do not heal you.

With 4 gear sets capped at 6, the highest attainable maximum is 15 HP.

Eating fish or wheat

Fish and wheat are both ready to eat. Each unit heals 2 HP. Press Eat fish or Eat wheat. The button automatically uses the smallest amount needed to reach full health, capped at Healing level + 1 and the amount of that food in your pack. The whole meal uses your one action; you cannot eat both foods in the same turn. At level 0, eat up to 1 fish or wheat for 2 HP; at level 1, up to 2 for 4 HP; at level 6, up to 7 for 14 HP. The button shows how much food will be used and the actual HP restored. You cannot eat at full health. Eating remains available after a two-step move. Healing upgrades accept any mix of fish and wheat: 2 total for level 1, 4 for level 2, up to 12 for level 6. Fish is spent first, preserving wheat for Archer gear. Both foods can also be traded at the Caravan Market.

Everyone starts as a neutral, unarmed Adventurer with 1 attack die and 0 defence dice. Warrior gear level 1 unlocks Warrior / Melee; Archer gear level 1 unlocks Archer / Ranged; Wizard gear level 1 unlocks Wizard / Magic.

Attackable targets are outlined and have a small sword button. Press the sword, then choose an unlocked style to attack immediately, or cancel to take another action. Each choice shows whether the attack is strong, neutral or weak against that target, along with its dice count and any change to blank faces. Opening or cancelling the picker does not change your role or spend your action. Your chosen attack role determines your attack dice, defence dice and combat matchups, including between turns. Once your action is used, the role is locked until your next action stage. Once trained, you cannot choose unarmed again.

Level 1 weapons roll 2 attack dice, gaining 1 die per gear level up to 7 at level 6. Defence comes only from the equipped role’s gear, not your highest gear or their combined levels, and reaches at most 4 dice.

One attack, one target

All styles have the same reach: rivals on your corner or one connected corner away, and monsters on a tile whose corner you occupy. Bows and magic do not extend range. Attacks cost no resources or ammunition, but use your action. Select an available target in the dock.

Roll the attacker’s pool and the defender’s pool. Each attacking sword minus each defending shield deals 1 damage, with a minimum of 0. Attacking shields and defending swords have no effect. The defender does not automatically counterattack; living monsters attack at the active player’s turn end whether or not that player attacked them.

The combat triangle

• Strong attack: the attacker’s blanks become swords.
• Weak attack: the defender’s blanks become shields.
• Same style or neutral matchup: blanks stay blank. Matchups never change the number of dice.

The triangle applies to rivals, ordinary monsters and the Ash Tyrant in both directions. The Ash Tyrant starts neutral, then takes the type of its last attack: melee claws, magic dragonfire or ranged ember spikes. Astral Projections use their owners’ active combat styles and the triangle.

Ordinary monsters share one health pool between all players. Damage persists between turns; the player who lands the killing blow gets the entire reward. Monsters stay on their tile while alive and attack only the active player on one of that tile’s corners at turn end.

Tier 1 has six creatures, each with 4 HP: Goblin and Kobold fight in melee, Impling and Wisp use magic, and Harpy and Thorn Sprite attack at range.

Tier 2 creatures each have 6 HP: Minotaur and Troll fight in melee, Basilisk and Banshee use magic, and Centaur and Manticore attack at range.

Tier 3 creatures each have 8 HP: Cyclops and Cerberus fight in melee, Seer and Dreadlord use magic, and Griffin and Wyvern attack at range. Each drops 7 random resources and grants the Fire Protection passive if you lack it.

Each random resource is drawn independently from the five resource types with equal chances; repeats are possible. Tier 3 kills always give their listed resources, even when you already have Fire Protection. This passive does not stack; after losing it on death, kill another tier 3 monster to earn it again.

Returning monsters

Defeated monsters begin a 3-round countdown. It decreases when turn order wraps back around. At zero, a random monster from the next tier returns at full HP: tier 1 becomes tier 2, and tier 2 becomes tier 3. Defeated tier 3 monsters return as another random tier 3 monster. The returning monster's combat style can change. It appears on a different random resource tile, clear of the living Ash Tyrant and other active monsters, with no shared corner between their tiles. It never returns on Ashen Hollow.

If there is no legal destination, it waits and tries again at the next round boundary. Tiles still reserved for other monsters awaiting respawn are also unavailable. A return tile may border characters or Flamewards. Returning does not itself trigger an attack.

1. Connect to a 2 or 12 hex. Stand at one of its corners, or own a Flameward at one of its corners. Either number qualifies; a rival's or teammate's Flameward does not grant you access.
2. Roll 2 or 12. Receive the normal matching resource payouts, then choose a hex for your projection if you have access. Each total has a 1/36 chance; together they allow a summon on 1/18 rolls (about 5.6%). A 7 pays resources normally, with a 6/36 chance (about 16.7%), and does not summon.
3. Choose any hex without a rival projection. There is no distance restriction. Monsters and the Ash Tyrant may share its hex. Summoning uses neither your move nor your action. The camera frames the summon, then returns to your adventurer before play resumes.
4. One living projection per player. Summoning on another hex replaces your previous projection. Select its existing hex on a later eligible 2 or 12 to renew its HP and reset its three-round lifespan. Only one projection can occupy each hex.
5. Copy the current role. Every projection always uses its owner's active melee, ranged or magic style. Its attack dice equal 1 plus that role's gear level: Warrior gear for melee, Archer gear for ranged, Wizard gear for magic. A level 4 role gives 5 attack dice. Switching roles or upgrading immediately changes your projection; unarmed owners give their projections 0 attack dice.
6. HP without shields. A summon or renewal copies your current HP. Damage to the projection is independent of damage to you. Rivals can target it with an Attack action in range; it rolls no defence dice and disappears at 0 HP. Defeating a projection grants no player kill or resources.
7. Attack only at the end of your turn. Your projection attacks each other living adventurer on a corner of its hex, including teammates, with separate attack and defence rolls. Summoning and renewing cause no immediate attack. The combat triangle applies, and your projection never attacks you. Leaving a rival projection's reach requires the usual disengage die; a teammate's projection does not. Enemy kills credit the owner, even if the owner is dead, but the defeated player keeps their resources. A projection with 0 attack dice neither attacks nor forces disengage.

Each projection expires after three full passes through the seating order from its summon or renewal, counting skipped respawn turns. Its marker shows HP and rounds remaining; hover to see its owner, current style and attack dice. Projections never block resource payouts or gathering.

Fire Protection does not change projection attacks or defence rolls against them. It limits the Ash Tyrant's dragonfire damage to 2 and prevents it from starting burn.

Shared HP

13

Defence

4 dice

Respawns

Never

Attack from a corner of its tile. It rolls 4 defence dice. It starts neutral and changes to the type of its most recent attack, which sets its strengths and weaknesses until its next attack. Damage persists for everyone; landing the killing blow immediately wins. The Ash Tyrant never relocates.

If you end your turn on its tile’s corner while it lives, it chooses one of three attacks, each with an equal one-in-three chance (about 33%). The combat triangle applies to every attack and defence roll:

Burn

Burn starts only when dragonfire deals damage and you lack Fire Protection. If you survive, it sets your burn to 3 turns. Claws, spikes, fully blocked dragonfire and protected dragonfire never start or refresh burn. Burn deals 1 damage at the end of each of your turns, starting immediately after that turn’s monster attacks, and reduces its counter by 1. Another unprotected dragonfire hit refreshes the counter rather than stacking extra damage.

Leaving the tile or eating does not remove burn. Gaining Fire Protection prevents new burns but does not extinguish an existing one. Burn damage interrupts a delayed teleport. Death clears it.

At 0 HP, your character leaves the board immediately, burn clears and any pending teleport is cancelled. You cannot act or receive dice income while dead, including income from your Flamewards.

Your respawn counter appears on the left of your player portrait and begins at 3. The first time the turn order reaches you after death, it drops to 2 and your turn is skipped. The next time, it drops to 1 and you skip again. On your third turn after death, the counter disappears. If you own multiple Flamewards, choose a highlighted Flameward on the map to return to. With one Flameward, you return automatically. You respawn with full current maximum HP and take your turn, starting with the roll. Returning costs nothing and does not immediately trigger monster attacks.

You always keep your gear levels, equipped role, Flamewards and accumulated kills. Fire Protection is lost on every death and must be earned again from a tier 3 kill. Choosing a respawn Flameward does not change your original home.

At the table

• Explore the board: drag to pan, scroll to zoom, or pinch on a touch screen. With the board camera focused, use arrow keys to pan, + / − to zoom, and Home or 0 to fit the map. The toolbar’s Fit map also frames the whole board. On touch devices, the game and menu use portrait orientation.
• Choose highlighted spaces: click or tap corners for placement, walking and teleporting; choose a tile when summoning an Astral Projection. Keyboard users can Tab to legal targets and press Enter or Space.
• Read the player strip: each compact card shows the player's HP, equipped role and its level, total carried items, kills and effects. Item totals count carried resources; Fire Protection is shown separately as a passive. The small circle shows the current style level. Four cards fit across a phone; scroll across the strip for more players. During your turn, tap a card to pan and zoom to that player on the board.
• Check your inventory: the vertical icon-and-number strip on the left shows your resource counts and all four gear levels. Other players' detailed counts stay hidden. Tap the arrow on its right edge to see each gear set's current level, next upgrade and cost, plus the price of your next Flameward. Tap it again to collapse the panel. In a shared game, the strip follows the human taking the turn; with one human, it stays on that player's inventory during computer turns.
• Follow the dock: it shows only the current stage’s controls. Action categories open their available targets and options. Controls wait while dice and outcome animations play and during computer turns.
• Use the toolbar: Guide opens this handbook; Fit map resets the view; fullscreen is available where the browser supports it; Quit game returns to setup.

Make your own frontier

Open Realm creator from the main menu or here. Pick a terrain brush and a dice number, then click a hex to paint. The dash selects no number; Ashen Hollow always has none. Erase removes a tile. Clear removes all tiles from the current draft.

The frontier is ready when you are.

Start your expedition