Welcome to Aftermath

Hey there! I’m excited to tell you about this awesome game called Aftermath. In this game, you and your friends will step into the shoes of providers for your colony. Something interesting has happened – humans are gone and now the animals are in charge of the colonies. How cool is that?

Each player gets to choose a character, and guess what? Each character has their own unique style and personality. So, get ready to embark on an adventure into the wilderness, away from the safety of the colonies. Are you up for it?

Your main goal in Aftermath is to grow your colony. How do you do that? By providing resources, building structures, and making improvements. It’s not an easy task, but I’m confident that you and your friends can handle it!

But here’s the catch – you must complete all of the objectives and keep your colony alive. If you fail, well, let’s just say you won’t be in a very good position. So make sure you give it your all and stay focused. Losing everything is not an option!

Let’s get set up

Okay, first things first! To set up the game, you’ll need to place the Adventure Book in the middle of the playing area. Oh, and don’t forget to put the sideboard on the right side, too. Now, grab the travel map and place it near the Adventure Book. Oh look, there’s a party marker too! Make sure to put it on the Abbigail Lane spot.

Alright, now it’s time for the fun part! Each player gets to choose a character. Remember, each character has their own deck box, so make sure to choose the one that matches your character’s style. Got everything? Great! You’re now ready to dive into the world of Aftermath and start your thrilling adventure!

Alright, let’s get this game started! To set things up, we need to shuffle three different decks: the action deck, the item deck, and the encounter cards. Each of these decks will have their own shuffled pile.

Next, we’ll create four faceup decks: one for the status cards, one for the environment cards, one for the mission cards, and one for the boss enemy cards. These decks will be placed in separate piles.

Now, let’s take all the scavenge tokens and place them face down into different piles, depending on the level of difficulty you want.

We’ll also need separate stacks for the wound tokens, battery tokens, dustdeather tokens, hornet tokens, roach tokens, fire tokens, and objective tokens. Make sure to create these stacks before we begin playing.

With all the necessary game pieces set up, we’re ready to start playing!

GAMEPLAY

When it’s my turn to play, I have to go through five steps in a specific order. Let me break it down for you. First, I draw five action cards. If I have any action cards left from my last turn, I can get rid of any that I don’t want. But here’s the thing, if there aren’t enough cards in the deck, I can shuffle the discard pile and draw from there instead.

Next, I have to deal with calamities. If I draw a calamity card, I have to show it to everyone and then put it in the discard pile. But wait, if the calamity has already been taken care of according to the Adventure book, then nothing happens. It’s all good. But if it hasn’t been resolved yet, I have to roll the black die. I take the number I roll and add it to the time dial. If the total is higher than what’s written on the card, then the calamity is resolved. Phew!

First off, let’s talk about how to place threats in the game. You can do this by placing the black cards onto the threat track in any order you like. If there’s already an enemy card on a slot, just slide your threat card underneath it. Once you’ve placed your threats, it’s time to take some action.

You have a bunch of action cards, and you can use any of them to complete actions. It’s all up to you – use your cards strategically to get ahead in the game.

And now we come to checking the threat. Here’s the deal: if you have four or more threat cards, you’re safe. But if the number of threat cards matches the number of enemies, you’re going to have an enemy turn on your hands. So be prepared for that.

When I want to do something in the game, I usually have to pass a test. These tests have symbols and difficulties. I need to use a card with the same symbol as the test and play it. I can play more cards after that. If the total value of all the cards I play is equal to or greater than the difficulty of the test, I pass and succeed!

When we talk about group tasks, we’re talking about a whole different ballgame compared to skill tests. The thing is, group tasks are all about the cards that are played, and they’re a bit trickier to figure out. But the cool part is that everyone in the group can pitch in to help get the job done. Usually, the adventure book starts these tasks off.

Now, here’s how it goes. When it’s your turn, you can play action cards to the group task. The key is that the cards you play have to match in either color or number to be of any help. Once you’ve played your cards, it’s time to see if you’ve succeeded. All you’ve got to do is check if the task dial is equal to or greater than the difficulty. If it is, then congratulations! That means the whole group has succeeded.

Alright, now let’s move on to what happens during an enemy turn. Here’s the deal: when it’s time to resolve the enemy turn, the first thing you need to do is activate the enemies. They get activated one by one, starting with the enemy that’s at the top of the threat track. Here’s how it goes: you match an action on your card with the value on the threat card that’s paired with that enemy. And guess what? That little combo determines how strong the enemy is. Pretty neat, huh?

So here’s what happens: I move the enemy towards the nearest player until they’re in the same spot or until they’ve moved their maximum number of spaces. If no players are close enough, the enemy won’t attack. But if there is a player nearby, they become the target. To defend against the attack, the player needs to use their skills.

If the player can’t defend themselves successfully, they’ll get hurt. Once an enemy takes their turn, we discard the threat card and move on to the next enemy. We keep repeating this process until all the enemies have had their turn.

And that’s how a mission ends!

If you can finish your mission, the adventure book will show you what to do next. But if all of you are out of the game, then the mission fails. Don’t worry if you go over the time limit on a mission. It doesn’t mean you automatically lose.

GAME OVER

The game ends when you complete all the goals for the characters or when the colony falls apart. If the colony collapses, that’s it, game over, you lose. However, if you manage to complete all the goals and keep the colony going strong, you win the game!