Legend of the Ancients 2018

In Legend of the Ancients, players will attempt to piece together the greatest legend of a people lost almost entirely to antiquity. By exploring deeper and deeper into the ruins of this lost tribe, they will discover and try to make narrative sense of new elements to the legend, all while hopefully not succumbing to their worst fears. As these things always go, however, there is a catch. Somewhere in the deep, dark underground waits a malevolent force, older than time itself, and with each step they take, our intrepid explorers are unwittingly awakening it. Will our noble adventurers unlock the key to the lost Legend of the Ancients? Or will they be overcome by terror... or something infinitely worse?

—description from the introduction

The cooperative storytelling game is published as an 8-page PDF rules document and a 12-page print-and-play PDF game materials document. A 1-page, print-and-play DOC file also is included as an errata. The game uses two distinct decks of cards and a play surface that is randomized at the start of the game.

Play involves drawing map tiles and placing them, to create the randomized playing surface. Players have a token marking their position on the board. During each turn, the player selects an action from among six possibilities and executes that action. Several of the options entail moving the player token to a new map tile.

Players are free to cooperate to achieve game goals, and play is considered cooperative. Indeed, a few game actions require more than a single player. Individual players may have leave the game prior to the end of play (they are driven "stark, raving mad"), but this is not common. Instead, the game ends when the players collectively complete one of two tracks of play (one of the tracks is the "happy" ending - universal success; the other is the "doom" ending - universal failure).

The game is meant to be played with 3 - 5 players; a minor variant rule can be used to adapt the game for 2 players - in effect, the rule creates a dummy, limited, third "player".

The game was written for, and submitted to, Game Chef 2018.

—user summary