RULE BOOK 


A game for 1–4 players • Unofficial Manual Rewrite v1.2
In the age after the Demon War, the continent enjoys a period of prosperity. Humans have made
peace with the Valrath and Inox. Quatryls and Orchids have arrived from across the Misty Sea with
wares for trade. Together, they decide to build a new city on the eastern shores. It shall be a hub
of trade, a symbol of working in harmony, and a monument to the races' specialties. But even in
peacetime, the different races all prefer to steer the city toward their own goals.

In Founders of Gloomhaven, you lead one of the nine races building the new city. You must import
basic resources, clear a path for roads, and section the land for taverns, gatehouses, and public halls.
It's all in the spirit of cooperation, of course, and no single race has all of the resources necessary
to complete the city. But everyone still suspects that eventually, after this becomes a home for all
peoples, one race will have more influence than any other...

Prefer a video of the rules? Visit us at

www.cephalofair.com/gaming-rules-overview

1
 Overview

Action Cards

In this game, players take turns by playing action cards from their hands. On your turn, you play a card face-up
for its main action — like building a building or buying a new action card, or you play a card face-down for a basic
action — like gaining 1 money or building a road.
™™When you play a face-up card, your opponents get to follow it by taking a basic action or the card’s follow
action.

Construct Call to vote

main:

Build a personal building

at - 1 cost.

follow: follow:

1. Calling player: Gain bonuses

2. Calling player: Reset cards and
workers.
3. Other players: Gain income
Build a personal building. 4. All players: Vote

On Purple’s turn, Purple plays a Yellow follows the Construct card, paying Play the Call to Vote card to
Construct card and pays to build a to build a bridge return all of your cards to your
house with a - 1 money discount Blue instead follows with a basic action hand, so that you can play any
to gain 1 money of your action cards again

Resource Buildings

There are several resources in the game, each with a resource building that you can build on the map.

™™Each player begins with control of two or three basic resources and their matching buildings.
™™To build an advanced resource building, you need access to each of its required resources.
™™Buildings don’t score points when they’re built — they score points when they supply other buildings.

In one game, Blue controls
knowledge and Green controls crops
— they own basic resource buildings
for those resources
Green can’t build one of Blue’s
knowledge buildings, but the
Trade action lets Green access a
knowledge building, putting a disc
under the owner’s disc
Green can then build a books
building, which requires crops and
knowledge — this scores 1 point
each for Green and Blue, for owning
the supplier buildings

2
Cascading Points

An advanced resource building scores points when it supplies another building, but it passes some of those points
to its own suppliers, cascading points all the way to the basic buildings at the start of the supply chain.
™™When you play the Call to Vote card, the players vote to add a prestige building to the map, which requires
and scores points for connected resources. This also leads to a points cascade.
™™The game ends after the players complete 6 prestige buildings, by delivering all of their required resources.
The player with the most points wins.

Green builds a government resource building (upper-right), so its

suppliers score points...
 2 points to Yellow’s jewelry...
...which keeps 1 point and sends 1 point to Yellow’s gems
 4 points to Green’s books...
...which keeps 2 points, sends 1 point to Green’s crops,
and sends 1 point to Blue’s knowledge
 Total Scores: 3 points for Green,
2 points for Yellow, 1 point for Blue

During a Call to Vote action, the players vote to build the

Merchants Guild prestige building (bottom-left) — it sends
10 points to a connected government building, which keeps
4 points and cascades 6 points to its suppliers

Components

Boards Player Components

™™Double-sided map board Per 9 player colors — white, purple, green, blue,
™™Adviser board yellow, orange, brown, pink, and gray
™™Resource board ™™1 player mat  3 worker pawns
™™3 house tiles  3 bridge/gate tiles
™™15 claim discs  25 delivery cubes

Buildings and Roads Tokens Cards

™™64 road tiles ™™Active player token ™™20 standard action cards — 4 each of
™™24 basic resource ™™12 voting tokens — Trade, Construct, Upgrade, Recruit,
buildings — 4 per 3 colors Call to Vote
3 per 8 types ™™46 1 money tokens ™™2 Income action cards
™™18 tier 2 resource ™™22 3 money tokens ™™21 proposal cards
buildings — ™™8 basic resource cards
™™20 white fleeting
3 per 6 types influence gems ™™18 adviser cards
™™12 tier 3 resource
™™20 red lasting ™™15 achievement cards
buildings — 3 per 4 types influence gems ™™9 Gloomhaven city event cards
™™21 prestige buildings
™™6 completion tokens

3
 Setup

For a simpler introductory game, we recommend playing with the symmetric

map, no workers, and no achievements, as described in this section.

For experienced boardgame players, we recommend the thematic map,

workers, and no achievements for your first game.
™™ See p18 for solo play rules.

#1. Choose Map Thematic map

Place the map board on the table, with either side face-up.

™™The thematic map, with one river and long wall, emulates the ruins that
Gloomhaven was built on. It has narrow sections and fewer total spaces,
letting players aggressively block opponents from important areas.
™™The symmetric map has three wide, equal sections with more total
spaces. It provides a friendlier game where it’s more difficult to block
other players.

#2. Create General Supply Symmetric map

Place the money tokens, influence gems, and road tiles in a general supply
beside the map.
™™ When you gain, pay, or discard one of these components, take it from or return it to the
supply.
™™ These components are unlimited. If you need more of any of these, then use a suitable
replacement. Money tokens, influence
™™ Road tiles are all the same. Their artwork has no game effect. gems, and road tiles
™™ You can make change with 1 and 3 money tokens at any time ( 1 = 1 money).

#3. Set Boards & Decks

Place the resource board and adviser board on the table.

™™Place all of the resource buildings, prestige buildings, and completion

tokens beside these boards.

Resource board

Building tiles

4
There are three tiers of adviser cards. Shuffle each tier face-down into Scholar

its own deck.

™™Place the tier II deck on top of the tier III deck, then place the tier I
deck on top of that, to create one adviser deck in tier order.
™™Draw the top four adviser cards. Place one card face‑up on each of
the adviser board’s slots.

Shuffle the proposal cards face-down into a deck.

Recruit an adviser for no cost.

™™Draw three proposal cards from the bottom of the deck. Place one Recruit
card in each of the adviser board’s top slots.
™™If you draw two proposals of the same type (same building shape An adviser’s tier is on
and color), discard the second of those cards to the top of the its back corner
deck, and replace it with a card from the bottom of the deck.
The Crooked Bone
University North Gatehouse The Salt Barrel

Gain 1 for each basic

resource tile adjacent
to this tile.

Return up to two discarded cards Gain access to a resource tile on a

Recruit an adviser at - 1 cost.
(except Income) to your hand. connected entrance space for free.

Scholar Haggler Taskmaster Carpenter

Proposal card deck —

Recruit an adviser for no cost.
always draw proposals from
the bottom of the deck, since
you can see the top card’s
Perform a trade action at - 1 cost.
Recruit two advisers at once, Build a personal building action side
Adviser board with 3 proposals,
paying for both at - 2 cost.

Recruit Trade Recruit Construct

4 tier I advisers, and 6 completion tokens

#4. Draft Colors & Resources Active player token —

turn order is clockwise,
Randomly choose a player to take the active player token and be the first
last player is on the active
active player.
player’s right
Each player chooses a different color in turn order, beginning with the active
player. Take your color’s resource card, three basic resource building tiles,
Population
and player mat placed a-side face-up (showing a worker action).
™™Flip your resource card over to use as a building guide. (The other side
is printed on your player mat.)
™™There is no Gray basic resource. The Gray player instead chooses any
unchosen basic resource and takes its buildings and resource card.
Purple resource card,
No one else can choose that basic resource or its color. After drafting
basic resource buildings,
all resources, Gray may take any unused resource card for a building
and player mat
guide.

5
 Each player then chooses a 2nd resource from the remaining resources,
taking that resource’s buildings and card. Do this in reverse turn order,
beginning with the last player.
™™You can’t choose either of the forbidden resources shown in red on
your player mat and resource card.
™™If you’re forced to choose from resources that are all forbidden,
then you instead steal an opponent’s 2nd resource. That opponent
immediately chooses a new 2nd resource (they steal a resource if the
remaining resources are forbidden). Blue resource card —
building guide on the back
In 2-player games, both players choose a 3rd basic resource, starting with
the active player. You can’t choose a resource forbidden to your 1st or 2nd
resources. If you must steal, then you may steal your opponent’s 2nd or 3rd
resource.

In 2 or 3-player games, the two remaining basic resources are neutral

resources. Choose a neutral color and place its discs and cubes beside the
resource board. Metal and crops are
forbidden if you control
#5. Take Player Tokens knowledge
Each player takes 7 of money tokens, one of each voting token, and five
action cards — Trade, Construct, Upgrade, Recruit, and Call to Vote.
™™In 2-player games, also take an Income action card.
™™Take the houses, bridges/gates, workers, claim discs, and delivery cubes
in your color. Set up your player mat as shown below.
™™Place one of your discs on 0 of the map’s score track and one of your Three voting tokens
cubes on 1 of your income track. (Move these tokens when you score
points or gain income.)

Cube on
1 income 3 bridge/gate tiles

Forbidden
resources 2nd resource card
3 houses
with a worker
on each
Racial
worker action

6
#6. Draft Map Spaces

In reverse turn order, each player chooses a different

numbered space on the map and places one of their first
basic resource buildings on it.
™™You can only use the spaces that match the number All numbered map spaces are gray terrain
of players or less (use the ‘2’ spaces in a 2-player
game, the ‘2’ and ‘3’ spaces in a 3-player game, and
all four spaces in a 4-player game).
™™Place a claim disc on your first resource building,
and place a cube on the resource board beside that
resource.
Cube on resource board’s owner space

Basic Resources Player Colors

Stone Metal Color & Race Starting Resource Workers Houses Bridges / Gates
White
Stone
Savvas
Population Livestock
Purple
Population
Crops Wood Human

Green
Crops
Writing Gems Harrower

Blue
Knowledge
Tier 2 Resources Quatryl
Brick
Machinery
Yellow
Metal
Valrath
Food Leather
Orange
Livestock
Inox
Books Jewelry
Brown
Wood
Vermling
Tier 3 Resources
Labor Government Pink
Gems
Orchid

Cloth
Weapons Gray
Any
Aesther

7
 2nd resources in reverse turn order

5 action cards — Trade, Construct,

resources in turn order, then draft

15 claim discs, 25 delivery cubes,

3 proposal cards, and

1st resource card flipped over as

with 4 adviser cards,

6 completion tokens
Discs and cubes for

2 types — draft colors and 1st

Upgrade, Recruit, Call to Vote

their 1st resources
Resource board —

neutral resources

3 basic resource buildings of

players’ cubes on

Adviser board —

7 money, 3 voting tokens,

Buildings

building guide
The Crooked Bone
Proposal
deck
Gain 1 for each basic
resource tile adjacent
to this tile.
University North Gatehouse The Salt Barrel
Return up to two discarded cards Gain access to a resource tile on a
Recruit an adviser at - 1 cost.
(except Income) to your hand. connected entrance space for free.

Adviser deck —
in tier order
Scholar Haggler Taskmaster Carpenter
trade
main: Construct
main: Upgrade
main: Recruit
main: Call to vote
Recruit two advisers at once, Build a personal building
Recruit an adviser for no cost. Perform a trade action at - 1 cost. paying for both at - 2 cost.
Recruit Trade Recruit Construct Build a personal building
Perform a trade
at - 1 action.
cost.
follow: Build an advanced resource
building and a connected road.
follow:
Recruit an adviser and
follow: gain 1 fleeting influence .
follow:
Perform a trade follow:
action in a
red space or white space.
Build a personal building.
1. Calling player: Gain bonuses
Build an advanced
2. Calling
resource player: Reset cards
building.
and workers.
Recruit an adviser.
3. Other players: Gain income
4. All players: Vote

draft starting spaces in reverse turn order

Map with players’ 1st basic resources —

(use ‘2’ and ‘3’ spaces in 3-player game)

3 bridges/

2nd resource
gates

card
Table Setup Summary (3-player game)

Money, influence gems, and

road tiles in general supply

Player discs at 0 score

3 houses with a
worker on each
1 income
Cube on

8
 Simpler Variant: No Workers Advanced Variant: Achievements Achievement

For a simpler game, place all player For a game with more goals, place
mats with the b-side face‑up, showing a random red, blue, and purple
no worker action. achievement card face‑up beside
the board during setup. These
™™With this variant, no one can
cards score at different times (see
gain workers or use worker actions.
p17).
™™Don’t place any workers on players’ houses.
Houses now only provide influence income
and cost 2 money (see p13).

Important Terms Four basic terrains with terrain cost (the cost to trade
with resource buildings on that terrain)
The following terms appear throughout this manual.

You build a tile by placing it over empty spaces on the

map. You can build roads and buildings over any of the
four basic terrains. Red 1 White 2 Green 3 Gray 3
(entrance) (coastal) (forested) (central)
™™ Each map space can only hold one tile.
™™ Tiles must completely cover the spaces under them.
™™ You can never move, overbuild, or discard something that’s been You can only build specific tiles on these features
built.
™™ You may flip or rotate a tile in any way before building it.

Each map space is adjacent to the eight surrounding

spaces, orthogonal and diagonal. Rivers, walls — Ruins — Black spot, sea,
Roads and buildings are connected when they’re bridges and some prestige border walls —
adjacent or when you can trace a line between them gates only buildings only no building
through connected roads.
™™ You can’t trace connections through buildings.
™™ When an action lets you build a connected road (such as the
Upgrade card’s action), that road must connect to the other thing
built by that action.

You own and have access to any building that you build.

™™You can pay an opponent to place a disc on one

of their resource buildings. You can access any
building that has one of your discs on it, but the
owner’s disc is on top of the stack.
™™Most notably, to build an advanced resource In this example, Green’s builds a labor resource
building, you need access to all of its suppliers, but building (top left) that must connect to population
the suppliers’ owners score points. (adjacent) and food (connected by roads)

9
 The Three IBRs (Important Building Rules)

IBR #1 — When you build something (except for basic resource buildings),
it must connect to a building that you own. This includes roads, houses, and
advanced resource buildings that you build.

IBR #2 — You can’t own two adjacent buildings. This includes your houses
and resource buildings. Build roads to separate your buildings.

IBR #3 — Each map section can only hold one building of each type. Rivers
and walls divide the map into three sections. Each section can only hold one
of each resource building (no matter who owns them), each player’s houses
(one house per player per section), and each type of prestige building (same
shape and color).
™™ You may own a building adjacent to a building that you don’t own.
This obeys IBR #1 & #2 —
™™ You ignore the IBRs when buying access to opponents’ buildings. Green’s new building is
™™ Bridges/gates act like roads, so they ignore IBR #2 & #3. connected but not adjacent to
™™ Prestige buildings are built by a community vote and aren’t owned by anyone, so they ignore another of Green’s buildings
IBR #1 & #2.

The Player Turn

The first player takes the first turn of the game by playing an action card from 3
their hand. After completing the turn, pass the active player token left to the
2
next player, and that player plays a card. Play continues clockwise around the
table until the end of the game.
1
Once you play a card, it remains on the table, and you can’t play it again.

There are three ways to take a turn.

3 map sections
#1. Basic Action

Play any card (except Call to Vote) face-down to take one of four basic actions.

i. Gain 1 Money: You spend money for most card actions.

ii. Gain 1 Fleeting Influence: You spend influence to vote for proposals
during a Call to Vote.
iii. Build a Road: Place a road tile on an empty space. It must obey IBR #1
(must connect to a building you own).
iv. Take a Worker Action: Place one of your unlocked workers on your
racial action to resolve its text.
™™You can instead place a worker on a prestige building’s card and take
Action card back shows
its action if you’ve delivered at least one resource to that building
four basic actions
(see p17). (continued next page)

10
 ™™Each worker action can only hold one worker. No
one can use an action that has anyone’s worker on
it.
™™You can’t reuse your workers until you reset them
Purple player mat worker action
with Call to Vote.
™™Your workers are locked at the beginning of the
game — build houses to unlock them (see p13). The Crooked Bone

™™ You don’t need to show your opponents which cards you play
face‑down. Gain 1 for each basic
Prestige building
™™ Your opponents can’t follow your basic actions. resource tile adjacent
™™ There is no cost to build a road.
to this tile. worker action
™™ You don’t own the roads that you build, but you must still connect
them to something you own.
™™ You can’t use your opponents’ racial actions.

#2. Call to Work

Play a card from your hand face-up and take the main action Scholar

that it shows. The next section describes these actions.

™™After doing so, each of your opponents takes a follow
action in turn order from you. Each opponent may take
your card’s follow action or take any of the four basic
actions. Recruit

™™Adviser cards don’t show a follow action. Opponents may

follow them by taking the action matching the card’s type. Recruit an adviser for no cost.

™™ You can’t play a Call to Work card unless you can fully resolve its main Recruit
action. For example, the Recruit card lets you recruit an adviser and
gain a fleeting influence. You can’t play this card to just gain a fleeting The recruit action lets you buy advisers, like
influence—you must recruit an adviser to play it. this Scholar, which act as new action cards
™™ Your opponents don’t need to play a card to follow your action.
The Scholar is a recruit-type card — when you
#3. Call to Vote play it, your opponents can follow it with a
basic action or the Recruit card’s follow action
You can’t play Call to Vote unless you have at least 2 cards on
the table—or 3 cards in a 2-player game. It causes these effects
(see p15):
What Should I Do First?
™™Gain a bonus for each card remaining in your hand, and
™™If your racial action helps your early
your opponents gain income.
strategy, try building a house to
™™Return all of your action cards to your hand.
unlock a worker for the action.
™™Players vote on a proposal card on the advisor board. The
™™If you control crops or gems, try
winning proposal builds a prestige building on the map. building the tier 2 resource building
that only requires one supplier.
End of Game
™™Otherwise, try building a basic
When 6 prestige buildings are complete (all resources resource building that you can
delivered, see p17), the game ends at the end of the current connect to an opponent’s resource.
turn, after all follow actions.

11
 Work Action: Trade #3. Import & Access

Play your Trade card to take trade

one of three actions that
deal with resource buildings.
After this action, update your
income and the resource
board (see sidebar below and
There are two ways to take this action to build a basic
main: resource that you don’t own.
™™In 2 or 3-player games, you can always use this to
build a neutral resource building.
™™When two prestige buildings are completed (all
Perform a trade action.

next page). follow: resources delivered), you may use this to build
any opponent’s basic resource building.
#1. Import Basic Resource ™™Pay 4 money to the resource’s owner (or the
Perform a trade action in a
red space or white space. supply for a neutral resource). This ignores the
This builds one of your basic normal terrain cost.
resource buildings. ™™Place one of your claim discs on the building,
™™Pay 1–3 money to the supply, matching the cost then place one of the owner’s discs on top of it (a
of the terrain that you build on. neutral disc or the opponent’s disc).
™™Place one of your claim discs on the building. ™™This obeys IBR #2 & #3.

™™This obeys IBR #2 & #3 (no adjacent ownership, ™™ A neutral building can’t be adjacent to another neutral building.
one per map section). Basic resources don’t need
to connect to another building you own. Following

You can follow an opponent’s trade action to import a

#2. Buy Access to a Resource
resource to a red or white space or to buy access to a
This places one of your claim discs on another player’s resource that’s on a red or white space.
resource building, underneath the owner’s disc. ™™ If an advanced resource building has at least one red or white
space under it, then you can buy access to it with a follow
™™Pay 2–4 money to the building’s owner, action.
matching the cost of the terrain under that ™™ You can’t follow with an import & access action.
building plus 1.
™™If the building covers multiple terrains, pay the
terrain cost plus 1 of the least expensive terrain Income
under it. Your income equals the
™™ Pay the supply to access a neutral resource. number of different
™™ Multiple players can buy access to the same building. resources that you
™™ This ignores the IBRs, since you’re not placing a new building. own. The first time that
™™ Buying access to a building doesn’t allow you to use it as a you build a particular
connection for IBR #1.
resource, increase your income by 1 (move the
cube on your player mat’s income tracker).
 Import to red terrain
for 1 You earn money equal to your income when an
 Access a building on red opponent plays Call to Vote. Each house that
terrain for 2, paid to you build also adds 1 fleeting influence to your
the owner income.
 Import and access
neutral buildings to any
terrain for 4

12
 Bridges/Gates
Resource Board Has access to a Bridges/gates are roads that you place on a river/wall
The resource board has no books building space. Your opponents can’t trace connections through
effect on the game, but it your bridges/gates.
shows which players own
and access each resource. ™™Pay 4 money for this. Take a bridge/gate from
Owns a books your player mat and place it bridge‑side-up on a
™™The first time that building river space or gate-side-up on a wall space.
you build a particular ™™This obeys IBR #1 (must connect to a building you
resource, place a cube own).
on one of that resource’s owner spaces.
™™Bridges/gates act like roads, so they ignore IBR #2
™™The first time that you buy access to a
& #3 (may be adjacent to buildings you own, may
particular resource, place a cube on one of build multiple on the same river/wall).
that resource’s access spaces.
™™ Each player can build a maximum of 3 bridges/gates.
™™ Bridges/gates connect to all 8 adjacent spaces, as roads do.
™™ You can’t build bridges/gates on any terrain other than rivers or
walls.
Work Action: Construct ™™ You can build bridges/gates adjacent to each other. You can
draw a connection that crosses two adjacent bridges/gates.
Play your Construct card to Construct
build a personal building—a main:

house or bridge/gate.

As a main action, you pay 1 Build a personal building

money less than normal cost. at - 1 cost.
You can only build
You can follow an opponent’s follow:
houses in the forest
construct action to build a
house or bridge/gate at normal
cost. Build a personal building.

Houses
Green uses a bridge to
Building a house has two benefits. It immediately make a connection over
unlocks one of your workers, so you can use it for racial a river
and prestige building actions. It also adds 1 fleeting
influence gem to your income (see p15). Blue can’t use Green’s
bridge for a connection,
™™Pay 4 money for this. Take a house from your even if connecting to
player mat and place it on a green terrain space. a building that Green
™™ With the no-workers variant, only pay 2 owns
money, and this doesn’t unlock a worker.
™™This obeys IBR #1, #2, & #3 (must connect to a
building you own, no adjacent ownership, one per
map section).
™™ Each player can own one house in each section.
™™ You don’t need to place a disc on a house since it’s already your
color, but it counts as a building that you own for IBR #1 and #2.

13
 Work Action: Upgrade Scoring

Play your Upgrade card to Upgrade

A new advanced resource building doesn’t score
build an advanced resource main: points. Instead, the owner of each supplier scores the
building. points shown on the customer.

™™Pay 4 money to build ™™When a building scores points, it cascades some

of those points to its own suppliers. Score the
Build an advanced resource
a tier 2 resource or 6 building and a connected road.

money to build a tier 3 follow: building’s suppliers as though that building was
resource. just built, and subtract the cascading points from
™™Place one of your claim the building’s scored points.
discs on the building. Build an advanced
resource building. ™™The +X on a building’s requirement shows how
™™Update your income and many points are scored by the supplier itself. The
the resource board. rest of the scored points cascade to the supplier’s
™™This obeys IBR #1, #2, & #3 (must connect to a
suppliers.
building you own, no adjacent ownership, one of ™™A neutral supplier subtracts double its points
each resource per map section). from the customer’s points.
™™ Terrain cost doesn’t affect upgrade actions.
As a main action, you must build a road before or
™™ When a neutral basic resource would score points, no one
after building a new resource building, and that road actually scores those points.
must connect to your new building. You can follow ™™ Your advanced resource buildings must connect to a building
an opponent’s upgrade action to build any advanced that you own even if you don’t own any of the suppliers. For
example, you could buy access to an opponent’s gems building
resource building. and then build a jewelry building. The jewelry building must
connect to the supplier gems building and to any other building
Suppliers that you own.
™™ If a customer has access to two copies of a required building,
A new resource building requires a delivery from each the player taking the current action decides which building to
required resource on its tile. The new building is a score as the supplier. This usually doesn’t matter unless the
potential suppliers are owned by different players.
customer, and the required resources are suppliers.

Your new building must connect to a supplier building

for each of its required resources, and you must have
access to (or own) each of those suppliers.

Green builds a government resource building —

it must connect to jewelry and books suppliers that
Green can access, scoring 4 points to books’s owner
and 2 points to jewelry’s owner

Books keeps 2 of its 4 points, cascades 1 point to

crops’s owner, and cascades 1 point to knowledge’s
owner

Jewelry usually keeps 1 of its 2 points and cascades

1 point to gems — if gems is a neutral resource, then it
takes 2 points, and jewelry scores nothing

14
Work Action: Recruit Work Action: Income

Play your Recruit card to buy Recruit In a 2-player game, you can income
any one adviser card on the main: play your Income card to gain main:

adviser board. money equal to your income

tracker and 1 fleeting influence
™™Pay 1 or 2 money
Recruit an adviser and for each house that you’ve
as shown above the gain 1 fleeting influence .
built.
adviser’s slot. follow:

You can follow an opponent’s

Collect income.
™™You must have access to
the adviser’s resource. income action as though you follow:

™™You immediately gain Recruit an adviser. were following any other card Perform the follow action of any
other card or a standard follow.

the adviser’s rewards — (Trade, Construct, Upgrade,

1 lasting influence gem Recruit). You can’t collect
and any points shown. income as a follow action.
™™Add the advisor card to your hand. On a later
turn, you may play it face-up for its Call to Work Call to Vote
action or face-down for a basic action.
Play your Call to Vote card Call to vote
You also gain 1 fleeting influence gem when you play to return your other cards
this card. You can follow an opponent’s recruit action to hand and place a prestige
to buy any adviser card. building on the map.
At the end of turn, after all follow actions, shift all ™™You must have at least
remaining advisers to the left, then refill the empty 2 cards on the table to follow:

spaces left to right by drawing cards from the adviser do this—or 3 cards in a 1. Calling player: Gain bonuses
deck. (If there is a space on the adviser board to the 2-player game. 2. Calling player: Reset cards and
workers.
left of any card, move that card left, so that all empty 3. Other players: Gain income

Three effects occur before the

4. All players: Vote
spaces are on the right side of the board.)
vote.

i. Gain 1 Bonus Per Card in Hand: For each card

remaining in your hand, you either gain
Scholar Haggler Taskmaster Carpenter 1 money, gain 1 fleeting influence, or build a
road.
ii. Reset Cards and Workers: You then return all
of your action cards to your hand, including Call
Recruit an adviser for no cost. Perform a trade action at - 1 cost.
Recruit two advisers at once,
paying for both
Build a personal building
at - 2 cost.
to Vote, and return all of your unlocked workers
Recruit Trade Recruit Construct
to your player mat, which can now take worker
actions again.
iii. Opponents Gain Income: Each opponent gains
money equal to their income trackers and
Gain 1 point and 1 fleeting influence per built house.
Requires access
1 lasting influence
to jewelry ™™ You play Call to Vote to the table, so it’s not in your hand when
when bought you gain a bonus for each card in hand.
™™ You can’t take a worker action as a bonus.

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 Vote for Proposal Players discard all influence that they dedicated to the
vote and all fleeting influence. You keep any lasting
After gaining income, players vote for one of the three
influence wasn’t dedicated.
proposal cards on the adviser board. Each player
must secretly hide one of their voting tiles along with ™™ You can’t choose to not vote for a proposal.
You’re not forced to dedicate your fleeting influence to a vote,
any number of their influence gems, which are all ™™
but either way, you discard it after the vote.
dedicated to vote for the same proposal.

Then, reveal all hidden votes simultaneously. Count Build Prestige Building
your votes as:
Find the prestige building shown on the winning
™™1 vote for your voting tile proposal card and give it to the player who dedicated
™™1 vote per fleeting influence (white gem) the most votes to that card, with ties broken by the
player with the lowest score, then by turn order. That
™™2 votes per lasting influence (red gem)
player decides where to build the building.
The proposal with the most total votes among players
™™You must build the building covering at least one
wins the vote.
space of terrain shown on its proposal card.
™™A tie vote is broken by the player with the lowest ™™You must build the orange buildings over specific
score. (Find the player with the lowest score ruins spaces, shown on the map below.
among all players that voted for the leading ™™This obeys IBR #3 (can’t have two prestige
proposals. That player’s voted proposal wins.) buildings of the same color and shape in one map
™™If players are tied for the lowest score, break section).
that tie in turn order. (The active player wins that
™™ This ignores IBR #1 and #2 (doesn’t need any connections, may
tie, or the next player clockwise from the active be adjacent to any buildings).
player.)

University
University North Gatehouse The Salt Barrel

Return up to two discarded cards Gain access to a resource tile on a

Recruit an adviser at - 1 cost.
(except Income) to your hand. connected entrance space for free.

Build the University over at least 1 green space

Player 1 Player 2 Player 3 Player 4 B A/B

(score 29) (score 34) (score 19) (score 22)

C
A
C
A/B A/B
In this vote, the 1st and 2nd slots tie at 5 votes each
 Player 4 has the lowest score of those voters, so Orange Buildings: (A) West Gatehouse,
the 1st slot, the University, wins the tie (B) North Gatehouse, (C) Ghost Fortress
 Player 2 dedicated the most votes to that slot and  On the symmetric map, you may build a
chooses where to build its prestige building gatehouse over any of the three outer ruins

16
Reset Proposal Cards The Crooked Bone

Place the winning proposal

card beside the board with its Gain 1 for each basic
worker action face-up. resource tile adjacent
to this tile.

Discard the two losing proposal

cards to the top of the proposal
deck. Draw three proposals
from the bottom of the deck to
refill the adviser board.
™™When you draw two proposals of the same type Green connects and delivers a government
(same shape and color), then discard the second resource to the Merchant’s Guild — Green covers
of those cards and replace it with another card the resource with a cube and scores 10 points
from the bottom of the deck.
Green keeps 4 of the 10 points, cascading 4 points
to books and 2 points to jewelry —
Prestige Building Deliveries books and jewelry then cascade some of those
points to their own suppliers
Prestige buildings have up to 5 required resources.
When a prestige building connects to a required
resource building, that resource immediately delivers.
Completion tokens
™™When your resource delivers to a prestige
building, place one of your delivery cubes on the
prestige building covering that resource.
™™You score the points shown on the prestige Achievements (Optional) Achievement

building. These points cascade to your building’s To score an achievement, each

own suppliers, just as with scoring advanced player that’s completed its goal
resource buildings. scores its points, and you then
™™When a prestige building requires a neutral basic turn that achievement face-
resource, that resource delivers immediately if down to show that it can’t score
its building is anywhere on the map, needing no again. Score each achievement
connection. as described here.
™™If multiple buildings could simultaneously deliver
™™Immediate (red): Score this at the end of
to a prestige building, then the player who
created the connection this turn chooses which any turn, after all follow actions, that any
building delivers. player has completed it. (Multiple players
can complete and score this during the
A prestige building is complete when all of its same turn.)
resources are delivered. When this happens, place any ™™Mid-game (blue): When 2 prestige
completion token on it. buildings are complete, score this at the
™™ Each resource can only deliver once to each prestige building. end of the turn, after all follow actions.
™™ Completion tokens have no effect. They only track how many ™™End-game (purple): Score this at the end
buildings must be completed to end the game.
of the game.
™™ A player’s bridges/gates can only connect that player’s owned
resources to prestige buildings.

17
 End of Game

When 6 prestige buildings are complete, finish the

current turn, including all follow actions. Then, each
player scores 1 point per lasting influence or 4 money
that they have remaining, and score the purple
achievement. The player with the most points wins.
™™ Ties are broken in turn order, beginning with the final turn’s
active player.
™™ You may continue delivering to and completing other prestige
buildings after completing the 6th building.

Solo Play Prestige Buildings: Each round, each incomplete

prestige building requires at least one delivery or an
In the solo game, your goal is to complete 6 prestige
influence payment.
buildings before the end of 7 rounds. You can track
your points and play for a personal high score. ™™During the end of each round, you place a neutral
disc on each incomplete prestige building.
Setup: Follow normal setup rules with these additions.
™™When you deliver a resource to a prestige
™™Choose any race and color. Place one of your building, remove its neutral disc.
race’s starting basic resource buildings on any ™™Each time you complete a prestige building, add 1
numbered space. lasting influence gem to the influence cost.
™™Choose a neutral color. Place a neutral disc on
space 1 of the score track as a round tracker.
Place the other neutral discs beside the board. Solo Game Difficulty
™™Place 2 lasting influence gems with the neutral Some racial actions and starting map spaces
discs. These gems are called the influence cost. make the solo game more difficult.
™™On the adviser board, place a fleeting influence
gem below the 2nd proposal slot and a lasting Easier: Pink Orchid,
influence gem below the 3rd proposal card slot, Blue Quatryl
to note the slot’s influence cost.
™™Don’t use voting tiles, the Income action card, or Moderate: White Savvas,
the no-workers variant. Green Harrower, Gray Aesther —
Thematic map west section,
Player Turns: You take actions normally, with these Any symmetric map section
exceptions.
™™You may own and import any basic resource. Harder: Purple Human,
™™After you play an adviser card face-up, discard it Brown Vermling —
to the bottom of the adviser deck. Thematic map northeast section

™™ There are no follow actions or neutral resources.

Challenging: Yellow Valrath,
™™ Each basic resource you own increases your income.
Orange Inox —
Thematic map center section

18
Call to Vote (End of Round): You can’t play Call to Vote Shaping History — for Gloomhaven Players
until it’s the last card in your hand. It follows these
This game includes one
steps.
Gloomhaven city event
i. Collect your income and return your cards to your card for each player race.
hand. Don’t gain bonuses for cards in your hand. You can play a game of
ii. For each prestige building that has a neutral disc, Founders of Gloomhaven
pay influence equal to the influence cost. If you that adds one of
can’t do this, then you lose the game. these events to your
™™ The influence cost is 2 per lasting influence. Gloomhaven campaign.
Fleeting and lasting influence are worth 1 This is a one-time permanent event, so we recommend
and 2 influence respectively. (For example, you only do this with players that fully understand this
you could pay a 2-gem influence cost with game’s rules and strategy.
4 fleeting influence.) ™™Play a game on the thematic map using
iii. Choose and pay influence for one of the proposal normal rules. You may use the no-workers and
slots on the adviser board. To choose the 3rd slot achievements variants.
(square), you must pay influence equal to the ™™If you win, find the event card that matches your
influence cost. To choose the 2nd slot (circle), you player race and write the following on it:
must pay half the influence cost (1 per red gem in
™™ Your favorite building that contributed to
the cost). The 1st slot (triangle) is free.
your victory
iv. Place that slot’s proposal beside the board
™™ The city section that contained this building,
showing its worker action. Place its prestige
from the map below
building on the map using normal rules.
™™ The name of the governing body that you
v. Place a neutral disc on each incomplete prestige
created in the wake of your victory —
building that doesn’t have a disc. Place a disc on
be creative!
the newest prestige building before delivering
™™Shuffle this card into your Gloomhaven city event
any resources to it (an immediate delivery
deck. You can never add another Founders event
removes the disc).
to that campaign.
vi. Don’t discard the unchosen proposal cards. Slide
those cards left to fill the slot that you picked
from, and fill the 3rd slot with a new card from
the deck. Replace the new card if it has the same
type as a card in another slot. Traveler’s
vii. Discard any unspent fleeting influence. Mixed
District
Horn District
viii. Advance the round tracker 1 space and begin the District
next round.

End of Game: The game ends immediately when you

play Call to Vote on round 7, and you win if you’ve
Gloomhaven
completed all 6 prestige buildings. Score 1 point per Boiler
District
Ward of Scales
Square
remaining lasting influence and 4 as normal.

Old Docks

Sinking
Market

19
 Quick Reference
Setup (p4): Randomly choose active
player, draft 1st resources and player colors in
turn order
™™ Draft 2nd resources in reverse turn
order, steal an opponent’s resource if
remaining resources are forbidden
™™ Draft starting map spaces in reverse
turn order using numbered spaces
equal to player count or less
™™ Begin with 7 money, five action cards,
score at 0 points, income at 1
™™ If two proposals of same type on
proposal board, discard one of them
and replace it
™™ With 2 players, draft 3rd resources in
turn order and take Income action card
™™ With 2 or 3 players, choose neutral
color for unchosen basic resources
™™ May place one of each achievement
card face-up
Important Building Rules (p10):
™™ IBR #1: When you build something
(except for basic resource buildings),
it must connect to a building that you
own
™™ IBR #2: You can’t own two adjacent
buildings (excludes bridges/gates)
™™ IBR #3: Each map section can only hold
one building of each type (one of each
resource, players’ houses, and prestige
building type)
Basic Action (p10): Play any card face-down
for 1 money, 1 fleeting influence, build a
road, or worker action
™™ Can’t follow active player’s basic action
™™ May follow any Call to Work action with
a basic action
Trade (p12): Import basic resource for
money equal to terrain cost
™™ Buy access for terrain cost + 1 money,
paid to resource’s owner
™™ Import and access for 4 money paid
to owner, can import neutral resource
anytime or any player’s basic resource
after 2 prestige buildings completed
Construct (p13): Pay 4 money for house or
bridge/gate
Upgrade (p14): Pay 4/ 6 money for
tier 2/3 building, must have access and
connection to required resources
™™ The new building scores its suppliers,
which cascade points to their own
suppliers
™™ Cascade double points to neutral
suppliers
Recruit (p15): Pay 1/ 2 money as shown
on slot to add card to hand
™™ Must have access to card’s resource,
immediately gain points and influence
on the card
™™ After all follow actions, slide cards left
and refill
Income (p15): Gain money and influence
income (2-players only)
Call to Vote (p15): Must have 2 action cards
on table — or 3 cards in 2-player game
™™ Take 1 basic action (not worker action)
for each card remaining in hand,
opponents gain income
™™ Proposal votes count 1 per voting
token, 1 per fleeting influence, 2 per
lasting influence
™™ Ties broken by lowest player score,
player who casts mosts votes for
winning proposal places building
™™ Must cover at least one space of
prestige building’s terrain type, orange
buildings have preset placements
™™ Discard losing proposals and draw new
proposals, redraw if two proposals
of same type, discard all dedicated
influence and fleeting influence
Prestige Buildings (p17): Immediately
deliver and score connected resources
™™ Deliver neutral resources without
needing a connection
™™ Each player that delivers any resource
to building can use its worker action
Achievements (p17): Score red at end of
any turn, blue after two prestige buildings
completed, purple at end of game
End of Game (p18): After 6 prestige
buildings completed, finish current turn, score
1 point per lasting influence or 4 money

Credits

Design and Development: Isaac Childres

Artwork: Alexandr Elichev
Graphic Design: Josh McDowell

SPECIAL THANKS: Kristyn Childres, Katie, Finn, Ada, and Cora McDowell, Taya Karpenko,
Efka Bladukas, Montgomery Box, Alden Bradford, Clinton Bradford, Jonathan Cox, Stefan
Ebner, Paul Grogan, Richard Ham, Andrew Helton, Brian Hunter, John Iles, Kaili Jiang, Price
Johnson, Carl Klutzke, Brian Lee, Marc Michaud, Jelena Paripovic, Adam Sadler, Brady Sadler,
Jeremy Salinas, Eric Sanson, Jack Spoerner, Scott Starkey, Alexander Stransky, JC Trombley,
Vincent van Doorn, Arne Kjell Vikhagen, David Ward, John Ward, Joe Wiggins, and Jacob Yeager
Unofficial Manual Rewrite v1.2: This document was edited and formatted by Dean Ray Johnson / dreamshade at
BoardGameGeek.com. This document contains text and graphics from the original manual, published by Cephalofair
Games, and from pictures taken by Chris Doody @ BoardGameGeek.com. All text and graphics copied in this
document are assumed to fall under fair‑use purposes for non-profit works.

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