A solitaire game of survival

:1 : 20" : 10+
The world has fallen to ruin. In the aftermath of total nuclear fallout, most of
humanity has retreated into underground shelters to wait out the apocalypse. But
a group of vicious raiders from the surface has broken into your shelter and
kidnapped its occupants. Equipped only with the meager supplies left behind and a
burning desire for vengeance, you must leave your ruined shelter behind and
venture Into the Wasteland.

Overview: Into the Wasteland is a solitaire game in which you traverse a

desolate wasteland, defeating enemies and gaining stronger cards to your
deck. Your goal is to track down and defeat the powerful raider
stronghold before the Wasteland Deck runs out and you die.

Required Components
A 54-card deck of poker cards (including 2 jokers)

Setup
1. Take all 2s and 3s out of the deck. Shuffle them together to form your
starting deck of 8 cards. Draw 4 cards from it to form your starting
hand.
2. Separate both jokers from the deck. Choose one to represent you, and
the other one to represent the raider stronghold. Shuffle together the
stronghold joker and 17 random cards from the remaining deck, then
distribute this new 18-card pile out as follows to form the map:
Place the cards facedown so that there are 5 staggered rows of cards.
Place 3 cards in the top row, 4 in the second, 5 in the third, 4 in the
fourth, and 2 in the fifth. Leave an empty space in the middle of the
last row; place the joker which represents you faceup in that space. All
map cards should be staggered so that each card not at the edge of the
map is adjacent to 6 others.
3. Set the rest of the deck off to the side with room for a discard pile;
this deck represents your health and will be called the Wasteland Deck.
 Map Space for face cards

Scavenge
Pile
Your Deck and
Discard

Wasteland Deck
and Discard
Starting Hand

Setup Example
Gameplay
Into the Wasteland is played over a series of turns. At the start of each
turn, put 3 cards from the Wasteland Deck facedown into the Wasteland
discard pile. (This represents the wasteland’s radiation slowly making
you weaker.) Then you can play cards from your hand.
You may play any number of cards from your hand each turn. There
are four resources: Spades, Clubs, Diamonds, and Hearts. When you play
a card, gain resources of that card’s type equal to its number. Gained
resources can be spent to perform actions, as described below. Each
action can be performed any number of times, in any order.
Important: You may play any card from your hand facedown to gain
1 of any resource instead of that card’s normal value.

Hearts
Heal: Spend 3 Hearts to put 1 card from the top of the Wasteland
discard pile onto the top of the Wasteland Deck.
Restock: Spend 3 Hearts to draw 1 card from your deck.

Diamonds
Explore: Spend 1 Diamond to flip over 1 facedown card next to you.
Move: Spend 1 Diamond to move onto a space next to you that
contains either no cards or a faceup card. When you move onto a
faceup card, immediately attack it. (See “Spades.”) You cannot move
onto a space that is not part of the original map of 19 spaces.
 Unburden: Spend 5 Diamonds to remove a card in your hand or
discard pile from the game.

Spades
Attack: When you move onto and attack a card, spend a number of
Spades equal to that card’s difficulty. Each card’s difficulty is its
number. You may spend fewer Spades than a card’s difficulty; if you
do, put a number of cards equal to the amount you didn’t spend from
the Wasteland deck facedown into the Wasteland discard pile. Either
way, gain the encountered card; put it in your discard pile.

Clubs
Search: Spend 2 Clubs to flip over a card from the Wasteland discard
pile. Put it faceup in a separate pile called the Scavenge Pile. You
cannot search if there are no cards in the Wasteland discard pile.
Scavenge: Spend Clubs equal to the difficulty of a card in the
Scavenge Pile to gain that card; put it in your discard pile. Put all other
cards from the Scavenge Pile at the bottom of the Wasteland discard
pile.

Face Cards: Whenever you attack or scavenge one of the 12 face cards
(J, Q, and K), its difficulty counts as 3 times the number of face cards you
have already gained. (The first face card you encounter has a difficulty of
0.) Whenever you gain a face card, put it in front of you instead of in your
discard pile; it stays there in between turns and produces 1 of its resource
type every turn, including this turn. (This represents recruiting an ally to
join your cause.)

Aces: Aces are costly but powerful cards. When you attack or scavenge
an Ace, its difficulty is 15. When played, an Ace gives no resources itself,
but doubles the amount of resources you have of the Ace’s type.

End of turn: When you cannot or do not want to take any more
actions, it is the end of the turn. Put any cards you have played or have
left in your hand into your discard pile. Then draw a new hand of 4 cards
from your deck. Whenever you must draw a card but your deck is empty,
shuffle your discard pile to form a new deck, then continue drawing. Any
unspent resources are lost at the end of your turn. You are now ready to
begin a new turn. Continue playing in this way until the game ends.
 End of Game: The raider stronghold (the joker which is not the one
representing you) has a difficulty of 30. You may combine and use any
type of resource to attack it, not just spades. If you defeat the stronghold
and still have cards left in the Wasteland Deck, you win! You have
successfully freed your friends and family and started a new life on the
surface.
However, if the number of cards in the Wasteland Deck is ever 0, you
lose. You have died, failing to avenge the destruction of your shelter.

Credits
Game Design: Zorokrox
Thumbnail/Rules Graphic Design: Zorokrox
Thumbnail/Rules Art: Assets from gameicons.com and canva.com