Sub Terra

Overview
Sub Terra is a co
operative surviv
al horror game
for one to six pl
The players are ayers.
cave explorers
(or cavers) who
uncharted cave , when explorin
system, have fa g an
llen down a stee
are now trappe p sh af t in th e
d deep underg rock and
round.
Together, you ne
ed to find the w
and you are lost ay out before yo
in the darkness ur flashlights ru
forever. You’ll ne n out
to explore quic ed to w or k as a team
kly and avoid a
variety of dead
all, you don’t th ly hazards. And
ink you’re alon worst of
e down here...

Components
• 64 cave tiles
• 1 Six-Sided Di
• 1 Start Tile e (D6)
• 8 Caver Piec
• 1 Exit Tile es
• 3 Horror Piec
• 30 Hazard Ca es
rd s • 20 Health M
• 1 ‘Out Of Tim arke rs
e’ Card
• 8 Caver Boar
ds
• 1 Starting Ca
ve r Marker
• 12 Cave-In M
arkers
• 8 Flood Mar
kers
• 1 Horror Mar
ke r
• 1 Gas Marke
r
• 6 Rope Toke
ns
• 3 Explosives
To kens
Setup
1. Players each choose
a caver board and th
ch he
e
alth
piece. Cover ea
corresponding caver int
ards with a health po
space on the caver bo
Return the unused
token (usually three). x.
alth tokens to the bo
boards, pieces and he
re of the
2. Place the start
tile face-up in the cent
s
e chosen caver piece
table, and place all th
onto it.
ck
, then shuffle and sta
3. Set aside the exit tile
tiles face-down.
the remaining 64 cave m
exit tile into the botto
Randomly shuffle the
six tiles of the stack. R
4. Choose a difficu
lty setting - Normal,
LEADE may

rd
They

Go through the haza

.
ver.
T s ca costing

DIREC
ciou

Advanced or Expert.
n
cons an actio turn
her
e anot rf orm ce each
os pe t on
Cho tely

ed
edia mos

e cards that aren’t us

im m ty at
abili
this

cards and remove th

Use

culty.
with your chosen diffi
D
IENCE
of 3
roll

EXPER
on a
eed
succ
You

en deal
IVE: e)
mor

ining hazard cards, th

PASS e 4 or
or ual
or m e us
of th

5. Shuffle the rema

ead
(inst

of cards into a face-

the following number If there a
re only tw
down hazard deck: three pla o or
yers, eac
EXPERT chooses h player
NORMAL ADVANCED two boar
18 cards pieces, a ds/
22 cards 20 cards nd the ru
4 Cavers le s for
17 cards 15 cards four or s
5 Cavers 19 cards ix cavers
13 cards used. If y are
17 cards 15 cards ou are th
6 Cavers e only
player, y
ou should
card on the bottom of choose
Put the “Out of Time” four to six
boards/p
and use ieces
the hazard deck. the rules
number fo r that
rds back in the box of cavers
Put the remaining ca .
em.
without looking at th
yer
6. Give the starting
caver marker to the pla
low ground level.
who last ventured be
 ons
d s h ave ic be
e v e r a l ca r
h e y s hould
S at t at
ting th game
indica m t h e
ed fro
remov lties.
t a i n diffi u
c
ce r al
ve fo r Norm
Remo ert
d/Exp
r Ad vance
Rem ove fo
t
N Exper
E-I ve for
tile

CAV Remo
e
h s th
eac che
r on mat
. e o
e die m ark t als s
h a

after
ll t ble er th e
Ro ub los
a r mar
k iles

al. If
ce a wt
Pla out ne
se

m
h

r
wit roll. he

o
nt

N ant
o

rt on
die ave
r

may w
hc

ou sta
.
Eac

e n d y l t , y o u
comm difficu
e , we re t h i s too 5.
r fir s t ga m
t i l l fi n din g
e c k i n st p
e
is you you’re
s zard d
If this
o f g ames s t o the ha
d
a cou
ple al car
3 a d dition
l
to dea

OUT OF T
must
Now
All co
and al
nscio
l futu
us ca
re ha
vers
zard
IME
phas
es:
make not on
all a the ex
and fa . If th it tile
ey fail,
ll unco they
Then nscio lose
remov us.
from e
the ca all uncons
ve. cious
cavers

solved
a le d and re
be r e v e the deck
h a z a r d card will r o f c a r ds left in
One e numbe cave.
v e r y r o und, so th ft to e s c ape the
e ave le
ng you h
is how lo
 HOw to play
Objective
Your shared obje
ctive is to get as m
before you run ou any cavers to the
t of time. exit tile as possib
le
The game takes pl
ace over around
hazard deck and twenty rounds, as
each round cons controlled by the
ists of four phases
:

1. Action Phase Game End

Cavers take turns
in a clockwise
order, performin Rounds are taken
g actions. until either:
• All surviving ca
vers are on the
2. Horror Phase exit tile

All horrors on ca • OR: There are

ve tiles move one no conscious
step towards thei cavers left in the
r closest victim. cave
At this point, all pl
ayers with a
3. Hazard Phase caver on the exit
Count the numbe
tile can score.
r of cavers that
The top card of th didn’t make it ou
e hazard deck t:
is resolved, causin
g bad things
to happen.
Gold
0 Cavers left behin
d
4. End Phase Silver
The starting cave 1 Caver left behin
r marker is d
passed one cave
r to the left
(clockwise). Bronze
2 Cavers left behin
d

Defeat
3+ Cavers left be
hind
 O N S C IO U S C AV E R S
UNC ft have falle
n
oints le
w it h no health p e caver piece
C a ve rs
p re se n t th is by lying th
s. R e
unconsciou
on its side .
actions, and
ve rs ca n n ot perform p
s ca r boards sto
Unconsciou o n their cave
a b ili ti e s g th eir
any passive lls u nconscious
durin
ca ve r fa d
working. If a r actions an
th e y ca n n o t take furthe
own turn,
ts, they
must pass. o r m o re health poin
rs o n e pright.
n sc io u s caver recove th e ca ve r piece back u
co d
When an un us again. Sta
n
ia te ly b e co me conscio
immed

SKILL CHECKS
Some actio
ns and eve
make a sk nts will req
ill check ( uire cavers
). This mea to
If you rolle ns: “Roll th
d a 4 or hig e die.
you fail.” her, you su
cceed. Oth
erwise,
The conse
quences o
check will f succeedin
be specifie g or failing
d in the ac a skill
tion or eve
nt.
 1. Ac t i o n P h a s e Actions are perfo
rmed
e starting caver a caver can
Beginning with th sequentially, an d
ckwise, every action after
and proceeding clo choose their next
action points of the last.
caver is given two seeing the results
or
) to spend on one can be used
( The same action
more actions. a turn unless
multiple times in
ed
one action otherwise specifi
Some actions cost
st
point ( ), while others co
two ( ). The base actions
vers are given
available to all ca
vers may be able
below. Certain ca
special actions
to perform other,
ed on their
- these are specifi
ds.
unique caver boar

EXERTING +
At any point during
their turn, a caver m
gain a third and final ay choose to exert th
action point. They emselves to
they wish, including ca n spend this on wh
as part of a atever action
action point. action with a remain
ing “normal”

If they choose to do
so, at the end of their
check ( turn they must mak
). If they fail, they los e a skill
e one health point (
).
Basic Actions
Reveal
Choose an open sid
e of your
current tile that does
n’t yet have a
tile connecting to it.
Take the top
cave tile from the sta
ck and place
it face-up in that ga
p, so that it
connects to your cu
rrent tile. (you
can choose any rota
tion, as long as
a connection is mad
e)
Move
Move from your cu
rrent tile to an
adjacent connected
tile.
Some tiles (squeeze,
water tiles
with flood marker,
cave-in tiles with
rubble marker) cann
ot always be
entered in this way.
(see Cave Tiles)
Explore (Reveal + Move)
Reveal a tile, then yo
u must immediately
single combined ac Move onto it as a
tion. This is a much
tiles than the previou fa ste r way of placing
s two actions, but it’s
you’re far away from much riskier if
your friends. Choo
se wisely.
Run
Repeat the above M
ove action up to th
ree times.

Heal
Either regain one los
t , or choose another
tile to regain one los caver on your
t .
(You cannot exceed
your starting numbe
r of )
Hazard actions
These actions interac
t with specific tiles or
hazards
Swim
Move from your cu
rrent tile onto an ad
connected tile cont jacent
aining a flood marke
is the only way to en r. This
ter flooded tiles.
Squeeze
Move from your cu
rrent tile onto an
adjacent connected
squeeze tile. This is
the only way to ente
r squeeze tiles after
they’ve been placed.

Dig
Remove a rubble m
arker from this tile
an adjacent connec or
ted tile. This unblock
the tile and allows it s
to be entered again
.
Place Rope
+
Make a skill check.
If you succeed, place
rope token on the cu a
rrent ledge tile or
slide tile.

Hide +
Make a skill check.
If you succeed, you
cannot be chosen as
the closest victim
for any horror this ro
und
(see Horrors).
2. Horror Phase
If there are any horrors
on
e
cave tiles, they move on
ses t
step towards their clo
ous
victim: the closest consci
ps of
caver within seven ste
the horror. Horrors can’t
move through solid walls,
but they can move
through floods, rubble,
es
squeezes, ledges and slid
without penalty.

If there is no closest victim

within seven tile steps, the
ed
horror is instead remov
from the cave.
the same tile as a
If a horror ever occupies
tely loses all
caver, that caver immedia
careful!
and falls unconscious. Be
for more details. If
(See the Horrors section
cave, the horror
horrors are present in the
on top of the
marker should be placed
u to move them
hazard deck to remind yo
every round)
3. H a z a r d P h a s e
rd of
Reveal the top ca
do what
the hazard deck, HORROR
, then CAVE
it says on the card
Move all horrors again.
Then spawn a horror on
the tile closest to a
conscious caver.
Eac
Pla
wit ce

h cav die cav

If the
TREMOR
Roll

eithe hout a rub

FLOOD
the

rol ers
er on l.
Placythe
die
rAll a ma ble ma .
rke
r mu
twice

rke
tha r on
st ma
t als
-IN +
eac

the
.
tile with
fail
e a ,flthe o keh
se y los match a

place the card in

neood
out w tile ma es tile .
Eac ones rke e one
flood h caver . los r on
eac. h
marke on a es
r lose tile con
s one taining
. a

ard pile.
hazard deck disc
e in five types:
Hazard cards com
Tremor ). All
ill check (
rs must make a sk
All conscious cave
se a .
cavers that fail lo

Flood
ker on
Place a flood mar
don’t
all water tiles that
Then
already have one.
ed tiles
all cavers on flood
lose a .
rs cannot be entered
ning flood marke
Water tiles contai ).
e Swim action (
except by using th

Gas
tiles lose .
All cavers on gas
ase, any caver who
di tio na lly , un til the next hazard ph
Ad se .
ill immediately lo
enters a gas tile w

After trigger
ing a gas ha
when enteri zard, losing
ng a gas tile
exploring new applies even
tiles, so be ca when
place the ga reful! You ca
s reminder n
the cave tile marker on o
stack to rem r n ea r
ind you of th
is.
 Cave-in
Roll the die. Pl
ace a rubble
marker on all ca
ve-in tiles that
match the num
ber rolled and
don’t already ha
ve a rubble
marker on them
. All cavers on
these new tiles
lose
.
Cavers cannot
enter tiles with
rubble markers
on them.
Rubble markers
can be removed
tiles by using th from
e Dig action (
).
Horror
All horrors on
cave tiles move
closest victim (s another step to
ee Horror Phas wards their
e, above).
Then, if there ar
e less than thre
place a horror e horrors on al
on the closest l cave tiles,
horror tile to a
conscious cave
Sharing a tile w r.
ith a horror will
Watch out! ca us e a caver to lose
all .

While horrors ar
e in the cave, pl
horror reminde ace the
r marker on to
hazard deck to p of the
remind you to
during the horr m ov e them
or phase

On Advanced an
d Expert difficu
there will also lty,
be five “severe”
versions of the
above hazard
present in the types
hazard deck. Th
have a significa ese
ntly worse effec
t FLOOD + HORROR +TR
than usual, so
don’t get caught EMO Move
all ho
rrors

R+
Place a flood marker on each Then twice
spaw more. All
tile without one. n two

out!
the tw ho cav
o rr e
Each caver on a tile containing conscio tiles clo ors on rs lo
se
a us ca sest to one
flood marker loses vers. a
. .
OUT OF TIME
is always
The last card in the hazard deck
the “Out Of Time” card. When this
is OUT OF TIME
Now and all future haza
out of
rd phases:

revealed, your flashlights are now All conscious cavers

not on the exit tile

and the
must make a

power, the darkness is closing in,

. If they fail, they lose
all and fall unconscious.
Then remove all unco

game is nearly over.

nscious cavers
from the cave.

re hazard
At this point, and during all futu
tile
phases, all cavers not on the exit
s) mu st make
(conscious or unconsciou
a skill check ( ). If they fail, they are
d from
devoured by horrors and remove
the cave.
ng cavers
The game ends when all remaini
no cavers left
are on the exit tile, or there are
in the cave.

4. End Phase
Finally, the starting caver
marker is passed to the next
caver on the left.
SURVIVAL TIPS e another
unc ons cio us isn ’t the end of the world, but it will requir
Falling up a lot of time
you. It therefore costs the gro
caver to reach you and Heal
exploring. BE CAREFUL!
that could have been spent
tile s
• Don’t linger on dangerous
t good reason
• Don’t exert yourself withou
on one
as necessary (you’re very fragile
• Heal yourself proactively
health point)
er cavers
• Don’t stray too far from oth
– don’t get left behind!
• State your intentions clearly
in the Hazard
on how many cards are left
It’s also worth keeping an eye e tile stack
are to the bottom of the cav
deck, as well as how close you cavers out as
, you’re trying to get as many
(and the exit tile). Remember
possible.
, as you know
r where the exit tile is placed
• You have some control ove
the stack
it’s in the bottom six tiles of
rt regrouping
• Don’t leave it too late to sta
nds
sac rifice yourself to save your frie
• Sometimes it’s correct to

Good luck!
 Cave tiles
There are many diff
erent types of tile in
are dangerous, and Sub Terra. Some ar
some are difficult to e harmless, some
as a result of Reveal traverse. Tiles are pla
or Explore actions, ced on the board
connect to the tile of and must be placed
the revealing/explor su ch that they
ing player.
Tiles are considered
connected if they sh
are an
open side (i.e. there
is no
wall separating them
on
either tile). Tiles are
never
connected diagona
lly.
START
This tile is where th
e cavers start the ga
It has no special feat me.
ures other than this.
EXIT
This tile is how the
cavers escape the ca
and win the game. ve
Cavers on this tile ca
lose health points fo nnot
r any reason, and ca
be chosen as the clo nnot
sest victim for horro
movement and spaw r
ning.
UNMARKED/NORM
AL TILES (x16)
These tiles are inten
tionally left blank.
WATER (x8)
These tiles start in an
unflooded state, an
like any other unmar d are treated
ked tile. When a Flo
resolved, flood mar od hazard card is
kers are placed on
tiles, then each cave all unflooded water
r on a water tile los
es a .
Cavers cannot ente
r tiles with flood mar
except by using the kers on them
Swim action (
)

In the very unlikely ev

ent that a tile placeme
no open sides throug nt would result in a ca
h which to reveal/explo ve with
the next tile from the re, discard that tile an
stack instead. d use
 GAS (x8)
When a Gas hazard
card is resolved, all
tiles lose cavers on these
.
Additionally, until th
e following hazard ph
cavers entering a ga ase, any
s tile will immediately
. This includes any ne lose
w tiles placed that ro
Explore actions riskie un d, making
r.

During these turns, yo

u can place the gas ma
near the cave tile sta rker on or
ck to remind you of th
is.

CAVE-IN (x12)
When a Cave-In haza
rd card is resolved,
have a one-in-three these tiles
chance of caving in.
rubble marker on th This places a
e tile, and all cavers
lose on these tiles
.
Cavers cannot ente
r tiles with a rubble
though they can lea marker on them,
ve them. Rubble mar
cleared using the Di kers can be
g action ( ).
HORROR (x8)
When a Horror haza
rd card is resolved,
is spawned on the ho a horror
rror tile that is close
conscious caver. Wat st to a
ch out! Sharing a tile
immediately causes with a horror
a caver to lose all
to end your turn on . It’s very risky
one of these tiles.
SQUEEZE (x3)
Cavers cannot ente
r these tiles using th
they must use the Sq e Move action. Inste
ueeze action ( ad,
).
If a squeeze tile is pla
ced as part of an Ex
exploring caver still plore action, the
moves onto the tile
as normal.
 (x3)
LEDGE e arrow
b e p la ce d such that th
must ver’s tile.
Ledge tiles e revealing ca
m th
points awa y fr o om either
r th is ti le normally fr
ente re
Cavers can ove or Explo
e y ca n n o t Reveal, M ro p e
side, but th da
e u n le ss th e tile has ha
dg one by usin
g
across the le his can be d
d o n it . (T
token place
ope action)
the Place R

SLIDE (x3)
ced such
sl id e ti le s must be pla
les, g
Like ledge ti the revealin
o w p o in ts away from a lly
that the arr r this tile no
rm
C a ve rs can ente
caver’s ti le . ov back
e
e , b u t th ey cannot M
from either
si d a rope
u n le ss th e tile has had
ide one by usin
g
across the sl his can be d
d o n it . (T
token place
ope action)
the Place R
(x3)
RAIN
ROUGH TER must make
a
te ri n g th is tile, cavers ia te ly
When en me d
). If th e y fail, they im
skill check (
lose a .

EXPLOSIVES TOKENS
The Engineer has
a special action th
explosives tokens at can place
on the board to re
These tokens are move adjacent w
placed over the sh alls.
neighbouring tiles ar ed side of two
, turning sides th
that are open an at are walls into sid
d thus connectin es
they can be placed g the tiles. Alternat
over an adjacent ive ly,
to allow that gap wall that faces a
to be subsequent ga p,
ly revealed/explo
red.
Once placed, expl
osives tokens rem
ain in place for th
e rest of the gam
e.
 Horrors
Horrors are sp
awned onto ho
by the Horror ha rror tiles ( )
zard card. Onc
they’ll move by e in the cave,
chasing their cl
during the horr osest victim
or phase.
If a horror ever
occupies the sa
loses all remaini me tile as a cave
ng r, that caver im
and falls uncons mediately
cious.
There can be at

GFINEDOINLG OTHGE ICSLOTSEST VICTIM

most three horr
ors in the cave
at any one time.

Horrors move
HEX
ow
CA VATE markeon
ev rub, ble
e tile at a time,
and cannot mov
Remove aer they ca e through solid
r from an
n m ov e th ro ugh floods, rubb walls.
sqadj
ueaceez nt tile .
es unimpeded. le, ledges, slides
, and
The closest vict
im to a horror/t
number of step ile is the consci
s between them ous caver with
an d the fewest
the IN
abTU ovIT eIV E
movement ruasid th e ho rr or /t ile in qu es tion, using
e, set lees. the
This will usually
start of the gam
PASSIVE: At the stack face-up. be obvious!
In the case of a place a tile from the cave tile
top tile of the cave tile
would tie, the cl
t tile aside face-u osest
Whenever you p. Then
victim w
stack, instead set tha
ill be th
of you r e caver with th
two set -aside tiles.
place either
lowest rank, as e
indicated on th
caver board: eir

A caver cannot
be chosen as th
e closest victim
if:
• They are unco
ns cious
• They have su
cces sfully used the
Hide action this
• They are on round
the exit tile
 SPAWNING A HORROR
When a Horror ha
zard card is reso
horrors on cave til lved, if there are
es: less than three

1. Find the horror til

e that:
• doesn’t yet cont
ain a
horror, and 3
• is the fewest st
eps away
from its closest vic
tim.
2. If there is such a
2
tile within
seven steps from
its closest
victim, place a ho
rror onto
it. Otherwise, the 1
horror
does not spawn.

MOVING HORRORS
When a Horror ha
zard card is reso
every horror on a lved and during th
cave tile: e Horror Phase, fo
r
1. Find the closest vic
tim to x8
that horror.

2. If the closest victim

is more
than seven steps
away,
remove the horr x5
or from
the cave.

3. Otherwise, move
the horror
one tile towards
the closest
victim along the
shortest
path. (If there is m
ore than
one such tile, the
closest
victim picks which
one)
Usually, the orde
r horrors move in
does, the starting won’t matter. In th
player chooses w e cases where it
hich horrors mov
e first.
 ITB
BOX
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Acknowledgements Graphic Desig

n
Game Design Zak Eidsvoog
Tim Pinder ement
Project Manag
rn
Illustration Peter Blenkha
Campos
David Franco
le, Colin
op, Charlie Co
n, Simon Bish
Playtesters Al bis to n, An na Beck-Thomse
Mar iel le Re us er , Christoph
Re be cc a Advani, Greg de r, Charlie Ringer,
Arun Ad va ni, der, Ro ge r Pin n, phie
So
der, Joyce Pin aw, Emily Brow
n Pa rbury, Jon Pin Bl en kharn, Lewis Sh r,
Gu lliv er , Be
nie Wohlgemut
h, Pe te r r, Na an Mille
th
Walker, Stepha e Savile-Tucke
Schlicht, Jenny Vic ky Bu ck ley , Tom Ana, Jak , Du nc Hu xle y, Ed
thew Usher, Stoc ks
ily Silcock, Mat n Harvey, Phil
Colverson, Em Harrison, Kiera
Al -Ja ss ar , An dy Grant, John
Caezar
Bez Shahriari,
ony Howgeg
xle y, Jep pe Norsker, Anth
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