Fade in the Dark

Scenario

You and your friends have entered a dark cave in search of gold, but now you're lost, with your resources dwindling. Can you find more gold than your friends/enemies and escape before the darkness consumes your sanity?

Materials

For this game, you will need the following materials:

• Player counters - one for each player
• Resource counters - you'll need a good amount of these
• A minimum of 9 cards - 1 exit, 2 gold, and 6 random events
• A flat surface - because otherwise the cards will slide away

Rules

1. Gather the cards you intend to play with, which should be enough to a form a minimum of a 3x3 grid of cards, with the maximum size being whatever you choose. This selection of cards should have an exit card, a minimum of 2 gold cards, and the rest of the cards for the grid should be event cards.
2. Shuffle the cards and place them in a grid on your flat surface. The cards must be face down, and no one can know which card is which.
3. Each player must select a starting position, which can be anywhere on the grid, and place their counter on it.
4. Once everyone has chosen their position, all players must flip the card they have started on, and read the effect.
5. After everyone has enacted the effect, the players must take it in turns to move around the grid in one of 4 directions: north, south, east, or west.
6.  If a player moves to an already revealed card, then the effect of the card will not apply to them. If the card hasn't been revealed yet, then the player must flip it and take action according to the effect stated on the card.
7. Each movement by each player will cost either sanity or fuel. Initially, fuel will be drained first, with each move taking 1 fuel away. If fuel runs out, they will begin to lose 1 sanity every time they move. These values, along with gold, will be represented by the resource tokens.
8. The starting fuel will be determined by the largest number of the X or Y axis in the grid, and the starting sanity will be the remaining number e.g. in a 5x6 grid, players would start with 6 fuel and 5 sanity.
9. Sanity is capped at double the starting amount, while fuel has no cap.
10. When a player loses all their fuel and sanity, they will go mad in the cave, never to escape, and lose the game.
11. When a player finds the exit card, unlike other cards, they will have a choice as to whether to interact with it or not. They can either leave immediately, or try to find more gold for a higher score. This applies to all players, and the state of the card will not affect a player's ability to interact with it.

Cards

• Gold: Give the player the specified number of gold (+1, +2, +3)
• Treasure: Give the player a large amount of gold (+5, +6, +8)
• Fuel: Give the player the specified amount of fuel (+1, +2)
• Dynamite: Choose a path to block from one of the directions around the player. A blocked path is represented by turning the card 90°.
• Cave in:  The player must move back to their last position, and the path is now blocked
• Hole in the Ground: -1 sanity
• Tunnel: Player can only move to the space or from the space in either north and south, or east and west.
• Trip: -2 gold and move again
• Daylight: +2 sanity
• Stalactites: -1 fuel
• Screams: -2 sanity
• Family: +2 sanity
• Exit: Freedom