Introduction
Buried Bluffs is a tile placement game combined with TCG-style effects. You and 1-3 Opponents are Archaeologists that have arrived at a hot new Dig Site, hoping for the find of the century…or are you really hoping? Each of you has a set of artifacts you’ve brought from home, so it isn’t a matter of if you’ll hit paydirt, but rather, which of you will do it first!
But as luck would have it, unlike every other site, this one has a real artifact, whose sinister energy just might bring what you bury to life…
Win by controlling the most Cards next to the Malevolent Relic at the end of a turn, even as your Buried Bluffs come alive, and the Dig Site descends into chaos!
Setup
First, take the 3 Starting Cards, shuffle them, and place them in a line in the middle of the play area face-down. This is the start of your Dig Site.
Next, each Archaeologist chooses a prebuilt deck of 20 Cards.
Note: Each Deck has a different back, and some backs even have effects!
For example, the 3 Starting Cards are completely unaffected by other Effects.
Each deck uses different mechanics, so you may want to look through their front sides quickly before you start. You can learn as you go too, it’s up to you.
Once you choose a Deck, shuffle it, and draw a hand of 3 Cards.
Click any of the card backs above to open a gallery of every card in that deck!
The Dig Site
Simply put, the Dig Site is your table! In the Tabletop Simulator mod, the field is a 9x9 grid, and the Starter Cards begin in the middle 3.
Buried Bluffs will come with a playmat with a grid as well, but there is no official Dig Site size.
You can keep placing Cards all the way to the edge of the table, or play on the floor and go as far as you'd like!
This game is extra simple to play without a grid because Cards are discarded if they become Loose.
More detail on that a couple sections down!
Taking a Turn
Each turn, you take 1 single action, that triggers a series of other actions - that's it!
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Take a Card from your hand, and place it face-down on the field.
If your hand is empty, you Draw 1 now, but end your turn without placing a Card right after. For more on this, see Decking Out!
After placing a Card for turn, do the following:-
Flip every Card that's Next to the one you placed:
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Each Card Back has 4 shovel icons that point to the Cards it'll Flip!
For each Card that was flipped DOWN this way, regardless of whose Cards they are, YOU Draw 1!
Next, every Card that was flipped UP this way triggers its Effect, one at a time!
Do that like this:
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For each Starter Card that was flipped UP, Trigger its Effect, and resolve it.
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For each of YOUR Cards that was flipped UP, trigger its Effects, and resolve it.
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For each Opponents' Card that was flipped UP, its owner triggers its Effect, and resolves it. When more than one Opponent has a Card to trigger here, they do so in Turn Order.
Also note that Cards must be on the field to Trigger!
Check out the Turn Example for a run through of some possible turns.
Triggering Effects & Reading Cards
When a Buried Bluffs card is flipped up at the start of your turn, it Triggers its Effect!
Resolve every Effect the same way - Top to Bottom, Left to Right, one part at a time. For example, Spider Broach's Effect starts with:
A B A
That means that you can Move, then Attack, then Move!
Move and Attack are optional actions, but if you skip one, you can't go back. That means you could Attack, then Move, but you can't use that first Move anymore after skipping it.
After that, you'd resolve Food Chain 3. Keywords in Buried Bluffs are always in Bold, and followed by an explanation in Italics, that will always be the same. See the FAQ for more in-depth clarifications on each of Buried Bluffs' first set's Keywords.
If we're lucky enough to have a second set, Keywords from previous sets will no longer have a printed explanation!
After you finish Triggering an Effect, check if any Cards have become Loose, and Discard them. See the Becoming Loose section below.
For additional clarification on the information on a Card, check out Reading Cards!
Symbol Explanations
A This means Move!
You can Move that card to an empty Nearby ( H ) space.
You can skip this action if you want to.
B This means Attack!
You can Attack any card that's
Nearby ( H ) the Attacker.
Do this by simply discarding the Card you Attack - no stats or anything to consider!
You may attack any player's cards, whether they're Face-Up or Face-Down, including your own.
You can skip this action if you want to.
C This means Draw!
Draw 1 from your Deck. If there's no Cards in your Deck, just skip over this.
However, you CANNOT skip this if you have Cards in your Deck.
DEF This means Move OR Attack!
You can either A or B for this action, as described above.
You can skip this action if you want to.
Becoming Loose
A Card is Loose if it is no longer Connected to the Starter Cards, by at least a Corner.
For Example, all of the Cards below are still Connected. However, if the Migrating Butterflies moves towards the Starter Cards, or is removed from the field, every black Card will become Loose!
These are all loose!
AFTER you finish Triggering any Effect, check if any Cards are Loose,
and discard every one that is!
Cards can become Loose while using their Effects, then move back towards other Cards - it only matters if they're Loose AFTER their Effect is over.
Winning the Game
As you may remember from setup, the Dig Site begins with 3 randomized Starter Cards, shown face-up below. The main win condition of Buried Bluffs is written on Malevolent Relic!
Note that although Starter Cards are unaffected by other Cards' Effects, they still get flipped when Cards are placed next to them for turn. Effects only apply if they're showing, so if Relic is flipped face-down, it won't win the game that turn!
For example, if Green places their card as shown, they'll win at the end of this turn!
In Buried Bluffs, Decking Out does not automatically lose you the game, but it can potentially lead to a draw. See the Decking Out section for an explanation of that.
Let's Get Digging!
That's all there is to Buried Bluffs! If you have any more questions, check out the FAQ.
If you have a question that's not there, there are links there to ask for help.
Thanks for learning Buried Bluffs!
- Chris Lin