Overview

Cartographers is a flip-and-write game in which each of the players are separately drawing a map of their land. Each round, you'll add a feature to your map, and after a few rounds, you'll score based on the presence or arrangement of these features. The player with the most points at the end of four rounds wins the game!

Game components

Each player has a map. This map starts mostly blank, but may have mountains, ruins, and wasteland spaces already included.

The table as a whole contains four scoring cards, labeled A through D. These take a specific format:

• • One of these cards looks for village spaces
• • One of these cards looks for forest spaces
• • One of these cards looks for water and farm spaces
• • One of these cards looks at the whole map, usually around filling certain segments of it with anything at all.

It also contains season cards, which say which two of these cards will be scored at the end of the round and how many cards will be flipped in the round:

• • Spring lasts 8 time units, and players score cards A and B.
• • Summer lasts 8 time units, and players score cards B and C.
• • Autumn lasts 7 time units, and players score cards C and D.
• • Winter lasts 6 time units, and players score cards D and A.

In addition, the table contains the deck of cards used to draw various landscapes.

What to do on your turn

The top card of the landscape deck is flipped, and all players simultaneously draw that somewhere on the map. These cards usually contain a choice to do two different terrain types in the same shape, or one specific terrain in one of two shapes. These shapes can be flipped or rotated in any 90 degree increment, and can be placed anywhere on the map - it does not need to be adjacent to anything. These shapes can't hang off the edge of the map, nor can they overlap any filled space.

If any player can't draw a particular shape, they instead draw a single 1x1 square of any terrain type anywhere on their board.

Some smaller shapes contain a gold coin. If you draw that shape, cross off a coin on the side of your map. This will be worth 1 point each scoring phase. You can also earn coins by filling all four spaces adjacent to a mountain space on your board.

Each of these cards has a number on the top left corner indicating how much time has passed. If the sum of all cards played this way is greater than or equal to the number on the season card, the round ends after all players have drawn this shape. Otherwise, start the next turn.

Special cards

There are two Ruins cards in the deck. If the Ruins card is drawn, the next shape must overlap with one of the ruins spaces on your board. All other rules about drawing this shape still apply.

There is one Monster card added to the deck each season. If a Monster card is drawn, all players pass their maps to another player. Then draw this monster shape on your opponent's board. All other rules about drawing this monster still apply. Players will lose points for each empty space next to monsters. Afterwards, this Monster card is removed from play (but if it's never found, it remains in the deck for the next season).

There is one Rift Lands card in the deck. If a Rift Lands card is drawn, all players draw a 1x1 square of any terrain type anywhere on their board.

End of a round

At the end of each round, two of the four scoring cards will be resolved.

• • Spring lasts 8 time units, and players score cards A and B.
• • Summer lasts 8 time units, and players score cards B and C.
• • Autumn lasts 7 time units, and players score cards C and D.
• • Winter lasts 6 time units, and players score cards D and A.

In addition to this, every round players score 1 point for each gold coin they have, and lose 1 point for each empty space next to monsters.

After scoring, the landscape deck is reshuffled.

Once Winter is scored, the game ends, and the player with the most points wins!