The Sheep

1. Map Setup

1. Choose a map.
2. Choose a Pollution meter. If 3P or 4P, place its tile beside the pipe.
3. Place the Pollution tracker (purple disk) on the lowest space on the pipe.

2. Shepherd Setup

Each player:

1. Shepherd Board
2. Standee on map Start space
3. Trait tiles. Choose a Level I Trait and place in top slot of your Trait board.
4. Starting Equipment cards face-up below your board.
5. Three Lantern tokens lit side up in your Lantern zone.
6. Two Essence tokens in your Essence slots.
7. Yellow tracker cube on the leftmost slot of your Experience meter
8. Purple tracker cube on the leftmost slot of your Corruption meter

3. Deck Setup

1. Create the Flock deck:
   1. Shuffle each Flock deck (1, 2, 3) separately
   2. Remove any 8 Flock cards based on desired difficulty:
   • Easier: Remove more cards from Flock 3
   • Normal: Remove 4 Flock 1 cards and 4 Flock 2 cards
   • Harder: Remove more cards from Flock 1
   3. Stack with Flock 1 on top and Flock 3 on bottom.
2. Shuffle the Mutation deck and place it in its zone on the board.
3. Separately shuffle and place nearby: Equipment, Curse, Day Event, and Night Event decks.

4. Caravan Setup

1. Select (player count + 1) Caravan Boards. Return the rest to the box.
2. Place each Caravan's figure on its board.
3. Place a purple tracker cube on the leftmost slot of each Caravan's Corruption meter.
4. Create each Caravan's Inventory: place three Equipment cards face-up to the left of its board.

5. Remaining Pieces

Keep Sheeples, Pollution tiles, and Essence tokens in separate piles nearby.

Begin Game

Objectives

WIN: All Caravans reach the Finish.

LOSE:

• Any Caravan's Corruption meter overflows.
• Pollution is not averted when all three Pollution tiles are already Major.

Difficulty Adjustments

• Easier:
  • Choose the Pollution meter for a lower player count
  • Build the Flock deck with more Flock 1 and fewer Flock 3 cards
  • Follow the Flock card column for a lower player count
  • Use fewer Caravans
• Harder:
  • Remove some/all Flock 1 and/or Flock 2 cards from the Flock deck.
  • Follow the Flock card column for a higher player count
  • Choose the Pollution meter for a higher player count
  • Use more Caravans
• Much Harder: Start with one or more Pollution tiles already in play.

Key Concepts

Hand limit: Starts at 3. Increases when you gain Traits (4 at Level II, 5 at Level III). If over the limit, discard Equipment. You cannot discard Curses.

Essence limit: Each Shepherd holds up to 5. Excess is immediately discarded.

Corruption: When a Shepherd's meter overflows, draw a Curse and reset the meter to 0. If your hand is full of Curses, your Shepherd dies (but the game continues).

Caravans: Only one Caravan per space. Caravans that haven't entered the map yet can't be struck or traded with.