Rules and Instruction Manual
EXIT The Game : The Sunken Treasure
CAUTION: Do not look at the game materials (cards, book, etc.) yet!
First, read this rulebook together out loud and carefully follow all of its instructions.
What’s the game about?
A treasure hunt in the Caribbean? That sounds a bit cliché!
For you, it was actually just supposed to be a joke — a crazy adventure, if you will. You paid the street vendor 10 dollars for the nautical chart and an odd wooden disk. The two together, or so the story went, would lead you to the fabled wreck of the Santa Maria. Sailboat, dive guide, and equipment were easy to rent. Why not take it as an opportunity to learn how to scuba-dive? Oh, how naive you were!
And now? Now you are literally all in the same boat — in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of nowhere. No trace of the scene of the Santa Maria’s accident. The map, which is apparently counterfeit, does not even show the correct ocean! Instead, nothing but riddle after riddle …
You will only be able to find the wreck and recover the treasure if you are able to work together to crack all the codes. If not, sooner or later, and in the truest sense of the word, you will all be sunk.
Important: Do not look closely at any of the game materials before starting the game! Wait until “the game” tells you too.
Additionally required materials
In addition, you will need something to write with (ideally a black felttip pen and a pencil), at least one pair of scissors and possibly paper for notes. You will also need a watch, ideally a stopwatch. Alternatively, you can use the digital timer with the atmospheric soundtrack. Just select the game in the Kosmos helper app and press the hourglass.
Game setup
Get the book and the decoder disk ready on the table. Carefully remove the mast, the flag, and the gold coin and set themto the side on the table along with the gemstones. You will not need these until later in the game.
Sort the cards into three piles in accordance with what is written on their back sides:
- Riddle Cards (red)
- Answer Cards (blue)
- Help Cards (green)
Be sure not to look at the front sides of any of the cards yet!
Check to be sure that the Riddle Cards and the Answer cards are arranged in ascending order according to their letters or numbers. Sort the Help Cards according to their symbols, and then place them on the side of the table. Place cards with the same symbol, one on top of another, such that the “1st CLUE” card is on top of the “2nd CLUE” card and the latter is on top of the “SOLUTION” card.
Where is the game board?
This game has no game board! You will have to figure out for yourselves what you have to find in the game and what the setting looks like. At the beginning of the game, you will have only the book and the decoder disk available to you. As the game continues, you will add the Riddle Cards — either to be found in illustrations, or referred to in the text. Whenever this happens, you can pick the corresponding cards from the Riddle Card pile and look at them.
Example:
You find an illustration of Riddle Card A in the book. Then, you may immediately take the corresponding card from the pile and look at it.
You may only look at an Answer Card when you have entered a code on the decoder disk and have been directed to the corresponding Answer Card.
Likewise, you can only use the strange items when explicitly told that you have found them. Until then, they have to remain off to the side of the table!
Course of play
Your goal is to work together to find the wreck of the Santa Maria and recover the treasure as quickly as you can. That would definitely be easier if there weren’t so many riddles awaiting you, each of which has to be solved for you to make even a doggy-paddle’s worth of progress!
IMPORTANT: To solve riddles, you can write on, fold, or tear the materials … All of this is allowed, and sometimes even required. You can only play the game once — after which you will know all the riddles, and won’t need the game materials any longer!
You will be solving the riddle in the order in which they appear in the book. You will keep coming across locked doors and objects. Each of these will display a symbol and can only be opened with a three-part number or animal code. If you see a riddle, take a careful look at the corresponding pages in the book and the Riddle Cards. Put your heads together to try to figure out how to solve the riddle so that you can decipher the three-part code. Then enter that code on the decoder
disk.
On the outer ring of the disk, you will see 10 different symbols. Each symbol stands for a code to be cracked. Pay close attention to the, symbol that is depicted on the cards and on the objects in the book! Enter the three-part code under that symbol on the disk — starting at the outside and working your way in. Then, look through the viewing window on the smallest wheel to see a number. This number indicates the number of the Answer Card that you are then allowed to look at.
Is the code really correct?
If so, the second Answer Card will tell you how to continue. You will find one or more new Riddle Cards which you will be allowed to take from the pile of Riddle Cards and look at right away.
Is the code actually incorrect?
Well, in that case you will land on an Answer Card with an .
Check the sequence of numbers or animals in the code, and compare the symbol on the decoder disk against the symbol on the Riddle Cards. If the code is nevertheless wrong, take another closer look at the riddle and try to come up with a different code.
IMPORTANT: You have to solve the riddles in the proper order!
In other words, you are only permitted to continue with the next riddle or turn to the next page of the book if you have solved the previous code and the instructions tell you that you may do so!
Need some help?
If you get stuck, the game can provide you with some help. For each code, there are three Help Cards that can be recognized by the symbol on their back sides.
In addition to giving you an initial useful clue, each “1st CLUE” Help Card also tells you what you need in order to be able to solve the corresponding riddle.
The “2nd CLUE” Help Cards will give you somewhat more concrete assistance in finding a solution to the corresponding riddle.
The “SOLUTION” Help Cards provide the approach to solving the riddle and tell you the correct code.
Don’t be shy about using Help Cards if you get stuck. Once you have used them, place them face up on a discard pile.
When does the game end?
The game ends when you have solved the last riddle and resurfaced from the sea. A card will tell you this.
Assessment
It is a major victory to solve all the riddles. You can look at the table below to see how well you did. When calculating the number of Help Cards used, only the ones that gave you new hints or solutions should count!
The game begins
What are you waiting for? Start the stopwatch or timer! Now you are allowed to open the book and start the game on page 2. We hope you have fun with EXIT — The Sunken Treasure!
Inka & Markus Brand and Kosmos thank all the test players and rule readers.
Inka & Markus Brand live with their children Lukas and Emely in Gummersbach, Germany. They have published many children’s and family games together and won numerous prizes. Of course, they are avid riddle and escape game fans.
EXIT concept: Kosmos (Ralph Querfurth, Sandra Dochtermann)
Illustration: Michael Menzel
Cover illustration: Silvia Christoph
Title graphics and graphic design: Fine Tuning
Editing: Katja Ermitsch
Translation: David Gamon
English edition editing: Camille Duhamel, Ted McGuire
© 2017 Franckh-Kosmos Verlags- GmbH & Co. KG. Pfizerstr. 5-7,
D-70184 Stuttgart, Germany.
Phone: +49 711 2191-0;
Web: kosmos.de
© 2018 Thames & Kosmos, LLC, Providence, RI, USA
Thames & Kosmos® is a registered
trademark of Thames & Kosmos, LLC.
All rights reserved.
Read More About This Manual & Download PDF:
The Sunken Treasure Rules and Instruction Manual – Optimized PDF
The Sunken Treasure Rules and Instruction Manual – Original PDF
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