In the Planning stage of the Action Phase, you must decide as a group which Actions to perform.

Some scenario rules, cards and game effects add extra Actions to this list.

Pawns

Each character normally has two Action pawns.

When planning, you must assign all of the Action pawns belonging to your character, but other neutral pawns (including Friday, Dog, and any neutral pawns gained through other game effects) need not be assigned.

Some effects can reduce the number of Action pawns you have, but you always have at least 1 Action pawn per character.

Assigning pawns

To assign pawns, place them in the appropriate place depending on the Action:

Threat: place them on the Event card

Hunt, Arrange Camp, Rest: place them in the appropriate board space

Build: place them on the Invention card, Shelter, Roof, Palisade or Weapon spaces, depending on what you want to build

Gather: place them on a source on any Island tile

Explore: place them on an unexplored Island space

The number of pawns you must assign depends on the Action:

Threat: the number of pawns shown on the card, only if there is at least one card in the Threat space

Hunt: 2 pawns, only if there is at least one card in the Hunting deck

Build, Gather, Explore: 1 or 2 pawns

Arrange Camp, Rest: 1 pawn

Assigning multiple pawns to an Action

Some Actions require more than one pawn to be assigned to them for the Action to be resolved. These pawns do not have to come from the same player. This means that each character can perform two Actions that require one pawn each, or one Action that requires two pawns, or can contribute their pawns to Actions shared with other players.

If more than one player assigns pawns to the same Action, you must decide who is the resolving character and who is supporting them. The Action pawns are placed in a stack with the resolving character’s pawn on top. Only the resolving character suffers the consequences of an Action (positive or negative).

Neutral pawns can never resolve an Action on their own or on top of a stack. They can only support a character. (Note that Friday is not a neutral pawn, and can resolve an Action alone or with Dog, though if he is assigned to an Action along with at least one character's pawn, he always supports.)

Performing an Action multiple times

Some Actions can be performed more than once in the same round, as listed below. When you do this, place the pawns (or stacks of pawns) side by side.

Threat: characters can only assign pawns to each card once per round

Hunt: characters can do this multiple times

Build: characters can only assign pawns to each Invention once per round, but characters can perform multiple Actions for Roof, Palisade and Weapon level

Gather: characters can gather from several different sources, but not the same source more than once per round

Explore: characters can explore several different spaces, but not the same space more than once per round

Arrange Camp: characters can do this up to twice each

Rest: characters can do this up to twice each

Actions that require resources

Many Actions (e.g. Build) require resources as well as Action pawns. For these Actions, you must assign the needed resources to the space, tile or card at the same as you assign your pawn(s). You can’t assign a pawn if you can’t also assign the needed resources at the planning stage. Once assigned in this way, resources can’t be used in other ways.

Actions that use Items, Starting Equipment and Discovery tokens

Some Actions require you to have a particular Item already built. For these, you don’t need to assign the Item to the Action; it is enough that it is available. It is not ‘used up’ by being assigned to an Action, and can be used for other Actions in the same round. (The Basket and Sack are exceptions: they must be assigned, as per the rules for those items.)

Others Actions may require the use of an Item (or you may judge it advantageous to use that Item). You don’t need to assign the Item to such an Action: instead, simply announce when you resolve the Action that you are using the Item. If it is a single-use Item, it obviously can’t be used in any other Actions after you have announced its use. If it can only be used by one character per round, then no other character can use it in any Actions after you have announced its use.

Actions that have other requirements

Other requirements to perform particular Actions may include:

• having a Shelter, or a specific Weapon, Roof, Palisade or Morale level

• having explored a specific terrain type

For these requirements, the requirement must already be met during the planning stage in order to assign pawns. You can’t assign pawns to an Action unless you already meet the requirements, even if you expect to meet the requirements during the resolution stage.

The terrain type or level only needs to be available. It is not ‘used up’ by any Action, meaning it can be used for more than one Action in the same round if needed.

Actions with special tokens and markers

Some Actions may have additional temporary requirements denoted by special tokens or scenario-specific markers that have previously been placed on the relevant area of the board. For instance, some game effects instruct you to place a time-consuming action token on a particular Action space. These requirements, too, must be met when planning.

In general, tokens on Island tiles and spaces remain in place permanently, while tokens on Action spaces or card decks only apply to the first Action taken on that space, after which they are discarded. However, there are some exceptions to this:

• The reroll token remains on an Action space until a Success has actually been rerolled.

• The additional food and additional wood tokens remain on an Action space until an Action there is successful and the additional food or wood is actually spent.

Tokens on the Island tile with the camp token affect the Build, Arrange Camp and Rest Actions.