Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood

To set up Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood, players first generate their free company. If there are four players, each player takes on the role of a main character. If there are fewer than four players, some players will play additional characters, which can be either another main character or a companion. Companions are controlled by a player but require less work to play, making them suitable for solo play (e.g., one main character and three companions). Each main character starts with an Oathsworn board, a character model, a character card, all their starting ability cards (unique to that character), and their starting equipment. The Oathsworn board is set up by placing colored cubes on the might track as depicted on item cards, a numbered token on the defense slot (or 1 if no item defense values), a hit point die set to 6, eight animus gems, and a numbered tracker token in the regen space (all characters start with 6). Companions are set up similarly but with only two animus gems and three archetype cards instead of ability cards.

The objective of Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood is for players to cooperatively progress through a campaign, which takes place over a series of chapters. Each chapter consists of a story part and a combat encounter. Players, as a free company of four Oathswsworn, fight for humanity's survival against unnatural horrors and the Deepwood itself. The ultimate goal is to complete all chapters of the campaign, with the success of the campaign being evaluated based on how many times characters were knocked out.

Each chapter in Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood is divided into two main parts: a story part and an encounter part. The story part typically takes about 30-45 minutes, during which the free company travels to different locations within a city, making narrative choices. This is followed by an encounter part, which can last up to a couple of hours. In encounters, players must fight against fierce monsters and enemies on a miniature combat board. During encounters, animus gems are spent to play cards and move characters across the map. The regen value on a character's board indicates how much animus they recover at the start of each round. Players can choose to play both parts of a chapter in one game session or save their progress and play the encounter at another time.

At the end of a campaign, there will be an evaluation based on how many times the characters were knocked out during encounters. While the game is designed to be challenging, there is no actual character death, allowing players to experience the story and keep progressing through the campaign. However, characters may become injured, which will hinder them in some way. If playing on hardcore mode, the campaign comes to an abrupt end if the entire party is knocked unconscious during an encounter.

The game concludes when players have successfully completed all of the chapters within a campaign. At this point, a final evaluation is made based on the number of times characters were knocked out throughout the campaign. Alternatively, if players choose to play in 'hardcore mode,' the campaign ends abruptly if the entire party is knocked unconscious during any single encounter, resulting in an immediate loss. There are also other modes of play, such as 'challenge mode' where players face a tougher foe, and 'Ironman mode' for back-to-back encounters without rest.