Barbascura X: Evolversi Male Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Animal components
• Setup
• Object of the Game
• How to Play
  • 1. Playing the Cards
  • 2. Turn Order
    • Turn Order Example
  • 3. Actions
    • Turn Example
  • 4. A New Market
• End of the Game
• We Explain Some Concepts, Badly
  • Fury
    • Fury Example
  • 4th Card
  • Evolutionary Pressure
  • The Totem
  • Powers
    • Example of Power Activation
  • Expansion: Advanced Genetics
  • Mystery Indicators
• Doubts About the Rules?

Components

• 65 Evolution cards
• 18 Event cards
• 5 Summary cards
• 1 wooden Totem (apply the sticker before first play)
• 1 double-sided game board
• 36 Evolution tokens
• 6 Evolutionary Pressure tokens
• 1 4th Card token
• 3 Closed Market tokens

Animal components

• 6 Animal boards
• 6 Mystery Indicators
• 6 Turn Order tokens
• 36 Starting cards (6 for each animal)
• 6 Fury tokens
• 6 Animal pawns

Setup

Example of a game with 3 animals.

1. Place the board in the middle of the table.
2. Shuffle the 6 Evolutionary Pressure tokens and place them face down, without looking at them, on the spaces indicated on the board.
3. Place the 4th Card token (grey side) between space 3 and space 4 of the Evolution track.
4. Shuffle the Event cards, form the Event deck and place it on the board.
5. Shuffle the Evolution cards, form the Evolution deck and place it next to the board.
6. Draw one more Evolution card than the number of animals in play and place them in the market (below the board), filling it from right to left. *
7. Form a common supply with the Evolution tokens.
8. Each person chooses an animal: take its board, its Turn Order token and its pawn. Then form your deck: take your 6 Starting cards (shown at the bottom of the card, with the animal pictured), shuffle them and place them face down to the left of your board. Finally take 1 Evolution token, 1 Summary card and a Fury token, which you place on space 0 of the Fury track on your board.
9. Each animal places its pawn on space 0 of the Evolution track.
10. Argue to decide which of you is the least evolved and give them the Totem.

* According to the number of animals in play, place a Closed Market token on the unused market spaces.

Layout notes from the setup diagram: the Event discard pile ("scarti degli eventi") sits next to the Event deck on the board, and the common discard pile ("scarti comuni") sits to the right of the market. Around your animal board, your deck is on the left, your discards on the right, cards played above the board go above it and cards played below go below it. Leave enough space around the board to play cards (above and below) and your discards (to the right).

Is this your first game? Use the side of the board with the symbol at the top left, and follow the indications written above.

Playing with 2 animals? Put back in the box the Sea Cucumber, and the Evolution cards and Event cards with the "3+" symbol at the bottom right.

Object of the Game

The first animal to reach the last space of the Evolution track wins the game.

OK, but how do I reach it?

During the game, some cards can make you gain (or lose) Evolution points (star symbol). Each time you gain 1 Evolution point, move your Animal pawn 1 space to the right on the Evolution track. Each time you lose 1 Evolution point, move it to the left.

The last space of the Evolution track is marked with a star.

Examples on cards: "If you have the Totem, gain 1 Evolution point." / Extinction (Event card): "All animals lose 1 Evolution point."

How to Play

The game is divided into rounds, each made up of the following phases, to be carried out in order:

1. Playing the Cards

The animals plan their evolution.

Draw the first 3 cards from your deck, then choose and place them face down:

• 2 cards above and 1 card below your animal board, or
• 1 card above and 2 cards below your animal board.

If your deck does not contain enough cards, shuffle your discards, form a new deck and draw the missing cards (see Powers, last page).

Cards above or below? When you play cards above your board, consider only the two values shown in the upper part: Strength and Evolution tokens. When you play them below your board, consider only the box and the symbols in the lower part: effect and Fury.

Example card, Vampirismo: top left Strength 2, top right Evolution tokens 2; bottom box: "Steal up to 2 Evolution tokens from another animal."

2. Turn Order

The stronger you are, the sooner you play.

Each animal REVEALS the cards placed above its animal board (that is, turns them face up, without discarding them). Then add up the values in the top left, shown inside the Strength symbols: this is its STRENGTH.

In descending order of Strength, the animals place their Turn Order token in the middle of the table (the strongest animal on the left). This indicates the order in which the animals will play in the next phase, "3. Actions".

If more animals have the same Strength, resolve the tie starting from the animal that has the TOTEM and continuing clockwise (see the example below).

Turn Order Example

• The Panda played False Pollice (Strength 1, Evolution tokens 1) and Occhiaie (Strength 2): its Strength is 3.
• The Sea Cucumber has the Totem and played Zampe (Strength 3, Evolution tokens 0): its Strength is 3.
• The Mantis played Artigli (Strength 4, Evolution tokens 1): its Strength is 4.

The turn order is: 1st Mantis, 2nd Sea Cucumber (it has the Totem, so it wins the tie), 3rd Panda.

3. Actions

Buy, steal, shoot, get angry and try to win!

Following the turn order, each animal carries out all of the following steps, in order:

1. Take from the common supply a number of Evolution tokens equal to the sum of the values shown inside the Evolution token symbols on the cards above its animal board.
2. Reveal the cards below its animal board, then: a. if the cards have one or more Fury symbols, gain FURY (see Fury, next page); b. if it can, it must fully activate the EFFECTS of the cards; if the cards have the "optional" symbol or the text says "You may", then it may choose whether to activate the effect. If it played 2 cards below its board, it can decide in which order to activate the effects.
3. It may buy one card from the MARKET. If it decides to do so, it pays a number of Evolution tokens equal to the cost of the chosen card (shown on the board) and puts them in the common supply. Then it places the card just bought on top of its deck, face down. Finally, if it has not bought the card with the highest cost (the leftmost one in the market), it slides the remaining cards to the right.
4. Discard all the Evolution tokens that exceed the maximum limit of its RESERVE, as indicated on its animal board.
5. If in the space where its animal pawn is there is a face-down Evolutionary Pressure token, it reveals it and activates it immediately (see Evolutionary Pressure, last page).

Symbols on the cards. During the first games, if you have doubts about the symbols in the game, consult your Summary cards. The Summary card lists: Strength; Evolution token; card below the board; card above the board; card in play above or below the board; before you in turn order; after you in turn order; Evolution points; "When you play below your board a card with the optional symbol, you may choose whether to activate its effect. If, after activating it, the card shows the discard symbol, you must put it in the discards"; "Raise your Fury by 1 space"; "Reveal an Evolutionary Pressure token face down"; "Draw and activate the first Event card"; and other effect and power notes.

Turn Example

The Panda takes 3 Evolution tokens from the common supply (1), then turns face up the cards below its board and raises its Fury token by 1 space upward (2). Now it activates the effect of its cards. It may swap the position of 2 cards in the market (3), so it swaps Pene a Stella, which costs 4, with Occhi Dolci, which costs 2. It must also steal 1 Evolution token from another animal (4), but the other animals' reserves are empty!

Now it is time to evolve badly! It buys Pene a Stella, whose cost it had previously lowered: it pays 2 Evolution tokens (5) and puts the card on top of its deck (6). Since it did not buy the card Occhi Dolci (the card with the highest cost), it slides the 2 remaining cards to the right (7). The maximum limit of its reserve is 3 Evolution tokens (8), but the Panda has only 1 left, so it does not have to discard anything. The Panda's turn with Pene a Stella is over.

4. A New Market

The animals discard the cards they played and the market fills with new wonders.

After all the animals have taken their turn, each animal discards all the cards it played and places them in its own discard pile face up (to the right of the animal board). Finally, put in the COMMON DISCARDS (to the right of the market) all the cards left in the market and refill it with new cards drawn from the top of the Evolution deck (if there are not enough cards, shuffle the discards and form a new deck). If the game has not ended, begin a new round.

End of the Game

The game ends immediately when an animal reaches the last space of the Evolution track. That animal is the winner. In the rare case in which more animals reach the last space of the Evolution track at the same time, the victory is shared.

We Explain Some Concepts, Badly

Fury

The more of a bastard you are, the more points you make.

Each time you gain FURY, raise your Fury token on your Fury track (follow the arrows). When you exceed space 2, return to space 0 and immediately gain 1 Evolution point.

How do you gain Fury?

• Gain 1 Fury for each Fury symbol present on the cards played below your animal board.
• Gain the Fury indicated in the effect of the cards played below your animal board.
• If the Orca is in play, it can gain Fury when it activates its power.

If an effect says to lose Fury, lower your Fury token on your Fury track. You can never go below space 0.

Fury Example

The Panda has Fury 0. After revealing the cards below its board, it first gains 1 Fury from the Fury symbol on the card on the right, then 2 Fury by activating the effect of the card on the left. It then moves its Fury token by 3 spaces on its Fury track, returning to space 0, so it immediately advances by one space on the Evolution track. Well done!

Cards shown: left card, "Choose another animal. Both gain 2 Fury."; right card, "Steal an Evolution token from another animal. You may also steal 1 more Evolution token."

4th Card

Just time to buy some evolutions, then we start getting serious.

The first animal whose animal pawn passes the 4th Card token turns it to its coloured side. From the next round, until the end of the game, all animals draw and play 4 cards instead of 3 (see Phase 1. Playing the Cards). You will therefore play 2 cards above and 2 cards below your animal board.

Evolutionary Pressure

The road to victory is full of horny spermatozoa.

If an animal ends its turn on a space of the Evolution track on which there is a face-down Evolutionary Pressure token, it reveals it and activates it immediately.

You can reveal at most one Evolutionary Pressure token per turn, and never during another animal's turn. This is what you can find on the back of the Evolutionary Pressure tokens:

• Meteor: Draw and immediately activate the effect of the card on top of the Event deck, then discard it.
• Totem crossed with Fury symbol: Steal the Totem or gain 1 Fury.
• Swap arrows: You must swap a card played above your board with the card played above the board of another animal, who cannot refuse the swap.

The Totem

Smile, evolution is fucking you!

• The animal that has the Totem may ignore the effect of Event cards.
• If during phase 2, "Turn Order", more animals have the same Strength, resolve the tie starting from the animal that has the Totem and continuing clockwise.

Powers

What a feat, special powers! But when can I use them?

Each time you shuffle your discards to form a new deck, you may activate the power of your animal, as indicated in the lower part of your animal board next to the Powers symbol.

Example of Power Activation

A new round has begun and the Tardigrade must draw 3 cards, but there are only 2 in its deck. It sets those 2 cards aside, shuffles its discards to form the new deck and draws the missing card. Then it activates its power and gains 3 Evolution tokens.

Expansion: Advanced Genetics

We have included in the game 11 Evolution cards with advanced effects and marked them with a symbol at the bottom left. We advise you to add them to the game only after you have played a few games.

Example card text: "When another animal reveals at least 1 Fury symbol, gain the same Fury. Then put this card in your discards. MAY ALSO BE ACTIVATED ON ANOTHER ANIMAL'S TURN" (red box, marked 1).

If the effect of a card says that you may activate it also on another animal's turn (red box, marked 1), and that card is still face down below your board, turn it face up before activating the effect.

Mystery Indicators

We will tell you later what they are for; for now you can use them so as not to forget to activate some effects (e.g. Umorismo).

Doubts About the Rules?

Watch the video rules, join the group and ask the community for help (see the QR code in the original rulebook).