The Champion of the Wild (Second Edition)
The Champion of the Wild (Second Edition) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What's in the Box?
- 75 event cards
- 58 animal cards
- 5 event deck randomiser cards
- 8 Ready to Vote cards
- 168 voting tokens (21 in each player colour)
- 1 rulebook
- 1 weather die
Second Edition, You Say...?
In this Second Edition of The Champion of the Wild, there are five different competition modes to try: Triathlon, Triathlon Draft, Junior Pentathlon, Tag-Team Pentathlon and Decathlon.
If this is the first game for your group, we recommend you begin with a Triathlon. This will teach you the fundamental rules, which are required for all the other game modes.
Once you are familiar with how to play a Triathlon, you could consider trying one of the other modes.
How to Play a Triathlon
Setting Up
First, remove any unwanted events from each event deck – for example those played in any recent games. Then set up as follows:
- Shuffle each of the 5 event card decks and put them in the centre of the playing surface.
- Shuffle the Animal Cards and put them to one side.
- Take the Ready to Vote card of your chosen colour & the appropriate number of voting tokens.*
- Take turns to roll the weather die – the players with the 3 highest scores (see below) become Event Selectors.**
For each event, you will need one fewer voting token than the number of players, for example: 4 players need 1st, 2nd and 3rd place tokens; 8 players need 1st through 7th place tokens.
**Note that Event Selectors are not required if playing any of the new variants.
Weather die numerical values: Cloudy and overcast = 1, Cloudy with strong winds = 2, Heavy rain = 3, Sunny intervals = 4, Light showers = 5, Clear and sunny = 6.
Phase One – Event Selection
Each Event Selector chooses a different event deck, starting with the player who rolled the highest numerical value. They take the top 3 cards, choosing 1 event for the competition and placing the 2 discarded cards at the bottom of the appropriate deck.
Once all 3 Event Selectors have chosen, announce the events in turn, reading aloud all the text on the card (including the flying and water rules as detailed below).
Event card anatomy: Event Category, Backer Name, Event Title, Event Description, Event Scoring icons (Timed, Speed, Total Number, Judges' Scores, Distance), Water Rules icons, Flying Rules icons.
Water Rules icons: Water environment available; No special water provisions; Water run-up available; Water lanes available.
Flying Rules icons: Flying allowed; No flying allowed; Must start with feet on the ground; Flying allowed up to animal's own height; Allowed up to the maximum height as listed on the card.
Special cases: Gauntlet – the half-pipe can be filled with water to half of the competitor's height on request. Spy Mission – the compound is built over a river into which normal sewage systems drain, but there are no drainage systems coming directly from the central vault.
After each event card is read, there is an opportunity to ask additional questions to clarify the rules for that event. For example, you might ask about the terrain underfoot, the exact details of the criteria being measured or what degree of physical contact is permitted between animals. The Event Selector is free to add further detail to the rules (or even to alter the rules) in response to these questions.
Once all events have been announced and questioned in this way, place the 3 event cards face up on the table.
Animal card anatomy: Animal Name, Animal Weight, Backer Name, Animal Category, Animal Fact, Animal Dimensions (Height, Length, Width).
At this stage, choose one player to roll the weather die and announce the weather conditions, which will apply to all 3 of the upcoming events. Then, move on to Phase Two.
Phase Two – Animal Selection
Deal 7 animal cards to each player. You must each choose one animal from your hand to represent you in all 3 events, placing your chosen creature face down on the table.
Remember to take into account the following rules when choosing your athlete – the statements in bold should be read aloud to all players before animal selection:
- Only the physical attributes of the animals are considered. They will faithfully carry out their coaches' instructions.
- Necessary equipment is provided in an appropriate size and form for your animal. This would include, for example, the provision of water-filled survival headgear for sea creatures with gills when competing on land, or the provision of an appropriately-sized paintball gun for the paintballing event.
- Deliberate injury of other animals is not allowed – Event Selectors (in the Triathlon game mode) may specify what physical contact is permitted in any given event, but generally contact is allowed only where there is no deliberate intention to injure the athlete.
Reveal all animals simultaneously once everyone has decided. Then move on to Phase Three.
Phase Three – The Competition
Now you'll play out each event by way of a thought experiment conducted by discussion amongst all the players.
Stage One – Event Discussion. Place your Ready to Vote card in front of you with the 'Undecided' side face up.
Now, the first Event Selector re-reads their event title and rules to the group, before starting the discussion by asking any direct question to another player. For example, you might say "Matt, how are you planning to joust on that squirrel of yours...?" or "I've no doubt the lion will win, but I can't decide between the walrus and the honey bee for second place...".
After this, an open discussion then follows. During this time, each player takes the opportunity to present their strategy for the event and to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the competing animal athletes.
When you feel you've heard enough from each coach to decide on the likely outcome, turn your Undecided card over so the Ready to Vote side is now face up. Once the majority of players have turned their cards this way up, move on immediately to Stage Two.
Note: during this discussion time, use of the Internet to research animal abilities is by default not allowed, unless you have agreed to play an Online Game.
Stage Two – Voting. Players now pass their Event 1 voting tokens to the other coaches based on their opinion of how well the animals are likely to perform. Place the tokens face down – they will remain secret until scoring at the end of the game.
When voting, players exclude their own animal, so each player passes out 1 fewer token than there are players in the game (i.e. 7 tokens each in an 8-player game).
If you cannot separate 2 animals in your mind, rank them according to the style with which they completed the event.
After all of the Event 1 tokens have been handed out, put them to one side without looking at them, still face down. Then repeat Stages One and Two for the remaining 2 events.
After all 3 events, you should have received a voting token from each of your rival players for each event. (You'd each receive 18 tokens in a 7-player game.)
Phase Four – Scoring
Once voting has taken place for all 3 events, reveal the voting tokens for each event in turn, taking a moment to note (for interest) the event rankings as determined by the sum of voting points in that event.
Now add up your total points from all 3 events. Whoever has the most points wins!
If scores are tied, players are ranked by the most 1st place tokens, then 2nd place tokens and so on. If the players are still tied, they share the appropriate ranking.
Game Variants
For players familiar with the Triathlon as detailed above, you may want to consider altering the game experience, perhaps by trying an Online Game or one of the new game modes.
Online Games
The default rules (Triathlon, above) recommend that you debate the outcome of events based on your group's current knowledge of the animals competing.
For those groups looking for a more educational experience, or where players would like to be able to fact-check during discussion, the group may decide, before starting, to play an Online Game. This means that during the Discussion Phase (Phase 3, Stage 1 in the above rules), players can use the Internet to find out more about the animals competing.
Note that this is only ever allowed during the Discussion Phase and not at any other time.
The New Game Modes
There are 4 new playable game modes for this edition: Triathlon Draft, Junior Pentathlon, Tag-Team Pentathlon and Decathlon. In each of these, coaches must draft their hand of animals before the events are known.
These modes also feature random event selection and there is a system to resolve any uncertainty when new events are revealed, using the weather die's numerical value. Both mechanics are explained in depth below.
The Draft
Deal the following number of animal cards to each player:
- 3–5 players: 10 cards
- 6 players: 9 cards
- 7 players: 8 cards
- 8 players: 7 cards
First, choose one animal from your starting hand for your roster, placing it face down in front of you. Then pass the remaining cards to the player on your left.
Now choose a second animal from the hand of animals that has just been passed to you, adding your choice to your face down pile of drafted athletes before again passing the remaining cards to the left.
This continues until you each have the right number of cards in your roster: 7 animals for Triathlon Draft, Tag-Team Pentathlon and Decathlon, or 5 animals for the Junior Pentathlon. Once all coaches have drafted a team of the right size, the Draft is complete and play moves on as detailed in the rules for the appropriate competition.
Remember: in these variants, the events are yet to be decided, so having a range of animals with different strengths is important.
Resolving Uncertainty
Several event cards list details about the event that can be chosen by the Event Selector in the Triathlon game mode. In the below variants, event selection is randomly generated so there is no Event Selector. The weather die is therefore used to randomly decide which of the possible options on the card will be chosen for the event.
For example, if a Power event with 3 options – Shot Put, Discus or Javelin – was drawn randomly during event selection, in order to decide which of these will be the chosen event, assign each option numbers between 1 and 6 to give it an equal chance of inclusion. Remember, to work out the numerical value of the weather die, you can just count the number of distinct elements on each die face. In this case, we could assign: Shot put = weather die faces 1 or 2, Discus = faces 3 or 4, Javelin = faces 5 or 6. The weather die is then rolled to decide which event is chosen.
Another example is a High Jump card, where the event text suggests the Event Selector choose between measuring absolute and relative jump height. In this case, we could assign the options as follows: Relative height = faces 1, 2 or 3; Absolute height = faces 4, 5 or 6.
The rules of the new variants are explained below. Each includes recommendations as to which groups they are likely to suit best, but all of them are enjoyable in different ways, so do try them even if your group does not fit the stated recommendations.
Triathlon Draft
20–35 mins. Recommended for: more control over animal selection.
1. Setup. Setup is as for the Triathlon, but also shuffle the 5 Event Deck Randomiser cards and place them face down on the playing surface. There is also no need to allocate Event Selectors.
2. Draft a hand of 7 animal cards each (see the Draft, above).
3. Roll the weather die. This determines the weather conditions for all 3 events.
4. Event & animal selection. Reveal the top 3 cards of the Event Randomiser Deck, then the top card of the appropriate event decks. These are placed face up on top of the Randomiser cards. Read each event aloud, resolving any uncertainty using the weather die as described above.
All players now choose one animal from their hand to compete in all 3 events, revealing them simultaneously once everyone is ready.
5. Discussion, voting & scoring. Players now go through the process of event discussion and voting for each event in turn, before then carrying out final scoring. Normal rules apply for each of these phases as detailed in Phases 3 and 4 of the Triathlon rules.
A Word on Secret Scoring
For the remaining game modes – the Decathlon (any player count) and both Pentathlons (with 5 or more players) – there is more than one round of scoring during the competition and tokens are returned to the appropriate coaches ahead of the later voting rounds.
It is important in these game modes to keep all scores secret as far as is possible to avoid the introduction of any bias to voting in later rounds. Ideally, we recommend taking a photograph on your mobile phone of all tokens received for those events being scored, shielding them from the view of the other coaches, before returning the tokens. This allows coaches to check their score calculations later and also acts as proof of their score.
The rules below suggest writing down scores with a pen and paper. This keeps the rules inclusive for groups where not all players have access to a mobile phone (such as those with young children). You may wish to take photos of the tokens both face down (with event number showing) and face up (with ranking and voting points showing) so you can check later which tokens you received from each of your rivals.
Junior Pentathlon
30–45 mins. Recommended for: groups with players aged 9 or under; smaller groups. You'll also need: pen and paper, or access to a mobile phone for each player (if 5 to 8 players).
1. Setup. Setup is as for the Triathlon, but also shuffle the 5 Event Deck Randomiser cards and place on the playing surface. In a 3- or 4-player game, each coach also takes the appropriate voting tokens for an additional player colour of their choice.
2. Draft a hand of 5 animal cards each (see the Draft, above).
3. Roll the weather die. This determines the weather conditions for all 5 events.
4. Event & animal selection. Reveal the top card on the Event Category Randomiser Deck. Then reveal the top card from the appropriate event deck and place it face up on top. The event is read aloud and any uncertainty is resolved using the weather die as described above.
All players now choose one animal from their hand to compete in the event just announced, revealing them simultaneously once everyone is ready.
5. Event discussion & voting. Now go through the process of event discussion & voting for the event in hand, using the rules as detailed for Phase 3 of the Triathlon.
Leave the animal cards on the table in front of each player, with tokens face down on top. These animals cannot be used again for any subsequent event.
6. The next event. Play then returns to event and animal selection (part 4 of these instructions), where you'll choose an unused animal from your hand for the next event – followed by event discussion and voting for the second event.
In a 5- to 8-player game, once discussion and voting has taken place for 2 events, carry out the first round of scoring. Here, each player looks at the voting tokens they have received, secretly recording their total score on a piece of paper or on a mobile phone. Tokens are then handed back to the appropriate players for use in events 3, 4 and 5.
In a 3- or 4-player game, because you will each be playing with 2 colours, you will have 6 token stacks so there is no need to return any tokens until the game is over.
7. Final scoring. Once voting has taken place for all 5 events (one from each event category, using all animals from your hand), add up your total scores across all 5 events to determine the winner. If scores are tied, the ranking in question is shared.
Tag-Team Pentathlon
30–45 mins. Recommended for: groups with players aged 10 or over; smaller groups. You'll also need: pen and paper, or access to a mobile phone for each player (if 5 to 8 players).
1. Setup. Setup is as for the Junior Pentathlon.
2. Draft a hand of 7 animal cards each (see the Draft, above).
3. Roll the weather die. This determines the weather conditions for all 5 events.
4. Event selection. Reveal all 5 Event Deck Randomiser cards and put the top card from the appropriate event deck on top. Read the events aloud and resolve any uncertainty using the weather die as described above.
Over the course of the pentathlon, each coach will choose 2 animals to compete in a maximum of 3 events each (including one event of the coach's choice in which both animals compete together).
5. Animal selection, discussion & voting. Starting with the first event, each coach must place either 1 or 2 animal cards secretly on the table, covering them with their hand, so other players are unaware how many animals they are entering.
Once all players have a hand covering their selected cards on the table, coaches reveal their choices simultaneously. The event then goes through discussion and voting phases, using the rules as detailed for Phase 3 of the Triathlon, with the following additional rules.
When 2 animals are competing together:
- They always compete simultaneously, using the same equipment as would be provided for a single competitor (for example, 1 javelin to throw).
- The higher-performing animal is scored (for example, the animal that crosses the line first in a race) but strategic cooperation is encouraged.
- In events of the 'Team' category, the ratio of the 2 animals must be as close to 50:50 as possible.
6. The next event. Now return to animal selection, discussion and voting (number 5 of these instructions) for the next event. Remember, you can use no more than 2 animals through the course of the pentathlon.
Note: certain events allow other animals from your hand to play a minor role (such as being backing dancers in a song contest) – this is still permitted.
In a 5- to 8-player game, once discussion and voting has taken place for 2 events, carry out the first round of scoring where each player looks at the voting tokens they have received, secretly recording their total score on a piece of paper or on a mobile phone. Tokens are then handed back to the appropriate players for use in events 3, 4 and 5.
In a 3- or 4-player game, because you will each be playing with 2 sets of voting tokens, there will be no need to return any tokens until the game is over.
7. Final scoring. Once voting has taken place for all 5 events (one from each event category), players add up their total scores across all events to determine the winner. If scores are tied, the ranking in question is shared.
Decathlon
60–90 mins. Recommended for: more strategic depth; can play gradually over several sessions. You'll also need: pen and paper, or access to a mobile phone for each player.
1. Setup. Setup is as for the Triathlon, but also place the Team Event Deck Randomiser card face up, shuffling the remaining 4 Randomiser cards and placing them face down.
2. Draft a hand of 7 animal cards each (see the Draft, above).
3. Select the showdown event. Reveal the top event of the Team event deck, reading it aloud in full and placing it on top of the Team Event Deck Randomiser card, resolving any uncertainty as described above.
4. Play out 3 Triathlons. First choose the 3 events for the first Triathlon by turning over the top 3 Event Deck Randomiser cards & then the top cards of the appropriate decks.
Now play out the first Triathlon, following steps 3 to 5 in the rules for Triathlon Draft, using the events as selected above.
After completing the first Triathlon, secretly record your scores with pen & paper or mobile phones, taking care to detail the individual score for each event & the exact rankings received. Then return all received voting tokens to their owners and prepare to play through the second Triathlon.
Next, turn over the Event Deck Randomiser card representing the final event category not yet revealed. When this happens, the other 4 Event Deck Randomiser cards are shuffled together and the top 2 are revealed to give the 3 event categories for the second Triathlon. Then reveal the top event cards from the appropriate decks and read them aloud, resolving any uncertainty in the normal way.
Now play out the second Triathlon, following steps 3–5 of the Triathlon Draft rules, again recording scores secretly.
Note that, when choosing animals for the second triathlon, coaches will now be choosing from a hand of 6 cards, having used one animal from their drafted hand for the first Triathlon.
Next, the 2 face down Event Deck Randomiser cards are revealed. The other 3 Randomiser cards (all those used in the second Triathlon) are then shuffled, with one chosen at random for the final event category. The top events from the appropriate decks are subsequently revealed and read aloud, with coaches choosing one animal from the 5 remaining in their hand to compete in the third and final Triathlon.
Play progresses through this final Triathlon in the same way as above, this time stopping just before the scoring phase when all voting tokens are still face down.
5. Reveal event scores. Starting with event 1 (from the first Triathlon), announce your scores in turn, laying out the animals in order according to their total voting points in that event.
This shows everyone, for interest, how each event finished in terms of rankings. If animals have the same number of voting points, they are placed on top of one another & share the ranking.
After doing this briefly for events 1 to 6, move on to events 7 to 9, revealing the voting tokens received and going through the same process of announcing your scores and ranking the animals on the table for each event in turn.
Players then add up their total points throughout all 9 events and announce their final score.
6. The final showdown. The 2 coaches with the highest total score now go through to a final winner-takes-all showdown – the Team event picked at the start.
If there are not 2 clear finalists (due to 2 or more coaches having equal final scores), the tied players are ranked first by the number of 1st place voting tokens received over the Decathlon, then 2nd place tokens and so on.
The team for the final event is made up of all 3 of the animals chosen by that coach during the first 9 events – in our example, the red team would be a Gorilla, an African Lion and an Emperor Penguin, with the final event being paintballing. For events where more than 3 animals are required (this will be clear from the text on the event card), coaches can choose how many of each animal they would like, as long as there is at least one of each.
Both of the finalist coaches have an opportunity to put forward their strategy for the event & there is a discussion as usual amongst all the players about the likely outcome.
Once this discussion has come to a close, one of the players not competing in the final makes a telephone call to any friend or family member whom they think is likely to enjoy judging the event and also be available to speak – the Judge.
When calling, check that your contact is happy using speakerphone so that all players can hear their responses. First, explain to the Judge briefly about the game and the need for an independent opinion on the final event outcome. Then summarise the strategies of each coach, being careful not to reveal the identity of the finalists. If the Judge has any questions, they must only be answered by the coach making the call based on the earlier event discussion without addressing the finalists themselves.
After consideration, the Judge announces which team they think will win the final and the coach of that team is the winner!
Credits
Designer: Tom Clare. Art: Kevin Chapman. Graphic design: Dan Misson & Dave Heaton. Rulebook editing: Spud Page, David Hunter. Published by Big Imagination Games.