Ecologies
Ecologies Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup and Overview
Ecologies includes 108 cards. There are 77 organism cards, 21 biome cards, and 10 biotic/abiotic factor cards. Players build food webs using their cards, which are worth victory points. The winner is the first person to reach 12 victory points, or the person with the most points after all cards have been drawn and players have completed a round without anyone playing a card. When the main deck is depleted, shuffle the discard pile and turn it over. If both the main deck and discard pile are depleted, players keep playing until more cards are discarded or a round of turns is completed without anyone playing a card. To start, deal each player 7 cards.
Card Types
There are four types of cards: Biome, Organism, Biotic Factor, and Abiotic Factor.
Biome — for example, the Tropical Forest Biome card (equatorial forest habitats). Healthy Ecology Bonus: steal an unplayed card every other turn a random card from an opponent's hand.
Organism — for example, the Tortoise card. Trophic levels C1-C3. Value .75. Biome abbreviations DES / GRA. Eats: grass, grasshopper, acacia tree, termites, prickly pear, citron melon, poppy, beetle, ocotillo, cricket. Eaten by: wild boar, lion, baboon, wild dog, coyote, mountain lion.
Biotic Factor — for example, the Parasitism card. Add this parasite to any ecology (-2 victory points).
Abiotic Factor — for example, the Change in Oxygen card. Draw 4 cards.
Turns and Gameplay
Turns follow the same pattern: draw 2 → trade → play 2 → purchase. To start, draw 2 cards. Next, trade cards with your opponents if you'd like. There are no restrictions on the number or types of cards to be traded with others, so long as they are unplayed cards in hand and not active cards on the table. After trading is complete, you may play up to 2 cards. Playing any type of card counts as one of the two plays. Finally, before ending a turn, players can purchase 1 new card for every 4 unplayed cards they would like to discard. This option is desirable when a player has many unwanted cards, but is not necessary each turn. A similar purchase can be made by destroying one's own ecology that is no longer wanted.
In this case the trade is 3 for 1, rounding down (ex. destroying an ecology with 10 cards would net 3 new cards). This is rarely desirable but still an option.
Biome Cards
The first card each player plays will be a biome card. This is because every ecology needs a biome before it can be populated with organisms. Only one biome card is needed per ecology. Multiple biome cards may be played, but each one is the start of its own ecology. Each biome has its own color and abbreviation. Organisms played in a biome must have a matching background color / abbreviation. Some organisms survive in two biomes. Biomes give "healthy ecology bonuses" when players fulfill 5 specific roles in the food web: (P), (C1), (C2), (C3), and (SD). Organisms can switch roles within a biome or move to different biomes during a player's turn, but can only have one role in one biome at a time.
Biomes
- CON — Coniferous Forest
- TUN — Tundra
- TEM — Temperate Forest
- GRA — Grassland
- DES — Desert
- TRO — Tropical Forest
- MAR — Marine
Organism Cards
Trophic levels are shown in the upper left corner and victory points in the upper right. The background colors and 3-letter abbreviations indicate which biome(s) the organism can survive in. The text box shows what it eats and what it is eaten by. Cards are placed in rows above what they eat, as energy comes from the foundation of the food web and moves up. The only exceptions to this rule are scavenger, decomposer, and detritivore cards (SD), which eat everything but are always placed on the same level as primary consumers (C1) in the food web. Many cards have multiple trophic levels, and can be moved around the food web to function in different roles, as long as each organism has food available to it. The bottom row of cards is for biome cards and producers (P). A biome card must be played first, and a producer card (P) played second.
Together these two cards become the foundation for all other cards above. The second row is reserved for organisms acting as primary consumers (C1) or scavengers/decomposers/detritivores (SD). The third row is reserved for secondary consumers (C2), the fourth row is reserved for tertiary consumers (C3), and any rows above this are reserved for organisms acting as quaternary and above consumers (C4). Cards do not have to be placed directly over what they are eating and multiple types of animals can feed off of one type of prey animal. For example, the (C1) zooplankton card can support multiple (C2) organisms above it, as the one card represents an entire population of zooplankton being eaten by multiple types of predators.
Biotic/Abiotic Factor Cards
Powerful biotic and abiotic factor cards are mixed into the deck. Some give victory points. Others hurt your opponents' ecologies or help your own. Biotic factors are derived from the living parts of an ecosystem and abiotic factors come from the non-living parts. These 10 cards have a huge impact on the game so play them at the right moment! For example, there is a card that forces everyone to discard down to 5 cards. This is best used when opponents have large hands but the player has a small hand. Some cards are added to ecologies. Some are permanent player buffs placed on the table. One-off action cards are discarded after use but can come back when the discard pile is recycled later in the game.
The 5 biotic factor cards are Competition, Infectious Disease, Mutualism, Parasitism, and Predation. The 5 abiotic factor cards are Biomagnification of Pollution, Change in Oxygen, Inclement Weather, Sunlight Blocked by Ash, and Temperature Fluctuation.
Food Webs
Food webs, and their interactions with the environment, are what make ecologies. They are dynamic relationships that often change. Non-producer organisms may be moved around and between food webs during a player's turn, but producers (P) cannot leave the web they are placed in. For example, a badger can act as a scavenger (SD) on the second row, but move later to the fourth row to act as a tertiary consumer (C3). Organisms only fulfill one role at a time. The only time players can move organisms outside of their turn is when opponents destroy a card or alter their ecologies. If a web is disturbed in this way, the player may attempt to reorder the remaining cards in a way that works.
If there are cards without a food source however, they must be discarded. For example, if a web was based on one producer (P) and that card is destroyed, all cards above it must be discarded unless they can move to a viable biome. This is a good reason to have multiple producers, or otherwise protect ecologies. There are no "decaying biomass" cards. (SD) cards use all organisms as potential food. If an organism is eating an (SD) card, it is acting as a (C2), because (SD) cards are always placed on the (C1) row.
Healthy Ecology Bonuses
Bonuses are listed on biome cards and activated when an ecology has at least one card acting in each of the following 5 roles: (P), (C1), (C2), (C3), and (SD).
Many cards can move around to different roles in different trophic levels, but they cannot fulfill multiple roles at the same time. This means a player will need at least 5 cards in the biome before it's possible to activate the bonus. Note that quaternary consumers (C4) are not necessary for a biome to be considered healthy. Bonuses are only active when an ecology is healthy and disappear if the ecology is no longer healthy. A healthy temperate forest ecology lets a player redraw each card they get one time, meaning if they don't like a card they draw, they can place it at the bottom of the deck and draw again. The replacement card must be accepted. A healthy tundra biome results in a better purchase rate for cards. Unwanted cards in hand can be traded in 2 for 1 and destroyed biomes can be traded in 1 for 1. Purchases can never be cheaper than 1 for 1. See remaining biome cards for other healthy ecology bonuses. Bonuses can stack (ex. if a player has 2 healthy tropical forest ecologies they can steal a card each turn, instead of every other turn).
Healthy ecologies include one biome card and at least one organism for each of the following roles:
| Role | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Producer | (P) |
| Primary Consumer | (C1) |
| Secondary Consumer | (C2) |
| Tertiary Consumer | (C3) |
| Scavenger/Decomposer | (SD) |
* Quaternary consumer (C4) not necessary
Single Player Game
Single player games start with 7 cards. Single player turns follow the pattern of draw 4 → discard 3 → play 2 → purchase. Draw 4 cards at the beginning of each turn. Next, discard 3 cards of your choice. Then play up to 2 cards and purchase new cards if you wish before ending your turn. Keep playing until the deck runs out. Do not recycle the discard pile. Play your remaining cards if possible. The game is now over. Total your final points and keep records of your high scores. Note: some interactive cards will be impossible to use in the single player game and should be among those you discard or use to purchase new cards (4 unplayed for 1 new card, 3 active for 1 new when destroying ecologies).
Simplified Game
Younger players and adults wanting a streamlined version can play the simplified game. In the simplified version, there are no fractional points. Every organism is worth exactly 1 victory point. The winner is the first person to reach 12 victory points. If the deck is depleted before anyone achieves 12 victory points, the player with the most points wins the game.
(An example Iguana card, trophic levels C1-C3, illustrates that in the simplified game its printed victory-point value is disregarded — every organism counts as 1 point.)
The Science
This game was developed by a biology teacher to simulate ecological concepts. While necessarily simplified, the systems introduced underpin all life on Earth. Ecology is the study of interactions between living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem. Different environments and ecosystems will have different plants, animals, physical features, and weather. When looked at on a large scale, these unique collections of habitats and ecosystems are referred to as biomes.
Earth has many different biomes, each with their own ecology, or set of interactions. For example, a desert biome has an ecology very different from a temperate forest biome because the relationships and interactions between organisms and their environment differs greatly in these two areas. One of the easiest ways to judge the health of an ecology is to look at food webs, which are representations of what eats what and how energy flows through the living parts of a biome. With few exceptions, all biomes ultimately derive their energy from the sun. However, only producers (P) like plants and algae can harness the sun's power in order to produce sugars. Herbivores are called primary consumers (C1) because they are the first to consume these sugars. Carnivores get the energy by consuming herbivores, so they are called secondary consumers (C2). Predators higher up the food chain include tertiary consumers (C3) and quaternary consumers (C4). A food web is a tangle of many food chains and also includes scavengers, decomposers, and detritivores (SD). Scavengers, decomposers, and detritivores are the organisms that break down decaying biomass, either mechanically or chemically, in order to recycle nutrients back into the system. A healthy ecology will have a mix of all these organisms.
In this game, healthy ecology bonuses are given when a biome's food web contains at least 5 organisms doing the following 5 jobs: (P), (C1), (C2), (C3), and (SD). Healthy ecology bonuses are different for each biome and are listed on biome cards. Biomes are color-coordinated. Food webs in this game might seem strange, as the likelihood of eating an item is not shown, so even though many animals eat one preferred food, all possible foods are listed. For example, herbivores eat small insects in the wild even though the vast majority of their diet comes from plants, and some organisms are only preyed upon when young and weak, or during a unique stage of their life history. To balance gameplay, organisms are restricted to certain biomes. For example, earthworms are found everywhere on Earth, but in this game they are restricted to temperate forests. Food webs are purposefully incomplete here, as real webs contain thousands of species, far too many for a card game. These food webs are meant to pique your interest and encourage research. They are not definitive.
Example Food Webs
Abiotic Factor — Inclement Weather. Add this factor to 1 of your ecologies (opponents can no longer target or interact with the chosen ecology).
Herring (C1-C2), .5 victory points, MAR. Eats: phytoplankton, zooplankton. Eaten by: squid, salmon, seal, jaeger, bald eagle.
Crab (SD, C2-C4), 1 victory point, MAR. Eats: zooplankton, marine snail, squid, decaying biomass. Eaten by: squid, salmon, seal, bald eagle, polar bear.
Zooplankton (C1), .5 victory points, MAR. Eats: phytoplankton, macroalgae, eelgrass. Eaten by: herring, squid, salmon, crab.
Marine Snail (C1/SD), .5 victory points, MAR. Eats: phytoplankton, eelgrass, macroalgae, decaying biomass. Eaten by: crab, squid, salmon, seal.
Marine Biome (saltwater habitats). Healthy Ecology Bonus: draw one extra card per turn.
Phytoplankton (P), .25 victory points, MAR. Eats: sunlight. Eaten by: zooplankton, marine snail, herring.
Macroalgae (P), .25 victory points, MAR. Eats: sunlight. Eaten by: zooplankton, marine snail.
Note: the jaeger is feeding on arctic hares, not polar bears. Cards do not have to be directly over what they eat. The polar bear is acting as a scavenger.
Jaeger (C2-C4), 1 victory point, MAR/TUN. Eats: herring, squid, lemming, arctic hare. Eaten by: wolverine, bald eagle, arctic wolf, polar bear.
Arctic Wolf (C2-C4), 1 victory point, TUN. Eats: lemming, jaeger, owl, bighorn sheep, caribou, musk ox, arctic hare. Eaten by: polar bear.
Polar Bear (SD, C2-C4), 1.5 victory points, TUN/MAR. Eats: crab, salmon, seal, jaeger, lemming, arctic hare, caribou, musk ox, wolverine, arctic wolf, decaying biomass. Eaten by: N/A.
Arctic Hare (C1), .5 victory points, TUN. Eats: lichen, saxifrage, moss. Eaten by: wolverine, arctic wolf, jaeger, owl, polar bear.
Biotic Factor — Parasitism. Add this parasite to any ecology (-2 victory points).
Tundra Biome (permafrost habitats). Healthy Ecology Bonus: card purchases are cheaper by 2.
Saxifrage (P), .25 victory points, TUN. Eats: sunlight. Eaten by: bighorn sheep, lemming, caribou, musk ox, arctic hare.
Questions and Comments
If you have any questions or comments please visit us at montrosebiology.com and click "contact us." We value your feedback and would love to hear from you!
There are multiple expansions/sequels planned for the future. They will introduce new biomes, factor cards, organisms, and healthy ecology bonuses. Players will be able to play them as stand-alone games or combine new and old decks for novel interactions, choosing which cards to include or exclude.
The rules written here are guidelines. Players should also have a say in how a game is played. If you find that altering the game in any way helps your family or friends enjoy the cards more, please do so!