Evolution: The Origin of Species Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Winner
• Preparation
• The Game Turn
  • Development Phase
  • Food Bank Determination Phase
  • Feeding Phase
  • Extinction and Draw Phase
• End of the Game
• Traits
  • Carnivorous Trait
  • Fat Tissue
  • Pairwise Traits
• Playing with Two Game Sets
• Credits

Winner

The player with the largest number of victory points at the end of the game is the winner. Points are awarded to a player for all his surviving animals and their traits.

Preparation

Mix the deck thoroughly. Each player gets 6 cards from the top of the deck; these cards are now the player's hand. The deck is put at the center of the table with the animal icon facing up. The food tokens are placed near the deck: red ("food bank"), blue ("extra food") and yellow ("fat"). Then each player rolls a die. The player whose throw is the highest starts the game.

The Game Turn

Each turn of the game consists of four phases:

• development phase
• food bank determination phase
• feeding phase
• extinction and draw phase

During each phase players act in order moving clockwise from the first player. The phase of development and the phase of feeding may include several rounds; after the first round is over, the first player acts again, etc. The player who can't or doesn't want to act passes.

Development Phase

During this phase you may play your cards by putting them from your hand onto the table in front of you. You may play each card either as an animal (with the animal icon facing up) or as a trait of an existing animal (with the animal icon facing down). If you play a card as a trait, put the card underneath the corresponding animal (or pair of animals).

Some of the cards carry two traits, with one trait at the top and the other (e.g. Carnivorous) on the bottom of the card. When playing such a card, you should decide which of the two traits you will use, and place the card with the desired trait on the top. This decision is final, and you can't change your mind and use the second trait later in the game.

Some cards, such as "Communication", can only be played onto a pair of animals. Such cards are placed between the two cards onto which they are played.

The development phase includes several rounds. Each player can play just one card at a time, starting from the first player and going clockwise in order. During this phase you may play any number of cards from your hand. If you don't want to play a new animal or add a new trait to existing animals, you say: "I pass". You must pass if you have no cards left. After passing, you can't choose to play more cards during this phase. The phase ends after all players pass.

Food Bank Determination Phase

The amount of food available during this turn is determined at this time. The amount is indicated by the dice, depending on the number of players:

• 2 players - number indicated by one dice + 2
• 3 players - sum of two dice
• 4 players - sum of two dice + 2

The first player rolls the dice. When the amount of food is determined, the corresponding number of red tokens is put in the center of the table; this is the food bank for the current turn.

Feeding Phase

During this phase players in order take one red food token from the food bank and put it on the top of one of their animals. The first player takes the first token, and other players continue clockwise, going in several rounds if necessary and if there are enough tokens.

You may only take one red token from the food bank at a time. However, some traits, such as "Communication", allow to take several tokens.

As a result of their additional traits, your animals can also get blue "extra food" tokens during this phase.

An animal with one food token on the top of it is considered FED, unless it carries traits which increase its food requirements. Such cards show a number at the top left corner, indicating how many additional food tokens are required to feed the animal. For example, an animal (which, by itself, requires one food token) with the HIGH BODY WEIGHT trait (+1) carrying a PARASITE (+2) is only considered fed if it has four food tokens on the top of it.

Any animal can be fed by red or blue food tokens, or any combination thereof.

Important! A fed animal can't get more food tokens, except to fill its FAT TISSUE (see Fat Tissue section below). If all your animals are fed and their FAT TISSUE is filled you can't obtain more tokens from the food base or in other ways.

After all animals are fed and their FAT TISSUE is filled, or the food bank is empty and all players have used any traits of their animals they wanted to use, the feeding phase is over. Any remaining red tokens in the food bank are set aside.

Extinction and Draw Phase

At the beginning of this phase all animals which are not fully FED are put into a discard pile, along with their traits, and all the pairwise traits associated with them. Each player has his own discard pile. The cards are put into a discard pile with the animal icon facing up. You may look at cards in your own discard pile, but not in other players' piles.

The first player now deals new cards to players from the top of the deck. The cards are dealt one at a time in order, beginning with the first player. Each player gets in total the following number of cards: 1 + the number of surviving animals belonging to the player. If the deck is empty it's possible that one or more players get fewer cards than they are due.

If a player has no surviving animals and his hand is empty then he takes 6 cards from the deck during this phase.

After the cards are dealt the turn is over. All food tokens except the fat tokens are removed from the cards and set aside. The new turn starts with the development phase; the role of first player passes clockwise from the first player of the previous turn.

End of the Game

After the deck is empty the last turn begins. After the extinction phase of the last turn the victory points are counted. Each player is awarded victory points as follows:

• +2 points for each surviving animal;
• +1 point for each trait of a surviving animal;
• additional points for the traits which increase food requirements: +1 point for Carnivorous or High Body Weight; +2 points for Parasite.

If several players have an equal number of victory points, the one who has the most cards in the discard pile is the winner.

Traits

An animal may combine any number of traits. However, no animal can have two identical traits, with the exception of the FAT TISSUE trait and pairwise traits.

You may only add traits to your own animals. The only exception is the Parasite trait, which you may only add to another player's animal.

The animal icon in the description of a trait on a card denotes an "animal". The red token icon denotes a red token from the food bank. The blue token icon denotes a blue extra food token which you can get as a result of using some traits.

Some traits such as High Body Weight or Swimming have permanent effects; others can only be used at specific moments during the game. For example the Running, Tail Loss, and Mimicry traits can only be used when an animal is to be eaten by a Carnivore.

If your animal has several traits which can be used at the same time, you decide in which order to use them. For example if your animal is attacked by a Carnivore, you can first use the Running trait (i.e. try to run away), and, if your attempt failed, use the Tail Loss trait (i.e. survive by loosing one of your traits).

Some of the traits may be only used during your feeding round. This means that when you are to take a red token from the food base, you may use this trait together with, or instead of, taking a token. This is possible even if there are no tokens left in the food bank.

Some traits, such as Carnivorous, Piracy, or Hibernation Ability, may only be used once per turn or every other turn. After using such a trait, rotate the card of the trait horizontally to identify that it has already been used in this turn. At the end of the turn, you may rotate the cards back into the vertical position.

Carnivorous Trait

This trait may be used during your feeding round. At this round don't take food tokens from the food bank. Instead, use your Carnivorous animal to attack one of the animals on the table, and if it succeeded in eating this animal get two blue extra food tokens. Each Carnivorous animal may only use its Carnivorous trait once a turn. In each feeding round only one of your Carnivorous animals may use its Carnivorous trait. Your Carnivorous animal may attack any animal on the table that is not protected by additional traits, including your own animals or another Carnivorous animal. For the animal eaten, all its traits and all pairwise traits associated with it are put into a discard pile. A Carnivorous animal can't attack and eat other animals if it is fully fed and has no empty Fat Tissue. You can use the Carnivorous trait even if there are no tokens left in the food bank.

Fat Tissue

A single animal may have several Fat Tissue traits. At any time during the game, when your animal with this trait which is already FED and can receive another food token, you can deposit it into its Fat Tissue. In this case, exchange the food token for a yellow fat token and put it on the top of the Fat Tissue card. You can put no more than one fat token on the top of each Fat Tissue card. If there are fat tokens on the top of each Fat Tissue, the Fat Tissue is considered filled and the animal can't get additional food tokens during this turn.

You may use the yellow fat token only during your feeding round. Instead of getting one red token from the food base take any number of yellow fat tokens from one of your animals and convert them into blue food tokens. This conversion isn't considered the same as getting food tokens and isn't bound up with using other traits of the animal.

Pairwise Traits

Pairwise traits are played on a pair of animals simultaneously. You can't play two identical pairwise traits onto the same pair of animals. If one of the animals is put into a discard pile, all pairwise traits associated with it are also put into the discard pile. During any player's action during a feeding round you can use each pairwise trait only once; however, you can use each trait during each feeding round. You decide in which order to use your pairwise traits to get food tokens for them. For example, if both Communication and Symbiosis traits are played onto the same pair of animals, you can first take a red token from the food bank to feed the symbiont, and if the symbiont is then fed, immediately take a second red token for the other animal.

If there are not enough tokens of a certain color at some point during the game, you can use tokens of another color or self-made tokens to substitute for them.

Playing with Two Game Sets

You can mix cards from two game sets to accommodate up to 8 players. The size of the food bank is then determined as follows:

• 5 players - sum of three dice + 2
• 6 players - sum of three dice + 4
• 7 players - sum of four dice + 2
• 8 players - sum of four dice + 4

Credits

Special thanks: D. Bazikin, E. Bulyshkin, I. Gambashidze, A. Glagoleva, Richard Ham, L. Machina, A. Mironov, A. Pahomov, I. Tulovsky, D. Shahmatov.

© RBG GbR, 2012. © D. Knorre, S. Machin, 2010-2011. © Right games LLC, 2010-2011.