¡Extinción!
¡Extinción! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
The object of the game is to be the person who, exploring the Lost World, rescues the largest number of dinosaurs from a new Extinction. To do so, you must relocate them in different Safe Environments, considering the alimentary balance needed in each of them. But watch out! Each rescue will entail consequences!
Contents
- 73 Lost World cards (including Dinosaurs — among which there are 6 Protoceratops — and Baits).
- 22 Safe Environment cards, each of them with a Butterfly Effect on its reverse.
- 3 Extinction Counter cards numbered from 0 to 5.
- 7 Player Aid cards to get used to the icons.
- 1 blank card so you can draw your favourite dinosaur and include it into the game. You can also come up with new abilities for it.
Preparation
- Set the 6 Protoceratops cards aside. Each person takes one and places it in front of themselves. This area will be known as "their territory" from now on. If there are Protoceratops left, they will start the discard pile or "Cemetery" and will be placed in the middle of the table.
- Shuffle the rest of the Lost World deck and deal each person 3 cards. The rest of the Lost World deck will be placed face down over the table, reachable to all, as part of the draw deck, which will be placed next to the discarded Protoceratops, if any.
- Then, pick up the Safe Environment cards. Shuffle them and place them at the center of the table, with the feeding icons (type of Dinosaur) that are needed to complete an Environment facing up. Place the two first cards next to the deck, so 3 Environment cards are on display.
- Place the Extinction Counter cards on a deck for all to see, with the 0 card facing up and the rest, in order, below it.
Set up areas: your territory (with your Protoceratops), your hand, the Lost World draw deck, the Cemetery (discard pile), the Safe Environments on display, and the Extinction Counter.
How to Play
The dinosaur of the group (meaning the oldest one) will play the first turn and then the turns pass clockwise.
Each turn has 2 phases:
Phase 1. (Mandatory) Perform 1 of these 3 actions:
- Play 1 of the Lost World cards in hand in your territory and perform its action and/or skill (see Dinosaurs Feeding Actions, Baits and Dinosaurs Skills).
- Discard into the Cemetery as many cards in your hand as you want and draw the same number of cards from the Lost World deck.
- Draw as many cards from the Lost World deck as you need until you have 3 cards in hand.
If the Lost World deck ends, shuffle and flip the discard pile, leaving the last card on the Cemetery.
Phase 2. (Optional) Rescue the Dinosaurs that complete a Safe Environment and save them: set them aside, outside your territory (see Rescuing Dinosaurs). You can only complete an environment per turn (even if you can complete more than one Environment with different Dinosaurs).
Did you know...? The Lost World is a 1912 novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes). It tells the adventures of an expedition to a place where prehistoric animals survive.
Dinosaurs Feeding Actions (Mandatory)
Each time a Dinosaur enters your territory from your hand you can perform an action, depending on its diet:
- Carnivore — since it feeds on meat, it can eliminate any Dinosaur from another person's territory to the Cemetery (discard pile).
- Herbivore — feeding on plants, it opens the path to explore by drawing the first card from the Lost World deck to the hand.
- Scavenger — it feeds on leftovers, so it can draw the first card from the Cemetery (discard pile) to the hand.
- Piscivore — it also eats meat, but just the one it fishes, so it steals a card randomly from another person's hand to yours.
- Egg Thief — it does not turn its nose up at anything: it either feeds on meat, plants, or even other species' eggs, so it can steal a dinosaur from another person's territory to your hand. It also works as a wild card: you can use it to complete a Safe Environment instead of another Dinosaur that you need (but you can only use one per environment).
You cannot play dinosaurs that cannot perform their feeding actions, unless another skill allows you to do it.
Example dinosaurs by diet: Triceratops and Ankylosaurus (Herbivore), Spinosaurus (Piscivore), Tyrannosaurus rex (Carnivore), Velociraptor (Carnivore), Oviraptor (Egg Thief).
Baits
Dinosaurs in the Lost World live among other animals that act as their food many times. You can use these animals as baits to attract dinosaurs to your territory.
When you play a Bait on your territory, perform the feeding action as an herbivore (drawing a card from the Lost World deck). Then, you will have to steal a Dinosaur (of the type indicated on the bait) from another person's territory to your own. Finally, discard the Bait on the Cemetery.
Baits only last a turn: if a skill (such as Clever Girl) stops you from stealing a Dinosaur from another territory, the Bait will be discarded all the same.
Egg Thieves can be attracted by any kind of Baits. A Bait cannot be played if there is no Dinosaur in another territory to attract.
There are baits for carnivores, baits for piscivores, and baits for scavengers.
Did you know...? The meaning of the word "dinosaur" is "terrible lizard" and comes from the Greek words "deinos" (terrible) and "sauros" (lizard).
Rescuing Dinosaurs
To save Dinosaurs from Extinction, you must rescue them in a Safe Environment, outside the Lost World, where they can survive following an alimentary balance.
Once you have in your territory a Dinosaurs combination that matches any of those shown in the 3 Safe Environment cards on the table, you can perform the rescue. Take from your territory the Dinosaurs with the required icon on that Environment and put them aside, face down. Then, collect the Safe Environment card you have completed.
But watch out! Every rescue carries a risk. Flip the completed Safe Environment card. Its Butterfly Effect, indicated on the back of the card, will be triggered (see Butterfly Effect).
After performing this effect, place the Safe Environment card next to the rescued Dinosaurs, outside your territory. Leave the feeding icons of the Safe Environment card visible. That way, the rest of the players can see how many Dinosaurs you have saved.
Then, if necessary, flip another Safe Environment card so there are again 3 visible cards on the middle of the table.
Butterfly Effect
Each time a Butterfly Effect is exposed, it can affect all or just one person, making their rescue efforts harder or even accelerating the Extinction:
- Earthquake — everyone passes their hand to their right.
- Famine — everyone must sacrifice a Dinosaur in their territory for each carnivore in that same territory. A carnivore can be sacrificed to feed another one. Basic skills (such as Titan and Armoured) work as usual. The sacrificed Dinosaur goes to the Cemetery.
- Epidemic — the first card of the Lost World deck is discarded. Those who can, must eliminate from their territory a Dinosaur of the same kind as the one discarded. If this is a Bait, a Dinosaur of the type indicated on it will be eliminated. If a wild card (Egg Thief) is discarded, a dinosaur of any type must be removed. Also, an Egg Thief can be eliminated regardless of the type of card discarded.
- Stampede — everyone must pass a Dinosaur from their hand to the territory of the person on their right.
- Extinction! — the person who triggers this Butterfly Effect loses their hand and the Dinosaurs in their territory. The saved Dinosaurs and their corresponding Environment card are kept. The Extinction Counter moves up (see End of the Game).
The Extinction Counter moves up when an Extinction! Butterfly Effect appears.
Dinosaurs Skills
Some Dinosaurs have different skills that help them to survive in the Lost World and to have more opportunities to get to Safe Environments.
Basic Skills
- Titan — they are the biggest Dinosaurs and they can only be eliminated by other titans.
- Armoured — these Dinosaurs, whose bodies are covered in plates, spikes or horns, are very territorial and will protect other Dinosaurs in their territory, even at the risk of their own life. When you play this, place it at the front of your territory to protect the rest of the Dinosaurs from being eliminated by another carnivore, since this will be the eliminated one.
- Gregarious — they are very social Dinosaurs and they can even share their food and habitat with other herbivores. Once you place a gregarious Dinosaur on your territory and after performing the feeding action (stealing a card from the Lost World deck), you can place another herbivore Dinosaur in your territory. This one will not perform any skill or feeding action. As long as this is an herbivore, the second Dinosaur may come from the deck you have just drawn from or from your hand.
Special Skills
- Swift Running Lizard — they are the fastest Dinosaurs so, once they get to your territory from your hand, instead of performing a feeding action, you can, if you want, draw as many cards from the Lost World deck as you need until you have 3 cards in hand again.
- Clever Girl — they are so intelligent they can help other Dinosaurs to escape from the offensive actions of other people. The moment someone is going to perform an action against you, if you have a Clever Girl in your hand, you can show it to avoid that action. After that, discard it on the Cemetery. If, because of the use of a Clever Girl, a Dinosaur cannot perform its feeding action, it will still stay on the territory of the person who played it. Clever Girl skill cannot protect you from a Butterfly Effect.
End of Game
Each time an Extinction Butterfly Effect is exposed, the Extinction Counter must move up. Starting from 0, it will come to the end of the game when it shows:
- The 5th Extinction, if you are 4 to 6 people.
- The 4th Extinction, if you are 3 people.
- The 3rd Extinction, if you are 2 people.
Then, each person counts the number of Dinosaurs they rescued in Safe Environments. The person who got to save more Dinosaurs will be the person from the rescue party who did the job best and wins the game.
In case of a tie, the one with more variety of Environments (represented by the icon on the upper left corner of the card) will get the victory. If there is still a tie, the victory will be shared.
Types of environment: Estuary, Coast, Forest, Desert, Meadow.
Other Ways of Play
Beginner Game
To play with the younger ones, or to get used to the game's mechanics little by little, follow these tips:
- Leave the Baits cards out of the game.
- Play only with the Dinosaurs' basic skills or with no skills at all, only with their feeding actions.
- Do not apply the Butterfly Effects. You just move up the counter when an Extinction! appears.
Random Start
In the preparation stage, leave the Protoceratops in the Lost World deck and deal each person 4 cards. Each person will place a Dinosaur on their territory (as long as it is not a Titan), and the game will go on as usual.
If someone cannot place a starting Dinosaur, they will discard all cards in their hand on the Cemetery pile and will draw 4 new cards.
Credits
Original idea & illustrations: David GJ. Design & layout: Yoli Prieto. English translation: Cristina Pamplona.
© 2020 Gnomosaurus. All rights reserved. Reproduction is strictly forbidden without the express consent of the author. "¡Extinción!", edited in Madrid, June 2020. Produced by Gnomosaurus, a creative team by Yoli Prieto & David GJ. Printed in Poland.