Poseidon's Kingdom Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• A. Contents (Sea Inside the Box!)
  • Constructing the Big Wave
• B. Set-Up (Everything in Its Plaice)
• C. On Your Turn (Take Care and Mullet Over)
  • 1) Either Build Reef OR Load the Wave
  • 2) Move Your Creature 'Motion in the Ocean'
  • 3) Pick Up Dice (Eat Food) "Who Ordered the Sea Cucumber Salad?"
  • 4. SHARK!!! – Move the Shark (Dum…Dum, Dum…Dum)
• D. The Wave Breaks… (You'll Need a Dab Hand)
• E. End of Game "Fin-ished!"
  • Kraken Coral and the Final Turn
  • Scoring
• Summary (Is This a Herring Aid?)
  • Kraken Coral Reference
• Credits

A. Contents (Sea Inside the Box!)

• The ocean board (double-sided)
• 1 kraken tracken
• 8 kraken coral (+ 2 blank spare)
• 26 coral reef tiles
• 4 starting sets of coral reef tiles (1 set of four for each player colour)
• 55 dice (10 for each player colour and 15 smoke coloured neutral dice)
• 12 creatures (3 for each player colour)
• 1 shark
• 24 safe plaice counters (+ 1 blank spare)
• 36 skeleton tokens
• 24 friend counters (6 per player)
• 1 Fragor point — keep this safe until we figure out what to do with it…

Constructing the Big Wave

The big wave consists of two sides, one top and one bottom.

Take the bottom of the wave (graphic side up, showing 5 white circles with numbers) and slide it into the bottom diagonal cut in the two sides.

Turn the top part of the wave up depending on the number of players (2, 4 players side or 3 player side). Slide it into the top cut in the side waves. It's ready!

B. Set-Up (Everything in Its Plaice)

Note - we use the word 'dice' for singular and plural…even though it pains us to do so :)

Each player chooses a creature and takes the following:

• 3 creature pieces of that animal
• 6 friends of that colour
• 10 dice in the same colour (octopus/green, fish/blue, starfish/orange and clam/yellow)
• A starting set of reef tiles in the player's colour

Don't panic! See set up diagram (fig. 8).

1. Place the board flat in the centre of the table. You know how to do this ;-) Turn the board to the side with the higher shark numbers if playing 2 players.

2. Build the big wave (fig. 1). Place it touching the middle of the deep sea edge of the ocean board.

3. Place the Kraken Tracken near the beach end of the board.

4. Each player takes their friend counters and places one onto each of the Kraken's 6 front tentacles (fig. 2). Players should note the example dice and wording shown beside the tentacle. Each tentacle has a different requirement to free your friend.

5. Shuffle the Kraken coral, number side down, and place them face down beside the numbers 3–10 at the top of the Kraken Tracken board (fig. 3).

6. Each player places one of their creatures on the large space behind the Kraken's head. They then place their remaining 2 creatures on each of the spaces at either end of the ocean board (deep sea end and beach end).

7. Sort the safe plaice counters face up into their 6 stacks (fig. 4). Each stack should have the same dice example. In each stack, place the highest value on top, then the second highest and so on. Place them clockwise round the Kraken as shown in fig. 8. In a 3 player game remove a 2 from each stack. In a 2 player game, remove all 2s and 4s from the first four stacks. Then remove the 2s and 8s from stacks five and six.

8. Place the shark on its starting space in the deep area facing the beach end (fig. 8).

9. The skeleton counters and neutral dice are placed in piles beside the board, ready when needed.

10. Each player takes the starting coral tiles in their colour. In a 3 player game one of the tiles is not used (marked on the reverse of the tiles). Join these tiles together in any shape you want (without building up).

11. Separate the coral reef tiles into 5 stacks of each type of tile (e.g. the wave/dice tiles are all stacked in 1 stack of 4 tiles). You will end up with 3 stacks of 6 tiles and 2 stacks of 4 tiles. If playing 3 players remove 1 of each tile from the game, if playing 2 players remove 2 of each tile from the game.

12. The player who has been deepest under the ocean places 1 of their dice on the big wave. This continues clockwise until all players have placed 3 dice on the big wave. The dice can be placed anywhere indicated on the wave (in a 4 player game use the 4 and the 2 player spaces). In addition, 3 neutral dice (smoke) are placed on the wave in the remaining 3 spaces. Remember, the top side of the big wave being used depends on the number of players.

13. The big wave breaks onto the board! This is done by gently pushing directly behind the big wave until it overbalances and the dice fall onto the board (fig. 5). The big wave is placed back upright. In turn order, all dice which land completely off the board are placed back onto the big wave by their owner. They will remain there until the next big wave breaks. In the extremely unlikely event more than half the dice leave the board, place all dice back onto the big wave and choose a more subtle starting player to push the wave again.

    If a dice straddles the spray between small waves on the board (just touching counts!) it is placed into the centre of the small wave nearer the beach (fig. 6).

    Note: In each small wave, dice can be moved from the sides towards the centre to make it easier to see them (where the dice are within each wave is unimportant).

14. Each player adds up the numbers on their dice on the board – the player with the highest total is the start player. The dice remain on the board. If it is a draw, then the tied player with a dice closest to the beach begins. Then it's the highest value of an individual dice. After that, the tied player with the best shark impression begins!

15. Starting with the start player, each player takes 2 dice from their supply and places them onto the big wave. Note - there may already be dice on the wave from dice that left the board when the big wave crashed.

16. Kraken Tracken - The player to the left of the start player places their creature 2 spaces around the Kraken. The next player (clockwise) places 4 spaces round and the final player places 6 spaces round (fig. 7). The starting player remains on the head space.

    • In a 2 player game, the non-player creatures are placed on the 4th and 6th spaces on the Kraken Tracken.
    • In a 3 player game, the non-player creature is placed on the 6th space.

You are now ready to begin play.

C. On Your Turn (Take Care and Mullet Over)

The start player begins the game. Thereafter, play continues in clockwise order. On their turn, unless indicated otherwise, a player MUST do the following in this order:

1) Either Build Reef OR Load the Wave

Build reef - A player takes a coral reef tile from the tile supply. They can choose any remaining tile. It is immediately used to build the player's reef. It can be built either:

a) touching the side of the reef; or

b) on top of 2 other coral tiles already on the reef subject to the following restrictions:

• You CANNOT build DIRECTLY on top of another tile – it must always be on top of two separate tiles.
• You CANNOT build an overhang.
• You CANNOT build on top of any dice stored on your reef (see section D3). You are NOT allowed to discard dice from your reef to free the space.
• You CANNOT build on top of a skeleton token (see shark section D4 later in the rules)

If building at level 1 (ground level) the tiles must touch at least one edge of the existing coral. NO overhang allowed!

If building at level 2 or above, the tile must sit on top of two other tiles. A tile cannot sit directly on top of a single tile!

OR

Load the big wave - Take dice from your supply and place them directly onto the big wave. There are squares marked showing where dice can be placed. The number of dice you can place depends on your highest wave symbol visible on your reef (level 2 = 2 dice, level 3 = 3 dice and so on). Note that it is only the single highest symbol visible that counts – it does not matter how many symbols you have. You can ALWAYS place 1 dice if you decide to load the wave whether you have a symbol or not.

The maximum number of dice the big wave can take depends on the number of players: 2 = 9 dice, 3 = 12 dice and 4 = 15 dice. In the 2 player game, the 4 player squares are ignored. In the 4 player game both the 2 and 4 player squares are used.

2) Move Your Creature 'Motion in the Ocean'

You must move one (and only one) of your 2 creatures on the ocean board.

The creature's maximum movement depends on the highest arrow symbol visible on the player's reef (e.g. level 2 = max 2 spaces, level 3 = max 3 spaces and so on). A creature can ALWAYS move 1 space regardless of whether there is a symbol present on the players reef.

Creatures are able to move in the ocean from space to space following the dotted links. In addition, in the centre of the ocean board, there are 2 links which allow creatures to cross over to the other side of the board. You must follow the path you started on when crossing to the other side of the board (you cannot change direction in the centre) (fig. 9).

Movement follows the following rules:

• A creature can move less than its maximum allowed movement.
• It must move at least one space.
• It must end up in a space different from the space it began its turn.
• Remember on your turn you only move one of your creatures on the ocean board.
• A creature can never finish on or pass through a space containing the shark (are you crazy?!). A creature can move onto spaces containing other creatures (including your other creature). There is no limit to the number of creatures a space can hold.

3) Pick Up Dice (Eat Food) "Who Ordered the Sea Cucumber Salad?"

This step is optional.

After movement, your creature may find itself in the same small wave as some dice (food). If so, you may choose to pick them up (note – you can ONLY pick up food with the creature you moved) (fig. 10). It does not matter which side of the small wave your creature is on. The number of dice you can pick up depends on the highest eat symbol visible on your reef (e.g. level 2 = up to 2, level 3 = up to 3). A creature is ALWAYS able to pick up 1 dice. A player may pick up their own and/or other players' dice.

Dice on the board that are picked up MUST either be (a) stored for eating later OR (b) eaten immediately to free a friend. You cannot do both. You cannot pick up dice that you cannot store or eat.

(a) Storing food:

Dice can be picked up and stored on your reef if you have sufficient storage spaces available (fig. 11). Each storage space holds only one dice. You can remove any dice you already have in a storage area to make way for dice you have just picked up (those dice go back into the relevant player's supply or the neutral dice supply).

(b) Eat:

Instead of storing food you may eat it (munchity crunchity). Eating makes you strong enough to lift up a tentacle on the Kraken Tracken to free one (and only one!) of your friends. Each tentacle has a requirement marked on it (e.g. a high pair). You can eat any amount of food previously stored on your reef and/or food picked up from the board to make this requirement. The colour of dice is not important and different combinations of colours may be used. Eaten dice are returned to the relevant player's supply (or the neutral dice supply). The player then removes their friend from the corresponding tentacle on the Kraken Tracken and puts it beside their reef. They then take the topmost corresponding safe plaice token available and put it face down in front of them (see example 1).

Only one friend can be freed by eating during a player's turn. Any stored food on your reef that is not eaten remains stored on your reef.

The tentacle requirements are:

• 7 in total - The total of the dice used must equal 7. Any number of dice may be used to reach this total.
• Low double - A pair of ones, twos or threes.
• High double - A pair of fours, fives or sixes.
• 3 in a row - Three consecutively numbered dice, e.g. 4, 5 and 6.
• 3 of a kind - Three dice that all have the same number.
• 4 different - Four dice that all have different numbers.

Example 1: Eating to free a friend. The starfish player has stored a 2 and a 6 on their reef. After moving their creature, they pick up a 1 and a 5 from the small wave it finished on and eat all 4 dice. This frees their friend held under the '4 different' tentacle. The player's friend counter is removed from this tentacle. They also take the appropriate safe plaice token e.g. 8 points. The eaten dice go back to their relevant owners' supplies (blue to the blue player, yellow to the yellow player, etc).

Kraken Tracken (that's handy!)

If you picked up another player's colour of dice this turn (ate or stored) then this player will gain a movement bonus on the Kraken Tracken (so pay attention during other players' turns!). Their creature will move 1 space around the Kraken's tentacles for each of their dice picked up.

If more than one player's dice was picked up, the active player chooses the order the creatures move on the Kraken Tracken (this may be important as the creatures jump over spaces occupied by other creatures). Because of this, it's important to keep note of the colour of dice just picked up from the ocean board!

Creatures which move will jump over any spaces occupied by another creature. Non-player creatures (2/3 player games) never move but are still jumped over.

Creatures end their movement, for the turn, if they enter the large space behind the Kraken's head. They lose any additional movement. They do not jump over other creatures in this space. This large space is the only space on the Kraken Tracken that can have more than one creature in it at a time.

The movement bonus only applies on the turn the food is picked up. It does not apply to food that had been stored on a previous turn as the other player will already have had the bonus. Also, the bonus does not apply when a player picks up dice of their own colour nor when neutral (smoke) dice are picked up.

Example 2: Moving round the Kraken Tracken. Yellow has picked up 2 green dice and 2 orange dice, from the ocean board, on his turn. He chooses to move green first. Green's creature moves one space and reaches the large space behind the kraken's head (he ends his movement for this turn). Green now gets to free his next friend clockwise round the tentacles. He also gets to peek under one of the kraken coral tiles. Orange now moves two spaces (his first space jumps over yellow and blue).

Bonus when reaching the Kraken head space (or running calamari rings round your opponent)

The player can immediately free their nearest friend (looking in a clockwise direction around the tentacles) and take the corresponding safe plaice counter. They can also peek under one of the Kraken's coral tiles. This bonus is taken each time a player reaches the head space.

4. SHARK!!! – Move the Shark (Dum…Dum, Dum…Dum)

Back to the ocean board! At the end of each player's turn the shark moves. Each space has an adjacent shark number. Locate the shark number in the space your creature finished on this turn and move the shark this number of spaces (fig. 12).

NOTE – remember shark movement has nothing to do with where the shark is – only where you have moved your creature to.

The shark moves in the direction it is facing (it only changes direction when the big wave breaks). It moves from space to space in a figure of 8 track around the board (it is hunting!). When it reaches near the halfway point of the board it always follows the route directly across to the other side of the board (there are shark routes marked on the board to help with this!) (fig. 13).

If the shark encounters any of the player's creatures it simply eats them and continues its movement. In this case:

• The shark still moves its full distance.
• A skeleton token is placed on an empty space on the player's reef (player's choice as to where). If you do not have any empty spaces remove a dice from a storage space and place the skeleton there. If you have no spaces left do not put it on but try and play better ;-). Rest in peace (fig. 14).
• If both of a player's creatures are eaten they receive a skeleton token for each creature (2 in total).
• This reef space is now dead. Its symbol is no longer visible and it cannot be built on.
• The creature's long lost brother/sister then appears (err… the same creature piece just eaten) and is placed on the space at either end of the board (either the beach end or the deep sea end – player's choice).
• If the shark is in either of these end spaces then the new creature can still be placed in this space, but is considered to be behind the shark. Phew.

Dice symbols on the ocean board

If the shark moves through a dice symbol (one at the deep sea end, one at the beach end and one in each of the crossings) during its movement then a neutral dice is placed on the big wave (fig. 15). If there is no space available on the big wave, the dice is simply not placed. There is no effect if a player's creature moves through a dice symbol.

If there are no neutral dice left in the supply (unlikely but possible) then the player places one of their own dice on the big wave. It does not matter which direction a shark is moving when it crosses a dice symbol.

D. The Wave Breaks… (You'll Need a Dab Hand)

Whenever the big wave reaches its limit it will crash onto the board at the end of the current player's turn. The big wave is marked to show where the dice can be placed: 2 players = 9 spaces, 3 players = 12 spaces, 4 players = 15 spaces (use all) (fig. 16).

The wave might fill up either because a) a player loads dice or b) if a neutral dice has been loaded because of shark movement. Note – if the wave is already full any excess dice are simply not loaded.

At the END of their turn (after shark movement in step 4), the current player crashes the full wave. This is done by gently pushing directly behind the wave until it overbalances and causes the dice to fall onto the board (fig. 5).

The following then occurs:

• The big wave is reset upright beside the board. Any dice that rolled completely off the board are now placed back onto the wave in current player order.
• If a dice straddles 2 small waves on the board it is moved into the small wave nearer the beach (even if it just touching the spray) (fig. 6).
• The shark is turned round so it is now facing in the opposite direction. Gameplay tip - pay attention to this well before it happens!
• Players total the value of their dice on the board. They can choose one bonus up to the value of the total. They are free to choose a lower bonus if they prefer (note - there is no bonus during the set-up wave). There is no bonus for scoring less than 3. The bonuses are:

Total	Bonus
3 and over	Place 1 dice onto the big wave (from your supply)
7 and over	Place 2 dice onto the big wave (from your supply)
12 and over	Move 2 spaces on the Kraken Tracken OR peek under 1 Kraken coral
16 and over	Remove all skeletons from your reef AND peek under 1 Kraken coral
19 and over	Immediately free nearest friend (in a clockwise direction from the Kraken head space) and take the corresponding safe plaice token

For instance, on a roll of 18 the player could choose to take the bonus at 12+ (2 spaces on the kraken) rather than removing their skeletons (16+). The bonuses should be taken in player order, starting with the current player (the player who crashed the wave). This is important as movement on the Kraken Tracken can be dependant on where other creatures are placed.

After all players have taken their bonus the game continues. The turn passes to the next player in clockwise order as normal.

E. End of Game "Fin-ished!"

Once a player has freed all of their friends then the Kraken has been defeated! This may happen when a player eats food, immediately after a wave, or if a player has picked up dice from the board and caused another player's creature to reach the Kraken's head. After the active player has finished their turn, all players now get a final turn.

Kraken Coral and the Final Turn

All players' creatures on the Kraken Tracken are lifted and placed next to the kraken coral tiles. All players will get 1 final turn (starting with the next player in normal turn order).

The players take their turn as normal (resolving a wave breaking as normal if this occurs). However, if they eat dice then they may be able to gain Kraken coral tiles. They may do this instead of freeing a friend (which they can still do if possible). There is no movement on the Kraken tracken in the final turn.

On their final turn, players are allowed to pick up one tile from the white numbers (3-6) and one tile from the black numbers (7-10) (fig. 17). To do this they must eat the corresponding total of dice for each number (each number is treated separately). The tiles are picked up by the player and placed face down in front of them. They may look themselves, but cannot show to other players at this time (this increases the tench-un).

Example 3: Collecting Kraken Coral. Red eats two dice from the board and one from a storage tile on his final turn. The dice show 2, 3 and 6. His options for picking up two coral would be as follows: 2 and 9 (3+6) or 3 and 8 (6+2). If he just picked up a single coral, he would have a choice of 2, 3, 5 (2+3), 6, 8 (5+3) or 9 (6+3).

Scoring

Once all players have had a final turn, the game ends and the players count their points:

a) Safe plaice tiles = their printed value (fig. 18) PLUS

b) Each Kraken coral tile is worth:

• Speedyfins = 1 point for each arrow symbol visible on your reef (not built over and no skeleton token). The height of the symbol on the reef is irrelevant for this scoring.
• Bigmouth = 1 point for each eat symbol visible on your reef. Must be visible. Height irrelevant.
• Waverider = 1 point for each wave symbol visible on your reef. Must be visible. Height irrelevant.
• Graveyard = 3 points if you have no skeletons on your reef otherwise minus 1 for each skeleton showing.
• Poseidon's trident = a joker. Choose to score as any of the other tiles.

Example 4: Scoring. Red has 14 points for safe plaice tokens. He has a speedyfins coral worth 2 points (he has two arrow symbols showing on his reef). He also has the trident, which he chooses to score as a graveyard, giving him 3 points (he has no skeletons on his reef). His total is 14+2+3=19 points.

If a player has 2 of the same Kraken coral tiles they still score for each of them. The player with the highest points wins and may now do their victory squid dance. The other players are suckers.

If you need to declare a sole winner then ties are broken in favour of the tied player in the following order: (deep breath) the player with Poseidon's Trident, the player with the highest reef, the fewest skeletons, then finally, the highest value of safe plaice tokens.

If this is still a tie then all non-tied players win for being bored out their minds while tied players try and work out the tiebreaker….

Have fun! The Lamont brothers

Summary (Is This a Herring Aid?)

On your turn:

1. You must build reef OR load wave
2. You must move (only) one of your creatures
3. You may pick up dice (and eat or store). Move other players on Kraken Tracken if you picked up their dice
4. Shark moves! Wave breaks if full

Remember – you can ALWAYS move, eat and load wave at level 1 even if you do not have the appropriate symbol showing on your reef.

You can free a friend in 3 ways:

a) Eating dice (food)

b) Moving onto the Kraken head space on the Kraken Tracken

c) Rolling 19+ when the wave crashes

When big wave breaks:

1. Reset wave and put any dice that fell outside the board on to it
2. Turn shark so it is facing the opposite direction
3. Starting with the active player, take bonuses according to total of own dice on the ocean board.
4. Play continues with next player

Kraken Coral Reference

• Speedyfins = 1 point for each arrow symbol (2 tiles)
• Waverider = 1 point for each wave symbol (2 tiles)
• Bigmouth = 1 point for each eat symbol (2 tiles)
• Graveyard = minus point per skeleton. 3 points if clear (1 tile)
• Poseidon's Trident = Joker - any scoring (1 tile)

Credits

Special thanks to: Team Fragor: Judi, Tabby, Sheena, Iona, Glenn and (introducing!) Ruaridh. Daniel Danzer (the one man whirlwind!). Mark Higgins, Ralph Anderson and Henning Kroepke. Eilidh and Katie Forsyth. Brian Stern, Ian Borthwick, Michael Goodman, Peter Rose and Steven "with a "V" Gladstone. Brian Robson, Gareth "Gambit" Lodge (for this year and properly for last year!), Gery McLaughlin and Grant Whitton. Christian Leonard and Geoff. Sebastian Rapp, Carol Rapp and Joe.

All at The Gathering of Friends 2011 including, in particular, Alfonzo Smith, Anye Mercy, Bob Sumner, Carsten Oesterlund, Cedric Caumont, Debbie Ohi, Erin O'Malley, Jeff Ridpath, Jennifer Geske, June King, Ken Tidwell, Kurt Adam, Larry Levy, Marion Adam, Mark Noseworthy, Marty Hoff, Mary Prasad, Mik Smellov, Mike Gray, Paul Jeffries, Paul Skrabut, Ron Krantz, Stephen Buonocore, Tery Noseworthy, Tom Hilgert, Tom Rosen and Zev Schlasinger. Special thanks to those who played the 3 player game before the shark was made less brutal…..skeletons everywhere.