Primates

Primates Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

1 Board
4 Player mats
12 Meeples (3 of each of 4 colors), each representing one player's primates. In modern board games, a "meeple" is a small wooden figure representing a player. In this game, the meeples are primates.
4 Heart tokens
83 Food tokens (orange, green, brown, and exudate)
3 Dice
3 Extinct tokens
74 Environment cards
67 Bonus cards
24 Extinct primate cards
10 Round reminder cards
6 Extant primate decks (Wet-Nosed (14), Tarsiers (13), New World Monkeys (15), Great Apes (13), Gibbons (14), Old World Monkeys (15))
6 Ability card decks (Wet-Nosed (22), Tarsiers (13), New World Monkeys (16), Great Apes (14), Gibbons (23), Old World Monkeys (20))
1 Scorepad

"Extant" refers to species that are still living today.

Setup

Place the game board in the center of the table with the playing side face up.
Shuffle all the bonus cards. Then, split the bonus cards into three separate piles of roughly the same size. Add each of the three piles to the bonus card slots on the left side of the board. For each pile, flip the top card face-up.
Shuffle each of the 6 extant primate decks and place them face-down on the corresponding areas of the board. Then, for each of the 6 decks, flip the top card face-up.
Place the ability card decks face-down on the corresponding areas of the board. You do not need to shuffle the ability cards.
Shuffle the environment cards. Then, create separate stacks as follows:
- 2 player game: create 10 stacks of 2 environment cards.
- 3 player game: create 9 stacks of 3 environment cards.
- 4 player game: create 8 stacks of 4 environment cards.
Return any unused environment cards to the box. Next, place a round reminder card on top of each stack, starting with "1", then "2", etc. Then combine the stacks in order so the stack with the highest round reminder card is on the very top.

(The rulebook shows a 2 player game example and a 4 player game example of the combined deck, fanned out.)

Place the combined environment deck face-down on the environment deck area.
Shuffle all the extinct primate cards. Then, split them into 3 separate piles of roughly the same size. Add each pile to the extinct card slots on the right side of the board. For each pile, flip the top card face-up.
For each of the 3 face-up extinct cards, place an extinct token next to the space on the board matching the space specified on the card. For example, if one of the face-up extinct cards has a C6 space on it, you would place an extinct token next to the C6 space.

Players take turns in a clockwise direction. Alternatively, you can have players take their turns in a counter-clockwise direction if you find that more intuitive.

The Player Mat

Each player has their own player mat to help organize their food tokens and cards. All cards should be placed face-up so everyone can easily see them. The extinct primate cards and the extant primate cards are intended to overlap — just make sure the names at the top of the cards are visible. Place your bonus cards to the left of your player mat and your ability cards to the right of your player mat. Unless you are short on table space, do not overlap your ability cards.

Rounds & Objective

The number of rounds in the game varies based on the number of players. A two-player game has 10 rounds, a three-player game has 9 rounds, and a four-player game has 8 rounds.

In each round, players take turns, starting with the first player and then proceeding clockwise. Once all players have taken their turn, a round is completed and the next round begins. You gain points as you evolve into various types of primates, gather food, build social bonds, and collect bonuses. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins (See Game End & Scoring, page 9).

Turn Structure

On your turn, you must perform the following three steps:

Step 1: Perform exactly one of the following three possible actions:

Group movement
Solitary movement
Rest

Step 2: Draw an environment card, resolve it, and then discard it. (See Environment Cards, page 9)

Step 3: Announce the end of your turn.

At any time during your turn, you may play as many ability cards as you would like. You must discard an ability card after you play it (See Ability Cards, page 7).

Additionally, you may acquire as many extinct primate cards as you would like at any time during your turn as long as you meet the required conditions (See Extinct Primate Cards, page 8).

The 3 Actions

On your turn, you must always perform exactly one of the following 3 possible actions:

Action: Group Movement

Roll three dice at the same time.

When using the GROUP MOVEMENT action, you must move all three of your meeples, assigning each die to a different meeple.

Move the meeple the exact number of spaces indicated.
After moving a meeple, place the die next to it to track your moves.

Example: Dian takes the GROUP MOVEMENT action by rolling 3 dice at the same time. She rolls a "1", a "2", and a "3". She applies the "1" die to move one of her meeples exactly 1 space. She applies the "2" die to move another one of her meeples exactly 2 spaces. And then she applies the "3" die to move her remaining meeple exactly 3 spaces.

Action: Solitary Movement

Roll two dice simultaneously, combine their values to calculate the sum, and then move one of your meeples precisely that many spaces.

Example: Mary takes the SOLITARY MOVEMENT action. She rolls two dice. She rolls a "2" and a "3". She then adds the two dice together: 2+3 = 5. She moves one of her meeples exactly 5 spaces.

Note: The GROUP MOVEMENT and SOLITARY MOVEMENT actions in the game reflect the different travel strategies of primates in the wild. Some primates, such as mandrills, frequently travel together in large groups. Others, such as male orangutans are mostly solitary and travel alone.

Action: Rest

Take a bonus card. Choose one of the three face-up bonus cards on the left side of the board and place it face-up to the left of your player mat.

Bonus cards are identified by the star icon on the back of the card (See Bonus Cards, page 8).

Whenever you take a bonus card, replace it with the next one from the pile, flipping it up.

Movement Basics

When moving, you must move your meeples in an upward direction along the colored paths on the board.

A meeple on the A4 space may move in the upward-left direction (toward "H5", "H6", and "H7") or the upward-right direction (toward "Y5", "Y6", and "Y7"). However, you are not allowed to move in a backward/downward direction (toward "C3"), even temporarily.

A meeple may share a space with other meeples.

When one of your meeples lands on a space with food tokens on it, add the food tokens to your player mat.

You do not need an exact roll to reach the spaces with a "7" at the top of the tree. For example, if you have a meeple on the S6 space, and you apply a die with a value of 3, you will still land on the S7 space even though you did not roll a value of 1.

Note: Movement in the game has a double meaning as it symbolizes both the physical locomotion of primates within their environment and also the diverse evolutionary paths they have followed over millions of years of deep time.

Food Tokens

During the game, you have the opportunity to collect food tokens. There are 4 different types of food tokens:

Orange food tokens represent fruits, nuts, and seeds.
Green food tokens represent leaves and algae.
Brown food tokens represent animal foods such as insects and meat.
Exudate food tokens represent exudates, the substances secreted by a plant or insect such as nectar, tree gum, and honeydew. Exudate food tokens are "wild", meaning they can be used as any other food token at any time.

Tip: The food tokens on the board are distributed in a way that loosely corresponds to the actual diets of each primate group in their natural habitat. For example, tarsier diets consist of meat and insects, so the tarsier spaces are populated with only brown food tokens.

Acquiring Food Tokens

When one of your meeples lands on a space with food tokens on it, pick up the food tokens on the space and add them to the food section of your player mat. You might also acquire food tokens from ability cards and bonus cards.

Spending Food Tokens

All of the extinct cards have a food cost specified that must be paid in order to acquire them (See Extinct Primate Cards, page 8). Some ability cards and bonus cards also allow you to spend food tokens or give them to other players in order to perform special abilities.

When you spend a food token, you move it from your player mat back to the supply next to the board.

Any left-over food tokens that you didn't spend are worth 1 point at the end of the game.

Example: Alex moves one of his meeples to the H7 space. He immediately takes the food on the H7 space and adds it to his player mat and picks up the face up "Western Chimpanzee" card and places it face-up in the extant column of his player mat. He sees that "Nut-Cracking" and "Algae Fishing" are listed as abilities at the bottom of the card so he finds those two ability cards in the Great Apes ability deck and adds them to the right of his player mat. He then moves his meeple back to the starting region and flips up the next primate card to replace the one he took.

Reaching the Top of the Tree

When one of your meeples reaches a space with a "7" on it (such as H7), at the top of the tree, take the following actions:

If there is any food on the "7" space that you landed on, take all the food on the space and place it in the food section of your player mat.
Take the extant primate card directly above the "7" space you landed on and place it face-up in the extant column of your player mat.
If the extant primate card you took in the previous step has any abilities listed at the bottom of the card, find each of the corresponding ability cards in the ability deck of the same color. Place the ability cards face-up to the right of your player mat.
Move your meeple back to the starting region at the bottom of the tree.
Flip-up a new extant primate card from the same pile to replace the card you just took.

On rare occasions, all of the extant primate cards of a particular deck may become depleted. If you reach the top of the tree and there are no longer any extant primate cards remaining, take any food from the top space and move your meeple back to the start region without collecting an extant primate card or any ability cards.

Extant Primate Cards

The primate cards located directly above the spaces with a "7" on them, at the top of the tree, depict primate species currently existing in the present day. In scientific terminology, these species are known as "extant species", which should not be confused with the similar-sounding word "extinct".

Each extant primate card shows:

Common name
Scientific name
Points the card is worth at the end of the game
Abilities (listed at the bottom of the card)
Culture (a short background note)

Ability Cards

Ability cards give you special one-time abilities. Ability cards are identified by the hand icon. You may play your ability cards at any time during your turn. Whenever you play an ability card, you must discard it immediately after playing it. You may create an ability card discard pile or simply return discarded ability cards to their corresponding ability deck.

Each ability card shows:

Ability name
Background information
The special ability you can perform, shown at the bottom of the card

The "Cost and Effect" Arrow Symbol

Many of the ability cards have a cost and effect separated by an arrow symbol. The cost to play the ability card is shown on the left side of the arrow. The effect you gain from the ability card is shown on the right side of the arrow.

Example: The Honeydew card's cost is one brown food token, paid to the supply, and its effect is gaining two exudate food tokens.

Background (printed on the Honeydew card): As a byproduct of feeding on plant sap, planthopper insects excrete a sugary substance known as honeydew. Several mouse lemur species feed on this sweet substance which provides them with an important source of calories.

Movement Ability Cards

Brachiation & Running. The Brachiation and Running ability cards have movement modifiers which can be added to one of your die when taking either the GROUP MOVEMENT or SOLITARY MOVEMENT action. Note that you must add the exact value specified on the card, and it must be applied to exactly one die. For example: A die value of 3 movement, when you add +2 movement, becomes 5 movement.

Leaping. The Leaping ability card can be applied to one of the meeples that you move when taking either the GROUP MOVEMENT or SOLITARY MOVEMENT action. It allows you to not count spaces where there is another meeple. Just "leap over" those spaces without counting them as part of your movement.

Background (printed on the Leaping card): Tarsiers use a form of locomotion known as vertical clinging and leaping. When moving one of your meeples, don't count spaces where there is another meeple. Just "leap" over them.

Tree Swaying. The Tree Swaying ability card allows you to move one of your meeples sideways to another space with the same number. For example, you could move one your meeples from H6 to P6. This card can be played at anytime during your turn, and regardless of which of the 3 actions you take on your turn (GROUP MOVEMENT, SOLITARY MOVEMENT, or REST).

Combining Movement Ability Cards. You may combine multiple movement ability cards together. For example: A die value of 1 movement, when you add +2 movement from a Brachiation card, and +3 movement from a Running card, becomes 6 movement.

Ability Cards That Require You to Discard Additional Ability Cards

In order to play some ability cards, you must discard 1 or more ability cards in addition to the one you are playing. You do not get to play the additional ability cards when you discard them.

Example: Jane plays her Tree Gouging card. When doing so, she must discard an additional ability card. She decides to discard her Leaf Digestion in order to meet the requirement. She is not allowed to play the Leaf Digestion card when she discards it. She then gains the benefit of the Tree Gouging card, an exudate food token. Finally, she discards the Tree Gouging card since she just played it.

Background (printed on the Tree Gouging card): Some marmoset species engage in tree gouging to access tree gum.

Extinct Primate Cards

The cards on the right side of the board represent extinct primates. The extinct primate cards are identified by the skull icon.

You may acquire an extinct primate card at any time during your turn as long as you meet both of the following conditions:

You must have at least one of your meeples on the space indicated by the card.
You must pay the food cost indicated on the card.

Each extinct primate card shows:

Scientific name (for example, Dinopithecus)
Food cost: the bar on the left side of the card represents the food you need to pay to the supply in order to acquire the card.
Points the card is worth at the end of the game.
Space requirement: in addition to paying the food cost, you must have at least one of your meeples on this space in order to acquire the card.
Description: background information about the species.

When you acquire an extinct primate card:

Pay the food cost to the supply.
Place the extinct primate card in the skull column of your player mat.
Flip-up a new extinct primate card from the same pile to replace the card you just took.
Update the positions of the extinct tokens on the board.

Extinct Tokens

There are three extinct tokens that help identify which spaces on the board correspond to the extinct primate cards on the right side of the board.

Place the extinct tokens next to—but not covering—the corresponding spaces on the board. If there is more than one extinct token next to a particular space, you can stack them.

Whenever a new extinct primate card is flipped up, update the position of the extinct tokens accordingly.

Background (printed on the Dinopithecus card): Dinopithecus ingens was a primate similar to modern baboons but twice the size! Just as "dinosaur" means "terrible lizard", Dinopithecus means "terrible ape" or "terrible monkey".

Background (printed on the Paleontologist card): Paleontologists are scientists who study fossils to learn about plants and animals from the past.

Bonus Cards

When taking the REST action, take one of the three face-up bonus cards on the left side of the board and place it face-up to the left of your player mat. Bonus cards are identified by the star icon on the back of the card.

Many bonus cards give you guaranteed points, which are shown in the top-right corner of the card. You always score these points at the end of the game.

Some bonus cards also have conditional points. These points are only scored at the end of the game if you meet a particular condition.

Example: The Paleontologist bonus card gives you 2 points at the end of the game. The card also gives you the opportunity to score 8 additional points if you have the most, or are tied for the most, points at the end of the game. If you meet this condition, the card would give you a total of 10 points.

Bonus cards with a lightning-bolt icon give you an immediate benefit or action you may optionally execute when you take the card.

Example: When the Gradidier's Baobab card is taken, immediately take an exudate food token from the supply and add it to your player mat. (Background printed on the card: Lemurs eat the nectar from Gradidier's baobab.)

Example: When the Animal Law bonus card is taken, immediately advance two spaces on the HEART TRACK (see Heart Track, page 9). (Background printed on the card: Some animal advocates work to improve the treatment of animals through the legal system. This can include litigation, legislation, and policy-making. One area of focus is challenging the idea that animals should be considered "things" or "property" under the law.)

Tip: Try reading the background information out-loud on the cards for a richer experience.

Heart Track

The HEART TRACK represents your primates' social bonds, health, welfare, and social status. Each player has a heart token corresponding to the color of their avatar and player mat. All players start on the far left space of the HEART TRACK worth zero points.

Whenever a player gains a heart (such as from a bonus card or ability card), they advance their heart token 1 space to the right on the HEART TRACK. A player cannot go past the last space on the HEART TRACK.

During scoring, the HEART TRACK gives you points corresponding to the space your heart token is on at the end of the game. For example, if your heart token reaches the last space on the HEART TRACK, you would score 17 points at the end of the game.

Environment Cards

After taking one of the 3 actions (GROUP MOVEMENT, SOLITARY MOVEMENT, or REST) on your turn, you must draw an environment card and resolve it. Once the environment card has been resolved, place it face-up in the environment card discard pile.

There are two types of environment cards:

Food cards populate the spaces on the board with food tokens. In the example shown in the rulebook (the Orange Milk Tree card, which places food on the S7 space), you would take 1 orange food token from the supply and place it on the S7 space.
Sunrise cards refresh all three of the bonus card piles on the left side of the board. For each bonus card pile, move the top card to the bottom of the pile, then flip up the next card face-up to replace the previous card.

If the top of the environment deck has a round reminder card on top, discard the round reminder card first and then draw the environment card below it.

Tip: Round reminder cards should always be visible at the beginning of the first player's turn. If a round reminder card appears at the beginning of another player's turn, it is an indication that someone forgot to take an environment card on their turn. In that scenario, resolve and discard the necessary environment cards until the round reminder cards are synchronized correctly again.

Round Reminder Cards

Round Reminder cards are cards added to the environment deck as part of setup. They are used to remind you how many rounds are remaining. They are not environment cards and they do not directly impact gameplay.

Game End & Scoring

When the "1 Round Remaining" card appears, it is an indication that you have reached the final round of the game. Play continues until all players have taken their turn in the final round. When the last player completes their turn, the game ends, and scoring occurs.

For convenience, use the scoring sheets included with the game to sum up the points.

Sum up the following for each player:

Points from the HEART TRACK.
Points from extant (non-extinct) primates.
Points from extinct primates.
Points from bonus cards.
All remaining food tokens are worth 1 point each regardless of type (orange, green, brown, or exudate).

The player with the most points is declared the winner.

If there is a tie in the total number of points, the player who has the most heart points is the winner. If a tie still remains, the tied players share the victory.

In the Classroom

The game can be used as a starting point for discussing a wide range of topics in the classroom:

Biology

What is a phylogenetic tree? What types of evidence are used to construct them? Why are they often revised over time?
Choose various primates and plants from the game and identify their kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, etc. Discuss binomial nomenclature.
What are the differences between monophyletic groups vs paraphyletic groups? Look at "prosimians" as an example of a paraphyletic group.
Discuss an article published in ALTEX, an open access scientific journal that explores alternatives to animal experimentation.

Chemistry

What is an isotope? Discuss various types of isotope analysis used when analyzing fossils.

Geology

Choose several extinct primates and discuss which era, period, and epoch the animal lived in.

Ecology

How do seed dispersal and seed predation shape a forest? What are the different types of seed dispersal? Which primate species are seed predators?
Which primate species are the most endangered?

Ethology

What is ethology? What is an ethogram?
What is anthropomorphism? What is anthropodenial? Discuss examples of each.

Law

What federal laws protect animals from cruelty? Which animals are protected under the law? Which animals are not?
Jeremy Bentham argued in The Principles of Morals and Legislation, first published in 1789, that we should extend our laws to protect any animal capable of suffering. He wrote that "the question is not Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?" Do you agree with his criteria?

A Deeper Look at the Board in Primates

You do not need to know anything about what the letters and numbers of the spaces on the board represent in order to play the game. Nevertheless, familiarizing yourself with this background information can enhance your overall experience and provide a deeper understanding of primate evolution.

Humans are in the taxonomic order primates. However, most of us know very little about the other primates species in our order, how we are related to them, and the corresponding timeline of our evolution. To help remedy this, the board in Primates is actually based upon a phylogenetic tree, a diagram showing the hypothesized evolutionary relationships between various taxa.

The letters on the spaces of the board correspond to the taxonomic classifications of the primates.

The S spaces (S1, S2, etc.) correspond to the suborder Strepsirrhini, referred to as "wet-nosed" primates due to their moist rhinarium.
The H1 space corresponds to the early members of the suborder Haplorhini, the "simple-nosed" or "dry-nosed" primates.
The T spaces (T2, T3, etc.) correspond to the infraorder Tarsiiformes, the tarsiers and their close relatives.
The M2 space corresponds to the early members of the infraorder Simiiformes, commonly referred to as simians or anthropoids.
The P spaces (P3, P4, etc.) correspond to the parvorder Platyrrhini, commonly referred to as New World monkeys.
The A4 space corresponds to the early members of the superfamily Hominoidea, commonly referred to as apes.
The H5, H6, and H7 spaces correspond to the family Hominidae, commonly referred to as great apes.
The Y5, Y6, and Y7 spaces correspond to the family Hylobatidae, commonly referred to as gibbons.
The C3 space corresponds to the early members of the parvorder Catarrhini, meaning "hook-nosed" or "downward-nosed".
The C4, C5, C6, and C7 spaces correspond to the family Cercopithecidae. Depending on the context, the informal term "Old World monkeys" may refer to the broader taxa Catarrhini (which includes apes), or the narrower taxa Cercopithecidae (which does not include apes).

The numbers on the spaces of the board roughly correspond to the following geologic periods:

Spaces with a 6 or 7: Quaternary period (2.5 million years ago to the present)
Spaces with a 5: Neogene period (23 million years ago to 2.5 million years ago)
Spaces with a 1, 2, 3, or 4: Paleogene period (66 million years ago to 23 million years ago)
The starting region: Cretaceous period (more than 66 million years ago).

The species of tree featured on the board is the marula, Sclerocarya birrea, a savannah tree found throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa. Olive baboons consume the fruits from the tree.

A Note from the Designer

It was once thought that humans were the only animals capable of tool use, culture, and emotions. But one by one, these distinctions have been shattered. Chimpanzees have been observed making tools for termite fishing. Japanese macaques were found to transmit cultural traditions from generation to generation. And numerous animals have been observed showing empathy to one another or expressing grief when losing a friend or family member. It has become increasingly clear that our humanity is part of—not separate from—the rest of the animal world.

But this increased scientific understanding of animals' inner lives has only started to trickle into our moral frameworks and the way we actually treat animals. Primates are still killed for their body parts, captured for use in circuses and the pet trade, experimented upon in horrific ways, and hunted so that their remains can be displayed as trophies. Their habitats are being destroyed at an alarming rate and approximately 60% of primate species are now threatened with extinction.

My hope is that we will re-examine our relationship with the animals with whom we share this planet.

9 Ways to Help Primates and Other Animals

Join an animal protection organization.
Lobby your elected officials to support stronger laws for animals.
Never have primates as pets.
Eat with a lighter footprint by including more plant-based foods.
Volunteer at a shelter, farm sanctuary, or primate sanctuary.
Support companies that use sustainable and animal-free ingredients and materials.
Organize a talk or documentary screening at your school or organization regarding an issue to help animals.
Avoid animal circuses and other exhibitions that use exotic animals for entertainment.
Support research into wild animal welfare, climate change mitigation, and alternatives to animal experiments.

Not transcribed: the Photography Credits, the Credits block, the copyright line, and the References bibliography (printed on pages 11-15), which are attribution and bibliography rather than rules. The designer's sign-off line is also omitted.