Race to the Raft
Race to the Raft Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Cooperative
Race to the Raft is a cooperative game where you must work as a team and will either win together or lose together.
Game play
You play the role of the disorientated island cats who are lost on the smoke-filled island. Nothing seems to be where it once was, and you must find a safe route to the raft by placing pathway cards.
As you build pathways, fire, represented by different shaped tiles, will spread across the island limiting your options. You'll need to find the balance between creating long pathways and keeping the cats ahead of the flames as you race to the raft!
HOW TO WIN
To win the game you must get all the cats safely to the raft.
HOW TO LOSE
You will lose the game if a cat is no longer able to get to the raft or the entire island is on fire before you have escaped.
Learning the Game
How to play video
If you prefer watching videos to reading rulebooks, you can find a video explaining how to play this game on the website: www.racetotheraft.com
Components
- 1 campaign book
- 1 fire bag
- 31 fire tiles
- 22 fire cards
- 12 location cards (numbers in top left corner)
- 4 raft cards (letters in top left corner)
- 12 cat figures (2 of each colour)
- 100 pathway cards (4 sets of 25)
- 4 large island boards
- 4 small island boards
- 12 objective tokens
- 3 water tokens
- 2 meow tokens
- 2 talk tokens
- 16 disaster cards
Setup
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Pick a scenario and set up the island as shown in the scenario diagram. Start with Tutorial 1 found on page 4 of the campaign book.
A. Place the island boards on the table. See page 5 for more information.
B. Place the location, raft, and fire cards on the indicated positions. Location and raft cards should be placed so their identifying number/letter is in the top left corner.
C. Place cat figures on all visible starting spots on the location cards. Place a cat figure in each square that shows a cat icon, matching the figure to the icon.
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Shuffle the 4 pathway decks separately and place them in face-down piles next to the island.
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Place the fire bag next to the island. Before your first game, place all the fire tiles inside this bag.
The remaining setup instructions should be ignored until you reach the mentioned scenario.
FROM TUTORIAL 2 ONWARDS
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Distribute the meow and talk tokens between the team based on the number of players:
- 1-player: The tokens are not used.
- 2-player: Give each player 1 meow token and 1 talk token.
- 3-player: Give 2 players 1 talk token and the other player 1 meow token. Return the other meow token to the box.
- 4-player: Give 2 players 1 talk token and the other 2 players 1 meow token.
FROM TUTORIAL 3 ONWARDS
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Place the 3 water tokens next to the island.
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If the scenario includes objective tokens, place them on the raft in the indicated spaces.
IN THE ADVANCED GAME ONLY
- Shuffle the disaster cards and place them in a face-down pile next to the island.
Island Boards
In the campaign book island boards are represented by grey squares.
There are two sizes of island boards, and each board is double sided. One side has a strip of fire, and the other does not.
There are four board variants: small with no fire, small with fire, large with no fire, and large with fire.
If a scenario shows an island board with a dark strip down one side then you should use the fire side of that board, otherwise use the side with no fire.
- You should always pick island boards at random, making sure they are the right size.
- Island boards can be randomly rotated as long as they match the positioning shown in the scenario diagram and any strips of fire are in the correct position.
FOR EXAMPLE:
If you need to setup a scenario where the diagram shows a fire strip on the left of the top board, a plain board below it, and a fire strip on the right of a small board beneath those, you would:
- Place a large island board with the fire side visible, and rotate it so the fire is on the left.
- Place a large island board below it without the fire showing.
- Place a small island below the other 2 boards with the fire side visible, and rotate it so the fire is on the right.
Location Cards
Location cards, identified by having a number in the top left corner, always contain at least 1 box with a cat icon in it.
These represent the starting location of cats and you will need to place the matching cat figures on them during setup.
Discussion
Throughout the game you will receive pathway cards, you must always keep them secret.
You may never show your pathway cards to another player, and you may not say anything that will allow another player to know how any part of your card looks.
You may however mention the colours shown on a card, as long as you do not indicate how much of that colour is visible, or what pattern it makes.
If in doubt, consider the following rule:
Avoid saying anything that gives an indication of how many squares of a colour your card has.
YOU MAY SAY:
- My card would be good for green.
- My card is no good for blue.
- My card contains some orange and some blue.
- My card is good for red and OK for purple.
YOU MAY NOT SAY:
- My card has 5 orange squares.
- My card has between 3 and 6 blue squares.
- My card has a straight path.
- My card has a line of purple.
- My card would get the red path from here to there.
- My card has the dragon on it.
Placement
Throughout the game you will need to place pathway cards and fire tiles on the island and must always follow these rules:
- They must fully sit within the edges of the island.
- They must always line up with the squares on the island; no partial squares should be visible.
- They can be rotated to any orientation you wish (fire tiles can also be flipped).
- They can fully or partially overlap previously placed cards.
- They cannot overlap any squares containing fire or any part of a raft shown on a raft card. Squares containing fire includes fire on cards, fire on tiles, and fire on island boards.
- They cannot overlap any squares containing cat figures.
- They cannot go under existing cards or tiles.
In addition to the shared rules, there is one key difference between placing pathway cards and fire tiles.
- Fire tiles must be placed immediately adjacent to existing fire, so that at least one square of the fire tile is touching at least one square of existing fire. Adjacent tiles do not include diagonals.
- Pathway cards don't have to be placed adjacent to existing cards or tiles.
Where to Start
Scenarios and campaigns
Race to the Raft includes 81 scenarios which can all be found in the campaign book. Each scenario offers a unique puzzle for you to solve.
Campaigns group the 81 scenarios into themes and will give you a total score to see how well you have done over multiple sessions of play.
There are 12 campaigns in total:
- Tutorial campaign (4 scenarios).
- Practice (4 scenarios).
- Campaigns 1 - 4 (8 scenarios each).
- Advanced tutorial (5 scenarios).
- Advanced campaigns 1 - 4 (8 scenarios each).
- Advanced campaign 5 (4 scenarios).
Download more scenarios
More scenarios are available online for free and can be downloaded from: www.racetotheraft.com
You can also sign up to receive free scenarios by email including seasonal events and other celebrations.
Your first game
Race to the Raft comes with 2 modes, the standard game and the advanced game.
If you are new to Race to the Raft, you should start with the standard game and play the tutorial campaign, found on page 4 of the campaign book.
Once you have completed the tutorial campaign, if you found it:
CHALLENGING
Play through the practice campaign (page 5 of the campaign book) before moving on to campaign 1.
ABOUT RIGHT
Jump to campaign 1 (page 6 of the campaign book).
EASY
Jump to campaign 2 (page 8 of the campaign book).
Scenario difficulty
Each scenario is given a difficulty rating out of 5, you can see how difficult a scenario is expected to be by counting the number of filled paws next to the scenario's name.
Round Overview
Race to the Raft is played over an unspecified number of rounds until you either win or lose. During each round players will draw cards, play cards, and then rest.
1. Drawing Cards
Each player draws 3 cards from the pathway decks.
There are 4 different pathway decks (Cross, Square, Circle, and Triangle) and you may take cards from any decks in any combination until you have 3 cards in your hand.
You may not look at the cards you have drawn, until you have taken all 3 cards.
If a deck runs out, you may no longer take cards from that deck.
DISCUSSION
Before drawing cards, the team may discuss who is going to take cards from which decks. However, as soon as someone draws 1 card, all talking must immediately end until everyone has drawn their 3 cards.
Choosing cards
Each pathway deck favours different types of terrains. You can see the probability of getting a certain terrain by looking at the back of the cards.
The back of the circle deck is 35% red, 32% blue, 17% orange, 16% green, and 0% purple.
This means 35% of all the squares within this deck are red, giving you a high probability of getting a card with multiple red squares. This deck contains no cards with purple squares.
2. Playing Cards
Cards can be played to add pathways to the island or to move a cat, and it is up to you as a team to decide who will play a card next.
DISCUSSION
There is no turn order in Race to the Raft, following the discussion rules on page 6 you should decide who is going to play a card next.
Once a player has been selected, all talking must stop.
The chosen player may only reveal their card once everyone has stopped talking, and they must then play the card without discussion to perform one of the two available actions.
The chosen player may voice their thoughts out loud if they wish to, but the other players must not say anything.
Only once the action is complete may the team start talking again.
A player may play multiple cards in a row if the team is happy for them to do so.
ACTION: ADD PATHWAY
Following the placement rules on page 7, place 1 card from your hand on the island.
Then, take 1 tile at random from the fire bag and place that on the island also following the placement rules.
Remember, no one can talk during this action, it is up to the current player to decide where the fire tile will go.
Oshax paths
Some cards contain Oshax paths, represented by a thin stone pathway. These are only used in the advanced game and should be ignored until the game tells you to use them.
ACTION: MOVE A CAT
Discard a card
To move a cat, you must first discard 1 card from your hand. If the cat is already exhausted, you must discard 2 cards instead.
Your discarded cards should be placed face-up on the table creating a disaster pile. If you already have a disaster pile, then place the card on top of the existing pile.
You should offset the cards in this pile so you can easily count how many there are.
Move the cat
Cats can only move across their favoured terrain types (blue cat over blue water, red cat over red forest, etc).
Move 1 cat any number of spaces in any direction over its favoured terrain.
Cats may move over spaces containing other cats, but may not stop in the same space as another cat.
You must be able to draw a line from the starting point to the end point that only uses its favoured terrain type.
You cannot discard a card to move a cat 0 spaces and may not end a movement on the same space as you started.
Exhaust the cat
Once a cat has finished moving, place it on its side to indicate it is exhausted.
If it is already on its side, leave it on its side.
Resolve the disaster pile
If the disaster pile has 4 or more cards in it, then a disaster occurs.
Move 4 cards from the disaster pile to a discard pile.
Then take 1 tile at random from the fire bag and place it on the island following the placement rules.
Remember, no one can talk during this action, it is up to the current player to decide where the fire tile will go.
The white cats have special rules which are explained in the advanced game. Their starting spots and destination squares can not be used by other cats.
3. Resting
Once everyone has played all their cards (all cards must be played) it is time to rest.
Stand up any exhausted cats and start a new round.
Raft cards
Raft card A used in Tutorial 1 requires you to move the cats to the card from any direction.
As soon as a cat is immediately adjacent to the raft card it may move onto it.
The other raft cards have destination squares for the cats to go on, you must make sure the cats finish on their matching destinations.
Do not remove a cat from its destination square once it has arrived. 2 green cats will need to use 2 green destinations.
If there are 2 valid end spots for a cat, for example 2 blue destination squares, you choose which to use. Similarly, if there are 2 or more raft cards you may choose which raft to use for each cat.
End of Game
WINNING
As soon as all the cats are on the raft card the game ends immediately and you win.
You should record your score following the rules on page 13 and move on to the next scenario.
LOSING
If at any point a player has to place a fire tile on the island and there are no valid places for it to go, then you lose.
If at any point it is no longer possible for a cat to get to the raft, then you lose.
If you need to draw a fire tile from the fire bag and the bag is empty, or there are not enough pathway cards for all players to be able to draw 3 cards at the start of a round, then you lose.
Scoring
When you complete a scenario you gain 5 points and should record this in the campaign book under the completed scenario.
If you fail a scenario you may score 0 points and move on to the next scenario. You can always replay a scenario as many times as you like to try to improve your score.
FROM TUTORIAL 3 ONWARDS
If you used water tokens to help you win, you lose 1 point from your total for each one you used.
- Using 0 water tokens you get 5 points.
- Using 1 water token you get 4 points.
- Using 2 water tokens you get 3 points.
- Using 3 water tokens you get 2 points.
It does not matter how many water tokens you use if you lose, you can try again or score 0 points.
Scoring campaigns
Once you have completed all of the scenarios in a campaign, you should add up your scores for each scenario and write the total in the campaign scoring section at the top of the campaign page.
Solo
If you wish to play Race to the Raft by yourself, then follow all the normal rules along with the additional rules found below.
1. Drawing Cards
Once you have drawn your 3 cards, and before looking at them, draw an additional 3 cards and place them face-down on the table in front of you.
You should end up with 3 cards in your hand, and 3 cards face-down on the table.
2. Playing Cards
Each time you complete an action (add pathway or move a cat), refill your hand using the cards you placed on the table.
You may choose any of the cards on the table, but you can not look at the front of the cards until you have added them to your hand.
At the end of each action, you should always go back to having 3 cards in your hand until there are no cards left on the table.
Then, continue to play cards as per normal until the remaining cards in your hand have been played.
In each round, you will play 6 cards and then move on to the rest phase following the normal rules.
Advanced solo rules
When playing advanced scenarios you may be required to draw additional cards during a round.
In these situations you should draw cards from the pathway decks and not from the face-down cards on the table.
Cards drawn this way are extra cards which you must play in the current round and temporarily increase the number of cards in your hand until the end of the current round.
Advanced Rules
The advanced scenarios in Race to the Raft are both more challenging to beat and more complicated to play. It is recommended you complete at least 2 difficulty 3 scenarios before starting the advanced tutorial (page 14 of the campaign book).
In advanced scenarios, these additional rules apply:
Moving a cat
Cats can no longer move any number of spaces; whenever you move a cat, it may only move a maximum of 5 spaces.
Disaster pile
During setup, shuffle the disaster deck and place it next to the island.
Whenever a disaster occurs, instead of drawing a fire tile from the bag, draw a disaster card from the deck and resolve it in order from top to bottom.
Then discard the disaster card to a discard pile.
If a disaster requires you to move a cat, that cat becomes exhausted.
If a disaster requires you to discard a card, it is discarded to the disaster pile. If no one has a card to discard, skip this part of the disaster card and move on to the next part.
Remember, no one can talk during this action, it is up to the current player to resolve the card.
Arriving at the raft
Whenever a cat arrives at the raft and before you resolve the disaster pile, you may take one of two free actions:
- The active player can draw 1 pathway card.
- Move any 1 cat a maximum of 5 spaces.
You may move an exhausted cat, and cats moving in this way become exhausted.
These bonus actions are shown on the raft cards as a reminder.
HINT
This free action is the only way to complete objectives that require 2 or more cats to arrive at the same time.
Additional Rules
As you play Race to the Raft new rules will unlock, you do not need to read any of the rules within the additional rules section until the campaign book tells you to.
1. Communication Tokens
Once you have completed Tutorial 1, you will use the communication tokens in every game and should include them during setup.
Randomly distribute the 2 meow and 2 talk tokens between the players.
- 1-player: The tokens are not used.
- 2-player: Give each player 1 meow token and 1 talk token.
- 3-player: Give 2 players 1 talk token and the other player 1 meow token. Return the other meow token to the box.
- 4-player: Give 2 players 1 talk token and the other 2 players 1 meow token.
Usually, once a player has been selected during the playing a card phase, all talking must stop. If you have a communication token in front of you, once someone has revealed a pathway card or fire tile, you may discard the token to communicate with them.
TALK ACTION
You may discard your talk token to start talking.
Until the current pathway card or fire tile has been played, you and the player currently performing an action may talk freely between yourselves. You may offer suggestions to the active player, but they get the final say.
Everyone else on the team must remain silent.
MEOW ACTION
You may discard your meow token to start saying the word "meow".
Until the current pathway card or fire tile has been played, you may say meow as many times as you like, however you like, but you may not use any other words. The active player may speak normally during this time. You may try and guide the active player, but they get the final say.
Everyone else on the team must remain silent.
2. Water Tokens
Once you have completed Tutorial 2, you will use water tokens in every game and should include them during setup.
Place the 3 water tokens on the table next to the island.
At any point where talking is allowed, the team may decide to spend 1 water token to remove any 1 fire tile from the island and return it to the bag.
For each water token you spend, you lose 1 point from your final score if you win.
3. Objective Tokens
NUMBER OBJECTIVES
The numbers 1 - 5 represent the order cats should arrive at the raft.
For example, if the scenario says "Green arrives second", then any cat may arrive first, but a green cat must be the second cat to arrive on the raft.
SYMBOL OBJECTIVES
The = represents 2 or more cats that must arrive during one action.
This can only be achieved in the advanced game by using the move bonus from arriving on a raft.
For example, if the scenario says "Green, Red, and Orange arrive together", then all 3 cats must arrive on the raft during the same action.
During setup, place objective tokens on the raft card to remind you of any additional objectives for the scenario. If there are 2 options, for example 2 green destination squares, the team may choose (during setup) which you will use for the objective.
4. Rescue Friends
Some location cards include a cat that starts behind a small strip of fire, and a space with a circle.
For a cat to move through the strip of fire, a cat of the same colour must be on the nearby circle space.
Only whilst a cat of the same colour is on the circle the rescued cat may be moved through the strip of fire with a normal move action.
5. Close To
Some cats need to stay close to their friends. If a scenario says Keep Red close to Blue, then the Red and Blue cat can never be more than 5 spaces away from each other.
Whenever you perform a move action, you should ensure the mentioned cats are always within 5 spaces of each other.
6. Oshax
The Oshax (white cats) are a special cat that can travel over all terrain types, they are not limited by colour.
However, they will only travel along connected Oshax paths.
Oshax paths can be found in all 4 pathway decks but are more common in the Triangle deck. To help you remember, the back of the Triangle deck shows Oshax pathways.
7. ? Objective Tokens
The ? objective tokens are used by special scenarios which are available to download for free from our website: www.racetotheraft.com
You can also sign up to receive free scenarios by email including seasonal events and other celebrations.
These scenarios will include rules for the ? objective tokens as needed.
Colour Assistance
Each of the 5 terrain types in Race to the Raft has unique features to assist anyone who has trouble identifying different colours.
ORANGE SANDS
Orange terrain is represented by sand and every square contains exactly 1 full size palm tree.
There are a few non-orange squares that contain palm trees, these are always small islands on water and easily identifiable.
GREEN GRASS
Green terrain is grass and contains a scattering of flowers.
Common features include trees, bushes, and rocks.
RED FORESTS
Red terrain is forest like and is always filled with lots of trees.
BLUE WATER
Blue terrain is water and has a strong texture to help identify it.
Common features include shadows of water creatures, boats, floating boxes, and small islands.
PURPLE RUINS
Purple terrain is made up of ruins and always contains crumbling buildings, piles of collapsed rock, or unique stone areas.
Credits
GAME DESIGN Frank West
ILLUSTRATION Miguel Mitchell Da Silva
WORLD BUILDING Frank West, Sara Jorge
WRITING Frank West, Ian O'Reilly
ASSISTANT PRODUCER Sara Jorge
ARTWORK & DIRECTION Frank West
GRAPHIC DESIGN Frank West, Alec Jackson
EDITING Tom Fox