Shallow Regrets
Shallow Regrets Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 8 Small Fish
- 6 Middling Fish
- 4 Large Fish
Card Anatomy
Each Fish Card shows:
- Name — the Fish's name.
- Points — shown in the top-left corner.
- Strength — shown below Points; this is the number of fishhooks on the card.
- Difficulty — shown in the top-right corner.
- Difficulty Hint — the shadow printed on the back of the card, and a range printed on the front:
- Small: 0 difficulty
- Middling: 1-2
- Large: 3+
- Type — whether the Fish is Fair or Foul.
- Ability — printed below the artwork, if the Fish has one.
- Shadow — the silhouette on the card back, used to judge a shoal's contents before it is drawn from.
Setup
- Shuffle all 18 Fish Cards together and deal them into six 3-card piles called shoals.
- Check that at least 3 small shadows are visible at the tops of the shoals. If not, shuffle a shoal with the largest visible shadow. Repeat until 3 small shadows are visible.
- The player who had the most remorseful day is the first player.
Gameplay
Starting with the first player and moving clockwise around the table, players take turns fishing. Each turn, the active player draws 2 cards one at a time from any shoal or shoals. They must choose one to catch if possible, and throw the rest back.
Warning: Some abilities specifically refer to cards or fish. A "card" is any Fish Card in a shoal, whereas a "fish" is any Fish Card that has been caught by a player. Everything caught is a "fish," even an octopus or a foot!
Catching Fish
Each player starts with a strength of 0; this increases by the total number of fishhooks on all fish they have caught, including exhausted (rotated) fish. If the active player's strength meets or exceeds the difficulty of a card they've drawn, they may catch it by placing it face up and upright in front of them. Each player should spread out all of their caught fish so they're visible to all players.
Each turn, the active player must catch 1 fish if possible and throw the rest back. They may not catch multiple even if their strength would allow them to do so.
Example: 3 strength catches 3 difficulty.
Throwing Back Fish
To throw back a card, place it face-down in one of the 6 shoals as follows:
- If there are any empty shoals, you must choose an empty shoal.
- You may not cover a small shadow unless all shoals have small shadows on top.
Using Abilities
At the start of their turn (before fishing), the active player may use any number of ability icon abilities on non-exhausted fish they have caught. To use an ability, they rotate its fish 90 degrees to exhaust it.
Once a fish is exhausted to use its ability or due to other effects, it remains exhausted for the rest of the game, even if another player takes it. The abilities of exhausted fish may not be used, but they still retain their other attributes including strength, points, type, and difficulty.
Winning the Game
The game ends when all fish have been caught, or if players have insufficient strength to catch any of the remaining fish.
Each player tallies up the points on fish they have caught. The player or players who caught the most foul fish each lose two points.
The player with the highest score wins the game! If players tie, the tied player with the fewest foul fish wins. If still tied, they share the victory.
Example: 3+2+1-1=5 points.
Ability Notes
Moray Eel: This prevents all abilities from affecting the controller, including those that affect all players. For example, if Alice uses her Moray ability and then Bob uses his Rotfish, the player on Alice's right gives a card directly to the player on Alice's left, bypassing her completely.
Eversquid, Sailfish, and Whiptail Stingray: These do not use the ability of the target fish, they merely exhaust (rotate) them.
Design: Judson Cowan Development: Mike Mullins Playtesting Lead: Vince Tagle Writing: Ian Howard Rules Editing: Michael Lee Art: Judson Cowan Graphic Design: Judson Cowan, Milan Zivkovic
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