SOS Titanic
SOS Titanic Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 Titanic booklet — The vessel is made up of 6 Decks, each Deck has up to 3 Compartments into which water will rush during the game. Each time a Compartment floods, a page of the booklet is turned over and the ship sinks further into the sea.
- 60 Passenger cards
- 1st class Passengers numbered from 1 (Lifeboat) to 13: one set with an Anchor icon and one set without Anchor icon
- 2nd class Passengers numbered from 1 (Lifeboat) to 17: one set with an Anchor icon and one set without Anchor icon
- 20 Action cards
- 10 Crew Member cards
- Number of Action cards he has at the beginning of the game
- There must be at least this number of players in a game for this Crew Member to be available.
- Each Crew Member has a special ability he can use either in addition to or instead of his standard turn (in the latter case the icon is visible).
- During the Passengers' Rescue, a Crew Member can take a number of Passenger cards included in the range indicated in the medallion.
Goal of the Game
You are Titanic's Crew Members. Alone or as a team, you must save as many Passengers as possible.
Set Up
Take from among the Crew Member cards all cards that can be used this game (see the top right icon on each card). Shuffle them thoroughly and deal one to each player. (A)
Shuffle the Action cards. Deal each player the number of cards allowed by his Crew Member card. (B)
The remaining Action cards are placed face down on the table. (C)
Open the Titanic's booklet at the first page. It shows Titanic a few minutes after she struck the fateful iceberg. The ship will sink more and more as each page is turned. The game will end when you reach the last page of the booklet or when you save all the Passengers.
Shuffle the Passenger cards thoroughly. In front of each of the first four Decks, place the specified number of Passenger cards face down (4 cards, 6 cards, 8 cards, 10 cards) in order to make four Lines. Then reveal the first card of each Line. (D)
Place the remaining Passenger cards face down on the table. (E) They are the Passengers who are still below deck. You will have to get them on deck and into the Lifeboats.
The play area includes: the Action stack and Discarded Action stack (C), the four Lines (D) of 4/6/8/10 cards, and the Passenger stack and Discarded Passenger stack (E).
Unless you are playing solo, choose the first player by any method you like. After each turn, play continues clockwise until either all Passengers are safe... or the Titanic has sunk into the icy abyss forever.
A Few Words About Co-operation
You can play SOS Titanic solo: obviously, in this case, you alone make the final decisions!
But the game can be played co-operatively as well. All players work together for the common good, attempting to save as many passengers as possible. Before a player makes a decision that impacts the rest of the game, you are advised to talk together about the different options available to you. Nevertheless, remember: when it's your turn, you make the final choice, even if the group thinks differently!
Game Turn
At the beginning of your turn, you can MOVE THE PASSENGERS to the various areas of the game, if it is possible and if you want to. This optional action can be repeated as many times as you want. Then you must TAKE ACTION by choosing one of the two following options:
- either PLAYING AN ACTION CARD
- or SETTING UP THE PASSENGERS' RESCUE
1 - Moving the Passengers (optional)
As Passengers are revealed in the Lines, one or more face-up Passengers can be moved in EXACT numerical order (for example, 4, 3, 2) from one Line to:
- An existing Line, onto a Passenger with the number exactly one higher than the last Passenger of the series and belonging to the same class. (A)
- An empty Line, if the number of the higher Passenger of the series being moved is 13 for a 1st class series or 17 for a 2nd class series (marked by the icon on the card). (B)
- Lower a Boat, if it is a Lifeboat (number 1). It starts a new Survivors Group. (C)
- A Survivors Group, onto a Passenger with the number exactly one lower than the first Passenger of the series and belonging to the same class. Passengers should be placed one by one on the Survivors. (D)
Passengers in a Survivors Group may not be moved back to the ship or to another Survivors Group.
IMPORTANT: The 1st class Passengers and the 2nd class Passengers never mingle in the Lines or the Survivors Groups!
After a Passenger card or a series of Passenger cards has been moved, and a face-down card is now at the front of the Line from where these cards started, reveal that card. This may allow you to move even more Passengers; and this might continue for a while until no further move is possible, or until you want to stop for tactical reasons.
2 - Taking Action (compulsory)
EITHER Playing an Action Card
Choose one of your Action cards. Apply its effect as described in the Action Cards section and then discard it. The Action cards are powerful. Playing them at the right time is a good way to save as many Passengers as possible!
OR Setting Up the Passengers' Rescue
Choose the number of Passenger cards you want to draw (it must be within the range shown in the medallion below the portrait on your Crew Member card). From the top of the Passenger stack, draw the total number of cards you have chosen before looking at them (i.e. you cannot look at them one by one). Look at those cards and check if any Passengers can be played by following the rules of the Passengers' movement.
Two things can happen:
- One or several of the Passengers you've drawn might be eligible to join a Line or a Survivors Group: BUT, you must play one of the eligible cards (no more, no less), if there are any. Play that card and discard the other Passengers you have drawn (see example opposite).
- None of the Passengers you've drawn can be added to a Line or a Survivors Group. You have failed the Passengers' Rescue! In this case, discard all the cards you have just taken and turn a page of the Titanic booklet.
Then, in compensation, draw one Action card and place it in front of you.
What Happens When a Deck Is Fully Flooded?
When the last Compartment of a Deck is flooded, there is a wave of panic (before the active player takes an Action card in compensation). The Passengers flee to the stern of the ship, disrupting the Lines: all the Passenger cards in front of the flooded Deck are shuffled with all the Passenger cards of the following Deck. A new Line, longer than the two previous ones, is made with the cards, face down. Only the top card of the Line is revealed. If the flooded Deck is empty, the Passenger cards of the following Deck are not shuffled.
When you turn a page of the booklet, and a Deck becomes fully flooded, the fleeing Passengers in that Deck's Line disrupt the Line of the next Deck.
Management of the Action and Passengers Stacks
You can never decide to take more Passengers than the number of those remaining in the stack.
When the stack is depleted, and if a player wants to take new Passengers, the discarded cards are shuffled thoroughly to make a new face-down Passenger stack. On this occasion, the next page of the booklet is turned. This time, however, the player does not take an Action card!
When the Action cards stack is depleted, shuffle the discarded Action cards to make a new stack. Please note that you are forbidden from looking through the discarded card stacks during the game.
End of Game
Play continues in turns, using the rules above. The game ends:
- EITHER because the last page of the booklet has just been turned. Then the ship sinks into the icy ocean waves, with a gloomy creak, dragging with her the last Passengers.
- OR because the last Passenger has just embarked with a Survivors Group. Congratulations! All the Passengers are safe.
You can now figure out your score... and there is no doubt that you will be eager to do much better next time!
Scoring
You determine your game score by adding:
- the value of the highest ranking Passenger card in each of the (potentially) four Survivors Groups (as there are four lifeboats in the game),
- the number of the booklet page when you end the game,
- for each class, the number of cards in the largest consecutive group of cards showing Anchor icons (see example). This only applies if all the Passengers are safe.
Example 1: the ship sank before all the Passengers were saved. 19 surviving Passengers out of 60 Passengers. This is the same proportion of survivors as in the historical sinking. The team scores 19 points.
Example 2: all the Passengers were safe before the Titanic sank beneath the waves. 60 surviving Passengers + 5 consecutive Anchors in 1st class + 3 consecutive Anchors in 2nd class + 2 points for the booklet page. The team scores 70 points.
Expert Variants
You can increase the difficulty level of the game by placing 7 Passenger cards in front of each of the first four Decks instead of the 4/6/8/10 cards of the standard set up. If the game is still too easy for you, play the Ultimate mode by setting-up the game with 10/8/6/4 Passenger cards in front of the first four Decks.
Crew Members' Abilities
William Murdoch - First Officer: While setting up the Passengers' Rescue, he places ALL the possible Passengers. However, if he fails the Passenger's Rescue, he does not take an Action card.
Reginald Lee - Lookout: He never takes Action cards when he fails the Passengers' Rescue.
Harold Lowe - Fifth Officer: Instead of his standard turn, he can choose to discard Passenger cards from the Passenger stack, one by one, until he discards a Passenger with an Anchor icon. Then, two Passengers in different Survivors Groups can switch places, as long as both Passengers are of the same class and have the same number (the number on the discarded Anchor card is irrelevant).
Joseph Boxhall - Fourth Officer: When he fails in setting up the Passengers' Rescue, he takes and keeps 2 Action cards (after having turned a booklet page).
Andrew Latimer - Chief Steward: He takes an Action Card every time a player (including Andrew Latimer) adds a Passenger card to a Survivors Group resulting in a new series of exactly 3 Passengers with Anchor icons in a row.
Frederick Fleet - Lookout: When he fails in setting up the Passengers' Rescue, he takes 3 Action cards, keeps one and discards the others (after having turned a booklet page).
Crew Member cards available for games with 2 or more players:
Edward John Smith - Captain: Instead of his standard turn, he can take all of the players' Action cards (including his own) and redistribute them among the players in any way he chooses. At least one of the players must now have a different hand of Action cards than before (i.e., at least one card must be different).
Herbert John Pitman - Third Officer: He does not take an Action card when he fails in setting up the Passengers' Rescue. On the other hand, he takes an Action card each time another Crew Member fails this task!
Jack Phillips - Wireless Operator: When playing an Action card, he can choose to play a card held by another player instead of playing one of his cards.
Charles Lightoller - Second Officer: After failing at setting up the Passengers' Rescue (and after having turned a booklet page), he can immediately play an action card he has just taken in compensation.
Action Cards
Get Ready! - 2 cards: Take and look at the top 5 cards from the Passenger stack. (If there are fewer than 5 cards, look at the cards that are available.) You may rearrange these cards in any order you like, including putting them at the bottom of the stack, or dividing them between top and bottom.
Come On! - 3 cards: Look through the Passenger stack and choose a Passenger to play immediately. Then shuffle the Passenger stack. If none of the Passengers in the stack are suitable, turn a Titanic booklet page. An Action card is NOT taken as a result of the page turning!
Come Back! - 3 cards: Look through the Discarded Passenger stack and choose a Passenger to play immediately. If none of the Passengers in the stack are suitable, turn a Titanic booklet page. An Action card is NOT taken as a result of the page turning!
Your Turn! - 2 cards: Choose a Line. Look at all the cards in the Line (face-up AND face-down) and choose the Passenger you want, and place it face-up at the front of the Line. Shuffle the other cards and place them face down behind this first card.
Same Lines! - 2 cards: Choose two Lines. One of them may be empty. They don't have to be adjacent to each other. Shuffle all the cards of the two Lines and distribute the cards face down in equal shares in both Lines. In the case of an odd number of Passenger cards, place the excess one in the Line that is closest to the stern. Then reveal the front card in each Line. You are not allowed to look at the other face-down cards in the two Lines. This card may not be used with the Collapsible Boat.
Wait! - 2 cards: Place all the face-up Passenger cards of a Line in the Discarded Passenger stack. Then reveal the front card from the remaining cards of the Line.
Save Time - 1 card: Shuffle the Passenger stack and the Discarded Passenger stack together to create one new Passenger stack. If the Passenger stack is already depleted, just shuffle and start a new stack as normal. Do NOT turn over a page of the booklet!
Plan A - 1 card: Look through the Action cards stack and choose a card to place in front of you. Then shuffle the Action cards stack.
Plan B - 1 card: Look through the Discarded Action cards stack and choose a card to place in front of you. Plan B has no effect if the Discarded Action cards stack is empty.
Collapsible Boat - 1 card: Put this card next to the Titanic booklet. Place immediately on it a series of face-up Passengers from the Line of your choice, starting with any number. This Line works like the other Lines. Its Passengers are not safe yet. If there are still Passengers on this card at the end of the game, they do not count towards the score. Once it is empty of Passengers, this card is discarded. The Collapsible Boat is not affected by Decks being fully flooded or the Same Lines! card.
Mystery Passenger - 1 card/class: These cards stand in for the corresponding class's Passenger of your choice for a while. You can move or play the corresponding Passenger to replace the Mystery Passenger (wherever it is). Then the Mystery Passenger is discarded to the Discarded Action stack. This can be done even if the Mystery Passenger is in a Survivors Group. These cards may remain on the table till the end of the game. In this case, they count for the Passenger for whom they are standing in.