String Safari Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Victory Conditions
• Components
• Components Overview
  • Animal tiles
  • Research tiles
  • Land tiles
  • Victory Point Coins
• Setup
• Flow of the Game
  • Preparation Round
  • One Round
• Final Scoring
• Research Tiles
• Land Tiles
• Rules for Children
  • Setup
  • Flow of the Game
  • End of the Game

Victory Conditions

The player who has the most points at the end wins. Points are earned by using your strings to enclose the animals depicted on the research tiles you draw. Both the tiles and the animals themselves are points.

Components

• Tiles: 37 animal tiles, 30 research tiles, 7 land tiles
• Strings: 1 Field string (dark brown), 1 Research string (gray)
• Victory Point Coins: 40 '1', 40 '2', 40 '5', 40 '10'
• Markers: 30 research markers (6 in each colour)

Components Overview

Animal tiles

Each tile depicts three trait types: Food, Family and Activity.

• Food: The type of animal. Carnivore, Herbivore or Omnivore.
• Family: A generalized category of the "Family" of the animal. Cat, Dog, Cow, Ape or Special.
• Activity: When the animal is active: Night, Day or Evening.
• Points: This is how many points you score if you have a research marker on this animal when the game ends.

Research tiles

• Research target: What category of animal you are supposed to enclose with the Research string.
• String placement condition: Either "Rocky area" or "touching the edge".
• Points: How many points you score at the end of the game for this tile.

Land tiles

• Name: The name of the land.
• String effect: Any bonus points you get for enclosing this with the Research string.
• Research marker effect: This is applied if there is a research marker here.

Victory Point Coins

Used to display how many points you currently have. When you "score points", take the appropriate value in coins. e.g. 3 points, take a 2 and a 1 coin. You do not need to show to the other players how many coins you have. Also, these coins are regarded as being an infinite source. If you run out of them, use something else as a stand-in.

Setup

1. Each player chooses a colour and takes research markers in that colour as follows: For 3 players, use all markers of your colour. For 4 players, use only 5 markers, and for 5 players, use only 4. Any remaining markers are put back in the box.
2. Spread out the Field string on the table. The Field string should not cross itself or lie on top of itself. For your first game, it's recommended to make a large circle. The area enclosed by the field string is called "the field".
3. Shuffle the land tiles, and put them out randomly, face up, in the field.
4. Shuffle the animal tiles and put 16 of them randomly, face up, in the field. The remaining animal tiles are put in a face down draw deck, outside the field.
   • Note: No land tiles or animal tiles may touch another tile, or be on top of or below the field string, even partly. There should be at least one finger's breadth between each tile.
5. Shuffle the research tiles, and line up 5 of them in a row outside of the field. The remaining research tiles are put in a face down deck.
6. Sort the Victory Point Coins per colour and put them outside of the field in good reach.
7. The player who most recently was in Africa is the first player. If no one has been to Africa then the player who's most recently been to a zoo is the first player. He takes the Research string.

Flow of the Game

In this game you start with one preparation round. After the preparation round, you play a number of rounds depending on the number of players. The last round (the 6th for 3 players) is a bit special and is referred to as such – the last round.

• for 3 players: 6 rounds
• for 4 players: 5 rounds
• for 5 players: 4 rounds

(you play as many rounds as each player has research markers)

When all rounds are finished, players count their points to determine winner.

Preparation Round

Starting with the first player and clockwise around the table, each player takes his turn. Each player's turn consists of the following two steps:

1. Draw an animal tile and keep in your hand.
2. Take a research tile and place face up in front of you. You may either take one of the five face-up research tiles, or draw the top one from the Research deck. If you take a face-up tile, turn over the top tile from the Research deck to replenish the row of 5 face up research tiles.

When all players have done both steps one time each, the game can begin for real.

One Round

Starting with the first player and then clockwise around the table, players take their turns. When all players have had their turns once, the round ends. This goes on until you have played the set number of rounds.

Each player turn consists of the following 8 steps. However, during the final round, steps 6–8 are not applied.

1. Place the animal tile(s) you have in hand on the field. When placing the tile, take care so that it does not touch the field string or other tiles. There should be at least one finger's breadth of space to the closest tile.
2. Enclose animals and/or land tiles with the Research string. The Research string may not touch any land or animal tiles, nor may it cross or lie on top of itself. However, it may cross or lie on top the field string. Also, you do not have to enclose the animal you just placed. If the research tile has a special placement condition listed, you must follow them.
   • Rock area – the Research string must enclose a Rocky area tile.
   • Edge – the Research string must touch the Field string.
3. Collect Victory Point Coins for tiles you enclose with the string. Your current research tile depicts what kind of animal you are supposed to enclose. Check if you have enclosed any animals of that trait and score points accordingly.
   • Example: If your research target is "carnivore x 3", then you score 3 points per carnivore you've enclosed (details on the research tiles are listed later in the rules).
   • Some land tiles will give you bonus points if you also enclose certain categories of animals, so don't forget to check what land tiles you have enclosed and if you can gain any of their bonuses (details on the land tiles are listed later in the rules).
   • However, you will not get any points for animals or land tiles that already have other player's markers on them.
   • Please note that you do not yet score the points noted on the bottom right of the research tile.
4. Place one of your research markers on one of the tiles that you have enclosed. You cannot place your marker on a tile that already has one.
   • Note: The only land tile you can place a marker on is the Footprints tile.

This goes on until you have played all rounds. Note that you do not perform step 6–8 during the final round. Once all rounds are finished, proceed to final scoring.

Final Scoring

All players calculate their final score by totalling the following:

• The Victory Point Coins they have scored during the game.
• The points in the bottom right corner of all their research tiles.
• The points in the bottom right corner of all the animal tiles they have a marker on.

The player with most points wins. In case of a tie, the player farthest away from the starting player wins.

Research Tiles

• Category icon x 2 etc.: 2 points per animal of the category depicted.
• Special (?) x 2: 2 points per Special animal.
• ALL x 1: 1 point per animal (regardless of category).
• Family icons x 3: 3 points per different family. For example, if you enclose 2 cows, 1 dog and 1 special, that's 3 families, so 3x3 = 9 points.

Land Tiles

• Bushes: If you have enclosed at least 1 carnivore, you get a bonus of 2 points. You can not place a marker here.
• Grasslands: If you have enclosed at least 1 herbivore, you get a bonus of 2 points. You can not place a marker here.
• Forest: If you have enclosed at least 1 omnivore, you get a bonus of 2 points. You can not place a marker here.
• Water hole: You get a bonus of 2 points. You can not place a marker here.
• Footprints: You get a bonus of 1 points. If you place a marker here, you draw 2 animal tiles instead of 1 (you place both in the next round).
• Rocky area: No bonus. However, some research tiles requires you to enclose this in order to score any points at all. You can not place a marker here.

Rules for Children

The player with the most points wins.

Setup

1. Each player chooses a colour and takes 4 markers of that colour. The rest are put back in the box.
2. Spread out the field string, seeing that it doesn't cross itself. It's recommended to make a large circle.
3. The land tiles and research tiles aren't used. Put them back in the box.
4. Shuffle the animal tiles and put out 16 randomly face up in the field. The rest are put in a face down draw pile.
5. Put the Victory Point Coins outside the field, in good reach.
6. The youngest player starts. He takes the Research string.

Flow of the Game

Each player will have 4 turns. Each player turn consists of the following 5 steps:

1. Draw an animal tile and place it in the field. The tile must not touch the field string or any other tile – there should be at least one finger's breadth away from the other tiles.
2. Use the Research string to enclose some animals. It may not touch any of the animal tiles, or cross itself. Also, it MUST enclose the animal you just placed.
3. Score points for the animals you have enclosed. For each of the three trait types, (food, family, activity) you get as many points as animals that have the same category as the animal you placed. For example, you placed a Lion (carnivore, cat, night). You enclosed a Hyena (carnivore, special, night) and an African Elephant (herbivore, special, day). For "food" you have the Lion and the Hyena – 2 points. For "family" you only have the Lion – 1 point. And for "activity" you have the Hyena and the Lion – 2 points, totalling 5 points.
4. Place one research marker on one of the animals you just enclosed and score as many points as depicted on the animal tile.
5. Remove the Research string and give it to the next player. Pick it up with both hands so you don't move around the tiles.

End of the Game

Each player should get 4 turns. Once finished, count your coins. The player with the most coins wins.