Time Zoo
Time Zoo Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Cards in the Game
- 38 Animal cards
- 63 Food cards
- 8 Intern cards
- 1 Professor card
Game Setup
Shuffle the 'Animal' and 'Food cards' and keep both piles separate. Give all players 5 Food cards and place the top Food card face up next to the pile. This is the beginning of the discard pile. Cards in the discard pile are always placed face up.
Place 5 Animal cards in a row in the center of the table. You can lure these cards by playing Food cards. All players also receive 1 Intern card, place it face up in front of you.
Setup key:
- Animal cards deck
- Row of 5 Animal cards
- Food cards deck
- Discard pile
- 5 random Food cards per player
- 1 random Intern card per player
The player who can best imitate a Tyrannosaur or a Mammoth (your choice) starts the game. Give this player the first player card (the card with the professor on it). The game can now begin!
How Does a Turn Work?
In your turn you can perform 1 action. You can either take food or lure an animal.
Take Food
You have the choice to take the top 2 Food cards from the draw pile or discard pile OR 1 card from the draw pile and 1 from the discard pile.
Lure an Animal
You can play Food cards to lure 1 Animal card from the row and make it part of your Time Zoo. When you take a card from the row, place it face up in front of you and the empty space is immediately filled with a new card from the Animal deck. The prehistoric animals have an action on the card that must be performed immediately or they earn extra points at the end of the game (see the full overview of the actions at the end of this rule book).
The Food cards in your hand are used to lure Animals out of the row. There are 3 different types of food cards for different types of animals:
- Pescatarians - eat fish, crab and squid (blue food)
- Herbivores - eat fruits, nuts and hay (green food)
- Carnivores - eat chicken, steak and spareribs (red food)
- Omnivores - eat everything (orange food)
Different animals in the row can be lured with specific food. Some animals eat more than others and some animals are more picky about their food.
When 1 icon of a certain food type is displayed, you can give this animal any food of that type. However, on some Animal cards there are 2 or 3 icons in a row next to each other. You then have to play 2 or 3 of the same types of food of that colour.
- Play 2 of the same (red, Carnivore) food cards to take this card.
- Play 3 (green, Herbivore) food cards of your choice to take this card.
When a card has a yellow circle (orange, Omnivore food) without an icon as a requirement, it means that you can use any type of food to take this card from the row.
But just like with the other icons, there may also be several (orange) icons in a row next to each other, which means that you have to play the same types of food of one colour to take the card from the row.
Animal Cards
You lure Animal cards to your 'Time Zoo' to collect as many points as possible at the end of the game.
Animal cards also have special actions that you must perform once you have lured the card. Some animals have bonus points as their special action, these are resolved at the end of the game.
The Animal card layout:
- Animal type - shown at the top right of the card
- Points at the end of the game - the number in the top left circle
- Food cards you must play to lure this card - the food icon(s) on the left side
- Special action - shown along the bottom of the card
Food Cards
There are 3 types of Food cards that you can use to lure Animals out of the row. All different colours also have 3 types of food.
- Pescatarians - fish, crab and squid
- Herbivores - fruit, nuts and hay
- Carnivores - chicken, steak and ribs
Some food cards have two food icons. While playing you must choose one of the two.
End of the Game
When the last Animal card is placed in the row, the game is completed. Once all players have had the same number of turns, the game ends. All players add up the points of their cards. Don't forget the bonuses from the special cards!
The player with the most points wins the game!
See the next pages for all the bonus points and special actions for each intern and animal card.
Note: the manual's special-action headings use "Pescetarians" and "Vegetarians" for the same two animal types that the food section calls "Pescatarians" and "Herbivores". Headings are kept as printed.
Special Actions
Pescetarians - Special Actions (blue)
- +1 with a stack of food cards and a marine-animal icon: Take 1 card from the food pile for each marine-animal icon you have, including the card you just lured.
- 1x with a stack of food cards: Take the top card of the food pile.
- 2x with a stack of food cards and a hand-with-card icon: Take the top 2 cards of the food pile and place one Food card on the discard pile.
- +1 with a blank card icon: You may lure another Animal card. {You must have enough food cards}
Vegetarians - Special Actions (green)
- +2 with a Mammoth (male) icon, and +2 with a Mammoth (female) icon: +2 points at the end of the game if you have the other mammoth (male or female).
- +1 with a Mammoth (male) icon, and +1 with a Mammoth (female) icon: +1 point at the end of the game if you have a female and/or male mammoth.
{Mammoth bonuses are not cumulative, the Mammoth male gets for example +2 if you have a Mammoth female, but you don't get +4 if you have two Mammoth females}
- +1 followed by an arrow to a herbivore food card icon and a card icon: Each vegetarian food card you place under this card during the turn that you lure this animal is +1 point.
Carnivores - Special Actions (red)
- Take 1 random Food card from an opponent and place it on the discard pile.
- Take 1 random Food card from an opponent and put it in your hand.
- -1: Pay 1 less (carnivore food icon) for each animal-type icon you have when you buy a card of that animal type.
- 3x: Remove 3 Animal cards from the row from the game.
Omnivores - Special Actions (orange)
- Exchange this card with an Animal card from one of your opponents.
- +4 with 2x Dodo icons, +8 with 3x Dodo icons: 2 Dodos are worth a +4 points and 3 Dodos are worth +8 points at the end of the game.
- +3 with 2x Egg icons, +5 with 3x Egg icons, +7 with 4x Egg icons: 2 eggs cards will give you +3 points, 3 eggs will give you +5 points, and 4 eggs will give you +7 points at the end of the game.
Intern Cards
Intern cards give you a bonus at the end of the game:
Note: the manual shows the four Intern type icons as pictures only. They are matched here to the four animal types by icon colour (red = Carnivores, green = Vegetarians/Herbivores, blue = Pescetarians/Pescatarians, orange = Omnivores), which is how the manual's special-action headings are coloured.
- 3+ (red, Carnivore type) = +3: +3 points if you have at least 3 Animal cards of the red type.
- 3+ (green, Herbivore type) = +3: +3 points if you have at least 3 Animal cards of the green type.
- 3+ (blue, Pescatarian type) = +3: +3 points if you have at least 3 Animal cards of the blue type.
- 3+ (orange, Omnivore type) = +3: +3 points if you have at least 3 Animal cards of the orange type.
- +3 (one icon of each of the four types) = +3: +3 points if you have 1 Animal card of each type.
- +1 (Dodo icon): This card counts as 1 Dodo.
- +1 (Egg icon): This card counts as 1 Egg.
Advanced Rule
Instead of handing out 1 Intern card to each player at the start of the game, you can also shuffle the Intern cards through the Animals deck.
When an Intern cards come out in the row players can choose to take an action to take one of the Intern cards (without paying any extra cost, but it will cost them their action for this round).
Intern cards will work exactly the same as desribed on the last page, but it will be possible to have more than 1 Intern at the end of the game.