Wild Life: The Card Game
Wild Life: The Card Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 1 point counter
- 101 cards, including 1 first player marker
- Lives
- 12 Small Life cards
- 12 Big Life cards
- 12 Flying Life cards
- 12 Aquatic Life cards
- 16 Enhancers
- 5 Rains
- 5 Protectors
- Menaces: 14 Predators and 8 Hunters
- Disasters: 2 Fires, 1 Aquatic Pollution, 1 Fire/Aquatic Pollution
Card Components
Each card has an edge color according to the card, an illustration, a representative icon, and a number of footprints that scores.
- Edge color: according to the card.
- Illustration: the picture on the card.
- Representative icon: the icon shown on the card.
- Number of footprints: the number of footprints that scores.
Iconography
- Small Life: icon of a small animal.
- Big Life: icon of a large animal.
- Flying Life: icon of a bird.
- Aquatic Life: icon of an aquatic animal.
- 2x: multiply by 2.
- 3x: multiply by 3.
- Footprints: the paw-print symbol represents points.
- Protects you from a hunter: a pink figure of a hunter with a cross over it.
- Discard 1 life card: a card with a red cross.
- Discard 1 column of a life type: a column of life cards with a red arrow and a red cross.
- Discard all aquatic life cards that are on the table: an aquatic life icon with a red cross.
- Discard all small life, big life and flying life cards that are on the table: a group of three life icons with a red cross.
- Discard all small life, big life, flying life and aquatic life cards that are on the table: a group of four life icons with a red cross.
Game Setup
Shuffle all the cards and deal 6 to each player. The rest are placed in the center, forming the DECK next to it, and there will be a space to DISCARD. Also, each player will have a HABITAT zone.
(The rulebook shows a HABITAT example layout: a grid of Life cards and Enhancer cards laid out in the player's habitat zone.)
Game Progression
Wild Life is played in multiple rounds or cycles. Each cycle depends on the number of players:
| Players | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cycles | 8 | 6 | 4 | 5 |
The starting player for the first cycle will be the one who has seen a real or dummy squirrel more recently, and will get the starting player card. Subsequently, the initial player for the following cycle will be the next player to the left, and will receive the first player card (and so on for the remaining cycles).
Each cycle has 3 phases: the Draw Phase, the Habitat Phase and the Scoring Phase.
Draw Phase
Each player (starting with the first player and then to the left) draws cards from the forest until they have 6 in their hand.
Habitat Phase
Each player (starting with the starting player and then to the left) must play 3 of their 6 cards into their habitat (if they are "Life", enhancer or rain cards), or in other players' habitats (if they are Menaces). Disasters affect all players, including the one who played the card.
Protectors are played in response to the use of a HUNTER in this phase and do not count the 3 cards that each player must play. So if the player affected by the hunter has not had their turn and plays the protector, they can still use their 3 cards and, in the end, take the necessary cards from the DECK until their hand reaches 6. (You can play more than one protector per cycle.)
If you cannot play 3 cards, you must discard until you have 3 cards in your hand.
Scoring Phase
Each player (starting with the starting player and then to the left) counts the points obtained by "Life" and Enhancer cards in the habitat.
After this phase, a new cycle begins.
Life Cards
Each turn, you can play any type of card according to the following specifications:
- When you play a "Life" card (cards with a green border), you get footprints at the end of the cycle, according to the number of prints indicated on each card.
- Small and big life types have a fixed number of footprints, while aquatic life types increase as their number increases in their habitat, and flying life varies by bird.
- "Life" cards remain in the habitat during all cycles, unless discarded by the effect of another card.
Enhancers
There are 4 types of enhancers. These double the number of points for each kind of "Life":
- Spring: for small life.
- Winter: for big life.
- Nesting: for flying life.
- Spawning: for aquatic life.
NOTE:
- These buffs can be played only after playing at least one corresponding "Life" type card.
- There can only be 1 enhancer for each type of "Life". If a "Life" type is exterminated and has an enhancer, the enhancer is also discarded.
Rain
Rain gives you 3 footprints at the end of the cycle, and you don't need any type of "Life" to play it.
- Rain is not affected by any card, but it only remains during the cycle in which it was played. When the cycle ends, it is discarded.
Menaces
Attackers and Catastrophes will not give you points. However, they will allow you to reduce the "Life" of the habitat of any player or all players. There are 5 types:
Predator
Play this card in another player's habitat. Choose a "Life" card from your habitat and discard it.
(Transcription note: the sheet reads "from your habitat" as printed. See Transcription Notes.)
Hunter
Play this card in another player's habitat. Choose all cards of a "Life" type, and they are discarded (including the enhancer if they have one).
(The sheet reads "Play this card another player's habitat"; "in" is added for readability.)
(The rulebook shows an illustration of a Hunter card being played onto another player's habitat, with the Hunter's representative icon.)
Protectors
Protectors have the function of protecting "Life" cards from attack by hunters.
You can use a protective card when someone else plays a HUNTER in your habitat on their turn. The protector will prevent the effect of the HUNTER from taking place, maintaining the type of "Life" you chose to protect.
(The rulebook shows an illustration of a Protector being played against a Hunter.)
Catastrophes
- Fire: all small life, big life and flying life cards, as well as any corresponding enhancers, are discarded from all habitats (including the player who uses it).
- Aquatic Pollution: all aquatic life cards, as well as any corresponding enhancers, are discarded from all habitats (including the player who uses it).
- Fire/Aquatic Pollution: all small life, big life, flying life and aquatic life cards, as well as any corresponding enhancers, are discarded from all habitats (including the player who uses it).
End of the Game
The points of all the cycles are added up, and the player with the most points is the winner.
If there is a tie, the player with the most points in any of the cycles is the winner, starting with the last cycle.
Transcription Notes
- The sheet is image-based and was transcribed from its page images. Icon descriptions above are the rulebook's pictures rendered as words, since the icons carry no printed text.
- Spelling and typographical errors on the sheet were corrected in wording only where the meaning is unambiguous (for example "acuatic" to "aquatic", "colum" to "column", "hace" to "have", "plyer" to "player", "ae" to "are", "cylce" to "cycle", "tothe" to "to the", "fom" to "from", "hbtat" to "habitat", "protect" to "to protect", "who use it" to "who uses it", "discard" to "discarded" where the sentence requires it).
- The Predator rule reads "Choose a "Life" card from your habitat and discard it." as printed. The card is played in another player's habitat, so it is unclear from the sheet whether the target card is in the Predator owner's habitat or the habitat the card is played in. The text has been left as printed.
- The Game Progression wording "the initial player for the following cycle" is printed as such on the sheet.