Evolution Game Rules

Hey there! Let’s dive into the amazing world of Evolution Game and understand how to play this exciting game. Ready? Let’s go!

1. Objective

The objective of Evolution Game is to strategically evolve your species and adapt to a changing environment in order to survive and thrive. The player with the most successful species at the end of the game wins!

2. Setup

Before we start, let’s set up the game. First, each player will receive a species board and player mat. Then, the food cards and trait cards are shuffled and placed face down as separate decks. Each player is dealt a hand of trait cards.

3. Gameplay

Now it’s time to start playing! The game is played over several rounds, with each round consisting of the following phases:

3.1. Deal Cards

In this phase, players receive food cards and trait cards. The number of cards dealt depends on the number of players and the round of the game.

3.2. Feeding Phase

During the Feeding Phase, players take turns choosing which of their species will feed. Each species can only eat a limited amount of food depending on its population size and available traits. The goal is to gather as much food as possible to sustain and grow your species.

3.3. Adaptation Phase

This is where the evolution happens! Players can play trait cards from their hand to add new traits to their species, making them more efficient at gathering food or defending against predators. Choose your traits wisely and adapt your strategy depending on the traits your opponents play.

3.4. Natural Selection Phase

In this phase, players evaluate their species’ traits and compare them to the available food cards. Traits that allow a species to gather food are rewarded, while traits that don’t match the available food are penalized. This phase simulates the survival of the fittest, where only the best-adapted species will thrive.

3.5. Population Adjustment Phase

In this phase, players adjust the population of their species based on the amount of food they gathered. Species that didn’t gather enough food may lose population, while species with an abundance of food may gain population. It’s all about finding the right balance and ensuring the survival of your species.

4. End of the Game

The game ends when the food cards run out. At this point, players tally up the points earned by their species throughout the game, including traits and population size. The player with the most points wins the game and is crowned the ultimate evolution champion!

So there you have it! The Evolution Game rules explained in a nutshell. Get ready to dive into the world of evolution and see if you have what it takes to adapt, survive, and thrive. Enjoy the game!

Hey there! Did you know that our planet is home to more than a million different animal species? It’s mind-blowing, right? So, have you ever wondered how this incredible biodiversity came to be? Well, let me tell you about the fascinating theory of evolution!

A long time ago, a brilliant scientist named Charles Darwin came up with a theory called evolution by means of natural selection. This theory suggests that animals who are better adapted to their environment have a greater chance of passing on their traits to future generations. Over thousands of generations, this process has led to the amazing variety of species we see today.

Now, imagine stepping into a world where survival is a constant challenge. Welcome to the game Evolution! In this game, you get to be in control of different species and help them adapt to an ever-changing ecosystem. Food is scarce, and carnivorous creatures are always on the prowl. Your choices will shape the destiny of these species. Will they survive, thrive, or vanish from the face of the Earth forever? It’s all up to you!

What’s Inside the Box?

• 1 Watering Hole Board
• 1 First Player Marker
• 129 Trait Cards
• 24 Species Boards
• 48 Wooden Markers
• 180 Food Tokens
• 6 Food Token Bags
• 6 Player Aids
• 1 Rulebook

Setup

I’ll tell you how to start playing. Everyone gets a Species Board. You need to place it in front of you.

• Don’t forget to put a Wooden Marker on the “1” space of the Body Size track
• Also, place a Wooden Marker on the “1” space of the Population track

The Watering Hole Board should be put in the middle of the table. Keep the Food Tokens aside – it’s the Food Bank. And every player gets a Food Token Bag.

Now, let’s shuffle the deck of Trait Cards and put it face down on the table. First player is random. Give them the First Player Marker. Ready to go!

Let’s Play the Game

Evolution is a game where the aim is to get the most points. You do this by feeding your species, making them grow, and evolving them to ensure their survival.

When the game ends, you score points based on:

1. The food your species have eaten during the game.
2. The size of your surviving species population.
3. The Trait Cards that your surviving species have.

How to Play

An Evolution game can be played for as many rounds as you want. Each round has 4 phases. If there are 2 players, use the 2-Player Rules. If there are 6 players, use the 6-Player Rules.

Phase 1: Get Cards

In this phase, each player gets 3 cards, plus 1 card for each species they have in front of them. If the deck needs to be shuffled, it means the game is almost over.

Selecting Food

On each Trait Card, you’ll see a number at the bottom right. This number represents the amount of Plant Food you’ll have.

Each player secretly picks one Trait Card from their hand and places it facedown on the Watering Hole.

These are the “Food Cards” that will be revealed in the Feeding Phase. They determine how much Plant Food will be available for the round.

Playing Cards

Starting with the First Player, you can play as many Trait Cards as you want or save them for later. When it’s your turn, you can do three things with each Trait Card:

Using a Trait

When playing the game, you have the option to put a Trait Card facedown on top of one of your species. This adds a special ability to that species. The Trait Card remains facedown until its effect is triggered.

A species can’t have any duplicate Trait Cards or more than 3 Trait Cards. If a species already has 3 Trait Cards, you can still play another one by discarding one that’s already on that species.

Create a Brand New Species

Grow Bigger or Increase Population

It’s the next player’s turn after you play your cards. They can play as many cards as they want. Once everyone has played their cards, we flip all the played Trait Cards face-up.

Phase 4: The Feeding Period

1. Look at the Food Cards

The First Player shows the Food Cards on the Watering Hole. Add up the numbers on those cards and put that same amount of Plant Food from the Food Bank onto the Watering Hole.

So here’s the deal: if the final count on the Food Cards is less than zero, then I gotta take that amount of Plant Food outta the Watering Hole – unless there ain’t enough, in which case we’re outta luck. And hey, those Food Cards we just checked out? They get tossed on the discard pile like there’s no tomorrow.

2. Feeding Species

It’s my turn to explain how feeding works in this game. So, here’s the deal – each player, starting with me and going around the table, has to make sure to feed one of their hungry species. A species becomes hungry when it has less food than its population. Makes sense, right?

Now, when a species eats, we put the food above its population track, starting with the number one space. That’s where it goes. And guess what? At the end of the game, all that food is gonna be worth one whole point! So, chow down!

A. Feeding Non-carnivores

Now, if you have a non-carnivorous species, like a herbivore or something, here’s what you do. You just take one of those delicious plant foods from the watering hole and put it right on the species board of the creature you’re feeding. Easy as pie!

When it comes to traits, some can affect how much food is taken from the Watering Hole. For example, the Foraging trait may modify the amount of food that will be taken. However, it’s important to note that no species can take more food from the Watering Hole than its Population can handle.

Feeding Carnivores

Carnivores are a special type of species that cannot eat Plant Food, no matter what traits they have. Instead, they survive by hunting and attacking other species. And get this – they can even attack their own kind! They don’t rely on the Watering Hole for food like other animals do.

But how does an attack work? Well, there are two things to consider:

• The Carnivore has to be bigger than the species it wants to attack.
• The Carnivore needs specific traits that can overcome the defense mechanisms of its prey.

Once a carnivorous attack is successful, things get interesting. The attacking Carnivore gets to take Meat Food from the Food Bank. The amount of Meat Food it gets depends on the size of the species it attacked. And where does it put that Meat Food? Right on its own Species Board. It’s like having a little victory feast!

• When a species is attacked, its Population decreases by 1. If the Population becomes lower than the amount of food already eaten, the extra food goes to the attacking player’s Food Token Bag. If the Population reaches 0, the species becomes extinct.

Important Rules for Feeding

• Non-Carnivores normally eat Plant Food, but they can also eat Meat Food if they have traits like Scavenger or Cooperation. Carnivores are never allowed to eat Plant Food.
• A species must eat if it is Hungry and there is available food. This means a Carnivore must eat a species with Horns if that’s the only legal option.
• A species can never gather more food than its Population.

3. End of Feeding

Feeding ends when all species have enough food for their Population, or when all Hungry species are unable to find any food.

Imagine this: what if animals didn’t eat enough food to sustain their populations? Well, it turns out that if they couldn’t find enough food, their populations would dwindle to match the available resources. And if animals didn’t eat at all, they would eventually go extinct.

• First, we collect all the food that my species has eaten and put it in my Food Token Bag.
• Any leftover Plant Food will stay at the Watering Hole for the next round.
• If I don’t have any species left, I get to start fresh and create a new one.
• Finally, we pass the Start Player Marker to the person on my left.

The End of a Species

When the population of a species reaches zero, it becomes extinct. This means that the species board and trait cards associated with that species are discarded. To replace them, draw a number of trait cards equal to the number discarded.

If the deck of cards needs to be shuffled, it signals that the next round will be the final round of the game. Any food that was on a species killed by a carnivore is placed in that player’s food token bag.

Game End

If the deck had to be shuffled during the deal cards phase, the end of the game scoring begins immediately after that round. However, if the deck had to be shuffled at any other time, there will be one more full round played before the end of the game scoring.

Scoring:

• Each food in a player’s bag is worth 1 point.
• Each species is worth points equal to its population.
• Each trait card on a surviving species is worth 1 point.

To determine the winner, simply add up the points of each player.

In the case of a tie, the player with the most points from Trait Cards wins. If there is still a tie, then the player with the most points from Population wins. And if there is still a tie after that, well, it’s time to order pizza and play again!

Rules for 2 players

• Before starting the game, remove 40 random Trait Cards from the deck.
• In this variant, a species can only have a maximum of 2 traits instead of 3.

Rules for 6 players

For the 6-player game, we’ll be using the Quick Play Variant rules.

Quick Play Variant

During Phase 3: Play Cards, all players simultaneously play their cards without knowing what the others are doing.

If you’re short on table space, you can flip your Species Boards over and play them vertically.