Desert Island Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• About the Game
• Object of the Game
• Components
• How to Start
• Setup
  • Places
  • Characters (Strength / Survival points)
• Turn Sequence
  • Part 1: Collecting and Distributing Items
  • Part 2: Character Actions
    • How to Play a Fate Card
    • Looking for Food
    • Building the Signal Fire
    • Fighting
  • Part 3: Lookout
  • Part 4: Fate
  • Part 5: Hunger
  • Part 6: End of Turn
• End of the Game and Scoring
• Trading
• Wounds and Death
• Events on Fate Cards
• Important Notes
• Frequently Asked Questions

About the Game

Each turn is one week of your survival on the desert island. Players look for food, choose a fate card and perform one action. The fate cards show what happened and to whom.

Object of the Game

Score as many points as possible. Points are given for your own survival, treasures found, a surviving best friend and a defeated sworn enemy.

Components

• 50 food tokens to feed your character. 40 of these tokens represent one portion of food, enough for a week; the remaining 10 tokens are worth 4 portions each.
• 20 fate tokens, used to mark characters and places.
• 6 role cards, dealt to players so they know who plays whom.
• 6 place cards of different parts of the island, where the characters will be located; they form the centre of the playing area.
• 6 character cards, used to mark where each character is on the island and who is where.
• 6 best friend cards: friends you will need to save.
• 6 sworn enemy cards: enemies you will need to get rid of.
• 30 fate cards, showing what will happen on the island during the week.
• 40 found item cards that will help you survive.
• 4 ship tokens, marking your progress toward rescue.
• 30 wound tokens, placed on characters to show how long they will last.
• A signal fire tile, placed a little to the side. There you will build a big fire so that passing ships notice you.
• A reference sheet (turn summary).
• The rules.

How to Start

Learning to play Desert Island is very easy if someone in the group has already played "Overboard!" (the lifeboat game) or this game. Then Desert Island is explained in literally 3-5 minutes. If it is your first game, however, you will have a hard time. The best way to start playing correctly is to start playing right now, following the advice below and looking into the rules during your first game. Even if you are working out the rules alone, start laying out the components and making turns; it will help you understand the game quickly.

Setup

Do as written below right now and ask no questions; this will help you survive. All questions can wait until we land on the island and look around.

1. Shuffle the 6 role cards and deal one to each player, face up.
2. For a 5-player game, remove from the game the Cave place and Kid (the role card, character card, and the best friend and sworn enemy cards of that character). For a 4-player game do the same with the Hill place and Milady.
3. Lay out the place cards in the following order from left to right: 1 - Beach, 2 - Jungle, 3 - Swamp, 4 - Stream, 5 - Hill, 6 - Cave.
4. Now shuffle the character cards (which mark where each character is on the island) and lay them out in random order next to the place cards, on their "Alive" side. Only one character can be at one place on the island.
5. Shuffle the item deck and deal one card face down to each player. Place the remaining deck to the left of the Beach on the playing area.
6. Give each player 4 portions of food. Players must keep it in front of them: at any moment in the game it must be clearly visible how much food each has left.
7. Shuffle the fate cards face down and place them so that everyone can reach them: this is the fate deck.
8. Shuffle the best friend cards and deal one face down to each player. Do the same with the sworn enemy cards. It is important that nobody shows these cards to anyone; they remain secret until the end of the game.
9. Place the signal fire tile next to the item deck. Here you will accumulate fate tokens for the signal fire.

Places

• Beach (1): At the beginning of each turn the character on the Beach takes item cards and deals one card to each surviving player.
• Jungle (2): A character in the Jungle needs 3 fewer portions of food during the Hunger part.
• Swamp (3): A character in the Swamp loses 1 portion of food at the end of his turn.
• Stream (4): A character at the Stream gets 3 extra portions of food when going to look for food.
• Hill (5): A character on the Hill puts 1 additional fate token on the signal fire tile if he builds the signal fire.
• Cave (6): A character in the Cave adds an additional fate card to the strength of his side if he is on the defenders' side.

Characters (Strength / Survival points)

• Bosun (Strength 8, Survival points 4): Get an additional portion of food every time you look for food.
• Cap (Strength 7, Survival points 5): In your turn you may discard 1 fate token from another character.
• Ladle (Strength 6, Survival points 6): You may flee from a fight, getting one more fate token for doing so.
• Milady (Strength 4, Survival points 8): In your turn you may remove 1 of your own fate tokens.
• Kid (Strength 4, Survival points 8): In your turn, take 1 portion of food from each character at places adjacent to yours (if they have food).
• Snob (Strength 5, Survival points 7): In your turn you may add 1 fate token to any character.

Note: if a situation arises where something is not allowed by the rules (for example, leaving a fight) but the character card or item card says it is allowed, the card text applies.

Turn Sequence

Each turn is divided into several parts:

1. Collecting and distributing items: shipwreck debris is washed up on the beach, and the survivors gather it and then divide it among themselves in a rather non-trivial way.
2. Actions: the characters go about their business, for example trying to light the signal fire, get food, or do something in the depths of the island.
3. Lookout: the survivors scan the horizon around the island looking for a passing ship.
4. Fate: every week a random event occurs, for example a wild animal attacking one of the characters.
5. Hunger: the survivors must eat; in this part of the turn you need to spend food or things will go very badly. Large and strong characters eat more than small and weak ones. Sometimes this is very important for survival.
6. End of turn: preparing the table for the next week.

Part 1: Collecting and Distributing Items

The waves constantly throw valuable things onto the shore, and you sometimes find old pirate caches with treasure. Play as follows:

The player whose character is currently on the Beach takes as many item cards as there are living characters on the island. Then that player keeps one card and deals the others, at his discretion, one to each player, so that the other players do not see which card went to whom.

If a dead character is lying on the Beach, the character closest to the Beach takes on this important task.

Part 2: Character Actions

Starting with the player on the Beach, each still-living player in turn draws two fate cards, keeps one of his choice, and puts the other at the bottom of the fate deck. The fate card you chose will be needed to perform your action.

How to Play a Fate Card

Fate cards influence how your game develops and determine which event awaits you at the end of the turn and whom it will happen to. Fate cards are used for many things in the game, but in this part we are interested only in the upper part with the character and the number.

• The character name is the one who will receive a fate token when this card is played during the first part of your turn's actions.
• The event will be needed at the end of the turn. Whichever event appears more often is the one that happens on the island. In the example card (Rats), the characters face an invasion of rats devouring all their food ("You lose all your food.").
• The random number shows the place for a token, strength, amount of food or other needed things when you use the fate card.
• The signal fire marker on the card: if during the Lookout you collect wood, a torch and a ship, you manage to light the fire and it will be noticed.

Here is what to do:

1. Take 2 cards face down from the fate deck, keep one of your choice, and put the other at the bottom of the fate deck.
2. Announce your action (look for food, build the signal fire, fight) and play the chosen fate card, placing it face up beside your character card. At the end of the turn these cards will determine the random event that will occur on the island.
3. But before performing the announced action, you also need to place fate tokens on the proper character and place. The number on the fate card determines the place where you put the first fate token (for example, 1 is the Beach and 6 is the Cave), and the name shows whom you put the second fate token on. Place the tokens on the proper character and place.

Example: with a "Milady 1, Rats" card, you put one fate token on the Beach and one on the character card of Milady.

Ready? Now all that remains is to perform your announced action. You may:

• Look for food;
• Build the signal fire;
• Fight for food, items or place.

Note: after the player on the Beach has performed his action, he plays his fate card, and then the player in the Jungle acts, then the player in the Swamp, and so on.

Looking for Food

You may go looking for food. Each turn a character must eat an amount of food equal to his strength (see the "Hunger" section below). If you decide to look for food, take food equal to the number on the fate card you chose this turn. In the example above you would find one portion of food.

If you look for food while at the Stream, take three additional portions of food.

Building the Signal Fire

If you choose this important action, put one fate token on the signal fire tile. If you build the signal fire while on the Hill, put one additional fate token on the signal fire. The more tokens are there at the end of the turn, the greater the chance that everything is done correctly.

To be rescued, the survivors must light the signal fire; only then can a ship notice you during the Lookout part.

Fighting

You may lay claim to the items, food and place of another player on the island. If you try to take something or swap places with another character, your opponent may agree or try to stop you by starting a fight.

If you decide to do so, again use the number on your fate card. Add the number on the fate card to your strength. Now name the player you want to take something from (or swap places with) and declare what the dispute is over: food, an item card, or place. Then put a fate token on your character on the playing area.

If the player gives in without a fight

• If the dispute was over items, you may take any item card lying face up in front of that player, or take one random card from his hand.
• If the dispute was over place, you may swap places with him. Then the player whose place you took acts next, if he has not already acted. When places are swapped, the tokens on the character cards move with the character, while the tokens on the place cards stay on the place cards. A character who has moved to a new place does not act a second time, even if his new place comes later in order than the others.
• If the dispute was over food, the yielding character divides his food into 2 parts without showing it to the others and hides each part in a clenched fist. One of the hands may have no food at all. You choose one hand and take its contents.

If the player starts a fight

Move the character card of the one attacked slightly down and the card of the attacker up, so that the opponents stand out among the other cards on the playing area. Other players may join the fight; they move their character cards up or down respectively to mark their side. Each player who joins the fight gets a fate token and puts it on his character card on the playing area. If you have taken someone's side, you can no longer retreat or switch to another side.

The attacking player has already received a fate token for choosing this action, and the defending player receives a token for declaring a fight.

Exception: Ladle may withdraw from the fight at any moment before the defender reveals the last card, but cannot return to the fight or switch to the other side. If Ladle flees from a fight, he receives an additional fate token. Ladle may even withdraw from a fight that he started himself.

Each player may use a weapon to raise his strength. If the weapon card does not say "single use", it stays in front of the player after the fight and can be chosen in subsequent fights. If you have no weapon in front of you but have a weapon card in your hand, you may lay it out during the fight. If you have several weapons, in a fight you use only one weapon, the strongest.

At the end of the fight, when it is clear who fights for whom, with what strength, who uses which weapon (if they wish) and other enhancements, the total strength of the sides is calculated. The side with the higher total wins. If strength is equal, the defending side wins.

During a fight you may negotiate about anything, but items cannot be exchanged until the fight ends. Note that after the fight nobody is obliged to keep an agreement or fulfil their promises of exchange.

When all players have played all their cards and there is nobody left who wants to join the fight, reveal the top card of the fate deck and add the value shown on the card to the defending side.

Note: if the defender is a character in the Cave, he takes 1 more fate card and adds its value to his side.

Compare the final totals. The side with the lowest total strength is considered the loser. All characters of the losing side get one wound each (see Wounds and Death below). If the aggressor wins, he gets what he wanted, as if the player had given it up at once.

The fight ends in sadness, remorse and a feeling of deep moral satisfaction. This has no effect on the game, but this is how it is for the characters on the island.

Part 3: Lookout

In this part of the game the players scan the horizon and check whether a ship managed to see their signal fire. The more players built the signal fire, the greater the chance of rescue. It does not matter who starts this part; every player can be a lookout.

Before beginning the Lookout part, put one fate token on the signal fire tile. In this way, if no player performed the "Build the signal fire" action, there will be only 1 token there.

Take from the fate deck as many cards as there are tokens on the signal fire tile and lay them on the table face up.

• If the cards taken include wood and a torch but no ship, you managed to light the fire and all tokens on the signal fire tile "burn up" (remove them). Unfortunately, no ship noticed your magnificently blazing fire.
• If the cards taken include wood, a torch and a ship, all tokens on the signal fire tile "burn up" and a ship notices your signal fire. Place a ship token next to the signal fire tile. You are on the right path to rescue!

Note: you always place one ship token per turn, however many ships appear on the fate cards.

If the cards taken have no torch or no wood, the fate tokens do not "burn up" but carry over to the next turn. Put the laid-out fate cards at the bottom of the deck.

The first three times a ship notices your signal fire, discard all tokens from the signal fire tile and place a ship token next to the signal fire. When the fourth ship notices your signal fire, the game ends immediately and scoring begins.

Part 4: Fate

Every turn something bad happens to one character (wild boar, malaria, monkey, rats, storm). The character (or several characters in case of a tie) with the largest total number of fate tokens on his character card and on his place card takes the blow of fate. What the event is, is determined as follows:

1. Lay out in a row the fate cards played during this turn and, without changing their order, look at them. If there are several identical events (for example, "wild boar" appears 2 times), the event that appeared most often happens.

   Example: the fate cards were played in this order: rats, wild boar, wild boar, malaria, storm; so the wild boar strikes the player, since this event appeared more often than the others.

2. If there is an equal number of events, the one that appeared earlier happens.

   Example: the fate cards were played in this order: rats, wild boar, wild boar, malaria, rats, storm; so the wild boar strikes, since 2 cards with this event were played earlier than 2 cards with rats.

Note that the "storm" event differs from the others in that it affects all characters and all places, from the Beach up to the place of the character with the most fate tokens on his character card and on his place card.

Part 5: Hunger

Before the end of the turn each player must eat an amount of food equal to the strength of his character, or the character receives 1 wound. It does not matter how much food you lack: if you do not have enough portions of food to fully feed the character, you may keep it and not spend it. You may also feed another character with your food.

Part 6: End of Turn

Remove all fate tokens (except those that may remain at this point on the signal fire tile) and begin a new turn. Do not touch the ship tokens either.

End of the Game and Scoring

The game ends in two cases:

1. When the fourth ship token has been laid out; then all survivors are rescued.
2. If everyone has died. This is sad, but nobody will ever even know about it.

You receive:

• Points for your own survival, if you stayed alive.
• Points for the survival of your best friend, if he survived (even if that is you).
• Points equal to the strength of your sworn enemy, if he died. If your sworn enemy is you yourself, then you are a psychopath. Psychopaths get 2 points for each dead character, except themselves and their best friend.
• Points for your treasures (trophies, gold) in the amount indicated on the cards. Even if you are dead, the treasures become your inheritance and bring points.

If your best friend and sworn enemy are both you, you receive your survival points if you survive, and points for a surviving best friend. You also receive 2 points for each dead character.

If your friend and enemy are the same character, you receive points according to his survival points if he is alive, and according to his strength if he is dead.

Trading

You may trade items at any moment except during a fight. For example, you may sell a trap to another character if a wild boar is attacking him, share food during the Hunger part, or give someone food during a rat attack so that they do not destroy all the supplies. Whether those players give you something in return or give your items back depends only on them. Come to an agreement.

Item-for-item deals ("here and now") happen instantly and are carried out by both sides. For example, if both players agree to "Give me the shovel for 5 portions of food", one player gives the shovel and the other five portions of food. You cannot cheat in such a deal.

On the other hand, all other deals are in no way enforced. For example: "I will give you this shovel if you use it to look for food and share half of what you find with me." You may agree, but in the end not dig or not share the food, because this is not an instant item-for-item exchange. Naturally, such agreements leave enormous room for diplomacy and bluff. They are perhaps the most interesting part of the game.

Wounds and Death

Wounds do not reduce a character's strength in subsequent fights and do not affect hunger. A wounded character fights the same way and consumes the same amount of food as a character without wounds.

If the number of wounds on your character equals or exceeds his strength, your character dies on the spot where he is. Turn the character card to its green side. Also turn the place card face down, thereby closing the entrance there to other characters and completing your character's fate. You no longer take any actions, do not draw or play cards, and do not receive fate tokens (either on your character card or on his place). Other characters cannot enter your place, your food becomes unusable, and your cards remain with you as trophies. If your character dies during a fight in which another player is trying to take something from you, give him what he wants before you crawl aside and die in agony. You still have a chance to win if you have enough victory points. But most likely you will not manage it.

A medicine card can heal 1 wound on a living character. A dead character cannot be healed.

If the last character dies, the game ends in a general loss.

Events on Fate Cards

This is what the pictures on the fate cards mean:

• Wild Boar: You receive 2 wounds. (Card text: "Inflicts 2 wounds.")
• Monkey: Choose a player at a place adjacent to yours. This player chooses one of your item cards and discards it from the game. He may take a card lying face up in front of you, or choose one of the cards in your hand at random. (Card text: "Discard 1 of your cards.")
• Malaria: You receive 1 wound. (Card text: "Inflicts 1 wound.")
• Rats: The player chosen by fate loses all his food supplies. In addition, the rats attack the other players. Each player divides his food supply into 2 parts, as he sees fit, and hides them in different hands. Reveal the top card of the fate deck. If the number on the revealed card is odd, all players lose the food from the left hand; if even, from the right hand. Put the revealed card at the bottom of the fate deck. (Card text: "You lose all your food.")
• Storm: Starting with the player at the Beach, up to the place of the character chosen by fate, all players receive 1 wound and lose all their food supplies and all item cards lying in front of them. Discard all fate tokens from the signal fire tile. (Card text: "A tropical storm begins on the island.")

Important Notes

• Players always take cards from the top of the fate deck and discard them to the bottom of the deck, face down.
• When the item deck runs out, it is not replenished.
• Do not shuffle the decks after the game has started, even if you accidentally revealed several extra cards. In general, for such minor rule violations that are noticed at once, simply give the offender a fate token.
• If the action of a fate card is impossible (for example, aimed at a dead or unused character, or his place), that action does not happen.
• If a character changes place, the fate tokens and wound tokens on the character card move with him, while the tokens on the place card stay on the place card.
• There is no limit on the amount of weaponry you may have, but in a fight only one weapon, the strongest, may be used.
• Item cards can be passed or sold at any moment except during a fight.
• The abilities of Kid, Cap, Snob and Milady are used in the Character Actions part but do not end your part of the turn. You may still choose and perform one of the three actions on the island.
• To use a single-use item card, read its text and carry out the required actions. Put the card itself back in the box; it no longer takes part in the game.
• To use a reusable item card, lay it in front of you. This card remains in front of you and works until it is taken away or washed away by a storm.
• You do not spend an action to play or use a card. Most cards can be used at any moment.
• If you took a face-up item card (for example, a vegetable garden), lay it out face up rather than taking it into your hand.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Do the bonuses of the monocle, the spyglass and the Hill stack? Yes.
• Can I give my food supplies to another character before they are lost in the Swamp, and immediately take them back? Yes, but only if the player you gave your supplies to wants to return them.
• We ran out of fate tokens, what should we do? If you run out of tokens, use improvised objects to replenish your supply.
• Can Ladle leave a fight if someone is trying to steal something from him? Yes, he can. But if his side loses the fight he still has to give up the object of the dispute, although he will not receive a wound.
• When can I use the items I have? At any moment, unless the card says otherwise; that is, not necessarily during your own part of the turn.