Feed-Rex Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Overview and Goal of the Game
• Game Setup
• How to Play
  • Player Turn
  • A. Gather Information
    • The Faithful T-Rex: This Stranger
  • B. Shed Weight
  • End of the Game
• Special Cases and Variants
  • Don't Close the Gate!
  • Hardcore Mode
• Card Effects
• Double T-Rex, Double Damage
• Team Mode
• Strategy Tip

Game Contents

The game contains 70 backpack cards ("zaino"), divided as follows (as printed):

• 18 Meat cards (carne)
• 7 Flare cards (bengala)
• 13 Stone cards (sasso)
• 6 Camouflage cards (mimetica)
• 3 Swiss Knife cards (coltellino svizzero)
• 26 Useless Objects (oggetti inutili), all with different fronts

Also included:

• 13 Character cards (personaggio)
• 24 Jeep cards (jeep)
• 1 red T-Rex (T-Rex rosso)
• 1 green T-Rex (T-Rex verde)
• 1 die (dado)

Translator's note: the printed heading says "70 carte zaino", but the backpack card counts listed above add up to 73 (47 cards plus 26 Useless Objects). The counts are transcribed as printed.

Overview and Goal of the Game

The goal of the game is to survive and reach the exit first without being eaten by the T-Rex. During the escape, you will throw objects at the T-Rex taken from your backpack in an attempt to distract it, and you will pass objects to your opponents to offload the weight of your backpack and run faster. To complicate matters, the backpacks (represented by the players' hands of cards) have been mixed together, so nobody knows what is inside them (you will not be able to see your own cards). To win, you must free yourself of your backpack quickly, that is, empty your hand of cards, while slowing down the other players by using the effects of the cards to your advantage.

Game Setup

Before starting a game of Feed Rex, you must prepare the materials.

1. Take the two T-Rex. If you are playing with fewer than 8 players, you may return one of the two to the box, as it will not be needed for this game, and place the other lying down in the centre of the table, with its snout pointing toward a random player. If you are playing with 8 players or more, place both lying down, side by side, in the centre of the table, pointing toward two opposite players.

2. Take the die and place it on the table in a spot easily reachable by all players. Leave enough room to create a common discard pile.

3. Now take the deck of cards and divide it into eight small piles, one for each type: meat, flare, camouflage, stone, useless object, Swiss Knife, character, jeep. If you are playing the traditional version, that is everyone against everyone, return the Jeep cards to the box; they are only needed in the team version (see below).

4. Now each player chooses, as they like, a Character card that represents them. Each player places their character visibly on the table in front of them. Take the pile of Useless Objects and select those that belong to the chosen characters. Each character brings two Useless Objects into play: they can easily be recognised because they are marked with a seal showing an icon identical to the icon drawn on the corresponding Character card. Return the unused Useless Objects and the unused characters to the box; they will not be needed for this game.

5. Finally, select the correct number of Meat, Flare, Camouflage, Stone and Swiss Knife cards according to the number of players, as shown in the table below.

Players	Meat (carne)	Flare (bengala)	Camouflage (mimetica)	Stone (sasso)	Swiss Knife (coltellino svizzero)
3	5	2	1	3	1
4	6	3	2	4	1
5	7	3	2	5	1
6	8	4	3	6	1
7

The table's column headings are shown only as icons in the original (meat, flare, camouflage, stone, Swiss Knife); the labels above follow those icons.

If you do not feel like looking at the table, the operation has been made easier by an icon on the cards. For 3 players, you must insert all the cards that do not show a visible number in the lower-middle part of the card. For 4 players, you must add to these the cards showing the number four; for 5 players, you also add those showing the number five, and so on, until all of them are inserted, up to the maximum number of players, which is thirteen.

Cards showing a star are set aside and are used only for rule variants (see below).

Then take all the cards selected for each type (meat, flare, stone, hiding place, personal object, Swiss Knife) and shuffle them into a single deck.

Translator's note: the printed list in this step names six types ("nascondiglio", the hiding place, and "oggetto personale", the personal object, in addition to meat, flare, stone and Swiss Knife). The table above, and the rest of the rulebook, cover five types: meat, flare, camouflage, stone and Swiss Knife. The wording is transcribed as printed.

6. Deal five face-down cards on the table to each player, who must NOT look at them, and return the leftover cards to the box without looking at them. Players must never look at the cards in their own hand during the game (they may look at some of them only through game effects), and must arrange them in their hand with the visible side facing the other players and the back facing themselves. It is always permitted to look at the opponents' cards, and players must hold their own cards so that they are clearly visible to the others.

7. Before starting to play, each player may look at one of the cards in their hand, after which they shuffle their hand of cards.

You are ready to play!

How to Play

Play proceeds turn by turn, clockwise. The game starts with the player who most recently saw a real dinosaur... None of you? Well, OK, then the player who most recently saw one on television (even a fake one).

Player Turn

A player's turn is divided into two phases:

A. Gather Information and B. Shed Weight

The two phases are carried out in order. If the player has 3 cards or fewer in hand, they may carry out only phase B, Shed Weight, and must skip phase A, Gather Information. After completing their turn, the turn passes to the next player clockwise.

A. Gather Information

The players fleeing from the T-Rex try to gather information about the objects in their backpack by asking the other players. It is certainly not easy to work out which backpack you have taken, but you can certainly collect useful details that allow you to pull out the right object at the right moment (or maybe not?).

To obtain information about the cards in their hand, the player asks the opponents a question. To be a valid question, it must:

1. have as its answer "yes", "no" or a number; or
2. be "Which card is this?", indicating one of the cards in the player's hand.

EXAMPLE: The following are a series of legal questions that may be asked during your turn:

• How many Meat do I have in hand?
• Do I have Meat in hand?
• Among these three cards, is there a Stone?
• Can I do MacGyver?
• Do I have a Swiss Knife?
• Do I have at least two Stones?
• Do I have a useless object of my character?
• Which card is this?

The Faithful T-Rex: This Stranger

In the first turn of the game, the T-Rex lies in the centre of the table. As soon as a player draws its attention with the effect of a card, the T-Rex turns ("points") toward the player who suffered the effect (this may be the same player who played the card). The targeted player takes the T-Rex and attaches it using its clothespin-style mouth to any visible point on themselves (for example, clipped to the collar of their shirt, on a finger, or anywhere it is visible but does not bother the player).

If a player begins their turn pointed at by the T-Rex, they must, by the end of their turn, distract the T-Rex by playing the right cards to send it to another player; otherwise it will devour them, and they must leave the game.

Players can distract the T-Rex by playing Stone, Flare or Camouflage cards, by passing a Meat card to another player, or by succeeding in doing MacGyver.

B. Shed Weight

Once the information about the cards in hand has been gathered, it is time to leave some ballast along the way, preferably getting the other players into trouble.

In this phase the player must carry out one action of their choice from the following:

Let's try this! (Proviamo questo!) The player plays a card from their hand, reveals it face up, resolves its effect if it has one, and then discards it to the discard pile.

Here, take this! (Tieni!) The player passes a card to an opponent of their choice. The card is passed showing its front. The opponent who receives the card must reshuffle the cards in their hand and arrange them so that they are visible to the other players. Some cards activate an effect at the moment they are passed (see the card effects below).

I'll do it like MacGyver! (Faccio come Mac Gyver!) The player indicates two cards in their hand to the other players and asks "Can I do it like MacGyver?". If the two cards indicated are two Useless Objects, or a Useless Object and a Swiss Knife, or two Swiss Knives, the other players must answer "Yes". The player then discards those cards and applies the same effect as the Stone card, as if they had played one. If the answer is "No", the player simply reshuffles the cards in their hand.

Translator's note: the printed question in this action reads "Posso fare come Mac Gyver?", while the example questions in Gather Information read "Posso fare Mac Gyver?". Both are transcribed as printed.

End of the Game

The game ends when a player manages to empty their hand of cards at the end of their turn. In this case, that player manages to get out of the T-Rex's enclosure and reach safety. Unfortunately, in the rush they closed the gate, and the other players will be devoured.

Warning: If a player begins their last turn pointed at by the T-Rex and does not manage, by playing their last card, to free themselves from its heavy attention, they are unfortunately devoured at the gate, one step from the exit.

Special Cases and Variants

If at any time all the remaining players have only Meat cards in hand, they are all automatically devoured by the T-Rex: no winner today!

If at any time only one player remains in the game, that player reveals all the cards in their hand. If a Meat card is among them, the player is devoured; otherwise they have managed to escape.

Don't Close the Gate!

In this version, the game continues until all the players have either fled or been devoured by the T-Rex. All the players who managed to leave the enclosure alive are the winners.

Hardcore Mode

If you want to make the game more chaotic and less predictable, you may add as many Meat or Swiss Knife cards as you like to the game (you may use the ones with the star, in any quantity you like).

Card Effects

Stone card

• Let's try this! If you play a Stone, roll the die and count, starting from the player after you. When you reach the result of the die, the T-Rex points at that player. Warning: with the right roll of the die, the T-Rex can come back to you. Right, yes... but for the others!
• Here, take this! If you pass a Stone, nothing happens.

Meat card

• Let's try this! If you play a Meat, you immediately draw the T-Rex's attention to yourself. Now the T-Rex points at you!
• Here, take this! If you pass a Meat, the T-Rex points at the player to whom you passed the card.

Camouflage card (mimetica)

• Let's try this! If you play a Camouflage, you hide from the T-Rex. Once the Camouflage is played, place it in front of you. The T-Rex can no longer point at you or devour you until your next turn. If the T-Rex was pointing at you, it continues to point at you, but it cannot devour you. If a Stone card is used, the player who used it skips you during the count. At the start of your next turn, discard the Camouflage, to signal that the effect has ended.
• Here, take this! If you pass a Camouflage, it activates for the player to whom it is passed.

Flare card (bengala)

• Let's try this! If you play a Flare, you may make the T-Rex point at a player of your choice. Moreover, if that player is hidden by a Camouflage, you may discard their card and immediately end the effect of the Camouflage.
• Here, take this! If you pass a Flare, nothing happens.

Swiss Knife card (coltellino svizzero)

• Let's try this! If you play a Swiss Knife, discard it and you must repeat the action "Let's try this!" by playing another card.
• Here, take this! If you pass a Swiss Knife, you must immediately pass another card of your choice. You may also choose a different player from the first one to whom you pass the card.

Useless Object card (oggetto inutile)

A Useless Object card belonging to your own character is used like a Swiss Knife. Otherwise, it is a generic useless object and works as follows:

• Let's try this! If you play a Useless Object, nothing happens. Simply discard it.
• Here, take this! If you pass a Useless Object, nothing happens.

Double T-Rex, Double Damage

If you are playing with 8 or more players, there will be two T-Rex in the centre of the table. But... how do two T-Rex move? All card effects (both those played with "Let's try this!" and those passed with "Here, take this!") apply to the T-Rex closest to the target in clockwise order. No player can be pointed at by two T-Rex at the same time: a player who is already pointed at is not included in the count of Stones and cannot be hit by Flare cards. When the number of players drops below 8 because some have been devoured, the T-Rex that devoured the last player will fall asleep, and you may remove it from the game, continuing with only one T-Rex.

Team Mode

Feed Rex can also be played in teams. If you decide on this mode of play, the game has these differences.

During setup, decide how many players each team will consist of. All teams must consist of the same number of players. If the number of players is uneven, one player will play alone. Playing alone has no particular disadvantage compared with playing in a team (indeed, from the start you know that you cannot trust anyone).

Once the size of the teams has been decided, you may take the Jeep cards. Assign a colour to each team and take a number of Jeep cards of that colour equal to the number of players who make up the team. If there is a player who will play alone, add the "?" team card (note: the backs of all the cards are "?", but only one card has a front identical to its back).

You must choose the team colours according to the number of players in each team:

• if the teams have 5 or 6 players, you must use the colours yellow and light blue;
• if the teams have 4 players, you must use the colours yellow, light blue and red;
• if the teams have 3 players, you must use the colours yellow, light blue, red and green;
• if the teams have 2 players, you may use any colours you prefer.

Once you have taken the necessary Jeep cards, return the leftover ones to the box. Turn one card per team face up and shuffle them together with the rest, face down. Then deal them to the players. In this way, one member of each team will be revealed straight away; the others will be hidden, including any solo player.

Each player may secretly look at which team they belong to, but may not reveal their card during the game: only trust and the actions of the players will lead the players to trust their teammates.

Unlike the basic game, the game ends when all the players have either got to safety or been devoured by the T-Rex. Once the game is over, check which team saved the greatest number of players: that team is the winner. In case of a tie, the team whose player came out first wins.

But if the solo player has escaped and at least one member of every team has been devoured by the T-Rex, they are the winner!

Strategy Tip

In Feed Rex it is very important to try to work out which cards you have in hand, so that you know whether it is better to pass or to play. For example, if you know you have no Meat in hand and the T-Rex is pointing at you, it will be of no use to pass cards, because you will never be able to send it to other players; in that case it is better to play a card. If, instead, you are sure you have a lot of Meat in hand, it is better to pass a card, thereby increasing the probability of diverting the T-Rex's attention to someone else. But how? It is true that you cannot see your own cards, but you can see those of the others and form an idea of which cards you have in hand. It is very important to count the cards and ask the right questions to discover which cards have been put back in the box and, consequently, which cards you have in hand! Keep this table, which shows how many cards are in the deck by type according to the number of players at the centre of the table, available to everyone: it will help you count the cards during the game.

Players	Meat (carne)	Flare (bengala)	Camouflage (mimetica)	Stone (sasso)	Swiss Knife (coltellino svizzero)
3	5	2	1	3	1
4	6	3	2	4	1
5	7	3	2	5	1
6	8	4	3	6	1
7