The Great Barrier Reef Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Playing a Turn
  • Play a Reef Card
  • Adjust Scoring
  • Take a Reef Card
  • Refill the Display
• End Game
• End Game Scoring
  • Scoring Using the Included Score Pad

Components

• 69 Reef Cards
• 5 Fish Tokens
• 4 Number Tokens
• 5 Reference Cards
• 5 Scoring Cards (plus 5 more as spares)
• 5 Scoring Markers
• 1 Pad of Score Sheets

Setup

1. Shuffle the Reef card deck and remove a number of cards at random based on the number of players playing the game:
   • 2 Players - Remove 31 Cards
   • 3 Players - Remove 17 Cards
   • 4 Players - Remove 5 Cards
   • 5 Players - Remove 0 Cards
2. Deal 3 Reef cards to each player.
3. Flip over 4 Reef cards and place the 4 Number tokens above the cards in ascending order from left to right to form the Reef card market. Place the remaining Reef cards face down in a deck to the left of the 1st Reef card.
4. Shuffle the Scoring cards and place 5 of them face up above the Reef cards. Shuffle the fish tokens and place 1 face up on each of the Scoring cards.
5. Place a Scoring Marker on the shaded spot of each Scoring Card.
6. The person who most recently swam in the ocean goes first.

Playing a Turn

On your turn, complete the following actions in order:

1. Play a Reef card to the table in front of you - partially overlapping a previously played Reef card if possible. (The cards on the table in front of you are called your Reef.)
2. If the card played covers a Sponge or a Tiger Shark, adjust scoring.
3. Take the Reef card from the Reef card market and add it to your hand.
4. Refill the Reef card market.

Play a Reef Card

Choose one of the 3 cards from your hand and play it to your reef. In all rounds except the first, the card that is played must overlap at least 1 quadrant on an existing card in your tableau. The card must be played right side up - it cannot be rotated.

Adjust Scoring

If the card you played to your tableau overlaps a Sponge, move the scoring marker one spot to the right on any scoring card for each sponge you covered.

If the card you played overlaps a Tiger Shark, move the scoring marker one spot to the right on any scoring card and another scoring marker one spot to the left on any other scoring card for each sea urchin you covered.

Take a Reef Card

Take the Reef card from the market in the position that matches the number in the center of the card that you just played to your reef. If the card you played has an asterisk (*), you may select any card from the display.

Note: Getting the cards you want from the market is a big part of the game. Sometimes you have to play a card to your reef without knowing how you will use it moving forward to ensure that you can get the card you need from the market before someone else takes it.

Refill the Display

Draw the top card from the reef deck and add it face up to the empty spot left in the reef market.

End Game

When the last card is drawn from the Reef card deck, you will play a final round in which each player will add 1 final Reef card from their hand to their reef. In this final round, skip the step where you would normally take a new Reef card from the market. Each player will end the game with 2 Reef cards left in their hand.

After playing the final round, proceed to End Game Scoring.

End Game Scoring

Using the included score sheets, calculate final scores as follows:

1. Each player scores the 5 fish according to the scoring cards. Each scoring card scores the number of points indicated by the scoring marker for each time the condition on the card is satisfied by their reef.
2. Score points for any Coral, Sponges, and Tiger Sharks that are uncovered in your reef. Coral and Sponges are worth 1 point each and Tiger Sharks are worth 2 points each.
3. Subtract 2 points for each Crown-of-Thorns Starfish that is uncovered in your reef.

Scoring Using the Included Score Pad

An example score, as printed on the score sheet:

• Red Snapper: 0 (has no Red Snappers in a 3-in-a-corner formation)
• Parrot Fish: 4 (has 1 group of Parrot Fish in a 3-in-a-row formation)
• Damsel Fish: 0 (has no Damsel Fish in a 4-in-an-L formation)
• Clown Fish: 16 (has 1 group of Clown Fish in a 4-in-a-block formation)
• Butterfly Fish: 12 (has 2 groups of Butterfly Fish in a 3-diagonal formation)
• Coral: 2 (has 2 visible Coral)
• Sponges: 1 (has 1 visible Sponge)
• Tiger Sharks: 0 (has 0 visible Tiger Sharks)
• Crown-of-Thorns Starfish: -8 (has visible Crown-of-Thorns Starfish)
• Total: 27

The player with the most points wins! In the case of a tie, the tied player with the fewest Crown-of-Thorns Starfish in their reef wins. If there is still a tie, players rejoice in their shared victory.