In Too Deep (2023) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Set Up
• Game Play
  • 1) Buying a share
  • 2) Increasing a company's depth
    • Dividend
  • 3) Drawing a new card
• Game End
• Company Specific Abilities
  • Ocean Cleaning
  • Treasure Hunting
  • Pearl Diving
  • Ocean and Coastal Research
  • Wildlife Spotting
• Two-Player Rules

Components

• 100 depth & share cards (referred to as DS cards)
• 5 company cards (double sided)
• 5 bonus shares (for two player game)

Set Up

• Take the five double sided company cards and place them next to each other in the middle of the table. For the first game you use the basic side, if you are more experienced you can use the side with the asterisk or mix the two sides.
• Take all 100 depth & share cards, hereinafter referred to as DS cards, and shuffle them to form a draw deck which is placed next to the company cards. Next, deal each player six DS cards. The starting player becomes the player with the lowest DS card. Being the starting player has small advantage. The other players therefore receive a bonus: in clockwise order, the first player receives an extra DS card, the second two DS cards, etc. All players take all their DS cards to their hand without showing it to others.
• You then take a number of DS cards from the draw deck and place them face up on the table: the number of cards is equal to the number of players times two. Going clockwise from the starting player, every player takes one of the DS cards and places it face up in front of them on the table. Go around twice. Every player therefore receives two free DS cards, these are your first shares and therefore the start of your investments.
• For a two-player game, please follow the special instructions at the end of this rule book.

Game Play

Players take their turns in clockwise order, starting with the starting player. A turn consists of one of three actions: 1) buying a share, 2) increasing a company's depth (expanding it), or 3) drawing a new card. When the draw deck has been depleted for the second time, the game ends.

1) Buying a share

You buy a share by playing the desired share (DS card) from your hand and paying the price of the share. The price of a share is equal to the number of shares in that company already owned by all players in the game. You pay the price by discarding cards to the discard pile, with each card counting as one. Once you've bought the share, you place it in front of you on the table and you group together all shares of the same company while making sure all your shares remain visible for other players. If you do not have the share in your hand or you cannot pay the price, you cannot buy this share.

Note that you ignore the depth side of the DS card when it is used as a share.

Example: Richard wants to buy a Pearl-share, there are already four Pearl-shares owned by himself and others. Richard needs to discard four cards to buy the Pearl-share.

2) Increasing a company's depth

You increase a company's depth (expand it) by playing a depth card (DS card). To do so, the expansion rule is that the number on your depth card must be higher than the number on the most recent depth card in this specific company. If there is no depth card yet, you can play any number. You do not have to own shares in the company that you want to expand. Note that you ignore the share side of the DS card when it is used as a depth card.

Every company has a company specific ability, these are explained at the end of the rulebook. Some of these abilities can be used when you expand a company, others are only relevant at the end of the game.

Dividend

Every time you expand a company and take it to a new 'decade', you trigger a dividend payout. Dividend is now paid to every player that has shares in this specific company. Players get one card from the draw deck per share they have in the company and take it to their hand. Note that a dividend payout is triggered with any new decade, it does not have to be consecutive and if you play the first depth card in a company it automatically is a new decade.

Dividend Example: Maria expands the Wildlife-company from 13 to 44, taking it to a new decade. She has two shares and therefore receives two DS cards. Irene has three shares and therefore receives three DS cards.

3) Drawing a new card

You might not want (or be able) to buy a share or increase a company's depth, in that case you can draw a single DS card from the top of the draw deck and add it to your hand.

If all players consecutively draw a new card, an emergency fundraiser takes place: all players receive an additional two cards from the draw deck. Play then continues normally. However, if there are two emergency fundraisers directly after one another, the game end is immediately triggered.

Game End

When the draw deck is depleted, the discard pile is shuffled and used to form a new draw deck. If this is in the middle of a dividend payout or emergency fundraiser, any cards still owed to players after the depletion are distributed from the new draw deck.

The game end is triggered when the draw deck is depleted the second time. Payouts are still completed using cards from the discard pile. Note that the game also ends if there are two emergency fundraisers directly after one another. Once the game end is triggered, play continues to allow every player one final turn. In this final turn there are no dividend payouts, and you cannot use company specific abilities.

The value of each company is now determined: it is equal to the number of depth cards played in that company. Note that company specific abilities could change the value of a company.

Per company, you multiply your shares with the value of the company. You then tally up the totals per company to come to the full value of your share portfolio. The player with the highest valued share portfolio wins the game. If there is a tie, the tiebreaker is the number of DS cards in player's hands: the player with the most cards wins. Should there still be a tie, the player furthest from the starting player, in clockwise order, wins.

Scoring example: Richard has 4 Pearl, 3 Wildlife and 2 Treasure shares. His end game score will be 27 points:

• Treasure: 2x4 = 8 points
• Wildlife: 3x1 = 3 points
• Pearl: 4x(2+2) = 16 points (these shares are worth 2 extra points because of the company's ability)

Company Specific Abilities

There are five company cards, each with a basic and advanced side (marked with an asterisk). The company cards each have a company specific ability. This ability might influence its dividend payout, its end-of-game value or provide an optional action in a player's turn. Note that such an optional action can never result in an extra dividend payout and dividend is paid out before the action.

Ocean Cleaning

Basic: optional – When you expand the Ocean cleaning company, you can immediately discard two additional DS cards from your hand to take a depth card from a company of your choice and discard it.

Advanced: optional – When you expand the Ocean cleaning company, you can immediately discard one DS card to remove the most recent depth card of a company, or move it to another company while adhering to the expansion rules on height of numbers.

Treasure Hunting

Basic: When dividend is paid out in the Treasure company, the player with the most Treasure-shares receives an additional DS card. If multiple players have the most shares, they all get an extra card.

Advanced: When dividend is paid out in the Treasure company, the player that triggered the payout receives as many DS cards as the player with the most shares in the Treasure company. Note that the payout to this player is instead of their 'normal' dividend payout and all other players receive dividend as normal.

Pearl Diving

Basic: At the end of the game, each share in the Pearl company is worth an additional two points/value.

Advanced: At the end of the game, each share in the Pearl company is worth the same as the most valuable company in the game minus two.

Ocean and Coastal Research

Basic: optional – When you expand the Research company, you immediately get to buy a share from your hand with a discount on the price of two. The bought share does not have to be a Research-share. The price cannot go below zero.

Advanced: optional – When you expand the Research company, you immediately get to buy a share of your choice from another players' portfolio. The other player cannot block this. The price for this purchase is equal to the normal price of a share in the relevant company and is paid to the other player. The minimum price is two.

Wildlife Spotting

Basic: optional – When you expand the Wildlife company, you can immediately discard an additional DS card from your hand to do one of two actions: 1) Take one of the three most recent depth cards of a company and move it to become the most recent card (so on the top). Or 2) take one of the three most recent depth cards of a company and move it to another company where it fits following the expansion rules.

Advanced: optional – When you expand the Wildlife company, you immediately get to play another depth card on a company of your choice while ignoring the expansion rules on height of the numbers. However, if the number of your depth card is lower than the most recent card, you must pay a price of one card per higher card already in the company.

Two-Player Rules

When playing with two players, you set up the game as normal with three exceptions:

• Both players receive eight instead of six cards in their hand.
• Neither player receives shares to start with, instead there are six DS cards opened up to form the start of a share portfolio for an imaginary third player.
• The five bonus shares are shuffled into the DS draw deck.

Whenever a bonus share is drawn from the deck, the 'third' player receives an extra share:

1. Discard the bonus share.
2. Draw four more DS cards.
3. Within those four DS cards, award the share that the third player already owns the most, to the third player. If there is a tie, the third player gets the share that was drawn first.
4. Of the remaining three cards, the one with the lowest number possible (according to the expansion rules) is added to the company that the third player just received a share in.

If another bonus share is drawn while going through these steps, set the new bonus share aside and deal with it after completing the steps.

You are able to use company specific abilities on the third player, the third players' shares count towards prices of shares but the third player does not compete for victory at the end of the game.