Seagrass Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
• Introductory Mode
• Important Terms
• Keeping Score
• How to Play
• Research Colony
  • A. Establish or expand colony
  • B. Score Points
  • C. Draw a tile (if hand is empty)
• Research Reef
  • A. Expand an explored reef
  • B. Draw up to three new tiles
• Special Creatures
• Score Completed Reefs
  • A. Score points
  • B. Place antler
• End of the game
• Discovery Expansion
  • Setup
  • How To Play
  • End of the game

Setup

1. Place the game board between the players. The board is double-sided, with a different play area on each side. Both sides use the same rules. If playing with beginners, we recommend the front side.

2. Place the 60 point tokens in a common supply beside the board.

3. Give each player 32 creature tiles of one color and a tile rack. Find your four special creature tiles and place these face up in front of you. Shuffle the remaining creature tiles into a face-down supply, separate for each player.

4. Each player draws five creature tiles from their own face-down supply. Stand these tiles upright in your tile rack, so that you can see the creatures but the other players cannot. This is your starting hand of tiles.

5. The play area is split into four regions separated by thick borders. For two and three players, choose a number of connected regions equal to the number of players to be in play. With four players, use the whole area.

6. Take a number of reef tiles equal to three times the number of players (including the starting reef tile):

   • 2 players: 6 reef tiles
   • 3 players: 9 reef tiles
   • 4 players: all 12 reef tiles

   Flip the tiles face down, shuffle them, and place one on each reef space in the regions in play. Then, flip all the reef tiles face up — one of these tiles should be marked as the starting reef tile.

7. Make a supply of reef antlers equal to one less than the total number of reef tiles in play:

   • 2 players: 5 antlers
   • 3 players: 8 antlers
   • 4 players: all 11 antlers

Important! Tiles can only be played in regions with reef tiles. With two or three players, the borders of a region without reef tiles form part of the edge of the play area. Make sure all players understand where these edges are. Tiles cannot be played outside of the play area or on the dark rock spaces.

Introductory Mode

When introducing the game to new or younger players, we recommend removing the special creature tiles. Ignore the "Special Creatures" rules. All other rules are unchanged.

Important Terms

Colonies: A colony is a contiguous group of one player's tiles all of the same creature. A colony can be one tile.

Reefs: A reef is a contiguous group of one reef tile and connected face-down player tiles. Players expand reefs throughout the course of the game. Reefs can never be connected to each other.

Keeping Score

When you score points, take point tokens from the supply equal to the points scored and keep them in a stack in front of you. Keep the exact number of points a secret. You may freely exchange point tokens to ensure a convenient supply is maintained.

How to Play

The player who most recently saw a sea creature goes first. Play then continues clockwise. On your turn, take one research action, then check to see if any reef must be scored.

Research Colony — or — Research Reef

then, if any reefs have been completed,

Score Completed Reefs

Important! You may not inspect the tiles in any player's face-down supply, including your own.

Research Colony

When you take this action, do the following in order:

A. Establish or expand colony B. Score points C. Draw a tile (if hand is empty)

A. Establish or expand colony

Play one or more tiles from your hand showing the same creature onto empty spaces in the play area.

Note: You may never play tiles onto the dark rock spaces.

Every tile you play must be adjacent to an explored reef or a face-up creature tile (belonging to any player and showing any creature). If you play two or more tiles, they must be played in the same colony (i.e., in a contiguous group). You cannot choose to split them.

Note: At the start of the game, only the starting reef tile is considered explored. All other reef tiles are unexplored until a creature tile touches them. After that, they are considered explored.

Example: Blue wishes to establish a colony by playing her jellyfish tiles. She can play her first jellyfish onto any of the designated spaces (and additional jellyfish can extend outward from there).

Blue plays three jellyfish tiles into one colony that extends to an unexplored reef tile. This reef tile is now considered explored, so players can establish colonies next to it.

Now it is Purple's turn. He can establish a colony by playing his first creature tile onto any of the designated spaces.

B. Score Points

After you play creature tiles, score points equal to the number of creatures in the new colony (count the number of creatures, not the number of tiles). If you expanded one of your existing colonies, score points equal to the total number of creatures in the entire colony. (You never score points for the creatures on other players' tiles.)

Example: Purple establishes a colony by playing four tiles containing six jellyfish. Purple collects six points for the six jellyfish in his established colony.

On Green's turn, she expands her colony by playing two more crab tiles next to her crab colony. Green collects five points for expanding her crab colony that now has five total crabs.

On Blue's turn, she establishes another jellyfish colony by playing next to the newly explored reef (and reaching an unexplored reef). She collects three points for the three jellyfish in this established colony (her other four jellyfish do not score because they are not part of the same colony).

C. Draw a tile (if hand is empty)

If your hand is empty at the end of your turn, draw one tile from your face-down supply. Otherwise, do not draw tiles.

Research Reef

When you take this action, do the following in order:

A. Expand an explored reef B. Draw up to three new tiles

A. Expand an explored reef

Choose a tile from your hand and place it face down adjacent to any tile in an explored reef. A reef cannot be expanded until it has been explored.

Remember! Each reef must remain separate from every other reef. You cannot connect reefs by placing a face-down tile in a space adjacent to more than one reef. Empty spaces adjacent to two reefs can only have face-up creatures played onto them.

Note: If there are no spaces where you can expand an explored reef, you must take a Research Colony action instead.

Example: Blue plays a tile from her hand face down to expand an explored reef. She plays it adjacent to her double jellyfish tile to improve her chances of scoring points from the reef (more on this later). Blue draws only two tiles into her hand because this brings her hand up to seven tiles (the maximum limit).

Green is running low on tiles in her hand, so on her turn she also decides to take a research reef action. If she wishes to expand the same reef, she can play a tile face down onto the designated spaces. Note that she cannot play in the top-right space as this would connect two reefs (which is not allowed). Or she can expand a different reef. After expanding a reef, she draws three tiles into her hand.

B. Draw up to three new tiles

After you expand a reef, draw up to three new tiles from your face-down supply and add them to your hand. If there are only one or two tiles in your supply, draw them all. You cannot have more than seven tiles in your hand. If you have five tiles in hand, draw two tiles. If you have six tiles in hand, draw one tile.

Important! You may take the Research Reef action even after your face-down supply of tiles is empty. In this case, you expand a reef but draw no tiles.

Special Creatures

During a Research Colony action, you may choose to add your matching special creature tile to the creature tiles you play from your hand.

Important! You cannot play a special creature tile on its own. It must be played with at least one other matching creature tile from your hand.

Special jellyfish: The special jellyfish tile has four jellyfish on it.

Example: Purple expands his jellyfish colony by playing a regular jellyfish tile from his hand with his special jellyfish tile. Purple collects 11 points for expanding his jellyfish colony that now has 11 total jellyfish.

Special turtle: The special turtle tile has two turtles on it. When you play it, resolve the Research Colony action completely, then immediately take a Research Reef action.

Example: Green establishes a turtle colony and includes her special turtle with the tiles played. She collects five points for the five turtles in her established colony and then immediately takes a Research Reef action for playing the special turtle. Green could expand any explored reef, but decides to expand the reef that she just reached with her turtles. She plays a tile face down from her hand to do this and then draws three new tiles into her hand.

Special starfish: The special starfish tile has two starfish on it. When you play it, you must split the starfish tiles you play this turn between two colonies, either new or existing (the colonies cannot be adjacent to each other). Score both colonies as normal.

Example: Blue plays four starfish tiles along with his special starfish. Because he is playing a special starfish, he must split them into two colonies. He plays two of the tiles to expand a colony and the other three tiles to establish a new colony. Blue scores both of these colonies (six points for the expanded colony and four points for the new colony) and collects 10 points.

Special crab: The special crab tile has one crab on it. You must play it onto a space occupied by any creature tile belonging to another player. Remove the existing tile and return it to the box. All the crab tiles you play this turn must still be played in the same colony (i.e., in a contiguous group).

Example: Green plays her special crab with two crab tiles to expand her colony and remove Blue's tile (which happens to be his special starfish). Blue's tile is returned to the box and replaced by the special crab. Green collects nine points for expanding her crab colony that is now nine total crabs. The reef is now fully surrounded by face-up creature tiles and the edge of the play area (in this case, the dark rock spaces), so this will trigger scoring of the completed reef.

Score Completed Reefs

At the end of every turn, check if any reefs are completely surrounded by face-up creature tiles and the edge of the play area. For each completed reef, do the following in order:

A. Score points B. Place antler

A. Score points

Count the total number of tiles in the reef, then count the total number of creatures of all types that each player has on tiles that are directly adjacent to the reef. The players with the most and second-most creatures adjacent score points depending on the size of the reef:

Reef size	Most creatures	Second-most creatures
1 tile	0 points	—
2 tiles	4 points	2 points
3 tiles	8 points	4 points
4 tiles	16 points	8 points
5+ tiles	24 points	12 points

In a two-player game, the player with the second-most creatures only scores points if they have at least half as many creatures as the player with the most.

If there is a tie for most creatures, add the points for most and second most and split them between the tied players, rounding up. No other points are awarded. If a single player has the most creatures, but there is a tie for second most, split the points for second most between the tied players, rounding up. If there is only one player adjacent to the reef, no player scores the second-most points.

B. Place antler

After you score a reef, place one of the antlers from the supply onto the reef tile.

Example: After green places her crab tiles, the 3-size reef is now completely surrounded by face up creature tiles and the edge of the play area (here, dark rock spaces). The completed reef is now scored. Green has the most creatures directly adjacent (six crabs) and collects eight points. Blue has the second most creatures directly adjacent (three jellyfish plus two starfish) and collects four points. Then, an antler is placed on the reef.

Example: Purple makes a big play by playing his special turtle with four turtle tiles. He collects seven points for the seven turtles in his established colony and then immediately takes a Research Reef action for playing the special turtle.

Purple plays a tile face down to expand the reef he just surrounded so it is now completed. Purple has the most creatures directly adjacent (two jellyfish plus seven turtles) and collects 16 points. Blue and Green are tied for the second most creatures directly adjacent (three starfish for Blue and three crabs for Green) so they split the second place points and each collect four points. Then, an antler is placed on the reef.

End of the game

The game ends immediately when one of the following happens. Any incomplete reefs are not scored.

• The last antler is placed. In the rare case that all remaining incomplete reefs are completed in a single turn, score all of them, even though an antler cannot be placed on the final reef.

— or —

• A player ends their turn with no tiles in hand. This happens when a player empties their hand and cannot draw tiles because their face-down supply is empty.

Add up the total value of the point tokens you have collected. The player with the most points is the winner. If players are tied for most points, the tied player with the most unplayed tiles is the winner. If still tied, the players share the victory.

Discovery Expansion

The Discovery expansion features tokens that reward players who connect unique creatures to reefs!

Components: 48 Discovery Tokens

Setup

Each discovery token matches one of the four creature types. During setup, stack a set of four discovery tokens, one of each type, on each reef tile. Return any unused discovery tokens to the box.

How To Play

The first player to play a creature tile that touches a reef takes the matching discovery token from that reef. This can also happen if a player plays a face-down tile to expand a reef so that the reef touches a type of creature for the first time. The player who played this creature tile takes the discovery token.

Keep your discovery tokens in front of you and visible to other players. If you collect a complete set of four discovery tokens (one of each creature type) immediately return them to the box and collect 10 points.

When a reef is completed, return any unclaimed discovery tokens on it to the box. These are not claimed by any player.

Example: Green plays her special starfish with two starfish tiles so she can split them into two colonies. Because she was the first player to play a starfish next to two reefs, she takes the starfish discovery tokens from those reefs. Green now has a complete set of discovery tokens, so she returns the set to the box and collects 10 points.

End of the game

At the end of the game, each remaining discovery token you have is worth 1 point.