The Reef Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object
• Contents
• Preparation
• Playing the game
  • 1. Roll dice and take worms
  • 2. Buy and play cards
    • Guidelines
    • Breeding
    • Special cards
    • Paying for cards
    • Reef boats
  • 3. Let the water flow
  • 4. Shuffle the reef cards and discard pile together and fill the empty spaces
• Game end
• Example of a turn

Object

The first player to breed 5 sets of offspring is the winner.

Contents

96 square cards:

• 60 reef cards (back side: blue water)
• 21 offspring cards (back side: water with a school of fish)
• 15 reef boats (front/back the same)

48 worms (8 each in 6 colors)

2 colored dice

1 rule booklet

Preparation

• Before the first game, carefully remove the worms from their frame.
• Thoroughly shuffle the 60 reef cards. Next lay out the playing field between the two players. The reef consists of four rows of 8 cards each. Place the two middle rows face down and the two outside rows face up. Place the remaining reef cards face down in a stack at the shore side of the reef. The reef discard pile is on the sea side of the reef (see diagram, page 2).
• Thoroughly shuffle the offspring cards and place them face down in a stack near the stack of reef cards. Draw four offspring cards from the stack and place them face up in a row next to the offspring card stack. These are the first offspring the players must find the right parents for (see diagram, page 2).
• Place the reef boats in a stack on the sea side of the reef. Each player takes one reef boat and places it next to the first card in the row on the sea side of the reef (see diagram, page 2).
• Place the worms in a pile next to the reef boats. This is the worm supply. Each player takes 6 worms, one of each color.
• The player who can hold his breath under water the longest is the starting player. If the players cannot decide who can hold their breath the longest, the older player starts.

The starting playing field (diagram): the reef lies between the players, with the shore side at one end and the sea side at the other; the reef cards stack is on the shore side, the offspring cards stack beside it, and the discard pile, reef boats and worm supply on the sea side. The direction of flow is from the shore side to the sea side.

Playing the game

The area before each player is his play area. The players alternate turns starting with the starting player. On a player's turn, the player may take the four actions shown below in the order indicated. Some actions are mandatory (must), some optional (may), and others depend on the circumstances (see rules following the list of actions).

1. Roll dice and take worms (must)
2. Buy and play cards (may)
3. Let the water flow (must)
4. Shuffle the reef cards and discard pile together and fill the empty spaces (must)

1. Roll dice and take worms

The player rolls both dice and takes two worms from the supply matching the colors rolled on the dice. His opponent takes one worm matching either color rolled on the dice.

Note: If a color rolled is not available in the supply, the player takes a worm of his choice. The opponent takes a worm of his choice only if both colors are not available.

2. Buy and play cards

A player can buy and play as many cards as he wants and has worms to afford it. He need not buy if he chooses not to.

Guidelines

To catch and breed fish, a player must buy cards from the reef area using the following guidelines:

1. A player may only buy cards from columns in the play area where the player has reef boats.
2. A player pays one worm for a face up card in the row closest to the player.
3. A player pays two worms for a face up card from either middle row. A player may pay one worm to turn over a face down worm in either middle row. If the player wants the card, he pays a second worm to buy it. If the player does not want the card, he may leave it lying face up in the play area.
4. A player pays three worms for a face up card in the row furthest from the player.

(Diagram: the closest row costs 1 worm, the two middle rows cost 2 worms, the furthest row costs 3 worms. A player may buy cards only in the columns where he has reef boats.)

Breeding

To breed offspring, a player must first find a coral card. A player may not buy a fish card until he has a coral card where he can put it. Note: A player may never have more than five coral cards.

When a player buys a coral card, he places it face up in his play area.

Now a player can move two fish (always one male and one female) to the coral card so they can breed offspring. The offspring cards indicate which colors of parent fish are needed to breed the combination of offspring on the card.

For example, if an offspring card pictures yellow-red offspring, then a player must bring a yellow male and a red female or a red male and a yellow female to one of his coral cards to produce the wanted offspring. Note: A player may not bring two parent fish to a coral card unless the offspring card for that combination is one of the four face up offspring cards.

When a player brings a pair of fish to a coral card that matches one of the face up offspring cards, he discards the two parents and puts the corresponding offspring card above the coral card as shown. The coral card with the offspring card remains in the player's play area as one of his five allowed coral cards.

The player immediately turns over the next offspring card from the stack to replace the one taken. The player's turn continues and he may buy more cards and even take the new offspring card if he can get the right combination of cards.

Note: On the fish cards below the gender symbol for the fish, are one or two dots. These represent the number of cards of that color and gender in the game.

Special cards

In addition to coral cards and fish cards, players may have the opportunity to buy pearls and sharks from the reef area. A player may play a special card immediately or put it in his play area to play it at a later time in this turn or a subsequent turn.

Pearls count as 1 worm of any color the player wants. The player discards the pearl card after using it.

Sharks can chase away any face up card from the reef or the player's (who played the shark) play area. The player puts the shark and the chased card (fish, pearl, coral, or another shark) in the discard pile.

Tip: A player may want to chase away a parent fish from one of his coral cards if there are no offspring cards showing that color of fish. This will give him the ability to use that coral for an available offspring combination.

Paying for cards

When a player buys a fish card from the reef, he must pay for it using worms of its color. Each fish costs the appropriate number of worms, based on where it is in the reef, of the color of the fish. For example, to buy a red fish:

• in the closest (first) row, costs 1 red worm,
• that is face up in either middle row, costs 2 red worms,
• that you turned up in either middle row for the cost of 1 worm of any color this turn, costs 1 red worm (thus, the total cost is 2 worms: 1 of any color to turn the card over and 1 red to buy the fish),
• in the furthest (fourth) row, costs 3 red worms.

Note: Pearls may be used as any color worm. In the above example, a pearl could be used in place of a red worm.

All special cards (coral, pearl, or shark) cost 1, 2, or 3 of any color worms (or pearls), depending on where they are in the reef. The worms need not all be the same color.

A player puts worms used to buy cards in the worm supply and pearls used to buy cards in the discard pile.

Reef boats

On his turn, a player may buy one or more reef boats for 3 worms of any color (or pearls) each. The player puts any worms used in the worm supply and any pearls used on the discard pile. The player places his second reef boat next to his first (free) reef boat, his third next to the second and so on. Thus, during the game, each player will build a row of reef boats. With each added boat, a player increases his reach along the reef.

Note: There are 15 reef boats in the game. One player can have a maximum of 8 reef boats and the other is limited to 7.

3. Let the water flow

At the end of a player's turn, he refreshes the reef. The water flows from the shore side to the sea side, pushing the cards into the empty spaces created by the player during his turn. Face down cards remain face down and face up cards remain face up as they flow. When an open sea card (pictured above) reaches the sea side, it is immediately discarded and the water continues to flow, filling up this space. Thus, several open sea cards in a row may be discarded in a turn.

Players should place the cards in the discard pile so they are offset from each other and may be counted (see 4 below).

Tip: To improve the selection of available cards in the reef, a player can use shark cards to remove unwanted fish, shark, pearl, and coral cards. Then, when the water flows at the end of his turn, the player will have access (on his next turn) to different and, hopefully, better cards.

4. Shuffle the reef cards and discard pile together and fill the empty spaces

After letting the water flow, the player counts the cards in the discard pile. If there are seven or more cards in the discard pile, the player combines the reef cards deck with the discard pile and shuffles the result face down to create a new reef cards deck. If there are fewer than seven cards in the discard pile, it is not combined with the reef cards deck. Then the rows are filled to 8 cards from the reef cards deck. The middle row cards are placed face down, and the outer row cards are placed face up. Because of the way the water flows, the new cards will always be placed on the shore side.

Note: If there are not enough cards in the reef card deck to fill the rows, the player shuffles the discard pile face down to create a new reef cards deck. He then uses this deck to finish filling the rows.

Finally, the player gives the dice to his opponent, who begins his turn by rolling them.

Game end

When a player has 5 offspring cards, the game ends and that player is the winner.

Example of a turn

After rolling the dice and taking 2 worms, Anna has 8 worms, 2 pearls, and a shark in her play area. Next she buys a reef boat for any 3 worms. Now she can reach the blue male fish in her opponent's row. Although the fish will cost her 3 blue worms, she is willing to pay the price to take an offspring card. As she has only 1 blue worm, she pays that and her 2 pearls for the fish.

She puts the blue male fish with the red female fish above the coral card in her play area to take the blue-red offspring card. She discards the two parent fish and places the blue-red offspring card above the coral card that held the parents.

She draws a new offspring card (a green-green), placing it face up to replace the one she just took. As Anna has no green fish, but an empty coral card, she tries her luck with the face down cards in the middle row. She turns over one of the face down cards in a column with one of her reef boats, paying one worm (her lilac). Luckily, she finds a green female fish and quickly pays a green worm to take the fish and place it above her empty coral card. As there are no more green male fish in sight and she has no more green worms, she decides to end her quest for a green male fish for now.

But, she still has a shark. She uses this to chase away a yellow male fish that her opponent can use to complete a breeding pair of his own. She puts her shark and the yellow male fish in the discard pile.

Having nothing more she wants to do, Anna lets the water flow by moving the cards into the empty spaces in the direction of the sea side. She counts the cards in the discard pile and finds only 4 so she fills the empty spaces on the shore side with cards from the reef cards deck. She is careful to place cards in the middle rows face down and those in the outer rows face up. She gives her opponent the dice and he starts his turn.