Bios Megafauna Living Rules
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Bios Megafauna Living Rules The continuing contest between dinosaurs and mammals. These updates are from player feedback; please submit to http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Megafauna/ By Philip Eklund, Copyright © 2011 by Sierra Madre Games Co. Living Rules: Version 2 February 2012 Incorporates ideas from the Foukarakis-Ardila variant SUMMARY: There are four rules changes: 3.5d During set-up, immigrants are discarded instead of being returned to the pool. 3.5e During set-up of the 3 and 4 player game, use two displays instead of one. Per 5.0d, ignore the events for the upper display. 9.2e Homelands being farmed are immune to extinction. 11.0 P DNA adds to migration range.
There are four new optional rules: 3.5e Experimental Scythian Set-Up 4.1e and f. Two optional rules for roadrunner and genetic drift. 18.0b Optional rule to draw from Cenozoic as soon as Mesozoic runs out. Also a 2-action variant (4.5)
CONTENTS
1.0 Introduction 15.0 Greenhouse 2.0 Components 16.0 Extinctions 3.0 Set-Up 17.0 Episodes 4.0 Sequence of Play 18.0 Ending the Game 5.0 Purchase a Card 19.0 Solitaire Rules 6.0 Resolve the Event 20.0 Example of Play 7.0 Play a Card 21.0 Tips on how to Play 8.0 Resize One of your Species 22.0 Milieu 9.0 Acculturate One of your Species 23.0 References 10.0 Expand an Animal 24.0 Credits 11.0 Migrate 25.0 Player Resources 12.0 Rooter Biomes Endnotes 13.0 Herbivore Contests Sequence of Play and Game Summary 14.0 Carnivore Contests W, a, X, and “wings” DNA NOTE: If you have played the 2nd edition, keep in mind this Continental Drift Edition makes the following obsolete: Size competition for predators Catastrophe Card Omnivorous mmm Physiology sheets Biomass Starburst cards Hex Capacity Bridge markers Orientation Tents Hex Timeline Borderlands Displacement Arrows, displaced biomes Climate preference Size arrow, size dial Heritage DNA Physiological DNA location Land Drier, wetter, blooms, seasonal, doldrums
1 1.0 INTRODUCTION Note: This game uses no dice. A quarter billion years ago, the Permian Extinction killed off Important: This game is deliberately limited to the components almost all plants and animals on Earth. Two surviving groups, provided. If during play the Era tile pool runs empty, see Ending both lizard-like, struggled to emerge as the dominant megafauna the Game (18.0). on the planet. Today they have evolved into many forms, yet these groups can still be differentiated by their teeth. The ancestor of 2.2 Dentition Code and Dynasty.1 dinosaurs had a sloppy bite, using uniformly-shaped teeth that were constantly replaced. The ancestor of mammals had a Your dentition code defines how many teeth all of your animals precision bite, using one set of teeth lasting its entire life. have. This is listed on each of your four placeholder cards, and is a permanent value for all your species.* The more teeth you have, the better your animals are at being a herbivore. The fewer teeth These two groups fought for global dominance for 50 million you have, the better your animals are at being carnivores. years, but by the close of the Triassic, the dinosaurs reigned Example: The placeholder shown is for player Orange. supreme. Unchallenged for 130 million years, they met their doom in a gigantic asteroid strike. Opportunistic mammals have Note: The paleontologist silhouette on the placeholder cards dominated for the last 65 million years… but the contest isn’t over. indicates the size of a 6-foot tall human in scale to the animal Bios Megafauna re-enacts the roller-coaster struggle for shown. terrestrial supremacy. a. Least-Teeth Order. The Least-Teeth order is: 2-teeth (Red), 3-teeth (Orange), 4-teeth (Green), and 5-teeth 1.1 Bios Series (White). This order is used to see who goes first (4.1) and Bios Megafauna is the successor to American Megafauna, which during scoring ties (4.4b). has been for 20 years the definitive evolution game. The Bios b. Dynasty. Players are either Dinosaurian or Mammalian. This series is a set of natural history games spanning all of Earth’s distinction is used when generating genotypes (7.4). history. The first one published was Origins, the only civilization c. Player colors, dynasties, and dentition codes. game covering the last 125,000 years. Future publications: Bios Genesis (Earth’s first 4 billion years); Bios Insecta, and Bios COLOR in Dentition Today’s Survivors least-teeth DYNASTY Technium (the evolution of technology). order Code Dinosaurian Dinosaurs 1. Red 2-teeth 1.2 Overview of Play Dino-croc archosaur (crocodiles & birds) From 1 to 4 players start as a small unspecialized species of proto- Placental Mammals Mammalian (primates, ungulates, dinosaurs (red or green figures) or proto-mammals (white or 2. Orange 3-teeth Dog-face cynodont carnivora, rodents, orange figures). These creatures are distinguished by dentition; etc.) some have long batteries of teeth better suited for masticating Dinosaurian Rhynchosaurs 3. Green 4-teeth plants, while others have fewer teeth better suited for meat-eating. Chisel lizard diapsid (snakes & lizards) Each player starts with genes used to purchase mutation and Mammalian Extinct Mammal genotype cards. Stacks of cards and inheritance tiles indicate the 4. White 5-teeth relatives dietary DNA of your species, giving it adaptations such as long Two-tusker synapsid necks for browsing treetops. Markers on tracks record roadrunner DNA, attributes that help your species catch prey or avoid being prey, such as swiftness or aggressiveness. Tiles that have gone extinct are collected in an area on the map called the “tarpits”. These tiles are distributed among the most populous players as victory points during four scoring rounds.
1.3 Game Scale (footer) Each turn is 2 million years; each card draw is 10 million years. Each habitat represents a physiographic region 1000 km across, supporting 4000 megatons of vegetation, arthropod, or seafood biomass. Each animal represents 60 megatons if herbivorous, or 2 megatons if predatory. (A "megaton" is a million tons, where each ton is about 1000 kg.)
2.0 COMPONENTS 2.3 Cards and Tiles with DNA. 2.1 Components List Cards come in three types: placeholder (2.7), mutation (7.1), and 1 Rulebook genotype (7.4). Tiles come in two types: era (2.4) and inheritance (10.3c). 1 Mounted Map a. DNA Code. DNA is encoded on cards and tiles by upper-case 108 Mutation, Genotype, & Placeholder Cards letters of the alphabet. Each letter records one attribute. The 14426 Era and Inheritance Tiles two kinds of DNA are Dietary and Roadrunner. Dietary 128 Wooden Animals (64 dinosaur, 64 mammals) DNA is in dark blue letters, and roadrunner DNA is in red letters. 15 white gene chips, 3 red marker chips b. Dietary DNA Codes.
2 B = Browser (ability to eat trees) 2 snowflake, leaf, sun, raincloud, or triangle. This indicates the G = Grazer (ability to digest grass and shrubs) 3 row of habitats that the biome starts in. A climax number is 4 listed within the latitude icon, on a scale of 1 to 99. The H = Husker (ability to shell nuts) lower the climax, the more likely the biome is to go extinct. I = Insectivore (ability to eat small invertebrates) e. Orogeny Biome. These biomes are orange with a triangular P = Physiology (behavior and climate adaptations) latitude icon. The orogeny shown is volcanic (6.1e) with a c. Roadrunner DNA Codes. Roadrunner DNA describes climax of 93. Orogeny biomes only occupy mountain ranges adaptations to catch prey, or to avoid becoming prey. and do not displace during greenhouse level changes (15.1a). Roadrunner DNA (the term is inspired by the Warner Brothers cartoon) comes in four kinds: A = Aggressive or Armored M = Marine N = Nocturnal or Burrowing S = Speedy d. Species Genome. The mutations of a species are encoded by a string of DNA letters called a genome. The dietary genome f. Homeland Biomes. Four biomes represent the starting of a species is recorded on the cards and tiles in its stack. The homelands of the players. They are unique in four ways: roadrunner genome of a species is recorded by animals in four roadrunner tracks (2.5b). (1) They start in a specific slot on the map. e. Multiple Specializations. If a species has more than one copy (2) They have no requirements (2.4b), so any herbivore may of a DNA type, the results are cumulative. eat them. Example: An animal with SS is speedier than an animal with (3) They have a color niche (13.2c). just S. (4) The player Color is shown on their reverse. f. Stack. A species’ dietary DNA is defined by its stack, composed of mutation cards (7.1), genotype cards (7.4) and/or inheritance tiles (10.3c) stacked on a placeholder card (2.7). It’s possible for a stack to be active with only the placeholder card, as long as it has animals on the map.
2.4 Era Tiles (Immigrants & Biomes). a. Colors. Era tiles are divided into two groups: those with blue g. Immigrant Era Tiles. Some era tiles represent foreign backs and pink frames (drawn during the Mesozoic Era), and invading animals. They are labeled as “herbivore” or those with white backs and white frames (the Cenozoic Era). “predator” plus a dentition code. In the lower left corner is a The faces are also color-coded: orange = orogeny (mountain- latitude icon, the row of habitats it enters. The immigrant’s building) biome, green = terrestrial biome, blue = sea size is as marked if it’s a herbivore. Predator immigrants are biome, yellow = land immigrant, and light blue = sea always the same size as their prey. immigrant. Orange and green biomes are collectively called land biomes. 5 b. Requirements. DNA is required to eat all biomes (except for QuickTime™ and a homelands, 2.4f). These required adaptations are shown on areTIFF needed (LZW) to decompressor see this picture. the top of the tile, as a DNA code (2.3a).
Immigrant Era Tiles have no climax numbers.
2.5 Map Tracks a. Size Track. Each species uses an animal in this track to show its size. The sizes are abstracted from one (22 kg) to six (40 tons). b. Roadrunner Tracks. Four tracks show levels of roadrunner DNA (2.3c): speedy (S), marine (M), nocturnal (N) and Example: The plankton tile shown has requirements “MM”. aggressive (A). To eat this tile, an herbivore needs at least two “marine” DNA. c. Cultures. Six areas indicate species tools and techniques, see 9.2. c. Niche.6 All biomes have a niche listed in the small white square in the top right corner. It is not part of the d. Tarpit. This area stores dead plants and immigrants, see requirements, but rather is used during herbivore culls (13.2). 16.1a. Example: The plankton tile shown has a niche “size”, see e. Greenhouse Level. This scale tracks global climate, see 15.0. 13.2b. f. Ammonite and sunflower. Removal of disks from these d. Latitude and Climax.7 Each biome lists a latitude icon: a spots trigger episodes per 17.0.
3 each. 2.6 Map8 The map shows North America as it was in the early Mesozoic 3.3 Start with 5 inheritance tiles. Era. Each player takes the five inheritance tiles (10.3c) marked with his a. Habitats. The map is divided into 26 habitats, each with a Color. square slot and two triangles. Each slot contains a climax Note: Your stacks and genes are open and can be freely examined. number on the same scale as those on biomes (2.4d). See diagram below: Optional: The 16 roadrunner tiles (an example is shown) may optionally be used by any player to help keep track of his species’ roadrunner DNA, but they have no effect on gameplay.
3.4 Start the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Era pools. Divide the era tiles into two face-down pools according to the b. Predator and Rooter Triangles. Each habitat contains an color on their reverse side: blue (Mesozoic) and white (Cenozoic). upper and lower triangle. The upper one is called the Set aside the four homeland tiles (2.4f). predator triangle, and the lower one is called the rooter triangle. Animals placed into the upper triangle are carnivores. They eat animals in the biome and rooter triangle 3.5 Place random biomes on the map. called herbivores. Animals placed into the lower triangle are Draw 22 Mesozoic Era Tiles at random and put each on the map rooter herbivores that are eating nuts or roots (12.0b). as follows: c. Mountain Ranges.9 There are two north-south mountain a. Non-orogeny Biomes. If a terrestrial or sea biome is drawn, ranges marked in orange on the map. Each range has three put it into the latitude indicated by its latitude icon (2.4d). slots, bordered in red. Mountain-building tiles called orogeny Choose the slot in this latitude having the lowest-climax per biomes (2.4e) will appear in these two ranges during the 3.5c. If this slot is occupied, replace it with the new biome. game. Either orogeny or non-orogeny tiles can occupy a Put the old biome in the tarpit (16.1a). mountain range slot, however. b. Orogeny Biomes. An orogeny biome is always put into one of the six slots in a mountain range (2.6c). For the set-up d. Latitudes. Each row of habitats is called a latitude. These are only, choose the lowest-climax slot in the eastern (Hercynian) 10 labeled "arctic", "jet stream", "horse latitude", and "tropical" mountain range. Again, if this slot is occupied, replace it with latitudes. Note there are two rows of tropics. the new biome. c. Determining the Climax of a Slot. If a slot is empty, its climax is as printed on the map (2.6a). If a slot is occupied (by a previously-placed biome), the climax is as printed on the biome tile occupying the slot (2.4d). d. Immigrants. Tiles with no listed climax are immigrants, see e. Empty Habitats. Habitats that don’t contain a biome are sea 2.4g. Each one drawn is discarded out of the game without if the greenhouse level is very high (top two spots), and land being replaced. otherwise (see 15.2). This is significant during migration (11.1). Note: Ignore the greenhouse shifts of volcanos that appear during set-up. 2.7 Placeholders e. Scythian Set-up Variant (Experimental, courtesy Steve Carey): When setting up the game, discard out of the game the Sixteen cards in the deck act as placeholders for the player’s first 6 revealed immigrant tiles without replacing them. Upon species stacks. Each player gets four of his Color, each with a revealing the 7th (and any subsequent) immigrant tiles, set different silhouette (animal token shape). them off to the side in a separate pile and redraw a new Mesozoic Era Tile to replace it. If another immigrant, redraw again until a biome is drawn. Continue this process until 16 2.8 Animals biomes and 6 immigrants complete the 22 Mesozoic Era Tiles Each player Color has 32 wooden animals. These are in four specified for set-up (3.5). Then mix the 7th (and any shapes, representing the four species that each player is allowed.11 subsequent) immigrant tiles back into the Mesozoic Era Tile pool before beginning play.
3.0 SET-UP Note: This variant does not guarantee that 16 Biomes will 3.1 Each player is randomly assigned a Color. begin on the map as some may be displaced to the tarpit as The player gets the 32 animals and the 4 placeholder cards of this latitudes potentially fill up, per the normal set-up rules (3.5a). color. Historical Note: The Scythian Set-up Variant is named after the horse-riding pastoralist hordes who in the 7 th century BC 3.2 Receive Starting Genes. swept through and devastated the Ukraine and Central Asia. The player with the least-teeth (2.2a) gets 3 genes (white disks The local peoples impacted not only survived but thrived in the simulating genetic variation). The remaining players get 4 genes post-Scythian years, in a manner analogous to the recovery of
4 life on Earth after the Permian Extinction Event(s). The a. Atlantic Rift and Era. Place a clear red disk in the Scythian Epoch is the geological term used to describe the “ammonite” (Atlantic Rift”, 5.2d) and “sunflower” (Era Disk, Early Triassic period (where Bios Megafauna begins). This 5.2d) spots. epoch was marked by barren sand dunes and occasional weeds, b. Greenhouse Level. Place a clear red disk on the Greenhouse and not until the end of the Scythian four million years later is track on the map, in the 800 ppm “start” spot. See Greenhouse there a measurable increase in speciation, and thus the onset of (15.0). recovery. (It would take another 11 million years for evolutionary processes to resume their former vitality, on a new playing field.) The “kinder-gentler” Scythian Set-up 4.0 SEQUENCE OF PLAY assumes a much faster recovery (similar to the rebound after 4.1 Player Order. The player with the least-teeth (2.2a) goes first, other mass extinction events such as the K-T). The Scythian thereafter play goes in clockwise order. Variant starts the post-holocaust world as a greener place intended to alleviate "Gilligan's Island" species isolations and frustrations. It also doesn't gut the immigrant pool, putting any 4.2 Choose an action to perform. drawn beyond the initial 6 back with the Mesozoic Tiles for The current player chooses one of the following four (optional: entry into the game later. five or six) actions to perform: a. Purchase and play/discard a card. Purchase one card in “In my view, during some mass extinctions, the board either of the displays per 5.0, and play it per 7.0. Then draw a collapses entirely, and as the game resumes, it becomes half new card, resolve its event per 6.0, and finally use it to chess and half backgammon, with some rules drawn from replenish the display. See 20.0 turn 2. poker.” Doug Erwin, Extinction, How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago, 2006. b. Resize one of your species. Move a size animal one spot per 3.6 Place your placeholder cards and animals. 8.0. See 20.0 turn 1. Place your four placeholder cards (2.7) in a row in front of you. These cards are permanent, and indicate where your four species c. Acculturate one of your species. If you have the two stacks will go. Put all the animals of your Color on or near the requirements, add an animal from your reserves to a culture placeholder card with the matching silhouette. Each card should per 9.0. See 20.0 turn 18. have 8 animals.
d. Expand an animal. Add an animal from your reserves to a 3.7 Place your size animal, map animal, and homeland. habitable habitat within its migration range (11.0) from a Your starting species is the placeholder card labeled archetype. 12 chosen parent per 10.0. You may expand with the same a. Place Size Animal. Archetypes start at size one. Place one of silhouette as the parent, or a new one. Your destination can be your archetype animals in the size one block of the size track any habitable triangle or biome. See 20.0 turn 4. (2.5a). b. Place Homeland and Population. Place your homeland e. Roadrunner action (optional). Place 2 genes on the leftmost biome (2.4f) face-up in the biome slot identified with the card in the Lower Display, and adjust the roadrunner of one of silhouette of your color. Remove any biome already your animals by a step. If this animal has predator(s), they occupying the homeland slot and put it into the tarpit (16.1a). may similarly adjust a step (for free). Place one archetype animal on top of your homeland. Note: Do not use homelands for players not in the game. f. Genetic Drift (optional). Steal one gene from the player who has the most genes, or is tied for the most genes. 3.8 Start the four Period Decks and the two Displays. 13 Shuffle the deck and place cards face-down into four side-by-side decks as indicated below. You may store these in the box lid, Important: Because one animal is dedicated to tracking the size of which has indicators for these decks. a species, all species are limited to seven animals on the map, cultures, and roadrunner tracks. If you run out, you can’t a. Triassic Period Deck – A number of cards = 3 times the acculturate, expand, or mutate new roadrunner with that species. number of players. b. Jurassic Period Deck – 5 cards. 4.3 Herbivore & carnivore contests, and final culling. c. Cretaceous Period Deck – 8 cards. To end your turn, perform herbivore contests per 13.0, and then d. Tertiary Period Deck – 7 cards. carnivore contests per 14.0. Cull (remove from the map) any e. Display. Draw 10 random cards from the general deck and lay animals or immigrants that have lost contests or have no food. them face-up side-by-side in two rows of five, one above Check the game pieces at the end of the turn for the following: another. The lower row is the Lower Display, and the upper a. Habitats. Every biome and triangle should have no more than row is the Upper Display. Note: In the two-player game the use one animal. (Exception: a predator triangle above a rooter of the Upper Display is optional. For instance, the example biome with both an herbivore and a rooter might contain 2 20.0 does not use the Upper Display. animals). Beginner’s Game: Remove all the Genotype Cards (see 7.4 & 7.5) b. Food. Cull any carnivore unable to eat its prey due to before starting the decks. roadrunner or size (14.1), and any herbivore not adapted to eat the biome it is on. 3.9 Place the Atlantic Rift, Era, and Greenhouse Disks. c. Stacks. Discard any card or return to your reserves any tile
5 outside its size-range (7.2). he puts one gene on each of the two cards to the left of it. d. Display. Per 5.0e, each display should have 5 cards. Then he takes the card and plays or discards it, and pockets the gene that was on it. c. Play Card. The card you purchased must be played 4.4 Scoring Rounds immediately per 7.0, or else discarded out of the game. There A scoring round occurs at the end of a turn that the last card of is no hand. Note: You may purchase a card just to discard it each Period Deck (3.8) is drawn. During each scoring round, tiles and get the genes that were on it. from the tarpit (16.1a) are awarded to the most populous players. d. Draw New Card. After purchasing a card from the Lower a. Count Population. Your population is the sum of all Display (3.8e), draw a new one from the top of the current animals on the map for all your species. Animals in super- Period Deck (3.8) and, resolve its event per 6.0. This impacts fern habitat (6.1f) count triple. all players. After purchasing a card from the Upper Display, Example: A rooter habitat contains two herbivores (one is a draw a new one from the general deck, but ignore its event. rooter) feeding on it, and two carnivores in its triangle. Each e. Replenish Display to 5 Cards. After the event is resolved, of these animals scores one population. then place the new card into the rightmost position in the b. Determine the Leader. The leader is the player with the display row. This brings the display back to 5 cards in a row. most population (4.4a). Ties go to the player with the most Shift cards to the left to fill the gap left by the card removed. genes. If there is still a tie, go in least-teeth order (2.2a). See 20.0 turn 2. c. Determine the Second, Third, and Fourth Place. These f. Scoring Round. If this was the last card of the Period Deck, players are determined by the same method as for the leader. perform a scoring round per 4.4 to end the turn. d. Award the Tarpit Tiles. The leader draws half of the tarpit tiles, rounding up fractions. Thus, if there is one tile in the 6.0 RESOLVE THE EVENT14 tarpit, he gets it. If there are three tiles, he gets two. If there are tiles remaining, the second place player takes half of the Events are listed in the dark blue band of every card. There are 4 remaining in the same way. And the third, and finally the types: New Era Tiles, Catastrophes, Milankovich, and Erosion. fourth place players take their share. e. Fossil Record. Keep your tarpit tiles as a permanent fossil 6.1 New Era Tiles event. record. Each is worth a victory point at the end of the game Pick and place two new era tiles on the map. Resolve the first (18.1). completelyAfter placing the first, resolve its effects (including Important (Lazarus Players): You must have map animals to be Greenhouse shifts) before drawing and resolving the second. awarded tiles from the tarpit. a. Era. Era tiles come in two eras: Mesozoic (blue back) and Example: There are 10 tiles in the tarpit when the scoring occurs. Cenozoic (white back). Draw the two tiles at random from the Red and Orange have three map animals and no genes, White has current era (17.2). one map animal, and Green is a “Lazarus” with no map animals. b. Biome Map Placement. If the tile drawn is a biome, put it in Red gets 5 tiles, Orange gets 3, White gets one, and one remains in the lowest-climax slot (3.5c). An Orogeny tile is placed in the tarpit unclaimed. lowest-climax slot in either of the two mountain ranges Note: Unlike many Sierra Madre Games, players are not allowed (2.6c). A non-orogeny tile is placed in the latitude to sell, donate, or exchange cards, tiles, or genes. corresponding to their latitude icon (2.4d). 4.5 Experimental 2-Action Variant Note: A non-orogeny biome can be placed in a mountain You may perform up to 2 actions instead of 1 during your turn range. BUT not the same one twice. You may pass one or both actions. c. Replacement of Previous Biome. If the lowest-climax slot is Note: The roadrunner action (4.2e) requires both actions (and 2 occupied, that biome goes extinct and is replaced by the new genes) to perform. biome. The old biome goes extinct even if its climax is higher than the biome replacing it. Example: A player can mutate his amphibian into a sea animal and expand to an MM biome for his second action. Example: During the Mesozoic, the “Petrified Forest” biome is drawn. This has the “sun” icon, so it goes somewhere in the horse latitude. All the slots are occupied, and the lowest- 5.0 PURCHASE A CARD climax is sea lilies. The forest replaces the sea lilies. If you have enough genes, you may purchase one of the five cards d. Seas and Ice. If the greenhouse is at 3200 ppm, a new biome in one of the displays. The ones to the right are the most expensive. with a blue star enters flipped over. It is treated as an uninhabitable sea biome (15.1e). If the greenhouse is at 200 a. Cost. The cost of each card in a display is determined by its ppm, a new biome with a white star enters flipped over. It is position in the row. The card furthest to the left is free. The treated as an uninhabitable and impassible land biome cost of each of the other cards costs one additional gene as (11.1d). you move to the right. You pay this cost by dropping one gene on each of the cards situated to the left of the card you are purchasing. b. Genetic Enrichment. If the card you select contains genes e. Volcanos. If the tile drawn is an orogeny biome (dropped by players who previously passed up this card), you marked with the volcano icon and the “greenhouse rises” acquire these genes (only after you pay for the card, arrow, raise the greenhouse level a step (displacing non- however). orogeny biomes north, etc. per 15.1). Example: A player wishes to buy the genotype card that is the third from the left, which has one gene sitting on it. First
6 f. Azolla Event.15 If the tile drawn is marked with the “super- Note: Catastrophe level extinctions impact both immigrants fern” and the “greenhouse down” icons, drop the greenhouse and player stacks. level a step per 15.1. Example: An asteroid hits the Earth. The card states “Extinct Note: This biome doesn’t displace during Greenhouse events, if ≥ 5 DNA.” (The notation “≥” means “greater than or and animals there score triple population (4.4a). equal to”.) An animal with BGGAN would be killed, because it has five DNA. An animal with PPAM is spared. g. Immigrants. A yellow or light blue tile indicates a land or sea b. Episode Trigger. The first and second Catastrophe event of immigrant has invaded over a bridge from another continent. the game triggers an episode (17.0), after all other catastrophe This invader often has the upper hand until the locals evolve effects are resolved. defenses against it. It enters in the latitude specified on its tile, stopping on the lowest-climax biome (not slot) that it is 6.3 Milankovich event.17 adapted to eat. For an herbivore immigrant, this is any biome or rooter triangle it has the DNA for (13.1). For a predator Earth goes through periodic oscillations in its orbit that change its immigrant, this is any habitat containing prey animals it has climate. Each Milankovich event specifies one or two latitudes, prey suitability for (14.1). If no habitat in the latitude is and the lowest-climax biome in each latitude specified goes extinct habitable, move the immigrant to the tarpit. (16.1). Note (phenotype): 16 Sea immigrants (light blue) skip land habitats. Land immigrants (yellow) skip sea habitats. Example: A Milankovich P event alters the arctic and horse Amphibians (half blue/half yellow) can go to either. latitudes. The lowest-climax in the arctic are gingkoes, and in the Important (competition): An immigrant will not enter a horse latitudes are horsetails. These go to the tarpit. Any triangle or biome occupied by another immigrant. It will only herbivores eating these biomes, plus any carnivores eating the enter a place that is unoccupied or occupied by player herbivores, are culled. species. Placement: Place the immigrant tile offset under the biome 6.4 Erosion event.18 tile it’s eating (if herbivore), in the predator triangle (if This lowers the greenhouse as well as mountains, but shuts down predator), or in the rooter triangle (if rooter). during an ice age. If the greenhouse level is 800 ppm or more, lower it one step per 15.1, and remove as extinct the highest- climax orogeny biome.
7.0 PLAY A CARD The two kinds of cards in the playing deck are Mutation and Genotype. Example (carnivore): An AAMM eel whale immigrates into the 7.1 Playing a Mutation Card. tropics. The land biomes are skipped. The lowest-climax sea biome Mutate a living species by playing the mutation card you just with prey has nocturnal prey, so this is also skipped. The next purchased into its stack. This gives it the DNA attributes and lowest has immigrant sea turtles, which the whales can eat. The instinct icons encoded in the upper right corner of the card. whale tile goes into this predator triangle. Example: The card shown has BA DNA. Important: An immigrant competes with player animals during all Important: Inheritance tiles cannot be used for mutating. culling phases per 13.5 and 14.4. Example (herbivore): A deer with the adaptations BGPP immigrates into the arctic. The lowest-climax biome that is edible is the ginkgoes (B), but sloth immigrants are already eating this. The only other alternative is the homeland for the Green Player. This biome is edible, so the deer tile is placed under it. Unfortunately for them, Green has an herbivore there, which enjoys the niche advantage. So the deer lose the herbivore contest and go to the tar pit.
6.2 Catastrophe event. A catastrophic event kills off overspecialized animals, then shifts the greenhouse up or down per 15.1. The first catastrophe splits the continent; the second advances the game into the Cenozoic Era. a. Catastrophe Level. A catastrophe level, from 4 to 7 as printed on each catastrophe, describes the amount of DNA in a species’ genome (2.3d) that will drive it extinct. Count the number of DNA letters in a species’ genome, including the dietary DNA listed on its cards and tiles, and the roadrunner 7.2 Mutation Size Limits. DNA listed on its roadrunner tracks. If the number of letters is You may only mutate a species that has a size within the size- greater than or equal to that specified by the catastrophe level, range listed on the card used to mutate. that species becomes extinct (16.0). Example: A species at size 5 is not allowed to get feathers,19
7 which have a 1-4 size-range. Example: Green buys and plays the dove genotype card (size range = 1, DNA HSSS) into his “eagle” placeholder. He uses a tiny parent species with foregut digestion (HG) and hopping 7.3 Adding Roadrunner DNA. (S), and thus meets the size and DNA requirements. He If you mutate using a card with roadrunner DNA, your new replaces one of the parent animals with an animal with the roadrunner genome is reflected by adjusting the appropriate “eagle” silhouette. roadrunner tracks (2.5b), Your marker remains at three even if you have more of that roadrunner type. 7.5 Playing a Genotype Card (Fossil Record). a. New Roadrunner Animal. If the card used to mutate contains roadrunner DNA that you do not yet have, add an animal to If you purchase a genotype card for a species that is already in use, that roadrunner track (S, M, N, and/or A) to reflect the then instead of creating a new species, you add the card to your amount of roadrunner acquired. This animal is called a fossil record (4.4e), where it will count victory points at the end of roadrunner animal. If you are out of animals, you must the game per 18.1a. discard the card instead of mutating with it. a. Parental Requirements. Under this option, the parent species Note: Each species can have only one animal in each roadrunner must match the silhouette, size-range, and at least half the track. DNA of the genotype card. The parent species does not change as a result of this play. b. Wings. To move the roadrunner animal from SS to SSS, the species must be size 1, allowing flight (11.0a). Even if you Example: White buys a tillodont card (size range = 1-3, DNA have more than two S’s in your stack, your roadrunner animal HN). His existing “bat” species are size 3 and nocturnal, so they remains at SS until you meet the size requirement. meet the parental requirements. He adds the card to his stack of victory tiles. Also see 20.0 turn 15 for a further example. c. Subterranean Colony. If you have three or more N DNA, and you are size 1, then you become a subterranean colony with the social skills instinct (9.1c). Example: Your species, starting with an NN roadrunner animal, is mutated using an IN echolocation card. Assuming you are size 1, move your NN animal to the NNN position. You are now a subterranean colonial animal. d. Whale pods. A species at MMM automatically has the language instinct (9.1d). e. Fire-Bearing. A species at AAA automatically has the natural history instinct (9.1b). It may also prevent its homeland from being inverted at 200 ppm (15.1d). f. Amphibian. If a species with one M DNA (11.1c) gains more, it becomes a sea animal and all its animals in land habitats will die. If instead it loses its M, all its animals in sea habitats will die.
7.4 Playing a Genotype Card (Speciation). Play a Genotype card to start a new species stack with a 8.0 RESIZE ONE OF YOUR SPECIES. silhouette matching the one on the card. You must choose a parent You may grow or shrink your species by one step on the size track species which has a size within the range specified on the card, and (2.5a). which has at least half the DNA specified on the card (rounding 20 up). For instance, if the genotype card has DNA HSSS, the parent a. DNA Recession. If your species size goes beyond the range must have either HS or SS DNA in its genome. Replace one map listed on a mutation card, that card is discarded out of the animal of the parent with a map animal of the child species per 7.5. game. If your size goes beyond the range listed on a genotype The child gains only the attributes listed on the genotype card (i.e. card, put it into your fossil record (4.4e). If your size goes no inheritance per 10.3c). beyond the range listed on an inheritance tile, return that tile to your reserves. a. Child’s Dynasty. The Red and Green are proto-dinosaurs, and must play the dinosaur side of the genotype card. White and Note: You may not voluntarily recess DNA from a stack. Orange are proto-mammals, and must play the mammal side of Reminder: Adjust the roadrunner track if you lose the card. roadrunner DNA. Apologia: Sometimes the dinosaur side will include creatures Note: Loss of a mutation card doesn’t recess tiles inherited that are related to the dinosaurs, but not actually dinosaurs. from it by the species’ children (10.3c). b. Child’s Map Animal. You must replace one map animal of the b. Extra Predator Size Adjust (important). If your herbivore parent with a map animal of the child. This must be in a place changes size, all predator species of that herbivore (both yours where the child can survive. Note that this replacement may and your opponent’s) may immediately adjust their size by drive the parent extinct. one as well. c. Child’s Size and Roadrunner Animals. Place a size animal at
the same size as the parent. Place roadrunner animal(s) 21 according to the roadrunner DNA (if any) on the genotype 9.0 ACCULTURATE ONE OF YOUR SPECIES. card. Acculturate a species by playing one animal from your reserves
8 into one of the culture areas on the map. The species must have mutation cards containing the two instinct icons listed on the map 10.0 EXPAND AN ANIMAL. as requirements. You may expand by adding an animal from your reserves to a habitable habitat on the map within its migration range (11.0) from 9.1 Instinct Icons (found on some mutation cards). a chosen parent.
10.1 Choose Parent. The expanded animal is called a child. Choose one map unit to be a. Manual dexterity (ability to manipulate objects) is a its parent. requirement for cultures 9.2a, b, c. b. Natural history (conceptual memory of natural phenomena) is a requirement for cultures 9.2b, e, f. 10.2 Choose Child Silhouette. c. Social skills (the ability to specialize in a cooperative effort, and The child may have the same silhouette as its parent, or may be a recognize individuals) is a requirement for cultures 9.2a, d, f. new unused silhouette of your Color. If the child uses a new silhouette, it forms a new species stack that may inherit attributes d. Language (the ability to mentally store verbal concepts, and from its parent per the next paragraph. 23 thus primarily used for communicating with yourself rather than others) is a requirement for cultures 9.2c, d, e. 24 Note: Instincts are not inherited (10.3). However, subterranean 10.3 Inheritance. colony, whale pod, and fire-bearing DNA can be inherited, which If expanding by creating a new species, the child inherits the size confers instinct icons (7.3c, d, e). Instincts can be worth victory of its parent, and may also inherit one roadrunner and one dietary points, see 18.1b. DNA type. a. Size Inheritance. Place a size animal of this new child 9.2 Benefits of Acculturation. silhouette on the size track (2.5a), matching the size of the parent. Each culture animal awards the benefits listed below. b. Roadrunner Inheritance. The child may inherit some or all Important: Each species may have only one culture animal in of the parent’s roadrunner DNA from one roadrunner track. each culture area. It is removed only if the species goes extinct. In Adjust the roadrunner animal per 7.3. particular, the loss of a card with the instinct icon will not change the cultural advancement. Culture is not inheritable. Example: Your archetypes are cat-eyed hoofed animals, with a NSS genome. Your child species can inherit the N, one or both S, or nothing. a. Tool Use Culture. Requires manual dexterity and social skills. Special: This species ignores size limitations on all its c. Dietary Inheritance. The child may also inherit one or more mutation cards and tiles. It must still be at size 1 for flight or dietary DNA owned by the parent, using a maximum of one subterranean colonies. inheritance tile from your reserves. Pick a tile that matches the DNA to be inherited and put it on the child’s stack. Each Example: A tool-using animal growing to size 5 keeps its tile may be inherited either on its front or reverse side. (The feathers (as a cloak?), its IN (acorn) digging claws (shovel?), reverse side of B, G, and P DNA is BB, GG, and PP and its H inheritance tile (nutcracker?). respectively. The reverse side of H is B, and of I is G). b. Bone-Cracking Culture. Requires manual dexterity and Important: Use inheritance tiles to show what dietary DNA a natural history. Special (hand-axe scavenging of bone child has inherited from a parent who already has that DNA. marrow): Carnivorous animals of this species ignore all size Never use them to mutate a species! characteristics of its prey (14.1a). Important: Cards or tiles in the stack of the parent may not be c. Projectile-Hunting Culture. Requires manual dexterity and donated to its child. language. Special (atlatl): Carnivorous animals of this species ignore one roadrunner type possessed by its prey Note: All inheritance tiles list a size-range. A child may not (14.1b-e). This may be a different type for each prey animal. inherit a tile if it is outside the size-range specified. (Projectile-hunters still need M DNA to enter sea habitats, Example: A child expands from a saber-toothed (AA) trunked (B) however.) parent. The player decides the child will inherit AB. He adds a d. Division of Labor Culture. Requires social skills and roadrunner animal to the A spot in the track, and uses his B language. Special: Animals of this species always win inheritance tile to represent its inherited trunk. dentition contests against those without Division of Labor. e. Agricultural Culture. Requires natural history and 10.4 Choose Destination. language. Special: Herbivorous animals of this species treat The child may enter a habitat no further from its parent than the empty slots next to your homeland (to the north, south, east, child’s migration range (11.0). If the destination is a biome or and west) as habitable habitats called farms (even if the rooter triangle, the child must have the DNA to eat it. If the homeland is inverted). This assumes you have the destination is a predator triangle, the prey there must be suitable adaptations to enter them per 11.1a or b. Homelands being for the child to eat per 14.1. farmed are immune to extinction. Note (omnivorous): It is possible for a species to have both f. Male Contests Culture.22 Requires natural history and social carnivores and herbivores.25 It is even possible that a species can skills. Special: Children of this species are not limited in be a predator of another species in one biome, yet be predated by their inheritance by 10.3b and c. They may inherit multiple that same species in another biome. However cannibalism is types of roadrunner and dietary DNA. disallowed; a predator may not feed on an herbivore of the same 9 species. 12.0 ROOTER BIOMES Note: An animal may be placed in an overcrowded habitat, but if it loses the contest, it will be culled at the end of its turn. Example: A chipmunk eating nuts in a rooter triangle notices a small defenseless prey animal nearby. The chipmunk expands a new animal that moves to the predator triangle of the prey’s habitat.
11.0 MIGRATION RANGE. 26 Rooter biomes have 2 rows of requirements (2.4b). The upper row A species’ range is a maximum number of habitats it is allowed to is for herbivores that eat leaves, and the lower row is for rooters spread while expanding to a new habitable habitat. This range is a that shell nuts/seed-cones (H husker DNA) or dig for path moving from habitat to habitat, moving directly north, south, tubers/rhizomes (N burrowing DNA). Thus, a rooter biome is east, or west. You may not move diagonally. The range is equal to effectively two biomes, able to support four animals: one eating the species size, as shown on the map size track (2.5a). foliage (on the biome), one eating nuts/roots (in the rooter triangle, 2.6b), and two carnivores (in the predator triangle). a. Flying Animals. Any animal or immigrant with SSS roadrunner DNA has wings (7.3b) with a range of 7 habitats, a. Niche. Regardless of whether foliage or nuts/roots are eaten, and the ability to enter land, sea, or ice habitats. the niche is the same (listed in the white square). b. Physiology. An animal increases its migration range by one b. Rooters. An animal in the rooter triangle, called a rooter, is for each P DNA it has. herbivorous and generally follows all the rules for herbivores. Example: The cycadeoid biome shown can support an herbivore with B DNA, plus a rooter with H DNA. The two animals can be 11.1 Migration Obstacles. 27 the same or different species. The niche for both is “S”. The S and M roadrunner tracks list limitations on the habitats that animals may enter while tracing the migration path. a. Land animals. Animals (including immigrants) with no M 13.0 HERBIVORE CONTESTS DNA may not enter sea biomes or slots (2.4a and 2.6e), unless Each biome can support one herbivore, plus (if a rooter biome, 8.3) they can fly. one rooter. For each overcrowded biome (in any order), perform Note: Animals are allowed both S and M DNA at the same time. an herbivore contest by following steps 13.1 through 13.4 below to identify the losers. In case of a tie, go to the next step, until only b. Sea animals. Animals with two or more M DNA may not enter one animal is left. land habitats or slots (2.4a and 2.6e), unless they can fly. c. Amphibians. Animals with exactly one M DNA are called amphibians. They can enter land and sea biomes and slots, but 13.1 Biome Habitability. their migration range is one less, as marked on the roadrunner Herbivores not meeting the biome requirements (2.4b) lose. track. Example: A size one seal may only migrate within its habitat. It 13.2 Niche Contest. may, for instance, switch from the predator triangle to the Each biome tile has a niche listed in the white box in the corner. biome. The herbivores with the least amount of the niche attribute lose. d. Ice Habitats. Only flying animals are allowed to enter ice a. DNA Niche. If the niche is a DNA code (2.3a), the herbivore habitats (biomes inverted per 15.1d during a 200 ppm species with the least amount of that DNA in their genome greenhouse). lose. Example: In the map shown, the Greenhouse is at 1600 ppm, so Example: Both Orange and White have an herbivore in a that all empty slots are sea. Two parents are shown, one a size 2 habitat containing the Iberian Bog biome (niche = I). The sea animal, the other a size 3 land animal. Since range = size, the white species has one I DNA, while the orange species has sea animal may expand a child to place no more than 2 habitats two. White is culled (removed) because it has less of the distant, as shown. It travels over sea biomes or slots only. The insect-eating DNA. land animal expands a child to a place 3-habitats away, traveling over land. It is assumed that the Atlantic has not yet formed. b. Size Niche. If the niche is "SIZE", the smallest herbivores lose. c. Color Niche. For the homelands, the niche is the player color. However, farms associated with homelands have no niche (9.2e). Example: The cloud forest has niche “orange”. Therefore, an herbivore of a different color loses if Orange has an herbivore there.
13.3 Predator-Defense Contest. Herbivores edible by one or more carnivores in the habitat lose. See prey suitability (14.1) to see if a carnivore can eat an herbivore. Example: A moose and squirrel sit in a prairie. Since a biome can
10 only support one herbivore, one must lose. The niche is “S”, so if DNA than its prey. the squirrel is faster, he will prevail. But suppose neither is faster, e. Marine. Must have the same number or more "M" DNA than but a predatory eagle too small to eat the moose is present. Now, it its prey. is the moose that wins. Note (cannibalism): A carnivore cannot eat its own kind.
13.4 Herbivore Dentition Contest. 14.2 Physiology Contest. Herbivores with fewer teeth lose against those with more. Thus, 5- teeth wins over 3-teeth. Carnivores lose against competitors having more P DNA. Note: If you have more than one adapted herbivore species of your color in a habitat, and neither has an advantage in niche or 14.3 Carnivore Dentition Contest. predator-defense, you choose which ones are removed. See 20.0 Carnivores with more teeth lose against those with fewer teeth. turn 20. (The fewer the teeth, the better the carnivore!) Note: In a carnivore dentition contest with more than one species 13.5 Competition with Immigrants. of your color in a triangle, you choose which ones are removed. An herbivore immigrant tile is treated exactly as an animal, using the DNA and dentition code shown on its tile. Since all immigrant Example: Before culling, dino-crocs and chisel lizards both have herbivores have 6-teeth, they win dentition contests (except per a carnivore (without P DNA) in a triangle of a habitat containing 9.2d). If after a greenhouse shift two immigrants are in both rooter and herbivore prey. Suppose dino-croc expands an competition, the one that is in the habitat first is the winner. additional predator into this triangle. If the dino-croc can eat both kinds of prey, the chisel lizard loses the dentition contest and is removed. If the dino-croc can eat just one kind, then the additional 13.6 Losing a Contest. dino-croc animal has no suitable prey and is removed. Any animal or immigrant losing a contest is culled (returned to its owner or the tarpit respectively). 14.4 Competition with Immigrants. Exception: If in the same habitat, there is an empty biome or A predator immigrant tile is treated exactly as a carnivore animal, triangle that is habitable, the animal or immigrant moves there using the DNA and dentition code shown on its tile. instead of being culled. a. Size. Immigrant predators are automatically the same size as their prey. Example: An herbivorous animal belong to the Red player is b. Immigrant Dentition. The dentition code of immigrant eating cycads. But a Green herbivore invades, and beats Red in a predators is only one-tooth. dentition contest. Red is allowed to move his animal to the Example: Three carnivores are competing to eat an herbivore in a unoccupied predator triangle of the cycad habitat, assuming he is habitat. The 1-tooth immigrant and 3-teeth carnivores have no P suited in size and roadrunner to eat the invading Green animals. DNA, and the 5-tooth carnivore has one P DNA. The 5-tooth carnivore wins the physiology contest, so the others starve. 14.0 CARNIVORE CONTESTS Each predator triangle can support one carnivore (or two if there 28 are two prey animals, possible only in a rooter habitat, 12.0). For 15.0 GREENHOUSE each overcrowded triangle (in any order), perform a carnivore A red disk in the chart on the west map edge monitors the Earth's contest by applying rules 14.1 through 14.3 below to identify the Greenhouse Level. The higher the level, the hotter the climate. losers. In case of a tie, go to the next rule, until only one animal is The Greenhouse can end the game, see 18.0c. left standing. If an animal or immigrant loses a contest, move it to an unoccupied biome slot or rooter triangle in the same habitat, if it has the DNA to live there. Otherwise, it goes extinct. 15.1 Greenhouse Habitat Displacement. Important (circle of life): Herbivores are never removed from the During global warming, the greenhouse level disk goes up one map just because they are being preyed upon (but see 13.3). step, and the habitats displace north to stay cool. During global cooling, the disk goes down and the habitats move south to stay warm. 14.1 Prey Suitability. a. Habitat Displacement. If the greenhouse rises, move every Carnivores can only eat herbivores, either player animals or habitat (including its biome, and all its animals and immigrants. Carnivores not suited to eat their prey because of size immigrants) north to the slot directly above. (Its best to start or roadrunner die. with the most northerly biomes.) If the greenhouse falls, move a. Size. Must be no more than one size different from its prey. every habitat south to the slot directly below. If it cannot For instance, if the prey is size 2, the predator can be size 1, 2, move because it is at the map’s edge, it remains where it is. or 3. Exceptions: Orogeny biomes (2.4e) and super-ferns (6.1f) do b. Speed. Must have the same number or more "S" DNA than its not displace during greenhouse events. The habitat directly prey. For instance, if the prey is SS, the predator must also be north or south will displace into its slot, and then the lower- SS or faster. climax biome goes extinct. c. Nocturnal. Must have the same number or more "N" DNA Note: Farms (9.2e) displace with their homeland. than its prey. b. Biome Competition. If after the habitats are displaced, two d. Armor/Aggressive. Must have the same number or more "A" biomes are stacked together, the lower climax biome goes to the tarpit. The animals on the extinct biome also are lost, 11 unless they can live in the winning biome. your reserves. If all species of a Color are extinct, see 16.3. c. Melting of the Ice-Caps.29 If the Greenhouse moves into the 3200-ppm spot, each biome marked with a blue star is flipped b. Animals of Extinct Species. Return all map, size, roadrunner, after it is displaced, now representing a barren sea biome. If and culture animals to your reserves. the greenhouse drops from 3200 ppm, flip each back to its face-up side. 16.3 Lazarus Player.30 Whenever your last species goes extinct, so you have no map or size animals, continue to play as a “Lazarus” player. If you purchase a card, you must either use it for resurrection (see below) or discard it. Furthermore, you cannot collect tarpit tiles during scoring (4.4d). d. Ice-Cap Formation. If the a. Raising from the Dead. As a Lazarus player, you may Greenhouse moves into the 200 ppm spot, each biome marked perform a special resurrection action by buying a mutation with a white star is flipped after it is displaced, now card per 5.0, using it to mutate any of your four species per representing an ice habitat (11.1d). If the greenhouse rises 7.1, and placing a map animal of that species anywhere on the from 200 ppm, flip each back to its face-up side. map where it can survive. Set your size animal at any desired e. Inverted Biomes. A biome inverted by a high or low size within the limits of the card, and set a roadrunner animal Greenhouse is uninhabitable (and, in the case of low if the mutation card includes roadrunner DNA. Once Greenhouse, impassible to flightless animals as well). It is resurrected, you are no longer a Lazarus. considered to have a climax of 100 plus its original climax. For instance, climax 63 goes to 163. 17.0 EPISODES 17.1 Atlantic Rift. Right after the first Catastrophe event of the game is resolved (6.2), remove the Atlantic Rift Disk (3.9a) on the ammonite to indicate the creation of the Atlantic Ocean. This ocean, shown as a dark blue valley on the map, forms a barrier that can’t be crossed except by sea animals (those having 2 or 3 marine (M) DNA). Not even amphibians (only 1 M DNA) or flying animals (SSS DNA) can cross. This barrier is treated as the edge of the map during Greenhouse shifts (15.1a). Note (currents): A sea animal pays no extra movement cost to cross the Atlantic. Example: A volcano raises the greenhouse on a turn after the Example: The Greenhouse falls. The orogeny biome doesn’t Atlantic has formed. Biomes in the furthest east slots in the arctic displace. Biome A also doesn’t displace, since it is at the edge of and horse latitudes do not displace because they are at the edge of the map. Biome B moves south on top of Biome A. Since Biome A the map. has the smaller climax, it goes extinct. Note if the Atlantic Ocean 31 has formed, Biome B would be blocked from displacing, and 17.2 Current Era. nothing would change. Right after the second Catastrophe event of the game is resolved (6.2), remove the Era Disk (3.9a) from the sunflower, changing the era from Mesozoic to Cenozoic. The remainder of the game will 15.2 Empty Slots. introduce Cenozoic rather than Mesozoic era tiles (see 6.1a and a. Archipelago. If the Greenhouse disk is at 1600 ppm or 6.2b). higher, then empty biome slots are seas (because of flooding from ice-cap melting). b. Continent. If the Greenhouse disk is at 800 ppm or lower, 18.0 ENDING THE GAME then empty biome slots are land. The game ends at the end of the turn during which one of the following happens: 16.0 EXTINCTIONS a. The last Period Deck (the Tertiary, see 3.8) runs out of cards. b. Either the Mesozoic or Cenozoic Era Pool runs out of era Note: Voluntary extinction is not allowed. tiles. 16.1 Extinction of Biomes or Immigrants. Optional: If the Mesozoic Era Pool runs out, start drawing from a. Tarpits. If a biome or immigrant is removed from the map (as a the Cenozoic. result of a catastrophe or culling), put its tile into the tarpit c. The Greenhouse goes to Snowball Earth or Hothouse Earth area of the map. (see map). Note: The game continues even if all players have lost their 16.2 Extinction of Player Species. populations. a. Stack Cards and Tiles of Extinct Species. Any species without Important: A scoring round (4.4) occurs when the game ends. map animals is extinct. Discard the mutation cards in its stack out of the game. If there are any genotype cards in its stack, put them into your fossil record. Return its inheritance tiles to 18.1 Determining the Winner. 12 After the final scoring round (4.4), each player counts the tiles in Note: The two-tusker will not buy genotype cards, or mutation his accumulated fossil record (4.4e). Each is worth one victory cards that would cause it to become a sea animal (more than one point (VP). Additional VP are awarded as follows: M DNA). It will skip its turn if this is its only option. a. Genotype cards. Genotype cards in your fossil record count as a number of VP equal to the length of the DNA attributes Victory. You win if at the end of the game you have at least 10 on the card. For instance, a GAA genotype is worth three VP. victory tiles and you beat the two-tusker score. b. Ending Population and Culture Animals. Each map animal 19.2 Paul Harford version of the Solitaire Game and culture animal (9.2) is worth 1 VP. (recommended). Same as 19.1 except as noted. c. Tiebreaker. The most number of genes. Using Living rules 3.5d, 9.2e, 11.0, 4.1e, 4.1f, 18.0b
Additional Set up: Set aside eight silhouettes, and one placeholder 18.2 Flowing this game into an Origins Game. of one type of two-tusker, for a potential MM species. Remove At the end of the game, you may decide to start an Origins game genotype cards from deck that do not bear G, B, or I, or are less (Sierra Madre Games, 2007). Use one of your species and its than size 3 for a mammal. acquired instinct icons (9.1) as your starting hominid in the game. a. Purchasing Instincts. After the Bios Megafauna game has How the Two-tusker Plays:On your Opponent's turn. On every concluded, you may buy additional instincts by paying 4 two-tusker turn, consult this list and perform the first one possible, genes each. if the two-tusker has the genes for it. b. Brain Map Assignment. Then, the player with the most instincts is awarded first choice of brain maps; the second 1).Acculturate either species (if it has the requirements). most has second choice, etc. (The tiebreaker is victory points). 2).Expand into the lowest-climax habitable biome in range. c. Starting Encephalization. All brain maps start with the • If it has a choice in a given habitat, it will expand into the instinct icons uncovered that your best surviving species has rooter triangle first (if suited), then the herbivore slot, then acquired in Bios Megafauna. Extra cubes needed to cover the predator slot. icons come from population, and excess cubes not needed on • If it has a choice of species, it will expand the one with the the brain map go into the innovation track. lowest population. Note: Players without instincts are disqualified from entering the Origins game. 3).Buy the cheapest gene-code (road-runner, or card) allowing d. Greenhouse. The Origins Game starts in an Ice Age if the expansion of either species (giving preference to one with the Megafauna Greenhouse ended at 400 ppm or less, and in a lowest population) into a biome where it can survive, or that Tropical Age otherwise. develops it towards being able to expand, giving preference to genes which reduce current predation. This may mean genes allowing it to predate, or win culling contests. 19.0 SOLITAIRE GAME 19.1 When Two-Tuskers Ruled the World (Solitaire). Example: There are no viable biomes for expansion, and no genes The Triassic was a time of struggle between dynasties. Shortly allowing immediate expansion on the next turn. There is an AM after the holocaust, one species of two-tuskers represented 90% of biome within range – however the two-tusker has neither A nor M megafaunal populations world-wide. By the end of the Triassic, genes. The display contains an A card in the fourth position, the two-tuskers (along with the chisel lizards and dog-faces) went meaning it would cost three genes; the two-tusker accordingly extinct or almost extinct, leaving the dino-crocs supreme. buys either A or M from roadrunner at a cost of 2 genes. (If there were two genes on the A card, it would take the card: net cost Your Opponent is the two-tusker. Its animals are always size 3 would be only 1 gene) [If there is a choice of genes, it will take for herbivores of its archetype species. All 24 of its white animals are preference from display and then whichever roadrunner gene most considered this species, so ignore their silhouette. It collects tarpit reduces current predation. If things are still a tie, it will choose tiles normally during scoring rounds. If it goes extinct, it is out of whichever gene the player would rather it didn't!] the game (but you continue playing). 4).If the only gene available that would allow expansion is an M Set-up. The two-tusker starts the game at size 3 with 10 genes, gene that would give MM, and if the two-tusker has at least two while you start with zero. The rest of the Set-up is per 3.0 map animals and only one species, the two-tusker will buy that gene and generate a new species. One map animal, the parent, is On your Opponent’s turn. On every two-tusker turn, consult this replaced with a silhouette of the new child species. This map list and perform the first one possible, if the two-tusker has the animal must be in the lowest climax sea biome from which it is genes for it. possible to migrate to the intended MM biome. The new species 1). Acculturate (if it has the requirements). inherits the MM genes, and any other genes required to survive 2). Expand into the lowest-climax habitable biome in range. If it in the biome of it's parent animal, adding map, roadrunner and has a choice in a given habitat, it will expand into the rooter size animals as appropriate. triangle first (if suited), then the herbivore slot. 3). Buy the cheapest mutation card allowing expansion into a 5).Either buy the cheapest card, and play it if can (giving biome where it can survive. However, the two-tusker will never preference to the species with the shortest genome, or a species purchase a card that would cause it to become a sea animal if which would achieve acculturation requirements) and discard it played. if it can't OR steal a gene from the player if they have the most 4). Buy the cheapest card, and play it if can, and discard it if it whichever gains most genes. In case of a tie, buy the cheapest can’t. card.
13 Additional Special Rules: • Lazarus. Once extinct, the two-tusker player may Lazarus in the same way as the player. If neither the player nor two-tusker can afford to Lazarus from available display cards, alternate turns buying the free card until sufficient genes have been collected and/or viable DNA appears. If necessary, the two-tusker will resize if the only viable DNA requires a size less than 3. It is then fixed at this size (at least until it's next extinction!). After the first catastrophe two-tusker will Lazarus only onto the main continent, and to the lowest climax viable biome.
• Genotype cards. These may be used in 2 ways: 1. By the player, as per normal rules. 2. By either the player or two-tusker as crossbreeding. To crossbreed it is necessary for the target species to match the silhouette and size range on the genotype card (for two-tusker this means one of three silhouettes for the main species, or the silhouette set aside for the MM species). In crossbreeding the target species inherits up to half the genes from the genotype-card species (player's choice) – these genes are added to the species Turn 3: Purchase a Card. Dino-croc mutates his gators by genome, and must be supplied by available inheritance markers – purchasing the digging claw NI DNA for 3 genes. He places an if no markers available, then no inheritance! The genotype card is archetype roadrunner animal in the N slot. They are now then discarded from the game rather than added to the fossil burrowing gators. record. a. Event & Display. The new card is a Duckbill genotype, which triggers the new era tiles event before being added to 20.0 EXAMPLE OF PLAY the display. This example shows the first 21 turns (stopping in the mid- Jurassic) of a two-player game of Bios Megafauna. The dinosaur player is the dino-croc (2-teeth, Red) and the mammal player is the dog-face (3-teeth, Orange). Set-up. The starting Map and Lower Display are shown. This example does not use the optional Upper Display. Dino-croc starts with 3 genes and goes first; dog-face starts with 4 genes. QuickTime™ and a areTIFF needed (LZW) to decompressor see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
b. Turn 4: Expand an Animal. Dog-face expands a child (of the same archetype species) from his homeland, which travels to the meadow directly south. This meadow needs insect-eating DNA to Turn 1: Resize a Species. As his action, dino-croc moves his size enter, which dog-face has. animal from one to two. Turn 5: Expand an Animal. Dino-croc expands a child (of the Turn 2: Purchase a Card. Dog-face purchases (for free) the same species), and moves it two spaces east, into the predator anteater tongue card with II DNA, and plays it under his triangle of the meadow. The digging-gator now eats the anteaters. archetype. He offsets the card a bit so he can read the relevant Turn 6: Resize a Species. Dog-face moves his size animal from information, as shown. one to two. a. Reveal the next card. It’s the biped card. Turn 7: Expand an Animal. In the meadow, dino-croc expands b. New Era Tiles event. The card’s event brings two new era from the predator triangle to the meadow biome. This new tiles onto the map. herbivore is competing with the anteaters. The niche is N, and so c. Replenish the Display. The biped card is added to the the digging gators win the niche contest, and the anteaters die. The rightmost position in the display. predatory gator-parent in the meadow also dies, since cannibalism is not allowed. Turn 8: Purchase a Card. Dog-face buys the bloodhound N DNA card. He plays it into his archetype stack and places an N roadrunner animal..
14 two players are tied in population at 3 each. But dino-croc has more genes, so he takes 3 victory tiles, and dog-face takes one.
Turn 9: Expand an Animal (new species).* Dino-croc expands a new species of the “sailback” silhouette into the predator triangle of his opponent’s cloud forest homeland. It inherits N DNA so as to be able to eat the nocturnal anteaters. Size-2 and N roadrunner animals are placed.. Turn 16: Resize a Species. Dog-face anteaters move to size 3. Turn 10: Expand an Animal. Dog-face expands an anteater child This is beyond the size-range of their anteater tongues, which are (of the same species) from his homeland, to compete with the discarded. The gators, since they are predators of the anteaters, are gators in the meadow. During culling, both competitors have the allowed to adjust their size. Since otherwise the anteaters would be niche, and there is no carnivore so predator-defense is not relevant. too large to eat, the gators move to size 2. Their spines, which are But dog-face has more teeth, so it wins the dentition contest. a size-one only card, are discarded. However the digging-gator is not dead; it moves to the predator a. Culling. Since the bipedal bloodhound is no longer triangle of the same habitat and becomes a predator of the anteater. insectivorous, it dies off in the meadow. Its predator switches to Turn 11: Resize a Species. Dino-croc shrinks his size animal from plant-eating and moves into the biome. two to one for his archetype species. Turn 17: Expand an Animal. Dino-croc expands to the calamites Turn 12: Purchase a Card. Dog-face mutates his bloodhounds by thicket as a predator. buying and playing the biped (B) card. Turn 18: Acculturation. Since the biped bloodhounds have the acorn and manual dexterity instincts, dog-face is able to place one of his archetype animals into the bone-cracking culture.
Turn 13: Purchase a Card. Dino-croc buys for free the spines (AA) card (and gets the 3 genes that are on the card.) He mutates his archetype into spiny digging-gators.
Turn 14: Expand an animal. Dog-face expands his bipedal anteaters by moving a child of the same species to the adjacent calamites thicket biome. Turn 15: Purchase a Card. Dino-croc buys the Carnosaur (AA) genotype card. His spiny-gators have the correct size, and over half the DNA, to be the parents.32 Because the parents have the same silhouette as the genotype, the card goes into his fossil record per 7.5. a. Scoring for the Triassic. There are 5 tiles in the tarpit. The 15 At this point (mid-Jurassic), both players are down to one species. Dog-face has 1 population, no genes, and 3 fossil record (including two for the BA genotype). Dino-croc has 3 population, 4 genes, and 5 fossil record (including two for the AA descendant).
21.0 TIPS ON WINNING 21.1 Grab valuable DNA The goal is to play DNA from which you can establish four species with robust (but preferably short) genomes before each scoring round. a. Amphibious Predators. Red and Orange, whose dentition favors predation, should buy P and useful roadrunner DNA. Perhaps the most valuable roadrunner is marine. Your first Turn 19: Purchase a Card. Dino-croc purchases and discards the amphibian can be a seafood-eating “herbivore”. Then you are duckbills/swine card. free to speciate an amphibian predator to eat your herbivores. a. New Era Tile Event. Immigrant titanosaurs (armored b. Dietary DNA. Perhaps the most valuable dietary DNA is BB brontosaurs) from South America! They enter the lowest-climax in the Mesozoic, and G and H in the Cenozoic, followed by biome in the tropics, namely the calamites. M and I. P DNA is valuable for predators, but less so for herbivores until the flowers, grasses, and deciduous trees start arriving later.
21.2 Size roadrunners. If your opponent has more teeth than you and equally adapted for the biomes, your herbivores can survive by becoming “size roadrunners”: species too big or too small for the local predators to b. Culling. At the end of the turn, the titanosaurs win the predator- eat. defense contest, since they are too big and too well armored for a. Tiny “Size-Roadrunners”. If the local predators are size 3+, the burrowing gators to eat. Normally, the gators would die, as then going to size one gives you the roadrunner advantage, as would the bloodhounds. But both are adapted for rooting, and well as positioning you for expressing valuable husking, the biome has a rooter triangle (requirement N). Both animals insect eating, and flight DNA. Watch out for the very limited enter this triangle, but the digging-gators enjoy the niche (I). So range, however. the bloodhounds switch to the predator triangle, eating the now- b. Big “Size-Roadrunners”. Large herbivores additionally spineless gators! dominate in “size” niches, and are able to migrate farther. 33 Turn 20: Expand an Animal (new species). Dog-face buys and c. Predator’s Dilemma. Predators should avoid habitats with plays the chalicothere genotype (a horse that wants to be a edible herbivores that are accessible to inedible herbivores. gorilla!). The biped bloodhounds, at size 3 with BN DNA, become Otherwise the herbivore enjoying the roadrunner advantage the parents. He replaces his homeland animal with a “rhino” could invade and drive you and your prey extinct. animal, and also places “rhino” animals in size 3 and the A roadrunner positions. a. Culling. The ‘sailback” nocturnal predator in the dog-face 21.3 Overspecialization. homeland, unable to eat the aggressive new horse-gorillas, Keep expanding your animals into new species to keep them from goes extinct. being overspecialized. For 5 card draws (50 million years), a b. Erosion Event. The dog-face homeland is the only mountain species with a genome length of 4 DNA has about a one in ten on the map, so it erodes away. The short-lived horse-gorillas chance of going extinct from a catastrophe. For a length of 7+, the go extinct; its card goes into the dog-face fossil record. Then odds increase to one in three. Such “comet bait” species may be the greenhouse drops, displacing the dino-croc homeland and useful as a sacrificial master race from which you spawn as many the calamites habitat south. less-specialized derivatives as possible.
21.4 Predatory child. A good time to create a new species is right after your first roadrunner. This new species can inherit the roadrunner and
16 choose to be a carnivore on its parents. Vegetable Emperors. During the Cretaceous, an organism developed more fearsome than all the dinosaurs stomping around. The first flower bloomed. Angiosperms use flowers to employ legions of insects to handle 21.5 Crossing the Atlantic. their pollination, and use fruits and nuts to employ animals for seed Suppose you have a land animal that wants to expand into nearby dispersion. At 50 million years ago, and again 38 million years ago, the greenhouse fell dramatically. As usual, the climatic effects were magnified sea biomes. Or worse, wants to reach biomes across the Atlantic, in America. The rainforests opened up as things got drier. As seasonality which requires MM to cross. Invading the water from land, and increased (i.e. greater differences between summer and winter), the first vice versa, is tricky because you must become an amphibian first. angiosperm weeds developed, annuals that die off every winter to be a. The Migration of Frogs. The first step is to become an reborn. And the first wind-pollinated grasses bloomed, the most successful amphibian by playing a marine mutation. Remember that this and advanced of the angiosperms, which actually tamed fire before the animals did. The increased seasonality also gave angiosperm deciduous cuts your migration range by one. In fact, if you are a size trees the edge over conifers. By dropping leaves in the winter, a deciduous one amphibian, you may only migrate between the biome and tree can handle winter drought better. And it can recoup much of the triangles of the same habitat! nutrients expended to make the lost leaf when the leaf rots the next spring. b. Learning to Swim. Because the rules do not allow you to In regions where tropical summers follow arctic winters, deciduous trees migrate the same turn that you mutate, adding a second M have the edge. Where the summers are not quite so balmy, evergreens have DNA to a species living on land would kill it off before it the advantage. And where the winters are not quite so frigid, angiosperm evergreen broadleafs have the advantage. could enter the water. The lesson: learn to swim in a pond before you attempt the Atlantic! In other words, expand your amphibian to a sea biome with no more than one M Dinosaur Mysteries requirement. From here, you can safely adopt a second M Perhaps while playing this game, you can figure out the three fundamental card, so as to be able to cross the Atlantic. dinosaur mysteries: c. Tail Fin. If you mutate with the caudal fin (MM) card, your a. Dinosaurs are big. Reptiles, birds, and mammals developed tiny species becomes a sea animal instantly. All its animals living species, but never dinosaurs. on land would die that same turn. So obviously you must be b. Dinosaurs are terrestrial. Reptiles, birds, and mammals have had living in a sea biome with at least one animal before trying to marine and flying forms. Not dinosaurs. purchase this card. Note that after you play the caudal fin, you c. Dinosaurs are dead. Reptiles, birds, and mammals all had survivors. will have an MMM whale pod species! Dinosaurs didn't.
Size Matters. This is a game about megafauna, animals 100 kg (220 lb) or 22.0 MILIEU more. In the history of life, animals this size were rare until the Mesozoic Catastrophe Species. This game starts in the aftermath of the biggest Era began a quarter billion years ago. Why be big? Megafauna gain a disaster ever recorded, the Permian extinctions. The rock layers before this disproportionate share of the resources in an area. Large animals are often incident record wet forested jungles and coals. Afterwards are the faster, migrate further, and can catch bigger prey than small ones. Weight sandstones of the Early Triassic, monotonously barren the world over. For per weight, megafauna need less food than small animals and do not need a a game turn (10 million years) the plant record shows only a few “disaster high metabolism for the same activity level. Finally, large animals have species”, cosmopolitan weeds such as spiky quillworts, shrubby lycopods, smaller populations than small ones, given a constant resource. Smaller a seed fern, horsetails, and dwarf conifers. The marine fossils are also populations exhibit more speciation, at the price of greater genetic drift. opportunists: small scallops or brachiopods adapted for low oxygen waters. The first trees and conifer forests appear halfway through the turn, populated by small unspecialized archetypes such as those in the game. Warm-blood vs. Cold-blood. Large creatures can maintain their Biodiversity and biota were still recovering through game turn two. It is temperature at metabolic optimums easier than small ones. One can estimated that over 90% of the animals worldwide were a single species of visualize this principle by observing how fast a given amount of ice melts two-tusker. in cubes compared to if it is in one big block. Creatures with a relatively constant body temperature are called homoiotherms. Some megafauna, such as crocodiles and big turtles, are low metabolism homoiotherms and The Struggle of Dynasties. The Triassic Period, a time of struggles for maintain their body temperature through thermal mass. Other animals, with megafaunal world domination, lasted for 5 game turns. The two-tuskers, higher metabolisms, must expend energy to maintain a higher body the top herbivores, were edged out by the chisel lizards and dog-faces. The temperature. A 50 kg cougar eats five times that of a 50 kg alligator. A top carnivores were also dog-faces. But at the end of the Triassic, Pangea body temperature of ~38°C is optimal for chemical reactions (including split along the Atlantic Rift, erupting huge flood basalts34 and skyrocketing digestion and Krebs cycles) and muscle performance. Tiny homoiotherms the Greenhouse. In the resulting mass extinction, dog-faces, chisel lizards, like shrews and hummingbirds must eat continuously to maintain this and two-tuskers died out, and a previously obscure group gained the field, temperature. the dinosaurs. Foregut vs. Hindgut Digesters. Most of the energy of a leaf is locked up American Megafauna. The north-south orientation of the two American in cellulose, the most common component of fiber. No known animal can mountain ranges act as a “climatic trumpet”, magnifying the effects of digest cellulose without lengthy digestive tracts filled with special bacteria. Greenhouse levels. America’s ice-sheets were the most extensive in the These tracts include the foregut (stomach or crop) or hindgut (colon or world, and its Eocene tropics were the balmiest in the world. The collision intestine). The hindgut fermentation digesters include elephants, rhinos, of funneled arctic blasts with tropical air spawns most of the world’s hippos, horses, and extinct sloths, ankylosaurs, and pachycephalosaurs. A tornados. These extremes have forged America into a kind of megafaunal large amount of foliage can be processed rapidly in the hindgut, but the evolutionary superpower. It has spawned the biggest and the most droppings will contain much undigested food. Elephants spend 77% of dinosaurs, and appears to be the origins for the ruminants (cud-chewers their time eating because of digestive inefficiency. Foregut digesters, such such as cows, sheep, deer), camels, and perissodactyls (horse, rhinos, as ruminants, are more efficient because the vegetation in the crop can be tapirs). (However, few if any bird orders originated in America for some regurgitated forward for additional processing and mastication. Deer, reason.) Mammal diversity peaked 15 million years ago in the Miocene, giraffe, camels, goats, bison, and cattle are today’s foregut digesters. with American savannas resembling the Serengeti. America lost its megafauna during the Pleistocene ice ages, likely because of human invasions over Beringia. 23.0 REFERENCES
17 Alexander, R. McNeill. (1989). Dynamics of dinosaurs and other extinct giants. Columbia University Press. Bakker, Robert T. (1986). The dinosaur heresies. William Morrow. Benton, Michael. (1996). The historical atlas of the dinosaurs. Penguin Books Ltd. Dixon, Dougal et al. (1988). The Macmillan illustrated encyclopedia of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. American Museum of Natural History. Erwin, Douglas. (2006). Extinction, How life on Earth nearly ended 250 million years ago. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Farlow, James and M.K. Brett-Surman. (1997). The complete dinosaur. University of Indiana Press. Fastovsky, David and David Weishamel. (1996). The evolution and extinction of the dinosaurs. Cambridge University Press. Flannery, Tim. (2001). The eternal frontier. The Text Publishing Co. Lunine, Jonathan. (1999). Earth: Evolution of a habitable world. Cambridge University Press. McGowan, Christopher. (1991). Dinosaurs, Spitfires, and Sea Dragons. Harvard University Press. Paul, Gregory S. (1988). Predatory dinosaurs of the world. Simon and Schuster. Powell, James. (1988). Night comes to the Cretaceous. W. H. Freeman and Company. Ridley, Matt (1993). The Red Queen. Penguin Books Ltd.
24.0 CREDITS Designer: Phil Eklund ([email protected]), (520) 324-0523 2525 E. Prince #72, Tucson, AZ 85716 (www.sierramadregames.com) Art, Map, Layout: Phil Eklund Cover: Jenny Dolfen Bios Logo & Map Art: by Tim Park Rules Editing: Rick Heli, James Sterrett, Brian Leet, Bill Su.
Playtesters: Mark Buckley, Cedric Chin, Dustin Crowl, Matthew Eklund, Alex Hazlett, Derek Long, Phillip McGregor, James Scheiderich, Thomas Blaine, Alan Bargender and the Bargender family, Donald Acker, Kristina Stipetic, Brittany Sturdevant, Nicole Morper, Andy Graham, Jim Gutt, Andro Hsu, Zack Mensinger, Dave House, Joe Delaney, David Morneau, Ryan Frans, Lucas Wan, Ross Mortell, Rick Taylor, Marc Williams, G. Thomas Wells, Chris Peters, Martin Vallance, David Ells, Eric Cochenet.In memory of our slain playtester Gabe Zimmerman.
Special Consultants: Rick Heli of Spotlight on Games, Manuel Suffo, Wilhelm Fitzpatrick, Franco Momoli, Bob Butler of the University of Arizona (tectonics), Dr. Jonathan Lunine of the University of Arizona (Earth), Dr. Paul Martin of the University of Arizona (blitzkrieg), Neal Sofge of Fat Messiah (dinosaurs), Dr. Jim Kirkland (discoverer of Utahraptor), Dr. Robert McCord of the Mesa Southwest Museum (immigrants), Dr. Darin Croft, anatomy professor at Case Western Reserve University (notoungulates), Dr. Patrick Ross, Professor of Biology at Southwestern College, Dr. Andro Hsu, Product Manager at NextBio. Dr. John Douglass (erosion),
25.0 PLAYER RESOURCES Megafauna online discussion: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Megafauna/
Sierra Madre Games homepage: http://www.sierramadregames.com
Rick Heli’s Spotlight on Games: http://spotlightongames.com/summary/amf.html
BoardGameGeek: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/97915/bios- megafauna "In any non-self running simulation, there must be Lamarckian appeals." Mike Wasson
18 Endnotes (Gondwanaland). The sea forming between them is the Tethys. The Hercynian range to the east is the remnant of a plate collision. Its slopes are lush with rain-forests all the way north to Greenland, which actually lives up to 1 DENTITION Mammal teeth come in two sets: milk teeth and permanent its name. The interior is mainly barren sand dunes, stirred by easterly winds teeth. Both sets are sculpted to fit together precisely (called an occluded bite), desiccated by passage over the Hercynians. contrasted to the dinosaur’s rather sloppy bite with dental batteries that are continually replaced. The life span of mammals is limited by tooth wear; 9 consequently most of them plateau at a maximum adult size. Dinosaurs, with OROGENIES are mountain-building processes. The impact of Africa into their uniform ever-growing teeth, themselves grew throughout their lives, up to Laurentia at the beginning of the game caused both the supercontinent of the biggest land beasts ever. Pangaea and the Hercynian orogeny. The Hercynians, as tall as the Himalayas, blocked the trade easterlies and turned the interior seaway into a a. The 4-tooth dentition, based upon the peculiar herbivorous series of hypersaline ponds and salt deposits. The western orogeny is the rhynchosaurs, features biting tusks (actually extensions of the jawbone), Laramide, which up-lifted the Rocky Mountains and formed the Sierra Nevada and shearing ‘blade and groove’ teeth. The teeth were not replaced in and Coastal Ranges. the conventional reptilian fashion. Instead they were shuttled into the tooth-field in a conveyor-belt manner superficially similar to the elephantine system. 10 HORSE LATITUDES contain most of today’s great deserts. At around 30° b. The 5-tooth dentition augments the usual mammalian arsenal of latitude, desiccated air of the circum-global Hadley cell descends and diverts incisors, tusks, and cheek teeth with reptilian beaks and horny palates. It trade winds from carrying rainwater from the oceans to these regions. is based upon the dicynodonts. The lower jaw retracts as the jaw closes, providing shearing action and grinding of vegetation on the palate. c. Animals with minimal dental formulae are favored for the "snatch and 11 The “species” in this game actually represent animal gulp" or "slashing cookie-cutter" predatory methods. They have semi- specialized teeth that are curved, flattened, and serrated for cutting off chunks rather than grabbing. These are continually replaced as they are orders. lost. 12 ARCHETYPES are the original forerunners of a group of animals or plants. d. Mammals with 3-tooth dentition have four kinds of teeth: incisors for In this game, the dinosaur archetypes are archosaurs and rhyncosaurs, and biting and cropping, canines for holding prey, pre-molars for crushing, the mammal archetypes are cynodonts and dicynodonts. Starting small and and molar “cheek teeth” for chewing. (In most mammal herbivores, the unspecialized, the four differ mainly in dentition. All have general digestion, canines are absent, leaving a gap called the diastema between their unspecialized five clawed toes, and plantigrade locomotion (walking on soles) biting and chewing teeth.) with an up and down backbone flexure.
2 BROWSERS are animals that eat the leaves of shrubs and trees. Low plants 13 PERIODS. Historically, the Mesozoic Era started with the Triassic Period, have made themselves more and more indigestible, while the higher tree and ended at the K-T catastrophe at the end of the Cretaceous Period. In this foliage remains more succulent. Only 30 to 70% of the contained energy of game, the K-T catastrophe ending the Mesozoic can happen at any time. leaves is usable, compared to 70 to 90% for fruit, meat, insects, fish, and seeds. Browsing requires a long neck, arms, tongue, or trunk to reach these 14 high leaves. Or strength: elephants will knock a tree over to get a few leaves A CATASTROPHE is a sudden environmental change. Controversy at the top. Browsers, such as elephants and rhinos, tend to be larger and continues whether the major factors in the survival or extinction of life are more intelligent than grazers. catastrophic or gradualist. Equally controversial is whether survival or extinction is due to opportunism or evolutionary competition. Life seems to be at maximum risk when at equilibrium. 3 GRAZERS are adapted to eat ground cover or, during the Cenozoic Era, grass. (Grass, a wind-pollinated angiosperm, appeared after the age of 15 dinosaurs). Grass contains spicules, and these needles of glass require high AZOLLA EVENT. During the Eocene, a bloom of the freshwater Azolla fern crowned teeth with cement to process them. In order to obtain an adequate turned the entire Arctic Ocean solid green. Dead ferns dropping into the diet, grazers must repetitively munch and grind the grass, and all this mind- hypoxic depths sequestered enough carbon to drop greenhouse levels from numbing mastication dominates their daily routines. Cattle, deer, and other 3500 ppm to 650 ppm. No known creature is able to consume this “super- ruminants are today's most advanced grazers; such cud-chewers are currently fern”. driving the larger hindgut digesters out. Rhinos, elephants, and horses will be extinct in a million years or so unless man gives them sanctuary. 16 PHENOTYPE includes the distinguishing features of an individual resulting from both its genotype and its environmental 4 HUSKERS are animals adapted to crack the husk of mast and obtain the interaction. high energy contents inside. Today, the dominant huskers are rodents, 17 sparrows, and pigeons. A uniquely American rodent husker is the squirrel, MILANKOVICH CYCLES describe how climate is nudged by periodic which has co-evolved alongside acorns, beechnuts, and chestnuts, etc. Such oscillations in the Earth’s orbit. These oscillations are caused by the alignment trees find the squirrels useful to disperse their seeds, not all of which are of the planets, especially Jupiter. (I bet you weren’t expecting astrology to subsequently eaten after being squirreled away. In competition for the enter this discussion!) There are three sorts. Changes in the Earth’s services of squirrels, many American trees have made their seeds as thin- eccentricity (E cycle) reapportion annual solar energy to different parts of the skinned and squirrel-sized as possible. This is in sharp contrast to other year. Changes in the Earth’s precession (P cycle) alter the seasonality continents that have no squirrels. In South America, for instance, Brazils and (temperature differences between poles and equator) that drive the equatorial Macadamias are heavily armored. winds and weather. Changes in the Earth’s tilt (T cycle) change the amount of midnight sun and seasonality, especially at the poles. 5 A BIOME is an ecological community or environment characterized by 18 distinctive geology, vegetation, invertebrates, or fish that can be exploited by EROSION AND GREENHOUSE. The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide adapted animals. (CO2) rises and falls in response to biological and geological forces. Over the long run, CO2 levels have been falling unsteadily due to carbon sequestering into rocks. This sequestering occurs during rock weathering (especially 6 NICHE defines the competition of species for a certain natural resource. No hydrolysis), and by coal formation (mainly from plant lignins which resist two species can simultaneously exploit the same resource, as the more decomposition). Some of the sequestered carbon is returned by volcanos, but efficient exploiter will eventually prevail. most of it is buried forever. And so temperatures have been falling since the time of the dinosaurs, especially when erosion is accelerated by mountain growth. Our current ice age is mainly due to the growth of the Andes and 7 CLIMAX, a mature plant community as a culmination of an ecological or Himalayas, although the American Laramide Orogeny contributed as well. evolutionary succession.
8 The MAP diagrams the North American portion of the supercontinent of 19 FEATHERS are scales modified to insulate an animal's body by trapping a Pangaea during the early Mesozoic Era (200 million years ago). Pangaea is layer of air (air is a superior insulating material). Feathers are better than fur beginning to split into a northern half (Laurasia) and a southern half for insulation and shielding from solar radiation. Only later were they adapted 19 for flight purposes. Feathers are high maintenance, requiring bathing, preening, and periodic replacement to keep from getting matted or infested 28 with parasites. They also preclude the use of sweat glands, which is why birds GREENHOUSE LEVEL is measured in parts per million (ppm) of pant rather than sweat. atmospheric carbon dioxide by volume. High levels trap solar heat, melting the icecaps and rising sea levels. Low levels cause global cooling and ice-cap formation. The Permian Catastrophe rocketed greenhouse levels from a 250 20 RECESSED DNA encodes latent characteristics, represented in the game ppm ice age to an 1800 ppm hothouse, a temperature rise of about 10°C. by hand cards. Greenhouse levels soared over 2500 ppm during the late Mesozoic Era, but have been falling ever since. This decline, caused in part to the formation and erosion of the Tibetan plateau, has led to today’s ice age, which oscillates 21 ARCHAEOLOGICAL CULTURES are consistent and diagnostic between a 280 ppm deep freeze and a 400 ppm interglacial. For the last assemblages of tools and techniques. These include hand-axes (3 million 15,000 years, the climate has been climbing out of the last deep freeze. years ago), fire-bearing (one half million years ago), and Mousterian thrusting Today’s value is 388 ppm, and if it follows the last dozen cycles, it will peak at spears and Levalloisian blade spears (one quarter million years ago). Multi- 400 ppm before falling into the next deep freeze. The situation is like a brisk part tools need to be visualized prior to assembly. This visualization is September morning. In the short run it will get hotter as midday approaches, accomplished in the brain using stored lingual concepts, which is why yet over the longer run it will get colder as winter sets in. Today’s air is so language is necessary for true technology as opposed to instinctive tool use. impoverished in CO2 that plants struggle to breathe, having been adapted to The origin of consciousness (driven both by natural selection and the levels ten times higher throughout most of Earth’s history. evolution of language) is covered by the next game in the series: Origins, how we became human. 29 SEA LEVELS were close to present levels at the start of this game, 22 covering a shallow continental shelf off Pangaean shores. They rose SEX is the intermingling of genetic material like DNA, and the activities that dramatically during the Jurassic, inundating the Midwest and separating enhance this. Cards with the alpha (social skills) icon represent a variety of America into east and west ranges by the Cretaceous. They dropped again sexual intimidations, advertisements, displays, and leks. (Leks are sexual during the Cenozoic. The formation of ice-caps during the Pleistocene arenas where males peacefully congregate to perform their courtship displays, dropped levels 130 meters below present, exposing bridges to Asia and and females make their choice. This system works well for monogamous Greenland. species whose offspring need a lot of parental effort, like birds.)
30 LAZARUS SPECIES are creatures missing from the fossil record for many 23 SPECIATION is the Darwinian process by which a new species arises. millions of years before mysteriously "rising from the dead". This is an There are different modes of speciation, including allopatric (a new species observational artifact caused by incomplete fossil records. arises as a result of a geographic barrier such as a mountain range) and sympatric (a new species arises as a result of a specialization within a population). The silhouettes in this game correlate to ecomorphs, 31 THE K-T CATASTROPHE was an extinction event at the Cretaceous- megafaunal bodyplans that have withstood the test of time. One ecomorph is Tertiary boundary (abbreviated K-T) some 65 million years ago. This event, the tank, a quadruped with a low grazing mouth, a huge hindgut digestive vat, associated with the Chicxulub impact crater in Yucatán, ended the Mesozoic and a generally surly disposition. Rhinos and ankylosaurs, for instance, are Era and began today’s Cenozoic Era. On the land, the dinosaurs and tanks. A common browsing ecomorph is the biped, which may run on four pterosaurs died. Most of the birds and mammals died as well, but at least a legs, but stands up on two for browsing. Some bipeds use claws on their few survived to radiate spectacularly in the Cenozoic. In the oceans, the hands to defend themselves, like ground sloths and iguanodonts. rudistids (coral-like oysters), great sea reptiles and lizards, ammonites, and much plankton went extinct. Small and generalized cold-bloods, like fish, 24 GENOTYPE is a population of individuals sharing a specified genetic turtles, insects, crocodiles, seemed totally unscathed, as did plants, including makeup (in this game, an order of related animals). the recently-evolved flowering plants. Many of the survivors were acid- tolerating or lived on acid-buffering soils. A giant bolide 10 km in diameter can be expected to smite the Earth every 200 25 TROPHIC LEVEL is a nutritional hierarchy of life. In the simplified 3-level million years (My). The K-T bolide rebounded the crust an estimated 13 on the trophic triangle used in this game, top carnivores occupy the apex, feeding on Richter scale, and generated world-wide tsunamis a hundred meters tall. The the next trophic level, the herbivores. The lowest trophic level contains the crater was 170 km in diameter. The re-entry rain of ejecta was offset like a energy-producing plants. The passage of energy between each trophic level shotgun aimed at the American heartland. It actually ignited the lower determines its biomass. Note that insectivores and sea-food eaters are treated atmosphere, burning everything combustible. A curtain of nitrogen oxide smog just like herbivores in this game. Dinosaur and bird orders can be divided into and soot shut down photosynthesis for months, and destroyed the ozone meat-eaters and leaf-eaters, (most lizard-hipped dinosaurs are carnivores, layer. The gloom plunged Earth into a decades-long impact winter, with and all bird-hipped seem to be herbivores), while mammal orders cannot be average temperatures below freezing. Since ground zero happened to be rich so cleanly divided. This indicates that reptiles and birds are less versatile in in sulfur, acid rain sulfates pelted the world for decades. their trophic choices than mammals. Furthermore, because of the specializations required to masticate and digest plants, it is generally easier 32 for plant-eaters to evolve into meat-eaters than vice-versa. The theory that new species arise within populations without migration is called sympatric speciation. 33 The theory that new species arise as the result of migration is called 26 MIGRATIONS are the mass movements of organisms from location to allopatric speciation. location. These may be seasonal or in response to climatic change or 34 hardship. The game migration rate is based upon the annual migrations of The Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) was the largest area flood size three American animals like bison and caribou, which travel 2500 km basalt vulcanism in the solar system (10 million square km). There were annually. perhaps 3 million cubic kilometers of extruded basalts. Each flow was several thousand years long, covering America east of the the Appalachians, as well 27 as Morrocco and Brazil.
20 Bios Megafauna Player Aids
ON YOUR TURN, PERFORM ONE ACTION: 1. Purchase and play/discard a card. Purchase a card of your choice by dropping one gene on each card to the left of it in the display. Either play it on one of your species or discard it; you may not hold cards. Then draw a new card and (if it goes into the Lower Display) resolve its event. Finally replenish the display with the drawn card, putting it into the rightmost position in the display row. 2. Resize one of your species. Move a size animal up or down one spot. >If you grow outside of the size-range of a mutation card, discard it. >If you grow outside the size-range of an inheritance tile, return it to your reserves. 3. Acculturate one of your species. If your species has the necessary two instincts, add a species animal from your reserves to the appropriate culture area on the map. This gives the species the special power listed. 4. Expand an animal. Choose a parent, then add an animal from your reserves to a habitable habitat within the migration range of that parent. You may expand with the same silhouette as the parent, or a new one. Your destination can be any habitable triangle or biome. 5. Roadrunner action (opt). Pay 2 genes, adjust one roadrunner DNA. 6. Genetic drift (opt). Steal a gene from the player with the most genes. After your turn, cull any animals that have been adversely impacted by your turn, starting with the herbivores.
THERE ARE 4 KINDS OF EVENTS: 1. New Era Tile: Draw two Era tiles at random from the current Era pool. >If Orogeny Biome Tile. Place into lowest-climax biome or slot in one of the mountain ranges. A replaced biome goes into the tarpit. >If Non-orogeny Biome Tile. Place into lowest-climax biome or slot in the latitude specified on the tile. >If Immigrant Tile. Place into lowest-climax habitable habitat in the latitude specified on the tile.
2. Catastrophe: >Perform Extinctions. The Catastrophe level drives animals and immigrants extinct that have that much DNA or more. >Move Greenhouse Disk one higher or lower, as specified. A rising level displaces all non-orogeny biomes north, along with the animals in them. A falling level displaces them south. If 2 biomes end up in the same habitat, the lower climax one goes to the tarpit. If the greenhouse is at its highest level, all biomes with a blue star are inverted. If the greenhouse is at its lowest level, all biomes with a white star are inverted. > Episodes. Right after the 1st catastrophe of the game, the Atlantic opens up. You need MM DNA to cross the dark blue line. Right after the 2nd catastrophe of the game, the Era changes to the Cenozoic. Thereafter, new era tiles come from the modern era.
3. Erosion: If the Greenhouse is 800 ppm or higher, send the highest-climax orogeny biome to the tarpit, and then lower the greenhouse.
4. Milankovich: Put the lowest-climax biome of the latitude(s) specified into the tarpit.
MIGRATION LIMITATIONS. Range: During expansion, a newly-created animal may migrate up to a number of habitats equal to its size plus its number of P DNA. Diagonal movement is not allowed. Wings may migrate up to seven habitats (but not over oceans). Amphibians. Those with one M DNA migrate 1 less. Land Habitats may not be entered by animals with 2+ more M DNA. Sea Habitats may be entered by species with flight or at least one M DNA. Ice Habitats may be entered only with wings. Must end in a habitable triangle or biome.
HERBIVORE CULLING RULES. In each overcrowded biome or rooter triangle, keep applying culling rules (in the order listed) until there is one animal left:
21 1. Suitable: Those without the DNA required to eat the biome die. 2. Niche: Those with less of the Niche DNA die. 3. Predator-Defense: If (and only if) there are one or more predators present, then those inedible to all the predators survive; the others die. 4. Dentition: Herbivores with the most teeth survive.
CARNIVORE CULLING RULES. In each overcrowded predator triangle, keep applying culling rules (in the order listed) until there is one animal left. 1. Suitable: A predator must be within one size of its prey, and have at least as much roadrunner in all 4 categories as its prey. 2. Physiology: Those with more P DNA survive. 3. Dentition: Those with fewer teeth survive.
EXTINCTION. A species with no population discards all its cards and returns all its tiles to reserves. Extinct era tiles go to the tarpit..
LAZARUS PLAYER. A player with all 4 species extinct can resurrect by buying and playing a mutation card, and starting a map and size animal..
THERE ARE 4 PERIOD DECKS. The number of cards in each deck is 3N, 5, 8, and 7, where 3N = three times the number of players. Both displays have 5 cards each. Scoring occurs at the end of the last turn of each period. The game ends at the end of the last period. It can also end if the pool runs out of Era Tiles, the greenhouse goes high or low.
IF A DECK RUNS OUT, PERFORM SCORING. at the end of the turn that each of the 4 Period Decks run out. For each scoring, the player with the most map animals takes half the tiles in the tarpit, rounding up. Then the next most populous, etc. Players with no population do not take any tarpit tiles.
HABITAT. Animals trying to be predators move to the upper triangle, rooters to the lower triangle. Other herbivores are placed on the biome tile. A species within range can freely expand into any of these areas, as long as it is habitable.
PLAY CARDS. Mutation Cards. Play on a species stack that is in the card’s size-range. Genotype Card. To play this, you must have a parent matching the size and at least half the DNA (rounding up) on the card. If so, play it to start a new species stack, or (if the parent is already using the genotype’s silhouette) play this into your fossil record for endgame victory points.
INHERITANCE. If expanding a new species, the child starts as the size of the parent, and may inherit Dietary DNA (maximum of 1 inheritance tile) and Roadrunner DNA (maximum of 1 roadrunner track value).
EASILY MISSED RULES. >You may not use your inheritance tiles to specialize a species. You may only use it to show dietary DNA inherited from its parent. >Any expanded animal can migrate into a predator triangle if it is within one size of its prey and matches its prey’s roadrunner DNA. >If you have a predator, and its prey changes size, you are allowed a free and immediate one-step size change with that predator species. >The number of genes in the game is constant. >Once you place an animal, it cannot move to a new habitat.
25.0 Odds for a catastrophe not happening (courtesy Bill Su) 1 draws: 92.391304% 2 draws: 85.284281% 3 draws: 78.651059% 4 draws: 72.465021% 5 draws: 66.700758%
22 6 draws: 61.334030% 7 draws: 56.341725% 8 draws: 51.701819% 9 draws: 47.393334% 10 draws: 43.396306% 11 draws: 39.691743% 12 draws: 36.261592% 13 draws: 33.088703% 14 draws: 30.156793% 15 draws: 27.450414% 16 draws: 24.954922% 17 draws: 22.656442% 18 draws: 20.541841% 19 draws: 18.598694% 20 draws: 16.815257% 21 draws: 15.180441% 22 draws: 13.683777% 23 draws: 12.315400% 24 draws: 11.066011% 25 draws: 9.926863%
Bios Megafauna is the greatest evolution game ever made, from the designer who made the best rocket game ever (High Frontier), & the best civilization game (Origins). You start as a proto-dinosaur or proto-mammal, just after the Permian apocalypse that destroyed 96% of the planet. You must mutate and speciate in the face of global changes, and competition from each other. Create bizarre chimeras, from vegetarian velociraptors to flying dolphins. Establish subterranean civilizations, tame fire, or just be super-sexy.
This deluxe edition comes with mounted map, 108 Cards, 126 die-cut counters, 128 laser-cut wooden animals, and 44 gene chips. For 2 to 4 players, teenager and up.
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