Do you know where the panda lives? Do you know where the babirusa lives? Do you know what a babirusa is? In the game Fauna, you are not expected to know all the answers, simply gather your wits and make an educated guess.
You are right on target? Great! You are close? That's good too, since you score partial points. The more you play, the better you get. Playing Fauna involves some fun betting for points, but don't get cocky, as this may cost you your hide.
Components
- 1 double-sided game board
- 180 animal cards with 360 animals
- 1 card box
- 42 bet markers, divided in 6 colors
- 30 black evaluation markers
- 1 lion marker (for the starting player)
Setup
The game board is double sided, one side in metric units and the other in imperial units. Choose the side you wish to play on and place the game board in the middle of the table. Each player takes 7 bet markers of their color.
Next, they place one marker beside the number 1 on the scoring track, running along the border of the game board. Place the black evaluation markers next to the game board. Insert the animal cards into the card box. It is recommended to fill up the box completely, even though you will only need 10 to 15 animals for one game of Fauna.
The player with the most exotic pet starts the first round. They take the lion marker and the card box.
Object of the Game
Players aim to win points by correctly placing bet markers on the playing board. Each turn, an animal card is drawn which indicates the number of areas that represent its natural habitat and certain physical traits.
Players then place, in turn, their bet markers on the geographical map and on the scales in an effort to score points. The goal of the game is to finish with the most points (and, on the way, learn something you may not have known about our planet's amazing animals).
The Animal Cards
At the start of the game, players decide if they want to play with the easier animals (green border cards) or with the more exotic ones (black border cards). You may also mix the two sorts of cards. Put the chosen cards into the card box.
The upper half of the card shows the information that players can see before placing their bet markers:
- The class of the animal
- Its common name and scientific name
- The illustration of the animal
- The number of areas in the world in which the animal can be found in its natural habitat
- Certain measurements of the animal such as: Weight, Length, Height,Tail length.
When the card is in the card box, players can see the categories of information they will play for.
The lower half of the card shows:
- The animal's zoological classification
- The names of the areas in which the animal lives
- A world map showing these areas
- The physical measurements of the animal
The lower half of the card will be hidden while players place their bet markers. When it is time to check the answers, the starting player will take the card out of the box and reveal the information to all players.
Game Play
The game is divided into several rounds. Each round consists of the following 3 phases:
- Placing bet markers
- Checking the answers and scoring
- Changing the starting player and beginning a new round
I. Placing Bet Markers
All players examine the first animal card displayed in the card box and decide where to place their bet markers. If necessary, each player may take the card box in hand to examine it more closely. However, they can't pull out the card.
The starting player begins, followed by the other players in a clockwise direction.
During their turn, a player has to place one of their bet markers on the board - either on the map or on one of the measurement scales.
Placing a Bet Marker in an Area
A player may place one of their bet markers in a land or marine area of the map, as long as there is no other marker (either their own or an opponent's) occupying the area. The names of marine areas are marked by a box.
Important: Marine areas include the sea and the islands located in it, unless the islands are marked as land areas.
Mississippi, Northern Mexico, Central America and Guyana are land areas.
The Caribbean is a marine area that includes all the islands located in it.
The red player wishes to place one of their bet markers on the map.
There are already markers on the Mississippi, Northern Mexico and Rocky Mountains areas, so the red player can no longer place their bet marker on any of these.
Placing a Bet Marker on a Scale
A player may place one of their bet markers on any unoccupied space of a measurement scale, as long as there is no other marker (either their own or an opponent's) occupying the space.
Important: Not all measurement scales are relevant for all animals. The upper half of the cards indicates which measurements you can bet on.
Placing other Markers or Passing
When all players have placed their first bet marker, beginning again with the starting player, each player may, in turn, either place another marker or pass their turn.
As mentioned, players can only place additional markers on map areas or spaces on the measurement scale that are free.
A player may place several markers on the same measurement scale.
If a player cannot or does not want to place more bet markers, they pass. Once a player has passed, they can no longer place bet markers during the round. Once all players have passed, the round moves to the next phase.
II. Checking the Answers and Scoring
The starting player pulls the animal card out of the card box. They start by checking the map areas, then checking the measurement scales.
Players may use the black evaluation markers in order to help them check the answers. They place a black marker on each area indicated by the lower half of the card to identify the correct habitat areas. They also place one or more black markers on each measurement scale to identify the correct physical traits.
Verifying the Map Areas
Players score points for each bet marker they placed on the correct areas of the map. They also score points for markers placed on areas adjacent to the correct areas, as long as the animal is found in 16 areas or less.
If the animal is found in 17 or more areas, then markers placed in adjacent areas are worth 0 points. Each time a player scores points, they advance their marker on the scoring track to reflect the additional points they scored.
Scoring
The number of points that the player scores depends on the number of areas that constitute the animal's natural habitat.
Example: If an animal lives in 7 areas, a player gets 6 points for a correctly placed bet marker and 2 points for a marker that they placed in an adjacent area.
Adjacent areas: Two areas are adjacent if they have a common border.
The land area of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains are adjacent.
The marine area Caribbean and the land area Guyana are adjacent.
Note: Players may place a marker on a sea area for a land animal in an effort to score points, if they believe the adjacent area is the primary habitat and it is already occupied by a marker.
The same holds true for a land area and a sea animal.
Verifying the Measurement Scales
Players score points for each bet marker placed in a correct space on one of the measurement scales. They also score points for markers placed on a space adjacent to the correct ones.
Every time a player scores points, they advance their marker on the scoring track to reflect the additional points they scored. On each scale, a player scores 7 points for a correctly placed bet marker and 3 points for a marker placed on a space adjacent to the correct one.
If the measurements of an animal happen to exactly match an interval on the scale, both adjacent intervals are counted as fully scoring spaces. The spaces next to these intervals will then count as adjacent.
The Pronghorn weighs between 90 and 155 lbs. For this reason, the two spaces between 40 and 200 are correct. Red and blue score 7 points each for their markers. Green is located on an adjacent space (between 200 and 400) and scores 3 points.
The green marker on the space between 400 and 1000 does not score any points.
Recover Bet Markers
Once all answers have been checked and all points have been awarded, players recover their bet markers that scored points. Bet markers that did not score any points are lost and put next to the game board as a reserve.
Players then remove the black markers from the game board.
Before starting the next round, every player that has lost one or more markers (in any previous round) receives from the reserve one bet marker.
Important: If a player at the end of the round has less than 3 markers, they receive the number of markers needed to increase their stock to 3.
III. Changing the starting player and beginning a new round
If no player has achieved the number of points necessary to finish the game (see End of Game section below), a new round begins by passing the lion marker to the next player in a clockwise direction. This player will be the starting player for the following round.
End of the Game
The game ends when, at the end of a round, one or more of the players has reached or surpassed the number of points required to win as indicated by the chart below:
in a game with 2 or 3 players: 120 points
in a game with 4 or 5 players: 100 points
in a game with 6 players: 80 points
If more than one player has passed this threshold, then the player with the highest score wins.
In the case of a tie, both players are declared winners.
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