Dinosaur Island

Setup and starting resources: Use two DNA dice per player plus one. Reveal player count plus one objectives from one chosen length deck and two nonconflicting Plot Twists, removing market tiles excluded at that count. Each player has three ranked Scientists, four available Workers and one starting Dinosaur. Basic DNA starts at one each with capacity four; Advanced DNA at zero with capacity two. Excitement, Threat and Security begin at one, VP at ten. First player gets $15 and each later player $1 more; reserve Workers are unavailable until gained.

Five phases: Every round follows Research, Market, Worker, Park, then Cleanup. The first round begins in setup order; later rounds set turn order during Cleanup based on Victory Points, with the lowest score first and previous order preserved for ties. Research assigns Scientists in sequence, Market gives each player two purchase actions in turn order, Worker assigns lab Workers simultaneously, Park resolves visitors and Threat in turn order, and Cleanup resets the market and pieces.

Research: Roll the DNA dice pool and place dice in the Research slots. Players take turns assigning each of their three Scientists to an unoccupied Research space, choosing a DNA result, Cold Storage increase, Dinosaur recipe, or Pass. A normal DNA face is multiplied by the Scientist's level, but cannot exceed that DNA type's storage limit. Increasing Cold Storage raises capacity; it does not give DNA. A recipe requires the listed Scientist level and is placed over two adjacent empty park zones. A Scientist passed here can become a Worker later this round. At the end of Research, set aside the remaining die with the most Threat pips; its pips raise every player's Threat in the Park phase.

Market costs: Take two actions each in order, or pass for $2 per action. Specialists and ordinary Lab Upgrades cost only their market row; Attractions also add their printed tile cost. A fourth Specialist requires firing one and losing its bonuses, including extra Workers. Put upgrades in construction spaces or cover an older upgrade when full; covered tiles remain but stop functioning. Dino Research II costs $3 and DNA Refinement II $5 from their special stacks and must cover the matching basic space. Buying DNA for $2–$5 follows the market table, then discards one item in that price row, excluding special upgrade stacks.

Worker phase: Resolve your own lab actions in any order, concurrently with others. Each passed Scientist is one Worker, not several based on its research level. Each workstation slot activates once per round unless marked Unlimited; a tile can have multiple distinct slots. Green-background one-time purchase effects cannot be activated again with Workers. Each DNA Refinement converts the specified two Basic DNA to one Advanced DNA; each Dino Research spends the recipe DNA to create one Dinosaur, provided its matching paddock has room.

Dinosaurs and capacity: Creation increases printed Excitement and Threat, with Excitement capped at twenty. Paddocks begin at one Dinosaur and upgrade stepwise to four; the normal cost equals the new capacity, so two to three costs $3 unless a card changes it. Security increases pay the indicated level cost on the lab chart. Rare die faces require the rank-three Scientist and resolve their paddock or Worker icon once, without tripling it. Cold Storage increases distribute the Scientist’s level across DNA capacities; raising capacity does not itself gain DNA.

Park and visitors: Draw visitors from the bag according to current Excitement: paying Patrons and non-paying Hooligans. Place them at the entrance and collect $1 per Patron. Then fill Attractions and Dinosaur exhibits within capacity, placing Hooligans first; an exhibit holds as many visitors as it has Dinosaurs. If Security is at least equal to Threat, no visitor is eaten. If Threat is higher, the difference is the number eaten. Remove Patrons before Hooligans, then take any shortfall from the entrance queue. Return eaten visitors to the bag and lose 1 VP for each.

Park scoring: After the Threat test, score 1 VP for every surviving Patron at an Attraction or Dinosaur exhibit. Hooligans and visitors still queued at the entrance score nothing. For each Patron at a food Attraction, choose either 1 VP or $2 instead. A visitor does not enter a full exhibit automatically; capacity is limited by Attraction rules or the current number of Dinosaurs. Excitement can create more customers, but visitor capacity and Security determine whether they become income and points safely.

Cleanup and end: Reorder from fewest VP, preserving previous order for ties. Discard the $2 row, slide remaining items into cheaper positions and refill, without re-sorting Attractions by printed price. Reveal recipes, return Workers and Scientists, put all visitors back, then resolve round-end Plot Twists. Claim an objective when met; simultaneous fulfillment can share it. English example P explicitly allows both players reaching the Dinosaur target in simultaneous Worker to claim. One unclaimed objective triggers the end after completing this round’s five phases; objective VP is scored at game end.

Final scoring and scope: Add printed Attraction VP to existing points; each exhibit scores printed VP times its Dinosaurs, or loses ten if empty. Score claimed objectives at their printed six to eight VP and leftover money at $5 per VP. Ties compare remaining money; no further tie procedure is supplied. This is the 2017 English multiplayer ruleset. The separate seven-round solo objective procedure, Predictable Systems without Plot Twists and Chaos Threat Theory rerolling the held Threat die are not automatically active.