Invented by Adrian Inauen
Published by Inauen Spiele
Translated by Andy Merritt (Andy.Merritt@cambridge.arm.com), 1998
Sea Life is a card game for 2-6 players, 10 years and older. The game consists of 48 creature cards and 48 food cards.
Sea Life, the amazing refined card game for young and old. Lose yourself in the fascinating underwater world of the sea. Tactics and luck decide your fate in the fight for survival. You can glide majestically like a Blue Whale filtering plankton from the sea, or lurk like a greedy perch waiting for unsuspecting prey. During your journey through coral reefs you learn about the diversity of the underwater world and meet many colourful inhabitants of the sea. In deep places you will confront the impacts of civilisation or perhaps meet an especially interesting sea dweller. But take care! Your fellow players also roam the sea, perhaps as a sea lion or perhaps as a hungry shark! Experience the fascination of the web of life in the underwater world.
Every player receives 8 creature cards of one colour. The 48 food cards are shuffled well and every player is dealt 8 of them. The rest of the cards put in a pile (Aside: but not used).
The dealer plays first. He lays a creature card of his choice on the table face down. Each player does this in turn, laying their creature card face down next to the previous card in the direction of the arrow (Aside: to the left). Continue until all players have played one card. Now the round of playing creature cards is complete, and playing food cards begins. Again start with the dealer. He plays a food card of his choice, again face down, below and creature card. The next player lays their food card below a creature card until there is a food card below every creature card. (Aside: You play food cards next to but below creature cards, rather than putting them directly underneath creature cards. Each player will have played one food card by the end of this round).
2-4 players - extra rule: After each player has played one creature card go round again, and play a second creature card. Then do the same with the food cards. (Aside: I suggest doing this only 2-3 players, not 4, but that is just my opinion not the rules).
Now the settling up begins ...
The first player turns up the rightmost creature card and the food card below it - this is the lowest place in the food chain. If the coloured stripes match on these two cards then the prey has been caught! In this case the values on the food card and creature card are added and the player of the creature card scores this amount. Then the next two cards to the left ate turned up and evaluated.
If one of the right coloured stripes on the 2nd creature card match a left coloured stripe on the 1st creature card, then the 2nd creature preys on the 1st. The player of the 1st creature card loses their score for that card, and the player of the 2nd creature card gains it. (So only the player of the creature at the top of the food chain scores anything at all). This can continue for several creature cards until the food chain is interrupted - ie. there are no matching left-right stripes, in which case a new food chain is started
Should a food card not match any stripes with its creature card above it then discard it, but the food chain remains uninterrupted.
(Aside: Look at the back of the box for an example of interrupted food chains).
If there is a multiplication factor on a creature card's matching stripe the value of the food card is multiplied by this factor and then added to the creature card's value.
Take care. Not everything in the sea is tasty! If a food card has a negative value then this reduces the value of the creature card preying on it. It is possible to obtain a negative value in this way!
The Angler card is also special. If a shark is to the left of it, it matches the '=0' stripe. In this case the Angler player's score is 0, and the food chain starts again with the shark.
When all the cards have been evaluated the 1st round is over. The 2nd player begins the 2nd round by playing a creature card. Play then proceeds as it did for the first round. (Aside: remove all the cards from the first round from the game before starting the 2nd round).
Important - Each round is started by a different player. The game ends when all creature cards and food cards have been played and scored. All the points scored for each player are totalled. The player with the most points wins. You can play a different number of rounds or entire games before discovering the winner if you wish.
Normal: Play creature cards face down from right to left. Food cards are played below any free creature card, face down.
Open: As "normal", but play all cards face up.
Lucky: The next creature card is played face down to the right or left, or a food card can be played below a free play card. At the end of the round all players must have played one creature card and one food card, and every creature card must have a food card under it.
To me 'normal' and 'lucky' do not appeal at all - it seems to me that there is little skill, as it is not possible to determine what cards have already been played.
I have played 'open' and it works well. I have experimented with other variants and can suggest a couple more fairly skilful ones:
1) All cards are played face down using the 'lucky' rules, but before playing a card a player may peek at one card of his choice (not showing anyone else).
2) All cards are placed face up using the 'lucky' rules.
In any game using the 'lucky' way of playing a situation can arise where a player has already played his creature, but there is no creature without a food card. In this case (and only this case) I suggest that they may play their food card either to the immediate left or the immediate right of the row of already played food cards. The gap above this food card MUST be filled with a creature card by one of the subsequent players.