Dino Jagd: Dino Hunt in German

Graphics by Jeff Koke, Derek Pearcy
Cover and gameboard illustration by Josh Kirby
Card illustrations by Pat Ortega, Dan Smith, and Bob Walters
Card coloring by Brent Ferguson, Derek Pearcy, and Byron Taylor
Rulebook illustrations by Pat Ortega, colored by Byron Taylor
Translation by Peter Kathe

This Edition: Pegasus Press, Dieselstrasse 1, 61169 Friedberg, Germany
Special thanks for scientific advice: Dr. Thomas Holtz, Jr., Bran Curtice, Marion Anderson, Stephen Dedman

Travel back in time, millions of years ago, to the days of the dinosaurs – and bring them back alive!

This is a game about a prehistoric safari for two to four players. With your crew of hunters and technicians, you go back in time to track the most dangerous game of all. You will put your targets to sleep with giant stun guns, and send them back to the Present Day, for everyone to see and study. The dinosaurs will tread the earth once more!

But remember . . . you're competing with rivals who want to build their own dinosaur parks, and they want to capture the same dinosaurs that you do!

The scientifically accurate cards in this game represent over 80 different dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. Time travel and stun guns, unfortunately, are fantasy. But the dinosaur science in this game is real – the information on the cards is factual and up-to-date. The artists are scientifically trained.

What's In The Game

This game includes this rulebook and:

109 Dinosaur and Special cards.
Four ringshaped Energy Markers – one for each player.
Four plastic Dinosaur Miniatures – one for each player, to mark the own expedition on the game board.
One Kein Aussterben (No Extinction) Marker for use with the Time Track.
One 6-sided Die, showing a dinosaur on the 1-side.
One 50 cm × 70 cm gameboard.

Starting The Game

Place the game board on the table, and all players set their dinosaur miniatures on the Späten Jura (Late Jurassic).
Shuffle all Dinosaur cards, and place the deck on the Saurierkarten space. Shuffle all Special cards (with the Dino Jagd logo on the back), and place the deck face down on the Spezialkarten space.
Decide how long you want your hunt to last. For a regular game, lasting about an hour, cut the Dinosaur deck in the middle, to choose about half the cards. That way, you never know just what you will be hunting! Put one stack face-up, with the dinosaur picture showing. This is the play deck. The other cards are placed face-down on the Ablagestapel space to start the discard stack.
Give each player an Energy Marker to keep track of the energy in their power cells. All Energy Markers start at 10.
Deal one Special card to each player. You may only look at the card you get.
Each player rolls the die. The highest roll goes first (roll again in case of ties). After a player has finished his turn, play continues with the player to the left.

The Cards

Dinosaur cards: Each card represents a single prehistoric creature. The front of the card, with the color picture, has game information. The back of the card has scientific information about that creature.

Special cards: These represent gadgets, talented assistants, good luck for you . . . and bad luck for your rivals. They have the Dino Jagd logo on the back, so you never know what Special is on top of the deck.

Some Special cards must be discarded after use. Others (Gimmicks and Experts) will work over and over.

Some Special cards (Superschocker, for instance) add to your die roll when you hunt.

The first part of the text on a Special card (printed in italics) says when to play it and what are its effects. The second part tells a little story about what happens – read that part aloud!

The Time Track

There are five prehistoric time periods in Dino Jagd, from the Triassic (the oldest) to the Late Cretaceous. Your dinosaur miniature on the Time Track shows what time period you are in.

When a Dinosaur card is taken from the deck, it goes in the hunting area on the game board. Put it in the same row as any period on the Time track where it lived. (The periods where it lived are shown on the card, and are color-coded to match the Time Track.) When you are in its period, you can hunt it!

A dinosaur stays in the hunting area until it's captured . . . or it goes to the discard pile because of a bad hunt result, or a Special card.

The Game Board

Hunting area: You may only hunt dinosaurs in these spaces.
Time Track: Your dinosaur miniature shows the period you are in.
Energy track: Mark your available energy here with your Energy marker.
Discard stack: For discarding Dinosaur cards.
Dinosaur deck: The more cards you put in this space at the beginning of the game, the longer the hunt will last.
Special deck: When all cards are taken from this space, reshuffle the discards from the stack next to it and place them face-down in this space.
Discard stack: For discarding Special cards.

The Energy Track

Your Energy track shows how much energy you have in your power cells. When you start each turn, put your Energy marker on 10. It can't go above 10.

You spend energy to move your expedition to a different period in time: 1 Energy for each period you move through or enter.

You also spend energy when you send your captured dinosaurs to the present day. Some Gimmicks need energy, too, whether you play them in your turn or while its some other player's turn.

Turn Phases

Each player's turn has three phases. You must take these in order. You have to get energy and draw new cards before you can go hunting!

Recharge! Move your Energy marker to 10.
Draw a Special card for yourself. Roll the die and put out that many new Dinosaur cards in the hunting area.
Attention: On his first turn, each player draws four Dinosaur cards instead of rolling the die!
Travel in time and hunt dinosaurs!

1. Recharge Energy

Start your turn by moving your Energy marker up to 10.

2. Draw Cards

First, draw one Special card for yourself. Some Specials are good for only one use; keep these in your hand until you use them. Gimmicks and Experts will help you over and over; put these face-up in front of you. In case of doubt, read the card!

Now roll the die, and draw that many Dinosaur cards from the top of the Dinosaur deck. Place each card in a space in the hunting area above the time period where that creature lived. You may look at all the cards before you place any of them. If a creature lived in more than one period, you choose which of those periods to place it in! When there are no empty spaces left, place a card on top of another dinosaur in the apropriate period. A player may only hunt the topmost creature in a space.

When the Dinosaur deck is exhausted, play continues until there are no more dinosaurs in the hunting area. Then the game ends.

3. Go Hunting!

You may now travel in time and hunt dinosaurs. You may hunt and travel as much as you want . . . until you run out of energy or get a bad hunt result!

To Travel in Time:

Move your dinosaur miniature to your new time period.
Move your Energy marker down, to pay for the trip. Time travel costs 1 energy per time period. For instance, moving from Späten Jura to Frühen Jura costs 1. Moving from Späten Jura to Späte Kreidezeit costs 2.

To Catch a Dinosaur:

The object of the game is to capture prehistoric creatures, and send them home with your time machine. You may hunt only creatures in the hunting area – not those in the deck.

You may pick up the cards in the hunting area to look at them before you hunt, but you must put them back in the same space. You may pick up the dinosaur deck to read the card on top of it, but you cannot look at the cards underneath!

To go hunting:

Announce which creature you want. You must be in its time period, and you must have enough energy to send it home if your hunt succeeds.
Roll the die. The higher you roll, the better! Some Special cards can add to your roll. Your rivals may also play cards to make your hunt more difficult. (If cards are played to change your roll, a result of less than 1 is still a 1, and more than 6 is still a 6.)
Look at the Hunt table on the Dinosaur card, to see what happened.
On a good roll, you capture your target. On a bad roll, it escapes. On a very bad roll, it can attack your party and end your turn!

Hunt Results

If you capture the dinosaur (Gefangen!), pay the energy cost, shown on the card, to send it home to your zoo. Keep it in front of you. It counts points for you at the end of the game. (If you cannot pay the dinosaur's energy cost, you must discard it! If you realize too late that you made a mistake, simply put the Dinosaur card back.)

If you miss your shot (Verfehlt!), you must pay 1 energy. Leave the card in its space. You may hunt it again on this turn, if you still have enough energy to send it home.

If the dinosaur escapes (. . . entkommt!), you must discard its card! (Read the card. Never discard a dinosaur unless a card specifically tells you to.)

Sometimes there will be an even worse result than escape (. . . entkommt!). Follow the instructions on the card. For instance, the dinosaur might attack you and your turn will end . . .

After the Hunt

If you want to move to a different time period, you can, or you can stay in the same period to hunt there . . . as long as you have energy!

You may keep moving and hunting as long as you have targets and energy . . . unless a bad hunt result ends your turn!

Special Cards

Each time you start a new turn, you get one Special card.

You also get a Special card when you capture the last dinosaur in any time period. (Dinosaurs still in the deck don't count. For instance, if there is only one Triassic dinosaur in the hunting area, and you catch it, you get a card.) You don't get a card if the dinosaur escapes (or is discarded for any other reason) – you only get a card if you catch it.

Playing Special Cards

A Special card can be something good for you, or something bad for one of your rivals. Each card tells when you can play it. Read the instructions on the cards. If a card says to break these rules, follow the card!

If two or more contradictory cards are played on the same turn, the last card played is the one that counts. So if someone plays Fehlschuß on you, and you immediately play Glückstreffer, then your card is the one that counts, and you got that dinosaur after all!

If two or more cards are played and they are not contradictory, they all count.

Discards

If a dinosaur escapes when you hunt it, you must discard the card. It's out of the game unless a Special card returns it to play.

When a Special card is played or discarded, it goes to the Special discard stack, face-up. If you run out of Special cards, reshuffle the discard stack and place it face-down in the Spezialkarten space.

Ending the Game

The game ends when there are no Dinosaur cards left in the play deck and in the hunting area. The more Dinosaur cards you started with, the longer your adventure will be!

Scoring and Winning

Each creature you have captured scores the points shown on the card. Some Special cards will increase your score by giving you bonus points for certain dinosaurs.

The winner is the player with the most points!

In case of a tie, the winner is the player with the most captured dinosaurs.

About The Cover And Gameboard Illustration

The illustration shows different dinosaurs and other animals from various time periods together in your zoo. Do you see the dinosaur on the tree? It represents a Hypsilophodon. Once some scientists believed, that this dinosaur was climbing trees, but today that theory is dismissed . . . but wouldn't you like to go back in time to see for yourself?