Finspan

To set up Finspan, place the achievement board in the center of the play area with side A face up for new players. Create supplies of double-sided egg/young tokens (showing an egg on one side and a young fish on the other) and school tokens. Shuffle the 125 fish cards (with the blue back) into a face-down deck. Each player takes an ocean board and a player aid. For a two-player game, return extra boards and aids to the box. Each player collects three egg/young tokens from the supply; two are flipped to their egg side and placed on specific spots on their board, and one is placed young-side-up on another spot. Deal two light-blue-backed cards to each player, which are left face-up to the left of their ocean board as their hand. Deal three fish cards from the central deck to each player, also kept face-up as part of their hand. Each player collects six diver pieces in their chosen color. Randomly select a first player who takes the first player token.

In Finspan, players embark on a quest to explore and observe aquatic life in the seas and oceans. The goal is to earn the most points by the end of the game. This is achieved by strategically playing fish cards to your ocean board, creating and hatching fish eggs, forming schools of fish, and sending divers into the depths to explore. Each action contributes to building a thriving ocean ecosystem and fulfilling various scoring opportunities.

The game is played over four rounds, called weeks, each divided into a series of turns. Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player on their turn chooses one of two actions: either play a fish card or dive. To play a fish card, move one of your available divers to the 'play a fish' space on your board, pay the card's cost (by discarding fish cards from your hand, returning egg/young tokens, or returning school tokens), and place the fish card onto an empty or occupied slot on your ocean board according to its zone and size restrictions (larger fish can consume smaller fish). Then, resolve any 'when played' benefits shown on the fish card. To dive, move one of your available divers to the top of any of the three dive sites (columns) on your ocean board. If you have at least one fish in the corresponding zone and column, you gain a printed dive site bonus. Then, move your diver straight down, stopping at each 'if activated' effect to resolve it. If your diver reaches the bottom of your ocean board and is the first diver there, you gain a bottom bonus. After either action, the next player in clockwise order takes their turn.

At the end of each week (rounds 1-3), players score points for that week's achievement (e.g., eggs/young, rows of fish, or schools). Points are recorded on a score sheet. All players then retrieve their divers from their ocean boards, and the first player token is passed clockwise. At the end of the fourth week, players first activate any 'game end' abilities on fish in their ocean in any order. Then, final scoring occurs: players score points for visible fish on their board (points printed on the fish card), eggs (1 point each), young (1 point each), schools (6 points each), and consumed fish (1 point each). The player with the highest total score wins.

The game concludes after four weeks of play. Following the final scoring, the player who has accumulated the most total points is declared the winner. In case of a tie, the tied player with the most fish cards still in their hand wins. If there's still a tie, the tied players share the victory.