The Fox Experiment

In The Fox Experiment, set up the main board with 5 rounds, place the supply and turn-order tracks, and lay out a display of male and female fox cards based on player count. Each player receives a personal player board for tracking upgrades, a starting study card with trait thresholds, a friendly dice, and a deck of pup cards.

Your goal is to act as a scientist domesticating foxes similar to dogs over the course of 5 generations. You must carefully select parent foxes, breed pups by rolling trait dice, and upgrade your laboratory to maximize friendliness and fulfill scientific study goals.

Each round is split into four phases: selection, breeding, research, and administration. In the selection phase, players draft a male fox, a female fox, and a turn-order supply position in turn order. During breeding, you gather dice corresponding to your parent foxes, roll them, combine symbols to match pup traits, and mark off your pup card. Then, in research, you score study cards, collect trait tokens, and upgrade your player board. Finally, administration resets the display for the next generation.

Points are scored throughout and at the end of the game. You score points by meeting study card thresholds, collecting trait tokens matched to patron cards, and unlocking upgrades on your player board. Leftover trait and friendly tokens are also converted into points at the end of the game.

The game concludes automatically at the end of the 5th round. Players complete final administrative cleanup, tally all points from study cards, patrons, player board upgrades, and remaining tokens, and the player with the highest score wins the game.