The Fox Experiment

The Fox Experiment is loosely inspired by a real decades-long experiment in breeding foxes for friendliness. Over five rounds (generations) you select two parent foxes, roll their inherited trait dice to breed pups, and then spend the traits those pups inherit to complete studies, attract patrons, and unlock upgrades. Friendlier foxes and finished research score points, and the most points after round five wins.

Every round runs through four phases in order: Selection, Breeding, Research, and Administration.

Setup

1. Place the board with the 1–4 player side up.
2. Shuffle the science and study decks and set them face down.
3. Shuffle the patron cards; place two A-side up and two B-side up, and deal a face-up supply tile next to each.
4. Mix the supply tiles face down, then place them face up along the supply track — skipping the first space — up to your player count.
5. Shuffle the female and male parent decks separately, then lay out a row of each with one more card than the number of players (four cards each in a three-player game).
6. Set the trait dice, friendly dice, trait tokens, friendly tokens and point tokens to the side, and put the scorecard aside for the end of the game.
7. Each player takes a color: a player mat, a gear token, fox meeples, a shuffled face-down stack of blank fox cards, a green friendly die, a marker and a player-aid card.
8. Give the first-player turn-order token to whoever has the friendliest pet (or choose randomly) and continue clockwise. Later players get a catch-up of friendly tokens: one each to the 2nd and 3rd players, two each to the 4th and 5th.
9. Deal three study cards to each player; keep one and return the rest to the bottom of the deck. (First game: just deal one at random.)

The Round: Four Phases

1. Selection

Following the turn-order tokens, each player takes three turns and across them must pick one of each of the following, in any order:

• a female parent fox,
• a male parent fox,
• a supply-track position.

Take a parent card from the kennel and place it to your left; if you don’t like the options, you may instead draw blindly from the top of that deck. Every fox shows 1–3 trait dice.

Choosing a supply-track position gives you the supplies shown immediately — icons on both the supply tile and the board, such as draw a science card, take a friendly token, or take a trait token of that type or your choice. Discard that supply tile and place your gear on the space. Your position here also sets your turn order next round.

At the end of Selection, you may spend sets of matching trait tokens to unlock upgrades on your player mat (you get another chance at the end of Research).

2. Breeding

Everyone breeds simultaneously. Draw a blank pup card, gather all the trait dice from your two parents plus any friendly dice you’ve unlocked, and roll.

Sort the dice by trait, matching whole symbols. Friendly dice and friendly tokens are wild — they complete a symbol of any trait, or count as any trait. Any tokens you use are discarded at the end of Breeding.

Record the results on your pup card, marking a square for each matching symbol:

• Filling a square above a dice image unlocks that die in a future Breeding phase if this pup is later used as a parent.
• Reaching the end of a row immediately earns a victory-point token for each leftover symbol.

Total the trait symbols and write the number in the top-right — the friendliest pup wins an award in Administration. And of course, name your fox.

3. Research

Everyone simultaneously scores studies, collects trait tokens, and unlocks upgrades.

Studies. Each study card has three levels, completed in order, left to right — no skipping, and a completed level can’t be redone. Spend the trait symbols on your pup(s) to satisfy a level; traits used for one study can’t be reused for another. Track progress with a fox meeple. At game end you score the highest level completed on each study, and finishing level 3 is worth up to 10 points.

Trait tokens. If you bred one pup, take a trait token for each marked circle. (Bred more than one? See Breeding Multiple Pups.)

Upgrades unlock left to right along each track, each space showing its cost in matching trait tokens (any single type, as long as they match). Mark it with one token and return the rest. The tracks let you:

• breed multiple pups each round,
• gain extra study cards (draw three, keep one — the only way to get more studies),
• add friendly dice permanently to your breeding pool,
• unlock a patron (place a fox meeple by a patron card and gain the supplies shown plus a science card; patrons score at game end).

4. Administration

1. Discard all unselected foxes from the previous generation. Player pups are erased and returned to the bottom of their owner’s pup deck.
2. Discard both parents you bred with, returning their trait dice to the public piles (keep your unlocked friendly dice).
3. Place your new pups in the kennel in any order.
4. Award friendliness: the breeder of the friendliest new pup places a fox meeple on the friendliness rewards track (left to right), scoring at game end. Ties: everyone tied places a meeple and shares the points; anyone who missed out takes the friendly tokens shown.
5. Refill the kennel so each row has at least one more fox than the number of players, and discard unclaimed supply tiles.
6. Return old turn-order tokens above their spot, then take your gear and new turn-order token. Deal fresh face-up supply tiles for your player count (reshuffle the discards if the stack runs out).

From the second generation on, player-made foxes appear in the kennel and can be chosen as parents by anyone — each marked square grants that trait die when bred.

Breeding Multiple Pups

Once you’ve unlocked pup upgrades, breed pups one at a time: finish rolling and recording one pup, draw a new blank card, and repeat (up to three with two upgrades). You reuse the same dice for every pup but must finish each before the next, discarding any friendly tokens or science cards used before rolling again.

In Research, each pup can complete only one level of a study; assign pups to levels in any order, and to multiple levels of the same study or different studies if you have the study upgrade. With multiple pups you don’t take trait tokens the normal way — instead collect tokens for the four traits from the pup with the highest value in each row (on a tie, take that amount).

Optional: Genetic Concerns

For an extra challenge, breeding two parents of your own player color carries a penalty: after collecting trait tokens in Research, discard two tokens of your choice before unlocking upgrades. Foxes from the parent decks have no color and breed freely.

How to Win

After friendliness rewards are handed out at the end of round five, the game ends. Use the scorecard to total:

• points for the highest completed level on each study card,
• points from each patron where you have a meeple,
• points printed on each upgrade you’ve unlocked,
• points from each friendliness-track space with your meeple,
• 1 point per point token, 1 point per science card, and 1 point per two trade/friendly tokens left in your stash.

Most points wins. On a tie, the player closest to the start of the supply track wins.

Solo & 2-Player Automa

The game includes an automated opponent driven by its own selection deck and study cards. In a two-player game it competes with you for foxes and supply spaces but doesn’t score. In solo play it does score — you win only by beating its total. The full step-by-step automa procedure is walked through in the video.

Common Mistakes

• Skipping study levels. They must be completed in order, left to right.
• Reusing traits across studies. A trait symbol spent on one study can’t count toward another.
• Returning your friendly dice. Trait dice go back to the public piles each round, but unlocked friendly dice are yours to keep.
• Forgetting the friendly-token catch-up. Players later in turn order start with friendly-token wilds.
• Taking trait tokens normally after breeding multiple pups — instead take them from the highest pup in each trait row.
• Naming your fox something boring. Optional, but strongly encouraged.