Subscribe to download
Arachnid 3-4 Player

Arachnid v31

Be the best spider you can be in this cooperative struggle of webs and fangs.

You are part of a colony of intelligent spiders, struggling together to survive and defend your web from a constant onslaught of invaders. The life of a spider isn’t easy because there is always some crisis looming over the horizon, threatening to put an end to the colony.

The center board contains the web, on which the colony of spiders live and move on. They spin to expand the web and catch flies which occasionally pass by. These are foraged and stored in the shared Bug-Bank as an energy source. In addition to flies, the spiders gather knowledge tokens and egg sacks which are used to acquire new skills and breed new helpers. Dangerous Critters are constantly invading the web and must be eliminated, and sometimes eaten.

To Win

To win the players must resolve the latest crisis before time runs out and the colony is destroyed.

Losing the game can happen in three ways:
Failing to resolve the current crisis.
All the spiders are Stunned by Critters, or the graveyard is full.
The web is attached to the edge of the board at only one point, resulting in a collapse.

How to Play

Spiders can only move on the Web from space to space. They can occupy the same space as flies or any other item they can forage as well as other spiders. They cannot occupy the same space as a Critter, which can be useful for blocking a Critter’s movement.

Each player controls a spider on the web using a unique action card. Each spider has unique abilities which can be enabled with an Action Marble, as well as the usual spider actions of spinning, foraging and biting or snaring prey. Spiders have a limited amount of actions each round and some of these require additional energy (flies) to perform. Movement is also limited, and spiders will have to occasionally rest to regain movement on a future action. Movement is tracked on the bottom of the player’s action card.

The Action Track consists of a random queue available of actions using colored marbles representing the actions available for each spider. (Matching Player Color). In the lower end of the track, the actions have no additional energy cost, but the cost will increase further up the track. Players decide who will be the active player and perform an action each turn. Ths Active player token (spider) can be used to help keep track.

The active player will take their action marble from the track and place it on an open space on their action board. That player pays any energy cost from the action track and the action space they chose from the shared bug-bank. (The action cannot be performed if the player cannot pay the cost.) The active player will then move (if required), keeping track of their movement on the action track then perform the action they have chosen. The active player can also move after their action if they have movement left on their movement track. The active player can pay a fly at any time to rest (regain) three additional movement spaces.

While the active player is moving, each other player has a choice of:
Resting - moving their movement tracker one space backward to gain additional movement.
Moving - one space on the web in any direction

After the active player is finished, any of the colored bands on the action track which were uncovered this turn are resolved.

The Red bands trigger the Critters to move as per their specific behavior, starting at the 12:00 position proceeding clockwise from the innermost critter, outwards.

The Purple bands trigger the Peril to move one step closer to ending the game.

There are two white marbles in the Action Track which trigger a Bug Event. An event card is drawn which will indicate where a new Critter will spawn (at Hex A,B, or C) and where the flies will pass over the web and stick to any exposed web spaces before being blocked by an obstruction. When critters spawn they immediately approach the web and activate. Be careful, some Critters bite when they are activated.

When the Action track is Empty. Players place their action marbles into the randomizer, along with the two white marbles. Players may keep the action marbles on the special ability spaces or any ongoing ability action cards to keep them enabled or move them to the randomizer to be used as an additional action in the next round. The marbles are randomly placed in the Action track to refill it for the next round.

Note: any Dead Critters are added back into the bag of critters for the next round.

Above the Action track is the Graveyard or Hospital (Depending on the scenario). Action tokens are placed there if a spider is bitten or placed in the hospital to revive a spider that is stunned. Other things such as Nurseries, or Ranch-Hands might be on this card depending on the current scenario.

The board on the bottom right will outline the conditions and latest threat for the current Scenario. This will change from Scenario#1 through Scenario #4. Players can choose the difficulty level by placing the marker in one of the three starting positions of the Peril Track. The numbers on the track are used if players want to play more than one scenario back to back and track their total score.

The long and narrow player board will display the 5 Knowledge cards in Scenario #1, and the Spider University in Scenarios #2 and #3.


Advanced Rules

Knowledge/Action Transfer - A spider can transfer an action card, movement, or their current action to an adjacent spider.

Cannibalism - Players can sacrifice an action marble to the graveyard or Hospital to gain a fly.