Fish Off!

Fish Off is a 2-4 player competitive dice and tile fishing game where you catch and steal fish from players through a tug-of-war dice mechanic. Players compete to catch and steal point value fish to earn the highest score over 3 matches. Most of the game is played synchronously, meaning that players all take their turns at the same time allowing the game to be played at a good steady pace with the occasional dice war needed to settle the inevitable tug-of-wars over high value fish.

The game board displays a 5 by 5 grid of water with hook icons arrayed along each row and column of the grid. Players sit along each edge of the board and are given Hook and Seagull tokens of the same colour, matching their edge of the board. Fish tiles are randomly shuffled and dealt face down on the grid, discarding all leftover tiles. Players are now ready to start their first round of game.

One Round of play is broken into 3 steps: Positioning, Casting and Catching. Players select a Position along their edge of the game board by placing their Hook token on a hook icon which will be beneath a column of tiles. Players then roll their dice to Cast their hook and resolve where their hook landed. Players then reveal their hooked tile and decide whether they want to place a Seagull token on an opponent's tile to try to steal it off them. Uncontested tiles are collected first, then any remaining tiles with multiple players contesting them must enter a dice base tug-of-war to see who keeps them. Once this has all been resolved, one round of play has concluded, and a new round can start. Players spend multiple rounds catching and stealing fish until all players have collected 5 fish, ending the Match. Players tally the face value of their fish and can now setup the board for a new match. The player with the most points collected over the 3 matches is the overall winner of Fish Off.

The game board is double-sided with Calm Waters on one side and Strong Currents on the reverse side. The Calm Waters side is suitable for first time players and younger kids who want to play a simple fun game. The Strong Currents side is suitable for more experienced players and adults who want to add another level of complexity and strategy to their turns. The currents help direct a players hook through the waters granting them a greater chance to hook a better fish tile. Players can also choose to add Fish Set Bonuses to either side of the board which act like poker rules. For example: Players are rewarded bonus points for catching unique sets of fish at the end of a match i.e. A Full House, Four of a Kind and a 5 Fish Straight to name a few.