Optional Rules
The rulebook's two optional rules for Dominant Species — several animals per player at 2 or 3 players, and a random earth setup with compensating starting VP — plus the common shorter-game house rule.
The rulebook offers two optional rules (p. 17). Both are modules on the shelf; neither is needed for a normal game, which gives each player one animal at every player count.
Multiple animals for 2 or 3 players
All six animals play. With 3 players each controls two animals; with 2 players each controls three. Where these rules conflict with the rest of the rulebook, these win.
Setup changes
- Deal out all six animal displays; give each animal its own colour.
- Each animal gets 3 action pawns and 35 cubes, as in a six-player game, and its own VP cube.
- Initiative, starting species and dominance are set up exactly as for six players.
| Players | Animals each | Pawns per animal | Cubes per animal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 3 | 3 | 35 |
| 3 | 2 | 3 | 35 |
Your animals are rivals
When one of your animals acts, your other animals are opposing animals for every purpose — exactly as if another player ran them. A Dominance card’s “your animal” means only the animal that was dominant on the scored tile.
Final score
Every animal keeps its own score, but only your lowest-scoring animal counts. Higher-scoring animals of the same player are ignored, so keep them balanced rather than sacrificing one.
Random earth setup
Animals start unevenly but with compensating victory points. It works with the normal game or with the multiple-animals rule above.
Tiles
Shuffle all 31 large tiles face down. Place 7 at random on the seven starting spaces and put a tundra on the central one. The other 24 form the three Wanderlust stacks as usual.
Elements
Draw 12 elements from the bag, one at a time, onto the twelve corners normally used for the starting elements. Seed the action display as usual (4 + 4 + 4).
Species and starting VPs
On each non-tundra starting tile, each animal places one species per disk of its own element touching that tile:
| Animal | Counts |
|---|---|
 Mammals |  meat |
 Reptiles |  sun |
 Birds |  seed |
 Amphibians |  water |
 Arachnids |  grub |
 Insects |  grass |
Find the animal with the most species on earth: every animal’s VP cube starts on that number, then moves back one space per species it has on earth. The biggest animal starts on 0.
An animal may even start with no species on earth: it gets the biggest VP lead, and its element is more likely to come out of the bag.
Shorter game
Not in the rulebook: many groups remove the cards that add action pawns — Intelligence, Parasitism and Omnivore — so the deck runs out about a turn sooner and fewer pawns are in play.