Beast Builders: Claws & Jaws

Build a deadly Beast.
Defeat your opponents.
Acquire Lithium Salts!

OVERVIEW

Beast Builders: Claws & Jaws is an animal-themed cards & dice game. You are an alien in the far future, using Earth-animal DNA to play an arena-combat spectator sport.

You will combine animal cards into a uniquely dangerous Beast, and roll dice against your opponents for a prize of rare and valuable Lithium Salts.

You will love Beast Builders if you are a fan of games like Evolution/Oceans or King of Tokyo!

30–75 min

2–6 players

Ages 14+

Human-Made

Mix and Match Animal Families

FEATURES

Beast Builders is a fast-paced, light-medium strategy game with elements of hand management, set collection, multi-use cards, and take-that direct interaction. Setup time is minimal, making it a great choice to begin or end a gaming session!

It has a compact form factor that fits easily into your gaming bag or shelf. Beneath the svelte appearance is an elegant core of hand-management decision making and wild free-for-all combat.

Players take turns based on the Speed of their Beast. Will you use your fastest Animal Cards to gain an early advantage? Or will you save them for a later round when there might be more at stake?

Each of the 50 unique animal cards is designed with an approach to balance and realism, drawing inspiration from its actual behaviors in the wild.

With the vast quantity of possible animal combinations, plus biome environments that change every round, it all adds up to plenty of replay value, ready for you to discover!

COMPONENT LIST

50 Unique Animal Cards
5 Unique Biome Cards
6 Unique Character Mats
24 Lithium Salt Tokens
12 Six-Sided Dice
1 First Player Marker
1 Rules Document

HOW TO PLAY

1

Choose a Beast Builder alien character, and draw a starting hand of 6 Animals. Randomly reveal an Active Biome.

2

At the start of the first round, secretly build 3 Animals from your hand onto your Beast. In later rounds, choose whether to replace attached Animals.

3

All players reveal their Beasts. Building Animals strengthens your Beast with new attributes: Speed, Behavior, Threat, and Defense.

4

Attack an opponent's Beast! Attacker and defender both roll dice based on their Beasts, plus any bonus from the Active Biome.

5

Defender can spend cards from their hand for extra dice. Whoever rolls the highest single die wins a bounty of Lithium Salts.

6

At the end of the round, draw 2 cards and randomly replace the Active Biome. You win by having the most Lithium Salts at the end of 5 rounds!

Curiously Unique Alien Characters

Ko wants to be crystal clear about one thing: She's here to become the galaxy's next top Beast Builder, and there's nothing you can do about it!

REVIEWS

"These cards are beautiful!"
Michael (playtester)

"Great game design!"
Robert (playtester)

"This is really fun! I love the art."
Jazzmine (playtester)

"Tbh we had a really good time with it. Very fun!"
Zachary (playtester)

ABOUT

Beast Builders was created by Matt Yetter (me!), founder of Sunwolf Studios and first-time game designer. I've loved playing all kinds of games since I was a kid, and I'm excited to contribute my own ideas back into the hobby.

I always enjoy learning to play new titles and I particularly appreciate those with a great match between mechanics and theme, or that have an innovative take on a particular mechanic or system. Some of my favorite board games are Android: Netrunner, Dune, 18xx, and Ark Nova. I'm also a fan of PC games and Dungeons & Dragons.

It's taken a lot of effort, plus support from playtesters and the artist Carol Lin, to create Beast Builders. I'm proud of the result and I hope you give it a shot! Please subscribe to the email list if you want to hear about updates on this game, or about new titles in the works from Sunwolf Studios.

And feel free to send me an email if you'd like to chat. Thanks so much, good luck, and have fun!