Jaws Board Game: How the Two Acts Work

Setup

1. Act 1 setup: Place the board with the Amity Island side up. Shuffle the Amity Event cards facedown beside it and set the swimmer tokens nearby.

2. One player is the shark. The others play Brody, Quint and Hooper, each with a character board. In a two-player game, one player controls all three crew members.

3. Quint starts aboard the Orca with two barrels; the rest go at the Shop. Brody takes his Binoculars and Beach Closed tokens, while Hooper takes his Fish Finder.

4. The shark sets its board to 0 on the swimmer track and takes the shark mover. It stays off the board in Act 1. The shark secretly chooses a starting water space and writes it on the tracker pad.

Turn by turn

• Act 1: The shark’s turn

  The shark moves through water spaces, never diagonally or over land, and eats swimmers, recording everything on the tracker pad. At the end, it reveals how many swimmers it ate and where, along with which floating barrels it passed.

• Act 1: Brody’s turn

  Brody moves on land, rescues swimmers, carries one barrel at a time from the Shop to a dock, and closes an empty beach. With his Binoculars, he can ask whether the shark is in the water at that beach.

• Act 1: Hooper

  Hooper zips around by boat, rescuing swimmers and collecting barrels. His Fish Finder tells him if the shark is in his space, next to it, or somewhere else. He can hand barrels to Quint when they share a space.

• Act 1: Quint

  Quint pilots the Orca, rescues swimmers, and collects barrels. Once per round, he can launch a barrel into his space or an adjacent water space. If the shark is there, the barrel attaches. If not, it stays afloat.

• Act 2: The Shark Picks a Spot

  Draw three resurface cards, each showing a zone, an evade number, and attack dice. The shark secretly chooses one and may play one ability card with it. The crew sees the three possible spots, but not the shark’s pick.

• Act 2: Crew Attacks

  Each crew member chooses a weapon and target space. Only crew who guessed the shark’s spot can attack. Melee and firearm weapons roll dice; hits above the shark’s evade number cause wounds. Attachable weapons don’t need a roll.

• Act 2: The Shark Attacks

  The shark can attack the Orca, rolling dice to damage or destroy a boat tile, or attack a crew member in the water. Anyone on a damaged tile falls into the water. Then the shark dives, and a new round begins.

End of the game and scoring

Key rules

• Hidden Movement

  The shark records every move on the tracker pad and keeps its position secret unless a crew action forces it to reveal. Binoculars, Fish Finder, and barrel launches are the crew’s only ways to locate it.

• Motion Sensors

  A floating barrel triggers a motion sensor when the shark enters its space. At the end of its turn, the shark tells the crew which sensors went off, but not the order. Barrels on docks or boats do nothing.

• Predicting the Surfacing

  In Act 2, the crew can discuss plans only after the shark locks in its choice. The Chum card makes the shark reveal one resurface token it didn’t choose.

• Attachable Weapons

  Attachable weapons stay on the shark and keep working. The shark drops them only if it chooses a resurface card with the Shake Off symbol.

• Playing One Act Alone

  Either act works as a shorter game. In a standalone Act 1, the shark wins if the swimmer track reaches 7. In a standalone Act 2, the shark starts with six random ability cards, and the crew starts with seven gear cards.