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Being the proud mother of a teen and preteen I’ve been accused of being selfish more times than I can tell you. My crimes include such things as ensuring they have suitable clothing for all weathers that fits correctly, and regularly preparing them nutritious meals to keep them healthy, I know I’m a monster! On top of that I also ask them to do the most unspeakable jobs around the house such as put dirty socks in their washing basket instead of stuffing them down the side of the settee. It’s like a modern day fairy tale except the protagonists are well looked after and very loved.
Well, Selfish is a series of games where (much like myself apparently) you’re only looking out for number one, and aiming to make sure you succeed against all odds. In Selfish Shipwrecked you’ll be playing as one of many survivors of some unknown incident that has left you marooned on the isle of no return in the middle of a vast deserted stretch of ocean. You can however see a glimmer of hope on the horizon in the shape of a life raft, but it looks like there is only room for one aboard and everyone seems to have the same idea…
This is getting out of sand…
Your shipwrecked castaway will need to swim six spaces ahead and not only hope they reach the raft first, but also that they don’t perish before they do so. The winner will be the player who reaches the inflated life boat first, or whoever is the last survivor standing - or floating as it were. Each player will be dealt a hand of 9 game cards to start with, amongst them will be a mix of action cards to help you selfishly save yourself and the oh so precious rations that you will need to stay alive.
The turns in Selfish Shipwrecked will all follow the same rhythm, first you’ll draw a new game card into your hand, then you will play (if you wish) as many action cards as you want, these will normally be beneficial to you in some way. Lastly you must finish your turn by either swimming forward one space or staying where you are and treading water. Why would you not move forward I here you ask? Well both staying still and moving forward involve discarding rations, one ration to float or two to swim closer to the life raft. You will want to use your rations wisely as should you run out and be unable to discard any at the end of your turn, quite simply you’ll drown and be out of the game.
The action cards you choose to use will all attempt to further your own mission of reaching the life raft first. With a mix of things like, knocking another player back a space or stealing cards from someone’s hand even sometimes specifically targeting your competitors much coveted rations. Besides trying to eke those rations out and avoid any skulduggery that’s a foot, you’ll also be trying to avoid the blood thirsty sharks in the vicinity - I did mention the sharks didn’t I?
Where there’s a will, theres a wave
As we all know the ocean is a vast and mysterious expanse, so the very least we should expect to find out there is the odd shark… or two. If you choose to move forward for any reason you’re going to stir up the water behind you, and who knows what it will reveal.
As you move on you must place an ocean card in the space you leave behind, these are a mix of good and bad events. Some propel you forward, some let you draw an extra card and some drag you back towards the island. A selection of the cards will also feature a shark (fin) icon, and the first ocean card revealed showing this, will summon a shark to the water and believe me you’ll want to avoid the sharks at all costs.
Any further cards that are found in anyone’s wake to also feature the shark icon mean the shark is on the move, and you’ll want to push it as far away from yourself as possible. To move the shark everyone needs to hand over one of their game cards (whether they like it or not!) as each one features a little compass like symbol with a direction on. The cards are all shuffled and turned over
one by one with the shark moving to match each direction. Should the shark land on you at any point, it’s going to want to take a mighty chomp out of you and the only way to persuade it not too is by distracting it with food, which means discarding one of those much needed rations.
No-fin left to lose
Selfish shipwrecked will have you frightened for the safety of your extremities and second guessing your fellow castaways moves because there’s a lot going on. Although some luck of the draw is involved as you never know what cards will be drawn, theres a lot of considering when it’s best to use the resources you have to hand.
This version of selfish follows the same standard rules as the first selfish - space edition, but much like the twist in rules for selfish zombie (where once you’re dead you can continue to play as a zombie) there is a similar twist in the shipwrecked edition with the shark movement. I really love these little tweaks to each game as its great way to stop the games within the selfish universe being too samey. The fact you may be forced to use cards you had other plans for in order to move the shark or even your last card can really flip this game in a heartbeat.
We see the same bold, fun illustrations in this Selfish Shipwrecked version that we’ve seen in others, the cards are very self-explanatory and the strips up the side are a great guide for where your cards should be. Between 2 and 5 players can join in but I in my opinion you need at least 3 to get a good game with the really sweet spot being 4 or 5 players.
This is the exact kind of game I’m really bad at, inevitably I make the wrong decisions on when to make what moves and I can never seem to catch a break when drawing cards. I don’t know why I’m surprised as this all seems about right as I can’t swim, so wouldn’t actually make it past paddling at the islands edge should I actually be stranded on the isle of no return!
