STOP THE OIL!
Work Together to Clean Up BP’s Oil Spill!
For 2-4 Players, Ages 8 and Up
Game Time Approximately 20 Minutes
Team Members: Pralie Dutzel and Nigel Davis
GAME PIECES
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Four blank tiles
Twenty wildlife tiles
Two six-sided dice
A pencil and paper (for optional play, see below)
WINNING CONDITIONS
For All Players Except the BP Employee: Clear the “Oil Spill Grid” and clean all the wildlife.
For the BP Employee: Sabotage other players and claim victory if the game lasts longer than 20 minutes
SET-UP
1. Remove the four blank tiles from the other tiles. Shuffle the four tiles randomly and deal one tile
out to each player. Players do NOT reveal their tile to other players. The picture in the corner of
the tile, or the suit, determines what role each player will be taking. The player with the blue
dolphin represents the Environmentalist group, the purple turtle represents the Government
group, the green pelican represents the Corporate group, and the red fish represents the BP
employees. All players have the option to backstab, or secretly go against, the other players,
although the player who is the BP employee has to do so. It is the BP employee’s job to sabotage
the work done by the other players, but in a way that is secretive and cunning. It is up to that
player to try to sabotage the others in a way they see fit, although some of the game mechanics
will further aid this process.
2. Shuffle together the twenty remaining tiles and place them face down so the black part of the
tile is showing. Arrange the tiles in a five-by-four grid.
3. Each player rolls a six-sided dice to determine who goes first. The player to the first player’s left
will go second, and so on.
RULES
1. For the first turn, each player will simply draw a tile from anywhere on the grid.
2. Once each player has had one turn, the first player will roll a six-sided dice to determine if they
must place a tile back on the board. If the player rolls the same number as one of the tiles they
have, they must place that tile back randomly on the grid. The swirl on the dice represents the
wild tiles, the tiles which do not have a number but only the suit in the middle, while the blank
space on the dice is a free space, so the player does not have to place down any tiles. If a player
rolls a number and they have a tile with that same number, they MUST place that tile down
anywhere on the grid before moving onto the next step in their turn. If they do not roll a
number that is the same as a tile they have, they may move onto the next step.
3. After the player has rolled a dice to determine if they must place a tile down or not, they may
then pick any tile still on the grid. If they placed down a tile because of the dice roll, they
CANNOT pick up that same tile for the next two turns.
4. Before the next player’s turn, the player may decide to trade tiles with another player. If they
are going to, they must announce it before the next player begins their turn. That player can
only trade with one other player per turn. Players can only trade using the numbers on the tiles
rather than the actual suits. For example, Player A asks Player B, “Do you have any 4’s?” If Player
B has a 4 of any suit, they trade it to Player A, and Player A must give Player B a tile with the
same number they asked for. In other words, players cannot trade a 2 for a 5 tile.
5. After the optional trading step, it moves on to the next player’s turn, which repeats steps 2-4.
The maximum number of tiles that can be in a player’s hand at any given time is five. If a player
exceeds that amount, they must place extra tiles randomly on the grid.
6. Players must collect all the tiles for a specific suit to claim that wildlife cleaned. In other words,
they must have numbers 2-5 and the wild tile all with the same suit. Once they have done this,
they must place them face up away from the game grid, so that the other players can see which
wildlife have been completely cleaned. After all wildlife has been cleaned, the “good” players
win the game. The player with the most wildlife cleaned is the MVP, or overall winner. Since the
BP employee is secretly against the other players, their win condition is different. Players in
control of the BP employee can sabotage other players throughout the game, by trading tiles,
holding onto tiles, or any other means the game allows. If the game time runs past twenty
minutes, which is the approximate amount of time played in, the BP employee can claim victory
since the oil spill has grown in that amount of time without being stopped.
OPTIONAL GAME PLAY
The following are the rules for an optional form of game play for Stop the Oil! It incorporates a point
system, which allows for a more entertaining game with extra backstabbing. It is an optional form of
play because it requires a pencil and paper, which is not part of the “piecepack,” to add up and keep
track of points. It is also a bit more difficult for younger players.
The set-up of the game is exactly the same, as is the actual game play. However, at the end of each
round, when each player has had their turn, all players will examine their tiles in hand and add up points.
Players are awarded points for various things, as listed below. This can make for a more competitive
game, as players can fight more for the MVP win, and the BP employee has more opportunities to win.
While the same goals apply for this game play, the number of points at the end of the game determines
the winner. Even if all the wildlife is cleaned, the BP employee still has an opportunity to win the game.
The first player to 250 points is the winner.
10 points: Have three or more of the same number tiles in hand
20 points: Have three or more of a straight (consecutive numbers in a row) of the same suit in hand
50 points: Clean one kind of wildlife
50 points: Be the last player to clean wildlife, i.e. clear the “Oil Spill Grid”
100 points: Clean the kind of wildlife that corresponds to the player’s blank card’s suit