Den of Wolves is a game about the interactions between politics and survival during a time of crisis. Players represent the leaders of the “Survivor Fleet” – a group of vessels fleeing from a catastrophic attack by a ruthless enemy known as the Wolves. Players are civilians, the remains of an elected, republic government and military elements of the fleet. This game is about interactions between all of these different entities as they attempt to survive.
The game blends both 'Political' (talking and negotiating) and 'Operational' (decisions, units and resources) gameplay. Some roles are exclusively Political, while others have a much greater focus on Operational matters. In general, players should expect a significant amount of resource management and player-to-player negotiation and discussion, with a small amount of unit positioning and combat.
As with many megagames, in Den of Wolves, there are some relatively simple rules that give the game some framework – but these are not the totality of the game. As part of the simulation, players have freedom to suggest actions to facilitators not covered by the game rules. If reasonable, facilitators will typically give you the opportunity to do/try it at some cost and/or risk of failure.
Keep in mind, however, that while there is this flexibility in how you play the game – Den of Wolves is not a game where 'anything goes'. Random acts, doing things 'just for laughs' or 'just because you can', will have the same impact that such behavior would have in the real world. So be careful – every action has reactions and unintended consequences
The object of the game is to have fun.
Each player will receive personas with unique roles and goals within the game, but most players share the desire for the Survival Fleet to survive the onslaught of the Wolf uprising – and in a perfect world find an inhabitable planet.
In Den of Wolves Turbo, players are part of larger teams, representing factions. Factions may control any number of ships at a given time. This number may increase or decrease throughout the game.
During the night phase, players may communicate with any members of their team. During the night phase, players from each faction will elect two players to represent them at the Interstellar Council.
The game will progress in a series of turns. Each turn has two main phases:
The Day Phase
During this phase players can move shuttle, resources, and crew, activate stations, or any number of things.
The Day Phase is when the Interstellar Council holds meetings.
Wolf Attacks may happen at any time during the Day Phase.
The Night Phase
You must return to your team. You will be expected to return to your team's table except for when there are extreme circumstances that would mean you would not do so (for example, if you were detained on another vessel). In all other situations, you must return to your team table and remain there for the duration of this phase.
Players may catch up on events, plan for the next turn and discuss any internal political issues.
At the end of this phase you will hear a News Broadcast, reduce morale by dread, and spend resources to boost morale.
Players in this game represent the senior roles in both civilian government and in command of the fleet's various starships. Note that players are not necessarily limited to the responsibilities detailed here – teams can delegate what they need to. Remember that any role can be useful seeking out and/or delivering information on the wider situation. Some players may enjoy filling multiple roles as needed.
Commodore Each faction has their own miniature military command, led by a Commodore. The Commodore assigns Captain roles for each vessel under their command to other players within their faction.
Council Members represent their people at the Interstellar Council. Council members will be expected to attend the council each turn to discuss larger matters, make decisions and pass laws. Each team has a majority population from a specific nation that they will be representing. Council members may appoint the Commodore.
Captain is responsible for the safety of the vessel and those within it. A captain has the final say on all major decisions for their own vessel, however they are reliant on the other members of their crew to keep them informed and advise them on important events and issues. Captains appoint First Officers.
First Officer on a vessel is the captain's second-in-command, assisting the captain in their duties as necessary, and taking over command of the vessel when the captain is absent or incapacitated. The First Officer on civilian vessels is also responsible for security and has direct control over any military crew and shuttles.
Chief Engineer The chief engineer has the important responsibility of keeping the vessels within a faction running. It is their primary focus that the vessel is kept in working condition, and gets all the food, water, fuel and materials it needs to keep running and its people supplied.
Wing Commander The wing commander is in charge of attending the fleet map during Red Alerts. Wing commanders may use the ship’s weaponry and squadrons to attack other units.
Head Scientist is in charge of all research for a faction. They maintain their faction’s research registry.
The Military command has a unique set of officers.
Admiral's job is to make the high-level decisions and conduct important discussions and diplomacy amongst the fleet – especially liaising with the Intergalactic Council.
Executive Officer (XO) is the second-in-command, and has direct control of the Marines and weapon batteries
Wing Command is in direct control of the Fighter Squadron Units, and should manage their positioning and maintenance, as well as managing the pilots
Communications Officer is responsible for communicating with the rest of the fleet – primarily assisting the Admiral in learning of what is going on and informing other vessels of important information
Logistics Officer is responsible for ensuring that each ship has all the food, water, fuel and materials it needs
The Government command has a unique set of officers.
President's job is to make the decisions and conduct important discussions and diplomacy in the Council itself. President may decide which issues to discuss and may call for votes.
Vice President will be the President's eyes and ears “on the ground”, talking to other teams. Contact with the Admiral of the Aegis will likely be very important. The President appoints the Vice President.
Press Secretary is in charge of media relations and shares the government and intergalactic council’s decisions with the Media players. The President appoints the Press Secretary.
Elections are not expected until after the end of play. The Intergalactic Council may call for elections with a supermajority (75%) of the members calling for elections.
Any resources not being currently moved around must be kept in the Storage Hold of a vessel – players cannot hold resources on their person (e.g. keeping them in pockets).
Ore (red cubes)
Strytium Ore has no practical use on its own, but it can be refined into the highly valuable Fuel.
Fuel (black cubes)
Strytium fuel is the fuel used in almost all starship “Faster Than Light” (FTL) drives. It contains a massive amount of chemical energy. A vessel will be unable to perform a standard FTL jump safely if it does not have enough Fuel for it (though there are other options).
Food (yellow cubes)
Food is an essential resource for survival. As such, most larger starships were designed with the capability to grow enough food to sustain their own crew. Unfortunately for the survivor fleet, most of of its vessels cannot survive on the food and water they alone produce, as almost all of the vessels in the fleet are over their intended passenger capacity after picking up survivors in smaller vessels that had to be abandoned.
Water (blue cubes)
Water isn't just necessary for drinking, but is also required for basic hygiene – showering, washing and cleaning. The less a vessel has, the worse the morale situation becomes. Water is also necessary for the production of food, making it all the more critical to ensure that there's enough water to go round.
Crew (meeples)
In the survivor fleet, everyone is pitching in to keep the fleet going. Crew are needed to operate the stations in all vessels. Crew can be moved between vessels (using Shuttles), but only if they are not in a 'used' state (on a station) and if it is allowed explicitly by the vessel's captain (or current commander).
Crew may have specialties, represented by colors, e.g. purple (medical), orange (pilot/military), and green (mechanical).
Each vessel in the fleet is made up of a number of stations. These are represented on your vessel panel by playing-card sized boxes. Each station can be operated by “using” crew counters (place the meeple on the station to show that it has been used).
At the start of the Day Phase, all crew return to being unused.
Damaged Stations
When a vessel takes damage, this means that it draws a random Damage Card. The card is then placed over the station it pertains to (if there are multiple identical stations, determine which one at random).
Damaged stations are unable to perform its regular function until it is repaired. The damaged station card also shows its repair cost. When a station is damaged, all crew (used and unused) located inside it become wounded.
Wounded Crew
When a crew (trained or untrained) is wounded, this is indicated by placing the meeple on its side. Wounded crew cannot be used. Wounded crew can be returned to normal using a sickbay station or certain action cards. Whenever a wounded crew is in a situation where they would become wounded again, they are lost permanently instead.
In the middle of the room there is a map of the survivor fleet. The map represents how the fleet is laid out relative to the Aegis, and therefore the Aegis is always in the center. The map is used to represent the tactical positions of both Fighter squadrons and the civilian vessels. The fleet map is separated into six sectors that represent the space around the Aegis. Vessels and Fighter squadrons can be moved freely on the map during the action phase by the relevant players. This will be a combination of Captains or First Officers for civilian vessels and Wing Commanders for vessels that can launch fighter squadrons.
Only players with direct command of vessels or fighter squadrons may approach the fleet map. Any vessel may be moved to adjacent sectors.
The Pursuit Track represents how close the majority of the pursuing Wolf naval forces are to reaching the survivor fleet's current position. This increases by one at the end of each turn. Each time the fleet jumps further away, the track drops by one, two or three for a Short, Medium or Long jump, respectively. Other relevant events may have an effect on the track. The higher the track is, the greater the strength of the Wolf forces involved in any Wolf Attack that appears. Note that the Pursuit Track has no effect on the likelihood of a Wolf Attack – Wolf scouts are everywhere and could discover the Fleet at any time!
Wolf scouts are searching all over the galaxy for the Survivor Fleet. There is no telling when the Fleet's exact location will be discovered or when the closest elements of the Wolf's pursuing forces will jump in to attack. Note that the higher the Pursuit Track position, the greater the strength of the Wolf forces that will appear. At any time during the action phase, a Wolf Attack may begin.
Red Alert
When a Wolf Attack occurs, a “Red Alert” is declared. As soon as a Red Alert is announced, all players must immediately cease their movement around the room. Players must remain at whatever table they were currently at (as they are unable to leave the vessel whilst the attack is ongoing). During this time, players may communicate between tables using written messages passed by facilitators. Players may NOT talk to players on other tables. The only exceptions to this are players in charge of their vessels' weapon batteries and Fighter Squadrons. All of these players must immediately report to the fleet map to respond to the attack.
When a Red Alert is announced, players are also immediately forbidden from moving any crew, resources or units. A number of Wolf Fighter Squadrons and Boarding Squadrons will appear in one or more quadrants. If the pursuit track is particularly high, there is a chance that larger Wolf combat vessels may also appear.
The Wolf Attack will then proceed with alternating 'Fleet' and 'Wolf' rounds, beginning with a Fleet round. In Fleet rounds, all Fleet combat units activate, in Wolf rounds, all Wolf combat units activate. In any Fleet round other than the first, vessels can make an FTL jump. If all the vessels in the fleet jump, all Wolf units (other than those already boarded on a fleet vessel) are removed from the map. All Fleet fighter units are automatically returned to their owning vessel immediately if it jumps. Note that communication is quite limited during a Wolf Attack, so being able co-ordinate an entire fleet-wide FTL jump requires planning.
Combat
A combat rules guide will be available for players at the Fleet Map. After one full round of combat, human units may elect to FTL jump.
All of the vessels in the fleet can make FTL jumps. A vessel can easily jump to a random nearby empty point in space, but jumps to a specific location need that location's coordinates.
Destination Cards
The Aegis team draw one destination card at the beginning of each turn. They can also spend 3 fuel to draw a new Destination card at any time. Each destination card has a location on it including potential risks and benefits, as well as the FTL jump distance. There are three distance types – Short, Medium, and Long. Each vessel has a specific fuel cost for each distance, as given on its vessel panel.
Each destination also has a specific 4-digit set of coordinates. For a vessel to reach the destination, it must jump with those exact coordinates entered into its vessel panel. Destination cards are held between turns. However, when the Aegis jumps, the team must discard all their currently held destination cards.
FTL Jumps
At any time during the action phase any vessel in the fleet can do an FTL jump. When a vessel jumps, its captain (or current commander) must hold up their 'Jump' indicator – referees will then resolve the result.
When multiple vessels choose to jump they will all arrive at the new location without issue. However, if any of the vessels won't or can't jump for any reason, they may become separated from the fleet. This could have numerous consequences.
Emergency Jump
In the event of an emergency, when a vessel needs to jump but does not have the fuel, an FTL Jump can be achieved by re-routing the vast amounts of power required through other systems. This is only used as a desperate measure, as it forces the rest of the vessel's systems to shut down, and in some cases can even cause damage to them. During an emergency jump, a ship may jump without spending any fuel tokens. However, the ship will likely suffer damag.
The Interstellar Council has 11 members. These include two representatives from each of the 5 major interstellar powers and the President of the Council.
As the civilian government, the council can make, amend and repeal laws for the survivor fleet. These laws are official and legally binding for everyone in the fleet. If it is necessary to enforce these laws then how this is done is up to the players. The council can also choose to be responsible for making certain major decisions or to debate important topics, not related specifically to law-making, if they wish.
The military is legally bound to follow the instruction of the council. In certain extreme and urgent circumstances, where it is deemed reasonable that there would not be enough time to consult the council for a decision, the president's office can give orders about what to do directly to the Admiral.
Legislative Process
During each turn the Council may discuss/vote on any issue declared by the president. The president has total control over the agenda and should be mindful of current issues and time constraints to ensure necessary votes and decisions are undertaken during the turn. Other council members can ask the president to discuss and vote on issues they wish but the final decision sits with the president.
A final vote is called when the president decides to conclude debate and that the vote should begin. Each player then votes by a show of hands – 'Yay', 'Nay' or abstain. In the event of a tie, The president casts the deciding vote. If there is a tie and the president has abstained, then the result counts as a 'Nay' and the vote does not pass.
Anyone can observe the Council's sessions, but ONLY the Council members may speak at the Council. Players are free to ask questions to the Council members after the Council meeting has officially ended.
Elections are not expected until after the end of play.
The Intergalactic Council may call for elections with a supermajority (75%) of the members calling for elections. If an election is held, then the Intergalactic Council must determine the rules to the election.
Each faction will receive a document that outlines the research requirements for technologies in a given area of research. Most technologies offer new abilities, and many technologies open up the option of research new technologies on their specific registry.
Prerequisites
Most technologies require previous research to be completed. For example, one needs to understand arithmetic before attempting algebra. (In other words, follow the tech tree.)
Prerequisites are shown on research registries through arrows on each registry. A player must have completed research on all other technologies with arrows pointing towards the new technology.
Conducting Research
The cost of researching a technology is available on the left side of a given technology. A technology costs combination of idea tokens, shown on the left side of the technology.
To gain a new technology, a player must discard a combination of idea tokens. For example, a technology that has the cost of three purple idea tokens may be purchased after discarding three purple idea tokens. Once a player successfully researches a new technology, a facilitator will mark the technology as complete on their registry.
Trading Technology
Each round, a faction may acquire exactly one technology from another faction via trade. Factions must have all prerequisite technologies to research a technology in order to receive a technology from another team via trade. To accept a tech, a facilitator will mark the appropriate technology on your registry.
Each round, a faction may give exactly one technology to another team via trade, the factionmust have all prerequisite technologies to research a technology in order to receive a technology from another team via trade.
Using Technology
Technologies grant abilities that allow players to change the rules within a game. To do so, a player must have possession of the research registry at the time of that technology’s use.
Several players will work as a team and serve as the media for the survivor fleet. During the Day Phase, media players will have access to all ships to observe, interview, and interact with other players. During the Night Phase, media players will need to consolidate their findings into a short (two minute) media broadcast.
Media Reports
During the Night Phase, the media will have the opportunity to broadcast a report to the fleet. This report may be up to two minutes. This report can come from a single player or from multiple players.
Movement
Media player movement is not restricted like other players. Media players do not represent any specific characters – instead they are representing a much larger organization. Media players are free to visit any part of the game at any time. If media players are trying to listen to a players' conversation, and the players ask the media players to leave, then the media players must respect that it's a private conversation. (Although you're welcome to chase up other conversation participants later to ask what was being said).
Media plays may observe various things, such as units or resources, or players' movements. However, there are some parts of the game that are meant to represent things that are private or secret. For the benefit of game flow these cannot be hidden at all times, so we ask that media players please respect the fact that some things would not be known to them. Roleplaying here is critical for the larger experience.
Bonuses/Maluses
Media announcements have a real effect on teams based on whether they look good or bad in them. Use this to your advantage to reward and punish players according to your objectives and how much they help you achieve them. In megagames, gaining and sharing information is absolutely critical. So being able to make room-wide announcements is very important, making you a powerful force in the game.
Depending on reports, facilitators may adjust morale on vessels.
The fleet has an unlimited quantity of pods that can move individuals around with ease. As a result, players are allowed to move from ship to ship during the Day Phase.
For large amounts of meeples or resources, much larger craft are required. Resources and meeples may only be moved from vessel to vessel on a Shuttle. There are a limited number of these Shuttles, as only a few vessels in the fleet have them.
There is no limit on how many journeys a Shuttle can make in a turn. However, keep in mind that by placing resources/units/crew in a Shuttle, or taking them from a Shuttle, the relevant vessel would have to dock with it. This doesn’t affect any of the standard game mechanisms – but it might become relevant depending on how events unfold.
Legally, First Officers are responsible for Shuttles owned by their vessel, as well as the operations of any Shuttles on their vessel (regardless of owner). However, for the purposes of the game, there is no restriction on which member of a team is permitted to control the Shuttle.
For the benefit of the game, each vessel's hold and the detailed workings of what kinds of stations each vessel has are visible on their vessel panel. If players wish, they can keep these details secret by hiding their vessel panel from players not on their team (e.g. by covering them with sheets of paper). This would represent your security staff actively preventing people from other vessels looking around in most of the ship – so consider the potential impacts of this.
This privacy extends to other members of your faction. Unless a player is assigned to your ship by your Commodore, then privacy rules above apply.
Everyone in the fleet is aware of the basic details about every vessel – these are given in the Background Guide.
Each ship has a morale track, which represents the happiness, stability of the crew, and general wellbeing of the civilians on their vessel.
At the end of the Night Phase after the media report, players will adjust the morale tracks on their vessel.
First, players will reduce morale by the “dread” score shown on the ship. Second, players will spend food and water to boost their morale. The amount of food or water needed to boost morale can be seen on a table to the right of every vessel. Third, players may spend luxury tokens to increase morale by one.
Low Morale
If a ship has a morale of 8 or lower, then there is a risk of riots. Facilitators will check with every ship at the end of the Night Phase to adjudicate any low morale risks.
Riots
If a riot appears, then it a random undamaged station on the ship is damaged. Riots prompt an event from facilitators.
Mutiny
If a ship has active riots and morale of 0 at the end of a round, then it falls into a complete state of chaos. Players must flee the vessel. Mutiny prompts an event from facilitators.
Original content for Den of Wolves is licensed by South West Megagames.
Den of Wolves: Turbo is a shorter experience with iconography meant to mirror the Basenti Game System.