Gamehelpdinosaurexhibit

How a turn works

There's very little downtime in Dinosaur Exhibit, since all players shade in their squares together rather than one after another.

Whoever's turn it is rolls both dice and keeps one result for themselves — everyone else at the table uses the other die. Every player then colours in one square on their own board matching the symbol they got. There are seven symbols across the two dice: paintbrush, hammer, plaster, map and display case each appear once per die, while the frame and toolbox each appear on only one of the two dice. The toolbox is special — it's a wildcard and can fill in any square you like.

Spending pillar tokens

Only the active player (the one who rolled) can choose to spend a pillar token here, letting them shade in one extra square anywhere on their board. Pillar tokens are limited, so you won't be able to do this every turn — and any you don't spend count towards your score at the end.

Placing fossil tiles

Still only the active player: once squares are shaded, they may place a fossil tile (or more than one, if they qualify). Tiles come in two shapes — a 2x2 block or a 1x4 strip — and to place one you need four shaded squares on your board matching that exact shape. Tiles are permanent once placed. Each one placed also triggers a bonus, either more squares to shade straight away or extra points later.

Passing the turn

Once the active player has finished shading and placing, the dice move on to the next player clockwise, and the process repeats. The number of rounds depends on player count:

2 players (or solo): 7 rounds 3 players: 6 rounds 4 players: 5 rounds 5 players: 4 rounds 6 players: 3 rounds

The game supports solo play as well as 2–6 players.

Final fossil round

After the last normal round, there's one extra round with no dice rolling. Every player gets a final chance to place any fossil tiles they now qualify for, using shaded squares built up between their last turn and everyone else's last turns. Once this round is finished, scoring begins.

How the game ends

Once the final fossil round is complete, whoever has the highest score wins.

Scoring

Points come from four sources:

Fossil tiles — 3 points each, no matter the colour or dinosaur type. Colour sets — 2 bonus points for a pair of fossils sharing a background colour, or 3 bonus points if you've collected all three of one colour. Fossils with no colour match earn nothing extra. Storage units — any shaded square that isn't touching another shaded square or tile (diagonal touches don't count) earns 1 bonus point. Leftover pillar tokens — 1 point each.

Add all four together for your final score. The highest total wins the Spinosaurus skeleton display piece. Ties go first to whoever has more unused pillar tokens, then to whoever has placed more fossil tiles.