You are a scientist, researching the marine life in the colorful sunlight zone, the eerie twilight zone, and the pitch-black midnight zone of the world’s seas and oceans. In Finspan, the fish you discover in the depths of the ocean over a 4-week period provide a variety of rewards. Each dive site specializes in a key aspect of expanding your research: expanding your fish collection, discovering freshly laid eggs, hatching eggs into young, and nurturing the young into shoals. The player with the most points for their fish, eggs, young, shoals, and achievements at the end of the game wins.
Finspan is an accessible board game for people who like to build up an engine during a game and enjoy a lot of variation. The game is based on the world-famous bird game Wingspan by Elizabeth Hargrave, who also worked on this game. Finspan is easy to learn and can be an excellent stepping stone to the slightly more difficult Wingspan and the challenging Wyrmspan!
Finspan lasts 4 rounds (weeks). In each round you have 6 turns. In your turn you may play a fish, taking into account its cost and the zone in which the fish can live. Or you dive at one of your dive locations to receive the rewards of the fish at that location. This can include receiving eggs, hatching them or even moving fish on your tableau.
All these rewards give you points in different ways at the end of the game. Whoever has collected the most points after 4 rounds wins the game.