Anomaly

About this board game

Anomaly is a hidden-movement, deduction, and combat game for 2–4 players that plays in about 60 minutes. One player controls the Anomaly, while the other players become students fighting to survive against an unknown entity.

All players move behind screens, making exact positions difficult to determine. The students use location hint cards to signal where they are, while the Anomaly uses those clues to triangulate their positions. Every decision can reveal valuable information or give the creature a chance to close in.

The students share a collective health pool and must work together to eliminate the Anomaly. They can destroy its fuel sources and use improvised weapons, including traps and stun batons, to damage it. Ability cards give the students additional ways to attack or take other actions.

• Students: Coordinate their movement, manage shared health, destroy fuel sources, and fight back.
• The Anomaly: Hunt the students, feed on fuel or on the students themselves, and use hidden movement to stay ahead of pursuit.
• Ability cards: When students use an ability, they give that card to the Anomaly, unlocking its inverse effect for powers such as Possess or Teleport.

As the Anomaly gathers enough cards, it can evolve and develop even more powerful abilities. This creates a growing threat as the students’ attempts to defend themselves may also strengthen their enemy.

Anomaly ends when either side’s health pool is depleted. With concealed movement, shared information, deduction, combat, and an enemy that learns from the students’ actions, each game becomes a dangerous struggle to locate and destroy the creature before it finds them first.