Surveyance!

Surveyance! is a 2-page, GM-less TTRPG for 1 to 5 players about field surveying and biodiversity. You and your fellow players are ecologists, surveying a region. The game includes four alternate sheets for four different ecosystems: temperate, desert, tundra, and marine, along with a grayscale printer-friendly version.

You will need two six-sided dice, a pencil, a scientific calculator (or digital equivalent), and a small token for each player.

Before the game starts, choose what species you are observing, and write their names on the table below. Then, each player places some form of token somewhere on the grid to the right to indicate their location.

Each turn, move up to two spaces and roll 2D6 to survey the space you’re on. The first die is the species, and the second is the number of individuals. Cross off a space once it’s been surveyed. You can’t survey a space multiple times.

Consider adding your own rules when replaying—such as altering one or both dice’s rolls—and seeing how that affects biodiversity!