Jaws Board Game Rules: Setup and How to Play

What the Jaws Board Game Is

The Jaws board game, published by Ravensburger, is an asymmetric game based on the 1975 film. One player controls the shark, and the other players cooperate as the crew: Chief Brody, Hooper and Quint. It is for two to four players. If you have fewer than four players, the crew players still control all three crew members between them, according to summaries of the rulebook.

The game is split into two acts that follow the story of the film. This article is a summary. For exact wording, use the rulebook that came in your box.

Setup

Place the double-sided board in the middle with the Act 1 Amity Island side face up.
Shuffle the Amity Event cards and place them near the board.
Put the swimmer tokens beside the board.
The shark player takes the shark dashboard, the shark figure, power tokens and the tracker pad and pencil used to record hidden movement.
The crew players place Brody, Hooper and Quint on their starting spaces with their gear.

Act 1: Amity Island

Act 1 is a game of hidden movement and deduction. The shark moves secretly around the water, writing each move on the tracker pad, while trying to eat swimmers. The crew tries to work out where the shark is and attach barrels to it.

A Round in Act 1

Event phase. An Amity Event card is revealed. It adds swimmers to beaches and may add special rules for the round.
Shark phase. The shark player takes a set of actions, which can include moving, eating a swimmer in the shark’s current space, or using a power token. Summaries of the rules give three actions per turn. At the end of the turn the shark announces whether swimmers were eaten and where, and whether a power token was used, but not the full path taken.
Crew phase. Each crew member takes actions, which summaries put at four per turn. Each character has a role: Brody can close beaches and use binoculars, Hooper can use a fish finder to detect how close the shark is, and Quint launches barrels at the shark.

How Act 1 Ends

The crew wins Act 1 by attaching two barrels to the shark.
The shark wins Act 1 by eating nine swimmers.
If neither happens, the game moves on to Act 2, with bonuses scaled by how the first act went, including how many swimmers survived.

Act 2: The Orca

For Act 2 the board is flipped to the Orca side, and the game becomes an open-water fight.

Resurface. Resurface cards are revealed to show the zones where the shark might come up.
Crew actions. The crew positions its boat and gear to cover the likely spots.
Shark attack and combat. The shark reveals where it is attacking. Crew members who are targeted can attack back with weapons and dice, and the shark can damage the boat or crew members in the water.

How Act 2 Ends

The crew wins by reducing the shark’s health to zero.
The shark wins by eliminating all three crew members or destroying the Orca’s sections.

Rules Questions Answered

The following rulings come from an official-style FAQ published on UltraBoardGames.

Do floating barrels trigger when the shark passes by? Motion sensors on barrels only work on barrels floating in the water. A barrel sitting on a dock or boat does not trigger it.
Does Out of Sight protect the shark from a barrel? No. It only helps avoid detection by the fish finder and the binoculars, so a barrel launched into the shark’s space still hits.
Can two barrels float in the same space? Yes. There is no limit on barrels in a space.
Does passing through a floating barrel attach it? No. A barrel attaches only when Quint launches it into the shark’s current space.
Can Resurface cards repeat a zone? Yes. Two cards may show the same zone, which gives the shark fewer options.
Must the crew attack if they target the right space? No. A crew member can hold back, for example to save ammo against a high Evade value.
Are melee weapons discarded after use? Not unless the card says so. A crew member’s personal melee weapon is not discarded.
Must a pistol target a Resurface option? No. A pistol can target any water space.

Tips

As the shark, vary your pattern instead of heading straight for swimmers.
As the crew, share your read of what the shark has announced before spending actions.
Keep an eye on the swimmer count, because it affects Act 2.

Not the Game You Meant?

Some players searching for Jaws rules are really after other games that came up in related searches, such as Piggy in the Middle, Password, jacks or a shark-bite game. Those are separate games with their own rules and are not covered here.

For another game with a clear villain-versus-group dynamic, see how to play Bang.